Nevertheless, the 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report revealed that more than 50% of companies closed leads via social media channels. It also disclosed that, whilst the bulk of digital marketing budgets are spent on PPC followed by SEO, most brands have increased their budgets for social media marketing for 2012. But what is the value of this relatively new medium? The list below briefly outlines why engaging with customers through social medial channels can drive improved revenue and/ or brand preference.

1. It increases visibility at a low cost
Buying advertising space on traditional channels such as print, television and radio is expensive, especially relative to the cost of setting up social media pages. Corporate websites are generally stagnant compared to blogs and social media pages. Social media pages, on the other hand, have the potential to generate multiple brand impressions at a very low cost.

2. Customer service is quicker and easier
Customer service teams can listen out for customer issues online, and resolve them. Starbucks takes this a step further by asking its online communities for suggestions on how to improve its business, and then discusses the ideas on the site where others can see. It’s generally good practice for companies’ social media staff to respond to tweets and wall posts.

3. It grows your online community
Increasing a brand’s Twitter following and Facebook fan base is the cornerstone of most social media marketing strategies. This is because it ensures sizeable audiences when the brand promotes new products, services and promotions. Unlike traditional marketing channels, social media generally allows for two-way conversations between the brand and its customers. What’s more, some social media pages are used as forums by loyal customers.

4. It increases organic search rankings
In general, if a brand has a large online community, this means higher levels of conversation about the brand. This gradually leads to more traffic to the brand’s site, more mentions and more links. The cumulative effect is that the brand’s organic search rankings gradually improve. For more information on R.O.I. Media’s social marketing services, click here.

5. It can increase your company’s trustworthiness and goodwill
In a study conducted by Ogilvy and Chat Threads in 2011, findings revealed that social content can change a brand’s image positively. This finding was coupled with a recommendation that brands should incorporate social content into their branding programs and track perception metrics. By doing this, PR managers can also get early warnings of potential PR disasters before they hit mainstream media.

6. It helps the brand to understand the target market better
Generally, the bigger a brand’s social media audience is, the higher the level of conversation. By listening first, a company can be better prepared to join online conversations and be more likeable to its audience.

7. The future is online
There’s already research which suggests that Generation Y (born between 1976 and 1995) is increasingly using social media to research products, find deals and evaluate peer reviews prior to making purchase decisions. The iGeneration (born after 1995) is predicted to be even more highly connected than past generations. Simply put, marketers need an online social presence, because that’s where there customers are and will be.

8. It increases the chances of going viral
Customers may like the content you post for various reasons. Perhaps it’s hilarious, unbelievable, deeply emotional, agrees with their worldview or makes them stop and think. Whatever the reason, social sharing buttons and embed codes prompt people to share content with their circles. Some campaigns even offer incentives for people to share.

Speak to anyone who works in marketing today, and they’ll very likely agree that social media is simply essential at this stage. Contact R.O.I. Media today and find out how we can apply our industry expertise to your expanding brand needs.

According to Google itself, “97 percent of consumers search for local businesses online.” This is a staggering figure, and one which has far reaching ramifications for the marketing industry. Gone is the former concept of hit-and-miss marketing through mediums such as junk mail. The internet now allows businesses to promote their company based on the demographics and needs of their specific target market – therefore leading to higher conversions from increasingly valid traffic.

But, what is Google Places really and how can it add value to your business?

In short, Google Places allows a business to display details pertaining to its physical location and services when browsers search for related businesses on Google Maps. Input the words ‘pizza Cape Town’ and see what happens – you’ll quickly note the Google Places entries. This presents a largely untapped potential for, not only increased conversions through relevant searches, but also from carefully placed keywords. As Google Places is, naturally, a Google product the entries get priority during searches – meaning that expert keyword insertion can lead to top rankings for formally near untouchable keywords when pursuing organic methods.

According to Vic Gundotra, Vice President of Engineering for Google Maps mobile division, “more than 100 million people a month are now using Google Maps for mobile”. The rapid expansion of mobile browsing has not gone unnoticed by digital marketing experts like R.O.I. Media, and taking full advantage of this growing trend by adapting mobile compatible apps is certainly one of the top priorities going forward.

