Showing posts with label Emarketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emarketing. Show all posts

The role and effectivness of e-marketing within the Visitor Attraction industry.

Ewom Marketing has just completed a one hundred page plus report entitled: The role and effectiveness of e-marketing within the Visitor Attraction industry.

The report provides an overview of the attraction market specifically looking more closely at wildlife attractions, investigating the impact of the e-marketing, establishing core market factors, strengths and weaknesses, consumer dynamics and attraction trends. The main themes of the report are:

  • How the growth of e-marketing has impacted the visitor attraction industry?
  • What are the key e-marketing channels available for visitor attractions to use in their marketing strategies?
  • What impact is e-marketing having on the visitor numbers?
  • What future marketing opportunities are available for visitor attractions?
  • What are the key target groups for attractions, what sources of information do they use?
  • What does it take to get listed at the top of search engines?
  • Plus find out what REAL Visitor Attraction marketing managers are doing, through the use of 2 case studies!

In addition the report includes guides on the following:

  • Effective PR
  • Tips for an Effective and Efficient Google AdWords Campaign
  • How to Increase YouTube Video Viewing figures & Drive Traffic from YouTube to your website.
  • Guide to making your blog successful
  • Improving your Banner Click-Through Rate!
  • and much more...

The increased usage of the Internet for both social and business purposes has revolutionised the marketing channels available to companies. These channels allow marketers to attract audiences using a pull strategy rather than a push strategy, utilising a more personalised approach. The developments within the world of e-marketing and web 2.0 technologies have also provided companies with platforms upon which they can interact with consumers.

Whilst much literature is available regarding the use of e-marketing within product based industries, there is little research into its usage amongst service businesses, such as visitor attractions. This study identifies how e-marketing is used within the visitor attraction industry, and explores the implications of the tools for visitor attractions. In order to gain a specific insight into the visitor attractions industry a case study of the Bournemouth Oceanarium is used.

To allow for an in-depth analysis of the role and effectiveness of e-marketing within the industry a combination of qualitative based interviews with marketing employees, and a quantitative questionnaire of Oceanarium visitors was used. The results of the interviews highlighted that visitor attractions are adopting e-marketing tools within their marketing mixes’, however the range of tools they are utilising is limited. The questionnaire results confirmed the increased usage of web 2.0 tools such as social networking and blogs amongst visitors, and also highlighted areas where current e-marketing activities needed to be improved upon, particularly with regard to two way communication between the attraction and their visitors.

For information on how you can get a copy of the report please contact Simon via email ewom@ymail.com

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Add E-Marketing into Your Marketing Mix Now

The following blog lists a few simply methods to help though who have not yet started to include e-marketing into their marketing mix. By integrating a few of the following elements is a good start and by starting to include your website into your marketing plan you can drive new leads and generate new business that you wouldn't ordinarily reach using a single avenue of advertising.

Web Address Inclusion
Your website can act as a point of reference for all of your leads and existing customers. Include your web address in all forms of your offline communication. If you post physical products, ensure that the packing slips and invoices have the URL of your website in a prominent position. Your website itself can be used to answer many questions that customers might have, reducing the time and even resource needed to respond to problems and questions posed by buyers.

Optimizing Landing Pages For On & Offline Leads
With any form of advertising it is vital to optimize your web landing pages. Optimizing a landing page means providing the content that your visitors expect. You should direct visitors to the most appropriate page on your website to answer their questions or to make a sale. If you use direct mail advertising and are promoting a specific product then direct visitors to the purchase page for that product. If you are offering your website as a place to get answers to questions or to resolve issues, direct them to the knowledge base or customer service page.

Using Online Advertising To Advertise Offline Business
While some businesses are run predominantly online, many websites are used to promote a bricks-and-mortar business. Whatever the purpose of your business, a website usually offers some form of advantage. The Internet is a global marketplace and provides a genuinely affordable method to promote even the smallest business. Very few other methods level the playing field so clearly between small businesses and large corporations.

