Online Marketing Blog by FoundPages

Yellow Pages Advertising to Decline by 40%?

2008-08-06T16:53:00.003-06:00

According to a new report from Borrell Associates, printed classified ads will be virtually dead within the next 5 years. And in fact Yellow Pages advertising will begin turning to online versions at a rate of 38%. So although it will lose dramatically on the traditional end, Yellow Pages sales representatives will sell online ads at about the same rate to offset the revenue loss.

This apparently amounts to a loss of $5 billion over the next 5 years, and accounts for 39% of its annual revenue size.

The change is due the fact that online mediums are becoming the most popular with marketers and business owners. Online ads, video and paid search offer more bang for the buck, and allow changes even after the ad is bought. Add in campaign tracking and interactive capabilities, and you can see how online has a tremendous advantage.

Although traditional advertising is learning to switch to online, like the above example with the Yellow Pages, the question is: has the buyer? Yellow Pages online is not used nearly as extensively as Google or Yahoo, even with local search. Most people use online directories ONLY after not being able to find it using a major search engine. And with more and more advertisers understanding the value of being found in a search engine, they tend to ensure they are in Google so where does that leave the directories like Yellow Pages?

Get a download summary copy of 'Say Goodbye to Yellow Pages' by clicking here. It's a massive change that marketers and business owners should stay on top of, to get the most out of their limited advertising budgets.

Keep all this in mind when your Yellow Pages rep calls you next time. The directory industry has over 34,000 local sales reps, so you can bet you will getting a call.

SEM Canada Off, Vancouver Internet Marketing Conf Still On

2008-07-15T15:14:00.004-06:00

In case you were eagerly waiting for the SEM Conference in Calgary, you're going to have to wait a little longer. It has been postponed until October 2009. Apparently a major corporate sponsor is in the offing, but as you can guess, the big companies can't move fast enough to accommodate the short fuse that the conference has with it being originally scheduled for this September.

This is probably good, as being the first annual, there is a lot of ground work that still has to happen, that the relatively short timeframe didn't allow for. Better to wait and get everything ready and lined up, rather than rush it and risk a poor result. Also, the original date was VERY close to the Internet Marketing Conference in Vancouver, which attracts a VERY similar audience. IMC has not had a conference in Canada since Vancouver in 2002, and as a result, has a strong following.

We'll now have more time to prepare for IMC Vancouver, where we have both a speaking engagement on B2B search engine marketing, and a demo of ActiveConversion lined up. It's scheduled for September 11-12, 2008 at the Coast Plaza Hotel. Hope to see you there!

Interview by Brian Carter

2008-07-09T17:46:00.005-06:00

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Brian Carter of Fuel Interactive, for the upcoming SEM Canada conference. I haven't had a chance to listen to it much, but it's a great way to cover alot of ground in SEM and online marketing.

Brian is the Director of Search Marketing for Fuel, based in South Carolina. Brian is an SEOmoz Pro Member and Google AdWords Qualified search marketing trainer, consultant, and speaker. Brian has more than eight years experience in the internet industry and is well known in the search engine marketing industry.

Being that one of our specialties in B2B and using SEO/SEM with longer sales cycles, we decided to cover those topics in detail. Brian was gracious to also ask me about www.ActiveConversion.com, which helps companies capitalize on search and online marketing.

The MP3 is around 45 minutes long, and I think you may find it interesting.

The interview is in his blog article which is here: http://adwordsconsultant.blogspot.com/2008/07/interview-mp3-with-fred-yee-of.html

Here is a condensed list of things we cover:

Search marketing in the B2B space
2.5m businesses that could benefit from SEM
Advantages of online marketing over offline marketing
Why Microsoft would spend so much to buy Yahoo
Branding vs. Niche direct marketing
Case study: Evans Console who sells $250k consoles to NASA and FedEx
Effect of interactive marketing on Yellow Pages
The Calgary business scene, and search marketing scene
Shifting from the part-time in-house to search marketing agency experts
Conversion tracking for lead generation campaigns
A more sophisticated way to track and stay in touch with long buying cycle sales prospects

Lightning round topics! Fred's quick opinions on...

