Once upon a time B2B businesses floated about in their own lead generating network consisting of business relations, trade channels, and directory marketing.  They typically had a more defined target customer that required few contact channels to get in touch and maintain the dialogue.

Conversely, the B2C business typically had less singularity in their route to market but a bigger pool to swim in.  More often than not, B2C businesses had to develop a demand within the consumer market in order to service it.

Today, technology has facilitated consumer control and it is rampant!  The same rules no longer apply.  Your market whether it is B2B or B2C is no longer sitting patiently waiting for you to tell them all about yourself and why you are just what they need.

Today marketing is becoming more and more the same for these two aspects of business because both B2B and B2C customers are using the same information and communication channel to educate themselves.

Consumers themselves are generating business demand by becoming active participants in the commuication process.

Where does this leave you as a B2B and/or a B2C business?  Well in terms of the digital marketing channel, in pretty much the same place.  Content marketing is all about generating content that attracts the online consumer to you.

What should you do to maximise this opportunity?

(1)    Find out where your customer goes to find out about businesses like yours

(2)    Generate content around what they’re specifically looking for and then put it in the places where they’re likely to be looking for it.

(3)    Give them easy ways to contact you from this content.

(4)    Give them the information they need to choose you.

And last but not least, keep doing it.  Google respects consistency!

Online marketing is an increasing reality for many New Zealand businesses but when you match our adoption of online spending with other countries, we’re far behind the curve.  In isolation that might seem insignificant – we’re a different market  – but why have been slow to adopt this medium?   Here’s the thing, as businesses we have been slow to adopt the online SEM (search engine marketing) space, but as consumers we haven’t.  There is a very real disconnect between how we personally behave online to how we behave online as businesses, particularly in the larger urban centres.

Let’s have a look at a typical NZ business:  builders.  Now let’s look at some of their keywords and find out what the local monthly search volumes were for the last month:

• Builders                                                           110,000 monthly local searches
• Certified Builders                                             1,600 monthly local searches
• Builders Auckland                                            5,400 monthly local searches
• [Builders Auckland] (exact keyword match)      720 monthly local searches

Even if you only wanted to be found for an exact match for Builders Auckland and could only manage to convert 2% of this search volume, you would have converted 14.4 customers in the last month.  That’s an average of 3.3 new customers every week.   If you were a builder in Auckland, wouldn’t you like a piece of this pie?

The beauty of learning from overseas markets is that we can review the growth both in competition and dollar spends in SEM and tell you a couple of key points that matter to you now as a business not investing in this market.

(1)    Competition will only increase and so will the rates – get into the space while it’s still a really good deal financially.  Cost per click in places like U.S. or the U.K. are incredibly expensive.  For example, words that cost on average $5-$12 a click in these markets, still cost a fraction of the price here, but this will change.

(2)    Google ranks ads based on their relevancy, the website the ad sends visitors to and your overall Quality Score.  If you’re in a competitive market spending the same dollars as your competitor, but they’ve got more relevant ad copy, more relevant information on their website and have been advertising for a lot longer than you, then Google will choose to give them a better placement than you.  The beauty of working hard to develop a good Quality Score is that simply by having a better score, your ad has a better chance of displaying higher than your competitor even though you might be paying the same or even less for the same keywords.

(3)    Good ad copy, good website copy, good Quality Score takes time;  the sooner you get onto this the easier it will be to compete in your industry.  Otherwise you literally will be left behind when it becomes absolutely necessary to be running out front.

Here’s one way to look at it.

Google AdWords are like a live version of “direct marketing”.  In traditional direct marketing you build an offer that is tailored to a specific targeted segment of your customers and then mail it out or call them to make the offer so the offering is very relevant and typically direct marketing has a good conversion rate.

PPC works exactly the same but in real-time, you build a campaign around relevancy to what the customer wants or is searching for and then pull them through with creative ad texts to the relevant pages on your website which display your offering.  For PPC, you build a direct marketing campaign that runs in real-time as your customers are searching for that product or service.

If you want to talk about how we can help you renovate your online marketing, please drop us an email, and we’ll make sure you don’t get left behind.

What is Google Plus? Should we consider it for social media marketing, or is it dead?  Let’s start by being blatant. Google Plus by all means is no Facebook based on user statistics.  G+ has 500 million registered users, 235 million of which are active in any given month. This seems like a lot, but when compared with Facebook it seems insignificant:

Facebook has 1.1 billion active users. And the phrase “that’s a lot” is a little more than an understatement, right?

Nevertheless, G+ still has a user base, so it’s always worth considering for advertising.

Communities

Communities are a significant feature of Google Plus: it allows users to interact with other users based on their interests or hobbies, like a group on Facebook. This is a significant aspect from a marketing perspective: having a presence in communities that your targeted demographics are interested in is a helpful tool.