Using Other Forms Of Offline Advertising In Your Advertising Mix
Newspaper and radio advertising provide a very direct form of marketing. Few websites can realistically afford television advertising but flyer's, direct mail, and less expensive advertising methods are a genuinely viable alternative. Again, the key to success in using these forms of advertising is integrating them within your online marketing mix. Only through good integration, directing visitors to the most appropriate page, and optimizing that landing page.

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Using LinkedIn to promote your business

After logging into LinkedIn for the first time in several months, I thought considering how successful they have been and the huge marketing push it received in London I should really have identified and wrote about the marketing opportunities it provides.

For those who haven’t heard of LinkedIn, it is a social networking website that is geared specifically towards business members. It enables users to build up a network of existing and new business contacts (called connections). Wikipedia reports that LinkedIn has more than 20 million registered users and attracts over 3.2 million visitors every month in a total of more than 150 different industries from all across the globe. LinkedIn is more closely matched to offline business networking than virtually any other social networking website. It can be used to keep contact details while building a strong network but other users predominantly use it to make contacts and secure future employment. Conversely, many employers and agencies use their network to find suitable candidates for work. The key USP to LinkedIn is that when you add a new connection, their connections and the connections of those connections will also be added to your network, if that makes sense! Providing you with an impressive network of business contacts.
For businesses looking to promote their own service, the money is literally in the list. By building a large and relevant network of connections, a business can greatly improve their profile within that community. Using a powerful portfolio page also ensures that those connections that are interested in using the services of that business will be more inclined to do so. Everything is essentially in place to help the business owner or professional to generate new leads. This of cause means that you need to market your LinkedIn profile!
Another benefit of the LinkedIn service is the testimonials section. When you provide a service to another member of the community, or your network, they can leave a testimonial of how you performed. As many of you will know testimonials are important for any business and not only help persuade the unsure, but can turn a contact's opinion of you around.

A recently new section of the site is LinkedIn Answers This allows users to ask and answer questions, gaining the information they require and providing a useful response. This can help your business to network because useful answers will usually be rewarded with an invitation to join that member's list of connections.While there are other sites that offer similar services, (such as Xing.com) no other business networking website can boast the popularity that LinkedIn offers. The combination of powerful features and a large network means that many businesses want to be represented on the LinkedIn website.

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Social Networks are not just for advertising - Spot trends and Opportunities

Identifying and acting on trends is important in every business. It helps to identify new opportunities and provide insight into a more effective marketing strategy. Trends provide you with the opportunity to steal a lead over your competitors, especially if you learn to quickly identify the early signs of a new trend.

One of the biggest trends in the past few years, which many companies capitalised upon, was social networking. Now social networking is one of the biggest things on the Internet. Video sharing sites like YouTube and social community sites like Facebook, and MySpace have become the most viewed and used sites. Due to their popularity, they can also be a good starting point to help identify trends. Remember to keep an eye on your competitors. Ensure you find out what they are doing, what offers they are currently running, and whether they have any new product launches.

Furthermore look at the communities where they are most active. Being first to a new trend is an advantage but, failing that, coming in late allows you the opportunity to better your competitor's efforts. Look for areas where you believe you can improve it. Finding out where your competitors are advertising or networking will lead you to the sites or opportunities that present relevant information. The more sources of potential trends you can find, the more accurate your data. You should be an active and eager member of the communities within your industry so use this information in tandem with the information you manage to dig up.

Identifying new opportunities can be a difficult task (and long), but by getting involved in markets and networking in relevant circles you will begin to identify the most relevant topics for your niche. This can help to increase market share and strengthen your brand by being the first to provide a new and wanted product or service. But remember as I mentioned before, if you do find yourself behind your competitors, you then have the chance to improve on their efforts.

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E-Marketing could have saved Woolworths!

The collapse of Woolworths is by far the largest retail failure this year, symbolising the high street's woes, this is a major blow to all those involved within the retail sector.

Woolworths evokes nostalgia for precious pocket money spent on fizzy cola bottles and chart singles. Last week it became clear that Woolworths itself was worth only pocket money, with management in talks to sell the 800-store chain for £1. Woolworths once had a shop on every British high street and a special place in the hearts of millions of shoppers. It was famous for selling anything from toys to brown paper, plants, Cd's, DVDs, Games, Clothes and more. Many will say that the recession has caused Woolworths death, of cause that is a factor, but Woolworths just didn't move with the times!

