Barron's | Edward Jones Tops Internet Search Ranking Barron's Edward Jones spends nearly half of its media investment on digital marketing, Olsen tells the publication. Most of that is geared to the local digital space. Each advisor and branch has a custom micrositea separate site outside the main company homepage. |
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Edward Jones Tops Internet Search Ranking - Barron's
Video marketing is only as expensive as the budget youre working with.
Online marketing is a dynamic business but not always unpredictable. For years now weve seen consistent trends that indicate certainties such as users are used to watching ads while browsing the internet and now more than ever those videos influence their purchasing habits.
To help those on the fence with regards to their own video marketing weve put together a list of answers to commonly asked questions.
Video marketing is only as expensive as the budget youre working with. There are lots of ways to create effective videos that dont cost you anything other than your time. You wont be butting heads with industry leaders right away and as your marketing efforts help grow your business so should you grow the budget.
When it comes to making your videos focus on the value of the content over the presentation. Getting too creative can be a bad thing if it limits your ability to convey your message.
A study by Mist showed that having a video on your landing page increased your chances of being found on page 1 for your targeted key phrases by 53%.
Having a page 1 SERP listing is a challenge and if youre in a highly competitive industry where a conversion is highly valuable then it becomes a constant struggle against your competitors.
Increasing your page 1 rank chances by 53% makes a strong case for including video in your online marketing.
You spend a lot of time on your blog posts and the content can have just as much value as a landing page. Why not include the info as a video and increase the chances of that information reaching more people?
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When you create blog content that users love they link to it in their own content marketing. Anyone marketing online knows the value of a strong link from a reputable website. SEO authority moz.com found that by providing a video along with the blogs text and images you expand your reach by 3X and that means 3X the user and 3X the link earning.
Generally no but it should be made a part of it. While online videos represent69% of all global consumer online trafficin 2017 and 69% is obviously not a number you can ignore thats not to say your industry is necessarily on the high end of the trend towards video.
Its likely still trending that way but dont let it override your established efforts. Users expectations and habits vary per industry and niche within so add it to what youre doing rather than switching over altogether.
Try some A/B testing between pages and posts and see how your engagement is with your users. You likely wont affect your rank too much with just 1 video so check your Google Analytics to evaluate the performance.
Additionally, for further insight, you can also utilize the analytics from social platforms you share the content through. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube all have their own stats you can review to see how well your content did once you added a video.
You can even reuse old content by adding a video and sharing it again. Then look at the first round of marketings stats vs. the stats after you added your video.
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Marketing to women? A recent study byadeliestudios.com found 83% of Moms turn to the Internet when they need answers.
It makes sense that if the answer to any question a busy mom may ask is on your website then you should have an answer thats easy to receive. And that means including a video with your content.
Someone in a rush who wants an easy answer could really be assisted by having that answer in a quick, user-friendly format.
Adding a video that covers the answer you have in your content could easily mean the difference between a click back and a new lead so makes sure you have a video option if you are in a position to answer something a Mom might need a quick answer to.
DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation in writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company Ive mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.
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Why video marketing is a hot topic for all entrepreneurs - Born2Invest
HONG KONG, CHINA--(Marketwired - Jun 21, 2017) - A new study has found that Singapore businesses are three times more likely to be switched on to Internet Marketing than their rivals in Hong Kong. The research, carried out by WL Media HK, shows that Hong Kong firms are being left in the digital dust by Singapore Exchange listed companies, who seem to be more digital savvy and better able to promote their firms online.
Despite its reputation for digital prowess, a greater number of Hong Kong businesses fell short on even the most basic of marketing activities, according to the study. Those based in Hong Kong were less likely to have claimed their free Google My Business listing for example, which is essential for Google local search visibility. More than 7% of listed Hong Kong companies do not even have a phone number registered with Google, meaning that click-to-dial functions on mobile phones won't work. This compares with only 1.2% of Singapore firms missing this essential datum.
"Companies who neglect to claim their listing from Google Business are not taking advantage of one of the most basic ways to promote their business and improve their interaction with their online customers and stakeholders," said Raymond Lowe, from WL Media HK who led the study.
