International Digital Marketing

As the world is going crazy about Smartphones, the amount of users watching videos on mobile is increasing the same rate. According to the official YouTube blog, in January 2011 YouTube exceeded 200 million views a day on mobile.

Google also conducted recently a very interesting study surveying more than 16 000 YouTube mobile website users. According to the survey, 75% of respondents claim that mobile is their primary way of entering YouTube, and 38% believe YouTube Mobile will replace their desktop usage of the platform. Google also claims that 70% of the users visit YouTube Mobile at least once a day, and 58% spend in platform more than 20 minutes per visit.

It seems like a good idea to get on board, but how to create a successful YouTube channel?

1. Choose the best YouTube channel for your brand

First of all pick the right YouTube channel for your brand based on your industry, objectives and budget and then personalize it.  There are various options to  choose from:

• User channel: Free set-up, but basic functions only. Video length max. 15 min
• Enhanced channel: Free set-up, includes also branding box, watch page banner, side column image, channel header and analytics. Video length max. 15 min.
• Advanced channel: Min. media commitment 25K. Has everything Enhanced channel has + standard gadgets, remarketing, 1×1 pixel ad tag support, geo/age restriction. Video length longer.
• Custom Channel: Min. media commitment 40K. Has everything Advanced channel has + bespoke gadget
• Contest Channel: Min. media commitment 60K. Has everything Advanced channel has + contest gadget.

2.  Align your Youtube channel with rest of the brand platforms (social media, website…)

To start with, make sure the channel follows the brand guidelines and the message/image is aligned with rest of the brand platforms. Making changes to images, text, flash etc. takes time and effort and having a clear brand image allows user to know it is indeed the official channel of the brand. Remember to test the look and feel also on smartphones.

3. Include reference points

Include the number of times video has been viewed, liked, downloaded, linked or shared, number of subscriptions to your channel, number of comments. More popular the video and channel seem for users, more credibility it gets.

4. Check users comments frequently

YouTube is also a great channel for customer service and data capture. If the user has a doubt or question about the brand or product, try to respond quickly. Good thing is that users have to have a YouTube account to comment and it is possible to send them a direct message privately.

5. Do not forget to link your website, social media sites or campaign minisite.

From SEO perspective including links to your Youtube channel can improve your sites ranking. Also, it will increase traffic to your website, social media sites or campaign minisite. If possible, try to include links when answering the comments (but not unless it is relevant for the user).

6. Engage and capture users with interactive content and competitions

Do not only make videos, but let the users participate. Create a competition across website, YouTube channel and social media platforms and hide “clues” into videos or around the YouTube channel. Let your fans send you videos and publish the best ones. Having their video on your official channel makes users spread the word around their networks and rest of the Internet. It also gives a human face for your brand.

7. Do not expect all the videos go viral

They will not. It is very difficult to create a successful video users spread around the net and sometimes even the viral video creators do not know why it worked. There are some ingredients that add virality to the video: fun, surprise, sex, talent, tips…but of course you need to be careful not to damage the brand image and to make sure the content is suitable for your industry and target audience. If you are a consultancy or B2B firm, usually industry tips, statistics and discussion of current hot topics can add value to the company and let you establish a reputation of an industry expert.

One example of an excellent brand video that will go viral: Mercedes-Benz.tv: Formula One TV Commercial \’Compliments\’

8. Do not forget to include Call to Actions nor contact details in the end of the video

If you are lucky, users will spread your video around the social networks, blogs, forums etc. outside your official online channels. Make sure that you encourage the users to get in touch with you or the brand in the end of the video. Create an appealing phrase and include your website url, facebook page url, Twitter page, Youtube channel url, campaign microsite url or other platform where they can find out more about the brand/company and connect with you.

9. Promote your videos and YouTube channel in social networks and industry forums

Promote your video and YouTube channel in your social networks and industry forums. And your own website of course. As all the online campaigns, this also requires careful planning. You need to be prepared if one of your videos goes viral to support it across the platforms, media and websites for bigger impact. Be also prepared for the negative and positive comments. For tips, which posts require immediate response, which posts can be left for later and which should simply be ignored, click here.

10. SEO optimize your Youtube channel

Include keywords to the video title, description and channel introduction. Both YouTube and search engines (especially Google) classify YouTube videos based on relevancy for the user and keywords he uses. Again, remember not to include only keywords, but direct the description and introduction to user, not only the search engines.

One of the advantages of the increasing online marketing is the easier access to competitors’ information. The problem is: there is far too much of it.

Without specialists focusing on everything from SEO to eCommerce it is hard and time consuming to see and analyse really what is going on around you. Yet concerning the optimization of your online investment, analysis of your competitors may give you better results in SEO and online campaigns. This gives your brand bigger presence in the search engines, which will then increase the traffic to your site, which will then improve the brand reputation, which will then…you get the idea. So let’s spy…I mean “analyse” what competitors are doing.

#1 Search and find out who your competitors really are

Make a list of the competitors you want to follow and in which country you want to follow them. However, especially with the increasing globalization you might know your local competitors, but not your online competitors. They are the companies that appear in search  results when searching your industry, service or product. If you focus on a specific area or you are a SME, do not forget to include as well the geographic location.