E-Marketing could have saved Woolworths. I know that's a pretty bold statement to make, but I believe it is true. After getting £385m in debt, Woolworths wont be the last victim of the recession. As the credit crunch continues to bite, this time of year is the most important part of the retail year. However sales on the high street are slumping, while sales on the Internet are soaring. As we become a nation full of bargain hunters, we are more than happy to search online for a cheaper priced item than those offered on the high street.

But still many high street retailers are just not switched on to E-marketing, unless potential new customers know the website address, they will typically look for product or services via a search engine such as Google or Yahoo! When Searching for say "DVDs" or "Children's Clothes" Woolworths, and many other major retailers, are nowhere to be seen. If Woolworths would have incorporated more "E" within their marketing mix, maybe this could have helped to save them.

Although high street shops often have a snazzy website with a fancy design, it doesn't make much sense to spend a lot of money developing websites, and then not marketing them.
Therefore the message to take from this sad news, is to ensure customers know your website address, to help skip the search engine process.

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The YouTube Advertising Steam Train – YouTube Live, Adsense, Overlay ads, Sponsered videos and size!

Since YouTube officially launched in December 2005, it has attracted users at a meteoric rate. YouTube receives 71 million unique users each month and has the 6th largest audience on the Internet. No longer is Online Video the future, it's the present: 75% of Americans watched a video online last month. With YouTube usage still high, Google have been working hard to increase the advertising opportunities and trying to increase the overall experience of the site. Therefore this month has resulted in YouTube unveiling a host of new advertising methods for advertisers:

YouTube Live:
It was only a matter of time before YouTube introduced live streaming/webcasting and on November 22nd YouTube hosted its first ever live event, the event featured a range of performers whose videos on YouTube had gain more then 2.5 million views each. With this being the first of many live events YouTube has in store, how long before sponsorship opportunity for these live events becomes an option?

YouTube Adsense:
When searching the site users will now be greeted with video advertisements similar to those produced by Google AdSense. YouTube searches now produce "sponsored links" on the right side of the screen alongside unpaid results on the left.

Increase of Professional Content:
YouTube announced a deal with MGM studio's to show full-length television shows on the site. Where this will bring a lot of money in for YouTube is that advertisers will be trying to outbid each other for the advertising space next to these videos. Through increasing the amount of professional content on the site, they are aiming to increase the amount of advertising by double. YouTube has struck similar deals with CBS and Lionsgate, so one would presume YouTube advertising isn’t as popular as Google had hoped and sees this as a way to increase this. When YouTube first launched its Advertising schemes advertisers were reluctant to use this channel due to a concern regarding the site consists mostly of amateur videos, and companies didn’t want to risk damaging their brand by being associated with these.

YouTube Overlay ads:
YouTube will also now begin running overlay ads in YouTube partner videos that live on other sites. This means that no matter where a YouTube video is embedded, it can contain an ad and earn revenue for YouTube partners.

YouTube sponsored videos:
YouTube Sponsored Videos allows anyone to promote their videos on the search results page. Bidding on specific keywords will promote your video to the right-hand side of YouTube’s search results along with an image and some text. Again similar to Google Adwords. By being able to target YouTube videos, advertisers will be able to give the most visibility to their videos.
According to YouTube this was launched due to requests of businesses. Of course one would presume that due to YouTube being ranked as one of the top five search engines this had a great deal to do with this. But it seems that this no longer is the case as its hard to find a video that doesn’t have a sponsored link on the right hand side.

Size does matter:
YouTube Today also announced another change – the size of their video player. They have expanded the width of the page to 960 pixels to increase the quality of the videos. A new wider player is in a widescreen aspect ratio which is hoped to provide a more powerful viewing experience.

For more information on YouTube advertising check out this link, http://uk.youtube.com/t/advertising Also please note that only some of the YouTube Advertising channels are currently only available in the U.S.A.

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Google Knol launched.......

Google has launched a new online information service called Knol to rival internet encyclopedia Wikipedia.

The website allows people to write about their areas of expertise under their bylines in a twist on encyclopaedia Wikipedia, which allows those posting to remain anonymous.

