A serious downgrading of many sites occurred in late February as Google believed a number of UK news sites had sold links to a web site via advertorials. An advertorial is an advertisement that in this case is used to boost page rank and Google has come down especially hard this time. There were stories that the page rank scores of the sites involved were downgraded to zero. The advertorial is similar to a television infomercial. There is a story about a product or company being discussed as if it…

An interesting use of digital marketing may be how high street survives in the UK. An article in marketing week points out that with proper use of new marketing strategies stores can welcome the Smartphone and computer user by appealing to their digital habits. The article also points out that help may be coming from an unusual source: Google. Google wants to help retailers understand current consumer behavior. One way is to inform retailers how people use Smartphones while they are in the store. This information could help retailers use…

The focus of all your marketing efforts has not changed – the classic idea to bring more customers in by good word of mouth still applies. Although when it comes to digital terms this effort may better described as good word of keyboard. The new Google maps function and Facebook Graph Search has opened up opportunities in an area that some companies fear to tread – sharing of reviews. The great review that a Facebook friend shares is something every location wants, almost as much as they fear that a…

The new Twitter API, which has been a topic of conversation for some time, was officially released on February 20, 2013. It is a new advertising platform that will make it a more viable alternative to Facebook.  Twitter’s new API will make it easier for large advertising agencies to upload ads onto Twitter where their older API allowed this, but only one ad could upload at a time. This could mean a major increase in revenue for the Twitter as more companies will be able to make better use of…

Any company that is considering using Facebook, Twitter and other social sites to communicate with customers could easily have second thoughts due to the potential downsides. One major negative of using social media can arise when something goes wrong, like a customer service or product issue. Any bad news about your company can spread quickly through social sites and hurt potentially hurt the reputation of your business. Even if your company isn’t participating on these sites you still may be getting some bad reviews if your customer service isn’t where…

The focus of many social media based advertising plans was to get as many likes and recommendations as possible from those who participate on the networking sites. Shared Twitter posts, gaining likes on Facebook and even posting company info on LinkedIn have been important drivers in digital marketing efforts. Now there is another way to use the social networking giant Facebook to improve your company’s bottom line – and it isn’t related to Search Engine Optimization. Facebook can help local companies go up against larger companies with the help of…

Making use of Facebook as a place to distribute information about your company and products to increase search engine optimization is a valuable strategy. Now Facebook has their own brand of search optimization you need to monitor and your company may benefit from focusing on how to improve it. Depending on what you advertise on Facebook and how you advertise it your success could be directly linked to Facebook graph search optimization. These strategies do not focus on content that gets sent to those who have “liked” you in the…

The World Wide Web can be a daunting place to try and advertise your products and services for sale. The same marketing rules for other media do still apply and the web gives you new tools to accomplish your goals. It also can give you some pointers in what you may be doing wrong. First you need to use what you know about your company’s product and think of words that can differentiate your brand from the competition.  This is usually referred to as your Unique Selling Point (USP). Think…

It seems a bit ironic that the Google Panda and Penguin updates of last year had sought to find better content with their web crawler.  After all, content marketing has been a focus of some of the most successful companies for several years now. The new digital marketing strategies have been moving away from things like banner ads to get attention, just like many companies no longer advertise on roadside billboards. Effective content marketing starts with finding out what your potential customers need and want. You provide information to your…

New entrepreneurs have been working on the 4 Ps of marketing (product, price, place and promotion) ever since selling began. The first p, product, is not just about what you make – it is also about the desirability to your target customers. Price is the P that we most often worry about – Is your product priced well enough to convince the client to buy? The third p, place, has changed for many. Place is no longer about the actual proximity to your customers as now most products can simply…