In current times, with the advent of multiple media platforms coupled with the emergence of social media, measurement of advertising effectiveness has assumed critical importance. The increasing fragmentation of the media landscape, higher clutter in traditional media platforms, higher overlaps of exposure across media platforms and difficulty of measuring impact of new platforms like social media, in-game, in-movie etc., have all resulted in increasing the complexity of measuring the effectiveness of advertising.

Consequently, brand and advertising tracking has had to continuously evolve with this pace of change. The word ‘measurement’ has taken on an altogether new meaning for a marketer. Measurement has now moved on from a completely ‘reactive’ process to a more and more ‘proactive’ process. Previously, brand and advertising research was used to monitor the impact of advertising, take appropriate steps and move on. It was a marketer’s tool to evaluate and understand the impact of the advertising and communication creation processes and whether there is a significant ROI. Increasingly, continuous research is being used to develop, not only new advertising ideas, but also strategies centred around media planning, allocation of media spends, formulating media spends etc. To achieve these new objectives, advertising researchers have concentrated on the development of ‘benchmarks’ or ‘norms’. One can question at this stage, as to why benchmarks or norms are important. Essentially, benchmarks can be challenged on two accounts, one that they are reflective of past behaviour and secondly future behaviour is very difficult to predict. This can be taken as a reasonably strong argument, but benchmarks or norms can be used effectively to predict future behaviour, with some sets of assumptions.

Let us take a look at how this can be done with a simple example:

A brand which spent xxx GRPs on an advertising campaign 3 months earlier, achieved x% reach levels among the target audience and the brand achieved y% spontaneous awareness levels after the advertising campaign was aired. Continuous tracking also found that among the y% that was aware of the brand, z% actually went on and tried the brand. After this the trials for the brand have declined and the marketer wants to undertake another media burst to push up the awareness again, which should lead to trials. But how many GRPs would be required to attain z% trial levels again? Can a continuous tracking research answer this question?

A continuous tracking program with established benchmarks would definitely point at factors that led to past successes in terms of attaining awareness and trial levels. More importantly, it will be able to bring out how the levels were attained not only by spending the same level of media money, but also by factors like market condition, market structure, nature of the brand, competitor activity, seasonality, consumer confidence etc. The biggest challenge for a successful brand and advertising tracking research is to be ‘future-proof’ and have the ability to act as a sounding board for future media and communication decisions. The emergence of new media platforms has only made this process more challenging and complex. Developing benchmarks in the present media landscape requires consideration of multimedia campaigns, extent of overlap across media platforms, nature and amount of exposure, measurement of online campaign reach etc.

But, it has only given an opportunity to advertising and brand research functions to make themselves more powerful and reliable in the domain of effectiveness measurement.

How can you get your site visitors to take action and what can you offer them? They won’t link to your site if you don’t give them a good reason. These five helpful link building strategies will draw more traffic to your sites, and make you stand out from your competitors. Link building is especially helpful if you sell products and services on your site. Building links is an easy, effective way to brand your company and generate positive online buzz.

Social Media – Use social networking and social bookmarking to draw attention to your blogs and websites. Write targeted, concise messages on social media sites. Don’t forget to include your URLs on posts and updates.

Directory Listings – Submit your blog and website URLs to directory listings. Use free listing services and remember to target niche directories that target your industry/business.

Article Directories – Submit well-written, SEO rich content to free online article directories. Always include your bio, contact information and website/blog URL at the end of the article. Articles are also a great way to share your expertise and knowledge.

Forums – Contribute to online forums by posting thoughtful, professional and polite posts. Don’t just post on any forum – make sure you target your markets and choose industry-specific forums that will draw new visitors to your site. Always include your URL in your forum signature.

Guest Comments – Another great way to generate buzz is to leave comments on other blogs and websites. People will remember you, and might need your expertise or help in the future. Make sure to include your URL with your comments (but do not spam the site).

Can anyone place Adsense on their site?
No. Firstly, you have to sign up, and be approved for a Google Adsense account. This is far more complicated that it once was. The process itself is not complicated; the hard part is getting approved. Google has clamped down on who it accepts, due to increased cases of misuse and cheating. You must have a website, or blog that conforms to the Google Adsense Terms of Service (TOS). Once you have your account approved, you will not need to reapply if you want to place Adsense on another site, as long as the site is within the TOS.

