It has been a busy start to the year here at Protea Digital. We have welcomed on-board new clients, forged new partnerships, and streamlined our account management processes.

The economy seems to be gathering strength, and we continue to see our ecommerce clients increase their revenue. There is clearly still a demand for quality products which deliver what they say they do.

In fact, our client in the quality cotton bed and bath market saw annual revenue rise just under 30% in 2011. This builds on previous annual compound growth of 36%, and 20%.

The colorful graph above is real annual revenue for this client. In the interests of confidentiality, we have removed the name and numbers. However, this is graph does show the real annual revenue growth for 2007-2011. The y-axis starts at zero, so there isn’t any distortion. (As my old stats professor used to say, don’t trust a bar graph that doesn’t start at zero).

They only sell online, and Protea Digital is their exclusive web marketing partner.

We hope the rest of the year continues this growth.

 

 

In the honor of the recent Cyber Monday and the upcoming holidays, this post covers the importance of marketing seasonality.  Just like one message can’t impact all people, one message can’t impact the same person all the time. Marketers must take advantage of seasonal trends to offer unique value to consumers.

Driven by forces bigger than a single corporation, consumers have come to expect different criteria from marketers at different times of the year.  This doesn’t just mean Christmas ornaments in December, but instead means specific discounts, calls-to-action, and alerts to match the season, whether or not your product is directly related to the holidays.

We all know that consumers spend more during the winter holidays and spend less in the summer, so ramp up your PPC campaigns and online advertising in December, but make sure it’s highly customized to fit the season. It’s not uncommon to initiate a new PPC campaign for a line of products just for a month or so. Create time sensitive alerts and drive traffic now! Your ad won’t stand out of the crowd unless you solve the need that your consumer is seeking to find, and whatever it is, it’s usually linked to seasonality. Most recently, Cyber Monday, created to level the playing field for eCommerce sites missing out on Black Friday, recorded a record high $1.3B in sales yesterday. This marks a 17% increase in spending over last year’s Cyber Monday and is reportedly the highest spending total for any day this year. Read the full article here.

If you want to get fancy, take it a step further with weather specific marketing. Check out this older post “When Bad Weather is Good”

Give us a call or comment to tell us about your experiences with seasonal marketing.

 

 

The 2011 Internet Summit is in the books. I had the opportunity to attend both days of the conference for the past two years, along with a handful of other tech conferences in the region.  Once you attend a few of these events, you start to hear similar themes and opinions on the evolution of technology. For those of you that couldn’t attend this year’s Internet Summit, or maybe you were too busy networking to hear any of the panels, here are a few takeaways from the conference:

1)      The Integration of Social and the Web.  Social media, SEO, PPC, and the rest of the web marketing universe are no longer separate entities, they are all intertwined. Social media is becoming a vital component to any web marketing campaign. Without it, you’re attempting to solve a puzzle without all of the pieces.

2)      Geotargeting.  As social expands, consumers are consulting the local community more and more before making buying decisions. People are much more likely to buy a product if it’s endorsed by one of their Facebook friends, while we’ve grown immune to these broad appealing ads on the internet and TV. As influence from our local community becomes a vital part of the purchasing decision for consumers, marketers must use highly targeted campaigns to stand out in the crowd. Adding geotargeting to your web marketing campaign can greatly increase its impact and conversion rate.

3)      Increase in Choices for Consumers. This theme wasn’t directly addressed at the conference, but it’s apparent when you look at all of the innovations in technology. With all of the segmentation in the market, there are opportunities for new companies to make an impact. There are so many cool start-ups in the area. The best part is that many of them are free, or at least offer free trials.

Post or comment with any added themes or takeaways from the conference. We hope to attend as a demo company next year!

Posted by Zach

 

 

Did you know that 97% of Google’s revenue, roughly $33 billion, comes from Adwords and other advertising? (TechCrunch)  That’s a staggering statistic. While it’s clear that PPC is still dominated by Google, this post takes a look at social pay-per-click as an alternative.  Specifically, I’ll break down PPC on the platforms of LinkedIn and Facebook, both of which can be beneficial if used correctly.

LinkedIn Ads

Pros

1)  Great for B2B. As you’ve likely noticed, LinkedIn has a corporate vibe. This gives marketers a great platform to reach businesses in a social environment.

2)  Reach the Decision Makers.  In the old days, it was quite a task to reach the CEO, COO, or Director of Marketing of a large company. Now, most of them are only a click away on LinkedIn. You can target your ads to reach the decision makers and increase your conversion rates.

3)  Highly Targeted. You can target your ads with a combination of the following categories: job title, job function, industry, geography, age, gender, company name, company size, or LinkedIn Group. This allows small companies to stretch their marketing budget with a very specific target audience in mind. Waste less dollars on users outside of your target market.

Cons

1)  High CPC. LinkedIn ads are expensive.  While you can limit your spending to only $10/day, the CPC can be steep.

