There is an interesting discussion this morning on Chinwag about data being held by third party companies, eg email service providers. This has resulted in an article written by Mark Lesbirel on ESPs, which is a must read if you outsource your email marketing, although it focuses more on the security of information and compromising the integrity of your customer data rather than outright loss of data.
Which once again raises the issue about cloud computing and the security of your data.
If you use Gmail or Hotmail, for instance, as your email provider, should their servers go down, then because they are a web-based service, you have just lost access to your email, including all your addresses. Should (unlikely but possible in the current economic climate) your webmail service provider go under, unless you have been rigorous in backing up your data to an email client on your own machine, you have just lost everything. All your archived emails, addresses – GONE!
I blogged 6 months ago about the need to back up your website, and of course hosting companies are another source for potential catastrophe if you have not backed up your data. A brief reminder – you do have the latest copy of your website in a safe place, don’t you????
Taking this further out into the cloud, many people are using social media and cloud applications for a multitude of tasks and marketing activities. Whether this is marketing through Facebook or Ning, or using online document package such as Google apps, or an ASP for CRM, accounts or similar, it is becoming ever more apparent that many do not give a second thought to back ups of the data held on such services.
The collapse of Google does not seem imminent, but there are many companies providing services to small/ medium businesses, as well as gigantic corporations, who could easily fold with little or no warning. This would make your valuable data extremely hard to rescue.
We treat data quite casually these days, with the assumption that wherever it is, it is safe. Pretty much as we assume that the worst is not going to happen in our homes and that fire/flood/theft will not occur, and are lax at considering how precious some of our belongings may prove if lost, we can be equally as ‘negligent’ with business critical data.
The worst case scenario may occur. Not saying it will, but it might, and you need to be prepared for that to happen. If you lost every email address of your customers, how much might it cost you? If your website hosting provider vanished in a puff of smoke, what would be the cost of lost business, as well as rebuilding the site? If you are holding business critical data on third party servers, then consider carefully how secure it is from a) prying eyes and b) unexpected loss.
Look at where your data is held and how safe it is, and then BACK IT UP!!
Companies looking for the best places to publish their internet marketing campaigns may be interested to know that consumers are most engaged by online ads when they are shopping for goods and services.
According to a survey carried out by eBay Advertising, some 61 per cent of internet users claim to pay most attention to web advertising when they are visiting e-commerce sites, New Media Age reports.
By contrast, around 13 per cent said they are most receptive to internet marketing material when they are using social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.
Phillip Rinn, a spokesperson for eBay, said it "makes sense" for web advertising to match what the user is doing online at the time.
Of those questioned, some 32 per cent said they spend more time shopping online now than they did six months ago because they carry out more research into the products they want to buy beforehand.
According to the latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, online sales in the UK were up 13 per cent in February compared to the same month last year.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Internet marketing professionals using video to advertise their products online should look beyond simple video ads, it has been claimed.
Writing in the March issue of DMNews, Dianna Dilworth, associate editor of the publication, highlighted a number of innovative ways in which video is being used as a marketing tool.
For example, Innovid recently launched new technology that allows advertisers to create interactive videos featuring clickable products.
The platform was used by Warner Brothers to promote the movie Watchmen on the web through a video containing links to files, images and viral websites.
Zvika Netter, chief executive of Innovid, told DMNews that when used in its most basic form, video can be "static" in comparison to the interactivity of the net.
"We are looking at video as a canvas that can be turned into something where the brand can integrate their message in a dynamic way," he remarked.
Research from Hitwise shows that the number of people visiting online video websites has risen by 41 per cent in the last 12 months.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Charities using internet marketing to attract donations from businesses and members of the public are being held back by poor website usability, it has been suggested.
According to research carried out by Nielsen Norman Group in the United States, many charity websites contain so-called donation killers – usability issues which put people off making donations or prevent them from doing so.
The study shows that 53 per cent of donation killers relate to poor content, missing information and unclear text, while 47 per cent can be attributed to the design of the site and its pages.
In 17 per cent of cases, visitors to the 23 charity websites examined by Nielsen could not work out where to go to make their contribution.
Meanwhile, a study carried out recently by responsibletravel.com revealed that train companies are also being hampered by poor website usability.
Some 33 per cent of the journeys its volunteers tried to book through rail sites were successful, compared to 98 per cent of those on airline sites.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
1. Write a new blog post by reading today’s headlines on your favourite news site, and writing on something that relates to you or your industry, your company or your products. If you really can’t find a single news story that relates to you, use your keywords and search on Google News – there will be a story somewhere in the world that you can comment upon!
2. Set up a Twitter account, and post a link to your latest blog post. Then waste several hours reading what all your new friends have Tweeted about.
3. Search for your top keywords + forum. Find the busiest most interesting forum and join in the conversation after setting up your profile with a link to your site.
4. Post all your most recent blog posts and/or new website content onto del.icio.us
5. Use Google Blogsearch to find an interesting blog and make a complimentary comment on their latest post. Include your URL or company name where you are permitted to eg in the URL and name fields ;o)
6. Visit one of the unknown sites who have referred traffic to you this week, find your link and send them a thank you email with some detail that shows you have looked at their website. Link back to them if you feel it is appropriate.
7. Come up with an April Fool and post about it everywhere you can think of with a link to your website.
8. Search Digg for your keywords and write an article about one popular story. Include a resource box with a little information about you / your company, and your URL. Then submit it to any one of the article sites for that subject.
