Facebook Advertising Presents Better Opportunities Than Google?

Many local businesses have considered or have actually taken the plunge and advertised in Google Adwords. Traditionally, this has been one of the most popular forms of online advertising.

Google has become quite expensive for many of the keywords you may try to target and one of the biggest problems is that you are tied to keywords and key phrases as the basis for your advertising. This can restrict the ability of business to really drill down into target demographics.

An alternative worth considering is Facebook ads. Facebook is now absolutely huge and has surpassed Yahoo in terms of daily traffic. Because Facebook is personally based, there is a lot more information about each user who signs on to use their account. This provides advertisers with never before seen opportunities to really drill down into the demographics of a market.  Not only can you target towns, but also gender, interests and age. This is something that Google cannot offer. Google’s approach to advertising is one of a shotgun, whereas the Facebook model provides laser type targetting.

Facebook’s ad rates are also considerably below what you would have to pay for similar keywords on Google at this stage. This may not always be the case though and if you are a Google advertiser, then it may well be worthwhile testing results on Facebook. With the targetting possible, you will be able to market directly to the specific types of people you want seeing and clicking on your ad. Because of such targetting, conversion rates should be much better.

To find out more about Facebook advertising, visit their page which provides great instruction on setting up your advertisements.

If you have had experience with Facebook advertising already, why not leave a comment and share your experiences with others. I know I would love to hear of your successes or otherwise.

Google Near Me Now – Big For Online Marketing Melbourne

If you’re a bricks and mortar business, particularly in the restaurant, coffee shop or bar industry, then be prepared for a big impact from Google’s newly released product, “Near Me Now”.

This application is for the mobile phones Iphone and Android at this stage, but will no doubt spread to others. Also at the moment, it is only available in the US market.

That said, it will no doubt spread to the rest of the world and the Australian market will not be too far away given its dominance in the use of mobile phones and technology. If you aren’t taking note of this in your business, then it will be to your detriment insofar as your online marketing goes.

What this product does is identify your geographical position and will then display on your phone a list of all nearby ATMs, restaurants, coffee shops and bars. It is certainly feasible that this would be extended to other business types in the future.

The availability of this application is a sure sign that if you don’t have a quality online presence with representation in the local business directory of the search engines, then you will most definitely miss out on business. Even worse, you could well be losing some of your existing customers.

As an astute business person, you will realize the future of these types of applications and want to do something about making sure your business is listed today. Check out the products offered by Melbourne Online Marketing and contact us for a free consultation to see how we can help you dominate the internet for your business.

Demise of Yellow Pages

Many people still think that the Yellow Pages dominates the advertising market for promoting a business, yet recent research shows that usage is in severe decline. Many small businesses believe that the Yellow Pages is the best Local Business Directory in which they can advertise, but the directory is no longer considered to be the authority it once was.

Research from the respected Roy Morgan group has shown that there has been a 51% increase in the number of people who only use the Yellow Pages once a month or worse, not at all! To put this into some perspective, the research shows that 77.5% of Australians over the age of 14 use the Yellow Pages once a month or not at all. That is a huge percentage of the population.

Much of the resistance building towards the Yellow Pages is on environmental grounds. As society becomes more and more of environmental impact, the Yellow Pages is seen as a great waste of paper. Core Data conducted research in May 2009 that revealed some interesting attitudes. Of those surveyed, 78% said they believed they should be asked if they wanted the Yellow Pages delivered. A further 58% would choose to stop delivery if they had a choice and 62% of those surveyed believed that the Yellow Pages was having a negative impact on the environment.

So where are people turning for information on businesses when they wish to acquire a product or service? The answer is quite simple, they are turning to the internet. As a business, you can get far more information into the hands of your customers and potential customers using a web site, and for far less cost, than any ad in the Yellow Pages. Customers today are far more discerning as well and like to read about the products and services in detail before contacting a business.

As Melbourne’s leading online marketing service, we can show you how to achieve extremely cost effective online marketing that will help you dominate the search engines at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising methods. With the pace and bustle of today’s lifestyle, people want access to local businesses as well that they can deal with conveniently. Dominating the internet in your local business directory listings can have a huge impact on your bottom line. Even if you are not in Melbourne, we still service businesses across the world and can still assist you in your online marketing efforts.

To find out more, simply fill in the request for the free consultation on the right of the page and find out how you can be the most prominent business in your local business directory.