Twitter
Yellow pages
LinkedIn
Local search
Canadians
Americans
Calgary

Google Ad Planner and Google Trends

2008-06-30T14:44:00.004-06:00

Online advertising just got even easier with Google's new tools for planning your online media buys. Google Ad Planner help advertisers match what they sell, with the demographic that is most suited for what they sell, on the websites that most likely has that demographic. So what that all means is you/we can easily find and advertise on the websites most likely to be interested in what you're selling

You may think you already know what they are, but with millions of websites out there, it is a lot of work going thru them, and figuring out if this is an appropriate website (and adding more). The info includes gender, income range, and education, that can make your ad planning much easier by being able to target exactly who you want to see your ad. It will also make finding those kind of websites very easy.

This had been a problem with Google's contextual ads before, which were keyword based, but could show on almost any website, unless you spent a lot of time specifying which websites you wanted to show the ad on. Most people didn't, and as a result, the click thru rates for contextual ads were usually very poor, especially compared to search ads. Google Ad Planner fixes that, and you will see contextual ads really start to take off as a result, if you know how to take advantage of it.

Google Trends is related, and pertains more to being able to 'loosely measure' the website traffic of a particular URL. Similar to Alexa and Compete, it uses a 'trend' to give an idea of how much traffic a website gets, relative to another similar website. You may seen Google Trends in another format, as a way to find the most searched keywords for the week, like 'Angelina Jolie'.

With tools like this, you can see why Google is going to continue to dominate online advertising and search engine marketing for the foreseeable future. The others have alot of catching up to do to keep up!

Future of Print Still Being Threatened

2008-06-03T16:34:00.003-06:00

According to a report by Eloqua, entitled 'State of the Marketer', which has been widely reported, print spending will continue to decrease. 55% of 200 U.S. marketers surveyed expect to decrease their print ad spending.

In addition, a large number of these same marketers (90%) intend to continue increasing their direct online ad budgets, with 15% 'radically' increasing their online spending.

Print isn't taking it on the chin only from online spending. Direct mail spend, social media spend and mobile ad spend will be increased.

The report also goes on to say that 64% of marketers believe their marketing programs are more effective now than three years ago. This is so much the case, that marketing budgets are actually increasing, and even in the down market in the U.S., that they will maintain or increase their marketing staff.

This leads me to believe that a) online marketing and advertising is continuing to grow b) because it is more effective c) leading to higher marketing spending d) and more satisfaction with the marketing department.

It's not a foolproof hypothesis, but I bet any of you out there using online marketing (like our clients) know this is likely closer to the truth than not!

Microhoo Deal Dead

2008-05-05T17:05:00.006-06:00

Over 3 months after making a $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, Microsoft has decided that 'clearly a deal is not to be done'. Microsoft's latest bid which upped the total price to $47.5 billion over the weekend, was rejected as inadequate.

So what does that mean? For one, it means I was wrong to expect that a 80% premium would be enough to convince Yahoo. And more importantly, it may mean that both sides didn't want to do the deal - which may be a good thing. Both sides have had over 3 months to get feedback from analysts, employees and even competitors as to the value of the merger, and if the point was to take on Google - they may have both figured out that this might have been a disaster.

From an online advertising standpoint, it will mean:

Google will get even stronger, especially in the short term
Yahoo might get better and be willing to change dramatically because of the scrutiny
Microsoft will have to grow this part of their business themselves, and get better at it.

For us and advertisers, I think this will mean we will have a more vibrant search engine marketing and online advertising industry. More competition usually means more innovation, choices and lower pricing. It will take some time to get there and it may hurt these industry giants but in the longer term, the rest of us should benefit.

One thing is certain. Online advertising and marketing is BIG, and getting bigger. If you haven't already, hitch your wagon to it.

Adwords Phishing Email

2008-04-16T08:11:00.004-06:00

I don't usually take up blog space with security alerts, but this one hopefully is the one exception for the year. There are emails being sent out with your email on them, that look very much like the emails you get from Google when your credit card expires, or is no longer accepted. This email doesn't have the usual spelling errors, or obvious bogus URLs that make it easy to detect as fake.

The email then 'instructs' you to go enter your credit card info, which of course is the reason for the email. We see a lot of these alerts and were initially concerned by them because they were real looking AND because they did go to clients with Adwords accounts.