Where to search?

• Google/Yahoo/Bing: obvious, yet remember that if you want to search for competitors in Spain, do not search with a different search such as www.google.co.uk. It will not show the results in same order.
• Facebook: Go to search and type name of your competitor, industry, service or product
• Twitter: Go to search.twitter.com and type in your industry or service or even the name of the competitor’s CEO.
• Youtube: Go to search and write down your competitor’s name. Then click search options and you will be able to select channels (official) or videos. You also can pick your industry in categories to have an overview and select the release date of the videos.
• Industry forums: Check which companies/products forum participants recommend.
• Local social networks: Not all is around Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Find out which social networks are popular in your country (or country you’re targeting) and check if your competitors have presence there

 #2 Get organized

Create specific folders for each competitor, your brand and industry news. This way every time you spot a post, article or an ad, you will have a place to archive it immediately for later review. If you put everything in one folder, after a while it will become time consuming and unpleasant to go through it all and try to filter which news/article/ad belongs to which competitor.

#3 Write down what you want to know

To compare your competitors and your brand becomes difficult if you do not have the same information of each one of them. If you have the list ready before you go through their online activities, it is easier to spot information you are looking for.

For example:

• What services they offer
• What is their price range
• Who their clients are (testimonials/feedback page)
• Who are they targeting
• How do they market themselves (quality of the website, professional…?)
• What is their brand position and what makes them stand out from others
• Are they present in social media (links in the website, social media groups…)
• Which keywords they use

 #4 Search if there are any keyword packed domains available. If there is – get it.

 While you are searching, check if any of the search words you used shows up as  a domain name. If that is not the case, it might be a good idea to buy one part of the search phrase or the whole search phrase as a domain name. It will prevent your competitors using it and it can be used for a blog, landing page or other additional website. Or if you are just starting, you may start using it instead and redirect the old link to your new page.  

 #5 Follow your competitors separately

 Biggest error to do is to receive all the information only to one inbox. Especially if it is a work or personal inbox, Twitter or Facebook account. This will cause information overload and it will be time consuming to separate even after few days which news/tweet/post belongs to each competitor and which belongs to your colleagues and friends. However, some emails have separate filters to organize mail automatically and there is a possibility to create private lists on Twitter to follow competitors, industry news, advocates and critics. This allows you to organize Tweets by category and pull information out effectively.

 #6 Sign up for the monthly/weekly newsletter

 It is a great information package of your competitors’ offers, news and strategy. Do not use work email though: if they notice your company name you will be unsubscribed.

 #7 Be their “friend”

“Liking” your competitors on Facebook or being their “follower” on Twitter does not mean you support them. Instead by being their “friend” you will have a direct access to their promotions, offers, branding and other social network activities in real time. It will increase your reaction speed.

 #8 Set up a RSS feed on competitors pages

 To avoid visiting blogs, competitors sites, twitter lists, social media sites etc. regularly, set up RSS feeds to your specific inbox(es). 

You can also track competitors with Google Alerts, which are free and allow you to filter news based on the search criteria. When Google finds a relevant post or article, you will receive an email with a link.

 #9 Take advantage of the social media tracking tools and see what your competitors do in real time

Competitors’ social media promotions and branding campaigns have become relevant also from SEO perspective now that Google and Bing have included social network activities into their search results. IceRocket, Addict-o-matic, Seesmic, TweetDeck and other tools can show you what competitors do and what people say about competitors in real time.

#10 Take advantage of the SEO tools and find out which keywords your competitors are using

For a quick look, you can use the page source to see the keywords yourself. You can see website’s html code by right clicking and picking “view source” (IE) or “view page source” (Firefox). Have a look at your top competitors’ homepages. No need to read the whole page, because the keywords are near the top. Check if you could “borrow” any of them.

 There are also various advanced SEO tracking tools available:

• Open site explorer: Free. Detailed reports on sites where your competitors are, which will be great use for you to see why they are there and if you should be there as well.
• SpyFu:  Paid. It lets you to access industry trends and allows you to download the keywords used by the competitors. For example, which are the top keywords your competitor websites rank for in search engines and which keyword they use in PPC campaigns.
• Quirk’s Search Status: Free. Small tool at the bottom of Firefox’s browser that allows you to see every meta tag directed at the search engines such as title, description, keywords, author, generators and robot instructions.
  SEOmoz Term Extractor: Free. You give the tool an URL, and it extracts the keywords it thinks are being directed to the search engines. You can see single words, double word combinations, and triple word combinations.
• KeywordSpy: Free and Paid. This browser add-on allows you to see the list of keywords your competitors pay for, keywords they are listed for organically and ads they are running on the advertising networks.
•  Market Samurai: Paid. Analyses the strength of competition in all niches, finds the right keywords for it, builds backlinks to improve your site rankings etc. There is a free trial available.

These little tricks are great way to find out what your competitors are doing, but the idea however is not to copy. By analysing the data you will be able to optimize your online campaigns, websites and search engine ranking, find your competitors’ weaknesses to exploit and react quickly to your competitors’ campaigns, promotions and offers. Learn from the best practices and errors, and see how to best differentiate your brand.

