Geo marketing still in its infancy

While geo marketing is not a new phenomenon, an analysis of the discipline shows that it is clearly still in the early stages of its development. While there are some established geo marketing successes such as Google local business results, geo marketing is capable of much more substantial growth on mobile and social platforms.

Desktop web searches can show the location of various local businesses if the user searches by a keyword and a location name, however mobiles are more effective for geo marketing as their location can be detected using in built GPS. Many companies offer promotions for customers who check in at their store, or use QR codes displayed to engage with products. However there is some debate as to how effective these methods. Furthermore, the effectiveness of geo marketing is difficult to measure in terms of conversion rate. Many people using geo marketing fundamentally don’t know how to use it, but understand what it’s potential could be.

Social networks are expected to help push the growth of geo marketing as market leader Facebook makes location a more important part of its new design, and social networks such as Foursquare which are entirely dependent on location become more popular.

Amazon has also taken advantage of the mobile marketing phenomenon by offering discounts to its customers who use their application to compare prices in stores. This has been criticised by some as it leads to customers treating high street stores like showrooms, before buying the product for cheaper from Amazon whilst providing valuable product information. However online stores like Amazon and Ebay also recognise the value of geo marketing, with the former having set up a pop store simply to showcase the online store over Christmas.

As the power and popularity of social networks grow in tandem with advances in mobile technology and adoption of smartphones, there will be many more avenues for geo marketing. So far the growth of geo marketing has been slower than expected, but it is accepted that no one has quite worked out the best way to utilise it yet.

Twitter Redesigns for Marketing Online

Twitter has undergone a facelift that looks set to make it more effective for marketing online. The new interface aims to make the service easier to use for beginners, thus increasing its user base and marketing online to more users. The redesign also aims to increase user involvement, again potentially motivated by the fact that if a user spends more time on Twitter they will be more aware of the marketing online.

The updated design removes the dependence on hashtags (#) and @ and adds new navigation buttons of ‘Home’, ‘Connect; and ‘Discover’. This will help novice users discover what’s happening on Twitter easier and also give better direction to sponsored tweets for marketing online. Twitter have also launched branded pages to further marketing online, as well as new updates for mobile platforms Android and iOS as the social network recognises the significance of mobile marketing.

What all these updates appear to do on the surface is to provide a service that looks a lot more like Facebook, the king of social media marketing online. Facebook has long been the market leader for social networks with over 800 million, far ahead of Twitter’s 100 billion users. What Facebook also excels at is engagement with its users, with impressive statistics estimating the average user spends 46 minutes a day on the site making it invaluable for marketing online. Twitter does not have such engagement with many accounts being underused. Twitter will wish to improve on this aspect by becoming more like Facebook, however it is important that it does not become an exact replica of its rival. However it clearly wants the ease of entry and length of engagement that Facebook has, giving it the same revenue potential from marketing online, whilst retaining its identity.

Apple iPhone and iPad apps

Angry birds is celebrating its second birthday and as a reward for its customers has released 15 special levels on its iphone apps. Furthermore, all episodes of the game have been unlocked, an episode being the term used to group 20 levels of the game. Angry birds has been a phenomenon and one of the most popular iPhone apps across its lifespan, and its success on this platform has lead to iPad apps, other mobile platform apps, a board game, soft toys and now talk of a television series and a feature film.

Even Microsoft is now embracing iPhone apps. Both its popular service Evernote and its new Sky Drive service are now available as iPhone apps. Also featuring as iPhone apps are the Xbox Live service and even the Kinectimals game which helped launch the Kinect gaming peripheral for the Xbox 360. However there is no word on Microsoft’s key product, Microsoft Office making its way to iPhone just yet. The iphone apps are also available as iPad apps however in some cases they are little more than a port to the iPad, with the size of the apps simply expanded and the resolution distorted.

