Posted by: Meg Archer, Marketing Coordinator

In a recent ClickZ article called “Eight Ways to Use Video to Boost Your Marketing,” the author gives tips on how to incorporate online video into your marketing plan. Using online video is a great, low cost way to meet your consumer on his level through a medium that is growing in popularity and gaining respect from online marketing gurus.

Here are just a couple of the statistics included in the article:

• Almost 80% of U.S. Internet users watched videos for roughly five hours in December 2008, with an average duration of 3.2 minutes per video, according to comScore.
• 65% of online video views were streamed between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

These stats are important because they provide data supporting how important online video has become to the U.S. Internet user, and really, who doesn’t use the Internet these days? We can also infer that your target audience is watching online videos while at work.

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Posted by: Shannon Anderson, Project Manager

With the increasing competitiveness of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, marketers are looking for complementary advertising tactics that will help them stand out from the crowd. One way to differentiate your company is through contextual advertising where paid ads can be targeted to users based on the content they are viewing. The advantages of using this platform include:

• Targeting beyond search to hook users who are looking for related content
• Telling your story in a different way via images, rich media, video and text
• Diversifying  beyond search to increase your advertising reach and lower your cost per click (CPC)
• Advertising on sites your customers are likely to engage with and tailoring your messaging to apply to this content

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Posted by: Megan Amick, Marketing Coordinator

Google Analytics is an extremely effective tool for managing the performance of your online marketing (or search engine marketing) endeavors. There are numerous findings that can be generated within Analytics to look at each aspect of your website visibility and traffic. Below are some suggestions to consider while performing your Analytics analysis:

General/Basic Knowledge

• You can link your Google AdWords account to your Google Analytics account for better pay-per-click (PPC) campaign optimization and website performance.
• Tagging within your site helps to distinguish referrals (visits generated by other websites) vs. search engine visits.
• There are many goals that can be set up to see if users are completing a desired outcome, but you need to implement code on your website to monitor these goals in Analytics.

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Posted by: Zach Olsen, Marketing Intern

Optimizing for local search, or taking the right steps to show up in the top rankings of search engine results for terms that your audience uses when looking for your local business, is an area that if pursued can make a big impact on your bottom line.

SBI + M has compiled some interesting data on the subject:

• 54% of Americans have substituted the Internet and local search for phone books (comScore networks).
• 66% of Americans use online local search, like Google local search, to locate local businesses (TMP/comScore/SBI + M).
• 82% of local searchers follow up offline via an in-store visit, phone call or purchase (TMP/comScore).

Most people looking for your local business online are truly interested in following up in-person, making the Internet a powerful tool for your local marketing. read more »

Posted by: Megan Amick, Marketing Coordinator

Interested in maximizing your conversions? Google has created a blog specifically targeted to marketers driven by the most important goal – converting users.  This new blog includes tactics geared toward increasing sales, leads, and conversion performance. The conversion-based blog can be found at http://conversionroom.blogspot.com/.

Posted by: Kerry Houchin, Marketing Coordinator

It should come as no surprise that nonprofit donations are down. According to the Center for Nonprofit Management, 50.6% of nonprofit organizations are seeing a decrease in donations. Not only are organizations seeing fewer donors but also smaller donations from existing donors. To make matters worse, administration costs are on the rise.

Nonprofit workers clearly have their work cut out for them. My suggestion? Focus more efforts toward online marketing. Online giving worldwide hit the $10.44 billion mark in 2007, and it currently represents nearly half of all nonprofit donations.

Here are some tips on using the Internet to increase donations:

Stay in touch with donors via email. Send a monthly note reminding them to make a donation and show what donations are helping to accomplish.

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