9. Email all your customers with a special Easter offer. If your customer email database is a mess, spring clean it.
10. Spend some time looking at your website as though you had never seen it before. Make changes to improve it, or at least make a list of the things you will change when you have time.
11. Research a topic that you need to know more about to promote your company online. Whether it is email marketing, social media, pay per click, search engine optimisation, or copywriting for seo, find out more this week. (Try searching this blog for info on all of the above!)
12. Submit your website to free directories in your niche or region. Find them by searching for your keywords + directory
13. Add your business to Google maps
14. Go through all your business stationery and check that your website address is prominently displayed on everything – invoices, envelopes, brochures, etc
15. Include a brochure or flier for your website in the envelope when paying your bills by cheque. You never know who at BT will open the envelope with your business information in it!
16. Join Facebook and find groups to join in your business sector or, better still, find your competitors’ groups, pages etc and join those to keep an eye on what they are doing.
17. Join LinkedIn and complete your profile. Network with everyone you know and seek introductions to those you want to know.
18. Do a minimum of two of the above each day this week and then on Friday post in your blog what you have done, tweet about it, add that post to delicious, Digg it, update LinkedIn etc etc!
Firms looking to market their brands could find that video websites are a useful platform, especially when looking to reach younger audiences.
According to a new study by market research firm Ipsos MediaCT, a higher percentage of consumers aged 15 to 24 watch music videos on YouTube than on music television channels, the BBC reports.
Indeed, some 57 per cent of those questioned said they had visited YouTube to watch music content, while 56 per cent said they watch it on television.
Ian Bramley, head of entertainment research at Ipsos, said it is likely that this generation will maintain their preference for the web over TV as they get older.
It is not just music videos that consumers are watching online. Research from Hitwise shows that the BBC iPlayer had the second-biggest share of video website views in February, while Channel 4 TV also featured in the top ten.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has reported that Google is testing a new service that will allow internet marketing professionals to insert advertising into YouTube videos.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Companies looking to increase traffic to their websites should focus on search engine optimisation (SEO), it has been claimed.
According to eMarketer, internet users prefer organic search listings to paid search ads, which suggests that SEO services may be more cost effective.
It cites data from the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization which shows that $13.5 billion (£9.5 billion) was spent on search marketing last year.
Paid search ads accounted for 88 per cent of this spending, while SEO accounted for 11 per cent, the research reveals.
David Hallerman, a senior analyst at eMarketer, said he expects this trend to reverse somewhat in the future as advertisers come to realise that internet users find organic listings more relevant and are generally more accepting of them.
"SEO delivers longer-term results that support any search marketing campaign," he remarked.
Meanwhile, writing on the Econsultancy blog recently, tech reporter Patricio Robles said companies using SEO services should not confuse organic SEO with paid search marketing.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
Companies using search engine optimisation (SEO) to boost traffic to their websites have been reminded that the process is an ongoing one.
Writing on the Econsultancy blog, tech reporter Patricio Robles said marketing teams should remember that when developing an SEO strategy, there are some things that are out of their control.
Instead, they should focus on what they can manage by making sure they keep their skills and knowledge of the SEO landscape up to date, since the world of SEO is constantly changing.
"Search engine algorithms are in a constant state of flux and the field of SEO is one of the most dynamic on the internet," Mr Robles explained.
He also urged marketing professionals not to confuse SEO with paid search marketing, such as pay per click (PPC) advertisements.
Mr Robles finished by pointing out that SEO should not just be centred on Google and companies should remember that consumers do use other search engines.
This advice was echoed recently in a blog post by the chief executive of SEOmoz, who said ignoring non-Google search engines is a common error among those new to SEO.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) and internet marketing can allow companies to expand their reach and attract overseas customers, it has been suggested.
In an article for BusinessZone, Chris Barling chief executive of ecommerce solutions supplier Actinic, said any firm with an internet presence automatically has access to a worldwide market.
SEO services and internet marketing campaigns can help them to reach this market and bring overseas visitors to their websites.
"The internet is a brilliant global communications medium, so its potential impact in the area of international trade is huge," Mr Barling stated.
He advised companies to focus on their status as UK-based businesses in their marketing campaigns, as the UK has an "excellent" reputation for global trade.
And he also recommended that firms advertise their compliance with various legal and tax regulations to further enhance their credibility as a worldwide supplier.
Research carried out by the Internet Advertising Bureau recently revealed that spending on internet marketing grew by 21 per cent year-on-year between January and June 2008.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
A simple, clear website structure will help companies achieve their search engine optimisation (SEO) goals, according to a sales engineer at Google.
Speaking at the recent SEO Forum organised by the Association of Online Publishers, Jean-Laurent Wotton said Google spiders reward suites that have a user-friendly layout.
He advised firms to use all of their website content to drive traffic, using descriptive and accurate title tags that follow on logically from the title of the page.
They should also pay attention to the snippet for their site, which is the description that appears in Google’s search results, as this can prompt users to enter.
Finally, specialised sitemaps should be used to "enhance the web crawl", Mr Wotton added.
In a recent blog post, the chief executive of SEOmoz set out some basic SEO mistakes that are often made by beginners.
Among them were repetitive keyword targeting and keyword stuffing, which he claimed rarely result in effective SEO.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing
