Recommendations from people I know	92%
Consumer options posted online	72%
Editorial content such as a newspaper article	70%
Brand Websites	69%
Emails I signed up for	67%
Ads in newspaper	66%
Brand sponsorships	62%
Ads in magazines	62%
Ads on TV	61%
Ads on radio	61%
Ads before movies	53%
Billboards and outdoor advertising	53%
Ads served on Search Engine results	37%
Online video ads	33%
Online banner ads	24%
Text ads on a mobile phone	18%

Note: *participants responded that they trusted each tactic "completely" or "somewhat".
Source: Nielsen Online, "Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey," July 2009

According to research conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation and Yesmail, 27% of online shoppers who plan to both research and buy holiday gifts online this year will look for ideas about what friends and family want on sites such as Facebook. And nearly one-half (45%) will use social networks to research items, compare prices and look for offers.

About one-fifth of online holiday buyers are specifically looking to social networks for exclusive deals or free shipping.

Deloitte found that, overall, 17% of consumers would use social media during their holiday shopping. Just over one-half of that group was ages 18 to 29. 

Sixty percent of consumers who plan to use social media in their holiday shopping will be looking for discounts, coupons and sales, according to Deloitte, while just over one-half will research gift ideas and check out friends’ and family members’ wish lists.

Find discounts, coupons and sale information	60%
Research gift ideas	53%
Check the gift wish lists of friends and family	52%

Source: Delotte, "Annual Holiday Survey" as cited in press release, November 11, 2009

As a business owner, you want to know where your clients are coming from, what they are looking for, and how long it takes to find you.  It is vitally as important that you know these same things about your website.  There are numerous paid services out there to track your site visitors, but we'd like to tell you about one that's available for FREE – Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website.  You can track everything from how many visitors you have to your site, the sites that referred them, and what they looked at once they got to your site.  If you are currently marketing your site, you can see patterns to know what’s working and what needs to be tweaked.  You can see the keywords people are using to find you so you can make necessary adjustments to your SEO campaign.

Everything you need to effectively market your website, is right there at your fingertips – for free.

We’d like to give you a grand tour of Google Analytics.  If On Digital Ground built your website, it’s likely that your site has Google Analytics built into it already.  During this free webinar, we’ll show you how to use this tool to take your business to the next level.  So, join us for some hands-on training.

Thursday – April 23 – 10am CST

Click here to sign-up...

We all know the economy is flaky right now.  Everyone's talking about it, everyone's worried about it, and the media won't stop babbling about it.  Everyone is tightening their belts right now in some way, and businesses are looking for ways to cut costs.  But is now really the the right time to be slashing your advertising budget?  Actually, it might not be the greatest idea right now.  Tough times may actually provide you the best opportunity to reach out to your clients with little or no competition!  Think about it - your competitors are cutting costs right now to attempt to save money, and no one is advertising in your market  If you want your business to survive the economic downturn and lay the groundwork to thrive when the economy improves, now is the time to advertise.

During good times everyone has the money (and bravery) to seek out clients, creating an atmosphere of extreme competition where reaching the consumer with your message proves to be exceedingly difficult. NOW is the time to have faith in your product or service, to reach out to your clients and to secure your success now and into the future. Read on to learn about easy and cost effective ways of doing so.

There are some simple things that you can do.
Everyone knows about the internet, but did you know there are FREE ways to get exposure on the internet?  And they are easy!  You can write an article about your industry, or a product, and submit it to one of the many sites that accept them.  At the end of your article, mention your business and have a link to your website.  Each site has its guidelines on how the articles are to be written, so make sure to follow them.  This will help establish you as a leader in your industry as long as the information you share is helpful and not entirely self-promoting.

Guerilla marketing is great in slow time.  Have some brochures or door hangers made.  During your slow time, have your employees go to a busy area and hand them out.  Now you are putting your message directly into the hands of prospective clients.  Make sure you have an attractive offer that will entice people to visit your business – a call to action.

Guerilla marketing works well online.  With blogs and social networking sites, there are opportunities to market your business in a different setting.  You can set up an account with a social networking site.  This will give out more information about your business and connect you with other businesses to network.  You can create blogs and check the response you get from each entry which can help you check what the market is interested in at any given time.  You can also find blogs that have an issue your company can help with - respond to that blog with your company information.

Cross promote with other businesses.  If you're feeling the pinch of the economy, most likely other businesses in your area/industry are feeling it as well.  Find other businesses that don't compete with yours and see about exchanging some flyers or a banner promoting each other's business.  If your business is online, do a link exchange with other businesses.  Be careful and don't overdo the link exchange or Google may lower your organic search results.  Be selective in who you work with both online and in the brick and mortar world.