The solution is to not click on the link provided in the email, and to go investigate via your Google Adwords account directly. Or in the case of our clients, get told to go 'see what the h*ll is going on' for them. If you have an agency like FoundPages, you probably don't have to worry, they would also get an alert if it's legitimate, and also see enough of them to know when it's bogus.

I have to admit, this is one of the cases, where I might vote for getting paper in the mail...

SEM Conference in Calgary Sep 4-5

2008-03-31T00:12:00.007-06:00

A sign that search engine marketing has matured from a novelty and become a standard, if not vitally important part of marketing in Calgary and Alberta, is that the SEM Canada conference is taking place right here in September!

I think it's the first annual, and part of the reason is Laura Callow is helping to organize it. Laura's a transplanted Calgarian and she's bringing her 'big picture' skills she has from working with some of the largest companies in the world.

The website is up and running for this event, and early bird registrations are being accepted. It promises to be an excellent event, with speakers and panels that you would normally expect to see in San Jose, New York and London.

You can bet I'll be there as FoundPages is thrilled to participate in a conference that is geared toward something it has been evangelizing for the past 5 years. It will be great to invite our clients to something that has become important enough to warrant it's own conference in Calgary.

Visit the website and registration info. As things firm up, and the date gets closer, you can expect we'll update you more.

Search Marketing Re-visited

2008-02-28T17:53:00.003-07:00

I've had comments that people would like to see tips on search engine marketing, online marketing and conversion. Well, ask and ye shall receive.

Today's tip is on ad and landing page quality for pay-per-click.

Most people think setting up a campaign is picking keywords, and setting a maximum cost per click. And that after 'buying these keywords', their ads will show and traffic will come. Nothing could be farther from the truth today. With the large number of ads competing for the same keywords, the search engines have engineered some very clever algorithms (and even human involvement) to show only the most relevant ads, and ones that have the most relevant landing pages.

This is done to promote click thru and a better user experience for the searcher. Remember, it's called pay-per-click, so they don't get paid if people don't click on your ad because it doesn't seem relevant. With that said, choosing hundreds of keywords, including the names of your competitors isn't going to work very well. You will find the bids for keywords that they don't deem relevant, will start at $6.00 per click on Google. So unless you have set your bid at $6.00, you (and others) won't even see your ad. On the other hand, you have to be a masochist to want to pay $6.00 a click for an keyword that is only mildly relevant. It is a very good deterrent to blindly buying keywords.

The quick answer to this, is to try to match your keyword to your ad, and your ad to the landing page. So if you're selling Whistler condos, your best bet would be matching keywords like 'whistler real estate' to an ad that says 'Whistler Condos For Sale', and then matched with a non-flash landing page, offering condos that are in Whistler, and mention the town site etc. If you're using Google, this will increase your Google Adwords Quality Score, and lower your cost per click, show the ad more often and increase your click thru.

Yahoo has a similar algorithm, but that use different criteria to determine quality. Be warned that they are different from Google, and what works on Yahoo (eg dynamic keyword insertion) doesn't work well on Google for quality scores, which will affect impressions.

Microsoft Buying Yahoo

2008-02-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's finally happened. After a big dip in the markets, and Yahoo ready to layoff 1,000 employees, Microsoft made its move and offered $44.6 billion for Yahoo. That's Microsoft biggest bet yet, that the Internet advertising business is a large part of their future. Remember they spent $6 billion not long ago to buy Aquantive. So just those two now represent a $50 billion investment in online ads, search engine marketing and online marketing by MS.

You're probably thinking that this is a bid, not a done deal, which it is. I'm talking like it's a done deal because it will be - there is no way that the shareholders will turn this premium done, and there is no one else out there (save Google), who can beat this bid. And the anti-trust hurdles aren't there, because it's Google that needs to worry about that nowadays, rather than MS.

So what does this mean? Well for one, MS has finally admitted that they can't build a significant enough search and online ad business, because they are a band of techies who build software. And Yahoo, who is floundering because they depended more on display ads and portal content (like a media company), needs more Goog-like technical savvy. Does this mean it will work to catch Google? Only time will tell for sure, but I for one don't think so. The culture and mentality is too different. Googles need to be built by tech guys who ALL know they are in the advertising and media business.