It is also good to remember that your competitors may very well be “analysing” you right now, so check your database. They might have made the error of using their work email.

In my previous post I was discussing whether Facebook Pages will replace official websites and it is largely matter of an opinion. But let’s face it: right now Facebook Pages are “in”. So, why not make most of it?

Facebook’s newsfeed, invitations, and messages are an useful channel to reach your existing fans and their friends, yet it is possible to even SEO optimise your Facebook Page to reach Facebook’s entire database and search engines. Probably because of the questionable ranking of Facebook Pages in search engines, the platform itself has recently concentrated on offering new opportunities for Page owners to improve their Pages SEO – while creating benefit for Facebook as well of course.

How to SEO optimise your Facebook Page?

To start with, select carefully the keywords you want to implement since all your strategy will be based on those. Read how to select the right keywords here.

1. Use business’s real name as your Facebook Page name – and do not change it

Using too many generic keywords as your Facebook Page name can actually harm your Page’s virality rate inside Facebook. If the title seems too long and suspiciously “spammy”, fans are likely to hide your updates from the newsfeed and not share it with their friends – and if they do, friends are not very likely to “like” you. Picking completely generic page name like “Car” or “Australia” is not a good idea either, because Facebook has lately been disabling updates for generically named Pages.

That is why it is recommended to chose company’s/brand’s real name as the name of the Facebook Page. It should however not be changed, because Facebook uses the Page name in the title, and since search engines ding pages when titles change, changing it can give you a lower ranking.

2. Select optimised, long term URL for your Facebook Page

Facebook offers a possibility to pick a specific URL for your Facebook Page, meaning your Page’s URL becomes www.facebook.com/YourUsernameHere. Once you pick a Facebook URL for your Page, it cannot be changed – so think a proper, long term name. URLs can be selected at www.facebook.com/username.

It is an opportunity to use more generic keywords than the Page name itself or combine the Page name with additional generic keywords, yet there is a black list of generic usernames that Facebook Pages (and users) are prevented from registering. The platform has taken privileges from Pages with generic titles in the past, so it is possible that it might punish too generic sites by for example removing their status publishing rights.

Please note: Your Page has to have at least 100 fans before it can select a username.

3. Use keywords in the “About” text box below your profile picture

The “About” text box is the highest place in the CSS structure of the page to add custom text, because of the limitations of the default Wall tab. To add keywords in your Page’s “About” box, click the “Write something about [YourPage]” in the box below your Page’s profile picture (max. 250 characters).

4. Implement keywords and important links into “Info” tab

Facebook “Info” tab is a possibility to add descriptive metadata about the Page. Completing these fields increases the content score in many types of searches.

For example:

• Local searches: Address, City, State, and Post code.
• Product searches: Company Overview, Mission, and Products.

Also, direct links to your own websites or other social media sites increase their traffic and search engine ranking.

5. Create additional “Static FBML” boxes and tabs to include more keyword-dense content on your Page

Adding static text on the default tab of the Facebook Page is quite limited, but there is an app to create additional boxes or tabs that can have any kind of static content such as text, images, and links to increase your ranking. FBML is a subset of HTML and means “Facebook Markup Language”.

How to create a “Static FBML”?

1. Go to the “Static FBML” application on Facebook.
2. Click “Add to my Page”, and pick the page you want to add additional box or tab to.
3. Once done, close the dialog box, go to your Page, and click “Edit page” under your Page’s profile picture.
4. Click the pencil icon on the right in the application called “FBML 1″, and choose “Edit.”
5. Enter the title you want to call the box or tab in the “Box Title” field (max. 10 characters) and enter the HTML you’d like to use in the “FBML” field. Then click the Save Changes button.
6. Once saved, click the “Edit” link at the top of your Page to return to your Page’s application settings. Click the pencil icon next to the name of the FBML application, and choose “Application Settings.”
7. To add the FBML as a box, select “Add” next to the Box option and the FBML box will automatically appear on the Boxes tab. If you want to move it to the left side of your Wall tab, go to the Boxes tab, click the pencil icon on your FBML box, and choose “Move to Wall tab.”
8. To add the FBML as a tab, choose “Add” next to the Tab option. The custom content will by default appear on its own tab on your Page.

Remember however that search engines classify each tab as a separate URL.

6. Post direct links to your website in your Wall

Google favours the pages that link to relevant sites and does not like pages linking to unrelated sites or adding too many links suddenly. Placing links to your status updates gets them closer to the top of your Page’s CSS structure giving you better results.

There are two ways to post links into your Page’s stream:

1. Including the direct URL in the status update – anchor text cannot be controlled, but SEO results are better.
2. Using the “attach link” feature in the Facebook wall – anchor text can be changed by clicking the page’s title before clicking “Share” in the Facebook publisher, increasing keyword density.

7. Add events with keyword-dense descriptions, photos with captions…and a discussion forum if possible

Use all available descriptive fields on all the shared content. When posting photos, implement keywords into descriptions. When posting events, use keywords in the event description field. Adding a discussion forum to your Page and posting interesting content your fans can comment, can increase your ranking considerably.

