Sounds simple really but it isn't as straightforward as it seems, if you aren't familiar with the ins and outs of the industry.

This industry comprises several specialised areas that combine data driven analytics with more tradtional creative marketing and messaging.As such, it's difficult to choose a proficient agency and evaluate its competency.

What's more, this industry is FILLED with claims, all sorts of wild claims to get your attention.

What Are You Looking For?

First, you must identify your objectives clearly, or you will only be wasting your time searching in the dark, blindly.

For instance, what is the aim of online advertising for your site? Is it ROI driven or just to create positive awareness of your site?

Many will say both, but generally, one will dominate your line of thoughts.

Similarly, agencies have different inclinations as well, even though they may claim to be proficient in both, so choose carefully!

Once you are clear of your own objectives, you can then consider the following 7 points in determining a competent agency to hire.

1. Depth of Expertise

Different agencies have different focuses and different skills sets, and in recent years, many have been focusing on search engine marketing exclusively.

The better agencies are those who have staff dedicated to various specific areas of expertise and who have the experience to back them up.

Do refer to the agency's clientele, case studies and the kind of work they have done.

Are they done in industries similar to yours? B2B? B2C? Is their portfolio extensive?

Some points of note:

• Sometimes, take the claims and testimonials with a pinch of salt. Rather, focus on how they strategize and implement solutions and constantly make improvements
• Agencies are only as creative as their client's marketing goals

Most importantly, never assume a large agency knows it all. Often, they don't.

If possible, try to meet their experts and talk to them.

And be especially careful when you engage with offline agencies who are repositioning themselves as an online solutions provider. i.e. they are on a steep learning curve.

2. Intelligence

This can be best identified through personal interaction, e.g. during sales presentations

How does the agency present and answer your queries? Do they understand your business and industry? Do they reflect creative and critical thinking?

And is the agency able to fill you in on the big picture of a proper online marketing strategy/campaign?

One suggestion is to get someone in the know to accompany you for sales talk/presentation. It can potentially save you tons of money and time.

3. Technology

The online space changes fast, and it is imperative for agencies to be able to harness the latest technology and adapt swiftly to the key trends of the industry.

This is what keeps you one step ahead of your competition.

And with the right technology, agencies can save time and effort significantly, spend more time working with you, and better optmise your online campaigns.

Taking search engine marketing as an example, there are agencies that still use spreadsheets and a lot of manual work in updating and optimising your bid campaigns.

Not that their work is bad, but there are more efficient ways of doing things (e.g. setting alogrithms for automatic 24/7 bid optimisation) and as an advertiser, these are some of the questions you must ask of your agencies.

if you find agencies which create their own custom software, this is a bonus, but ensure that you verify their claims.

4. Transparency

Honesty is the best policy, is and always will be.

Is the agency you are looking at willing to share information and expertise? In the case of your SEM campaign, do you know your ACTUAL cost-per-click?

A lack of transparency could easily mean that the agency does not know what it is doing or that it is simply not doing enough.

5. Your Ability to Retain Control

Is the agency willing to allow you to retain control of your online marketing campaigns?

If it is, it indicates a willingness to work with you, to guide you, and this could be a key consideration for some companies.

6. Access to Support

There are a few aspects to this.

Firstly, as mentioned above, it's important to have experienced staff with expertise. But are they available to handle your campaign? One quick way to check is per campaign, how many people are directly supporting your campaign?

Secondly, it's crucial to know how much time the agency is willing to set aside for your needs. Most would say "a lot of time", but the key is getting them to commit to a tangible and realistic figure.

Finally, does the agency share with you likely scenarios where things may go wrong and their contingency plans? Or maybe their past experiences?

This is important because your online business/website runs 24/7 and things can go wrong any time. For those with complicated marketing campaigns, this should be a key consideration.

7. Does The Agency Practise What It Preach?

How many times have you come across SEO agencies who rank low in the search engines?

Ironic isn't it? (side note: try searching for "online marketing agency singapore"!)

And this is not mentioning web design agencies with average site design themselves.