Are the adverts random?
No. When you first install Adsense on a site, the adverts that appear will be random, and may not have anything in common with your site content. Once Google has searched your content and discovered what the site is all about, it will match the Adsense ads to the content, making them relevant to visitors.

How does Google match up the ads to the content?
Google checks your content and picks out the most popular keywords. This process is the same as if the search engine were crawling your site for indexing. It finds the most common words and phrases (not including words like: and, it, he, she, they etc) and uses these to determine the advert content. So if your content was all about cats and the term “cat”, “cat training” and “cat grooming” were used frequently within the site content, Google would determine your site was about cats and would populate your site with cat-related adverts.

So keywords are important?
Yes. If you want to influence what adverts are displayed, you must have content that uses keywords and synonyms. Do not just stuff random keywords into the content that form no sentence structure or make the content unreadable. Google is very adept at spotting this and it is known as “keyword stuffing”. This will probably get your account suspended and you will have received what is known as a “Google Slap”. If your content is about cats anyway, the chance is that you will not have to worry about keywords; the content will contain them naturally.

How is Adsense installed?
Log into your Adsense account and follow the instructions to create a new Adsense code. All you have to do is choose from the various options for size, dimension, color etc. Once you have done this you will receive a code, copy this code and install this within your websites HTML code – at the place where you want the adverts to display. Google will take care of the rest.

How does Adsense earn me money?
Each time a visitor clicks on one of the Adsense ads, you will be credited with a monetary payment. This is likely to be between 1-20 cents a click to start with; it depends on the advert subject. The more people click on the ads, the more money you earn. DO NOT click on your own ads, or try to instruct visitors to click on them – this is strictly prohibited and will definitely result in an account suspension.

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The enormous persuasive power of social proof can be utilized to increased sales and convince potential buyers to go ahead and make a purchase they have been stressing over. People need to feel that the decisions they make are the right decisions and on many occasions they do this by looking to see what everyone else is doing.

If they can clearly see that people, just like them, are buying a product – and are overjoyed with their choice – this alone can be the deciding factor that convinces them to get out their credit card and make the purchase.

How to Turn Social Proof to Your Advantage

The best method for any business, hoping to yield the advantage of social proof, is to make it clear to potential customers why those previous customers made the decision to buy and then show that the customers have no regrets about their purchase.

This is best achieved by adopting the two following social proof techniques:

1. Testimonials

Potential customers like nothing better than seeing glowing testimonials from previous customers, stating how great the product they bought is, and how they it has improved their life. A testimonial that relates just how efficient the company is, and how easy and pain-free the purchase was, is even better.

Obviously, not everyone will be willing to spend their time offering a testimonial for free – not everyone is unselfishly public spirited. The way around this is to gently persuade these much-sought testimonials by offering small discounts, free bonus gifts, or money off future purchases to anyone willing to contribute a positive post-sale reply.

The initial cost of these incentives will be more than compensated for, due to the increased future revenue resulting from the social proof they offer.

2. Product/Company Reviews

When looking to purchase a product, many potential customers will first search online for reviews from previous customers. They will type in the product or company name and add ‘review’ after the search query and then look intensively at the results that they find. People need to find justification for purchases and want to see that similar people have made the same choice and have not regretted it.

Having a section for reviews, and ratings, on a business website, or product page, is an amazingly powerful tool that can increase sales dramatically. This method can be easier to adopt than testimonials because people love to offer their opinions, and in most cases, no persuasion will be needed for recent purchasers to make a quick comment about what they have just bought and why.

Of course, not all reviews, or ratings, will be positive – some people are never happy – but in the majority of instances people hate to admit they have made an error and will see the upside in nearly everything they buy.

It helps if the product is of reasonable quality – trying to encourage positive reviews and testimonials for something that is low quality, and not fit for use, is fairly pointless. If the product or service does not work, any respectable business person should not be trying to sell it.

Social Proof Can Outdo Cheap Deals

These two methods of encouraging social proof are widely used by the big brand businesses because they know the power that social proof possesses. If 10 shops sell the same product, most people will buy from the shop that offers the most social proof and therefore allegedly possesses the best reputation.

Yes, some people look for the cheapest deal, but if a business can offer more positive responses, many people are willing to pay a few extra dollars for peace of mind and the feeling that they are following the crowd. A cheap product without any social proof is still a risky buy and people need to eliminate that risk and be seen to buy a product that they feel is risk-free, due to the social proof factor.

