Freetimers Web Marketing - Blog

Yahoo will be thrilled at figures recently published by ComScore, which see it push Google off the top spot for the first time since 2011.

Having a well-designed website, with fresh SEO content alongside a successful email marketing campaign can really help to boost business, but if the information cannot be utilised in the same way on a mobile phone, sales can plummet. Today, mobiles are clever devices, to an extent, and without mobile marketing, a business, no matter how big or small, may miss out on an extremely large customer base.

Mobile traffic is increasing and with it, so too is the amount invested. If a business's website cannot be opened correctly on a mobile device, customers may soon lose interest, so it's fundamental, especially for businesses, to make sure their products and information is out there to be discovered.

Email campaigns are a popular way of keeping in contact with clients, and they must be readable on numerous devices, especially mobile phones. Making a business's homepage accessible on a phone is one thing, but to attract more customers all aspects of content should be op...

Like many social media websites, Facebook is about engaging and socialising, making it ideal for businesses, particularly business to consumer (B2C) businesses, looking to reach their target audience, potentially through the use of pay per click (PPC) adverts.

With over a 650 million Facebook users, it could be foolish not to consider it as part of your company's marketing mix. Facebook's PPC advertising aims to help you not only reach numerous people, but to help you reach the right type of customer. It achieves this through targeting, which can include gender, age, likes and interests, relationship status, workplace and also the education of your target audience.

When a user clicks on your advert, they will be directed to the destination of your choice, whether it's a Facebook page or an external website. The pay per click service also presents the choice of a daily budget or a campaign lifetime budget, as well as the option of a cost per thousand impressions b...

'Retargeting' is becoming an increasingly popular marketing technique that aims to make sure the website visitors that did slip away without making a purchase, are reminded afterwards about the missed opportunity, so they, ideally, do proceed when they come back to you next time. In 2012 Facebook launched Facebook Ad Exchange (FBX), allowing companies to retarget potential customers on their Facebook page, adverts can even appear in their visitor's Facebook News Feed. With FBX, companies can use information collected elsewhere to retarget their previous visitors on Facebook.

Matching a visitor's browsing behaviour with a specific advert can improve click-through and enquiry rates substantially, and adverts can be placed on the right sidebar, as well as the news feed. Precision is key with FBX, and adverts are likely to be seen within the first five minutes or the first hour on a visitor's Facebook page. News Feed adverts, in particular, are also ideal for mobiles, allowing...

For all businesses, every customer is different, and so too are the potential customers, meaning it's very unlikely that one general advert will appeal to each of them in the same way, this is where dynamic remarketing can help. Reaching out to previous customers can be a smart way to increase conversions, and Google's dynamic remarketing automatically creates customisable ads that can connect with shoppers, and not only show them other products they may be interested in but also remind them of products they've looked at or purchased in the past.

Dynamic remarketing is made to be customised; and Google's remarketing tags lets you define your own remarketing lists, no matter how many. The tag for each website page helps create a customised advert by collecting valuable information from a specific customer, such as the ID of the product they viewed and the exact page they visited. Google provides remarketing lists to get you started, including all visitors, general visitors,...

Social media websites provide much more than the opportunity to connect with people and share information, they also provide businesses with the opportunity to acquire new customers and LinkedIn is no different. LinkedIn Ads use targeted advertising to 'reach your ideal customers' and each advertisement can take a different form, such as video, text and image, or text only. Through the use of powerful business-to-business (B2B) targeting filters, LinkedIn can potentially provide precise adverts to a large professional audience.

Targeting Filters include geography, job function, seniority, and industry, and similarly to Facebook, LinkedIn can offer advertisement placement in its newsfeed as well as the right-hand sidebar. With LinkedIn Ads, there are no long term contracts whatsoever and adverts can be stopped at any time. LinkedIn advertisements are accessible across web, mobile and tablet, helping to increase brand awareness, and the only thing required to get an ad campa...

Today many of the major online portals and search engines provide pay per click (PPC) advertising services, and it's important to choose one that is suited to your own requirements.

As the name suggests, PPC providers charge businesses each time a potential customer clicks on their advert; consequentially being redirected to a company's main website. The price you pay for each 'click-through' is mainly determined by the sector and the competitors who are advertising for the same type of products and services.

Google AdWords is one of the most popular PPC services because of Google's large audience and due to the fact that they can reach a targeted audience using multiple channels with search engine and banner advertisements. Although the majority of people do use Google for searches, Bing Ads offer an additional platform while other search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns can be imported into Bing Ads Social Media Networks take a PPC approach to advertise, and Fa...

With billions of people spending hours on social media networks, social media marketing (SMM) can be one of the most important elements of an online marketing strategy for most businesses. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are among the most popular social media websites, with each having a unique environment and a set of specific benefits, but one thing they all share in common is the opportunity to engage and build relationships with customers.

Social media networks can be used to ask your target audience questions, and show you're taking an interest in their needs. For detailed feedback, polls can be published on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, potentially helping your business make any necessary improvements. Positive feedback on social media networks can help increase conversions and sales; with one customer's positive experience potentially persuading another social media user to purchase from you without reluctance.

On the other hand, dealing well with negati...