Internet marketing coach, Fione Tan, reveals the top internet marketing trends & social media marketing tips fo 2012.

Trend #1 : Apps Marketing

As more consumers use smartphones - iPhones or Android phones; plus tablet PCs such as iPads, Samsung Galaxy Tabs or the Amazon Kindle Fire, become household products in many families, there will be huge downloads of applications to their devices. More often, these devices are being used at various times – waiting for an appointment, while waiting for your flight, and even acts as insomnia treatments for those late nights that you can sleep, giving these devices the power to reach us even while we are away from the Computer.

Apps such as WhatsApp or Viber allows many people save their communication costs, so how can website owners use App Marketing? In countries like Hong Kong, where nearly 50% of its population are using smartphones, retailers ranging from huge departmental stores have already rolled out their apps, e.g. offering cash vouchers that you can instantly use at their tenants as soon as you download their app. The only thing after that is how to make sure the customer keeps your APP on their devices?

Trend #2 : Social Media Marketing goes Beyond Facebook!

Yeah, lots of advertisers are shouting FB this, FB that, but apart from the 800 million members of Facebook, what about other platforms of social media? While Facebook is still Off-Limits to the world No.1 internet population – China, similarly looking Facebook lookalikes are gaining momentum in China. Do you think that China will open up access to Facebook & Twitter soon?

The new buzz in social media marketing is Google+ and many business owners are rushing to create their Google+ pages too, such as https://plus.google.com/s/eonenet#113695231244670401365/posts

Will Google Plus take over Facebook pages? Reading a news article today, report stated Google Plus may reach 400 million by end of 2012? The word “may” is probably due to the fact that many consumers are not using Google+ as frequently. However, as a business owner, there’s really no harm is starting up your Google+ profile right?

Trend #3 : Revamp of Daily Deals / Group Buy sites

Each day, i’m bombarded by emails by the daily group buy sites that i’ve signed up for, and yes, i often just click DELETE once i see the message. Why? While many are also tempted to start their own group buying sites and feature great deals, the money made itself is unlikely to cover the expenses incurred while planning the deals. In an earlier TV interview about Groupon IPO and the huge expenses, it was said that for every US$1 million income that the group buy site was making, it was incurring US$2 million in expenses. Well, i’m not an accounting graduate but any entrepreneur can tell that it’s gonna lose money unless they can figure out a way to cut their expenses (means less paid advertising). If there is a good deal, the power of the social networks can come in to push your message out for FREE!

For merchants that have tried to sell on deals website, some have reported that customers don’t sign packages as regularly as there is always another merchant offering similar service online at the deal site. Is this gonna be better for your company or worse if the customer expects that the next meal at your 5 star hotel to be at 80% discount? Anyway, since it’s free to feature your items on Group Buy sites, merchants can try to offer deals for specific “sluggish” season, or slow moving products.

What are you views for 2012? Do share them with us and leave us a comment on www.Facebook.com/eOneNet too!

By the way, my eCommerce Book for Starting your eBusiness and Making One Million is now available for sale at http://amzn.to/ulH6BA so you can also support me by pre-ordering a copy now!

eBusiness Secrets: Fione Tan Reveals the Ten – Step System to Sell Online and Make Your First Million

Happy New Year!

2011 internet marketing trends for website business will include increased spending on the areas of :-

a. website contents updating and management

- this will increase your website ROI, conversion rates

b. search engine optimization & search engine marketing

- both organic search engine ranking and pay per click advertising on search engines will continue to be focused areas for website marketing as it can drive targeted traffic to your site, and reach out to customers who are already searching for your products and services

c. social media marketing

- with popular social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter dominating top 10 traffic online, it is not surprising that websites will look into how to increase their website fans, and followers

- such as www.Facebook.com/eOneNet for the company or www.Facebook.com/FioneTanEoneNet for your spokesperson

d. Video marketing

- customers are not just looking at photos and text, they want real videos of how to use your products, and also testimonials or reviews

- they can either view the videos on popular videos sites like www.YouTube.com/e1Net or view embedded videos like below:-

Posted by Fione Tan, internet marketing coach

 Happy New Year 2011 to everyone, while it’s just less than 6 hours before we step into 2011 in Asia, you can start planning your 2011 goals… and how will you be celebrating tonight? Some of our eOneNet team members are thinking of viewing the New Year fireworks from our full glass seaview office at Causeway Bay, while others are just gonna go to countdown parties. eOneNet team wishes everyone a Happy New Year 2011! 