Look especially closely at an agency's digital strategy, it can reveal tons.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for, and I would really recommend quality as your primary consideration before price, because the difference in price can be easily recouped with a competent agency. 

Do watch out for agencies which make big claims, or very general claims like a "great platform" and those who don't demonstrate an understanding of your business' KPIs and your industry.

But the simplest advice is this: look for smart people married with good technology.

If you agree, do give us a try.

In today's technological epoch, online marketing is indispensable in growing one's business.

The question then is how and by how much? Should businesses hire a digital marketing agency, or should they hire an in-house team?

As an agency, we unabashedly believe that working with an agency is the smarter choice.

But of course, it must be a competent agency.

As cash is king, and that ROI is the key KPI for most businesses, it may seem that only big companies can afford to work with agencies, while smaller or cash tight companies should hire an in-house team to cut costs.

From our clients, we also understand the concerns of working with an agency:

• costly
• may overcharge using lack of transparency

If that's what you're thinking, it's totally fine! In fact, you should feel this way if you're concerned about your business.

But let me show you another way of thinking, and see how it might apply to your business.

1. Digital Marketing Is A Solution, Not A Problem

Look at it this way, digital marketing is the solution to spreading awareness about your brand and your products, and it is the vehicle that communicates what your business represent to your potential consumers.

In other words, it is what differentiates your brand, drives sales and procures repeat buyers – the lifeblood of your business.

As such, shouldn't you employ only the best agencies to grow your business?

Why choose the easy way by cutting costs and settle for mediocre results?

This is similar to how companies cut their advertising budgets sharply in recessions – a good short term fix but what you sacrifice now, you pay for later.

Just like how if you turn off the engines of a plane flying at 36,000ft, it does not drop out of the sky. Indeed, as far as the pilot and passengers are concerned, life continues as normal with the plane only very gradually losing altitude. But eventually, it will crash and burn.

It's the same with businesses..

Get an amazing engine, and you wil soar above your competition.

2. Agencies May Not Necessarily be More Expensive – In Fact, They Are An Investment, Not A Cost

Although it seems that agencies are more pricey, it may not be the case, as an in-house team incurs other costs which you may not have thought of.

a. Recruitment costs: time and effort needed to create an ad and interview potential candidates. But the key issue is do you know the qualities of a good digital marketer?

b. Training costs: a lot of time is needed to equip employees with the relevant skills (SEO, SEM, copywriting, etc). But what is more important, assuming that they have little to no experience, is that they do not know the ins and outs of the industry, and they are likely to commit mistakes. Can you afford these mistakes?

c. Turnover costs: with new employees, proper career progression paths have to be drawn up. Even then, there will be employees who leave and the whole cycle continues again. Not forgetting that there are other considerations such as maternity leave and reservist periods.

More importantly, working with an agency just makes more financial sense.

Let's say you have a $50k annual budget. What do you get with a small in-house team?

Likely, a single headcount that cost easily more than half the budget, with the remaining budget into payroll taxes, staff benefits, office space, computers, phones and supplies. How much are you left with as actual marketing spend for advertising?

In the same scenario, how much can you get out of a $50k budget working with an agency?

Here's a suggestion and breakdown of your $50k budget in engaging an agency:

• Allocate $40K on SEM to drive PPC traffic to your website
  Having an evergreen traffic acquisition program is key to expose your brand and services whole year, especially when people are searching for your services. A $40K annual budget on SEM could mean getting you monthly guaranteed traffic of 2000~5000 visitors to your website! (If you have a smaller budget, check with us on how much estimated traffic you could get monthly!)
• Spend $10K on Google Analytics tracking and review with a certified consultant!
  Once you have a steady stream of visitors to your site, it is imperative to understand which marketing channels are the most effective. To get some insights on the visitors to your site, do a 1 time Google Analytics Audit and half-yearly review of your site traffic with your agency

And all these backed by years of experience and proven methologies.

Working with a competent agency is an investment, not a cost.

Working Together with An Agency

Working hand-in-hand with a competent agency is an investment, because:

(1) We can focus our attentions and energy on the areas we are proficient in, e.g. you get to focus on business development, R&D, producing better products, while we leverage our experience, contacts, and expertise to increase your online presence and generate sales.