Certainly Microsoft and Yahoo will both continue to do reasonably well, given the growth in online ads, search engine marketing and online media. But as for knocking down the big dog in this space - no.

I am hopeful that the combination will make the industry more competitive. Online ad pricing is starting to get expensive, and less effective. More competition will keep innovation up and costs down.

Marketers to Change Ad Agency in 2008

2008-01-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

The Chief Marketing Officer Council’s just released an annual forecast that predicts in 2008, many marketers will be changing strategies to focus more on online activity. As a result they found, will also see many marketers changing their advertising agencies.

Online marketing activity, such as email campaigns and search-engine marketing, will attract a larger part of the budget this year as marketers continue to focus on online strategies. "A lot of research we've done shows that web is the top priority in terms of brand, customer engagement, insight, and it is becoming a bigger area of focus," said Dave Murray, executive vice president of the CMO Council.

There is resistance by the agencies to adopt fundamental online strategies, leading Deloitte Consulting, the sponsors of the survey to say: "The CMOs tell us that the agencies are not delivering.".

I'm reminded of the 'ostrich head in the sand' metaphor that I learned years ago. Some of these agencies are sticking their head in the sand, hoping that online marketing is just a fad that will go away if they ignore it long enough. With online advertising overtaking TV advertising in markets like the U.K., these agencies need to wake up before they find they are one of the 45% of advertising agencies that are going to be dropped by their clients in 2008, according to this survey.

All they need to do is to hookup with the new guys on the block, like FoundPages, to keep this fate from happening. Have a great (online) marketing year!

Late Web Marketing?

2007-11-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

A recent survey of 120 senior marketing executives found that getting Internet marketing campaigns launched on time isn't an easy thing to do. That's not surprising to me, because ours are as well - and we have the tools and skills in-house! It's so popular that there are not enough resources to execute all the campaigns that are required. Yet most companies do not spend enough time or money to move these forward. Talk about Catch-22.

While 59% of the the marketers agree that Internet marketing is critical to their strategies, only 30% of planned campaigns launched on time. Major reasons included slow internal approval processes, web content management systems, and backlogs in the I.T. department (go figure). And only 17% found that the process of updating their website 'quick and easy'.

More importantly, the negative impact was that new business inquiries were down as well as customer satisfaction. Other impact was as follows:
- 35% said the delay impacted their web marketing
- 30% said this impacted brand image
- 20% said employee satisfaction was affected.

“As the Web picks up speed daily, there are internal forces at work that are slowing it down,” said Erik Aeyelts Averink, president, Products & Solutions for SDL Tridion, who commissioned the research.

Clearly, the web as a marketing tool is becoming more and more important each day. But web marketing requires skills, approvals and tools that are not firmly in place at most organizations. We know that at FoundPages and ActiveConversion, because we deal with it all the time. A large portion of our time is just getting things approved and put onto a website, or to decide on content for an email campaign. So much our time is just project management to get things moving.

I'm particular interested in the fact that 59% say that web or online marketing is 'critical'. 5 years ago, this number would have been below 5%. It's over 10x more important today. Online marketing is not a 'nice to have' anymore. It's essential to every business, and more importantly, available to every business today.

Don't leave your business without it! And don't let 'internal forces' keep you from getting it done.

Google Makes Move Into TV

2007-10-25T17:40:00.000-06:00

Google really is ready to take over the world. They are now making a move into tracking television advertising. Apparently it has been getting rave reviews from media buyers during their beta testing with the DISH network.

Dubbed Google TV, this is a partnership between Google and Nielsen, that is shaking up Madison Avenue. Google's strategy involves having a better way to measure audiences for ads on television, and then finding better ways to direct particular ads to particular viewers.

This future means you will (someday) see ads that are more relevant for you. By knowing what demographic your family falls into, advertisers will be able to target ads to you, which you will be more willing to view (and NOT skip with TIVO-like devices), AND it will make the ad inventory more valuable, not to mention a better return on investment for the advertiser.

For example, if you are male, married and over 50, with kids that have left the house, ads that pertain to vacations, financial planning, erectile dysfunction ;-), and retirement are probably more relevant than ads about cereal, pampers or bras.

The type of TV show used to be the indicator for ads before, but shows like Survivor or Dancing with the Stars, appeal to a wide range of audiences. Anyway, I'm sure you get the 'picture'.

