Online marketing the next big thing for the retail sector?

The global retail landscape is making a shift towards the online channel, according to the Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS).

ACRS’s latest research shows a sharp rise in consumer demand for online retail, multi-channel retailing and e-commerce.

At the 2011 Global Retail Insights survey, ACRS, in collaboration with experts from Google and Salmat, presented key findings and tackled the current concerns facing retailers.
* Shaping the current multi-channel landscape for Australian retailers from the 2010 global consumer and retail trends
* The opportunities and threats surrounding Australian retailers’ behaviours and stance
* The manifestation of the local “Green Consumer” – their demographics and influence patterns
* The challenges facing Australian multi-channel retailers in future

The results proved that instead of the traditional use of the online platform for e-commerce or fulfilment purposes, vendors are beginning to distinguish it as an engaging tool to operate store traffic and trade.

In addition, a growing pool of retailers is transitioning to the mobile device for convenient marketing as research showed “over Xmas 2010, 17.5 per cent of all Google retail searches occurred on a mobile device.”

Retailers also have an added pressure to offer green alternatives, as the local population expects purchases that have green credentials.

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Refrain From Making these 3 Internet Marketing Blunders

If you’re looking out for Internet marketing tips that actually work, then you’ve reached the right place. These are three techniques that can really boost any online marketing venture.

Marketing products online is not the same thing as offline marketing, which is usually why people expect to get results quickly. Many internet marketers make the mistake of making the traffic that comes to their website wait. Basically, make sure your site loads quickly and that it’s easy to comprehend. When you have lots of heavy graphics on your main page or a flash presentation that takes forever to load, it will negatively affect your performance. If your server slows down, you may find that you lose customers that way. Your goal is to get your marketing offer in front of your prospective customers as soon as you can. People who surf online are used to going from site to site in a rapid fashion and that’s because there’s so much to see when it comes to the world of the internet. So if your website doesn’t give fast results, then expect your visitor to hop on to your competitor’s website. Having a slow website can also make you see as though you’re not professional. So do the required work and make sure your website is free of any troubles. Your goal is to provide a location where the people you’re targeting can drop in and instantly be exposed to your marketing offer. Brian Johnson is one of those things where the overall influence it has primarily rests on other factors. So it is not uncommon to find yourself doing a lot of investigation and decision making. You never really realize what can happen should you neglect certain details, criteria and other aspects. If you want to increase your ROI, so to speak, then you need to seek out what kind of choices you have. You want to know what you are working with, so here are some areas within the subject you should use the time to consider.

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Equity raised to support launch of online marketing platform

Pawtucket-based direct marketing firm Mercury announced last month that it has raised significant equity to support the development and launch of TWOBOLT, its new online marketing platform.

Angel Street Capital and Dover Partners took primary financing positions in the equity deal and Bristol County Savings Bank provided additional debt financing, the company said.

Peter Ottmar, chairman, said Mercury started fundraising in September but that, while the equity raised was substantial, he did not want to disclose an amount.

"It's meaningful and significant and allows us to execute on our plan," he said.

Mercury has reorganized itself over the last six to eight months, according to Ottmar, who said three divisions were created: one for the print and mailing side of the business, one for the marketing and analytic side, and one for the online platform, called Twobolt, that is expected to launch sometime this summer.

While the company had made cutbacks in the traditional print division, it was matched by growth in other divisions, he said.

"At one time we were pretty much a print mail company," said Ottmar. "We reduced on the traditional side, as we were hiring in new divisions."

Although a modest amount of the funding will be used to continue to grow the marketing and analytics division and its staff, Ottmar said much of the funds raised will go toward development of the company's new online marketing platform.

"The bulk of the money will go to the third division, the TWOBOLT Technologies Marketing Division, to allow us to develop the online platform for mostly small businesses," he said.

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Strategic Marketing Consulting Group On A Mission To Help Local Business Owners and Independent Professionals Expand Their Markets Online

The strategic marketing consulting company, 1424 Marketing Group LLC, headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in Atlanta and Chicago, announces the launch of their new website and their mission to provide online marketing solutions for the local business owner whose customers have become avid online searchers.

“This marks a milestone for our company and also a profit-turning moment for local businesses and professionals, wherever they are located,” said Co-founder and CEO, Dr. Thia Hamilton. “ We’ve taken our expertise in the online search marketing sector, and made it our mission to help local businesses and independent professionals grow their businesses by tapping into and leveraging the power of the Internet.” Business owners find helpful tools on the website, that they can put to use right away.

Co-founders Hamilton, in Washington, DC and COO Deborah Young, in Atlanta, GA, formed 1424 Marketing Group in the summer of 2010, in response to requests by local business owners who knew that they needed to have an online presence in order to keep their businesses competitive and growing but didn’t know how to go about it.