8. Increase amount of inbound links to your Facebook Page by posting links to your Page on your website

Inbound links from authoritative websites to your Facebook Page can improve its search engine ranking. It can be done with text links, a “Find Us On Facebook” badge or a Fan Box widget for Facebook Pages .

9. Increase intra-Facebook inbound links by getting more fans

The default version of users profile pages include links to the Pages they are fan of. These pages are visible for search engines, which means that more fans you have, more inbound links you get.

10. Encourage fans to comment and like your content

Every time fans comment or like content in your Facebook Page, their name is linked back to their Facebook profile page. When your Page is indexed, search engines see more two-sided links between your Page and your fans, which is then interpreted as stronger bond increasing your link weight.

These little Facebook SEO tricks can help you to reach beyond the people your fans are connected to and show your Facebook Page to Facebook’s entire database. They also can increase your exposure through the search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Msn. However, it is good to remember that these tips were created by Facebook to also promote their own platform and increase their platform ranking in search engines. Do not forget to SEO optimise your own site and include various links in Facebook Page directing users to your own official site. Otherwise Facebook can indeed absorb your official website traffic.

According to the Google Mobile presentation I participated in December, in Q1 2010 mobile search queries from high end phones on Google grew 62% over the previous quarter. Concerning the e-commerce, Google mobile searches on shopping-related keywords have grown 2500% in the past three years. It is clear that instead of only focusing on desktop SEO, there are real possibilities in mobile SEO that should be taken advantage of. Companies are still strugling with the “normal” SEO and do not have time/resources/expertise to mobile optimize. It means that including mobile optimization into the strategy can improve considerably the campaign results with a lower cost, since there are less competitors bidding for the mobile search keywords. For now.

Mobile optimization in a nutshell:

1. Separate Campaigns
2. Optimize Your Keyword List
3. Create Compelling Ad Text
4. Bid and Budget for Mobile
5. Track Your Performance
6. Optimize Mobile Website
7. Test, test & test

Very interesting point that came up during the presentation was the difference between website SEO and mobile SEO. Even if the mobile SEO is still taking its baby steps, after trial and re-trial Google’s conclusion was that different strategy and separate campaigns are the best way to guarantee stronger results.

Why to use a different strategy:

• Location based targeting: Desktop is primarily used in one location, while mobile is used in multiple locations.
• More refined targeting and creation of personal experience: Desktop SEO is for the masses, but in mobile SEO there are different networks and devices that can be separated.
• More correct ad format to provide the best user experience: Desktop is usually used in times of leisure, while mobiles are mostly used in times of need (except games, social networks etc.)
• Best method to interact with users: With desktop only website based internet can be used, while with mobiles there are both website based internet and apps available.

Why to target mobile separately:

Separate campaigns mean you can isolate performance on mobile and then optimize keywords, ad text, bids & budgets without affecting your desktop campaign.

• More control: Set bids and budgets just for mobile, run separate reports to track results and optimize more easily.
• Relevant messaging: Include messaging with a strong mobile call-to-action and use relevant ad formats.
• Better targeting: With Google AdWords you can target different carriers and devices.

Examples:

• Location extensions – ads are relevant to the user’s location
• Click to call – users click the number to connect to your business
• Mobile site links – mention you have a mobile site.
• Click to download – users click to download pdf, free app, information…

If you are also using Yahoo!, one feature the company has is its new mobile oneSearch^TM service. For example, searching for ‘Cinema’ shows a list of cinemas close to user’s location providing him their address and phone numbers. When user clicks the ‘Call’ link next to a number, a call dialogue box opens on the phone.

Bid & Budget:

Ads appear on high end mobile devices as the default, but the competition in mobile search is stronger for fewer ad slots (5 on mobile vs. 11 on desktop). However, for now the price is still lower than with desktop, because of the smaller volume of bidders.

Competitive bidding:

• Ads appear above the search listings
• A maximum of two slots
• High visibility and higher CTR.

Non competitive:

• Ads appear below search listings.
• A maximum of three ad slots.
• Users have to scroll to see ads, lower visibility and CTR.

Get spidered and indexed by mobile search engines:

Mobile optimization does not work, unless you are spidered and recognized. Main issues that may cause your site not  appearing in the search results are:

Spiders may not be able to find your site

The spider must crawl your site before it can be included in the search index. If you just created the site, search engines may not yet be aware of it. If that’s the case, submit your site to major mobile search engines for quick spidering.

• Google Sitemaps (BETA)
• Yahoo! Submit Your Mobile Site

Spiders may not be able to access your site

Some mobile sites refuse access to anything but mobile phones, making it impossible for spiders to access the site, and therefore making the site unsearchable. For example with Google, the crawler for mobile sites is “Googlebot-Mobile”. If you would like your site crawled, allow any User-agent including “Googlebot-Mobile” to access your site. Please note: Google may change its User-agent information at any time without notice. That is why it is good idea to verify first that it really handles Googlebot in here.

Search engines cannot recognize your mobile URLs

Once spider crawls your URLs, it checks whether the URL is viewable on a mobile device. Pages that are not viewable are not included to the mobile site index.  Make sure that your URLs’ DTD declaration is in an appropriate mobile format such as XHTML Mobile or Compact HTML.  Mobile search engines  have more trouble digesting invalid code, so to be safe use 100% valid XHTML 1.0 code. It will assure that mobile search engines will not have any trouble with your site. For more information, see the Mobile Webmaster Guidelines.