In short, your website might have been unable to rank for ‘best pizza Cape Town’, but your Google Places entry just may. While it’s true that Google Places only allows a brief entry in terms of actual information, it’s also true that interested browsers are able to connect to your business site easily enough should they want additional details. The idea here is to catch their attention quickly and direct them to your establishment, rather than leaving quality conversions to your competitors.

Separating fact from fiction

R.O.I. managing director Allen Jaffe is no stranger to optimisation advancements. Recognised as one of the foremost search engine optimisation (SEO) experts in the global market today, Allen has his finger on the pulse in terms of both currently accepted and contentious advancements within the industry.

“Google has the majority market share with more than 12 billion searches per month, and we’re not likely to see a dip there. Google Places is currently providing results and making companies easily accessible with great summarised reviews” says the R.O.I. founder. “It’s still a controversial topic at this point, but Google Places is consuming organic real estate, and the entries are placed in a highly strategic location. Google is constantly evolving and the latest evidence of this is the Places product, which is providing local listings to great effect.”

“There’s no doubt that Google Places will usurp rankings from organic SEO, and R.O.I. will always evolve with the landscape of search techniques. Another pivotal detail is that 67 percent of Google’s searches on weekends are done via mobile devices, and Google Maps and Google Places have evolved to take advantage of that fact. I’m proud to announce that R.O.I. will now be offering a single free listing as a value added service to all new and existing clients.”

Allen went on to say that the Google product would become another aspect of the company’s overall SEO strategy.

As a client of R.O.I., if you’re interested in taking advantage of the product’s enticing mobile search viability as well as coupon generation, reviews, location details, images and ranking boosts – contact your Account Manager today.

The first time I felt this instant connection with something non human since that dreadful incident in 1992, was when I was introduced to the wonderful world of SEO. I instantly became obsessed with the subject, and up until today, I strive to learn more and more about this magical industry. Unlike Superman, SEO will never be defeated and thus I am assured that I am not investing my time and energy into something that will simply suffer the same fate as Superman did, under the hands of that monster, Doomsday.

I could not think of a better comparative blog post than taking my two obsessions and determining which superhero / villain would fit the criteria of being “top notch SEO” and take the coveted “Super SEO” Title.

I thus asked myself this question: If awesome SEO were comic book heroes or villains, who would be the ultimate fit? I will 1st look at three classic superheroes which I think will not be able to take the title due to their central flaws, flaws which will not “fly” in the SEO realm. I will match up different SEO elements with their flaws and discuss why they are not the chosen one:

I highly doubt that anyone would have thought that this would be my first unsuccessful consideration. Although he does seem like the obvious choice as he packs a multitude of powers ranging from super strength, super speed, flight and much more, I simply cannot get over the fact that he can be rendered harmless by swinging a little rock called kryptonite at him. Don’t get me wrong, I still think he is awesome, but if I think of this in SEO terms, something very small can knock your site back tremendously. Broken links, spammy links, duplicate content, missing Meta tags etc are all small things that are avoidable, but once you come into contact with them, no matter how powerful your site is, it can and most probably will stun organic progress. Due to his kryptonite weakness, Superman aka Clark Kent, in my opinion is therefore not the best choice for this title.

On top of this main flaw, there is also his love interest Lois Lane, which constantly took his attention off the game (which was to save the world I might add!), and in SEO you must always have your eye on the ball. Taking on Google is nearly as intense as saving the world so sorry Kal-El – this one is not for you.

Useless fact about Superman – Every episode of Seinfeld either had a picture or action figure of Superman displayed in one of the shots.

Spider-Man possesses spider like abilities such as super strength and can also stick to surfaces. He is also extremely agile and has amazing reflexes. Don’t forget about his “spider sense,” that warns him of upcoming danger. Wow, this should surely be the winner of the SEO title! Someone that can warn you of impeding Search Engine penalties? Amazing! But no. Not even that can substitute for his main flaw; his sense of responsibility.