Local Search Is Crucial To Melbourne Online Marketing

Having detailed business listings submitted to the major search engines is crucial to your online marketing efforts. More and more, people are turning away from traditional sources of information such as Yellow Pages and advertising mediums such as TV and newspapers and using the internet instead to source information on local businesses. Ensuring you are listed in  a prominent manner can generate many more customers for your business.

Google themselves have said that 73% of online activity is in some way or other related to local content. That’s quite an amazing level of local activity. The NPD Group have found that 97% of internet users in the US gather information regarding their shopping online. The respected research and statistical group ComScore have found that 43% of search engine users are seeking a local business in order to buy something offline.  They also found that 54% of internet users had substituted the phone book with the internet and search.

This is a trend that will continue to grow and is a huge potential source of traffic to your website and customers for your business. You just cannot afford to ignore these trends if you intend to sustain and grow your business.

To ensure you take advantage of these trends for your business, why not take advantage of our FREE consultation to find out more.

Guide To Online Marketing Jargon

If you’re like most businesses, you will be getting calls and emails from businesses about online marketing. Many of these people speak in a language that no-one can understand. The reality is that all you want is an effective online marketing program to generate more customers and sales.

The internet is full of jargon and it can be a bit daunting to business operators who haven’t heard some of the terms before. We hope our guide to some of the internet marketing jargon will help you better understand what some of the terms mean.

So here we present a short guide to internet or online marketing jargon.

But, by using the services of Melbourne Online Marketing you won’t really need to understand it all. We take pride in explaining things in simple language, but if there’s a techie type term you aren’t sure of, we’re more than happy to explain it to you in detail. We believe it’s important you understand what the internet can do for your business and the services that will generate more sales and customers for you.

The listings are in no particular order by the way, but some terms you may hear used in conjunction with online or internet marketing.

Community Marketing : simply an integrated online and offline marketing system that focuses its total marketing effort on connecting you with potential and existing customers in your local Community.

Blogsites : A blog is a shortened term for “weblog”, a chronological series of individual posts around a common theme.

Search Marketing : A generic term that covers anythign to do with Search Engine Optimiszation, Search Engine Marketing, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising and Local Search Marketing.

Search Engine Optimization : Optimizing your website in both an onsite and offsite manner so it ranks highly in the search engines. This involves such things as correct coding, proper use of headings and key words and building links from other sites pointing to your site.

Backlinks : When another website links to your site, it’s telling the search engines that it is “voting” for your site. The more backlinks you have, the greater the number of votes and search engines take notice of these when providing rankings in their listings.

Local Search : All about getting your business found in the maps listings that often appear for businesses in a local area on the top of the front page of the search engines. This is a specific area of online marketing and one that is evolving all the time.

Pay Per Click (PPC) : Is where you set up a campaign to have your business advertisement showing on the right hand side of the search engines. You then pay an amount, depending on your bid for the placement, every time someone clicks on your ad and they land on a pre-determined page on your website.

Google Analytics : Free statistical and tracking software, provided by Google, that can be added to every page on your website. It then provides data on a whole range of things including the amount of traffic the site gets and where that traffic is coming from.

Social Networking : Utilizing sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and others to connect and network with potential customers and other people that can help your business.

Social Marketing : Using the social networks mentioned above to promote your business.

Social Bookmarking : Providing a system where people who visit your pages can “bookmark” your page or site on social bookmarking platforms. Other people see your site bookmarked and can visit which provides more traffic and potential customers.

Article Marketing : There are many sites on the internet that allow the submission of articles. You can write and submit articles about your business to these sites which can generate traffic to the site and provide valuable backlinks.  Articles are normally between 400 and 600 words.

Video Marketing : This is similar to Article Marketing, but they are videos about your business and products placed on high traffic video sites like YouTube. These videos can assist in driving more traffic to your website and business.

Content Marketing : General term for Article Marketing, Audio Marketing and Video Marketing where you submit free content to other websites in order to get traffic to your website. This can provide great exposure for your business all over the internet.

Email Marketing : A very low cost way of communicating with both established and prospective customers. Visitors to your site can be given the option of subscribing to your newsletter and you can then email them regularly about your products and special pricing available.  This is also known as “permisson based marketing”.

Relationship Marketing : The means of building relationships with customers and potential customers so that they Know, Like and Trust you to a point where not only do they want to spend their money at your Business, but that they might also recommend your Business to their friends and network.

Offline Marketing : Traditional marketing such as Yellow Pages and other traditional media advertising that doesn’t involve Online or Internet marketing.

Social Proof: References and testimonials collected from customers and published on your website and elsewhere on the internet that recounts customer experiences with your business and therefore encourages others to do business with you.