As resources are limited, we must channel our resources towards our core competencies and get the most out of them. No point trying to do what we are not good in/trying to do everything and ending up being mediocre in it.

In today's world, the rules have changed, being good is the new average. It's no longer enough to be "just enough" or just good. It's imperative to be exceptional, to be different, to stand out amongst all the noise.

And this single mindedness on focusing on core competencies is what drives exceptional business growth.

(2) You can leverage on our years of experience – all the different campaigns we have undertaken in different industries, the mistakes we have made, and of course the smashing successes we have achieved. 

These experiences are priceless.

(3) Finally, you can trust that agencies are kept up to date with the latest trends of the industry, and are cognizant of all the ins and outs of it. Leveraging this knowledge helps agencies take a shorter path, a faster path, and a more effective one towards helping you achieve your marketing needs.

Results are what agencies can promise.

Conclusion

Even though we advocate working with an agency, if you have the time, tools and talents on hand, then by all means form an in-house team, they can be invaluable.

For those planning to work with agencies, do hire what you can afford. View this as an investment, and weigh that investment against what one or more piece of business could be worth to you.

Regardless, many businesses can't afford not doing digital marketing.

Why not do it with the best?

Me:

‘Hi, how could I help you promote your brand online?’

Client#1:

‘I don’t think the Malaysian market is ready for online marketing.’

Me:

‘How so? There has been a paradigm shift in media consumption patterns today, with a large number of eyeballs migrating from traditional media to online media via devices with Internet capability.’

Client#2:

‘I still don’t feel the Malaysian market is matured enough for online advertising and purchases…’

Having begun operations in Malaysia for a while now, we have discovered that companies in Malaysia are still not receptive to online marketing, which is surprising. Digital media in Malaysia is poised for explosive growth and has begun to gain prominence as a digital media hub within Asia. Online marketing represents the next frontier and companies neglecting it risk being left behind.

For those who have been actively harnessing the powers of online marketing, they have reaped the rewards, in terms of increased sales, ROI, and brand awareness. Case in point: AirAsia (will explore in further depth at the end).

Let’s us now look at some figures of the Malaysia market to set the context for this article.

Some figures of the Malaysia market

Other Stats:

• 12.13 million Facebook users, representing 46.37% of population, which makes it the 17 largest in the world (2011)
• 1.13 million Twitter users, representing 4.32% of the population (2010)

1. Industry Analysis – Trends

1.1 Increase in Internet Users as Percentage of Population

The increase in Internet users as percentage of Malaysia’s population can be attributed to increased access to broadband networks, a proliferation of WIFI sites, and a burgeoning household ownership of mobile devices with Internet capability, as can be seen from the image below.

Based on the Nielsen’s Southeast Asia Digital Consumer Report 2011.

This has engendered a reshaping of the media landscape with the surge in digital media consumption, which is now surpassing traditional media such as TV, radio and print.

1.2 Digital Media Consumption

Users utilise digital media for a variety of reasons, and one key trend we have picked out is the influence of web advertising on consumers.

According to Nielsen, South East Asian (SEA) consumers are highly influenced by online advertising.

• 73% of SEA consumers said they were “highly” or “somewhat” influenced by web site advertisements on social media
• That number rises to 80% when ads have a social context, such as indicating which of a consumer’s friends have liked or followed the advertised brand
• 74% saying they found ads based on previous purchases or other web sites visited “made their lives easier”,
• 69% SEA consumers have “liked” or followed a brand or company on social media

Based on these stats alone, it may seem that online advertising in Malaysia is ineffective, as 36% of Malaysian consumers are "not at all influenced" by web advertising, 2nd highest in the region, behind Singapore.

However, going beyond the surface, we can actually infer that digital maturity in Malaysia is catching up with Singapore, the most wired nation in the region.

This is because as consumers use the web more, they are exposed to more online ads and as such, become desensitized to them overtime. This implies that more Malaysians are going online and using the digital space more.

2. Current Situation

However, many Malaysian companies today are surprisingly not riding the wave of digital media consumption.

