Internet Marketing Specialists Getextra

A recent report published by the IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers demonstrates the strength of the internet advertising market. As more people spend more time online advertisers are still enjoying the benefits of targeting their potential customers with innovative methods online.

Search marketing is still the giant of the online marketing sector accounting for almost 60% of the £1.7 billion spent in the UK in the first half of 2008. Online marketing now accounts for almost 19% of advertising spend within the UK this is an increase of over 20% from last year. To put this figure into perspective Radio is responsible for 3.3%, Outdoor media 6.1% and TV 21.7%.

TV channels are looking to exploit the growth within the online understanding that more of their viewers are switching to online media. This has been successfully implemented with BBC’s iPlayer and Channel 4’s 4oD.

Online marketing is now essential for organisations of all sizes and it’s not too late to take advantage. getextra provide a full service support service and will ensure that your online marketing strategy working in synergy with your offline marketing activity. We are able to provide advice on website design/development, search engine optimisation activity and also provide a range of cost per click packages.

If you would like to have a informal chat with one of our experts please send an email to chat@getextra.co.uk.

A famous quote by William Lever stated that “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half.” If old Bill was around today he would be astonished by the measurability of Internet marketing.

With internet marketing you can measure each element of an integrated online campaign for individual performance and measure the performance of the whole campaign. Google Analytics has a plethora of measurement tools provided enough data for the keenest of statisticians.

For example place a banner advert on a relevant website, from Google analytics you can see how many visitors the advert was responsible for, great. However, using Google analytics you can see the value of these visitors, how long they spent on your site, which pages they viewed, how many pages and their progress along your sales process. You can do the same from an email campaign, search engine marketing campaign (paid and natural) before looking at the performance of the whole campaign.

Google analytics should be an integral element of any online activity, it is free to use and very simple to install. Click here to register for a Google Analytics account, if you have any questions you can contact us at analytics@getextra.co.uk.

Marketing Week have an interesting article “Social networking sites search for right revenue model” regarding the internet’s largest social networking website struggling to monetise their popularity.

Web 2.0 sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Bebo are growing in popularity a recent study by Hitwise highlighted the fact that more people are now searching for social networking sites online than ecommerce sites.

The problem seems to be generating money from the sites, Google adopted a cost per click model for search marketing around six years ago and has created a market worth over £10bn and the official line from Google is that it is still early days for social networking and they are not worried.

There are a number of problems the social networking owners need to overcome:

Copyright - Viacom are currently pursuing a £500million case against Google for infringement of copyright laws, this has meant only 4% of YouTube can be monetised in fear of the Viacom litigation.

Content Quality – Most of social media content by definition is poor quality and uncontrollable which larger organisations may find does not fit with their brand proposition.

Pricing Model – Cost per click works very well in search marketing however, perhaps an alternative is required for social networking.

Advert Placement - Look at more effective positioning of adverts and increase the targeting capabilities. YouTube are already looking at pre and post video advertising.

Social networking is a new form of media which continues to grow at a fantastic pace however, it is unlike most other forms of new and traditional media. The content is owned by the websites community and careful consideration should be taken when advertising models are placed within the community. The key to successfully monetising social networking sites will be adding value for each group focused on targeting and delivery of useful information.

The latest market report highlights that marketing budgets have been cut by the largest percentage since 9/11 in 2001. Online advertising again went against the flow of traditional media with another small increase throughout Q2 of 2008. Although this was the smallest increase in over 5 years it will provide some indication of the growing confidence of online and in particular search marketing.

The sector greatest hit by the cuts was direct marketing budgets, this section of the industry has seen massive cuts over the past 5 years as advertisers confidence grows in online communications which provides greater accountability with sophisticated reporting systems.

getextra has a range of email marketing services that are delivered using iContacts efficient email marketing system. Click Email Marketing to find out how getextra could help you to develop your email marketing campaigns.