2)  Right People at the Wrong Time. Unlike Google Search, LinkedIn users aren’t actively looking for a related term or product when your ad appears.  You aren’t reaching them when they’re ready to take action, but instead may be taking away from their experience. They are less likely to navigate away from LinkedIn and respond to your ad if they aren’t actively searching for a related solution.  This con is balanced by the fact that more people will actually see your ad; the click-through-rate is lower and you don’t pay for anything until someone clicks through. If you can create a memorable ad with a high recall rate, these impressions can help you in the long run.

Facebook Ads

Pros

1) Very Highly Targeted. Facebook users willingly give out so much personal information; marketers can use this knowledge to cater ads to very specific groups. The legal and moral issues surrounding Facebook’s use of personal information is well documented, but it’s a good opportunity to give users ads that spark their interests.

2) Huge Pool of Users. More than 800 million and counting.

3) Promotion of Own Social Media Channels. Some companies use Facebook Ads to promote their own Facebook Page. You don’t have to re-direct people straight to your website, but instead engage users within the Facebook domain and get added exposure through “Likes” and shares.

Cons

1)  Right People at the Wrong Time (see explanation from LinkedIn Ads above)

2)  Credibility Factor. I read this one in an older blog post here and it really resonated with me. There are so many junk advertisements on Facebook that it’s diminishing the value for everyone else. It’s like the boy that cried wolf; users are becoming immune to ads because there isn’t a process in place to weed out the poor quality advertisers. I don’t want to see any more ads for “get rich quick” schemes or penny stocks!

3)  Rising Costs. Facebook Ads used to be a cost effective alternative to Google Adwords, but the CPC is rising fast now that the tool is well established.

We recommend a combination of all three PPC platforms to our clients, depending on their industry and focus. While Adwords still dominates, social PPC is no joke. For example, one of our clients can attribute 25% of their revenue directly to Facebook Ads. In the end, it isn’t about which platform you like better, but instead which one gives you the best opportunity to impact your core audience.

 

 

Protea just added a new “Resources” section to the site, which serves as an archive for web marketing and social media insight from our team. Currently, the Resources tab features a white paper, written by Steve Kent, discussing web marketing predictions for the upcoming year. The article dives into new technology innovations, challenges, and trends.

Download the white paper and let us know what you think. Do you agree? Challenge any of the theories? Comment or tweet at us.

 

 

We all know that Facebook dominates the world, right? This post takes a look at a few of the emerging alternatives to Facebook (and Twitter) and evaluates their relevance and potential longevity.

Google +

Google launched its own social media site, Google Plus, several months ago in an attempt to capture some of the social media market. Google Plus has a few features that make it pretty compelling:

1)  Compatibility. Google already influences such a large portion of our web interactions. Google Plus offers users an opportunity to seamlessly integrate social media into the rest of their web experience. The built-in search function and instant upload tool for mobile take web integration a step further for Google Plus users.

2)  Filtering. Google is heavily marketing their unique “Circles” feature, which allows users to segment their friend groups and share different information with each. This helps overcome the screening and privacy issues associated with Facebook. You can share a funny video with your close friends without worrying about what the boss thinks.

3)  Group sharing. Google + has a cool feature that allows up to 9 people to video chat together. Friends can join and leave the conversation as they please; this mimics face-to-face engagements and helps give Google Plus a fun, spontaneous vibe.

Protea magic eight ball: “Outlook is positive”

Unthink

Unthink, which recently gained a lot of exposure in the press, markets itself as a direct competitor and opponent of Facebook. In an Unthink “About” video, they slam Facebook for having an “exploitive business model.” Unthink sees itself as an equitable alternative to Facebook that gives users more freedom, control, and privacy.  They have embraced a strong “David vs. Goliath” mentality; Unthink is attempting to promote itself by exposing the flaws and greed of Facebook and other competitors. Unthink is also promoting the inclusion of businesses in the community, which may offer a unique way for individuals to engage with brands.

Protea magic eight ball: “Will make it, but will stay small.”

Diaspora

Diaspora, created by a team of NYU students, markets itself as a privacy aware, open platform social media site. With the growing concern about Facebook and their exploitation of personal information, Diaspora raised $200,000 in donations from a crowdsourcing site in April.  Diaspora threatened to offer many of the benefits of Facebook, without the privacy issues or monopoly control. Unfortunately, Google Plus, which launched shortly after Diaspora, boasted many of the same features and functions. Due to the emergence of this new behemoth competitor, among other contributing factors, much of the promise and hype attributed to Diaspora has subsided over the past few months.

Protea magic eight ball: “Will stay tech niche”

Conclusion

Facebook is a formidable opponent. When comparing it to start-ups like Unthink and Diaspora, one side is throwing sticks, while the other is operating heavy artillery. The humble beginning of Facebook is well documented, which means anything is possible, but there wasn’t such a sizeable competitor already established when Facebook launched. Thankfully, there will always be early adopters and thought leaders that support new industry innovations, such as Unthink and Diaspora, but I don’t envision either of these firms becoming large enough to compete with Facebook.

As for Google Plus, there is a real opportunity to steal market share from Facebook. Facebook isn’t going away anytime soon, but Google Plus has deep enough pockets to make a play. The biggest issue for Facebook competitors isn’t creating a superior social media site, it’s gaining enough users to make a splash.