The site has been tested over the past few months, and will offer a set of community tools that offers different forms of interaction between readers and authors, including allowing people to submit comments, rate or write a review of a Knol, with Google ranking entries by popularity.

Other points of difference to Wikipedia include Knol encouraging writers to reduce their contributions on a topic to a single page, which will not be chronologically updated, along with it not allowing visitors to be able to contribute or edit a Knol unless they have the author's permission. Knol has publishing tools similar to single blog pages.

Google wants to rank entries by popularity, decided by user ratings, reviews and how often people refer to the specific pages, to encourage competition.
In another point of difference from Wikipedia, the new offering does not edit or endorse the information and visitors will not be able to edit or contribute to a Knol unless they have the author's permission. Readers will also be able to notify Google if they find any content objectionable.

The website was first announced at the beginning of December 2007 when Google began limited testing on the site. Additionally, if an author includes ads, Google says it will provide the author with a revenue share from the proceeds of the ad placements.

Knol focusing on individual authors or groups of authors in marked contrast to Wikipedia's subject entries. The problem with Wikipedia is that anyone can edit information and stay anonymous, so there is always a stigma as it is unknown if the information is correct and from a reliable source. But if well known knowledgeable people start using Knol, This will enable Google to have a more credible online encyclopedia! Which will wipe the floor with Wikipedia.

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Benefits of advertising with Web 2.0


Online advertising is growing faster than ever, any popular site will eventually feature adverts, but why is this form of advertising so popular? Well here a just a selection of some of the bigger benefits of online marketing:

Measurability
One of the greatest benefits of online advertising is that advertisers can track the success of campaigns far more effectively than they can do offline using web analytics and other online advertising tools. Not only can you measuring clicks through your website, you can also track user behavior to build up a complete journey of users visit. I know this quote is almost in every text book but, John Wanamaker famously said ““Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don't know which half”

Cost
Online marketing and advertising is far cheaper than advertising traditional methods. In some cases it’s even free; the only thing you need to provide is your time.

Reach Your Target Audience
Marketers often moan about the difficulties of reaching the 18-34 age group. The say that Traditional channels such as television adverts and press adverts just don’t work! But a study from the Online Publishers Association found out that 18-34 year olds are far more likely to go online (46%) than watch TV (35%), listen to the radio (three%) or read a newspaper (also three%). Marketers aim is always to reach the consumer in their natural environment with advertising that is engaging, entertaining, maybe even useful; they may be more receptive to advertising messages. Web 2.0 can be exactly all those things.

Target Niche/Micro Market Audiences
Alongside the big social networks groups there are also a few smaller social networks based around a community of shared interests. There are also different groups formed on some social network groups like Facebook, where consumers with the same interest gather and chat about that interest allowing businesses to have the target market in one place.

Increased Choice of Channels
With TV advertising you limited by time slot and choice of channel, which unless you have a lot of money could become be bad. But online, the choice of advertising formats is far more varied. But with Web 2.0 it’s all about being creative, when using web 2.0 to market anything is possible. Videos, games, banner the list goes on and on.

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Businesses use of Twitter

This is my second blog on Twitter, but after reading a interesting article about Twitter in BusinessWeek magazine earlier this week, it made me think about Twitter again. The Article soke about how project teams in companies are now being asked to deliver real time status updates to one another using Twitter. Therefore I took it upon myself to further look how people around the world are using Twitter.

The biggest users are Market researchers who are using Twitter to try and identify consumer trends in real time. I also came across a couple of interesting folks who use it and I thought it would be interesting to share:

In the U.S. the Los Angeles Fire Department uses it to communicate real time fires and accidents to local citizens. (The LAFD News & Information blog can be found at: lafd.blogspot.com)

In the UK, the government has signed up to Twitter and uses the site to send out updates on the Prime Minister’s activities.
BusinessWeek, also reported that Dell claimed to have boosted sales through searching for mentions of its business on Twitter and jumping into the conversations. They state that they boosted sales by $500,000 in recent months! Now that’s not a small increase of sales! Are we under estimating the power of Twitter?