What's even more interesting is how 'Googl-sen' will shake up the TV advertising world. Madison Ave in NY meets west coast Googleplex geeks. Suits vs Sandals.

What an idea for a reality show!

30% Increase in Online Ad Spend Expected from Local Search and Online Video

2007-10-04T18:15:00.000-06:00

According to a forecast from ZenithOptimedia, marketers should expect to see a 30% increase in online ad spend in local search and video. This will help online advertising go over $33 billion next year. And by 2009 online ad spending will account for almost 10% of total ad spend worldwide.

While this is going on, they predict that newspaper ad spend will decline by 29%, with magazines and radio declining as well. Only TV and outdoor advertising will have small increases in the traditional marketing side.

This doesn't go near as far as what Steve Ballmer at Microsoft was quoted recently as saying. He stated that sometime in the next decade, all advertising will be digital. He's predicting that as much as 25% of Microsoft's revenue will come from advertising, and likely with ad-supported Microsoft products.

30% per year is a big number. That means, the spending will double every 2.1 years, which means maybe Microsoft isn't so crazy after all. We use online ads, in addition to helping people use it, and we can honestly say it is by far the lowest cost, most effective medium that our clients use. If you haven't tried it, you'd better, or you might be using a horse and buggy when everyone else is using a new fangled horseless carriage known as the automobile.

Yahoo Stays in the Online Ad Game

2007-09-10T18:25:00.000-06:00

Yahoo became the latest Internet search engine to make a big move into online advertising networks. By buying BlueLithium for $300 million in cash, Yahoo counters somewhat similar moves by Google (DoubleClick) and Microsoft (Aquantive).

So who is BlueLithium and what do they do you ask? BlueLithium has a user base of 120 million, and has the 5th largest advertising network on the Internet. In other words, 120 million users visit the website network they have strung together from many hundreds of highly trafficked websites.

What this means to an online marketer, is that the big 3 search engines, are also the big 3 online ad networks for display ads, contextual ads etc. Just as FoundPages has evolved from mostly search marketing to online marketing, the search engines have as well.

Does that diminish search engine marketing? Absolutely not. Search is still usually more effective than any other online marketing and is our calling card. However, online advertising is a natural follow on from search marketing and uses similar talents, tools and assets.

We have found in some cases than contextual advertising is more effective than even search advertising. Contextual ads are displayed beside related articles, blogs, videos and even email (like Gmail). This is similar to traditional advertising whereby an ad is 'placed' articles that will be welcomed by the audience reading the article. eg. ads on 'victoria condos' beside an article on retiring in Victoria.

You can expect to hear more from us (and Google, Microsoft and Yahoo) about online ads - all types of them.

Ever Dance the Google Dance?

2007-08-07T14:05:00.000-06:00

For those who know Google well like us, the Google Dance is not a dance at all. It's when Google changes their ranking algorithm significantly to try to get better search results on a Google search. Google calls it 'improving the users experience'. This comes along only 1-3 times a year and is referred to as the Google Dance and is not advertised in advance.

As a result, it's common to see a dramatic loss of search engine traffic if it is not adjusted for. For companies like www.Answers.com, this meant a loss of over 28% of their 3 million visitors a month. That's 840,000 visitors or about 30,000 per day, so you can see how this can be a really big deal for some companies. Assuming that each search visitor is worth at least 50 cents per, that can add up to a lot of money if it lasts a month or more.

As we like to say around here, Google keyword rankings are not a god-given right, and are not static. So once we get you there, that doesn't it will stay unless we continually monitor and make adjustment when necessary. SEO (search engine optimization) is not a one-time event but an ongoing process, across all the search engines, not just Google.

The algorithm changes actually happen throughout the year, but the term Google Dance is reserved for the bigger changes. The small changes will move your listing a page or two whereas GD can put you on the 10th page or worse. Keep in mind, it can also move your listing up as well. I sometimes think this is Google's way of leveling the playing field every now and again. Not necessarily a bad thing...

BTW, there really is a Google 'dance'. I've been to it, and the Googlers really dance at the Googleplex. Free food and drink (of course) abound, but with entertainment like arcade games, volleyball, live music etc. Takes place in August usually...