Few people realise it but before Peter Parker’s well known love interest Mary Jane, he had another love interest; Gwen Stacy. She was Peter’s 1st love interest and was killed during an epic battle between Spider-Man and The Green Goblin. It is this reason that he became utterly confused about his role and responsibilities as a modern day superhero (some might remember the rather recent Spider-Man two and three movies where this was very evident). Unfortunately, with SEO you cannot be uncertain about what you are doing.

You cannot be uncertain about your keyword choice, your strategies or simply stop doing it because you don’t feel like it. You need to develop strategies around the keywords you thoroughly researched, so be sure they are the correct ones and stick to implementing the strategies. (To avoid this “web of destruction” where your strategies do not work, rather consult trusted SEO experts who will know exactly what to do). This major flaw in this formidable superhero will unfortunately prevent him from taking this title. Remember Peter – “with great power there must also come great responsibility” – something which you always seem to question.

Useless fact about Spider-Man – The publishers didn’t want to do a character named Spider-Man at first as they thought it was too scary.

A brilliant scientist, Bruce Banner (as he was formerly known) was caught in an accidental blast of gamma radiation. He is now cursed to transform, in times of stress and anger, into the being of destruction known as THE INCREDIBLE HULK. Now The Hulk can cause some serious damage with his immense power, but does become out of control and irrational as his stress levels increase. He is also extremely impatient. Although a “brilliant scientist” does indicate that he would be a perfect fit for the very technical realm of SEO, unfortunately SEO is hard work and at times can become stressful.

Whether you are a SEO agency, conduct your own in-house SEO or employ a company to handle your organic matters, patience really is a virtue and you always need to keep your head. Having someone like Bruce Banner on your team could cause an entire project to collapse, as he’ll end up making irrational decisions, such as buying a 1000 directory links, when he is stressed due to obtaining insufficient rankings. As a client, be patient with your agency as rankings do not happen overnight. SEO is not easy at all, it is very hard work and irrational decisions will make your job even more difficult or sour your relationship unnecessarily with your SEO agency (therefore let your agency set clear goals at the beginning of the campaign which you agree on). Sorry Hulk, first take a chill pill then maybe you can take this title.

Useless fact about The Incredible Hulk – In the early editions of The Hulk, he was actually grey instead of green.

I had no doubt in my mind regarding who the winner would be on this challenge. Although a villain, Juggernaut’s anger and feud with the X-men was solely driven by his abusive father. He is also not the sharpest tool in the shed, but it is mainly due to his ability that makes him a perfect match for this title. Cain Marko, as he is known, was granted superhuman strength and invulnerability after finding the mystic Gem of Cytorrak. The only flaw that Juggernaut has in my opinion is that he is rather powerless as compared to the likes of Thor and Superman etc when not in motion. He gains extraordinary power when he gains momentum and is capable of shattering mountains. He is described as being physically unstoppable once he gained sufficient momentum and does not tire physically.  I think that if Juggernaut could run in a straight line continuously without any obstacles, he would become the most powerful superhero of all time.

Now I cannot find a better way to describe SEO than this. Unfortunately, your competitors out there are doing some hardcore SEO and if you do not (i.e. simply remain “SEO motionless”) they will defeat you! There is no “let’s play nice” in SEO, competitors (your villains) will take you down without thinking twice. If you employ SEO strategies for a continuous amount of time without any breaks, your site will gain momentum and ultimately become extremely powerful.

If Juggernaut stops his momentum he will be knocked down, and the same goes for SEO. A huge misconception that people have is they think they can do SEO for only a short period of time and when they have the rankings, simply stop doing it. The reality is that your villains out there will not stop. They will not tire until they have defeated all their foes! They will blast links, ooze out content, and warp new strategies into being which will leave you beaten and bruised. Don’t sit back and become a victim.

Juggernaut, your ability and major flaw is what SEO should and shouldn’t be. A perfect fit – Well done!

Useless fact about Juggernaut – There is no useless fact, he is simply awesome!

Be on the look out for Issue #2 of “The Adventures of SuperSEO!” due for release next month.