While internet marketing has boomed in Hong Kong over the last ten years, it seems that Singapore continues to have the upper hand and is making bigger inroads into the digital marketplace, despite its smaller stature. "I think the higher level of English skills in Singapore contributes to their advantage," said Winnie Tsoi, Digital Marketing Consultant at http://www.wlmedia.com. "Even with internationalisation much of the technical documentation for Internet Marketing standards currently only exist in English."
Despite Google's dominance of search traffic, some businesses in the study were found to prefer other tools such as social media and directory sites. The Google Business Directory listing applies in Hong Kong and Singapore but has little or no relevance in the rest of China where Google is banned. With Facebook also off-limits behind the Chinese Firewall, a number of Hong Kong companies appear to be more interested in optimising their Baidu listing. This is a problem for those firms wanting to do business internationally, with Baidu used rarely by a Google-first Europe and American marketplace.
Josh Steimle, CEO of MWI said, "Hong Kong companies are missing out on a lot of revenue by ignoring the opportunity offered by Google My Business listings. It is one of the hidden treasures of online marketing in Hong Kong right now, and the local businesses that move first to optimize their listings are going to have a significant advantage over their slower moving competitors."
For more information about the WL Media HK study researching the use of internet marketing by Hong Kong and Singapore Listed companies, read the report at: https://www.wlmedia.hk/hong-kong-an-internet-marketing-leader-not/
About WL Media HK Based in Hong Kong, WL Media HK helps Hong Kong businesses to make the most of their online presence. It offers a range of services from websites to social media, in addition to consulting, training and optimisation.
With the continued growth of the computer age, there is a whole new way of marketing a business. Especially for businesses who perform most of their transactions online. When reaching for online customers, internet marketing becomes the main target for your marketing efforts as it will attract the customers in your demographic online users.
There are two distinct styles for online marketing, one is business marketing, the other is website marketing. With web site marketing the goal is to have people searching for particular services or products find your web site while conducting an online search through the major search engines. There are many facets involved in web site marketing and once a business is able to get them all clicking together, there is a good chance they will experience a major influx of new visitors to their web site.
One the other side are businesses that heavily promote their availability aimed at the internet users more so than the search engines. Buying internet advertisements, sending out emails and other promotional marketing materials that are designed to bring visitors to their online web sites, are just a few of the online marketing strategies being used today.
One of the things to remember with online marketing is to consider your home page as a billboard along the side of the road. If there is little traffic along the road, there will be a few people who will see your billboard so your efforts should be focused on getting people on the right road. Looking at it from another perspective, there may be over a thousand people selling a certain brand of personal care items and they all have a web site, many provided free when they signed up and they all look alike and have the same enhancements.
If a person searches for the brand by name, there is no telling which web site is going to pop up in the search results. If you own one of these thousands of sites, specific marketing will need to be done to guide that potential traffic to the site you own. To do this you can use pay-per-click advertising that you pay for based on the number of visitors who click through to your site.
Affiliate marketing is also a popular method of bringing visitors to your site. As a business, you agree to pay a certain percentage or dollar amount of a sale to another site, an affiliate, who drives the traffic to you. Essentially, you are winning free advertising and only pay for it if your site makes a sale. While some link exchange programs have been successful in the past, having thousands of unrelated links to your site may turn search engines against you and lose your information from their engines and as a result from their results pages.
Source by Paula Knowles
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Internet Marketing At Its Best - JOSIC - Digital Intelligence
Nearly one-third of the advertisements for memory-boosting supplements reviewed by a government watchdog may be illegally claiming to cure or prevent diseases like Parkinsons or Alzheimers, according to a recent report. The report suggests that government regulation is failing to keep up with the growing supplement industry, but regulators arent prepared to actually fix the problem at its root.
Don't take your supplements lightly.
Over two months, investigators from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) sorted through memory supplement marketing online, in print, on TV, and in stores. After analyzing 91 advertisements and labels in depth, they discovered 28 ads for 34 supplements that claimed a product could protect against or treat dementia, Parkinsons disease, or Alzheimers disease. Thats illegal; claims that a pill or concoction can treat, cure, or prevent diseases have to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.
The dietary supplement industry is massive, raking in an estimated $39 billion in sales in 2015. The portion catering to customers who want to improve their memories is growing nearly doubling from $353 million in 2006 to $643 million in 2015. Most of the advertising for these drugs is online, the GAO found. And the supplement makers are minimally regulated. Products can hit the shelves without being tested for safety or efficacy, and, often, without their labels being vetted for accuracy. "Its a challenge to take on an industry that's this large, says FDA spokesperson Lyndsay Meyer.
