December 2006 Monthly Newsletter :: Anduro Marketing
Top 10 Online Marketing Trends
Over the past few months, Anduro Marketing has been hosting a series of workshops relating key concepts of Online Marketing to the Calgary business community. We wanted to use this month's newsletter as an opportunity to give you, our subscribers, an inside look at some of this valuable information. This issue focuses on the some of the hottest trends in the current Online Marketing space. Acting wisely in response to these trends can help your business (i) increase traffic to its website, (ii) generate sales leads and (iii) boost sales from online sources.
Jeff Nelson, and the professional staff at Anduro Marketing, would like to extend our warmest wishes for the holiday season to our valuable clients, partners, and associates. 2006 has been an exceptional year and we look forward to a tremendous 2007. A special thanks to all of you who have been involved with Anduro in any way this year. We wish you the very best of the season and continued success in the year to come!
To celebrate the season, along with Anduro's 5th year in business, we will be having a party on the 14th of December at Webster Galleries. All of our good friends (that means you) are welcome to attend! Click here to RSVP.
Top 10 Online Marketing Trends
With 5 years in the Online Marketing space, and having served over 250 clients representing a broad spectrum of industry and commerce, the professionals at Anduro Marketing pride themselves on accurately spotting and assessing marketing trends – then deciding the best course of action with regard to our client’s marketing goals. To find out how you can best leverage these trends to the benefit of your organization, contact Anduro Marketing today.
The Trends
#1 – Anything Google
Google’s share price just passed $500 and continues to rise! The innovative “Do No Evil” corporation has successfully looked beyond its majority share of the search market, leveraging existing technologies (Urchin Analytics, YouTube, etc.) and developing their own (Gmail, Google Talk, etc.) while rising to take on even Microsoft in the Web Services space. While Google didn’t single handedly create the need for Search Engine Marketing, it certainly changed the way the industry works. Web professionals pay close attention to Google, and we recommend you do too!
#2 - Pay-per-Click Advertising
Also known as PPC, this is another area of Online Marketing transformed by Google, who reinvented the technology and turned it into the primary source of the company’s considerable revenue. Generally, a PPC account is easy to set up but difficult to manage over the long term. Tracking impressions, clicks, costs, and conversions requires an ongoing commitment as does the budget and operational analysis which must inevitably follow. Other crucial considerations which come into play include ad copy, landing pages, geo-targeting, competition, etc. To successfully engage this highly effective marketing strategy, it is strongly recommended that you seek the guidance of a professional Online Marketing agency.
#3 – Natural (Organic) Rankings
The 'Holy Grail' sought by every site on the Web is to be found in first place of the results of a given keyword query, to stand atop the millions of other pages contained in the Google or Yahoo index. Achieving high natural rankings is one of the best ways to build traffic to your site and brand identity for your organization. As with PPC methods though, a lot of work is required to make this a reality. From keyword research and selection to site optimization and submission to link building and monitoring, taking advantage of the unique benefits of high natural rankings takes a prolonged effort that is best undertaken under the tutelage of an experience Online Marketing firm.
#4 – More Bandwidth
Across North America and, to varying degrees, across the world, more and more people are gaining access to high-speed, broadband Internet access. With access costs going down and connection speeds, users, and time spent online going up, the Internet landscape has been evolving at a strong pace.
The static HTML of 90s has long since given way to dynamic, multi-media integrated sites that take advantage of the latest Web technologies. Pure text has been joined by high-resolution images, Flash animation, streaming audio/video, and Web-based applications. These changes have had just as significant impact on the advertising world as the introduction of TV did over 50 years ago.
#5 – Online Video
The increase in the availability of high bandwidth Internet connections has resulted in an explosion of online video. When Google purchased YouTube, an online video sharing site, its visitors were watching over 70 Million clips a day! But online, streaming video has moved past the masses of file swappers and into the mainstream content of major media providers from newspapers to TV Networks. It was only a matter of time before dedicated video advertising followed and leave it to Google to take the lead in this regard as well. Click here to see an example of their video advertising technology at work.
#6 – Viral Marketing
Internet Marketing has revolutionized many traditional advertising techniques, and perhaps no single method takes as great advantage of the technology available than that of viral marketing. Most simply, viral marketing can be described as an advertising perpetual machine. Viral campaigns tend to make use of the extensive networks available to them to propagate themselves for as long as possible. Well known examples of viral marketing include:
- the ads featured in emails sent through many Webmail services (Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, etc.)
- articles and other media that spread through Peer-to-Peer and Social Networks (MySpace, RSS Feeds, PodCasts, etc.)
Major corporations have been active participants in the viral marketing trend, including BMW in their well known series of creative ads directed by John Frankenheimerand starring Clive Owen.
#7 – Niche Sites
While the Web does allow us to connect with the entire world in ways not previously possible, as it matures we are seeing a markable increase in the number of nice sites geared toward specific audiences and demographics. There are sites for all kinds of people groups ranging from those of a common age, gender, location, religion, etc. Of course, this is the nature of business so it can hardly been seen as surprising. Successfully reaching your nice, however, can be surprisingly difficult. Anduro Marketing has the experience necessary to create highly targeted marketing campaigns geared toward your particular audience. Visit www.bazaario.ca or www.eons.com for an example of well crafted niche sites.
#8 – High End Flash Sites
As increased bandwidth allows for the lines between TV and Web to be increasingly blurred, a new generation of websites is being developed which leaves the paradigm of static 'pages' behind in favor of a richer, more interactive experience. Once considered little more than a decorative navigation technology, Flash has taken its place in the upper echelons of design architectures. Visit the e-Homes of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line or the Ryokan Collection for some superb examples.
#9 – Abuse
Unfortunately, new forms of technology, while offering us a multitude of benefits, often go hand in hand with new forms of exploitation and abuse. This is certainly true of the Internet where security has quickly come as central an issue as it is in the real world. Words such as Spam, Spyware, Virus, and Phishing are fast becoming standard vocabulary and the threats range from simply annoying advertisements to very real dangers posed by Identity Theft and various forms of fraud and exploitation. Thankfully, many sites like WiredSafety.org exist to help us educate ourselves about these dangers.
#10 – Increasing Online Budgets
Recent budget explosions in the wake of realized rates of return are transforming the nature of the online marketplace. Success in the new business age requires one to stay on top of the trends - a considerable challenge in any arena. Anduro Marketing's expertise is both knowing the trends and being able to create and maintain effective marketing campaigns around them. To find out how Anduro Marketing can change the way you do business, contact us today.
For more information on any of the products available from Anduro Marketing, contact us at info@anduro.com or (403) 410-3803.
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