The biggest question for marketers out there is how can we take advantage of this opportunity?

Below is my list of the top eight strategies which should get you started in this fast growing industry. Please bear in mind that we will be focusing on non-paid advertising.

Basic SEO Best Practices – Just as effective as site optimisation is for your desktop, the same applies for mobile sites. Therefore having good content, keywords, search engine accessibility and links is vital in mobile SEO too.

Mobile Website – First and foremost is deciding if you need a devoted mobile site or if you will redesign your current site to a mobile friendly version. If you think majority of your customers use mobiles phones, then a dedicated mobile site will be suitable, otherwise create a custom CSS file for your mobile friendly site. Visit Mobile Filters in Google Analytics for more information on determining your website’s mobile activity – also bear in mind that there are other factors still to consider. Even though mobile usage is growing rapidly there are still some downfalls like web extensions and animations that cannot be viewed on smartphones such as iPhone, and many users still have traditional phones that might not be able to view your website content as intended.

Mobile URL Serving – A lot of webmasters have their mobile sites detect users who access via a mobile phone, and then displays a mobile friendly site using a different URL. This is no longer required because website owners now use Canonical URL tags to present both users and Googlebots with a single URL. A good advantage to having a single URL is that you will have a single destination for link building.

Mobile Keyword Research – The way user’s type search queries on mobile differs from desktop searchers. On average search queries are 20 percent shorter. There are various keyword suggestion tools out there which provide mobile filtering options, which can be used to help you choose the right keywords to target.

Mobile Emulator – If you want to see how your mobile friendly site will appear, there are plenty of resources out there which can aid you with this. One of them is “Dotmobit”.

Mobile Content – As we all know, content is king – therefore it is also important to test the effectiveness of your mobile content, just like you would on the desktop. Understanding your customers, what their likes and dislikes are, as well as keywords and social topics – these insights will help you achieve the best content strategy for your mobile site.

Mobile Site Map – Once you have a list of all your mobile URLs; create an XML sitemap to submit to Google Webmaster tools. Non-mobile URLs should not be included, but URLs that return both mobile and non-mobile content can be included.

Mobile Analytics - You can use Google Analytics to track traffic to your mobile website and learn how many users are visiting or leaving your website on their mobile device. This will give you great insight as to where you should invest your energy.

In conclusion, millions of peoples out there are using mobiles phones to connect to the internet and there are more phones in the world than TVs and computers combined – so if you are not considering mobile marketing as one of your strategies, then you are putting yourself at a great disadvantage.

If you have an e-commerce site you’ll agree – receiving 500 visitors or 5000 is irrelevant – the most satisfying scenario will be the one which brings about the highest profit margin. It is thus vital that you review your Google Analytics data and shift your focus accordingly. By doing this, you can substantially increase your organic revenue generation.Reviewing certain elements in your Google Analytics account can help you make informed decisions around your online marketing efforts and you’re likely to be surprised by the outcome if the correct set of data is analysed.

Here’s my list of the Top 5 elements which should be analysed in order to ‘swing the bling’ your way organically…
*Keep in mind that feasible analysis can only be conducted if you have Google Analytics installed on your site for at least six months. You also need to have the correct e-commerce and goal tracking installed.

1. Top Profit Generating Keywords:
Determining which organic keywords drove traffic to your site and which of them have CONSISTENTLY converted over a long period of time will give you great insight into which keywords you should focus on in your online marketing efforts. The reason why I screamed out CONSISTENTLY is because some keywords might have only had a conversion spike for one day. You should make sure that the keywords performed consistently over a given period so that you know whether they are feasible to hunt down.

2. Top Profit Generating Pages
Check which of your pages are generating the most income and concentrate on making them more powerful, as this will surely drive more revenue your way. You’ll also see which of your main target pages are underperforming in terms of revenue generation so that you can improve them and bring them up to par with the rest of the site. The metric Google Analytics uses to calculate the profitability of pages is referred to as the property index ($index).