It is also a good idea to ensure that each of your pages has at least one incoming link.

The increase of mobile Internet use and Smartphone popularity have augmented the importance of designing a specific mobile website. Blackberry, iPhones, iPads, Android, Nokia and other devices can already bring a big part of the traffic to the website, however if the website is not mobile friendly the users might leave as fast as they arrived. The mobile optimized sites are booming and users have become more exigent and expect higher standards while navigating with their devices.

What is very important to realize is that a standard computer screen is not the same as iPhone or Nokia screen and the PC website looks very different in mobile devices. It is essential to take in account the design and lay-out, the legibility and navigation, and the need of fast and efficient download time.

Some examples:

• Size of screen: Screens are smaller and the web content is organized in different way than in the normal webpage. Basically, it is necessary to organize the information in a vertical manner, but still avoid the need for user to slow down.
• Images: All the images in the pages should be correct size and smaller and lighter than in the normal page to allow faster download.
• Connection speed: Your mobile website should be optimized for a fast download and should take in account the lost of connection and other issues related with the connection speed. This especially important for a mobile website that sells products and does not want the user to get worried if the connection fails during the transaction.
• Widgets and plugins: All the additional components, like widgets, plugins and add-ons can slower down your mobile web and the site might not work in all mobiles. For example, the Apple devices are not compatible with flash, so if you are creating a mobile website, avoid Flash and if possible choose the format HTML5.

As always, it is very important not to focus only on technical aspects, but also consider the end-user. More user-friendly the mobile website is, more likely the user is going to come back.

Remember, mobile users want their information fast:

Mobile and PC users have different reasons to visit your page. PC users are more likely to navigate for leisure, while mobiles are usually used in the time of need and users are more likely to want information urgently to help them at that exact time and location. For example, to find timetables, directions or events near-by. Also they might want quick, fast entertainment to fill up the dead moments in the metro or the bus.

Forget always visible top navigation bar and concentrate on content:

Another difference with PC and Mobile sites is that well designed websites respecting usability repeat the navigation bar on every page to facilitate the user journey. However, since mobile screen is smaller, the top navigation pushes the actual content down and users are forced to scroll down on every page. To increase the usability on your mobile website, show the navigation bar only on the homepage and on other pages include just links to the homepage, back to the last important point users have taken (searching dates & cost for example) and next call to action (for example “buy”). These links should be shown at the top and bottom of the page to keep them close.

Highlight the selected items clearly:

It is usually quite difficult to navigate with the mobile phone, because when you move down the page with the joystick or direction buttons it does not only scroll down, but highlights links, buttons and form fields. This makes it hard for users to see, which item is in focus. Changing the appearance of the item by for example showing different font or background colour of the links or buttons makes it stand out from the rest of the items.

Allow users to select instead of having to write:

Having to type on mobile phone can take time, causes errors and is not viewed positively if the user needs information fast. Allowing users to search or input information by selecting certain fields with an easy-to-use dropdowns instead makes the user journey more pleasant. For example, country, region, sity, type of concert, available movies etc.

Only show essential and relevant information:

Mobile phone users have small screens and not much time to go through the website. Therefore, the best way to save their time would be to create a specific url for the mobile website (which users can bookmark) and re-direct the traffic coming through mobiles straight to the mobile optimized site with the most essential features and content. If the mobile website shows the same, long, nicely written content as in the normal site, information is difficult to find and user might have to scroll down to reach the important content. And pay for it. Most of the mobile phone users do not have yet a fixed cost deal for the internet, so downloading useless content might cost them quite a lot.

Do no forget the “Back” button:

Most of the mobile browsers do not show basic control buttons such as “back” to save screen space or they have opted-in to display webpages always in the full screen mode. That is why the site should have buttons or links such as “Back”, “Next page”, “Back to search results” or “New search” at the bottom of each page. Also, all the buttons should be big and easy to press/click. Another trick to use is a clickable phone number “Click to call”, which has shown to increase the CTR.

Create mobile-friendly design and lay-out:

As mentioned before, usually layouts created for large landscape PC screens do not work well in small mobile screens and user needs to scroll and scroll…and scroll. In case you only want to tweak your website a bit more mobile-friendly, present the content on the left hand side (such as journey search etc. ) with the most important navigation buttons on the top. However, it is better to have a separate page for mobile users if the site receives a lot of mobile traffic.

According to a study by Akamai Technologies for IDC, consumers in Western Europe have increased their online and mobile shopping. The study interviewing 1.500 consumers from 7 different European countries (France, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden) reveals quite interesting results for online retailers and other companies interested in e-commerce.

Main findings:

• Most of the consumers wait that the website downloads in less than 4 seconds, if not, around 70% will go to another website.
• In total 30% of the respondents have increased their online spending during 2010, Spain being the biggest growing e-commerce country in Europe with 44%.
• 62% of the respondents bought clothes and shoes online, books and magazines following with 59% and travels with 47%.
• Surprisingly, people spending most money online in Europe (1.500 €/year) are 35-54 years olds.
• Around 30% of the respondents uses, or plans using, mobiles to buy online. Inside this group 10% uses already their mobile or smartphone to search shops, compare prices or buy online. Besides, 20% of the respondents is planning to do it in the future.
• Multi-channel buyers spend 15%-30% more than a consumer who uses only one channel.

