Fifty Studio was recently invited to write a column for Utah Business Magazine titled "Hitting the Target: Successful Companies Must Develop an Online Marketing Plan." Here's an excerpt.
The Search Marketing Opportunity
In December of 2009, people from around the world told search engines what they were looking for more than 130 billion times, and search engines showed them correlating advertisements on every search. That was a 46 percent increase over 2008.
Fifteen years ago, advertising consisted of billboards, direct mail, TV, radio and a handful of other things that sought to target individuals in a crowd, and for direct mail purposes, a hefty postal bill came attached to it. Google and other tools made it possible to reach crowds of targeted individuals who showed interest in a specific product. One of those tools is called pay-per-click marketing (PPC). Google’s version of PPC is called AdWords.
PPC is a form of context-based advertising that allows companies to select and bid on specific terms that searchers type like “Utah family dentist” or “attorneys in Salt Lake.” Instead of companies hoping they’ll find a qualified buyer via traditional advertising, Google and other paid search platforms prescreen the buyers for companies, and companies don’t pay for the ad unless users click on it, hence the name “pay-per-click.”
Named Silver Award Winner in the categories of Computer Software, Consumer Goods, and Family/Parenting
Utah-based Web design firm, Fifty Studio, takes home three 2009 Silver W³ Awards in the categories of Computer Software, Consumer Goods, and Family/Parenting. This marks the second consecutive year that Fifty Studio has been honored with a W³ Award.
“We’ve always believed that not all Web sites are created equal and that the best sites are handcrafted,” said Chris Bender, Fifty Studio’s Creative Director. “Being recognized by an organization like W³ validates that claim. We will continue to build the best Web sites for our clients that meet their goals both aesthetically and from a business standpoint.”
The W³ Awards honor creative excellence on the Web, and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning Websites, Web Video and Online Marketing programs. Simply put, the W³ is the first major Web competition to be accessible to the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between. Small firms are as likely to win as Fortune 500 companies and international agencies.
"Fifty Studio gets it! Through recent work on our social initiative, ParentsEmpowered.org, they helped improve the online presence by creatively shifting the Web site focus from a simple information platform to a fully interactive online experience,” said Steven Wright, ParentsEmpowered Committee Member. “As a result of this innovative work, Fifty Studio helps us provide a prevention tool that increases parental involvement and enhances the Web site's usability."
For more information about Fifty Studio, visit www.fiftystudio.com.
About Fifty Studio
Fifty Studio is a fantastically effective Web development agency in Salt Lake City, Utah that builds hand-crafted Web sites and Internet marketing solutions, including SEO and PPC. ###
Have you ever wondered how some companies seem to match their CPC ads in the sponsored search results? It seems that no matter what you search, they seem to have an ad that matches exactly what you are looking for? Here's an example.
Google will allow you to dynamically insert ad copy into AdWords placements by using the {keyword:} operator. If I have a list of keywords that included car parts, Jeep parts and truck parts, I can set my ad to match the search so it would show "Buy Jeep Parts" or "Buy Truck Parts" or as the example below shows "Buy Car Parts." You must have these terms in your list of keywords in order for this to work.
Your ad's title
How will it appear?
Buy {keyword:Car parts}
Buy car parts
Buy {Keyword:Car parts}
Buy Car parts
Buy {KeyWord:Car parts}
Buy Car Parts
Buy {KEYWord:Car Parts}
Buy CAR Parts
Buy {KeyWORD:Car parts}
Buy Car PARTS
Buy {KEYWORD:Car Parts}
Buy Car Parts
Please keep in mind that AdWords Capitalization Rules & Guidlines generally won't allow you to capitalize just any word. Acronyms (SEO for search engine optimization or PPC for pay-per-click) are okay and generally approved by Google when ads are reviewed.
There's literally a million ways you can market a website, a company, a product or even a brand, and one of the easiest, cheapest and quickest ways to do so is by creating your own video and putting it on YouTube. The following 5 tips show how completely unknown bands have successfully applied everyday marketing ideas to gain big time exposure using YouTube and the cover song. Here's the 5...
Piggy Back the Page Views
Opposites Attract Traffic
Makeover Your Market
Do it Well
Familiarity Has Flow
Piggy Back the Page Views
The idea of the piggy back is exactly as it sounds; ride the back of something already successful. Example? Twitter didn't build its own search function, someone else did, and it was originally called Summize. The site became popular simply by piggybacking on Twitter and what is now known as trending. Likewise, Boyce Avenue, a Florida-based rock band, started piggybacking on famous musicians like Cold Play and One Republic by uploading cover versions of songs like Apologize and Viva La Vida. Boyce Avenue covers quickly became some of the top viewed videos of these chart topping songs and gained in popularity with the hit songs themselves. The band is now on tour and released its debut album All You're Meant to Be in March 2008.
To date, views of Boyce Avenue's cover songs (and original songs) have topped 50 million views.
Opposites Attract Traffic
Doing something exactly as another company has done seems like a good idea, but customers, and especially journalists have no reason to give attention to a copy cat. If anything, it can cause you harm because you get compared to the original. An original spin on an old concept can give it life and open up new interest. Here's a cover song example... Tiger Mountain Peasant Song - (Original) Tiger Mountain Peasant Song. Sung by First Aid Kit, a band made up of Klara & Johanna Söderberg out of Sweden.
Views: More than 800k. This cover version has had 3x the views as the original.
Make Over Your Market
When was the last time you heard the theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air sung by a silky voice playing folk guitar? Need we say more? Also, see Opposites Attract Traffic. Kay Pettigrew
Do It Well
He can sing. Improve your skills. Test. Practice. Build your own websites to use for promoting ideas. Don't wait around for that "dream customer." Enough said. Hey Ya by Outkast - Covered by Obadiah Parker on acoustic guitar.
Obadiah Parker is a folk/pop band from Scottsdale, Arizona composed of Mat Weddle (vocals, guitar), Jessie Young (piano/keyboards, trumpet, vocals), and Daniel Zehring (bass, vocals). The band has recorded an EP and a live CD, both of which contain a mixture of covers and original material.
Views? It's hard to say with the number of copies online, but it tops at least 5 million. YouTube has disabled embedding of the video, but you can watch it here.
Familiarity Has Flow
Marie Digby is best known for her acoustic cover version of Rihanna's No. 1 hit "Umbrella", which attracted attention on YouTube to the tune of more than 13 14 million views. She took it a step further and promoted her music in the process to make sure she was showing listening music execs that she had her "own" talent for writing music. She has since landed time on Last Call with Carson Daily and now has her own record deal with Disney's Hollywood Records.
Fifty Studio was recently invited to write a column for Utah Business Magazine titled "Hitting the Target: Successful Companies Must Develop an Online Marketing Plan." Here's an excerpt.