Special posting: Google PrintAds

2007-07-18T18:17:00.000-06:00

We don't usually blog this frequently, but yesterday's announcement that Google PrintAds is now available merited special attention.

PrintAds is just like it sounds, Google driven ads, that appear in print, instead of online. Although PrintAds has been around since November 2006, to select high volume advertisers, it is now available to all Google Adwords advertisers.

This means you can now place ads in 225 'quality' newspapers in the U.S., using geography, circulation, ad size, section (local, business, sports), and of course day of week. One thing you won't be able to do yet is place the ad on a contextual basis, or by keyword. Contextual refers to ads that are placed next to articles that are related (eg. condo ad next to article on condo living).

There is even a bid component to it, in that the newspaper can reject the ad or come back with a counteroffer.

This is newsworthy because Google as you may know, already has radio inventory, and you can see how their ad network is now evolving into a total advertising network. The fact that 98% of the newspapers that piloted the PrintAds system have chosen to stay in the network tells us that the newspapers see value in this.

This is a breakthrough as far as mentality. Newspapers have been fighting online adverting for awhile now (and losing). It's far better for them to embrace change and benefit from it, then to keep believing that motorized carriages will never replace the horse and buggy.

The best part of this is advertisers are reporting an increase in sales and inquiries of around 20%. So if the ads are priced right, it can have ROI that may approximate online.

Online advertising rates: Rip-off or Deal of the Century?

2007-07-16T16:46:00.000-06:00

Just read an interesting article from MediaBrains, one of our online advertising networks, titled 'Online advertising rates: Rip-off or Deal of the Century?'. Basically, it suggests that advertisers have a perception that because online doesn't have printing, paper and distribution costs, it should cost a fraction of traditional advertising. It then argues that online ads should cost the same or even more, because the hard costs are replaced by different costs, such as web designers, search engine optimization, web analytics, real-time reports, spam compliance, servers etc.

Our take on this is that it falls in the category of Deal of the Century. Consider the facts:
- online ad spending is 10% of a typical marketing budget, but has 46% impact (based on time online)
- it reaches buyers with a level of efficiency and measurability that is unmatched
- growth ranges between 30-40% (showing that it works)
- it gets interested buyers to your website better than any other method (more clicks per dollar).

Imagine, advertising that helps brand you, tells you if its working, gets you direct response, and can almost instantly be distributed to a targeted market. It's almost too good to be true. To us, that makes it a steal of a deal.

U.S. online advertising spend will reach $152.3 billion in 2007, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). A significant increase from 2006, so besides the market growth, there has been increases in online advertising rates. Google's rates alone have increased 30% on average with no drop off in demand. It seems the market agrees that it is a steal of a deal.

MediaBrains sums it up with 'The moral of the story is, don’t expect online advertising rates to decline. Rather, make sure you’re getting the best possible results from your efforts. Embrace the medium that opened a new channel for reaching prospects and forever changed marketing as we know it.'

We couldn't agree more. Instead of comparing the costs, compare the effectiveness.

Search Engine Marketing to Grow to $18.6 Billion

2007-06-28T15:05:00.000-06:00

According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), search engine marketing is in for an impressive growth spurt, growing to almost $19 billion in 2011. For an industry that didn't really exist until 2001, that fairly impressive growth in 10 years.

We think this is low, and does not reflect all the various spin-offs from search engine marketing, including search based video ads that are coming, display-based ads and keyword driven marketing. Also contextual ads are not included by SEMPO as they are not technically 'search-based'. Online ads are becoming contextual in nature, so even if the ad is not search driven, it is displayed based on what you are reading or viewing which is increasingly driven by keywords.

We're still at the 'beginning of TV' for online advertising. Meaning there are variations we haven't even thought of that are still to come. Speaking of which, there are agencies that specialize in combining TV commercials and search engine marketing. This is very effective marketing, creating interest on a large scale, and then ensuring that interest can be directed to a website via a search.

Sure we're biased but if you only saw a bit of what we see coming down the pike in online advertising and marketing, you'd be impressed too. Expect a sea change in the advertising and marketing industries in the next 10-20 years.

You don't really think Google is giving away free wireless high speed Internet in major cities just for the heck of it do you? Or the iPhone to be the last of its kind?