However, even if  users have increased online spending, the conversion rate from visitors to clients is still low. According to a study by The e-tailing group, the conversion rate is still below 5%. Also, only 17% of the users visiting online stores even have an intention to buy. When users can move to competitor’s website with one click, it is essential to re-think the strategy: How to motivate the users who arrive without intention of buying? And those who do, how to turn the intention into a sale?

34% of the online store users do not find what they are looking for, says a study by e-marketer. It means that in most of the product information is not visible or the product is not classified properly. 8% of the users say as well that the information available is insufficient for purchase decision. According to another study by conZumo.com, 64% of the consumers believe that it is essential for the portal to be well-known (security).

To increase conversion rate, make your website more user friendly:

• Easy access: To facilitate the access to the products, highlight the “search” button, add different categories and subcategories, recommendations and different channels to access the products.
• Organized products: It is very important that the website is organized and the user can see the products clearly. Just like in a physical store.
• Clear product information: It is essential that the visitor has all the necessary information during the purchase. For example, price, delivery, delivery time and availability have to be clear because they are the factors that influence most the buying decision.
• Purchase confirmation: Show clearly required steps needed for purchase. Include thank you page and send the client confirmation e-mail after the purchase. Also, if possible give user a chance to follow his delivery. This gives users feeling of security.
• Different delivery options: Users should have a possibility for a different way of delivery, for example – buying online, but getting the product in physical store to avoid delivery costs.
• Sense of urgency: To turn visits to sales, it is important to create a sense of urgency. Tell visitors it is the last day the product or discount is available or show how few products are left with the discount (like Ryanair: “only 5 seats left with this price”)

Consumers expect more from their online shopping experience and they demand better services and support from the online retailers. With the increase of mobile usage in buying process, the e-commerce retailers must have also a proper mobile strategy in place.

Social plug-ins are easy to implement and have the potential to increase reach and life span of your service/product. By adding social elements to conversations already happening around your sites and facilitating the two-way communication with the consumers and content sharing, you can both increase your brand awareness and loyalize the existing customers.

With Social Plug-ins media, entertainment and e-commerce brands with constantly changing content can quickly create buzz around their products and create a social experience for the people already visiting their page. Since the purchase decisions are influenced by Word-of-Mouth, recommendations/interests of friends in Facebook and the buying process made easy on the website can quickly push the consumer towards the purchase decision. For other type of brands, the Social Plug-ins are an effective way to build loyal database, to increase brand awareness and for example with Live streaming to create an online event that consumers think is worth spreading around.

What makes it so profitable is that the consumers who click that “like” button or use other social plug-ins on your site, show clearly their affiliations with you and that kind of engagement is gold. Targeting and reaching quality leads becomes easier, but…

Yes, there is always “the but” like in everything that has something to do with Social Media. Before adding any Social Plug-in into your site, you need to consider if you have any time in your schedule to invest on this. The risk here is that if you are not ready or do not have time to take this seriously, you can quickly lose that engagement. If you do not communicate with fans, use only hard sale or communicate too much, your fans can easily silence and block your messaging by simply “hiding” those communications in their news feed or by “unliking” you and telling their friends you are ignoring or spamming them.

How to keep the fans tuned in?

Do not spam them, do not only hard sale, do not forget about them, do not ignore them and invest time for some serious community management. Adding Social Plug-ins is a priceless opportunity to expand your database and build brand awareness, loyalty and engagement, but if you do not invest time and effort the momentum is lost.

Before adding the Like button or any other Social Plug-ins, plan carefully your strategy. Assess the frequency of communication, keep the content relevant – not for you, for your fans – and target these consumers only with truly interesting updates and offers. Simply adding a Social Button does not mean you will increase your sales without doing anything. People like and go back to the sites where there is an actual reason to come back. If your Facebook page leading from your site looks like a giant ad or exactly the same as your present site without any place for engaging conversation or comments, your fans will “dislike” you quickly.

Pay attention to your fans, let them speak, let them tell how much they love your brand and keep the content relevant and interesting. Answer their questions and read their suggestions or issues. Even a small gesture from the brand can create very positive WOM around the web and there is no better way to know what your best customers like than actually listening to them. Social Plug-ins can increase your sales, but only if you use them wisely.

Read more details on the Social Plug-ins here.

 If you have ever been in Facebook, you must have “liked” something. Now it is possible to use this well known button also on your own website. According to The Wall Street Journal, in just four months from the launch, “Like buttons” were already used on more than 350.000 websites, which experienced a considerate shift in sales after the implementation of this social plug-in.

 What is a social plug-in?

 Social plug-in is an initiative from Facebook to allow website owners to integrate their content into Facebook. Long way short, it means that when you start using these plug-ins on your website/blog, whatever interactions your visitors make with the plug-ins will be shown in their Facebook profiles. This means that your visitor’s friends will be able to see what they have done in your page in the Facebook news feed and visitor’s Facebook profile.