According to McKinsey & Co, businesses in Malaysia allocate only 1% of their advertising budget for digital media.  “There is a disproportionate share between businesses' advertising budget in a particular media and the time that consumers spend on a particular media”, as Google’s Malaysia country head Sajith Sivanandan sums up this dire situation.

Juxtaposed against the UK market, we witness a stark difference as businesses there spend about 25-30% of their advertising budgets on digital media.

Realising that such a huge disconnect could cost businesses dearly, the Malaysian government has introduced initiatives such as the “Get Malaysian Business Online” programme by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and Google Malaysia to enhance the development of the online ecosystem.

3. Why?

So why are Malaysian companies unreceptive to online marketing? Below is a list of plausible reasons we have identified from discussions with clients.

3.1 Clients Believe That the Malaysia Market is Not Mature Enough for Online Marketing

This is a common refrain, which still maintains that consumers want to “touch and feel” products before they buy, and do not feel safe entering credit card details online.

This statement is not exactly devoid of credit; however, the trends aforementioned clearly portray the burgeoning influence of digital media on purchase decisions, with the need for “touch and feel” shifting towards a “hassle free” shopping experience online.

According to Paypal’s “Online and Mobile Shopping Insights” , there are 1.1 million Malaysians shopping online, spending RM1.8 billion in 2010 and is set to reach RM5 billion in 2014. Although the study concluded that E-commerce in Malaysia is in its early stages, it has strong growth potential. (For more detailed Malaysia online buying behaviour, refer to this article.)

This, is precisely the best time for a company to get stuck in and establish its online presence early, which can be a key competitive advantage against competitors who do not delve into the online space.

Vast majorities of consumers from Malaysia (report from Nielsen) also indicate that they read product reviews online, and they participate in active discussions about brands and products on both social media and forums, reflecting the influence of digital media on purchase decisions.

3.2 Businesses Shirk their Marketing Responsibilities

Through our discussions with clients, it is clear that businesses prefer to focus on their operations, and leave marketing strategies and implementation wholly upon traditional media agencies they have partnered with for convenience sake. This leads to the next problem.

3.3. Traditional Media Agencies are Not Proficient in Online Marketing

As businesses pass on marketing responsibilities to traditional media agencies, it is little wonder why these agencies would prefer sticking to advertising in traditional media.

Furthermore, it takes time to be proficient in online marketing – a rough estimate of 2-3 years of learning and consolidating extensive online marketing knowledge, and another 2-3 years of running active online marketing campaigns.

Hence, for traditional media agencies which proclaim to engage in online marketing, their lack of knowledge and experience may prove to be a major stumbling block towards implementing successful online marketing campaigns.

4. Implications on Businesses

Having discussed at lengths how consumers are increasingly engaged with digital media, companies that do not engage in online marketing lose out on brand promotion and the chance to build better customer relations, as online marketing offers two way communications and a plethora of other features.

Another key implication is that businesses miss out on the ability to track and measure the performance of their ads. With online advertising, everything can be tracked, such as the click through rate (how many visitors clicked on your ad) of your ad.

More significantly, when results are measurable, improvements can be made immediately. This is done by the split testing of ads (rotating ads), and choosing the ads with the highest click through rate, with ineffective ads culled as soon as possible.

Businesses will hence be able to enjoy higher sales, and progressively increase the value of every advertising dollar. Not to mention, online advertising budgets are already markedly lower than traditional advertising budgets.

5. Case Study – AirAsia

So how did AirAsia founder, Tony Fernandes, turn AirAsia from 2 planes in 2002 to a fleet of 86 aircraft flying 30 million people today?

According to Tony,

“New media and social networking have become integral parts of AirAsia’s growth.  They help in our initiatives to socialize with key stakeholders and correspond with them in real time. These are definitely areas we’ll be getting much more aggressive in.  We’re aware of the huge influence social networking wields on today’s consumers, whose use of the internet for information gathering, transactions and interactions is expanding,”

Online marketing has allowed AirAsia to overcome conventional limitations of direct push marketing for its branding, marketing and communication purposes and become the de facto leader in the budget airline industry.