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1. Long posts
New bloggers tend to write long blog posts with detailed background information.  For maximum results, get to the point in one or two paragraphs per post.

2. Multiple topics per post
In the excitement to complete their first post, new bloggers also include more than one topic or idea.  Keep each blog post to a single topic.  If needed, end the post with a short teaser about the upcoming week and what the reader can look forward to.

3.  Grammatical and spelling errors
While blogging is a more informal type of communication, don’t be a lazy editor.  Blogs still need to be professional and search engine friendly to gain readers and respect.

Blogging on focused topics provides organization and readability.  Well written content is professional and makes an impact readers will remember.  Following these simple tips will help make your first blog a success.

Social media is truly a cornerstone when it comes to marketing your business these days. If you don’t master the Internet’s huge power, you will be left in the dust by your competitors. Those who adjust and adapt to this new social media craze will profit in the end.

Here are 3 Tips on how to use Twitter to increase your profits starting today:

1. Don’t sell: This is the very first lesson in any social media tutorial. If you go in with a sales mentality, people will un-follow you in a heartbeat or just start ignoring your tweets completely. People do not sign up for social media sites to be sold to. Think about it: Would you go into a local retail store, walk into the TV department and ask someone to sell you something? Probably not. But, if the salesperson is nice and provides quality information without being pushy, you just might buy something from them, right?

2. Provide quality information: Twitter cannot just be about promoting your product or service. Let’s say you are selling an ebook about making money from home. If you go on Twitter and promote your ebook everyday, people will get a bad taste in their mouth. However, what if you put links to the latest news for entrepreneurs each day? What if you post inspirational business quotes? People will begin to look forward to your content and maybe then they will start paying more attention to you.

3. Participate: Another great way to get people to notice you on Twitter is by responding to what they say. Don’t simply use Twitter as an electronic billboard. Use it as a way to interact with others. If someone says something interesting, respond back. Hopefully you will get a conversation going. Who knows whether this person can help you with your business, right?

Twitter can be a great business tool if used wisely. It does take patience since many people want to immediately jump in and sell something. However, if you wait and take a more laid back approach, you will begin to see progress.

1. Provide a map of your physical location and driving directions through Google Maps or another service. If your business is local, customers need a quick method for finding your place of business from their point of origin. You can also provide details such as lodging, dining, and attraction information if customers must arrange long distance travel to visit your business.

2. Enable customers to compare your prices with the prices of your competitor. This is a business model Progressive Insurance has been using successfully for years on its auto insurance website. The key is to find the right company to provide this web-based application to interface with your website. If you have a technology department, skip the step of outsourcing this project.

3. Create an animated or real-life video that teaches customers how to do something related to your business. Examples include how to place an order, how to print out product instructions, how to install software, how to troubleshoot or make repairs, and how to make a profile on your website.

4. Create a virtual tour of your office, store, restaurant, workshop, factory, or distribution facility. If you want to build rapport with customers, deliver a sense of your business environment from the vantage point of the user’s computer terminal. Remember to use smiling faces from your company if your virtual tour will include people in the workplace. Happy employees create a better impression for customers.

5. Ask users to create content for your website. This idea requires understanding the potential liabilities associated with user posts on your company website. Before you choose this option, research ways to monitor user content and prevent and/or remove offensive or defamatory content.

6. Schedule web video broadcasts about topics important to consumers. For this strategy, you must find topics for videos that will be useful or entertaining for consumers. The Internet abounds with YouTube-style videos that teach people how to do just about everything. Pass along specialized information in a web broadcast your company knows well. Keep in mind the video topic must only last a couple of minutes if the customer will receive a sufficient amount of information on the video topic.

7. Provide brief summaries of industry research supporting your products and services. This tip is not applicable to every business because some businesses are not the subject of consumer research. However, you can provide research about your industry even if you cannot provide direct information about your goods and services. Some companies even choose to hire an independent market research firm to develop consumer information for use in their marketing program. You have to decide first if consumer research fits your marketing program.

There are so many dimensions of your company to highlight on the company website. Use regular content updates to entertain your web audience. You will be satisfied when new website features keep Internet consumers buzzing around your business website.

By Angela Baca