Although Microsoft will inevitably make money from selling the software as iPhone apps, it is a surprising move considering Windows is pushing its own Mobile operating system and needs all the exclusives it can get to help convince people to switch and boost its market share from a paltry 5.8%. However perhaps the lack of any such release for Android is more telling. With 52% of the smartphone market perhaps Window views the Google backed Android system as the greater competitor, and has created iPhone apps to destroy Google believing it can compete with Apple in the long run?

More Android Phones, Why less Android Apps?

2011 has been heralded in some quarters as the year of Android, as it saw the Google backed mobile operating system overtake Apple’s market share for smartphones, and celebrate ten billion Android apps downloaded. However, despite projections that there will be more Android apps downloaded in 2012 than iPhone apps, developers still prefer to develop applications for iPhone. Why is this?

One reason iPhone apps are preferred to Android apps is their ease of development. Android apps are made available for a vast variety of hardware which has different screen sizes, buttons and interaction with the touch screen. Apple doesn’t, with only one version of the iPhone being released each year, and especially with the hardware of the iPhone 4 and 4S being essentially the same. This means Android apps can often be buggy as they cannot be optimised for one piece of hardware.

Android apps are projected to overtake iPhone apps next year, but the total number of downloads has not yet surpassed iPhones total. Most developers have previously been iOS developers and have not been convinced to switch to Android apps yet. Developing Android apps requires different code to iPhone apps and switching will cost time and effort.

However the main reason is profit. While more smartphone owners now have Android phones, many paid less for them than an iPhone would cost, and many are not prepared to pay for Android apps. iPhone users are considered richer, iPhones are not cheap, and they are more likely to spend on apps. One company’s figures show that for every $1 generated for an iPhone app, only $0.24 dollars will be generated for Android apps. Android may have proved itself to certainly be a worthwhile platform to be on, however for developers with greater time restraints and less resources who can only choose one system to develop for, it may continue to be iPhone apps instead of Android apps that they choose for a while yet.

Video Search Engine Optimisation

It is said that a picture can speak a thousand words. Now think of the amount that could potentially be communicated in 30 seconds at 25 frames per second. Video search engine optimisation could become a key tool for social marketers wishing to reach an audience at a low cost. This search engine optimisation could then tie in with Youtube’s social network, along with other social networks such as Facebook and Google+ which have received closer integration with Youtube following this month’s redesign.

Research has shown that a link for a video is 53 times as likely as a website to reach an organic front page search ranking on Google. Youtube videos are of course likely to rank highly due to Google being its parent company. Furthermore most search engines provide a separate video category that will prove less competitive to get to the first page on than in the search engine optimisation battle with websites.

This is of course dependant on search engine optimisation factors such as keywords in the title and description, as well as user involvement. Comments and shares must be encouraged which is often dependant on the content. Of course there is also the opportunity to gain Youtube ‘subscriptions’ which will give users notifications of all future videos. With the closer social integration, social media campaigns could also be a significant beneficiary of being linked to Youtube videos backed by better search engine optimisation.

However, while video search engine optimisation may be more effective at gaining a place on Google’s first page, there are still further challenges than a link for a website. Firstly producing a video that entertains and promotes takes skill and creativity. Secondly it requires another step to get the viewer from the video to the website. However should the video be effective then it will become extra promotion in itself beyond search engine optimisation.

Apps for Android hit Ten Billion

This week downloads of apps for Android surpassed the ten billion mark. To celebrate, Google are making some of the more popular apps for Android available at a knockdown fee of just 10 American cents. The figure highlights the increased growth of the android platform, as it took just one month to go from nine billion downloads to ten billion apps for Android downloaded, whereas it had previously taken twenty two months for the first billion apps for Android to be downloaded.

This increase in growth has lead analysts to believe that downloaded apps for Android will surpass the number of app downloads Apple has registered in the next year. Apple reached the 10 billion mark in July, however apps for Android are now being downloaded at a faster rate. Android phones account for 52% of the smartphone market, however until now iOS apps had still proved more popular with developers as owners of Apple smartphones and tablets tended to download more. However this now looks set to change, and should developers see more potential revenue from developing apps for Android then Google’s smartphone platform may establish a position of dominance in the market.

