Experts are now saying the capabilities of mobile marketing are reaching consumers faster than any other medium in history, completely dwarfing the rate at which the Internet made it into our homes when it was released (and look at what happened to the bank accounts of smart guys who grabbed that wave when it mounted).

It is an advertising medium that is still in its infancy but we can already see its great potential. Radio took 30 years to evolve into a full-fledged advertising platform and then 15 years later television took the scene, and it took more than 40 more years for our advertising efforts to evolve from TV to cable to internet.

But mobile marketing seems to be in a league of its own, and one way we are seeing this manifest in is through mobile couponing. Mobile coupons are easy and cheap for companies, as simple as sending out a text message, and they are easy to use for customers as well, who don’t have to spend time hunting through coupon books, cutting them out, and saving them.

People use their text-based coupons 10X more than they use coupons they get from traditional paper based media.
A recent mobile marketing report by Borrel Associate states that while internet marketing took in over $44 billion last year and mobile just under $3 billion, the former is expected to only grow by thirteen percent per year. Mobile advertising, on the other hand, is predicted to see gains of 84% every year. That could leave the medium accounting for nearly $60 billion dollars annually 4 years from now.

The most promising aspect of mobile couponing as a powerful marketing medium is that most people already have the technological capabilities on their cell phones. In the past, when we watched the “slow” rise of the Internet (a rise that is only considered slow if compared to the shocking speed of technology development today), we see that hardly anyone had computers in their homes, and this is much of the reason it took so long for the medium to gain ground.

With mobile couponing and mobile advertising in general, the hardware has already infiltrated society in a big way. That means consumers are already waiting on the receiving end of their phones, all that needs to be done is find the best way to capitalize on this without overdoing it.

And it can be overdone. When a client or prospect allows you to reach into their world through social media and mobile technology, they don’t want to get hammered with advertisements 24/7, but no one can deny the satisfaction of taking a 5 digit code from a text message and using it to get a huge discount, even if they hadn’t been thinking of buying it in the first place. And therein lies the power of sending someone an advertisement of this sort and reaching them no matter where they are.

It doesn’t take much to see what this could do for a company’s sales. And we are seeing this growing trend of consumers who don’t mind one bit if companies have that sort of access to their daily lives and use it (within reason). Some see that as bad, but either way, it is certainly significant.

And for businesses looking for another way to get customers in the door to spend money, the next four years of growth in mobile marketing will bring some much desired revenue increases. What will the next decade bring?

Study by Borrel Associate Shows Mobile Media as the Fastest Growing Advertising Platform is a post from: SEO Blog | SEO Marketing World

Internet video continues to grow in popularity, and as we all know, it is unrivaled as a way to communicate with prospects and hold attention. It’s no big secret that the modern man is no big reader, and in fact, it has always surprised me that blogging ever got popular in the first place with the lack of avid readers in society. We soon saw with social media, and of course video, that being a big reader wouldn’t be a prerequisite for surfing the web for long, and now any marketer worth their salt knows its time to start harnessing the engaging power of video to get their message out there.

Well, here’s 5 simple tips for making the most of your video if your just starting to dabble with this platform.

1. Tell Them Who You Are and What You want

In most cases, you should have a clear purpose for making your videos. You might be doing them for SEO, but there’s no reason to sacrifice the possibility of each video being something more.

Make it clear who you are and what the purpose of your presentation is all about. Include a call to action at the end and give a link. One of the biggest mistakes newbie IM’ers make is not telling the customer what they want them to do next and what the benefit of doing that is.

2. Use Good Keyword Strings for File Names

File names play a big role in search engine optimization for videos, and they should, but it also opens up an easy opportunity for easy SEO. Just do some good keyword research write keyword-rich descriptions as well. There’s a lot more coming in the world of video search, but a few simple basics can go a long way right now.

3. Brand It

You should always use video as a platform to build your brand. You won’t find a better chance; when else do prospects give you such undivided attention?

There are plenty of ways to incorporate your brand into the package. You can put it in the pre-roll or the end credits. You can use software to edit the video and put your brand in the corner. Or, if your tech skills are limited, you can even stand in front of a simple backdrop showcasing your brand beside you.

Don’t make it harder than it needs to be, but make sure you leverage this opportunity to build some brand recognition.

4. Split Content Into a Series of Small Videos

Try not to make your videos too long or you can easily lost viewer attention. Instead of using the fully allotted time video sharing sites allow, make a series of smaller videos presenting your message in doses. Try to put some kind of hook at the end of each segment or leave people hanging so they want to move on to the next.

This gives people control over what they want to see and when, but it also makes them more likely to listen to your call to action because when people have already listened to your directions a few times (i.e. clicking over to the next video), they are more likely to do so again.

So the further they follow you through your chain of videos, the more you build a relationship with them. It is a matter of perception, even if it is a subconscious perception.

5. Be Clear About Audio

Finally, the need for intelligible, clear speaking in order to communicate your message is obvious, but there are other reasons to put some real time into audio as well. How many times have you turned off a video just because the speaker didn’t sound confident enough? Or because their voice was even just a little too annoying?