The network effect keeps things in lock-down for Facebook: Nearly everyone is on Facebook. Why is that? Because everyone else is on Facebook.  A social networking site is as good as the people engaging in it. This is why a huge corporation, such as Google, has the best chance to compete; it can spend the money to market its product on a large scale.

Do you think another site has a chance to compete with Facebook? Let us know your thoughts.

 

 

At Protea, we work with companies that range from tech savvy to tech averse.  Some of our clients operate in industries that traditionally lived offline, but are now quickly evolving and adapting to the online marketplace. For traditional retail or brick and mortar businesses, they often take the right first step of creating a website, but then wonder what’s next.

Building a website is a good first step, but don’t stop there. For small companies that are looking to get a little more from their web presence, here are a few easy first steps:

1)     Start a blog

Rich content is the backbone of a website and is key for SEO/organic search rankings. A blog is a great way to incorporate new content into your site and generate a community of followers. If your industry is highly regulated and isn’t well suited for blogging, write about something else that your target audience will enjoy.  The key is to engage your network and establish yourself as a thought leader in the industry.

2)     Create a monthly newsletter

Email marketing is one of the most effective forms of customer acquisition. People respond well to predictability and repetition, so send a monthly newsletter the second Tuesday of every month at 10am, or something like that.   It’s also good practice to make it as easy as possible for your web visitors to join your newsletter mailing list. Add a “Join Our Mailing List” button somewhere clearly visible on your site.

3)     Be Unique

Ok, this one isn’t as concrete, but that’s the point. Take a look at the competition in your industry and do something different. People are attracted to sites that break the mold. Most importantly, these are the sites that people talk about and spread the word. If you can get people engaged, even if it isn’t directly correlated to your product or service, then you have a captive audience to sell later.  For a great example, take a look at Intel’s new viral campaign: The Museum of Me.

 

 

If you follow the unofficial Big Ben Clock on Twitter, you know the importance of entertainment value in social media.

The Big Ben Clock tweets a series of “BONGS” every hour to designate the current time in London. It’s an extremely simple, yet clever Twitter account that captured my interest last week. Possibly the most fascinating bit of info is Big Ben’s number of Twitter followers: 134,971 and counting. As you may have guessed, the creators of the unofficial Big Ben account have found a way to monetize the idea by linking to a page where they sell Big Ben Twitter merchandise.

The “Big Ben Theory”, as it’s now known in the Protea office, is any digital content where the entertainment value trumps the raw data. In a digital world where consumer attention is highly fragmented, marketers must capture and engage their audience through entertainment before giving the sales pitch. Web users are becoming more and more selective about the advertising they consume. Break through the clutter by giving the consumer what they want, not just what they need.

 

 

Chapel Hill, N.C. – Despite challenging economic times, small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) are continuing to grow in one area: the web. Protea Digital, a North Carolina based marketing firm, reports that clients have experienced significant increases in online sales in the past quarter.

One of Protea Digital’s clients, a national e-commerce luxury bedding store, has experienced a 33% growth in revenue this year. The store also tallied its highest sales month ever in September. Many of Protea’s clients are experiencing similar trends.

With increased web sales, SMBs are able to hire new employees. In the past month,  Protea made a new hire, acquired three new clients and launched a new website, featuring its upgraded suite of products and services.

In addition to the upward trend in web marketing, smaller firms are becoming more competitive with larger firms. SMBs are taking advantage of easy-to-use software tools, engaging with customers on social media channels and tracking success with analytics.

“In the past, social media has struggled to show a return on investment. However, many of our clients can trace up to twenty percent of their revenue to Facebook and social media channels,” said CEO Steven Kent.

Companies are also paying attention to mobile browsing. Protea’s records show a 300% increase in traffic from mobile devices in the last year, and iPad users also spend more per visit than the average desktop user.

“With the abundance of obstacles for small businesses, it’s encouraging to see growth in the web marketing sector and continuous innovation in North Carolina and beyond,” said Kent.

ABOUT PROTEA DIGITAL
Protea Digital, founded in 2010, is a web marketing and strategy firm based in Chapel Hill, N.C. Protea helps growing businesses get more out of the web by providing a combination of management services and software tools to drive conversions through all of their web channels. Protea has clients in the ecommerce, healthcare, travel, education and non-profit sectors, in both the Triangle and along the East Coast.

Visit Protea Digital’s new website at www.proteadigital.com.

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Contact Zach Strom at zstrom@proteadigital.com for more information.

 

 

Protea Digital is excited to announce the launch of our new website! As Protea continues to grow, we thought our site should grow as well.  We’ve listened closely to our clients and updated our offerings to meet their needs. One of the coolest features of the new site is our “Packages” page, which outlines our new suites of products and services.  As you’ll notice in the packages, we’ve incorporated a bundle of software tools to complement our management services and help our clients grow. Comment, send us an email (zstrom@proteadigital.com), or tweet at us and let us know what you think!