Which Social Plug-in to use?

First of all, please note that for your visitors to use these plug-ins, in most of them they need to be logged into Facebook first.

Like button:

One of the most popular and effective plug-ins. The Like button lets the visitor share your content from your site back to their Facebook profile with one click. When the visitors click the button on your site, a story appears in the visitors’ friends’ news feed with a link back to your website.  Now this means that their friends may see it and click/like it as well. And so will their friends, and their friends, and so on…

Your page will also appear in the “Likes and Interests” section of the visitor’s Facebook profile, and you have the ability to publish updates to the visitor. Your page will show up in same places that Facebook pages show up around the site e.g. search, and you are able to place targeted ads on people’s profiles who “like” your content.

Once the visitors has told publicly they like your brand, it gives you an opportunity to directly target them with messages or offers and create a loyal customer base.

Find more technical information of the implementation here.

Like box:

The Like Box enables users to like your Facebook Page and view its stream directly. The plug-in is an option for Facebook Page owners to show a feed of information about the page – recent stories, how many users like it, and the previous like button. The difference with the “Like” button is that it creates a more permanent connection between the Facebook user and your Facebook page. This means that all the updates you make in Facebook will be shown in the visitor’s main news feed and increases the possibility of new visits to your site. 

The Like Box enables visitors to:

• See how many users already like the page, and which of their friends like it as well
• Read recent posts from the page
• Like the page with one click, without needing to visit the page

Find more technical information of the implementation here.

Recommendations:

The Recommendations plugin gives visitors personalized suggestions for pages on your site they might like.  This Plug-in can display personalized recommendations even if the visitor has not logged into your site, because the content is hosted by Facebook. To create these recommendations, the plugin takes in account all the social interactions with URLs from your site. If the person is logged into your site, the plug-in will highlight things his friends have liked/visited.

Find more technical information of the implementation here.

Login button

The Login Button shows profile pictures of the visitor’s friends who have already signed up for your site.  You will be able to define how many faces you want to display next to the login button and the plug-in adapts automatically; for example if you specify a maximum of three rows of faces, and the visitor only has only friends to fill two rows, the height of the plug-in will be only what is needed for two rows of faces.

This additional feature can increase your login rates and loyal customer base. If the visitors can see the friends who already have logged in, they are more likely to login as well increasing your database. There is a similar plug-in “Facepile” available.

Find more technical information of the implementation here.

Comments

The Comments plugin lets visitors comment on any content on your site, be it article, photo, section or other kind of content.  The visitor can then share the comment on Facebook on their Wall and in their friends’ news feed. This gives brands even more in-depth insight into what interests their potential customers and what issues they should address. Based on these expressed preferences, brands are able to contact these visitors and deliver them targeted messages. Please note: downside here are the Spam and unpleasant/offensive comments.

Find more technical information of the implementation here.

Activity feed:

The Activity Feed plug-in shows the visitors the most interesting activity what their friends are doing on your site, for example when they like content on your site and share it from your site back to Facebook. Again this is hosted by Facebook, so the visitor does not necessarily have to be logged in your site. If a visitor is logged into Facebook, the plug-in highlights content from their friends. If the visitor is logged out, the activity feed will show recommendations from your site, and give the visitor the option to log in to Facebook.

Find more technical information of the implementation here.

Live stream:

This is a great plug-in for a real-time event such as live streaming video for events, concerts or speeches, webcasts, live Web chats with a celebrity, webinars, multiplayer games…the list is endless. Live stream plug-in lets your visitors share activity and comments in real-time during the live event.

Find more technical information of the implementation here.

Before implementing the Social Plug-ins, read what you should do and what you should avoid here.

On average, about 75% of consumer pre-purchase search is done by using generic terms. According to the research by DoubleClick and ComScore Networks, only 18.1% – 28.5% of consumers searched for brand names. What comes to B2B, 64%of B2B decision makers use search engine as their 1^st source of information before buying decision, reveals the research by Marketing Sherpa. Out of these remaining 36%, 87% claimed they use search engine at some point before the final decision. These figures show the importance of a right SEO&SEM strategy, yet sometimes the results are not as good as we expected. What went wrong?

Check your plan and see if you have followed these steps while creating your SEO campaign:

• Keyword Selection: keywords should be analyzed and chosen based on popularity, competitiveness, current ranking, referral, performance and relevance
• Search Engine Inclusion: make sure your website is indexed properly by the major search engines. It is a prerequisite to optimizing page content for keyword rankings
• Keyword-driven Optimization: once your site is indexed, web page attributes can be changed to increase the ranking they have in the organic search engines
• Inbound link Development: increasing the number of websites that link to your website can help increase the organic rankings for these pages

If the answer is yes and the results still do not correspond your expectations, go back to step one: check your keywords.

One of the most basic errors in SEO is to use too generic key words.  When a keyword or a phrase has too large search volume, it means that the amount of other advertisers who compete for these words is too large as well. It means that if you do nothing to reduce the number of your competitors, your search engine results will never be well positioned. And if you do, you will need to pay too much per click. Surely not good for your business. It is necessary to find other ways (=words) to reach the target. Time to be more specific.

