Recent News from Google

Google wants to publish out-of-print books online. Readers that I’ve talked to are encouraging the move by the search engine giant. Although, the courts see it differently, they want to make sure Google isn’t stepping on any anti-trust laws.

The authors and publishers have given their consent to Google to release their material. Should the case go in favor of Google, the out-of-print authors could reach out to an audience when they could not before. Readers will be able to read the author’s works online, on their phone, iPod Touch, or on the new electronic readers that have recently come onto the market.

The public will be able to read this material for free, but Google has to pay for the rights and set-up of the service. How will they do it? Well, the same way they have always done it: advertising revenues. This is just speculation on my part, but I foresee them placing ads on the margins of e-books that they publish.

Businesses wish to reach a captive audience might want to watch as this story develops. Imagine a group of potential customers reading books that your business sponsors! Your ad would be displayed on every page giving you repetition, retention, increased brand awareness nudging potential customers page by page toward consideration. It would be like having your product displayed in every scene of a movie.

Knowledge is the key to on-line success. Internet Marketing success is based on how much information we can collect, interpret, and leverage towards our goals. Follow this story and others like it here on on-line.blogspot.com or by consulting with an agent from WSI Magic Web. Contact us today.

Yahoo Begins Its Campaign

In the previous blog we talked about Yahoo revamping their service. I mentioned in late September their new national ad campaign. In case you missed TV for the past few weeks, here's the first ad of the 15 month series. This commercial just introduces the new Yahoo to consumers in vivid color and movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULjCSK0oOlI

As Yahoo starts to re-brand themselves you should be as well. Yahoo is positioned to be the Content Portal for the entire web. Content advertising is nothing new. Your business has done it before in local newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Now that people are shifting in a major way to absorbing content online, don't you think it's time to re-brand your company online?

It used to be that only nationwide brands could market themselves on CNN.com, WallStreetJournal.com, ESPN.com and other online news sources. That has all changed thanks to the partnerships WSI has forged with Yahoo, Google, MSN and other major portals. You can now advertise locally on these nationally known networks.

The average consumer is not aware of this fact. Therefore, your local brand can look like a national brand for a fraction of the cost! The advantage of this perception by your local customers is astounding. You will gain copious amounts of creditability which leads to more sales and faster growth of your business.

We at WSI are excited about the new Yahoo and what it will help us do for you. Your online success will grow by leaps and bounds when you use WSI's proven Internet Marketing strategies. Contact us to find out how to get your business on the fast track today!

Main Street Marketing 2.0 (Part 3)

Main Street businesses are certainly familiar with traditional forms of advertising. Newspapers, magazines, billboards, bus benches, radio, and television ads are traditional forms of push marketing. Push marketing allows businesses to inform potential customers and create awareness about their company and any sales or services offered, announcements can be temporary or long standing.

Yellowpages, business directories, and tourist information centers are traditional forms of pull marketing. Pull marketing takes advantage of the awareness created. Once a customer identifies his needs or wants, he seeks out ways to contact or visit companies that offer exactly what the customer is looking for.

All of these have a direct mirror in Internet Marketing. The difference between online and traditional marketing is that businesses are:

• able to reach to a wider audience at less cost
• able to easily track the results
• able to respond quicker to customer demand

Let's look at a table where we can see the mirrors of each strategy and where they fit into the buying cycle of customer behavior.

Although they did not fit on the table, we can assume that all the traditional push strategies fit only into the purchase stage of the funnel. But to be fair we'll stick with push media for now. Pull marketing is worthy of it's own lengthy blog.

Once again the Internet has an advantage over traditional media, because it can do remarketing. Remarketing is where, because online activities are being traced, we have a second opportunity to capture purchase makers even if they did not click on our push ad. Another more detailed blog about that later.

Back to the matter at hand Display ads and banner ads are to newspaper, magazine and billboard ads as television and radio are to viral video marketing and social media marketing.

Display ads appear among the content of news and other informational sites to potential customers that are a captured audience on those sites just like newspaper and magazine ads have a captured audience. With Internet marketing the number of impressions can be accurately measured. Not so with newspaper and other print and good luck measuring how many people see your roadside billboard.

Like TV and radio ads Social media and viral videos are subject to the whims of the viewer or listener. Once ads come on they can change the station unless the ads peak their interest. With TV and radio you cannot count how many times your ad was seen or heard. Viral videos and social media can be exact to how many times your ad was watched, and unique to the Internet, reviewed by the public!

By now you should be able to the ongoing trend here. Traditional marketing while effective most of the time does not provide accurate measurement and therefore presents an iffy portrayal of your Return on Investment. Internet marketing is just as effective if not more and portrays an exact measure for your Return on Investment. For those businesses that need to watch their bottom line more closely the Internet is their best option although a healthy mix of both would be ideal. Call your WSI Internet Consultant to learn more about the best strategy for your business today!