Online Real Estate Technology

According to the American Express OPEN and Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) “Small Business Search Marketing Survey”, US small businesses recognize word-of-mouth as the top way their customers find them, followed by the internet and search engines.

The reliance on word-of-mouth—likely along with the low cost in dollars of participating—has led small businesses to make social media their No. 2 online marketing effort, after company websites. As of March 2011, 44% of respondents to the survey used social media for marketing, vs. 28% who used SEO and 21% who used paid search. Looking ahead, more small businesses planned to add social media marketing this year than either search tactic.

Other research supports the finding that small businesses have made social a top priority. A February 2011 MerchantCircle survey found over 70% of US local small businesses used Facebook for marketing, while only about two-thirds used Google and one-third used Bing.

While 57.2% of small business respondents told Ad-ology that social media was at least somewhat useful at generating leads, the MerchantCircle survey found local small businesses were more likely to say search engine marketing was an effective channel than social networks, at 40.2% vs. 36.7%.

Social may have an easier learning curve and require less direct spending by small businesses that are less experienced with online marketing—and the “must-do” factor helps as well—but time-tested online marketing methods like search should not be ignored. Search, in particular, unquestionably helps businesses get found by consumers right when they’re looking to buy.

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Facebook, the largest social network in the US as well as the world, has been adding members at a rapid clip for the past two years. While that growth will moderate now that the social network is reaching a saturation point among many age groups, it will continue to gain audience for the foreseeable future.

eMarketer estimates that 132.5 million people in the US will be users of Facebook this year; by 2013, that number will increase to 152.1 million.

“Facebook’s recent successes—and its future prospects—are intrinsically connected with the site’s diversification,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Facebook Users: The Juggernaut Rolls On.” “What started out as a pure-play social network has evolved into an all-purpose destination that is beginning to replace email, instant messaging, video sharing, gaming and other activities that were otherwise scattered across unconnected venues.”

This growth will be driven primarily by increased Facebook use among older boomers and seniors. At the same time, teens and young adults will remain the site’s most active and engaged age groups. Compared with other age groups, they show extremely high penetration rates, spend more time on the site and have more friends in their networks.

The 18-to-44 age segment represents the largest demographic slice, 56.7% of Facebook users, and is a key target for marketers.

“With so many options to promote their brands on Facebook and its partner sites, marketers have little choice but to formulate a cohesive social media strategy,” said Verna. “Whether they advertise on Facebook, seed viral content on the site, build their digital presence through branded pages, use the ‘like’ button in their own content or mine data from users’ newsfeeds, marketers have a wealth of methods for monetizing the massive Facebook audience.”

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The average Facebook user spent about six hours and 36 minutes on the site during February 2010. That is roughly triple the average monthly time of two hours and 10 minutes on Yahoo, the site with next-highest average minutes total. Google ranked fifth at one hour and 15 minutes.

Map and multi-category sites remain the most popular type of travel websites; Google Maps led the way with 67.3 million unique US visitors in February 2011, followed by MapQuest (24.7 million) and Yahoo Local (13.1 million). Despite the shorter month, both MapQuest and Yahoo Local saw slight increases in the average time visitors spent on their site.

Map sites account for four of the 10 most popular travel sites, while multi-category travel sites – led by Expedia, account for half of the top 10. Southwest Airlines, at sixth, is the sole airline represented in the top 10 during February 2011.

Multi-category travel sites TripAdvisor and Orbitz were the only other two among the top 10 to see an increase in the average amount of time (16.7% and 10.9%, respectively) visitors spent on the site compared to the longer January 2011 month.

Month-over-month unique audience and average time spent figures were down, in some cases by more than 10% (and approaching 20% for certain travel sites), for all the top 10 web brands and six of the top 10 travel sites. Overall US web usage figures for February 2011 demonstrate these trends follow the norm.

For example, in February, the average US web user had 54 sessions, down 8.4% from 59 the prior month. Domains visited dropped 8.1%, from an average of 99 to 91 per person. There were also declines in month-over-month average per person figures for web page views, PC time, duration of web page viewed, and active digital media universe. The current digital media universe stayed virtually flat at a little less than 300 million.

While February being a short month is likely a reason for at least some of the generally decreased topline statistics compared to the prior month, a year-over-year comparison of Nielsen data shows Google had more visitors in February 2010. Google also held the largest unique web audience in February, but at almost 154 million it was about 5% higher than Google’s February 2011 audience.

Meanwhile, Facebook, ranked third among web brands in February 2010, grew its year-over-year unique audience 10%, from 118.8 million to 130.8 million. This allowed it to switch places with February 2010 number two Yahoo, which lost about 6% of its unique audience of 134.1 million, recording about 126.5 million in February 2011.

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Reports of Twitter usage can vary widely. The company itself reported that as of September 2010, 175 million accounts had been created. Firms that track unique visitors to Twitter.com tallied between approximately 20 million and 26 million per month last year.

But because of duplicate accounts, international users, “Twitter quitters” and the fact that many visitors to Twitter.com are simply reading public tweets and not truly using the service, those numbers are nearly all higher than survey data that asks internet users about their online and mobile habits.

“Twitter users are a sizeable and growing bunch, but their numbers are considerably smaller than those disseminated by many media outlets and Twitter itself,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “Twitter Users: A Vocal Minority.” “In the US, this means tens of millions of users, as opposed to hundreds of millions.”

eMarketer estimates that 20.6 million US adults will access a Twitter account at least monthly this year, up 26.3% from 16.4 million last year. Growth will continue in the double digits through 2013, when nearly 28 million adults will be Twitter users.

This estimate is primarily based on a meta-analysis of surveys that polled people on their actual use of Twitter, regardless of platform.

A demographic profile of Twitter users from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 10% of US female internet users and 7% of US male internet users used Twitter. The service was decidedly more popular among younger adults, a result supported by other research.

Mobile is a large and growing platform for Twitter users. comScore noted that in January 2011, 7.8 million US mobile device subscribers used Twitter on their phones—a steep 66% increase over the previous January.

“Brands should consider the demographics and usage habits of the Twitter audience as they plan marketing initiatives and ad buys on Twitter,” said Verna. “Setting realistic expectations based on a thorough data analysis will yield better results than getting swept up in overhyped estimates.”

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Social networking now reaches most internet users in the US and has become an integral part of their lives. Thanks to the rapid growth of Facebook, updating status, posting comments and sharing links with friends have become routine activities for millions of people.

eMarketer estimates nearly 150 million US web users will use social networks via any device at least monthly this year, bringing the reach of such sites to 63.7% of the online population. But the days of double-digit growth in users are over as social networking reaches a saturation point. By 2013, 164.2 million Americans will use social networks, or 67% of internet users.

“With fewer new users signing up, social network users will be more sophisticated and discerning about the people and brands they want to engage with,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report, “US Social Network Usage: 2011 Demographic and Behavioral Trends.”

Even as the social network audience has broadened to include a significant number of people from the Generation X, boomer and senior age segments, the youngest age groups are still the most represented, active and engaged. The enormous usage increases in some older age groups over the past two years will be less pronounced in the coming years.

Still, more than half of internet users ages 45 to 64 and over four out of five 12- to- 34-year-old online users will be regular social network users in 2011. The highest penetration level of all age groups will remain in the 18-to-24 age group, where 90% of internet users will use social networks this year.

“In 2011, social networks will need to cement their relationships with their users, particularly people ages 35 and older, in order to keep them engaged,” said Williamson. “Marketers and media companies can contribute to this effort by creating compelling user experiences that make people want to stay connected to social networks so they can gain access to experiences, deals or content they may not be able to find anywhere else.”

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Many advertisers stick to the top sites on the web when planning an online campaign, but overlooking less-trafficked sites could be a mistake.

A study by contextual targeting firm CONTEXTWEB of more than 1,000 ad campaigns across 18,000 publisher sites during the second half of 2010 found that ads placed on long-tail sites—those with an overall reach smaller than 1.5% of the internet population—had a significant lift in clickthrough rate compared with ads on larger web properties. Overall, long-tail sites lifted click rates by 24%.

All advertiser verticals studied showed lift when ads were placed on sites in the long tail. Alcohol ads enjoyed the highest lift, at 50%, while automotive advertisers experienced a lift of only 12%.

The site categories that provided the biggest lift in the long tail were education, technology and computing, and hobbies and games. Some site categories, including pets, home and garden, arts and entertainment, parenting and family, and automotive had a negative lift.

However, accounting for the decreased cost of placing ads on long-tail sites, even a negative lift often translates into a more efficient ad.

Not only can the long tail provide greater efficiency in clicks for advertisers’ dollar, according to the report, it is critical in providing a truly mass reach for ad campaigns. The large crop of long-tail sites frequently provides access to a large audience unduplicated by top sites in the same category, and often with similar demographics as visitors to those top sites. And according to comScore, the vast majority of time spent on the web is spent with long-tail sites, while the lion’s share of ad dollars is spent on the short tail.

