Archive for 2006
Is Google’s true competitor “Powerset” about to arrive?
No one thought Airbus would catch Boeing, and no one thought Google would catch Yahoo. So can Powerset catch Google? Though Google and search marketing are undoubtedly some of the best inventions of the last century, search still remains somewhat unsophisticated. Maybe that’s all going to change and sooner than we think!
Google is a very powerful search engine but in linguistic terms it’s actually pretty primitive. Powerset, still in development, aspires to be a natural search engine. This means that it will understand phrases rather than just keywords and differentiate between, for example “puzzles for adults” and “puzzles by adults”. In this manner it will deliver far more accurate search results. If you subscribe our RSS feed you can keep updated on this very interesting development.
Happy New Year to our clients, visitors, partners and subscribers!
December 31st, 2006
Analysis, measurement and search engine optimisation (SEO) are becoming more important than traditional marketing competencies a recent survey on the skills needed in modern marketing has shown.
Of the 120 US and UK respondents to the survey by Coremetrics, 73 per cent said analytics and measurement have become more important over the past two years and these skills are now seen as more important than branding and product promotion.
A total of 31 per cent of respondents claimed SEM - Search Engine Marketing is the most important skill in their current role and 60 per cent feeling that SEM skills have become more important over the past two years.
Furthermore, half said they need to improve their analytical abilities and 41 per cent feel that their SEM skills are in need of improvement.
Objective Marketing revalidates these comments! Search Engine Marketing is in fact the first priority now for many companies as opposed to traditional paper based marketing. Are you optimised?
We invite your questions or comments on this very important subject.
December 29th, 2006
As UK Internet usage becomes more widespread, it is interesting to look at the emerging trends as reported by the UK’s National Statistics Office. This helps us comprehend the enormity of the internet and how, year on year, it is growing at an incredible pace. Therefore, our online marketing campaigns, if designed and executed correctly, should bring us some healthy results. We have the chance, as never before, to trade nationally or globally from an armchair, regardless if you are a micro or macro business. These statistics further qualify that the internet offers us the cheapest form of advertising ever, so let embrace it as best we can!
The Survey
An estimated 13.9 million households (57 per cent) in Great Britain could access the Internet from home between January and April 2006, according to the National Statistics Omnibus Survey. This is an increase of 2.9 million households (26 per cent) since 2002, and 0.6 million (5 per cent) over the last year.
This year the survey has been expanded to include Northern Ireland and for the United Kingdom the total number of households with Internet access in 2006 was 14.3 million.
In total 40 per cent of UK households were estimated to have broadband Internet access between January and April. This was an increase from the 28 per cent recorded for GB in 2005.
UK Internet Access
In 2006 the percentage of households able to access the Internet varied between different parts of the country. The region with the highest percentage was the South East with 66 per cent. The area with the lowest access level was Scotland with 48 per cent.
Overall, 40 per cent of UK households, or 69 per cent of households that had Internet access, had a broadband Internet connection.
London had the highest level of households with broadband Internet access at 49 per cent (78 per cent of households with Internet access). Northern Ireland had the lowest level at 28 per cent of all households (56 per cent of households with Internet access).
The annual increases in the level of broadband access vary from 17 percentage points in London and the East of England to 4 percentage points in the West Midlands. The increase for GB was 12 percentage points to 40 per cent in 2006.
UK Individuals
Twenty eight million adults (60 per cent of the UK adult population) accessed the Internet in the 3 months prior to interview, with men more likely to do so than women (65 per cent compared with 55 per cent respectively). Forty per cent of women had never used the Internet compared with only 30 per cent of men. Over half of adults in all age groups, except the 65+ group, had accessed the Internet in the 3 months prior to interview.
There is still a large divide between the young and the old, with 83 per cent of the 16 to 24 age group accessing the Internet within 3 months prior to interview, compared with 15 per cent of the 65+ age group. This is also supported by data that show there are now only 10 per cent of the 16 to 24 age group who have never used the Internet, compared with 82 per cent of the 65+ age group.
Internet User’s Income
The higher an individual’s income, the more likely he or she is to have accessed the Internet. Fifty one per cent of adults with an income of £10,400 or less had never used the Internet. In contrast, 93 per cent with an income of £36,400 or more had used the Internet in the 3 months prior to interview, more than twice the proportion (43 per cent) of those earning £10,400 or less.
Frequency of Use
Young people not only accessed the Internet more, they also accessed it more often. Most adults (59 per cent) who had used the Internet in the last 3 months used it every day or almost every day, with the age group 25 to 44 using it the most (63 per cent). Less than half of those aged 65+ who had accessed in the last 3 months (43 per cent) used it every day or almost every day, and 11 per cent used it less than once a month. Men were more likely than women to use the Internet every day or almost every day (64 per cent compared to 54 per cent).
Activities on the Internet
The most popular activity on the Internet was searching for information about goods or services (84 per cent). This was carried out more by men (88 per cent) than women (79 per cent). Women’s most popular activity was using email (80 per cent), which was men’s second most popular (81 per cent).
Of the activities asked about, there were only two where the percentage of women’s activities was higher than men’s. These were seeking health related information and activities related to a school, college or university course. Telephoning over the Internet or video conferencing was an activity undertaken by 13 per cent of men and 7 per cent of women.
The UK Internet Usage Statistics Report can be downloaded from the National Statistic web site.