It’s Google

As well as this, G+ is not duly evaluated as a marketing tool without realising that it’s a Google product, self-described as a “social layer” that enhances other services. For instance, with a reputable Google Plus profile you can be eligible to be given significant Google Search real estate on the right hand side of the page on relevant searches.  Separate posts made by your page can also appear under relevant searches.

Interactive

Google Plus is also quite interactive, and could possibly be described as a more media rich Twitter: all content is searchable, but profiles are very media rich, with content seen directly on the page, and not via a link. More Twitter similarities include the ability to follow back and the ability to respond directly to users. As well as this, there is a “repost” feature, quite similar to blogging platform Tumblr’s take on the ‘retweet‘ — this is also an essay way to engage with and grow your audience: post good content.

Social reports and Ripples

Google Plus also has very fancy analytic tools. Social reports basically help you measure your social impact in a detailed way. Ripples is a cool little visualisation that shows you who’s sharing and re-sharing your posts and how often they’re doing this, and it could be a useful tool for identifying audience reaction.

Ultimately, Google Plus is indeed a useful tool for marketing, but with social media it is important to look past tool and think about audience. How much usage is Google Plus getting in New Zealand? That’s a good question, and one that has not been answered yet.

But the success of a social network depends ultimately on how interesting it is. If none a person’s close friends are using Google Plus it is unlikely that users will see a reason for it.

However, this does not mean it is dead: its large user base is testament to this. Our advice: it’s always good to be ahead of the game, and if you’re targeting quite young and tech savvy demographics then Google Plus is a must.

As we mentioned in one of our earlier posts, many a social network begins as solely that: a social network. Advertising isn’t considered until later. We’ve seen how this has slowly, yet drastically changed with Facebook, and now we’re seeing that with Twitter.

When Twitter first crossed the barrier and added ads it sort of floundered, in a way much like “I know what I’m trying to do, I’m just not sure how I’m going to do it.” However, after two very effective layout revisions resulting in not only improvement of user experience, but also more possibilities for advertising, Twitter found its feet in this regard.

However, advertisers had to be invited by Twitter to advertise and even then they had to spend a certain amount every quarter. This is likely because Twitter wanted to be careful with advertising: incorrectly integrate advertising into a social network and its users will not hesitate to leave in droves. Luckily, Twitter’s slow roll out was obviously effective, because it has recently released the ability to apply to advertise on Twitter. At this stage it’s for the US only, but it’s a start.

Now, businesses can apply online. There is significant customisation ability: target geographic location, device, gender and keywords. You can also set a daily budget. Types of ads include promoted search results, or promoted tweets in users timelines.

Ultimately, this is a very powerful tool for businesses: they now have Twitter in the palm of their hands. As long as it is used effectively it can inform customers of a business Twitter account (which they will hopefully follow and hence receive further updates), something significant which will appear in the tweet/s you promote, and a link to your blog or website, which will hopefully hook the surfers into fans. It’s too early to say how effective this new service will be, but it is likely that it will be very effective.

Well, you’ll never know if you never try.

Remember those sunglasses in the movies? The fancy ones that told some spy all this information and fancy colour graph things…kind of like what Iron Man sees in his suits? Well, thanks to Google, they now exist.

Well kind of, anyway — Google Glass has a little prism up in the right hand corner that displays information. You can ask it questions, like “what time is it” or say “take a picture” to take a picture. You can get visual directions, watch videos, make calls, and even get it to translate words for you. It’s the future.

But what does the future mean for business owners?

The first thing Google Glass means is the transition from the Internet being with us, to the Internet being us. Let’s be honest — if we’re wearing something on our head that does everything and shoves it in our face it means we’re always contactable. Whenever we get a call its right there in our ear. Whenever we get an email or a text or a tweet it is right in our face. Which makes it hard to ignore.

This means that Google Glass will eventually become part of mainstream technology: it’s going to become part of our lives. And when something becomes part of our lives it becomes part of advertising. Take Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, for instance. They’re all either largely utilised by brands or beginning to be utilised by brands (this is mainly Twitter and Facebook).

But how would Glass be able to be used for branding?

Well, no platform stays ad free forever. Facebook was originally ad free, Twitter was originally ad free — these are only two examples of how brands have utilised social media platforms. But what about tech platforms, falling short of flashy annoying ads on your iPhone? We’ll soon find out.

Capturing amazing point of view videos or images could be part of competitions. Videos taken with Glass will be more than videos — they’ll be an experience. When you ask Google Glass for directions it could tell you where to go, and also tell you that there’s a McDonalds on the way. When you visit a business Glass could, suggest you like the brand on Facebook whilst showing you how many friends also like the brand (or even show you images or videos of your friends in relation to said brand). These are only a few of the ways Glass could be used for branding. The possibilities are endless.