Press Releases can be a very effective way to bring attention to your business.  If you have something that impacts the community, then you can have someone write a press release for you.  If you hire someone to do it for you, make sure they know how to write and distribute it.  Remember the topic must be something that impacts the community and not just a self-serving piece promoting your business.

These are just some of the ideas that will help your business grow in any economy. There are plenty of marketing options out there.  You just need to find the ones that work for you.  Now loosen the belt a notch, and hit the ground running!

So you're a brand new business owner. You just bought a brand-new building and you're going to sell - uh - goldfish. So you give your store a fresh coat of paint, line the inside with shelves and goldfish tanks, drop in the goldfish, and wait for the customers to start pouring in - right?

Wrong! You have to advertise. How else will people know about your fantastic store and your fantastic goldfish?

So you put an ad in the paper. You dress a guy up in a goldfish costume and have him wave at cars passing by. And most importantly - you create a website. In this day and age, consumers spend a lot of their time researching businesses online. And like anything you put your name on, you want your website to be professional and fantastic-looking. So you hire someone (like On Digital Ground for instance) to create your site - launch it - and presto! You're online! Fantastic! There's nothing more to do now, right?

Well, um - wrong. You wouldn't put a coat of paint on your building and then never touch it again, would you? Of course not - the paint would start to peel and look dingy and old. Even though the paint won't peel on a website, it will still look dingy and old if you never do anything to it. You shouldn't ignore your website once it's launched. When you advertise, do you use the exact same ad every time? No - you add new things, put new offers, give new information. Your website should be the same way. Display current sales and new offers on the homepage, add informative articles weekly about goldfish, you can even host a message board where people can chat about goldfish and upload pictures of their fishy friends. When people visit your site over and over and over again, they'll recognize you as a valuable business, they'll recommend you to their friends, they'll have your name fresh in their mind whenever a goldfish need arrises. Brand loyalty creates repeat business, and a changing website creates brand loyalty.

So pretend you're one of your customers and take a look at your site. Imagine you're seeing it through a customer's eyes. What things would you find interesting if they were different each week? What kinds of topics would you like to see talked about? What's something that would keep you coming back to this site on a regular basis? Then go one step further and ask friends and family these same questions. Ask your loyal customers - they know your business from a customer's standpoint better than anyone can pretend to.

We at On Digital Ground would be happy to help you keep your site current. We have the resources to be a webmaster for your site, or we can help you set up a CMS (Content Management System) and teach you how to update your site yourself. Either way, you know your site is fresh, interesting, and people can return over and over and find something new to explore each time.

On Digital Ground takes the guesswork out of Internet advertising. We have recently partnered with ReachLocal to put together in one place everything local and regional businesses need to set-up, maintain, track and analyze local Internet advertising campaigns simply, affordably and comprehensively.

Major search engines such as Google®, Yahoo!, and MSN offer one of today's most affordable and effective advertising opportunities. And they are the ideal way to geographically target local consumers. Just look at the facts: The average number searches now well over 213 MILLION searches per day. 43% of search engine users are seeking a local merchant to buy something offline and 54% of search users have substituted Internet/search for the phone book.

When consumers are looking for products or services from a local business, the chances are good that their search begins or ends on the Internet. So, why don't more businesses advertise where local consumers are looking? Because managing local search advertising campaigns take time and specialized knowledge.

On Digital Ground, in partnership with ReachLocal, delivers easy-to-use, patent-pending technology and ROI-focused tools to help our clients achieve successful local Internet advertising campaigns. Our platform ensures that our clients' ads appear alongside only relevant keyword search results which produces leads through major search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com, and AOL. We work to get ads placed in a high value position to generate the most efficient and qualified click-thrus to the local business's web site. And advertisers only pay when potential customers click on the ad and visit the business's site.

But that's not all On Digital Ground can do. When a local consumer clicks on an ad and goes to the Web site, we can track precisely how the consumer explores the site. Our clients can see first-hand which products or offers are attracting consumer attention, and whether their website is effectively designed to generate leads. On Digital Ground monitors and tracks when consumers who have clicked on an ad contact the local business by email or telephone, or print an offer coupon from the site. And we can record prospects calls to your business to ensure telephone inquiries are handled effectively.

Because On Digital Ground takes care of all the details, our clients can spend more time satisfying local customers and less time finding them.

Our Internet Marketing Services include:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Web Banners
Link Sharing / Affiliate Program
Strategic Keyword Marketing Package© (SKM)

Click here for more information about how On Digital Ground can assist you with your Internet Marketing needs.