To identify the most effective keywords, consider the following:

• What language are your customers using to search? Use clients’ / your targets’ language, not yours. Are they teenagers, technical professionals, doctors…? Their normal vocabulary can be very different from yours.
• Have you selected keywords that match your website themes? If not, does your website need new content to match the keyword intelligence you’ve gathered?
• Do your keywords match the buying cycle of your customers? (Information gathering, product/service research, product/service comparison (keyword=compare), Product/service purchase (keyword=buy)
• What are the main advantages of your product/service?
• Are you targeting your specific products or services? Are you targeting your specific industry?
• How the customer is searching?

Victor Perez Acosta has some great practical examples on this subject in his article “Claves para encontrar las keywords adecuadas”. For example, to make sure your keywords are not too generic you can verify the popularity and the competition you will have by simply googling/yahooing/msning the keyword you want to use. That means, imagine that you have 5 key phrases that interest you. Make a table with 3 columns. In the first one put the keywords/phrases you would like to add, in the second one the approximate search volume (you can obtain it by free tools such as inventory.ouverture.com, keyword discovery, Google Adwords) and in the third column the quantity of the pages that show up in the search result. This way you can graphically see which terms suit you best. The aim is to calculate the Keyword Effectiveness Index by comparing the search volume with the quantity of the available pages coming out in the search results.

KEI: divide the quantity of monthly searches by the quantity of available pages.

Imagine that you compare two key phrases, A and B. A has a monthly search volume of 500 and 20.000 pages show up in the search results with this key phrase. So, the KEI is 500/20.000 = 0.025. On the other hand, the phrase B has a monthly search volume of 300, but only 1.500 pages show up in the list when you are searching with this  phrase. The search volume is smaller, but the KEI is bigger: 300/1.500 = 0.20 (smaller search volume, generating 8 times stronger effectiveness, since the key phrase does not have much competitors.

However, KEI is an index that depends a lot about your priorities: think if you want to give more importance on search volume or the competitors you will encounter. Depending on your decision, you can simply add the importance factor to the calculation.

Very important thing to remember is to use the country specific keywords. Use always the country specific (whether it is UK, France, Spain, Finland) search engine to measure the popularity of the keyword, quantity of competition and your current results in that country. Track your rankings in the correct country: ranking you get in Italy with the keywords is not the same you get in the German website. It might sound obvious, but it is very many times forgotten.

With a little bit of analysis we can make great changes what comes to the selection of key words or phrases. Measure the current situation and ranking, use more specific keywords for a month and measure the results. These changes are likely to increase ROI and the CTR, good luck!

86% of B2B marketers already use Social Media, according to a recent study by digital marketing firm, White Horse. Yet, surprisingly, only 32% of B2B marketers take advantage of the interactive media and engage their audience on daily basis. Why?

The 4 main reasons why the 54% of the respondents drop off are:

• An insufficient personnel to maintain (approprimately 50%)
• A lack of organizational knowledge (approprimately 45%)
• A preference for traditional marketing (approprimately 45%)
• A perceived irrelevance to your field (approprimately 45%)

Understandable, yet resolvable! Thanks to the article of Ian Smith of Intelegia.com, here are some solutions for each one of them:

Insufficient personnel to maintain

The workload marketing department faces when managing content on social networks can be reduced by using tools such as HootSuite and Ping.fm. Creating a concrete plan how to manage these networks in a team (who does what and when) and setting reachable objectives keeps the project reasonable and realizable. For more information on HootSuite and Ping.fm: ” Using Hootsuite To Manage Your Social Networks and Pre-Scheduled Posts” and “Ping.fm – Manage Your Presence On Social Networks In Five Easy Steps”

Lack of organizational knowledge

One word: Training. Since we are talking about new media, many of the key decision makers do not even know what Social Media is. Give them a brief overview on Social Media and its advantages, inform them the competition is already taking advantage of them and wake up their interest by talking about all the benefits it will bring to the business. Show them a concrete, realizable plan and offer them a short training: get them involved in B2B professional networks, blogs, message boards…If they do not use the media themselves, they will not believe others do.

Preference for traditional marketing

There is no conflict between the two: Social Media marketing can compliment traditional B2B marketing and even strengthen it. According to the demographics, the majority of users of social media sites are in the 35 to 54 age group and the professional use of Professional networks is exploding, you only have to see recent growth of the LinkedIn, Xing and Viadeo users. Ignoring the new media will not only leave you behind your competition in innovation, but ignoring your potential online clients can decrease your annual revenue. Stop thinking it is only a trend.

Perceived irrelevance to your field

Social Media suits for every industry, company and business, but you have to think which Social Media to use.

Ask yourself:

1. What (or who) do you want to sell/ promote/ protect/ recruit/ elect?

2. Who do you want to influence?

3. What influences them?

4. Which Social Media Tool/Channel/Network your target audience uses?

There is no point investing in a Social Media Channel your audience and potential clients do not use. However, believe me, there is a little, medium or big market niche for every industry. You just have to see where your target audience/best customers move. There are message boards, blogs, tweets, groups, consumer opinion forums, chats, social networks, etc. Maybe the target is not involved in any, but he surely uses google search, which brings these channels to his fingertips.