However the achievement has been accompanied by controversy this month as it has been found that many Android phones and some iPhone contain software called Carrier IQ. This software can record a users use of apps for Android, their location, and basically all keystrokes input to the phone, and can then send the data back to the phones network. So far it has only been found on phones in the US with all British networks denying its use. While Carrier IQ claims good intentions in providing diagnostics to improve service, many have taken issue with a program that monitors their actions being installed on their phone without their consent.

Apps for Facebook

The value of apps for Facebook was highlighted this month as Farmville creator Zynga filed for an initial public offering of stock (IPO). Zynga’s most famous and profitable offering is Farmville, one of the most popular apps for Facebook. The game is free to play, however virtual crops and other items can be purchased by users, which along with sponsorship deals generate revenue for the company. The IPO is set to be worth $10 billion dollars, making Zynga the second most valuable games company in the world.

The world’s most valuable games company is Activision Blizzard, most famous for the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft series of games. Both of these titles require years of development and sell for a premium price. Zynga’s model of offering games as apps for Facebook shows how profitable the medium can be. The only other comparable company to Zynga is Rovio, who produced the phenomenally successful smartphone game ‘Angry Birds’. Rovio was the subject of a takeover bid from Zynga earlier in the year but rejected it on the basis of the potential that it can see in the social games industry.

Of course not all apps for Facebook are games. There are over 500,000 apps for Facebook available. Many will be using apps for Facebook to promote their businesses and products this Christmas. Many will use their legions of Facebook fans to spread awareness of their products and services through apps for Facebook. These apps not only help companies spread awareness, but also allow the users to interact with the company in a variety of ways. Whether these companies can use apps for Facebook to sell their physical products with obvious tangible benefits as well as Zynga can sell virtual crops remains to be seen.

Marketing on Google continues to grow

Many analysts have wished to pronounce the death of Google +prematurely, however the online search giant will always have the asset of marketing on Google to promote its new online products and services which will in turn increase revenue from marketing on Google. This year Google managed to attract 1 billion unique users, a first for the internet, emphasising the monstrous power of marketing on Google.

Google + has reportedly hit around 40 million users, however the problem for the site is that users do not engage with it as they do with Facebook, sharing a lot less publicly and spending less time on it. This makes it less attractive to advertisers. However marketing on Google has proven to be effective over the last few years and Google has taken steps to integrate the social networking site with its other products.

This month’s redesign of Youtube shows a greater emphasis on channels which Google have spent $100 million developing recently. A channel encourages a user to watch for longer than an individual video, which in turn is good for marketing on Google as advertisements can be more effective. Retaining the users interest for longer also encourages more interaction with the Youtube community, and this is where social integration has been ramped up to encourage more users to use their Google + account.

Further methods of integration are also in evidence. Google + accounts can be easily set up from the popular Gmail service. Gmail then also ties in with Google talk and all are now available from the Google homepage which 90% of all searches are conducted from, and which is the main source of marketing on Google revenue. Furthermore, the Android mobile platform which now has a 52% majority in the smartphone market also acts as a vehicle to drive users to marketing on Google. The user account to download apps on Android is a Gmail account, the same as can be used for Google +. Of course, Google also provides 160 million users with the Chrome browser to also further enhance marketing on Google. With such popular services driving traffic to Google +, and more integration to come, it will not fail to gain users. Whether it retains their attention to further enhance marketing on Google is questionable.

Search Engine Optimisation to Change as Search Evolves?

There are few bigger monopolies in the world than the one that exists in the search engine market. Google has dominated since its inception and is believed to have a share greater than 90% for the worldwide market, making it essential for search engine optimisation. It’s once great rival Yahoo’s value has halved in four years, while other competitors like Ask or AOL are considered irrelevant.Search engine optimisation companies barely have to bother with these search engines now.

Of course Microsoft launched Bing to compete, but there is little reason to switch other than the convenience of having Bing as the default search in Internet Explorer browsers, though this is enough to be considered important in search engine optimisation. Even the IE browser is challenged by Google though, as they have caught up on IE with their Google Chrome internet browser facilitating more Google searches and making Google even more relevant for search engine optimisation.

However Googles dominance does not appear to put off other smaller challengers. Bitly, who provide shortened links that prove useful for microblogging sites such as Twitter, want to challenge Google by providing a search engine which searches based on what is relevant and trending now, allowing it to make use of the data it receives from users shortening their links on their site. This promises to give a more relevant search with links from the previous 3 days given priority. However a different algorithm for search means a different approach to search engine optimisation.

Siri on iPhone 4S is another that may disrupt the search engine’s status quo and methods of search engine optimisation. Currently if Siri can find the answers it takes the user to the site avoiding Google’s ads, and using voice and searching databases provides a new way to find answers via the internet. Should new methods of search become popular, it will also mean changes and challenges for search engine optimisationand online marketing.

Marketing by Goals

It is important when looking to achieve success in business that you outline targets and have a strategy to meet these targets. Marketing is one of the most crucial aspects of success in business and marketing by goals is a good way to achieve business success.

The first step is to identify the goals. What do you want to achieve? Marketing by goals strategies can have a variety of measures of marketing success. Do you want to simply increase revenue or do you want to increase market share? Will you do this by spreading product awareness and focusing on lead generation, or by targeting existing customers with a new range of products? Of course you can have many goals, or one larger goal such as lead generation can have many sub goals to achieve the overall aim.

Once the goals are identified a suitable strategy must be used to achieve them. Will you be using marketing online? Will it be an expensive targeted campaign, a wider reaching approach or a cheaper social media method? There are also many factors in the marketing environment, both internally and externally to consider. A thorough environmental scan is important even when marketing online as websites audiences will vary significantly in terms of location and demographics.

Once a strategy is built the next step is to measure whether or not marketing by goals has achieved the objectives set as this will help you to learn how to make a more effective strategy next time. This requires a feedback loop of some kind where you can measure how effective the marketing has been. When marketing online this can be from using website analytics to measure click rates or web traffic or in a store it could be an increase in footfall. Marketing by goals strategies are dynamic, and should the measurement not indicate your target is being met, then the strategy should be adapted to be more effective.

Social Media the key to Online Marketing Engagement

In a world before online marketing, advertising was based on predictions of interest due to likely demographics of the target audience. Television adverts were targeted in the sense that the advert was run between programs which were watched by a targeted demographic of the population, for instance beer commercials during sports matches, as both sport and beer’s best customers are predominantly male, and in the age range of 18-35.

With early online marketing a similar approach was taken, banner advertisements would be placed on sites relevant to the advert. However evidence suggests that this is not overly effective, with only 0.09% of visitors clicking on the adverts. Other forms of online marketing have proved intrusive, with pop ups often prompting a negative reaction.

Google provided one of the first effective methods of online marketing through the adverts that support its search engine in the sponsored results. The online marketing was targeted to the user as it responds to what the user searched for and displayed results which may be of interest. Social media has taken this one step further, with adverts based on the information a user has communicated about themselves. Furthermore, the way brands interact with users on sites such as Facebook is very similar to how users interact with each other, making it seem less like online marketing, and instead treating the user as more of a fan of the brand, which helps develop loyalty. Stores such as Wallmart now even provide applications to help Facebook users buy gifts for their friends, disguising online marketing as a helpful tool.

The internet also allows more interactive media, with games and contests available to facilitate online marketing and give the user more involvement in the advert. Yet this is not the pinnacle of social media, the growth of location as an element of social media has great potential for facilitating geo marketing as does the migration to smartphones for mobile marketing. Online marketing will only continue to grow with new innovations in the social marketing field.

Facebook to fund new smartphone through mobile marketing revenues

Rumours have grown stronger in the last month that Facebook is set to enter the smartphone market currently dominated by Apple and Google by producing an operating system of it’s own.

The new Facebook phone project, supposedly codenamed ‘Buffy’ will develop a Facebook customised user interface based upon the Android system, to run on an HTC device. Other wilder rumours have suggested Facebook may even sell the phone for free, and this may not prove bad business sense due to its mobile marketing potential.

Google currently gives away its Android operating system to handset manufacturers for free, with the revenues coming from online marketing on Google’s online services which are integrated with the operating system. Facebook could increase its revenues from online marketing in a similar fashion by increasing web traffic to Facebook through integration with the phones operating system. There are further opportunities inmobile marketing and even geo marketing for a potential Facebook phone as the social networking site makes location more of an important factor in sharing.

Google and Apple have built many high end phones, so Facebook’s strategy may well be to target the lower end of the market knowing they can make a return from online marketing. The Amazon Kindle Fire has a similar low end strategy, undercutting the iPad on price and features, but through mobile marketing the revenues can be recouped from the sales of ebooks for the device, and also from online marketing advertisements subsidising the lowest priced Kindle.

While Apple may produce all aspects of their product in house and receive the largest share of profits in the smartphone industry, its rivals have shown that the value of online marketing as they generate profits through technology by using devices as tools for mobile marketing and online marketing in their primary businesses.

Social Media tools to track Online Marketing

Keeping up with what’s trending on the internet is an essential part of managing online marketing and geo marketing. Advertisers must keep up with what is popular and topical across the internet in order to make sure their online marketing and mobile marketing remains relevant.

Trending on Twitter is the main way to keep up with what is happening on the net, however there are many tools to help make even greater sense of the wealth of topics being discussed online. Trendmaps.com allows users to see to see what is trending by location, showing a map with popular topics associated with different countries and regions, which proves very useful for geo marketing, as online marketing efforts can be tailored to individual countries depending on the hot topics of that country.

There are also further domestic sites such as What’s Trending which will provide explanations of the latest trends, and help marketers to understand why topics are popular. Geo marketing requires an understanding of individual territories however it is impossible for individuals to keep up with news in all targeted territories across the world so sites that provide help towards understanding are useful in online marketing.

Groups of users can also be targeted on Twitter by using a variety of search engines to find key words or hashtags for online marketing. This is not only limited to Twitter, Google provides a dedicated blog search engine much like it does for news or shopping.

If you want to evaluate your online marketing influence by your social media profile, one dedicated application is Klout, which measures how influencial you are online by your social networking followers and activity. However don’t expect to score a Klout of 100 unless you are Justin Bieber, the internet’s most influential personality, whose online marketing potential has recently been highlighted with fees paid for his tweets about Spotify.

Merry Mobile Marketing

Smartphones look set to play a key part in many consumers Christmas shopping as online marketing and new methods of mobile marketing play a greater role in product decisions. In America, two thirds of shoppers said that their smartphone would have a role in purchase decisions during the back to school shopping period.

For the much more lucrative Christmas period advertisers will look to increase their online marketing and mobile marketing efforts ever further. QR codes are one such methods of engaging customers though mobile marketing. The codes are displayed in store, on billboards or in a variety of media which can be scanned by a smartphone’s camera. The scanned code then links to a website, application or text message which can offer the user discounts or other ways to engage with the brand. The method has been around for a while but is growing in popularity as the hardware to engage with the codes becomes more readily available.