The Digital Marketing World is often viewed as a parallel marketing world, existing in its own little wild west.  It can be hard to even begin to contemplate developing a successful marketing plan for this online space.  As a way to help our existing and prospective clients, one of the services we offer is a Digital Road Map.

Our Digital Road Maps are ‘living’ road maps that can either stand alone or interweave directly into your overall marketing plans.  A combination of digital and traditional marketing efforts create strong, relevant and robust marketing methods.

To find out more, email us, subject – ‘My Custom Road Map’ – to:  digital@cooee.co.nz

What makes a good Digital Road Map?

A good Digital Road Map should:

1. Take into account everything you have done to date in the Digital world, what has and hasn’t worked.
2. Present recommendations for improving on what’s been done.
3. Pull all online resources together, and ensure all branding and business goals are represented correctly across all platforms and in all online communications.
4. Present communication campaigns that adhere to the rules of the various online spaces while keeping the consistent brand message.
5.  Present a 12 month communication and advertising plan.
6. Set achievable goals and KPIs to effectively measure ROI and success.
7. Set 3-monthly reviews to check the goals can and are being met.  (As the digital world evolves very quickly it is important to keep abreast of your campaign success to make sure the environment is not affecting the efficacy of the plan.)
8.  Provide a content marketing plan that suits the business.

How creative is your company?  How well is your brand’s uniqueness being conveyed in a market place dominated by parity products making parity claims?

We can help you break out, just let us know and we’ll get the hammers ready.  Ask us about our Be BRAVE collaboration workshops.  We’d like to help you sell – creatively.  Just email us:  ideas@cooee.co.nz     and, remember, Be BRAVE!

We can all identify an ongoing procession of advertising campaigns, that believe that you can either be creative by just entertaining customers or potential customers (I’m thinking of a particular well known bank) or be creative simply by yelling SALE louder than anyone else (I’m thinking of a well known general merchandise retailer. )  It’s simply not enough to come up with a clever or entertaining piece of advertising, you need to be able to create work that delivers an end result, whether that’s brand exposure, awareness, information or sales focused.

As advertising legend David Ogilvy said “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.”

When you handle your own marketing initiatives and plans it can be easy to slip into silo thinking.  Looking for outside support doesn’t mean you aren’t good at your job or that what you’ve been doing isn’t working.  Collaboration, two heads, as they say, will inevitably be better than one and together you can go so much further.

Everybody loves a good APP and here at COO’EE we’ve scoured the appshere for 2013’s best apps. Here’s what we came up with, in no particular order:

Moves

This handy app is aptly named: it tells you how much you move. Literally.

Countdown

Make a shopping list, scan items to see their price, see specials at your local Countdown: this app has it all.

Mailbox

Fan of Gmail? Mailbox is a revolutionary app that aims to help you get to ‘Inbox Zero’ everyday. Depending on the direction and speed that you ‘swipe’ emails you can archive, trash, add to ‘Read Later’, and add to lists like “To Do”.

Sunrise

Sunrise is a brilliantly designed calendar with features like location tagging, built in reminders and a ‘Quick-Add’ feature, where you can type “Meeting at 11:45am tomorrow” to create an appointment

Google Maps

After Apple ousted Google Maps from the iPhone and replaced it with their own version, Google redesigned their Maps app with all the features it had before and more.

Google Drive

Google Drive is Google’s new version of Google Documents. However, you can add Drive to your computer and sync files to your ‘Drive’ from anywhere. This app lets you see everything you’ve saved in your Drive account and also allows to edit documents you’ve saved.

Instant Heart Rate

This smart little app utilises the flash and camera of your phone to figure out your heart rate. Handy.

Spottily

After NZ was finally given access to Spottily last year it’s become pretty popular. Even more helpful is its mobile app, which allows to you to stream any song you want, wherever you are.

Word Lens

Going to a foreign country with little knowledge of the language? Word Lens has got your back, with written language, anyway. Hold up this app to any written words in another language, and it’ll visually translate it for you.

Evernote

Evernote lets you clip webpages, make notes, and take pictures, and save them to the cloud with effective tagging and categories. It’s like an Internet notebook.

Twitter have recently released what is quickly becoming social media’s Next Big Thing. It’s called Vine, and it’s perhaps most adequately described as the 140 character equivalent of video. Videos in the app Vine are limited to only six seconds. Turns out six seconds, much like 140 characters, is a lot more than, well, six seconds. Less is more?