5.1 AirAsia’s Strong Online Presence

• Airasia.com attracts 20 million unique visitors each month
• Blog.airasia.com is ranked as the world’s second most popular blog site by an airline
• Tonyfernandesblog.com is the most popular blog in Malaysia by a corporate leader
• 1.4 million fans on Facebook, with localised versions for each country
• 376,000 followers on Twitter with localised versions for each country

AirAsia also maintains a presence on other sites such as YouTube, Sina, Renren, etc. For a full list, click here.

5.2 How AirAsia Utilises Online Marketing

Firstly, AirAsia uses the online space as a two way communication tool to obtain feedback, attend to queries and acknowledge complaints. This allows AirAsia to conduct market research easily, make continuous improvements and stay relevant to customers, hence cementing their place as the market leader.

Such a communication tool can also be used for PR or as an emergency response policy, as AirAsia took to Twitter when dealing with the news of its runway mishap in 2011.

Next, AirAsia uses online marketing tools expertly to execute viral marketing campaigns.

For instance, its “one million free seats” campaign set an international sales record with almost 900,000 seats being booked 48 hours after launch. Another interesting campaign was the “So You Wanna be a Pilot” campaign, which ran from March to mid-April 2009 and called for those interested in becoming pilot trainees to post their applications by blogging on AirAsia’s blog site.

You can achieve extremely powerful results online, with creativity your only limiting factor.

In short, AirAsia invites participation from the public and engages them via online tools, and this creates an extension for them to be passionate and connected to the AirAsia brand.

6. Conclusion

The impacts of online marketing can be felt in any industry and used by anyone today, from Obama’s political campaigns to even uprisings in far flung places such as Egypt. We can no longer overlook the influence of the online space.

The message that I want to bring across is that digital media represents the next frontier of human communications. However, I am not advocating that every company must engage in online marketing. What is more important is recognising how the trend will affect the respective industries and markets today and in the future. How you react today will determine your company’s position in the future.

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More shockingly, 35 hours of video are uploaded every minute, and more video is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than all 3 major US networks created in 60 years!

In December 2010, Google rolled out a new advertising model for its YouTube videos – TrueView.  The key philosophy behind this change is to increase engagement, and decrease wastage.

Under this model, advertisers pay only when viewers choose to watch your ads, and not when an impression is served. The end result, is that everyone wins: viewers only watch ads they find interesting or relevant, and this engenders a source of highly targeted traffic to your video ads.

Hence, this not only increases engagement, but also decreases advertising expenditure as advertisers only pay for views by engaged viewers.

According to Bruce Daisley, sales director at Youtube and Google, viewers who have chosen to watch video ads on Youtube are 75% more engaged as compared to those who watch standard ads. This translates into better recall of your brand which consequently, will produce more sales.

TrueView Ad Formats

Under TrueView, there are 4 ad formats to choose from, and to get the most exposure for your advertising dollar, Google recommends purchasing advertising in all 4 formats.

1. TrueView in-Stream
2. TrueView in-Slate
3. TrueView in-Search
4. TrueView in-Display

1. TrueView in-Stream

These ads can appear before, during, or after a YouTube video. It will run for 5 seconds, and at the end of which users will have an option to close the ad or continue watching.

Advertisers pay if viewers watch the video ad for 30 seconds or for its full length, whichever is shorter.

One benefit for advertisers is that even if viewers choose to close the ad, you would have exposed your brand to them without any cost.

2. TrueView in-Slate

These ads show before YouTube videos which are 10 minutes or longer. Viewers have the choice to watch one of three ads or watch regular commercial breaks during their video instead.

Advertisers pay when viewers choose to watch your video ad.

3. TrueView in-Search

Previously known as promoted videos, these ads will appear at the top or on the right sidebar of both Youtube and Google search results.

Similarly, advertisers pay when viewers choose to watch your video ad.

4. TrueView in-Display

These ads appear alongside other YouTube videos, or on websites on the Google Display Network that match your target audience.

Again, advertisers pay when viewers choose to watch your video ad.