3. Top Profit Generating Geo Locations
Why focus your SEO efforts on ‘Kazakhstan’ when all they are “purchasing” on your website is bandwidth? Find out which region and cities are spending the most money on your site and concentrate on getting more visitors from that area. This way you will ensure that you attract legitimate money spenders which will drastically increase your conversion rate.

4. Top Internal Search Queries
If a user searches a general keyword, like ‘health supplements’, then lands on your site and uses your internal search box to find ‘Bach Rescue Remedy’ before moving on to convert, your organic keyword report in Google Analytics will accredit the conversion to ‘health supplements’ and not the actual phrase which brought in the money. These ‘internal searchers’ will essentially be invisible to you. It is thus extremely useful to activate the internal search function in order for you to have access to an additional report in Google Analytics which will outline what keywords were searched for on your site coupled with conversion rates for all the keywords.

5. Analyse your PPC Campaigns
This only applies if you are making use of paid advertising and if you have successfully linked your AdWords and Google Analytics accounts. Sure, you can get this data from your AdWords account but I always enjoy looking at the data through Google Analytics so that I can view both paid and organic conversion rates side by side. It is always interesting to see how the two differ and more importantly, it will allow you to see where you should tweak your organic efforts in order to pounce on the successes you are receiving through pay per click.

Fusing your Google Analytics analysis with your SEO efforts in today’s ever increasing struggle for organic domination is vital and will surely give you the edge over your competitors. It is important to remember though, that analysing the above without having a well structured roll-out plan is pointless. Without a solid plan you’ll simply be wasting time and resources – it could even be the cause of your competitors overtaking you and leaving you behind to choke on their cyber-dust.

Some of you still don’t seem to think so, right?

Let me put it this way – If all your on page factors are in order and you only have a single back link or didn’t do any offsite SEO to your website, then you have everything that might take you to number one on Google, provided that there are not many competing websites. Yes, you read that right.  However if the competition is high for the words you want to rank for, then you will need to do some offsite SEO depending on the amount of competition.

So in the end, I guess getting good search engine rankings is a matter of doing both onsite and offsite SEO but I strongly recommend getting all your onsite factors right first before worrying about link building.

Below are few random basic onsite SEO factors that should be implemented on any given site:

Title tags and Meta description tags

Title tags and Meta description tags play a vital role in your on-site SEO activities, not only because they tell the user what the page is all about but also the Search Engine bots – so when writing them make sure they are eye catching, interesting and keyword rich.  Although this will not have a major affect on your SEO rankings you will benefit from an improved click through rate.

Quality Content

As we all know content is king and it drives the web – Adding a news section or blog to your site is one easy way to keep your content fresh by adding at least 1 post a week. Remember search engines love unique content. Make sure all your page content is truly newsworthy and that’s it.

Internal Linking

Implementing a well structured internal linking strategy between relevant areas of your site will ensure that you show Search Engines that you are aware of how your pages should relate to each other.

Duplicate URLs

Do you have three or more versions of your home page http://www.site.com, http://site.com and http://www.site.com/index.html that Google could be indexing? If yes then redirect them to the one with the most authority otherwise you will be penalized by Google for duplication issues even if you have thousands of back links to your site. Yep that is also true.

Broken links

Are there broken links on your site? A check to ensure that there are none is vital as Search Engine bots hates broken links and it will slow down your progress. If you don’t have Google Webmaster tools verified, now is the time. It has a list of all 404 pages on your site.

Static & XML Sitemaps

Sitemaps help Google bot discover and index pages on your website faster.

Robots.txt

Use robots.txt to restrict pages that you don’t want Search Engine bots to crawl or index.

See that wasn’t too much to bear was it? Well don’t get too comfy as there are numerous other elements to take into account from an onsite perspective. When you have all these are in place well it will then be a good time to start with your offsite SEO.

Because in the end all we want is that top position in the Search Engines and Search Engines are just a super computer / algorithm which tries to make sense of all the text on your site (onsite factors), links and text from other sites (offsite), and if you connect them both, you will make the job easier for search engines to give your site that top online positions.

-          Which online marketing strategy should I implement given my annual marketing budget?