What Hamilton and Young learned in talking with small business owners in several cities, was that their initial lack of online success was leading them to a faulty conclusion; namely, that the Internet is putting a lot of Goliath-like businesses in their way, and creating a competitive field in which they no longer stand a chance. “This couldn’t be farther from the truth,” said Young. “It is all in knowing how to get the Internet working for your business, instead of against it. Fortunately, it is a pretty easy fix for most businesses.”

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Marketing Manager

Reporting to the VP of Marketing, the Marketing Manager will be charged with using cost efficient driving traffic to NileGuide.com, 10Best.com and Localyte.com via a variety of channels. The ideal candidate will have been a successful marketing contributor at a consumer-facing Internet company. Proficiency with online marketing techniques is essential. This could include online ad negotiation and buying, email, social media marketing, affiliate, SEM and SEO management.

The ideal candidate should also be creative, able to execute quickly & operate with little supervision. Travel industry experience is not required but would be highly valuable.

REQUIREMENTS:

* Bachelor’s Degree plus a minimum of 3-4 years of related work experience, ideally in consumer marketing for a progressive Internet company.
* Exceptionally firm grasp of online marketing techniques and trends.
* Very strong analytical skills to back up data-driven business decisions.
* Experience managing outside business relationships & partnerships.
* The agility, creativity & autonomy necessary to thrive in a fast-moving start-up.

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Free Social Media Training Helps Businesses Profit Using Facebook as Web Marketing Tool

Business owners struggling to master social networking basics can now benefit from free training on how to use Facebook and Twitter to grow their business and increase profits.

Sue Dolan, internet entrepreneur, author, and owner of Web Site Building Tips, an instructional online resource designed for those interested in creating a profitable internet ebusiness, introduces easy step-by-step "how to" tutorials for business owners on using social media sites as a valuable web marketing tool.

"A Facebook Fan Page is essential for any business, no matter how big or how small," says Dolan. "Like it or not, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are poised to rule the cyber world, challenging Google's long entrenched foothold as the best internet advertising and marketing platform."

"Social networks are a powerful yet completely free marketing opportunity that build brand recognition and credibility, works to grow a solid customer base, and increase sales," explains Dolan. In less than a half an hour literally anyone, no matter how technologically inept, can quickly build a Facebook business fan page using Web-Site-Building-Tips.com's easy point and click online instructions and social network marketing tips.

Dolan's online ebusiness resource and guide, Web Site Building Tips, offers a variety of web site marketing tutorials specifically designed to help businesses navigate the mysterious and confusing world of virtual communities in order to effectively promote their products and services with social network marketing campaigns. "Businesses gain tremendous exposure simply by creating a Facebook business page, and it's completely free." reminds Dolan. Her new social media training tutorial demonstrates the process of setting one up in three simple steps.

The new series of social networking tutorials also describes how to customize a "Welcome to Facebook" business landing page. This popular elearning module teaches business owners how to build a loyal Facebook fan base by personalizing their business page similar to the Coca Cola Corporation, which has earned the distinction of the highest ranked page on Facebook.

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New Face of Dusit.com enhances Online Marketing Efforts

Dusit International, one of Asia's leading hotel groups, announced its 2011 online marketing strategy with the launch of the new, more interactive www.dusit.com , and gearing up for its online marketing throughout the year.

Ms Jennifer Cronin, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Dusit International revealed

"The global traveller of today now expects 24/7 instantaneous connectivity wherever they are in the world. With the ever-fast changing technological landscape, we have made Dusit.com a priority for the future of the company. In less than three years since the last website rebuild, as a company, we have made a firm commitment to investing in the new Dusit.com and to continually upgrade to keep up with these major changes in the way we do business. The project has taken almost 12 months to finalise to this point that we are at today and will be an ongoing KPI for our online marketing efforts".

"Dusit's online marketing strategy will play a key role in the long term marketing activities of all Dusit International hotels and resorts this year. With a fresh look and design, easy navigation, as well as many new features we will provide an even more convenient 24/7 connectivity to guests, corporate accounts, and the travel industry to book, amend, and confirm their business or leisure trips instantly worldwide. In addition, the new Dusit website will also help us understand our customer's behaviour better with guest history, web statistics, conversion rates and Google analytics features. With an investment of almost

USD 335,000, we aim to increase the overall online bookings through Dusit.com from 12 percent in 2010 to 25 percent this year as a minimum."

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Online Marketing Agency Add People Offers SEO Success To Website Owners

The majority of websites and web based businesses come to rely on search engine traffic as a means of delivering highly targeted visitors to their pages. A high position for competitive and targeted keywords can help turn a website profitable while a slip in the results can lead to near disaster.