Most of the population of the US and the UK are unaware of QR codes and their mobile marketing intentions however in larger cities their presence may become unmissable. Ebay have launched a ‘pop-up’ store in London for five days over the Christmas period which will contain products with QR code links to their online marketing. There will be no over the counter purchases as the store simply acts as a vehicle to promote the online auction site. Larger retail stores such as Debenhams and John Lewis are also keen to make use of mobile marketing by displaying QR codes, while Starbucks teamed up with Lady Gaga to promote their online marketing efforts with a scavenger hunt to promote her new album.

While QR codes provide a convenience and a thrill from using the latest technology, many customers will simply be responding to online marketing from manually entering product information to their phones in store as mobile marketing offers a wider choice and greater price competition than the high street can.

Adobe’s announcement last week that the most recent update of Flash player for mobiles has had a significant impact on the world of mobile marketing.  Most notably it represents a victory for Apple, who opposed the use of Flash on their mobile devices, and a defeat for those who embraced it on theirs.  It also has a significant impact on all mobile marketing activities which can no longer be ported from the flash version of the online marketing on a desktop computer to mobile marketing on portable devices in the future.

Apple’s late CEO and founder Steve Jobs vigorously opposed the use of Flash on the iPhone and iPad citing battery life and frequent crashing as the main reason not to include support for the plugin on Apple’s products.  This was seen as a chink in the iPhone’s armoury by many, with Flash support being a key attribute of many devices, none more so than the Blackberry Playbook that sold Flash as its key advantage over the iPad in its print, television and online marketing, even using the song ‘Flash’ by Queen to emphasise Flash in its products.  The announcement of the death of Flash appears to be nothing short of a PR disaster for the tablet now. 

The news also brings problems for online marketing.  Marketers’ expertise in Flash will no longer have any use when designing marketing content for mobiles.  A lot of online marketing efforts also come from interactive media and games which are becoming more popular on the move as smartphones become more powerful and wireless networks more readily available.  Smartphones also provide many geo marketing opportunities and along with all previous online marketing endeavours, new avenues can only be exploited by making the transition to HTML 5.  Google makes no direct profits from its Android operating system, only from increasing the availability of its search engine where its revenues come from online marketing.  Google will be keen to ensure that mobile marketing’s transition to HTML 5 is as smooth as possible to maintain its online marketing revenues.

Flash player was not built for mobiles and mobile marketing, it has been adjusted from the desktop version that became popular with the growth on the internet on personal computers, and has simply been adjusted for portable devices.  Steve Job’s further criticised the platform for lacking security, security which will prevent more intrusive online marketing techniques.  Many believe Apple was simply not happy at the level of control Adobe had over the plugin and preferred to embrace the open sourced alternative, an irony considering the amount of control Apple retains over its products.  Mobile marketing must respond to the change.

Location based social networking to fuel Geo Marketing

Geo marketing has long had an important presence in online marketing, with many stores and restaurants making sure to promote their presence on Google Map and Facebook Places.  However, geo marketing now has a more important role to play in online marketing as many social networking sites are now bringing geography into the equation. 

Facebook’s new updates place greater emphasis on geography, with status updates now including the person’s location.  Facebook photos can now also be tagged by location, and all the data about where a person is brings a new avenue for targeted online marketing.  Facebook adverts traditionally targeted people by their interests and other data they had volunteered to the service.  Now they have shared where they are, advertising can be localised.  If they are currently there, businesses have the opportunity to target users with mobile marketing offers.

Foursquare is another popular social media app which has always had its focus on geography.  The app’s philosophy is to allow users to get more from their city and see what their friends are up to.  Of course this is where businesses can target them with mobile marketing by telling them what is going on in their city and providing offers.

This week the iPhone application ‘Oink’ launched promising to cover online reviews in their entirety, not just reviewing the restaurant but the specific meal.  As apps such as Oink grow it will be crucial that customer satisfaction is met as smartphone users can share their approval or otherwise whilst still sat in the restaurant.

Geo marketing will continue to grow as location becomes an increasingly significant part of social media, and social media will continue to lead the way for new methods of online marketing and mobile marketing.