-          I have a limited budget, which digital strategy will generate the best returns?

The first step is clearly to take into account your client’s online needs – are they pushing brand awareness, wanting to sell more products or services or simply looking for newsletter sign-ups?

Every online need can be matched by multitude of online strategies but the big question is:

Which is the best overall online strategy when it comes to generating the best returns?

As a specialist Search Engine Optimisation/SEO company we will clearly push our primary product above others. The truth is that in the pre-sale chat to potential clients I often say SEO will give you a greater return in the long-run in comparison to other products such as Paid Traffic and Affiliate Traffic. I say this through experience – not through greed. Over the years I have seen SEO-orientated clients get better returns against other online marketing mediums.

The bottom-line and well known fact is that 80% to 90% of a website’s traffic originates from the Search Engines, with the organic results (SEO) taking the majority of the available Search Engine traffic. To put this big debate to rest, I ran my own profit analysis against different digital strategies.

So, which digital strategy is the fairest of them all – SEO, PPC Management or Affiliate Marketing,?

The results I am about to present are based on five months of data, allowing each campaign to be refined, tweaked and optimised for best performance. The client is one of the largest sports retailers in Europe. The SEO and PPC campaigns are being managed by us, while the affiliate marketing campaign is managed by a leading international digital marketing company.

How did I select a winner? I decided to look at the Average Cost per Sale for each campaign. In other words, I looked at which campaign was the most cost effective in terms of generating additional sales (all things being equal).

Not surprisingly, SEO was the clear winner, with the average cost per sale being €7.98, while PPC and affiliate marketing had an average cost per sale of €14.18 and €15.30 respectively. It’s important to note that on average, SEO generated more sales and revenue per month against the other digital strategies.

This result more than justifies why SEO is considered the best long term digital strategy in terms of generating sales online. It is almost twice as effective as other strategies when it comes to generating online sales. At the same time, I don’t believe SEO is a mutually exclusive strategy, and a well-rounded digital campaign requires a host of online marketing strategies that reach various digital segments and satisfy a range of client needs. This is why R.O.I Media aims to deliver all-round online marketing solutions for a greater return on investment for our clients, across the board.

In terms of improvements, our site is the tip of the iceberg.  Our formula has been tried and tested with continuous improvement along the way focussing on the goal of generating revenue for our clients.   Contact us to chat to our expert team about a new or existing site or even just to have a coffee and bounce an idea.  We also offer a range of Reports to give you tons of information about your existing or potential digital marketing campaign.

If you are advertising car rentals, your image ad won’t appear on a website about cooking, rather you can target exact sites (Managed Placements) or target a variety of sites through related keywords (Automatic Placements). This way your ad will appear to relevant users who are actively taking part in a community related to your brand or product.

Image ads are a great way to create brand recognition as well as driving traffic to your website. Image ads tend to have a higher impression count than text ads, thus being a great way to make users aware of your product/service.

Image ads are easy to create. You can create an ad using photo editing software, or better yet by simply using Googles easy to use Display Ad Builder. Display Ad Builder allows you to select templates and edit them in a variety of different ways to make your ad unique and stand out from the rest. This process isn’t time consuming, and can be completed without any hassles, and you don’t need to be an Adwords Certified Professional to figure out all the steps.

If you would like your brand/product advertising to have a wider reach, think about using image ads as a way to connect with users easily and cheaply.

Many, if not most of us have a Gmail account that we are permanently logged in to. You will notice that you are logged in by viewing the top right of your screen. This profile is associated with all your searches; by being logged in, your search results will be customised and will most definitely be dissimilar to everyone else.

So what is the simple solution; is it to logout? A few months ago, I would have replied with a definite, ‘yes’… However, the situation has now been changed. Even if you are not logged in, Google is still customising your search results on your computer. Most people are unaware that this is taking place and would appreciate knowing how to undo it. To undo it, follow the easy instructions below:

• Click Web History (top right)

• Click Disable customisations based on search activity.

Once this is done, you will begin to see pure results that are unburdened by Google’s own search activities.