Cyber Monday & Marketing During Holidays

If you're a retailer, no matter how big or small you are, you absolutely have to advertise on the search engines during the Holidays. Check these numbers* out:

$29.1 billion in online spending in the 2009 November and December holiday shopping season.

4% increase in online spending over the same period year over year.

$913 million total spent online on Dec. 15, the heaviest spending day of all time.

20% growth in online spending on jewelry and watches, the top performing e-retail category.

No matter what month it is right now, start thinking about Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the holidays now! Don't miss out.

Best,

Jeff Martin

www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

* Numbers taken out of Barron's, January 11, 2010 Issue, p. 16. Internet measurement company comScore found online holiday sales perked up in 2009.

Internet Marketing Success - Succeed Now!

Internet Marketing success for entrepreneurs is easy, but involves promoting your products and services in multiple channels. Here's a quick and easy check list:

1. Have a website that is clean, simple, and easy to buy on or generate a lead from.
2. Make sure you're aware of basic SEO best practices: A) include keywords in your copy, headlines, B) blog about your products and services, C) Make sure you're on www.facebook.com, www.myspace.com, www.linkedIn.com, and www.YouTube.com
3. Send out direct mail postcards -- www.vistaprint.com is a great company to execute this. Don't forget to add your phone number as well as website address here.
4. Send out email campaigns -- www.constantcontact.com is a great company to launch this. Keep the message simple, include a limited time offer, and have a strong call to action that encourages a sale or lead through your website.
5. Make sure you're utilizing Search Engine Marketing / paid search advertising on www.Google.com, www.msn.com , www.ask.com, www.yahoo.com -- www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com can help your SEM efforts.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me. Don't forget to ask how to obtain the Marketing Halo Effect through advertising on multiple channels.

Happy Selling!

Jeff Martin
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com
phone: 248.275.5243
Email: JeffMartin@SalesDrivenMarkting.com

Microsoft & Yahoo: What's Old Is New - Kind Of

Traffic traffic and traffic. Any website's success is dependent upon:

1. How many visits it gets a month, and
2. How well the site converts the traffic into hardcore business.

For the marketer concerned about making sure every dollar spent in advertising generates at least a dollar of profit, this deal means nothing in the near term.

For the Corporate 500 company and big ad agencies who want scale in placing display ads (brand building campaigns), once Microsoft purchases and integrates Yahoo into the fold, it'll be a lot easier to launch, manage and measure a campaigns effectiveness -- this is a year or two out.

Bottom line: this is a strategic move for Microsoft to make gains on Google's lead, and make sure they're front and center as the online marketing spend increases from $40 Billion to $80 Billion in the next three years.

What's your take?

Jeff
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com
The Internet Advertising Experts

Do You Need A Widget?

Before even thinking about widgets, make sure you're doing these must have Internet marketing tactics:

1. Effectively advertising on the three primary/largest search engines: Google, Yahoo, and MSN;
2. Measuring how many visits your site gets a month;
3. Calculating the percentage of monthly visitors who either buy or ask for more information (a.k.a. submits a lead);
4. Building (a.k.a. coding) your site with basic search engine optimization (SEO) fundamentals;
5. Posting videos on YouTube;
6. Developing a community of current, past and future customers on MySpace and Facebook; and
7. Blogging and contributing to other blogs relevant to your product and services.

Unless you're already doing all of the above, then don't even think about or pay for widgets.

Happy success,

Jeff
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com
The Internet Advertising Experts