Topic 12 - What does the future hold?

The only thing certain about the future of digital marketing is that it will involve huge change. It is an exciting time. I think the most exciting time in marketing history. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, there will be an increasing need to hone specialist skills, but to be aware of what is tried and true, and what is brand new and worth trying. Mistakes will be made, and indeed are being made every day. There will sometimes be a need to control damage, so PR and communication skills will become even more important than they are already. The market is filled to capacity already with noise, so being heard above the din will be paramount and copy writing skills will also be in high demand. Copy has always been required for print, but increasingly it will be required for audio, video and any other mix of media.

Augmented reality and virtual reality have been hyped for a decade already but the emergence of mobile as a platform of choice in the last few years may well see them explode in the near future. Fasten your seatbelts and get ready for a rough but exciting ride. Technical skills may well be outsourced throughout the world, but the need for home grown innovation, creativity and project management skills can only grow. Marketing has always been a conversation, now there is a need to listen, engage and analyse the conversation like never before.

TED Talk: Matt Mills: Image recognition that triggers augmented reality

Its hard to even guess where technology or future innovations will lead within all market segments.

Topic 11 - CRM and Analytics

The Salesforce video below is light hearted, but it is also a promo for one of the largest CRM companies in the world and the message is good.

What are web analytics?

This is the tracking, collection, recording and analysis of data which is used to help increase business results. Various tools are available on the internet to track data with the three main areas being;

-Aggregated: this is all traffic

-Segmented: subset of traffic

-Individual: single visitor

Define in relation to a website -

Objectives: These are aligned with the strategic outcomes of a organisation.

Goals:The defined actions that visitors should perform on a website.

KPI's (Key performance indicator): A metric that indicates whether a website is achieving it goals.

Objectives: Offer choice, Speed of access, be the first search engine used.

Goals: To keep growing, To stay one step ahead of competitors.

Your customers in some ways now manage you, what you need to do is lead your customers to you and you can do this through several marketing techniques. Social media is dramatically changing how we connect, share, and collaborate with all people including the end consumer. Social media must be embraced to engage in new ways with customers, employees, and everyone that matters to your organisation.

Topic 10 - Web PR

In the present time it is important to build a voice and strong presence online through blogging, press releases, online articles and social media.

The following video by Seth Godin ‘this is broken’ makes you think about every context of digital marketing. You will now find yourself always on the lookout for ‘this is broken’ and you ways to potentially fix it.

Seven kinds of broken:

- not my job

- selfish clerks

- the world changed

- I didn't know

- i'm not a fish

- contradictions

- broken on purpose

 

Having a good online reputation is vital to expanding and growing your name or business. Once tarnished it is very difficult to regain and retain consumers as once it's online it is there forever and you no longer have any control over where it may end up. Therefore it is extremely important to grow the brand name and continue to keep the reputation positive as word of mouth is a very powerful and uncontrollable tool for any organisation.

Topic 9 - New Media and the Brand

This is an example of a bold advertisement used online to draw consumers to entering a competition yet also draw traffic to the website. They might not enter the competition but every view still has a chance of leading the viewer to the main website.

The Article : Comment on the relevance of the comments today...

1. Everyone’s got to stop looking at marketing and branding in terms of Web v Ad.

These two are now linked heavily in regards to marketing. With technology these days and the ongoing use and growth of social media it has become a very important relationship which web and ad has become. Web these days is a very successful, fast way to advertise and access a mass audience. There are literally billions online today and it continues to grow so for the marketer it is vital to keep up to date online.

2. Advertising on MySpace is like sending a postcard to Brazil: Entirely ineffectual.

Myspace is a thing of the past. It's audience has dramatically declined in the past few years as Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets have grown due to the easy functionality of it.

3. Big/bold/authentic works.

Marketers need to capture a possible consumers eye and draw them into their add. Having a boring add will decrease the chances of people taking notice of the advertisement. That's why something eye catching and bold/different will draw them in, if they don't purchase the item they have still seen the item and could return. The ad may also therefore prompt positive word-of-mouth advertising among viewers.

4. It’s Not About Polish.

It isn't always about polish, some companies spend thousands on failed advertisements then some spend very little and have success. An example of a cheap option may be as simple as a Youtube video going viral, therefore it comes down to being creative and connecting with the consumers and target markets successfully.

5. Here comes the evolution of the closed network.

If your going to use the internet in any way prepare to respect, engage and inspire. Otherwise your not using it to its full potential.

Topic 8 - PPC and Video Search

The task this week was to try and make a short video on any topic and then upload it. The main reason for the video is to discuss how it can be shared on the internet, to as many viewers as possible.

This is a video i recently took on a golfing bucks day of one of my friends which i chose to promote as we found it quite funny.

There are many ways that this video can be promoted on the internet for example:

- Blogs as it can be seen by individuals that are reading or following the blog page. Such as these Emarketing blogs.

- Social media sites such as Facebook as this can be seen by many individuals through friends and family or by them sharing the link. The video i have uploaded has also been uploaded previously to facebook.

- YouTube is one of the most obvious as this is the most used website for video search (This is where i uploaded my video to).

Topic 7 – Search engine marketing and optimisation

There were no questions this week due to the test. However here is a quick overview of the topic:

Having a great website is useless if no one uses/views it, therefore there are many ways to optimise this: Google adworks is the ad result that comes up when you do a Google search this will appear at the top and to the right of the page. Therefore this is essential to enhancing the usage and comsumption of your website.

Topic 6 - Advertising and Affiliate Marketing

1. Define the following:

- Optin: give organisations/companies the consent to send emails to you.

- Opout: the option for you to stop emails from being sent to you also known as unsubcribing.

- Spam: receiving emails that you did not sign up for.

- CPA: (cost per action) this is when a new customer is attained in which the advertiser is only paid upon when a certain the goal is achieved.

- CPC: (cost per click) advertiser only pays when an individual clicks on the advertisement which takes them to their website

- CPM: (cost per mil) this is the amount paid for every 1000 clicks on an advertisement.

- Google Adwords: allows advertisers to place their ads on Google's content and search results.

2. Think about your own behaviour when browsing online. Do you pay attention to display adverts? Is there a difference between the ones that catch your eye and those that don’t?

When I browse online I don't usually notice adverts on the screen as most of the time they do not interest me at all. The ones that annoy me most are the ads that you accidentally click on and open up another screen even though you do not want to visit the site. Along with ads that 'pop-up' over the current window are extremely frustrating.

Ads that do catch my eye are generally ones in which i am interested in; such as sport, if i have no interest in them i generally don't notice them.

3. What is the difference between the mindset of someone responding to a display advert and someone conducting a web search?

Someone who is responding to a display advert may or may not have been looking in particular for that product. They may have been looking for something else and came across the ad and decided then that they may need the product.

Someone conducting a web search is more likely to have a more specific mindset and will be looking for something more specific. Which they are more likely not to stray from their goal.

4 . What is the link between this video and email SPAM?

The link between this video and SPAM is that SPAM has taken over the internet. In the video it is seen that SPAM had taken over the menu with some individuals not liking SPAM at all. This is exactly how it is seen on the internet as SPAM now has a regular (unwanted) presence in emails today with not many people appreciating this; as it can be very annoying and also can contain viruses and scams if people are not careful.