INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0 ONLINE...

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INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

ONLINE MARKETING TECHNIQUESAN OVERVIEW OF ONLINE MARKETING TECHNIQUES

Topic 8

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Topic Overview

During this topic, we will have a look at a few on-line marketing techniques and tools to help promote our

websites and products

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Traditional vs. On-line

Offline, bustling crowds pass by your place of business. Some of the passers by traffic notices you and walks in.

"Location, Location, Location"

Online, people search for information. Millions of people. Each searches alone.

"Information, information, information"

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Background Info• The internet is a crowded place nowadays!!

• Some statistics for your consideration*:– 234 million – The number of websites as of December

2009.– 47 million – Added websites in 2009.– 1.73 billion – Internet users worldwide (September

2009).– 81.8 million – .COM domain names at the end of 2009.– 126 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as

tracked by BlogPulse).

*Source: http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/01/22/internet-2009-in-numbers/

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Always keep in mind:

HOW WILL I MAKE MY WEBSITE STAND OUT FROM THE REST?!?!!?

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

How will I make my website stand out?

• There are a number of tools and techniques to do this

• We will have a look at the following during the lecture:

1. SEO

2. On-line Advertising (Example: PPC)

3. Social Media

4. Newsletters

5. Blogs

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

1. What is SEO?

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

First Things First

What is a Search Engine (SE)?

• A web search engine is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web and FTP servers.

• The search results are generally presented in a list of results and are often called hits.

• The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in databases or open directories.

• Unlike Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Top Search Engines

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

SEO• SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation

• It is a form of on-line marketing

• It is the process of making a site and its content highly relevant for both search engines and searchers

• Successful search engine marketing helps a site gain top positioning for relevant words and phrases.

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

SEOHow do search listings work?

• A spider or crawler which is a component of a SE gathers listings by automatically "crawling" the web

• The spider follows links to web pages, makes copies of the pages and stores them in the SE’s index

• Based on this data, the SE then indexes the pages and ranks the websites

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

SEO – Adding useful keywords to website

Example: A web development company (NIU) may have the following keywords used in its website:

About NIU, NIU Malta, Web Development Malta, Web Design, Malta Marketing, Photography, Mosta Malta, Design, E-Commerce, ecommerce, outsourcing

HTML Code:

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

SEO – What is NOT recommended

• Flash - spiders do not pick up these files

• Image only sites - spiders do not pick up images

• Misspellings, JavaScript or HTML errors (validate your code)

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

2. On-line Advertising. What is PPC?

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

PPC• PPC Stands for Pay-Per-Click

• It is an Internet Advertising Model used on websites, where advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked.

• With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system.

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

PPC Examples• Many websites use it

• Best examples – Google and Facebook

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

PPC - Examples

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

PPC – Setting up• Very easy to set up...

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

PPC – Setting up• Very easy to set up...

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

PPC – Setting up• Very easy to set up...

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

PPC – Setting up• What more does a Marketing Manager need?!?

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

PPC

Some Advantages of PPC Advertising:

– VERY cost effective

– Can target very specific audiences (males, over 21 and living in Valletta)

– Extremely Accurate Reports (unlike other traditional marketing channels where you do not how how many people have seend the advert)

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

3. The importance of Social Media in On-Line Advertising

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Social Media

• With the introduction of social networks, a different marketing approach was introduced

• Users look for other user’s reviews nowadays

• This can have a postive effect or a negative one

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Social Media - Example

• When planning a trip or holiday, most people visit tripadvisor - http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/

• It contains Users added reviews of the hotels and places to visit

• This often gives the user the truth (negative or positive) of the place they are about to vist

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Social Media - Example

• Example – Maritim Hotel in Mellieha

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Social Media - Example

• TripAdvisor also allows Hotel management to reply to complaints:

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Social Media - Example

• Facebook Likes button

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Social Media - Example

• Facebook Likes button– Free advertising!– Personal experiences are shared– If James Abela is respected when it comes to IT,

“Liking” a product will arouse interest and friends will visit the product or website

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

4. Newsletters

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Newsletter

• A newsletter is an e-mail shot sent directly to a person’s inbox– 1.4 billion – The number of email users worldwide (2009)

• Extremely cheap (if not free) marketing

• Frequent (or stupid) newsletter shots may annoy users and render them ineffective

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Newsletter

• Newsletters need to be informative, short and attractive

• They may end up marked as SPAM. Various tips and tricks found on-line to avoid this.

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

5. Blogs

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Blogs

What is a Blog?

A website that allows users to reflect, share opinions, and discuss various topics in the form of an online journal while readers may comment on posts. Entries typically appear in reverse chronological order.

• The www.ITInInsurance.com website is a blog for example!

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Blogs• People may write anything about anything –

restaurants, car insurance....

• Keep in mind that blogs are also ranked within Search Engines– So anything written in a Blog can be fairly easy to

find using search engines

• Negative reviews written in blogs may also feature in the search results and unlike TripAdvisor, there is nothing much one can do about it!!!

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Blogs - Example

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Blogs - Example• When reading Blogs it is important to:

– ALWAYS look at the date when the post was written• A restaurant review written two years ago may not

necessarily reflect the present situation!

– Preferably use respectable sources• TripAdvisor• Friends whom you trust, within your social network

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Recap

• Know and understand the 5 on-line marketing techniques described in today’s lecture.

INS3080: IT in Insurance – James Abela – james.abela@gmail.com – 2010/11 – v1.0

Topic 8: Online Marketing Techniques

Merry Christmas

• This topic contains the last of the examinable material

• Next week’s lecture is cancelled

• Read through notes during the holidays at least once.

• First lecture in January (Tuesday 4th January 2011) will be a revision lecture / discuss exam paper...attendance for this lecture is highly recommended...

Enjoy your Holidays!!

Any Questions???