Web Designer Melbourne

How Much Should Your Company Spend in Online Marketing?

2012-02-11T11:10:00.002+11:00

In recent times I have been often asked the question: How much should my company spend in Online Marketing? There is no straight answer as every industry and company can be very different.

Consumption online has, as a matter of fact, grown significantly over the last 5 years and will continue to grow. Your business can take advantage of this growth and bite a share of the online consumers. But to get there you will need a professional website and investment in online marketing.

In Australia most large corporations have not been pro-active and innovative towards their internet business. Therefore, doors were open to new innovative companies to fill in this space. That doesn't mean that there is no competition online. It means the competition is more distributed in the vast world of the internet. Always look at your competitors online, which position they are on Google and what strategies are the following online. Then ask yourself, can I do better? That take us back to our question: How much do I invest in online marketing to get the sales target in a more even, transparent and less monopolistic marketplace?

Large corporations have traditionally allocated a budget to spend on a certain period of time. That budget was then distributed into several campaigns in different types of media channels (TV, Radio, Magazines, Direct Mail, etc), which is generally unaccessible to the vast majority of small companies. These media channels don't provide an effective way to measure the return over the investment. Half of the money spent on advertising bring no return whatsoever; the question is which half.

ROI (Return of Investment) is the way to should look at your investment in internet marketing. One of the great advantages of the internet marketing is the huge capability of tracking every online action you are taking and consequently measuring the return. In simple words, if the action is working, keep going with it. If the action is not working, stop it.

Example:
You want to turn over $10,000 monthly on your new online store. your profit on selling this amount is $4,000 (40%). Let say that you want to allocate $1000 (10%) to try to achieve the turnover above, hence leaving you with 30% profit. The first ste is to invest $1000 for a couple of months to understand what sort of ROI you get for your money and which are the best strategies.

Look at the first two months as a learning curve, where you are testing several different online strategies. Learn, refine, test it again until you find where your 'pot of gold' is. You will need to try several different actions (SEO, Adwords, Advertising in other websites, blogs, etc) and find out which one works best for you. You might be able to do it yourself, but we strongly recommend you approach a professional company will will not only point in the right direction, but it will be quicker and more effective with your money.

When talking about investment in internet marketing, always think in terms of the return over the investment. Ask yourself how much do I want to sell and how much do I need to invest to achieve your target. You will find that this approach, in most cases, will even tell you how feasible your online business/idea is. Google doesn't care if your company large or small. It cares that you offer a compelling content, competitive products and smart approach towards your consumers. If consumers want you, Google will want you too.

By Renato Dayan
Light Media

What is SEO?

2011-12-11T14:37:00.001+11:00

What is SEO? SEO stands for search engine optimisation. In simple terms SEO is a group of strategies to optimise your website ranking on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Hence, bring your website more traffic and consequently more business.

I am sure many of you have heard miraculous stories about almost mystical strategies of how SEO can take your website to the first page on Google search. Optimising your website may take you to the first page in Google. However it is almost impossible to guarantee such result for one very simple reason: no one really knows the algorithm or formula used by the search engines. In addition, SEO is not an easy task and in most cases it is very difficult to be done in a short period of time.

Before we even get into some SEO strategies, lets understand how search engines operates. Search engines like Google are interested first and foremost in delivering timely, relevant, high quality result to their users. The rationale is simple, the better the result for the user, the better the reputation of the search engine and the more users it will attract. The more users a particular search engine has the more attractive it is for advertisers and consequently the more ad revenue it will earn. In that sense search engines are the same as any other advertising channel.

There are two types of SEO people: White Hat and Black Hat. White Hat is the legitimate and long term strategy to bring your website higher in the ranking. White Hat SEO adhere to search engine's guidelines. They are the strategies we will approach in the next few paragraphs.

Now, Black Hat SEO is the darker side of the spectrum. It is a less ethical approach where practitioners attempt to exploit the loopholes they can find in the search engine algorithm. It might work short term, but the search engines are constantly improving themselves to eliminate the loopholes. Search engines might go as fas as banning your website if they find black hat SEO being done. Black Hat SEO is a short term approach to your website, so be careful when getting someone to optimise your website. Make sure the company (or individual) offers legitimate SEO strategies.

If you want to improve your ranking on Google search the first recommendation I can give is: get a professional company that can work on your website long term. Unless you really know what you are doing, your chances of success are very low and it will cost you a lot of time. You would go for a specialised company for the same reason you would go to a doctor: They know what they are doing !

These are some basic White Hat SEO strategies:

Content

Content is the simple most important thing on your website. Search engines like unique, relevant, comprehensive information. Before you write a content for a page research the keyword you will target on this page. Note that you can only rank well for one keyword per page.

Formatting

Make sure your page is formatted correctly with heading, link and the main words (keywords) in bold. Meta tags are not so important anymore, however you might as well get it right as it still has a small count. Your URL needs to be readable and not just codes. The page title needs to be consistent with the content.

Links

The second most important thing for white hat SEO. Search engines understand that each link is a vote of confidence to your page. Hence the important of your content. The better the content the more links it will get as other websites will want to refer to yours.

Inbound links are more important than outbound. Your website perform better if it attracts high quality, high authority, relevant and long term links. Avoid link farm or links for the sake of linking. It might bring your website up the ranks short term. But once the search engine finds that you are buying links it will make these links irrelevant to your ranking. Relevant blogs are also a really good way of getting genuine links.