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Increase your YouTube Video Viewing figures & Drive Traffic from YouTube to your website!

One of my favorite websites is YouTube. As well as using YouTube to watch videos I have created and uploaded my own. For work purposes I also created a channel on our products, which contained videos such as how to guides and demos. The Channel proved very popular and was a first within the company. YouTube also roved to drove traffic to our websites as well as help ranking in the search engines. Therefore it is very important that when you submit a video to YouTube that you make is Search engine spider friendly. Everything from the title to the thumbnail are very important! Below I have put some information to help you make your YouTube videos help both the viewer and YOU!

Step 1: The perfect title

Make sure that you do not use generic terms and non-specific titles, if you use specific titles, this will be more appealing.

You Can also include capital letters, for example “You HAVE to watch this video!” will be more attractive then “you have to watch this video!” BUT of course don’t over use them.

Step 2: The Video Description

YouTube doesn’t show your whole description unless the user chooses to request more information. Therefore the first thing in your description should be the URL.

Follow this with a short description of your video. Try and stick to a short paragraph this should include all your keywords relating to your video.

If you drastically want to improve your ranking in search results and in YouTube you can even just add a list of keywords after your short paragraph.

Step 3: The Tags

Take advantage of the Tags section and write as many tags as you can until you reach the limit. These tags are mainly used for when users of YouTube search for videos.

Step 4: The Thumbnails

YouTube allows the users to select a thumbnail from a choice of 3 to 4. I discovered that video clips that featured real people received a lot more views then those that contained screenshots and power point presentations.

Extra tips:
Add a watermark to all your videos that contains the URL you want to the viewer to go or display your URL in the last part of the video.

You could show only part of the video on YouTube, and then tell the viewer that they can see the other half of the video on your website! BUT this could have a negative side effect and annoy the viewer and they will not visit your site and will not watch any of your videos in the future!

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The ultimate guide to making YOUR blog successful!

There’s lots of articles on the internet that list different methods and techniques to create a successful blog. I combined about 3 - 4 articles and come up with this guide for myself:

1. Blog with consistent
Make up your mind first on how often you will make posts on your blog. If you want to do it twice a day, or once a day, or once every 2 days or just once a week - decide this and then stick to it. Don’t post everyday for a few days and then do nothing at all for a week. You will lose whatever repeat “sticky” traffic you could get.

2. Be passionate about your topic
You have to be passionate about what you blog. You should be knowledgable about your niche blogging topic, and keep updated. If you are not passionate about your blog, you will probably not excite your readers.

3. Interact with readers
Allow your readers to post questions directly to you and reach you if needed. Don’t alienate yourself from them. Many readers may want to get in touch with you and ask you questions. Listen to them, and help them out! Blogging is a two way street. Involve your readers and they will be loyal to you. Build two way relationships!

4. Don’t be afraid to link out
If you see and read a good posting or article elsewhere, link to it! This may seem contrary to popular belief and at first it looks like you are channeling traffic away from your site at the risk of getting your readers hooked elsewhere. But by providing valuable links to other stories, you are gaining authority and credibility by showing that you know what is happening around you. Readers will love you for referring them to other stories, and will come back for more stuff if you send them to quality articles in the sea of poor content.

5. Build Your Blog Brand
Whatever you choose to call your blog - make sure you have your own domain name and not a subdomain on say for example yourname.blogspot.com . That just doesn’t work in the long run for serious bloggers. Take control of all you can do with free blog software like Wordpress and install them on your domain - it takes less than an hour and you can easily contract out someone for as little as $50 to install it. Having your own domain name gives you your unique brand, and allows you to stand out from the crowd.

6. Be a good writer
Communicate your thoughts and ideas in well structured English. Some people take longer than others to express their thoughts. It’s ok to have a few typos as its acceptable by blog readers. But don’t have too many typos. People are interested in the content. Be clear and to the point - and don’t ramble on and on repetitively.

7. Read other blogs in your industry
See what other competing blogs are writing. Read a LOT. Reading is something you must do. Visit websites that are related to your blog topics and get ideas from them - but never copy them word for word. It’s ok to summarize another bloggers post in your own words, and saying the same thing in your way.

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