Times Are A-Changing - Online

2007-06-09T19:05:00.000-06:00

To borrow a line from Bob Dylan, things are changing online. For example - more clothes is sold online now than computer hardware now. Something I never thought I would happen, given that most people are used to going to retail stores to buy clothes.

Another change that is more subtle, is almost 90% of restaurants in the U.S. have a website now. This survey was done AIS Media, who surveyed 6000 restaurants. More and more websites are putting their menus online, and email was being used as the primary way to communicate by 68% of survey respondents. Even more surprisingly, 29% sent out a monthly targeted email campaign.

What's not surprising is this is a great way for a retail business to bring back customers and nurture new ones. Coupons are common in the retail food business and email is a great way to get them out AND get them forwarded to their friends and family as well to get new customers.

The survey goes on to say that the majority of these establishments use a professional services firm to provide this capability. It goes on to say that 'With over 89% of restaurants in America currently having a website, the competition for restaurants will be to have a highly specialized website that speaks to their specific clientele', said Thomas Harpointner, CEO of AIS Media, Inc.

These changes remind me of something that Bill Gates said 20 years ago. 'People overestimate how fast technology will be adopted, and underestimate how widely it will get adopted'. I think the world's richest man still has that right.

Online Video Starting to Sprout for Advertisers

2007-05-26T21:58:00.000-06:00

After years of waiting, online video is starting to make a move into online advertising. This is no surprise, other than the time it took Google to finally make it available. Online video advertising has always been a natural for search and contextual advertising, given the richer and more compelling message that video can usually offer. And with the success of YouTube, and Google purchasing this website for $1.8 billion, you had to know video was coming to you, brought to you by Google.

We've been predicting it for as long as we've been in the online marketing business. We've even been on local TV (CityTV with Judy Gibbons) talking about it recently, having been asked about the impact. What they picked up on, is the same as many other pundits - that it will be great for local advertisers, especially those who would not otherwise advertise on TV, due to cost or because they were in a niche where a commercial would just not make sense.

Google is currently piloting AdSense for video so that publishers can sell ad space on their websites to run online video ads that may be of interest to their readers. Adbrite has had something in place for about a year.

According to the Kelsey Group, online video may make inroads where online ads, and even search may not, because of the familiarity that advertisers have with video ads and commercials. It is easier to sell this because it is less abstract than say something like pay per click. In addition, it plays to the vanity factor, which is important to many advertisers - whether or not the ad is even effective.

The only drawback for many will be cost and skill required to produce the ads. Besides the creative, the technology required for a professional online video ad, is beyond what most ad agencies and website designers usually have in-house. There will be line-ups to get this done at a cost commensurate to the cost of running the ad, as online marketing companies gear up for this onslaught. Of course, expect companies such as ourselves to fill that gap :-)

Bill Gates Says Future of Advertising is Online

2007-05-11T23:32:00.000-06:00

This week, Microsoft Chairman , Bill Gates stated that he will spend the remainder of his employment at Microsoft, focused on advertising and marketing services.

Speaking at Microsoft's annual Strategic Account Summit, Bill Gates said that his main focus before he left his full-time position would be on 'search, buyers and sellers'. While that will only be about a year since he is leaving in mid-2008, his comment, 'That will be my biggest thing', is fairly telling.

'We're saying newspapers will go online, and there will be massive innovation that comes out of that,' he said 'We're saying that TV, the biggest ad market in the world, will completely go online and have the kind of targeting interaction that you only get out on the Web today.'

According to BizReport, the shift to online, with its associated lower costs and enhanced user experience will, Gates said, contribute to the shift of advertising online over the next five years and beyond.

This is important announcement in the online marketing world. First, he is predicting Microsoft's future, and the future is online advertising, particularly search. Not a small change, considering their business has been primarily Windows and Office. And secondly, he is admitting that their future is to catch up to Google.

In my opinion, this is a watershed moment - and one that may define the future of the Internet. Microsoft has $50 billion cash in the bank to make the shift.

Internet Advertising Passes $1 Billion in Canada

2007-05-01T10:02:00.000-06:00

It sounds repetitive but it's worth noting that online advertising has grown substantially again in Canada. This time the report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada said online advertising spending totaled $1.01 billion for 2006, up a whopping 80% from 2005.