December 28th, 2006
“Mobile search is different from standard, PC-based Web search in three ways,” said Matt Tengler, Product Manager at JumpTap, a Massachusetts-based firm that helps wireless operators deliver a mobile search experience for subscribers and advertising partners:
Content: “Currently, mobile content is dominated by mobile consumables, such as ring tones,” he said.
Form factor: “The first page becomes the first few search results,” he said.
Opportunities: “A personal device is always on,” he said, “presenting more customised advertising opportunities.”
Mikio Matsuo, Product Manager of Multimedia Experiences at Nokia Mobile Search, added, “Mobile search is the ultimate advertising platform.”A mobile phone is personal, always on, or always with a person,” he said. “There is a great opportunity for search and mobile maps - adding relevant icons to mobile maps.” Yahoo launched its search engine advertising for mobile phones in September 2006 and it is proving to be very interesting.
However, mobile search has a number of barriers to content delivery. Usability is a concern because user interfaces need to mature (controlled by the mobile phones currently on the market). And there is a limited amount of content outside of a few key verticals.
“Given a mobile phone’s limited screen size,” said Paul Yiu, Product Manager of Mobile Search at Yahoo, “what Yahoo has done is have one box - no room for tabs. Then, we determine the most likely type of search. For example, a search for ‘Starbucks’ is most likely a local search.”
Limited screen real estate also does not encourage longer query strings. Currently, the average number of keywords per query is 2.3 on standard Web searches. Tengler presented some data from his organization:
Percentage of searches Number of query words
- One Word -50.0%
- Two Words - 33.9%
- Three Words - 10.5%
- Four Words - 3.7%
“Fifty percent of mobile searches represent the top seven categories,” said Tengler.
Categories & Percentage of mobile searches
- Navigation Categories - 16%
- Music/ring tones - 10%
- Entertainment - 8%
- Sports - 6%
- Reference - 5%
- Local -4%
- Shopping - 2%
Despite mobile search limitations, the mobile search engine reps have seen a steady growth in unique users, searches per user, and average transaction amount. For example, at the Japanese Web site Rakuten.com, the average transaction on both the personal computer (PC) and on a mobile phone is $80. “We are seeing the same trends in Europe and the USA,” said Agarwal.
The mobile internet in the UK is still behind the US as you can see from these figures, but is likely to catch up fast in 2007.
December 26th, 2006
As far as your business is concerned the most important word is “VISIBILITY“.
You may have a database of clients who only hear from you when it’s contract renewal time. Is it any wonder that they use another company because you were invisible, even though the client had bought from you before? Smart businesses value the “visibility factor” and know how to work it to their advantage.
You do not need a large advertising budget to be visible to your clients. There are so many cost effective methods to remain visible to current and potential clients. We create for you a visibility strategy which will maintain your visibility, and therefore retain client loyalty.
The simple answer is to stop looking for only new clients, and start spending some time with your existing customer base. It is five to ten times more expensive to attract new business than it is to work with your existing clients.
December 26th, 2006
Everyone needs marketing, even if you are a sole trader or micro business. The question is how well you engage with your market and what penetration you have achieved, and how this reflects in your turnover and profit. Though there are many confusing definitions of the term “marketing“, Objective Marketing take the complexity out of it and show you innovative ways to increase your business and profile. We are adept in all the “new media” techniques (also called Web 2.00) that enable you to interact with your clients or prospects as never before!
There are many different definitions of marketing
Consider some of the following alternative definitions:
- The all-embracing function that links the business with customer needs and wants in order to get the right product to the right place at the right time
- The achievement of corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs better than the competition
- The management process that identifies, anticipates and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably
- Marketing may be defined as a set of human activities directed at facilitating and consummating exchanges
Which definition is right? In short, they all are. They all try to embody the essence of marketing:
- Marketing is about meeting the needs and wants of customers
- Marketing is a business-wide function - it is not something that operates alone from other business activities
- Marketing is about understanding customers, and finding ways to provide products or services which customers demand
All the elements of marketing are described within this web site. We have tried to explain them simply and clearly. You are invited to contact us for more information or send us a question via our blog.
December 26th, 2006
What were the most profound changes to marketing and branding online in 2006 and have you moved with the times?
Some of the biggest changes in our opinion were:
- Growth of online advertising using Adwords
- Growth of social networks such as Myspace and social networks for business such as Ecademy and a myriad of others
- Emergence of mainstream blogging (what you are reading now is a blog)
- More use of New Media web 2.0 as a marketing tool
- Video usage. YouTube and Google Video (soon to be merged)
- Growth in the on-line marketing community
- Search Engine Optimisation became a buzz word as never before
As a marketing consultancy we have seen such a shift from tradtional marketing methods to new media. The great thing about these technologies is that you are able to access an audience locally or globally as you wish. In essence, your marketing pennies go much further than ever before.
2007 holds many more such opportunities for on and off line promotion. We predict that in next year will see the further mergance of on and off line marketing, but as more people do “catch up”, it is going to get a whole lot busier online with more competition. Our advice would be to get your online strategy right now, otherwise you could well be at the back of the queue.
We wish all our readers and clients a prosperous 2007.
December 26th, 2006
We tell our clients over and over again about the importance of having an optimised online presence regardless of their business. We all need a shop window!
Christmas statistics show how increasingly important it is to be found on the internet. For our clients we make sure that their sites are optimised to the full potential to enable this to happen. The majority of shoppers who visit retail websites first are more likely to spend more and shop more in local stores, a new study reveals.
Continue Reading December 23rd, 2006
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December 19th, 2006