Implications for Advertisers

The key consideration for advertisers in the face of this new model has to be on making good, attractive ads.

According to a study done by Google, ‘curiosity’ is the top reason why consumers choose to view an ad, and so piquing interest in the first 5 seconds is key to driving viewership. In other words, creativity wins.

Not to forget, other factors such as an ad’s relevance and how engaging and enticing it is, are also crucial.

The Importance of Video Marketing

Today, the importance of video marketing is unparalleled. The graphic below from yume.com and adweek.com depicts why.

Click here for an expanded view

Looking beyond these stats and figures, what businesses today must grasp is that viewing videos online has become a lifestyle, and YouTube has become a part of the social media landscape that is active, reactive and interactive. Users comment on the videos, subscribe to channels, and share interesting videos on social networks. Importantly, YouTube can be tapped as a channel to drive more visitors to your website!

Some stats:

• Over 5 million people have found and subscribed to a friend’s channel using YouTube’s friend-finding tools
• Every auto-shared tweet results in six new YouTube.com browsing sessions
• More than half the videos on YouTube have been rated or commented on by users
• Over 4 million people are connected and auto-sharing to at least one social network

Companies which harness the power of YouTube against this social media backdrop will reap the benefits manyfolds in reduced advertising costs, increased sales and increased brand exposure.

To find out how businesses such as Ford Motors utilized video marketing successfully, you could check out this media studies project (Social Media Marketing: Successful Case Studies of Businesses Using Facebook and YouTube with an In-Depth Look into the Business use of Twitter) from Stanford University.

For those who would like to get a better understanding of the TrueView ad formats, you could check out this video below. And if you are ready to try out this channel to get more visitors to your website, speak to our friendly consultants today!

In anticipation of our soon-to-be-launched email marketing service, today's post is dedicated to Email Marketing, and how it differs from Search Marketing. 

Briefly, Search Marketing ensures that your website appears on search engine results every time customers search for a product or service you offer on, for example, Google or Yahoo!, while Email Marketing is a form of direct marketing that uses email as a medium of communication.

1) Push vs. Pull Strategy

In search marketing, there is consumer demand for a product, and thus consumers are actively looking up on – or even looking for the product on search engines. Email marketing differs in that promotional messages are pushed to the consumer, who is a passive receiver of this content.

2) Leveraging on Different Advantages

Having a personal point of contact is extremely valuable to a marketer, and in the case of email marketing, this is inherently present in the form of your prospects' email. People usually will pay close attention to the emails they receive because direct communication is present.

In contrast, search marketing leverages on an already present demand for your firm's product or service. Consumers are interested in purchasing it – or are at least, thinking about purchasing it when they go to a search engine and log a relevant search. By engaging in search marketing to bring your website to a top ranking, you are essentially encouraging a significant group of already interested consumers to visit your website.

3) Different Kinds of Investments

For search marketing to work, you will need to brainstorm and research for keywords, and strategically place them on your website in order to boost your rankings in search engine results. Quality content also has to be available such that people will choose to link to your site on their own accord. Your link popularity will in turn influence your ranking.

Meanwhile email marketing relies on the careful maintenance and cleaning of a relevant, quality database to work, whether you build this up yourself from scratch, or rent it from a third party source. A good database will help you acquire new customers and build brand loyalty. On the flip side, if no effort is put into maintaining your database, you will simply end up spamming uninterested consumers.

4) Both Are Easily Measurable

Search marketing is easily measurable with analytics and conversion tracking. Similarly the success of email marketing can be assessed through click-through ratess, recipient engagement, e-mail forwards, et cetera. This allows you to track your ROI accurately and ensure that your marketing dollars have been well spent.

Which one should I choose?

To make a decision about this, you'll need to ask yourself these questions.

• Has your company been around for long?
• Are the products and services you offer well-known to the public?
• Is the nature of your product such that people make the effort to research on it before purchasing?

If you answered ‘No’ the above questions, email marketing may be a more preferable option for you, as you can literally push your offerings to your customer – or in this case, into their inbox, filling them in on information about your product that they would otherwise not know about.