In other cases, a low background hum can be enough to get on a viewer’s nerves. Or when the volume is too low and you have to straining to hear it over whatever else is going on around you. To go even further, future video searches will make use of automatic video transcripts in the future, which means the clarity of your voice will someday play a role in rankings.

Video marketing is a very substantial part of the Internet experience, and the best thing about videos, in my opinion, is they cut to the chase and give the marketer more of an obligation to produce value. Let’s face it, a lot of online articles are just made for SEO purposes and many of you are not expecting people to read them. I discourage that approach, but it is the route many take.

Video, however, keeps you honest. Regardless of the SEO value, videos are made for the end user, and you will be judged by what is given. Keep that in mind, and produce something of merit.

Video Marketing for Beginners: 5 Simple Tips to Keep in Mind Before You Post is a post from: SEO Blog | SEO Marketing World

We all know that great content is the key to search engine optimization, but what many of us don’t know is what exactly great content is.  Great content is what makes others not only visit your site to read your information, but also makes them want to link back and reference your information over and over again.  Here are some ideas to help you discover what great content is and how you can create it on your sites:

Tip #1:  Find Your Niche

You know, the world has enough Digg’s, Craigslist’s and Facebook’s.  Many times we think far, far too big.  There are literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of niche markets out there that are under served or not served at all.  Think big, act small is a good motto here.  Look for markets that are in need of great content and deliver it.  You may be surprised at how big that “small” market turns out to be!

Tip #2:  Be the Filter

Let’s be honest – there is a lot of noise out there; Thousands of sites, blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies all screaming about the latest trend, buzz or product.  People want information without having to wade through ten different sites to find it.  Why not make your site the “filter site” and filter out all the noise and present just the facts?  Become the leader for delivering the content for your area without having to write a single line of content yourself!

Tip #3:  Don’t Report the News – Be the News!

The CEO of Google can’t sneeze without two hundred news sites reporting on it.  Let’s face it, unless you are CNN or MSNBC then reporting the news just isn’t going to cut it.  Instead, why not be the news and let others report (and link) back to you?  Create media and content that others want to report about – make it unique, relevant and newsworthy.  You’ll find when you are the news it’s much better to be found in the crowd.

Tip #4:  Don’t Take Sides; But Let Others Take Them!

Be the site that hosts both viewpoints on an issue and let others come to your site and duke it out.  All the while you remain neutral and just let the links keep pouring in. Many sites are afraid of creating controversy, and for good reason, but being a neutral third-party who merely let’s other users visit, create and link to content while discussing both sides of an issue is a great way to build traffic and rankings.

Tip #5:  Visualize Other’s Data

Unless you have a dedicated staff and deep pockets chances are you aren’t creating your own data about market trends, demographics and other related topics. However, there is almost endless data available out there that you can analyze, re-brand and present in unique and interesting ways to draw attention to it and your site.  Raw data isn’t much fun in itself – but when properly analyzed and presented can be a gold mine.

Tip #6:  Use Your Own Data to Generate Buzz

If you are lucky enough to have your own source of data – whether from proprietary databases or from user generated content – you can present it in ways that draws in visitors who are eager to see your analysis.  The more in-depth your analysis the more viewers you will get – as well as the more links you will get from others referencing your analysis.

From Great Content Comes Great Links is a post from: SEO Blog | SEO Marketing World

Regardless of whether you are launching a new website or a proven website, it is always adviseable to use organic landing pages. Organic landing pages is a search engine marketing technique that will get traffic to your site without you having to pay for it.

Organic landing pages are used particularly for search engine optimization for a specific keyword. There is ample debate whether your landing page should be written for the interest of the human reader or for the search engine spyders, who in turn provide you with your page ranking and indexing. Higher page rank and better indexing means more traffic, more traffic means more sales. The answer, however, is quite simple. With some ingenuity as well as well placed words, it can be done quite well for both the human eyes and the spyders. Understanding that the google algorithym will penalize you for landing pages solely for the purpose of attracting spyders with no relevant content for the readers. Its time to have content that is not only relevant, but powerful enough to capture the human and the spyder. If your content is good, the humans will find you, and if the humans find you the spyders will come.

When creating your organic landing page, determine your most important keyword and place it within your HTML title tag, your page URL and at the begininning of the body of the text. If your website is static, you will have to do this manually. If however your site is a blog and you are utilizing WordPress to service your blog, you will automatically be optimized with the above named features if you enable permalinks and have the keyword as the post title and post. This is the core of organic landing pages 101.

Lets take it one step further, add the keyword a few more times in some additional areas such as in the tags, the H1 tag and then again in the closing of the main body of text. Do not, however, over-optimize. As a general rule of thumb, keep keyword usage to approximately 3 times within each 500 words. This is good content and will never be misinterpreted as spam. Along with finding the keyword in the tag and the title, a reader will sense the word 5 times, which is perfect for both human reader interest and the spyders.

Please understand, this is a general guideline, search engine optimization is not an exact science. However, if you follow the rules in this guideline you should have a great start to search engine marketing your product or services online.

Creating a well thought out organic landing page and coupling it with keyword authority, you are sure to win the praises of your readers and the google spyders.

The Success of Organic Landing Pages is a post from: SEO Blog | SEO Marketing World