Search engines and the algorithms they employ to help populate their indexes with high quality sites have evolved massively. Where it was once considered good SEO form to put up a single, keyword stuffed page and do little or nothing else, this is not only ineffective but is likely to see a website banned. Other facets of an SEO campaign have changed and become more complex.

Images, multimedia, and flash graphics can be effectively optimised so that they also perform well; something that was once considered impossible. The introduction of social media, and the search engines’ continued move to adopt social search into their own results has also seen a shift in the structure of an effective SEO campaign.

Keeping up with all of the changes and staying ahead of the game while running an ethical SEO campaign is a major part of business for a lot of website owners but not all small business owners or online businesspeople have the time or resource to dedicate to this. These companies are able to employ the services of an ethical and proven SEO service to assist them.

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Online Marketing Training Leads To Increased Success For Marketers And Their Clients

When marketing professionals want to hone their craft or add new skills to their resumes, they turn to Market Motive's Online Marketing Training and Certification.

From Micro Blogging to Local Search to Mobile, the constant evolution of online marketing requires marketers to stay up to date, and invest in continuous online marketing training. Forward thinking companies and individuals who are dedicated to continuous education reap great benefits ... and so do their clients.

As Online Marketing Manager for Rasmussen College, Market Motive's advanced training helped Mark Bietz to hone in on channel strategies and provide better web experiences for students. It also recently helped him move into a new position as Vice President of Marketing for BuyFun.com, which owns a suite of websites that provide costumes and accessories for individuals, schools, celebrities, and major film and television productions.

"Market Motive has helped immensely in my career," says Bietz. "At BuyFun.com, I lead all of the marketing efforts and focus on digital strategy. Through my training I gained an in-depth knowledge of analytics as well as grew my network with some key industry players and fellow students. I plan to use my Market Motive training further with BuyFun.com to refine our analytics practices in order to support our marketing channels and overall business development initiatives."

Manjula Higginbotham, eCommerce Consultant and Implementations Manager at leading shopping cart provider AmeriCommerce, credits Market Motive for helping with her recent ascent to Partner. "I am now a partner at the company...I personally attribute my growth in the field to Avinash Kaushik and in turn Market Motive. I have learned a lot from his books and blogs, and the video training I've gotten from the courses."

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Fashion is funny business

A comedy of errors is what the last day of Lakme Fashion Week turned out to be. And maybe not so funny for those who had to endure a whole day of shows that weren’t worth the wait. Abdul Halder’s extra-tight satin dresses would have given even mere mortals X-ray vision, so clearly did they outline ev
ery part of the models’ anatomy. Not to mention the baubles and beads that kept falling off mid-walk.

And few collections have been able to give the audience a physical reaction quite like the experience of watching Satya Paul’s paranormal activity on the ramp. Jaw dropping, eyeball popping and speechlessness were a few of the symptoms, as one shiny chandelier after another walked down the ramp. But like any horror movie, the worst was reserved for the last as showstopper Sarah Jane Dias made her way out in an orange lehenga with silver fish scale patterns, yellow and orange frills and an equally bright odhni attached to shiny armlets.

Finally at Gauri and Nainika’s grand finale, which began after an epic hour-and-a-half long delay, the models’ billowing crinolines and taffeta trains kept getting caught on exposed nails on the ramp

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Affiliate Marketing As A Means Of Online Marketing

When it comes to making money online, most people think that the first thing you need is a website. You can certainly make money in lots of ways when you have your own website, but you don’t need this in order to start bringing in some cash.

The best way to begin – especially if you have limited funds – is to opt for affiliate marketing instead. This is really an offshoot of online marketing in general, and it involves selling products and services for other people. You don’t have to actually handle any products yourself though. Instead you are the ‘middleman’ who connects the potential customer to the product or service you are promoting.

You can do this in lots of different ways but the crux of the matter is that you do not need a website. Instead you can use articles, links and all manner of other methods to successfully make sales. Online marketing companies do employ the same strategies but at a much higher professional level

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Tips from an Online Marketing Entrepreneur

This week, our small business marketing maverick interviews Jeremy Frandsen, co-host of the Internet Business Mastery Podcast, which is the number one audio show on iTunes. A recognized expert on online marketing, Frandsen talks about how he went from editing movie trailers in Hollywood to building a seven-figure income in Internet marketing.

Frandsen also identifies the latest online marketing trends and offers budding online entrepreneurs tips on the best way to grow an Internet business.

Just click on the Help! My Business Sucks logo to watch the episode. And don’t forget to leave your comments below…we'd love to know what you think.

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Could a Tsunami Wipe Out Your Business?

Catastrophes happen, often without warning. And when they do, everything you’ve ever built can come tumbling down. It’s hard enough to think about all the things that MUST get done just to operate the business daily, and minimize costs. And when it comes time to spend money on things just in case, it’s easier to just cross your fingers and pray.
Today’s tsunami in Japan is an excellent reminder to take a closer look at disaster planning for your business.