However, if your business has already invested heavily in advertising to promote your brand, consumer demand for your product may already be high enough for your firm to reap a fruitful reward from a search marketing strategy.

At clickTRUE, however, we encourage our clients to look at search marketing and email marketing not as separate strategies, but as techniques that can be incorporated into a single holistic campaign. For example:

• Search marketing can be used to drive up visitor rates to a particular email opt-in page.
• Email newsletters can be optimised for sharing through social networks to take advantage of search engines' propensity to turn up social media content in their results.
• Search and email marketing can be integrated with web analytics to help you identify the search keywords driving traffic to your landing pages. You can then edit your email content accordingly to optimise it for conversion.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. The possibilities of search and email marketing are endless. Have you heard of any companies who have successfully integrated these two services to successfully promote their business? Do tell us about it by leaving us a comment! 

And, to find out more about our Search Engine Marketing and Email Marketing Services, do feel free to get in touch with us for more details.

Months after their release of the +1 button in search engine results in March (you can enable this option via this link), Google has now launched the button for webpages.

Webmasters can place this button onto the webpages by inserting a small snippet of code. To date, here are some sites which will soon be featuring the button:

+1? What's that?

The concept behind it is very simple. One might call it Google's answer to Facebook's Like button. Or, as Google itself explains:

The +1 button is shorthand for "this is pretty cool" or "you should check this out."

Click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1's can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.

As mentioned earlier, Google first rolled out its +1 button on its search listings in March, presumably to test the waters and analyze users' responses to this new concept. 

What direction will +1 take?

Google itself has described +1 as a way to "publicly give something your stamp of approval" and to share recommendations with those in your social circle. This inherently lends +1 an air of credibility that social network sites share in general. After all, having a friend tell you that something is worth checking out is far more likely to encourage you to do so as opposed to the corporate bigwigs or PR staff doing so, and online marketing efforts can make use of this to gain more traction with potential customers.

Another advantage this brand new feature of placing the button onto individual webpages has is that websites with a higher number of +1's will gain rankings in Google's search results. This is yet another reason for you to embrace +1: with Google's name being the default search engine most users turn to, +1 may well prove to be a potent player in your arsenal of SEO and SEM tools. As Google itself explains in its +1 button FAQ:

Content recommended by friends and acquaintances is often more relevant than content from strangers. For example, a movie review from an expert is useful, but a movie review from a friend who shares your tastes can be even better. Because of this, +1’s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query. This is just one of many signals Google may use to determine a page’s relevance and ranking, and we’re constantly tweaking and improving our algorithm to improve overall search quality. For +1's, as with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how those signals affect search quality.

Some Doubts

A problem with Google +1 is the ambiguity of its name. The success of Facebook's like button is due in no small part to the easy, idiot-proof communication of what it stands for – you like something on Facebook because you, well like it. It's pretty hard to be confused by something as straightforward as that. Compare this to +1, which doesn't quite provide quite that same ease of understanding. We can foresee a lot of head-scratching going on when users get their first encounter with the +1 button on a webpage or a search result.

On another note, on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, it is immediately clear who you are sharing your content with – something that isn't as obvious as in the case with Google +1. What we know is, you will need a public Google profile to be able to +1 something, so presumably it will be your contacts on Google services such as Gmail, Gtalk, Google Buzz, et cetetera who you will be sharing your content with. 

Odds are, you probably already have a Google account, if not a profile. But we do doubt if users – or business owners – really need yet another social profile to add onto the list of online personas they need to upkeep and maintain. This article by Stefan Meeuws debates the merits of Google's efforts to grab a slice of the social networking pie which may be of some interest to you.

This has not been Google's first venture into the social networking craze, as this extremely detailed and rather hilarious graphical timeline done up by the industrious folks at Mashable illustrates. Will +1 end up as just yet another Google attempt at social networking? Only time will tell. Meanwhile, do let us know how your experience with the +1 button has been by leaving us a comment below! ;)

clickTRUE v2 Home Page

So the ground work started about 4 months back, looking at our own analytics data gathered and comparing what users were looking for. We scrutinized the incoming keywords and analysed how users were interacting with our site. One interesting observation that we noticed was a steady increase in users coming through the various mobile platforms (iPhone, iPad and other smartphones) to our website. 