Crawlable website

To deliver accurate, relevant and high quality results for its users a search engine (Google) needs to gather and mapped detailed information about billions of website and keep them updated. They perform this mammoth task using automated programmes that constantly collects information from the internet and store it in its database. This automated programmes are also known as 'spiders' as they crawl the web for information.

Therefore, your website must be easy for spiders to find and read (craw). If the search engine is unable to craw your website it will not be able to find it. When buying a website make sure it it crawable and can produce a sitemap. Although it is not necessary to submit a sitemap thesedays, it might help the spiders find your website quicker and keep track of it.

By Renato Dayan
Light Media

Light Media provides complete online marketing solutions. Talk to us about your online marketing strategy, including Web Design, Google Adwords, SEO, E-mail Newsletter and more.

Why you need a digital marketing strategy

2011-12-11T14:09:00.001+11:00

This is an interesting article extracted from the book 'Understanding Digital Marketing' by Damian Ryan and Calvin Jones. There still are an large number of organisations in Australia which neither understand nor see the potential of digital marketing to their businesses. This article gives a good understanding of it. Enjoy the reading.

"Whydo you need a digital marketing strategy? The simple answer: because withoutone you’ll miss opportunities and lose business. Formulating a digitalmarketing strategy will help you to make informed decisions about your forayinto the digital marketing arena and ensure that your efforts are focused onthe elements of digital marketing that are most relevant to your business. It’sa crucial first step towards understanding how the constantly evolving digitalmarketplace relates to you and how it affects the relationship between yourbusiness or brand and your customers and prospects.

Itdoesn’t matter what business you’re in; it’s a fairly safe bet that anincreasing number of your target market rely on digital technology every day toresearch, evaluate and purchase the products and services they consume. Withouta coherent strategy of engagement and retention through digital channels yourbusiness is at best missing a golden opportunity and at worst could be leftbehind, watching your competitors pull away across an ever-widening digitaldivide.

Unlikeconventional forms of mass media marketing, the internet is unique in itscapacity to both broaden the scope of your marketing reach and narrow its focusat the same time. Using digital channels you can transcend traditionalconstraints like geography and time zones to connect with a much wideraudience. At the same time, digital technology allows you to hone yourmarketing message with laser-like precision to target very specific nichesegments within that wider market. Implemented effectively, it can be an incrediblypowerful combination.

It’soften stated that the internet puts consumers in control as never before. Butit’s also important to remember that the internet also delivers anunprecedented suite of tools, techniques and tactics that allow marketers toreach out and engage with those same consumers. The marketing landscape hasnever been more challenging, dynamic and diverse.

Andtherein lies the crux of our need for a cohesive digital marketing strategy. Ifyou’re going to harness the power of digital marketing to drive your onlinebusiness to dizzying new heights, you need a thorough understanding of yourmarket, how your customers are using digital technology, and how your businesscan best utilize that same technology to build enduring and mutually rewardingrelationships with them. As digital channels continue to broaden the scopeavailable to us as marketers, so they add to the potential complexity of anydigital marketing campaign. Having a clearly defined strategy will help to keepyou focused, ensure that your marketing activities are always aligned with yourbusiness goals and, crucially, ensure that you’re targeting the right people."

Light Media in Australia can provide a complete service for online marketing strategy, including Web Design, Google Adwords, SEO, E-mail Newsletter and more.

Outstanding website design- a ‘must road’ for Melbourne businesses.

2011-12-02T12:34:00.001+11:00

It is no secret that great webdesign is a growing industry in Australia. More and more consumers are going online looking for better services and products for their modern needs.

The advance of the Internet over traditional brick and mortar retail outlets are gaining precedence in today’s marketplace. Well-designed websites are crucial for turning online window shoppers into buyers. This is important in an era where consumers are spoilt for choice with competitive websites, free delivery and shopping or access of information, anytime, 24/7.

In the near future, most businesses will have to be online to survive. This is a fact in our current technology era that retailers will have to embrace to survive. Consumers will not hesitate to go online to shop and compare products and prices that are better. The Internet has created a transparent world for the end consumer and businesses must embrace this notion if they are to gain consumer confidence and credibility. In addition, the business generated online will be a large part of any Australian business with a competitive edge. The companies that are getting ready for the future are already taking full advantage of the Internet as a lead generation.

Cris Matsunaga is a Melbourne based web designer with over 10 years experience in web development and online marketing. Cris has been around since the beginning of the Internet generation; he has got a wealth of information on how to design and develop websites, as well as market them online. Cris has been involved in the development of many successful ecommerce websites such as Appliances Online, Bebelicious and Beers Direct.

In a recent media interview with Purple Cow SEO Cris said ‘…there is so much value that needs to be added to Australian businesses online…’ and ‘… as the internet is a fairly new industry component essential for Australian businesses, a high percentate are yet to realise the full potential that a well designed website can have for their business….’ This will all change over the next few years for a few reasons. Firstly, companies and their staff are becoming more educated and savvy about the online sector. Secondly, the addition of younger people to the work force who have grown up in the Internet world will drive the companies online. It is all about understanding the benefits and advantages of the Internet.

According to Internet World Statistics, the number of Internet users has almost doubled to 2 billion people, which is 29% of the world population. Looking at these statistics it is easy to predict that percentage-wise, there is still a lot of growth to come. Can you image a world where 50% of the population uses the Internet? It won’t take long. Speculation says that as much as 50% of the world population will be connected by 2015. Isn’t your business online yet? Start looking sooner rather than later.