Advertising on top websites is, of course, still critical, especially for major campaigns or for branding. But advertisers can use the long tail as a low-cost, efficient way to augment the reach and scale of their campaigns.

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Less than half (45%) of small businesses have websites, according to data analyzed by data management firm Formstack. However, this figure, recorded by Discover Credit Cards in 2009, still represents roughly 36% growth from 33% in 2007.

Formstack defines a small business as having maximum annual sales of less than $5 million.

The most common reason given by small business owners lacking a website is that their business currently does not need one (41%). This is more than double the percent who gave the next-most-popular answer, cost (19%). The other leading reason is lack of time (16%).

Thirteen percent of new small businesses plan on getting a website for their business.

Only about one-third (30%) of small businesses which have a website use it for e-commerce. The dominant use for websites by small businesses is general information (80%). This is almost double the percentage citing the next-most-popular use, customer service (45%), and is also far greater than the percentage capturing online leads (35%).

Unsurprisingly, small businesses are generally more likely to engage in e-commerce as their annual sales volume grows. However, small businesses generating $1 to $2.49 million annually are slightly more likely (69%) than small businesses generating $2.5 to $4.9 million (67%) to perform e-commerce.

However, both these figures dwarf the e-commerce percentages of small businesses generating annual sales of $500,000 to $999,000 (49%) and $100,000 to $499,000 (45%).

Thirteen percent of online small businesses plan to put more money toward social networking, while slightly larger percentages plan to increase spending on email marketing (15%) and their website (17%). About 9% of online retailers (all sizes) engage in m-commerce. 37% of smartphone users have purchased an item via m-commerce. US e-commerce retail sales totaled $41.5 billion in Q3 2010, up 4.2% from $36.5 billion in Q3 2009.

Small-to-midsized business (SMB) marketers are primarily interested in segmenting emails by recipient preferences and behaviors, according to a recent study by GetResponse. The “2010 Email Marketing Trends Study” indicates that almost six in ten SMB marketers (59.4%) plan to segment their emails according to interest-based preferences of the recipients. The second most popular technique, segmenting emails based on recent recipient open or click-rate activity, was selected by 34.9% of recipients.

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There are a number of factors that search engines use to rank a web site, and as search engines often change the algorithms used to determine rank it can sometimes be very difficult to keep up to date.

One of the factors that Google for example uses to rank web sites is back links, or the number of incoming votes from external web sites or domains to a web site. The more votes for a web site, the higher Google and other search engines will place your web site in the SERP’s .

Other factors also come into play, the age of your domain name, the older your domain name is the better as search engines will trust your site more than a newer site, how much authority or page rank your site has, how may web pages are trying to rank in the top 10 for your keyword and even how long your domain name is registered for are all factors.

The reason back links are important, is the more votes a site has usually indicates the popularity of that site and its content with other web users. Search engines love popular sites.

It is harder to generate votes for a static web site than it is for a blog based site such as WordPress, due to the fact that most blogs are updated on a daily basis whereas most static based sites often get few or no updates.

One of the techniques that you can use to generate back links for your site is by placing comments on blogs that you either read or follow on the web. This is even better, if you can find a blog that allows for a “follow” link back to your web site.

What is a follow link? Some time ago Google invented a piece of code that can be inserted into a hyperlink that tells search engines “not to follow” that link from its place on a web page.

This essentially stops most search engines from following the link, so it effectively stops the link juice, it does not however stop the traffic from following a link on your site.

Web pages that have 100 or more links on them can be penalised by search engines and in this, read Google, so if you have a web page that features a lot of advertising links, say for example on your home page, then you could be penalised for having a lot of links, this is usually one of the tell-tale signs of a spam site.

Likewise, having no code placed in the link means that a search engine will follow the link and discover in some cases new web sites. You can also use this method if you’d like to get your web site indexed quickly in the search engines, as placing a link on a web site already in Google’s index will result in your site being indexed quickly as Google will “follow” the link.

Creating votes or back links for your web site, whether you use a blog based site or a static web site is not easy, there are some web masters who believe that the process of link building is easy, that’s because they like to use paid link building services and a quick search on the web will uncover a number of these services on the web. But you need to be very careful with buying links, Google frowns on this and will penalise your web site if it catches you doing it.

One of the ways you can build back links to your web site is by commenting on other writers or companies blogs, most of these blogs still allow follow links back to your blog, and if they happen to have a very high page rank with Google, this adds considerable SEO value to your blog.