Domain names are also important criterias when planning for your search engine optimization strategy. To get free top rankings in Google, Yahoo!, MSN and more, you should do a review of your current website and in some instance, choose to register a domain that is different from your own company name.

Here are some tips for search engine friendly domain names:-

1. Domain name to be .com

- rather than to buy your local domain eg name.com.sg or name.com.hk, it’s better to register a domain .com as this is a worldwide domain and only 1 is available

- check the domain availability at www.FreeDomainsRegistration.com

2. Register the domain based on your product name or keywords

- if you are promoting your own brand, then best to register your own brand rather than having your competitors register it, eg www.SYLJapan.com to sell fresh certified organic skincare from Japan

3. Register plural and singular versions of your keywords

- if you are selling flowers, then you should grab both flower.com and flowers.com and both going to the same 1 website (or 1 goes to the flower site, and another 1 goes to a flower blog)

4. Display your domain in other website pages

- if you have a blog, link back to your own website .com or mention this correctly on all related websites or blogs

- even if you have your personal Facebook, you can list all your website domains below your profile such as www.Facebook.com/eOneNet or www.Facebook.com/FioneTanMayYee

5. Avoid easily misspelt domain names

- if the domain you wish to register is easily misspelt, or have too many sss or rrrs all at one time, then it will jeopardize your future branding too

eg your company name is Bob Business Services and you register the name as Bobbusinessservices.com , then many customers will mistype the “s” in the middle or ignore the addtional b for business.

You should at least register your own .com with your own name such as www.FioneTan.com

Posted by Fione Tan, Internet Marketing Coach

As more entrepreneurs are eager to start their internet business, and retailers looking forward to improve their ecommerce sales, one of their most commonly asked question is where do i find customers online? Or to be exact, how can customers find my website?

This boils down to the similar internet marketing strategy of Search Engine Optimization ( also commonly known as SEO ) and these popular question will pop up:-

- how to rank No.1 in Google for free

- how to do get Top rankings in Yahoo! without paying

In our Search Engine Optimization Hong Kong Class last weekend, we managed to train a group of entrepreneurs, working professionals, business owners, directors and manufacturers on how to get their websites listed on the popular search engines for FREE.

At the end of our internet marketing coaching session, the overall group agreed as well that search engine optimisation is not so much a technical skill and can easily be learnt. What better way to learn than to attend the hands-on computer lab class with live internet connection, and conduct live research online to study the SEO strategies of your competitors who are now getting Top 10 rankings in Google, Yahoo, MSN, Altavista, Baidu, or Sina?

To complete the learning process of course, is to direct apply this SEO tactics to your own website or your own blog and see traffic skyrocket!

Search engine optimisation expert companies can charge a very high fee to get top rankings. Can you guess how much are some Hong Kong search engine optimisation companies charging per keyword? Or China SEO firms fees for each search engine optimization campaign?

There is definitely nothing wrong by asking a SEO firm to help you improve your search engine rankings but before deciding on which SEO marketing company to hire, it’ll be good to do a background check on that company. We’ll be coming up with a guide on how to choose a search engine optimization company soon, so be sure to visit our blog again and feel free to share any experience you had dealing with search engine optimization agencies.

Posted by Fione Tan, head Internet Marketing Coach 

What is branding? Does your company have a brand strategy? During the Malaysia Branding & Marketing Forum 2008, I was invited as a speaker on Digital Branding topic, on how to use the Internet to enhance your online brand. Participants of the event came from different industries and multinationals corporations. Apart from Case studies of digital marketing were shared, everyone agreed that Online Branding is undeniably one of the most important part of your Branding Strategy. 