Furthermore, it's expected to grow another 32% in 2007, to $1.4 billion. IAB president Paul Gignac predicts that 'it may only take us another 2-3 years to reach the second billion'.

These findings were confirmed in a separate survey by the Institute of Communications and Advertising and Canada Post. This survey of 270 senior marketing executives reported that Internet advertising will grow at the fastest rate, which they are estimating at 25%. Traditional, albeit much larger, is growing at 5.9% according to them.

The U.S. has similar growth trajectories reporting a 23.1% increase over the same period last year from 'interactive agencies', while traditional down there is growing at 4.2%, according to Advertising Age.

The shift is not a fad, having been the case for the past 5 years, with year after year increases in interactive agency revenues and online advertising. What's more important I think is the following quote:

"Interactive is huge," says Chris Weil, chairman-CEO of Momentum Worldwide, a promotions agency owned by Interpublic Group of Cos, via AdAge.com. "If anybody in marketing is not a big part of interactive, they won't be around much longer."

Hire Professional Copywriters

2007-04-18T17:38:00.000-06:00

At FoundPages, we can tell right away if a website is professionally done - without even looking at it. You could read it to us and we would know. If we stay awake that is. And it won't even be the typos...

Persuasive copy writing is more important than it's given credit for. Sure, a killer website helps but beyond how it looks, it needs to read well and have calls to actions (CTA). And just as professional website designers can ensure your company is taken seriously, a professional copywriter can help convince your prospects and audience to start a conversation with your company.

This is not to say that you should abdicate all the content to some stranger. Using a copywriter can be like using a consultant. Someone to help you, because they do it everyday versus your 1-2 year update. It doesn't have to be for all your content, just the key pages. And you'll still have your say in the end, because someone still has to edit and proof all this.

They will understand concepts like personas because they will ask you who your customer looks like (figuratively speaking) and write specifically for each type. By not understanding your product and services totally, they can help you do a better job because they will be more likely to NOT understand what you do, and write accordingly to make it understandable.

Most copywriters will also know how to get the prospect to the next step or the CTA. Without this, all you have is an expensive electronic brochure. Most companies will try to 'dump' everything they have on a website, because they know so much about the products and services. On the other hand, a good copywriter will persuade them to fill out a form or call you. And they should be able to do this with copy that conveys your message, without being wordy.

A bonus is you'll save time, get around that writer's block and get that new website launched that much faster!

SEO Ranking Factors

2007-04-09T12:17:00.000-06:00

As an online marketing firm with a history of expertise in search engine optimization, we've done many SEO projects. At last count, over 70 are done or in progress. We would do more except for the fact that so much confusion exists around them that it takes a long time to both sell and complete. There are a myriad of reasons, mostly to do with misconceptions of what works and what doesn't, by a company that thinks it has some in-house expertise, or worse yet 'a friend' who knows how to do SEO. We get more than a few of these later, after they have failed, or even get banned by the search engines.

With appropriate attribution to SEOmoz.org, I will list the top ten positive factors, as they have 'found' by getting feedback from some of the top SEO gurus. We've reviewed them and for the most part agree with them, although your mileage may vary, based on your OWN website. They are:

Keyword Use in Title Tag
Global Link Popularity of Site
Anchor Text of Inbound Links
Link Popularity within the Site
Age of Site
Topical Relevance of Inbound Links
Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
Keyword Use in Body Text
Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
Rate of New Inbound Links to Site

This list wouldn't be complete without the top 10 controversial factors:

Manual Authority/Weight Given to Site by Google
Relevance of Site's Primary Subject
Participation in Link Schemes or Actively Selling Links
Duplicate Title/Meta Tags on Many Pages
Global Link Popularity of Linking Site
Quality of the Document Content
Domain Extension of Linking Site
Server is Often Inaccessible to Bots
External Links to Low Quality/Spam Sites
TLD Extension of Site (edu, gov, org, etc)

It's worth noting that although these factors are weighted and appear to have been researched carefully, Google's algorithm in particular has hundreds if not thousands of factors that it takes into consideration, both on-page and off-page. As you can surmise, it's an ongoing process with a lot of variables.

So the next time somebody says they can do SEO, bring some of this up and see if they know what they're doing.... The entire article can be found at: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#f53