Newsletter #120 Reallocate Resources to the Web

Created on 17/12/2007

A special hello to all new subscribers and a Merry Christmas to you all. This article is on the Web at this address.

Our last newsletter (29th November, 2007) was "Make 'Lean Forward' Work For You".
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Feature Article

Global online advertising is expected to overtake radio in 2008 and grow 30% in 2007 according to Zenith Optimedia; nine times quicker than the rest of the ad market.

Newspapers are being hit the hardest. According to an Observer article, between 2000 and 2005 in the US, 18% of all broadband households stopped their newspaper subscriptions.

There are several reasons why online advertising continues to surge:

• The ability to market to niches rather than the traditional broadcast messages
• Better and cheaper broadband that encourages more people to be online
• Digital Natives (have grown up with the Internet) who are increasingly influential as they age
• Wireless handhelds making the Internet more available than before

We feel this trend will accelerate and think businesses should be reallocating advertising and marketing resources away from traditional media to the Web.

As a small business how do you do that?

1. Realise that your Website is the central foundation in any Web strategy. Be prepared to spend extra in this area to add value to visitors and to convert some of them into customers. Don't forget your existing customers - how can you make their interactions with you simpler and easier?
   
   Some examples of things you can do:
   
   
   - Be more interactive using animations, video and other means to show your services and products
   - Add a Knowledge Base so customers don’t need to ring as much
   - Get the site to do some of the mundane or “grunt” work such as automatically processing bookings or orders online
   - Move processes online, especially those that need input from people who are geographically spread
   
   
   
2. It’s quite common for Search Engines to account for 40-70% of the traffic to a Website so it is well worth putting some effort into this area. The basics of Search Engine optimisation can be done quite cheaply. For more information click here...
   
   
   
3. Google AdWords is pay-per-click text advertising that is linked to the keywords used in a Google search. Other Search Engines offer similar programs but Google is dominant in this area. Some of our clients are doing very well out of AdWords, achieving amazing returns on investment (ROI). You can setup AdWords campaigns yourself fairly easily if you want and it is great for new sites, exploring niche markets or just to get a quick boost in visitors. For more information click here..
   
   
   
4. Spruce up your email. Every email you send is a potential marketing opportunity so why not setup email stationery? Again it is not very costly even if you get someone to design it for you.
   
   
   
5. SMS integration into Websites has become easier and can be used to automatically send reminders, welcomes and confirmations. Almost everyone has a mobile phone and the immediacy of an SMS (text) message is great for many circumstances and will impress your customers too! For more information click here..
   
   
   
6. What else can you offer online that no-one else is doing? If you agree with our assumption that business is rapidly moving online then perhaps you should use the opportunity to skip ahead of your competitors. Check out something different that we offer...

The problem will be if you fail to act, your competitors do, and they gain the competitive advantage.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Benjamin Franklin

Hot Tips

Newbies

Some of the browsing keyboard shortcuts we find useful in both Internet Explorer and Firefox are: (Mac OS X uses Cmd instead of Ctrl)

History: Ctrl+H (hold both keys at the same time)
Add Bookmark or Favorite: Ctrl+D
Print: Ctrl+P
Reload page: F5 or Ctrl+R
Back one step: Backspace
Go to bottom of page: End
Go to top of page: Home

Power Users

New Window: Ctrl+N
Close Window: Ctrl+Shift+W
New Tab: Ctrl+T
Close Tab: Ctrl+W
Reload page override cache: Ctrl+F5 or Ctrl+F5+R
Next Tab: Ctrl+Tab (Cmd+Opt+Tab in Macs)
Page source: Ctrl+U (Firefox), Ctrl+F3 (IE)

Interesting Sites

Something a little different for Christmas. Blabberize.com is not the coolest looking site but allows you to animate a picture with some recorded sound and then share your creation with others. :-) http://www.blabberize.com/

InsiteFul Quotes

"Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper upbringing, a sound set of values, and witnesses." Franklin Jones

OK not exactly a techo one this month but I liked it!

You can see our other Quick Quotes on the front page of www.netinsites.com; just refresh the page to see another one randomly selected from our database. Great for presentations or times when you want to appear to be a techno-dude(ss)!

Archives

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Best wishes

Alex Garden

Internet Strategy | Website Design | Website Promotion | Web Text Messaging | Email Newsletters | Online Sports Games | Content Management