Tired of adverts getting in your way? Ad breaks in your favourite series, ads in the middle of the magazine article you’re reading, ads popping up in the middle of your favourite freeware game and even ads on signposts blocking your view of the road? Well, it seems that Google agrees.

Technology today allows us to fast-forward through the ads on TV, so why should we still have to scroll through them to get to the info we are looking for on a website. Google has decided to change their algorithm that is used to rank websites. Websites with too many adverts on the top of the page, thus causing users to scroll down in order to get to actual content, will be penalised in their rankings.

Google states:

“We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.

This algorithmic change noticeably affects less than 1% of searches globally.”  Read the post here.

This has resulted in many people questioning whether or not Google will penalise themselves as their results pages have so many ads. Seriously?! Google’s ads are not really ads in the traditional sense. When you use Google, you are looking for links to sites with relevant information; Google’s ads are mostly links to relevant information. People are so worried about what is fair; wonder if while they sit writing or reading these blogs on their iPad or laptop they consider the children in underdeveloped countries who can’t even get a book to read. Such a fuss made over a possible 1% of searches that may be affected. I say go for it Google!

I think that I must unsubscribe my general email address from about 2 or 3 direct marketing directories every week. And that’s just on a quiet week!  Of course, I don’t actually remember ever subscribing to any of these directories, but, I get the emails anyway. “Buy two cartridges for the price of one!” and, “New specials on our speciality biltong! Stocks are limited! ”

Seriously?

I don’t think I pay attention to even a percent of these emails. Straight into my trash box they go. Usually, when my “Please Unsubscribe” emails are ignored, I revert to slightly more aggressive tactics and have my hosting company set up filters to discard mails from the offending marketers, or simply have them blacklisted.

Anyone out there share my frustration? Anyone enjoy being spammed on a daily basis?

Did you know, that if 2% of your database reads your email, or clicks on a link in your email, that this is a pretty good success rate. 2%!!!

So, in plain terms, when you spend money buying a database for direct marketing purposes, please keep in mind that 98% of the people on that database might not really care about what you have to offer. 98% of that database probably didn’t sign up to hear about your offers in the first place!

The lawmakers in South Africa are going to extra lengths to ensure that the consumer is protected from certain direct marketing practices. The Consumer Protection Act, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act as well as the Protection of Personal Information Bill are just a few important pieces of legislation which prescribe how and when direct marketing should be practised.

If your organisation finds value in its direct email marketing efforts, it is best that ensure that you are aware of what the law allows, and what it doesn’t.

Here are a few guidelines:

1. Only conduct direct marketing communication with those who have given you their consent to do so.

2. Avoid communications with those outside of South African borders, unless they have expressly given their consent to receive direct marketing from you.

3. Make sure that you provide people with an “unsubscribe” facility which is in good working order.

4. If someone unsubscribes themselves from your directory, confirm it with them & make sure that they never receive communications from your organisation again.

5. Implement a complaints procedure for those who feel done in by your organisations use of their personal information.

6. Keep proper and accessible records of consent received & revoked as evidence. You never know when you might need this!

7. Take note that there are prohibited times during a 24 hour period, in which you are not allowed to conduct direct marketing communication. Keep your direct marketing to within normal working hours.

8. If you are going to purchase a database, or electronic directory of email addresses, make sure that the seller has complied with the guidelines given by the Protection of Personal Information Bill.  Any person whose information is to form part of a directory needs to have been properly informed of the purpose of the directory, as well as what it will be used for, before their personal information is included in the directory.

In short, it is far better to slowly build up your own database or directory of contacts, if you are going to conduct marketing campaigns in the future. If you do, you will be assured of a better success rate, as your contacts would have already displayed some kind of interest in your offerings – otherwise they wouldn’t be in your database to begin with!

Be professional, be respectful & considerate, and follow the law.

The recent introduction of group buying to South Africa has got me so excited, that I just had to write something about it.

According to trusty Wikipedia, group buying is the process whereby goods & services are sold to the public, at discounted rates, on the condition that a certain number of people make the purchase. What this article refers to, is group buying online, and is a proving to be a popular development in ecommerce.

There are groups around the world that have been offering online group buying for a while now, but this is a very recent development for South African online buying – and a lot of people are very happily taking part in this new spending frenzy. Everyone loves a bargain, right?

Players worth mentioning here in SA are Groupon, Twangoo and Wicount, although quite naturally, a few other group buying sites have cropped up in recent months. Groupon, an American company, launched Groupon South Africa late last year, alongside Groupon Israel & India. Groupon has merged with Twangoo, a South African run company founded by Wesley Gosling, and launched MyCityDeal.

MyCityDeal happens to be my personal favourite. I subscribed to MyCityDeal’s feed shortly after the site was launched & I enjoy receiving notifications of their daily deals. Wicount’s & Twangoo’s deals are also quite impressive.

For the consumer, this really is something worthwhile to be in the know about. For the service provider, there are 2 sides to the coin. On the one hand, this is a fantastic way for service providers to market their services, to a large audience. Especially if they are small start-ups in need of new customers.

On the other hand, if not enough people buy into a particular deal by its cut-off time, then the deal is off & that service provider loses out on all that potential clientele.

However, group buying has taken off all around the world, and many people, who have never previously made online purchases before, are now getting into it & handing their credit card details over without blinking.

Does this mean that we will see a shift in the way in which consumers behave online? Most probably.  Just be as careful as always when making purchases online!

I’ve just spent some time reading an interesting article on social media trends in the States, mostly amongst small to medium sized businesses.

I was very surprised to note that social media is still a foreign concept for many business owners, and that many of them still do not know how to effectively use social media in business.

The article pointed out 8 trends which gave some surprising insight :

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The web design and development process can be a lengthy one. Between working on the right look, the layout, and functionality of your website, the time it takes to get all this done, not to mention the costs, can put a person off anything else even remotely web related.

Unfortunately, I have to say that merely having a website is not enough these days, most especially if you are counting on using your website to get more customers or clients.

If you are wanting your website to be a major source of business for you, then this article is for you.

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Many small businesses do not have the resources to invest in a marketing campaign. Even for those small businesses that are really successful, an annual marketing budget can often be eaten away by other “priorities”, leaving very little for the company’s marketing efforts.

And let’s face it, in today’s world, the costs of any form of advertising or marketing, are just astronomical. Most companies in South Africa are still engaging in the “traditional” forms of advertising, eg. tv, radio, billboard and print advertising. While I am not negating these platforms, there is another way to market and advertise your business, even on the smallest budget. (more…)

“It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people… In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users.” (Econsultancy Blog)

“Around 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week during campaigns, with 39% using it for 10 or more hours per week” (Econsultancy Blog)

In 2009, we saw many companies stepping into the field of social media marketing & finding that it is a favourable alternative to traditional marketing – being powerful, influential, far-reaching & inexpensive.
2010 predicts a significant move away from the traditional forms of marketing, with many more companies testing the waters of social media marketing.

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10 to 15 years ago, very few businesses had websites. Nowadays, I would agree that most business owners understand the value of owning a website & being searchable online… even if it took a while for most to cotton on!

However, sometimes it feels as though it’s taking just as long for people to understand of the importance of online marketing.

We have seen that a lot of our clients think that a website is all they need to increase their client base. That a website on it’s own, will magically perform well on the search engines and bring in loads of instant business. This is simply not the case.

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