Incoming mobile users on the rise

Result? A brand new website with updated service offerings that looks equally good on both the desktop and smartphone browsers!

Looking good on desktop browser!

Looking equally great on smartphones!

We will continue to review our analytics data to enhance the user experience, and if you do have any feedback for us, please leave us a note. After all, it is with the help of these feedbacks that we roll out a better site each time. Till the next revamp!

We see a slightly longer search bar with more squarish looking buttons which gives it a clean cut look and feel.

The location based search results page radio button is also replaced with a link on the left panel as well.

The new search engine results page gives us the search tools option bar permanently on the left hand side, allowing you to easily navigate through the search content you might want to see; be it a mixture of everything or solely images, news, videos, etc. Previously on the old interface, we could have an option to either hide or show options, which might not be that noticeable for some people, missing out on some of the advanced filtering of search options that could be useful to users. Making it permanently show on the left hand panel will in turn pushes more users to be aware and explore the usage of it.

Another interesting feature you might not have noticed previously would be the Google Wonder Wheel. As the name suggests, similar search terms and categories revolving around your searched keywords are presented in a shape of a wheel, giving you some additional search terms or ideas that you can relate and research further on.

Timeline view shows you the trends over the years and associates your query with significant facts or events.

If you are on a lookout for shopping sites, try the shopping sites views to return results for commercial websites where you can make online purchases or locations for shopping.

Overall, the experience on the new interface is not significantly different as compared to the previous version, as the majority of the tools were available with an option. But of course, it is inevitable to compare it against the other 2 major competitor search engines Bing and Yahoo!  which both have integrated the left search columns as well. In my opinion, Google’s implementation of the sidebar will continue to have the upper hand with technology and resources to roll out more search tools – whether it be deemed useful or not by users.

On a side note, if you are missing the old interface like some of the users here and prefers it better, head over to Gtricks for some tips to have it reverted back.

The Internet is quickly becoming an essential medium for business growth.

With ever-increasing search engine queries, Facebook updates, and Twitter re-tweets, companies all over the region are clamoring to get on the bandwagon and are starting to market their businesses online.

What about you? Have you already started leveraging on the Internet to grow your business? Do you have a comprehensive online strategy in place?

Either case, the Strategic Online Marketing Seminar will surely be able to help you in your understanding of online marketing and aid you in driving value to your business through the Internet.

If your business has yet to step into the online portal, this seminar will open your eyes to a new world of possibilities, a world where millions of searches and tweets everyday can help to grow your business. This can very well become a stepping stone towards establishing your brand’s presence in the web.

On the other hand, if you have already started marketing online, this seminar will show you how you can free yourself from the clutter by systematically analysing the data and optimising your campaigns in order to cut down your budget and increase your revenue.

Best of all, this seminar is free and open to all who are interested.

Simply sign up for a seat by using our online RSVP form.

( Click Here for view details of the seminar.)

*This event is jointly organized by clickTRUE and Google Singapore

This year, the Marketing Magazine’s Agency of The Year Awards 2010 was held at a gala event held at the Shangri-La Hotel. During which, clickTRUE Pte Ltd was awarded with the following results.

Search Marketing Agency – Top 6 

Search Marketing Agency Local Heroes – Top 3
(We are listed Top 3 of the countless local competitors out there in Singapore)

The awards were strictly decided through extensive polling of marketers in Singapore with a survey conducted by Boardroom Research sent to 10,140 people, receiving a 6.32% response rate.

Out of the 641 valid responses, 340 (53.04%) were from client side, and 301 (46.96%) were from the agency side.

In this survey, genuine marketing decision-makers across key agency-using industries were well represented. The client-side sample was also restricted to only those marketers at a minimum of “manager” level and above.

These results acknowledge the expertise and professionalism of clickTRUE’s work and is a great encouragement for us to continue improving our services.

So keep those candid feedback coming and we promise to better ourselves in all aspect.