Branding is the “image” you convey to others. This means how your company or product / service is perceived. It’s an extension of your Corporate Marketing plan, and can be based on your company or product’s Unique Selling Point (USP).

Branding is not just advertising, so this is the intangible characteristic of your company and allows you to charge a price premium over your competitors. In the event the brand’s overall image does not sync, then this conflict will jeopardise your brand strategy. Make sure that the message is Consistent.

If your market is only local like Malaysia, then you can find a branding consultant in Malaysia, but if you are looking at expanding internationally, then you can attempt to find a global brand consultancy firm or by region such as brand consultant Asia.

Here are some important points about Branding:-

- logo is NOT the brand

- branding is not just advertising 

There are 7Ps in the Branding strategy context including:-

1. Brand Positioning – what are the core values

2. Perceptual mapping (what competitive advantage is offered, who are the competitors and how they stand)

3. Promotion

4. Place (not just your physical location, but also matching your overall image with your blog and website)

5. People (the behaviour of your staff is also an extension of your brand, so ensure that the expectations are met)

6. Process

7. Physical evidence (the way that you dress., the overall outlook of the company’s interior, etc)

Additionally, understand who is your target audience, and what does your company want to be an expert in?

Your positioning statement, tagline, slogan and logo should be matching the entire branding strategy. One of the popular airlines company in Malaysia (and now Asia), is the slogan of the budget airlines, AirAsia. Their slogan is “Now, everyone can fly” and since they introduced very low cost air tickets, that slogan matches their company’s positioning.

Now, can you recall the tagline of these airline companies? Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific? No wonder AirAsia is one of the most successful branding case study in Asia.  

Website domain name tips posted by Fione Tan, head internet marketing coach.

Have you got your own .com name? Why is buying a dotcom name better than your local domain name, such as .com.my and .com.sg ? First of all, using a .com domain name potrays the idea that you are going for worldwide business, and this type of domain name is available for purchase by any person via the Internet. To check if your name is available, you can use domain registrars such as http://www.FreeDomainsRegistration.com 

Another business idea is to sell your domain name. Here are some of the most expensive domain name transactions.

1. Sex.com – sold for US$12 million dollars in 2005.

- the domain name was originally registered by a software salesperson, Gary Kremen, in 1994.

2. Porn.com – sold for US$9.5 million dollars in May 2007 to MXN Limited in the highest domain name sale in cash transaction

3. Business.com – sold for US$7.5 million dollars in 1999

4. Diamond.com – sold for US$7.5 million dollars in 2006

- sold to Ice.com by Odimo Incorporated (and included the sale of the website inventory too)

5. Beer.com – sold for US$7 million dollars in 1999

- originally owned by a web developer, Bill Fisher and sold to Interbrew company

How is the value of the domain name now? Well, looks like the idea of having a great domain name is still very much alive, and in June 2007, these 2 domain names were sold at a handsome price too.

1. Seniors.com – US$1.8 million dollars

2. CreditCheck.com – US$3 million dollars

I wonder how much would our company brand be worth in the coming years?

So, have you done a check for some domain names this year? Might you be the seller of the next multi-milli0n dollar domain name?

Posted by Fione Tan, head internet marketing coach

Internet marketing ebooks, website marketing tools, and more internet marketing tips are something that internet entrepreneurs have experience of buying. Last week in one of my Singapore internet marketing seminars, one of the participants told me that he has bought over US$1,000 worth of books, digital books or internet marketing softwares up to date, but he has still NOT started any internet business. His reason being, too busy reading the books and it’s still not getting him anywhere.