Even with all the options available to me online, I still enjoy going into a book store and holding a book in my hand before buying it. This is unfortunately becoming more and more difficult for me to do. Sites like Amazon and Half.com consistently beat brick and mortar bookstores on price and customer service. The inventory for computer related books has dwindled to almost nothing, except for the 'dummies' series, which is always well stocked, and should be a good indication of how bookstores view us.

Today I was at a local big chain bookstore looking for a baby book. I was unable to find it on my own, and so I opted for the self serve information kiosk, which was occupied. After waiting in line for a bit, I found my way to what they call the 'Information Station'. There was no-one there. Walking up to the front of the store, I asked the checkout clerk if he was able to help me find a book with his register. His answer was, 'No, but I can call someone to the Information Station for you'. After walking back and waiting about 15 minutes (no kidding!) at the Information Station, I went back to the front of the store and attempted to get the attention of the same clerk I had spoken with before. He was busy talking with another clerk... a female.

While I waited for them to finish their conversation, I fiddled with my iPhone. Ahhhh... free Wifi. It took me about 30 seconds to find the book I was looking for on Half.com, and another minute to purchase it. When the clerk finally acknowledged me there... I politely said, 'Thanks, but I found what I was looking for.' By then, I had already purchased the book on their dime using the free internet they were so nice to provide for guests.

If you have a brick and mortar storefront, it is now more important than ever to go above and beyond for your customers because they have so many more options available to them, many of them much more competitive than you are able to be. Sometimes the only thing that differentiates you from your online competitors is a smile, handshake, or the simple attentive acknowledgement that your customer is patiently standing right there with money in hand. It is vital to your organization for you to reach out to those of us who still value these things, and who value the ability to hold what we are buying in our hands before we purchase it. There are so few of us left, and some of us are getting frustrated with paying so much more for so much less.

Is your organization socially aware? If you're asking what that means, it probably isn't, and you're probably not alone. Internet marketing has changed dramatically over the last several years with the introduction of social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and others. Even blogging has nearly been replaced by these hubs of interactivity, where millions of your customers flock on a daily, hourly, or even on a minute by minute basis. Status updates border on the obsessive for some users, and many organizations are moving in on the attention capital found here, but only a select few are doing it well.



Recently I came across a sidebar advertisement on Facebook from the Burger King, inviting me to 'Sacrifice Your Friends' in exchange for a whopper. I have a large number of 'friends' on my Facebook account, many of them from an online game I play called "Mobwars", and so the seemingly hefty prerequisite of 10 friends burning into flame broiled deletion was not that much of a sacrifice for me, as it was easy to find 10 people I really didn't know. What was interesting about this campaign is that it actually told all 10 people what I was trading their friendship for, and gave them all the opportunity to do the same to 10 of their friends, including me. This process put the Burger King brand in front of at least 11 people for the cost of a whopper. What's more, when I went to Burger King, I did get fries with that.

What Burger King has done with this campaign is they have successfully asked for and obtained my permission to market me, engaged me in the process, and obtained referral for 10 other people who I am connected to, who they sent messages to. They also got me to visit one of their locations and buy something, which is something I haven't done in several years. The entire experience of being marketed to was consistently fun, right down to receiving the free whopper card in the mail.

When performed correctly, social network marketing can greatly benefit your organization with stronger bones and healthier teeth. 9 out of 10 flame broiled friends recommend using On Digital Ground.

For more information on how you can get started marketing your product or service using social networking, click here 

1. Word of Mouth
    a) YOU have to tell everyone you talk to that they need to go check out your website.
    b)Encourage your clients to tell everyone they know about your website.

2. Join the Social Media World
    -MySpace
    -Facebook
    -LinkedIn
    -Plaxo
    -YouTube
    -Flickr
    -Twitter
    -Blogspot

3. Blog
    a) Tips and Tricks
    b) Newsletters
    ) Company Happenings
    d) Testimonials

4.  Email Marketing
    a) Set-up a Digital Email Signature
    b) Email Campaigns

*The key to Email Marketing - ASK for their email address!!

5.  Print it on everything!
    a) Emails
    b) Internet Postings
    c) Company Vehicle
    d) Business Cards
    e) Brochures
    f) Door Hangers
    g) Post Cards
    h) Phone Book Ad

6.  Drive traffic to your website.
    a) Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
    b) Search Engine Submission
    c) Link Sharing
    d) Web Banners
    e) Comprehensive Interactive Internet Marketing – Pay-Per-Click

*On Digital Ground can assis you with any of these paid services.  If you'd like to know more about these programs or want a quote, contact us today.

7.  Get Creative
    a) Get on TV!
    b) Speak at local club meetings and events
    c) Create a local Share Club
    d) Put an ad in a local event program