The main aspect of Vine that stands out is that it’s gimmicky. It’s new and fancy and shiny and cool. It makes us want to share our lives with it because it’s creative and, therefore, fun. It’s easy, but it’s also hard; it’s democratised media at work. Yes, like Instagram.

Since its Inception in late January Vine has found itself being used in various ways: from a movie premiere trailer with 14 action-packed shots from the upcoming Wolverine film [link: https://vine.co/v/bDExaiMjJ1F ], to the posting of somebody’s new sex toys (no, seriously), to some pretty awful #FirstPosts [link: https://vine.co/v/b5He3imDne7].

Nevertheless, it’s gaining attention and popularity and being used for more and more creative purposes, including by businesses making the most of social media, such as General Electric: http://t.co/bNzMFdVJ . BBDO New York even made their own Vine Film Festival equating to some of the most creative uses of Vine so far: [link: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/bbdo-new-york-unveils-6-second-winners-its-vine-film-festival-147973]. Lawrence Chen’s Took a Fall in the Hall is my favourite: that’s how Vining should be done.

But the question beckons: how can you utilise Vine for branding? Our answer is very simple: get creative. Make relatable content with the aim of engagement; make content that people will want to retweet. Whether it’s the creation of a latte [link:http://t.co/93VHXgiI ] or the chewing of gum [link: http://t.co/6wltBFWy ], follow that internal creative instinct. Like General Electric did for Pi Day: [link: http://t.co/bLAiNrKzQs ], tell a story, whether it be about your day, about your life, or about your brand.

Last year’s Beauty of a Second Short Film Contest [http://vimeo.com/32071937] showed us how beautiful a single second can be. Seems easy, right? Ok, maybe not quite so easy as we found out in the very first Vine effort we made (http://goo.gl/pOgwX )! The beauty is in the difficulty and the discipline of being confined to 6 seconds. That is harder to attain than you might think, but get it right and it can be incredible powerful. Last year’s Beauty of a Second Short Film Contest [http://vimeo.com/32071937] showed us how beautiful a single second can be. If you want help creating 6 seconds of magic, give us a bell – digital@cooee.co.nz .

It’s a bold statement, but we’ll throw it out there anyway. Having a responsive website should be the only way forward for any new website build. So, what is responsive web design, and why is it important?

When Apple’s iPhone was originally released, one of their first advertisements was titled Watered Down [link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwJG-yjtub0]. It previewed the iPhone as a device that didn’t show the ‘watered down’ version of the web: it displayed websites like any computer would. This could be described as the beginning of the post-PC era. No longer would we be squinting at an awful text-based version of the Internet on the tiny black and white screen of our Nokia 1110. The Internet had begun to become everywhere and now, in 2013, it literally is everywhere. Everybody has a mobile device: they’re expected to overtake PCs for most common web access device worldwide this year. And, mobile devices are expected to exceed 1.82 billion units before the end of 2013. The web is literally in our hand (arguably a little too much, right?) and this means that web developers and business owners have already begun to consider what this means for them.

The Internet is by many means becoming one of the main ways a business connects with its audience, and so one of the solutions to mobile device viewing issues has been responsive web design. An example of this is http://www.angeladanieljewellery.com/. Try viewing this on your smartphone or tablet and you will see how It automatically redesigns itself to fit any screen. Don’t have an smartphone or tablet? No problem, simply try it on a smaller or bigger screen than your own, or simply unhook your browser (click the middle box at the top right of your browser), grab the bottom right corner and resize the browser window and watch the way the site reformats itself.

Responsive web design means that any visitors to the site from a smartphone, to a tablet, to a desktop with a full size display will have the best experience & usability possible. The site is equally effective on any device with any screen size.

We live in an age where, if a website isn’t very attractive and / or very easy to use we immediately give up: we shut the tab on our computer or turn off our iPhone and get back to what we were doing. We don’t have time for zooming and searching and dragging on a palm-sized screen. Hence making sure your website is at least a little responsive or mobile device friendly isn’t just a good idea: it’s a duty. There’s a large chance that at least a third or more of your visitors are going to be on a mobile device, and if they don’t like what they see or struggle to find what they want to see, then you’re wasting their time: in this instant gratification world we now live in (where Vodafone’s new LTE mobile network is faster than some wired Internet connections) making your content easy tofind from any device is an absolute must.

Take note, there are already 1.2 million New Zealanders using smartphones and with telecommunication companies giving them away with mobile plans, that number is only going to rise further and faster. If you aren’t ready, you need to be, we can help just drop us an email to digital@cooee.co.nz. We believe in the importance of Responsive Web Design so much that we won’t build a new website without it.

Don’t just take our word for it, Mashable called 2013 The Year of Responsive Design [link: http://mashable.com/2012/12/11/responsive-web-design/ ].