Internet Marketing Trends  

Video marketing & video SEO

• Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
• Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
• 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
• YouTube is localized in 43 countries and across 60 languages
• In 2011, YouTube had more than 1 trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth

When properly produced, online video is a natural magnet to search engines, leading to even more traffic and new business faster than any other currently known methods. You’ll see a tremendous increase in the return on your marketing dollar by quickly dominating top positions where your customers and prospects look to find what you sell.

Online video increases brand awareness, drives online engagement and creates viewer action leading to more inquiries and more sales. If done right, it can bring hoards of traffic to your website with this one strategy alone.

Check out the following screenshot:

1. Our keyword we wanted to rank for was "Credenza Cabinet Bed" With over 2.3 Million + results.
2. Our clients site is # 1 for their actual website on the organic section. Basically means a non-paid ad. (FREE TRAFFIC)
3. 3 Video's Ranked on the 1st page
4. Client's Images of the product are ranked on the first page as well.

When someone lands on this page. What listing do you think they're going to click on?  This is why it's so important to optimize video's along with regular search engine optimization of your website.  It makes the listings stand out.

Photo: Contributed

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

Twitter marketing explored

There is something peculiar and innovate in Twitter that allows it to stand on a tier all its own. Twitter’s social media presence has been well documented. But beyond that, marketers have found rich SEO opportunities in Twitter. Whether it be Twitter’s “retweeting” options or picture and video attachments, there is just something about Twitter that people attach to and give it vitality in an age where social media is being exhausted more and more by the month.

Photo: Contributed

There are quite a few Twitter marketing strategies that can extend the life of a brand and give a business an opportunity to reach an audience on an intimidate and personable level. Twitter’s “retweeting” allows any user to take someone else's tweet for their own page. For example, a user can go to Brad Pitt’s Twitter, click retweet on his latest post and it gets featured on their own Twitter. By extension, anyone subscribed to their Twitter feed, sees these messages. A business can essentially make a Twitter account, post advertisements, and they can be retweeted reaching an audience that the business would not have hit otherwise. This sort of networking is phenomenally effective and has made Twitter the prime place for social media exploration in a marketing environment.

There are also cross promotion purposes for Twitter. If someone has, say 250,000 subscribers, they can harness that potential. Theoretically, anytime that person made a post, 250,000 people will see it. Perhaps on their computer, or perhaps even directly to their phone (which has internet access as well). A smart marketer can pay this individual money to post about their brand. A simple 140 character message can speak to thousands of people - and potential customers.

The moral validity of this is questionable, but the idea is that networking a message through the Twitter tubes has massive potential in bringing a message or product to the masses. Twitter marketing strategies include using this network to extend a message - and at no cost!

A quality marketer can harness Twitter and not spend a cent. By posting messages or “tweets” about other users, they can be featured on that user’s page. This is what Twitter users come to call a hash-tag, where every user has a hash-tag. And anytime that hash-tag is mentioned, that user knows about it.

There are countless ways to use Twitter marketing strategies to expand a brand. It is about understanding the mechanics of the service, and using it not only to promote, but interact.

Join myself and Bob Mangat, CEO of Invigo Marketing Systems for a free informational seminar at the Kelowna Yacht Club on Thursday November 7th from 1pm to 4pm. To register: http://strategicmarketingseminar.com.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

Drive your website to top search engines

Below are five tips to drive your website to top search engines. Most of them require money, such as adwords and press releases, but some methods can be done by yourself (if you have the time). Following is a list of five tips to help you start moving your website from the back of the search engines.

1.  Link Building - One of the most important things you can do for your website is link building. This shows the search engines that your website is popular and relevant enough for other high ranking sites to link with it. Effective ways to consolidate links to your website include: blog participation, link exchanges, article marketing, press release distribution, document sharing, as well as participating in social bookmarking sites.

2.  Social Media Marketing - A recent study reported that 40% of web visits take place on social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. While promoting your services through these avenues can require a huge investment of time, they can eventually pay off with massive profits. Social proof is the name of the game with social media marketing, so the best thing you can do is give more value to your friends and fans than you ask for in return. This will gain trust, build rapport, and make your target audience more likely to purchase your product or service in the future.