If you have a blog and want to start building links this way, one thing you do not want to do ever, is to use automated blog commenting software, I find with my blogs, I constantly get comments that are generated by these stupid software programs.

These comments often have no relationship to my article, are blatant advertising or add nothing to the discussion and it’s very obvious that they have been generated by a software program because in most cases we humans do not speak this way.

I will delete them without a second thought as they add nothing to my blog.

So when creating your comment, always make sure that you make it relevant either to the content on the blog or the story you have been reading, if you do this, the blogger will appreciate that they have a real person taking the time to comment and you’ll always get published which includes your link.

There’s no question that the vast majority of marketers are shifting more spending to digital, and a combination of tried-and-true tactics with newer online options will benefit from increasing budgets. But advertisers and their agencies are not yet on the same page when it comes to the details of many of those changes.

According to a report on 2011 marketing budgets from Econsultancy and SAS, agencies worldwide are more eager than their clients to increase spending on newer digital marketing tactics, while advertisers show a greater interest in upping budgets for the time-tested. For example, agencies were 13 percentage points more likely than advertisers to say their clients would be increasing mobile marketing spending. Advertisers were out in front of their agencies with reports of spending increases for email marketing, corporate websites, paid search and display ads.

US-based research from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) found similar patterns. Marketers were more likely than agencies to say they always or often used online tactics like emails, paid search, SEO and display. Agencies, as in the Econsultancy data, placed a significantly greater emphasis on mobile; they were 7 percentage points more likely than marketers to be familiar with it, and more than twice as likely to use it frequently.

The Econsultancy study also found agencies and their clients disagreed about their ability to measure the return on investment from many digital channels. Advertisers were more optimistic than agencies about how well they could assess the success of their efforts with paid search, email, corporate websites, display and mobile.

Whether advertisers are overconfident or agencies too tough on their clients’ capabilities, the perceptual gap could be significant in determining which channels see more of clients’ dollars.

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With the Aussie dollar leading the greenback, it’s no surprise the US has become a destination of choice for travel-loving Australians.

But it seems Australia is lagging behind the US when it comes to booking holidays over the internet and paying fees and charges for the service.

A major online travel agency says Australia is one of the few countries in the world where booking fees are still a feature of the online travel market.

But pressure is growing for Aussie sites to cut booking fees, as the sector competes to stay ahead of airlines and hotel chains who are increasingly seeking to win consumers over the internet.

‘Surprisingly, Australia is one of the rare countries in the world that charges booking fees for online travel transactions,’ Expedia Australia and New Zealand general manager Nicholas Chu said.

‘We don’t charge booking fees in the US anymore, most of the countries in Europe don’t charge booking fees.’

Expedia.com cut booking fees 18 months ago in response to market demand, Mr Chu said, although it was not the first in the US to do so.

Research conducted by Expedia earlier this year found there is nearly universal hatred among Australian consumers – 75 per cent of us – for the booking fees.

‘In the US, which is a much more mature online travel market, everyone is aware of fees, and I can tell you that no one wants to pay fees,’ Mr Chu said.

‘Why would you pay an extra $50 for nothing, while if you book directly with the carrier you won’t have to pay the fee.’

Mr Chu’s comments come in the wake of action by the consumer watchdog against a group of airlines who failed to display airfares inclusive of all fees and charges.

The group of eight carriers, including Tiger Airways, Air Asia X, and Qantas subsidiary Jetstar, reached a deal with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) last week.

But laws that prevent component pricing by airlines don’t apply to booking fees charged by online travel websites.

According to the ACCC that’s because travel sites charge fees across an entire booking, rather than per flight.

In Australia, online travel sites have captured about 20 to 30 per cent of the market, compared with 50 per cent penetration in the US.

Margins for online retailers are being squeezed as airlines and hotel chains compete by offering bookings directly from their websites.

Mr Chu said the industry must respond with greater transparency, cut fees and charges and focus on adding value for the customer.

‘What was quite interesting was that actually when people were aware of fees they were quite angry about those,’ Mr Chu said.

‘Why would they have to pay for something that they are doing by themselves?’

Mr Chu said fees contributed a small portion of revenue and Expedia had ‘been able to compensate for that with the increased volume’.

‘The whole idea is to offer consumers added value that they won’t get from the supplier direct.’

‘We need to be transparent, but we also need to bring something, we need to add value for consumers.’

Story source www.bigpond.com

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