Does this sound familiar? Yes, in the internet edge, it’s no longer the problem of lack of access to information. Most people get an overload of information and they become more confused than before being started. It’s pretty simple, last week i was surfing an auction site and found many resellers selling tonnes of ebooks for just cents. If you were me, which would you choose:-

- 90,000 ebooks for US$1 or 5 ebooks for US$10? At the end of the day, i believe it’s the quality of the information and not the quantity.

If i could read a book that summarised all the information that i need, then why should i bother to read 10 books to find the same information right? If you already have gained some knowledge be it from attending seminars, surfing blogs or reading books, then it’s time for you to put your ideas into practise. Only through practise and actual selling on the Internet will you learn how to start making money online. It’s not what you know, but what you do! 

Posted by Harrace, Senior Internet Marketing Coach

Last week, we received an order for e1Net Wireless mouse rechargeable for 7 units, from a customer in Taiwan.

Here is the order:

As an experienced Internet marketer, I noted something fishy in this order. So I instructed my account person to call this person to verify the order, who managed to speak to the customer on the phone. This customer said he used his friend’s card to pay for the purchase. However, I am still not satisfied and instructed our receiving bank to check with the card issuer’s bank to verify the transaction with the actual card holder. Guess what?

(more…)

One of my internet marketing coaching participant asked when should the website be submitted to search engines. Here are some pointers that you should consider before you submit to top search engines like Google, Yahoo or MSN.

Search engine marketing is not about 1 or 2 points only. First, check whether your web designer or web programmer has done any search engine optimization for your website or have search engine marketing experience. It’s best if they can show you real case studies of their own websites or what they have done for their website (which in this case, you should counter check whether this is really their own portfolio).

Here are 4 simple items that you can do immediately before your submit to the search engines & online directories.

1. Hyperlink the home page to the internal pages and vice versa

- your Site Map should have clear details of what pages falling under which section & categories. How and where will you insert / categorize new webpages ?

- your most important Sales / Products / Promotions page must be easily accessed from the Home Page of your website 

(more…)

Affiliate Program tips by Fione Tan, Head Internet Marketing Coach.

During one of my private Internet Marketing coaching sessions, there was a question about whether we should join Competitors’ affiliate programs and if yes, how to choose.

First, decide what are your products’ strengths / advantages compared to your competitors products? Here are some tips on how to join the best affiliate programs of merchants selling similar products.

1. Check the commission payout.

- is it for 1 time sale only or also includes commission on your customers’ future purchases?

- do you get paid based on multi-tier affiliate program? Meaning if your customers become an affiliate and use their own affiliate links to complete the purchase, do you get any benefits too?

2. Choose complementary products / range

- if let’s say you sell ladies crystal watches only so you can join other affiliate programs that sells sporty watches, or other branded watches like Rolex, or Piaget since you do not carry these similar brands.

- also look at what other items / products that your customers might need. If you sell silver jewelry, then maybe you can join other affiliate programs that are selling jewelry boxes, or jewelry care such as silver jewelry polisher.

- if you sell only to Asian markets, then you can look for an affiliate program that can cover the rest of the world, so that your customers can also purchase & send to USA, or Europe.

3. Place the affiliate banners in the proper locations on your site

- if the affiliate programs are meant to be your side income (one website can have multiple sources of income), then you should avoid placing competitors’ affiliate programs banners or text links on your own order page, or sales pages.

- insert on other informational pages, eg articles, frequently asked questions, etc

- you can even choose to feature a specific affiliate program product or link directly to the product page of your recommended product. Sample of linking to a specific product page can be viewed on this blog posting :-

http://eonenet.com/wedding_blog/2007/02/27/wedding-jewelry-accessories/
#more-14

This means that those affiliate programs that you join can appear not only in your website, but also in your other blogs.

At the end of the day, you can always sell or recommend a Book about this product from Amazon’s affiliate program. No matter whether you are selling a diet pill or an online stocks trading software, there are surely some books and ebooks written on the market. Therefore when you recommend books from Amazon itself, then you can also earn some commissions from the order.

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affiliate programs, internet marketing, internet marketing coach, Fione Tan