3.  Blogging - Blogs are the perfect avenue for a company to stay connected with their audience. Not only do they invite regular visits but the search engines prefer them for their constant updates of content.

4.  Video Marketing - As your target audience becomes further accustomed to having information right at their fingertips, written text is losing its capacity to hold their attention. Videos inform while they entertain, and while video sites such as YouTube occasionally receives more visitors per day than even Google, they provide the perfect avenue to reach your potential audience. Make sure to link your website at least twice in the description box, and have your keyword in the very first part of your title. This will give your videos added exposure and help the search engines to find you among your competition.

5.  Local Search Engine Directories and Google “Places” - For those who own local businesses there is nothing better right now then Google places. When displaying the results of any local search, Google will show the top 5-10 businesses for the applicable keywords that were searched. This affords an amazing opportunity for local businesses to get immediate exposure to their store front locations and increase sales literally overnight.

Though getting a website to the top of Google Places can be a time consuming endeavor, the increase in profits is well worth the investment. With a carefully run campaign the preceding five tips can help get your website to the top of the search engines in as little as a few months. To learn more about search optimization and to find out how we can manage your campaign for you, please contact me.

Join myself and Bob Mangat, CEO of Invigo Marketing Systems for a free informational seminar on November 7th, 2013 from 1-4 PM at the Kelowna Yacht Club. Registration link is below.

www.strategicmarketingseminar.com

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.

The secret to endless customers

The marketing trend of today is, in a way, intangible. Business has found a new dimension: cyberspace. The trick is in figuring out how you can leverage technology in your favor so as to develop a completely complete automated lead generation and follow-up system. This system is designed to convert prospects into customers, on auto-pilot: a marketing powerhouse that gets more customers in touch with your online presence and through your door!

Photo: Contributed

This is not about working harder, it’s about working smarter. It’s about networking with a team of professionals and partners who can tackle your vision and implement it online and offline. It’s about learning simple strategies to use today in order to build your online presence and generate new business, leads, and repeat referrals. It’s about designing your online blueprint—just as when you build a house, when you build a business and reputation online, you need to clearly outline what your vision and end goals are first—something that will define your target markets, functionality, costs, and mission. Finally, it’s about finding cutting-edge technologies that are easy to use and already out there at your disposal… often freely.

The landscape of the world is changing as we know it—words like e-commerce, email, microblogging, tweets, hashtags, twinterview, augmented or immersive reality were unthinkable by our ancestors (even just our parents!). Just think about the mobile device in your pocket, and all its capabilities. Just the other day I was at Best Buy, looking to buy a video camera. I just pulled out my iPhone, checked reviews, and browsed other stores to check prices. I found it 50 bucks cheaper on a competitor’s website; when I showed it to the clerk, he matched the price—pretty sweet! I could not have done that then and there without the aid of technology.

Today, consumers check headlines and grab coupons online, bypassing most traditional media you used to rely on. I’m not the only one—and neither are you.  Let me just give you some statistics.

• Over 1 Billion local searches are performed online every month alone (this is growing over 50% a year…)
• 90% of online commercial searches result in offline bricks-and-mortar business purchases
• 82% of local searchers follow up online via an in-store visit, phone call, or purchase
• 80% of budgets are spent within 80kms of the customer’s home
• 74% of internet users perform local searches
• 73% of online activity is related to local content
• 61% of local searches result in purchases

Does this come as a surprise? Look around you and see the trend. With cell phones and smart phones in every pocket connected to the web, everyone now carries a virtual phone book with them.. The internet has broadened and matured respectively; it has shifted from simple and easy-to-grasp selections into an endless ocean of options loaded with opportunities everywhere you look.

If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to say hello to the New virtual World…

Photo: Contributed

 

Leida Tymchuk is an Internet marketing consultant with Invigo Marketing Systems in Kelowna. Originating in Vancouver, IMS is a successful and innovative marketing specialist now expanding across Western Canada.

Prior to moving to Kelowna 20 years ago, Leida started her business career in downtown Toronto after earning her degree in Political Science at U of T. Her past experiences include being a Business Development Manager for a large national mortgage company as well as an owner of an e-commerce business.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.