If you’re not already, here are some of the things you should be thinking about:

Inflation: How will higher prices affect your product costs, and your suppliers’ costs? Do you have sufficient backup suppliers, possibly with better buying power or larger existing inventories that will minimize their cost of raw materials and supplies?

Supplier insolvency: With so many businesses eking out profits, you must consider what you’d do if any of your single-source suppliers went out of business without warning. That happened to us last year and caused a deterioration of service due to the tidal wave of irate customers wanting to know when they would receive their products. For that one, we had anticipated the disruption and had contingency plans in place, which minimized the ill will.

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Philippines upgrades tsunami warning level

The Philippines' seismic agency raised its tsunami warning alert, advising people to stay away from shorelines in eastern coastal areas on Friday evening, after an 8.9 magnitude quake hit Japan.

"Based on tsunami wave models, coastal areas in Philippine provinces fronting the Pacific Ocean are expected to experience wave heights of at most 1 metre," said Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

He said the first wave would arrive between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. (0900-1100 GMT).

"People are advised to stay away from the shoreline during the period," Solidum said, with coastal residents advised to move inland.

Boats already at sea were advised to offshore in deep waters until further advised, while owners of boats in harbours, estuaries or shallow coastal water were advised to secure their vessels and move away from the water front. (Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by John Mair and Sugita Katyal)

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Online Marketing: The New Word of Mouth

Tax Day is rapidly approaching and it got me thinking about how one of the oldest institutions, paying taxes, is being transformed by one of the newest, the Internet. Tax prep firms can expect swarms of procrastinators to come knocking on their door as the days dwindle down to April 18. But with online tax services growing annually, and a hungry group of competitors chasing the same customer set, these tax pros can't afford to be complacent. They cannot assume the customers that found them last year will find them again this year.

Many professionals do not put much thought into marketing services beyond word of mouth. They may not fully appreciate that they are providers in a competitive vertical with an increasing online presence. For example, go to Google and search the keyword "tax." Four out of the first six listings will be for online tax services. Moreover, the most aggressive online services are offering electronic filing software that will file your taxes for free. With consumers turning to the Internet to find such solutions, it is as certain as death and taxes that successful service providers, like the tax prep crowd, will need to leverage online marketing tools to be sure they get the word out. There are a number of tools service providers can deploy to be part of the conversation when the client is ready to buy.

Affiliate marketing refers prospective clients to a specific service provider when the client is most interested in the provider's service. This online marketing channel is of great advantage to advertiser service providers because they are only asked to pay after the prospective client is introduced to them. For firms looking to stay consistently in front of the shifting client base and profitable, connecting with the right consumers through an affiliate network is a low-risk investment worth considering. But this is not the only channel that won't tax the budget while keeping you top of mind

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Australian small businesses offered free websites

A nationwide initiative called ‘Getting Aussie Business Online’ has launched in collaboration with Google, with the aim of offering small businesses the chance to build their own website – for free.
The scheme, which was established with the aid of international business management solutions provider MYOB, is designed to give small businesses who are currently “invisible” online a helping hand by enabling them to launch a website that is easy to set up and maintain.

The initiative will act as a further push for jewellery retailers that have yet to establish an online presence. Like other sectors, the jewellery industry has been criticised by business experts for its slow take-up of the online medium.

Google’s head of local business Claire Hatton used the construction sector as an example of how far Australian businesses are lagging behind their customers.

“Every day in Australia there are 12,000 Google searches for builders but fewer than one in four businesses in the construction and trade industry has a website,” Hatton said.

“Australians go online first to research local products and services,” she added.

Hatton added that the tool would remove commonly cited barriers such as cost, knowledge and time that often stop small businesses from jumping online.

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Publisher launches new online business directory

Regional publisher Johnston Press has launched a new online directory service on all its local newspaper websites.
The company has teamed up with user-generated local review website Qype to create 'Find it', its new online directory platform service.
Johnston Press' 234 newspaper websites have had the Qype platform integrated into them, enabling users to search for a local business or service, assisted by reviews, comments and ratings of other customers.
The launch of Find it is being supported by a local advertising campaign spanning print, online display advertising and paid search with the strap line 'Your Paper, Your Local Directory', to emphasise the value of ratings and reviews to help customers select a business.
Henry Faure Walker, digital and business development director at Johnston Press, said: "We are very excited about the opportunities from the launch of our new online directory platform, which combines Qype's powerful search and social media functionality with the trust of our local news brands and websites.
"Find it will give local businesses a highly effective new advertising medium giving them stand out from the competition as well as giving consumers a fantastic new guide for finding the best local service."

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