"Its a challenge to take on an industry that's this large.
The Senate Committee on Aging was concerned that aging consumers might be especially vulnerable to claims that one weird trick could stave off senior moments, so it asked the GAO to check in. The GAO shared the 28 examples it found with the FDA, which agreed 27 of them may have violated the law that generally bars supplement manufacturers from making disease claims.
But the agency has only taken action against a couple of the companies. It sent a warning letter to Utah-based Lifevantage Corp, and two online advisory letters to companies making similar statements: Healinginabottle.com for the product Immuno Boost Eximius, and Life Decoders, LLC, for Sheep Placenta Advanced Capsules marketed on stemcelltherapyplus.com. The FDA is monitoring the rest.
Healinginabottle.com has expired; an email to the account the FDA used to contact the company bounced, and the company didn't reply to a Facebook message. Stem Cell Therapy Plus' website still mentions Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease; spokesman Joe Cruz says the company has addressed the FDA's concerns.
Ryan Nadeau, a spokesperson for Lifevantage, noted that the website the FDA discussed in its warning letter, nrf2science.com, is not selling a Lifevantage product its discussing the protein that this product is purported to target. We definitely agree with the need for transparent advertising and making sure that you stay within the guidelines, Nadeau says. I mean youre talking about diseases its not something you want to con your way into.
The problem with deceptive marketing is that it could lead people to, at best, waste their money, and at worst, make dangerous health decisions. Most people believe when they go to the store and they're able to just pick it up off the shelf that this is something that the agency has reviewed for safety and efficacy. Or safety, at a minimum, the FDAs Meyer told The Verge. The way that the framework is set up for supplements in this country that's just not true.
Obviously its not ideal or optimal by any means for consumer protection.
Despite its latest findings, the GAO doesnt have any big regulatory or enforcement recommendations for the FDA, which oversees supplement labeling, or the Federal Trade Commission, which oversees advertising. Instead, the GAO recommended that the FDA and FTC clarify to consumers which agency to report concerns to involving Internet marketing. If this seems like an anemic response, thats because it is.
Obviously its not ideal or optimal by any means for consumer protection and other issues. But those were the cards we were dealt, says Seto Bagdoyan, a director of forensic audits and investigations for the GAO. And that's why we focused on our market research and also on the consumer awareness of these regulators respective roles.
The problems with supplement oversight go back to a 1994 law called the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, or DSHEA. Under this law, supplements are regulated as food, not drugs. That means that supplement makers arent required to prove their products are safe or effective before selling them. And while manufacturers are typically legally barred from making disease claims on product labels, the FDA generally doesnt approve labels before supplements hit the shelves.
So the agency can only reprimand companies that it catches breaking the rules. And catching wrongdoers is challenging, because the FDA doesnt have a comprehensive list of the supplements on the market. You can have concerns over products and then the products get renamed, says Joshua Sharfstein, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and former FDA deputy commissioner. There are so many aspects of this that are out of control at the same time.
Something negative has to happen before they take action.
In the past, the GAO has suggested that the FDA should come up with guidelines that spell out the scientific evidence companies need to back up claims like "calcium builds strong bones" on a products label. The GAO also said that the agency should ask Congress for the power to demand that supplement companies hand over that scientific evidence. Neither of these suggestions were implemented. They explained to us, once again, that they really are hamstrung in terms of their authorities, Bagdoyan says. The focus of their work is at the back end where something negative has to happen before they take action.
Thats why the GAOs recommendation is so unhelpful, especially since most consumers are unlikely to know whether a supplements advertising is illegal. Even if it were clearer where consumers should report concerns to, its hard to imagine that would make much of a difference. Adverse health events are already massively underreported (consumers and clinicians can report them here). Scientists with the CDC and FDA estimate that dietary supplements are associated with more than 23,000 emergency room visits annually. The FDA estimates that there are over 50,000 supplement-related health incidents each year. And yet only somewhere between 2 and 3 percent of these incidents are reported, according to a 2008 GAO report.
Until regulation of dietary supplements changes, Meyer sums up the bottom line for health-conscious consumers: Don't take your supplements lightly.
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Scammers selling fake cures for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's are getting away with it - The Verge