The past couple of months I've been hearing the same thing. My site is up, but I have little or no traffic or at least not the traffic that I want. How can I get more visitors to my website? What can I do to stimulate traffic? This kind of made it clear that there are companies, small to medium-sized entrepreneurs still throwing up sites without it being part of their overall business and marketing plan, or simply not having a marketing plan for the site at all
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Without question, putting a website online is not a case of building it and they will suddenly come. You have to work it, like everything else. Marketing your website as with everything else begins with the product/service offering and you have to build out a plan for the site.
But here’s is a mini DIY list to get you started.

By Mike Baker, CEO of Enpocket

There’s never been a better time to launch a mobile marketing program. There’s a substantial audience of consumers using their mobile phones to send text messages, share pictures, surf the Web, download content and even watch TV. And this audience has shown an increasing willingness to engage with brand communications across these activities. Perhaps best of all, the medium is completely open and uncluttered because most brands are still trying to figure out how to plan campaigns in this burgeoning space. Savvy brands are seizing the opportunity. Here are some rules of the road to get your brand moving in mobile:

1. Provide real value. The mobile phone is your customer’s personal device and you need to respect it as such by ensuring the relevance and value of your brand communications. Why would someone invite your brand into their pocket? They won’t unless you offer them something entertaining or informative. A beverage brand with sports sponsorships might offer downloadable pictures of stars; a maker of allergy medication might offer localized daily pollen count alerts; a consumer bank might offer customizable text alerts about activity in your bank account; a hotel might offer guests confirmations sent to their phone for easy reference at check in; a movie rental store alerts on newly available titles, and so on. Think of conveying your brand as a service to consumers’ personal device.

Did you know there are now more mobile phones in the UK than there are people? Mobiles have become heavily engrained into everyday life and there are few people who don’t use them on a regular basis.

Text messaging has been the runaway success of the mobile phone and increasingly people are now using their devices for more diverse communication such as picture sharing, browsing and downloading from the Internet, video calls and watching TV. The potential reach and scope of mobile marketing is astonishing, but at the moment most companies are still only dipping their toes into this potential gold mine.

So let's look at the basics...

1. Integrate

Mobile marketing is not a standalone tool…yet. The key to successful mobile marketing at the moment is integration, using mobile media alongside other elements to spark further interest. Mobile marketing can offer the perfect facility to drive consumer interest beyond passive viewing, into interacting with the brand.

By Sean Carton
March 5, 2007

I've noticed a slightly funny but disturbing trend lately: all my clients want something called "Web 2.0." Maybe you've noticed it, too. People aren't happy with a just site anymore. Now they want it sprinkled with magic fairy Web 2.0 pixie dust before they're happy.

Who can blame them? It's next to impossible to have a discussion about the Web these days without someone invoking Web 2.0. Popular media, blogs, trade pubs, and technology magazines: are all talking about a revolution we're supposedly in the midst of.

Unfortunately, nobody has any idea what it is.

Marketing your business online is now a business necessity. One way to reach a core base of new and existing customers is through a strong e-mail marketing campaign.For more info click here. Here are some tips to make sure your e-mails get read, and get results.

•Know your goals for the campaign. Should customers buy your product or service, subscribe to newsletters, use your coupon or special offer, or visit you in person? Identifying these goals will guide effective messaging in your e-mails.

•Target your audience. Resist using the shotgun approach. Response rates are typically in the low percentages, so ensuring the right people get the message will minimize your expenses.

•Keep copy concise. Explain the offering in the first two sentences. Attention spans are low, and customers want to know what they are getting without having to read long descriptions.

•Test the campaign on friends and family before sending it to customers. If your grandmother opens the e-mail and knows what to do, chances are your customers will too.

Then hit send, sit back, and watch your bottom line grow.
source:businessweek.com

Online advertising will be bigger than newspaper advertising in the U.S. by 2011, according to a new forecast. Veronis Suhler Stevenson's (VSS) annual media research report says money going to online ads will grow by over 21 percent each year for the next four years, when it will reach $62 billion, while newspaper advertising will be worth $60 billion. Web advertising overtook newspapers in the UK in 2006, when spend surged 41 percent against print's 0.2 percent to pass the £2 billion ($4 billion) mark, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau. source:Via FT.com and USA Today.

Jamaican/Caribbean Context: ALready the shift has started in Jamaica. With companies small to large, brands familiar and new seeking more targeted media that assures them full face time with consumers. TV and print ad spend is shifting online. The trick is not many site publishers have been taking the opportunity to put themselves in front of brands to get some of that ad spend. Not even the major newspapers and online mags have taken this super seriously. Even so, there are fresh signs of movements in that area.
1. The ad network BC Ad Group, our of ATL headed by a Jamaican is about launch and at least two others are in the pipeline.
2. Email marketing is going to get more competitive in the next 30 days.

DUTCHPOTMailcast - It’s not too early to start thinking about holiday marketing — in fact, according to Brandweek, retailers and manufacturers who don’t start thinking now may not make their Christmas 2007 numbers. The Consumer Confidence Index indicated a sharp decline in confidence this season, thanks in part to the housing market/credit crisis and increasing fuel costs. Store traffic is down, and smart retailers are decreasing inventory to avoid markdowns later. Reuters recommends you “temper your projections”, like Target and Talbots are doing.

The good news? The season will be great for online shopping, with 84 percent of consumers spending as much or more online as they did during the 2006 holiday season.