Internet retailing is now growing at a rapid scale at roughly 3.5 times the rate of the whole sector month to month, and according to the National Office of Statistics the internet now accounts for 10.5% of all retail sales. The internet accounts for £660m of sales a week in this country, and can only continue getting bigger and stronger. These are astonishing statistics; therefore it is important for companies to be easily reachable on the internet. If your company’s website isn’t featuring high in search engines and your e-commerce sales are dwindling, a new internet and digital marketing strategy is essential.

With the continuing increase of online sales, companies should have a carefully planned internet marketing campaign. Some of the figures can be related to the recent poor weather, with more shoppers choosing the comfort of their own home to braving the high street. However regardless of the weather, the popularity of online shopping and the need for an effective internet marketing campaign cannot be questioned. Being well positioned on the internet is imperative to getting a share of the booming internet retail market.

The internet will continue to expand further and increase every year so it is important to know the tools needed for a successful internet marketing campaign. The internet has managed to develop and grow at a time when the recession is still affecting the economy and any business decisions which are made. Annual internet sales are now growing 10 times more quickly than the retail sector and with more and more people preferring the ease of online retail shopping, ensuring you can be found on the internet is critical.

If you are looking to optimise the online performance of your business, call us on 0191 232 8088 or email info@green-media.com

Search engines are trusted resources in the online world today and with 3 billion searches typed into Google each day, ranking high amongst their page results should be a major concern for any marketing campaign.  Are you a business which neglects your website and its content? Focusing on the glitz and glamour of the marketing world with magazine adverts and slots on TV and radio?  SEO provides the foundations for your media strategy, giving your campaign the authority on the internet to successfully back up your advertising message.

The internet has grown substantially in recent years rising from 801.4 million users in 2004 to 1.96 billion this year.  Creating a loud enough noise in this environment without an SEO-friendly site is difficult, which is why copywriting, back-linking and SEO techniques are important to practice on your site.  A content-rich website is not built or recognised instantly and it takes patience to build a catalogue of high quality back-links and blog entries full of relevant content.  Once you’re established at the top of Google searches for your targeted keywords your website will be able to give the message your other media vehicles are emitting authority, as internet users trust that those results at the top of their searches are the most relevant to their search term.

Websites which focus more on design are sometimes overtaken by basic content-rich sites because they concentrate more on the website layout then the use of clean coding, SEO-friendly URLs and keyword-rich copy and this is where the benefits of a digital marketing company can be seen.  Dedication to a website can be difficult with all other aspects of a business to oversee, which is why some websites are seen not as an important marketing tool, but rather an inconvenience to maintain and keep fresh.  A resourceful website employing individually designed SEO techniques which ranks highly on search engine results, creates a solid base on which all other media vehicles can go on to succeed.  Search engine optimisation is fast becoming one of the most desired services in the marketing industry as the internet is growing at a rapid rate, will your business be able to keep up?

For more information on SEO and what we have to offer call Laura on 0191 2328088 or email laura.brown@green-media.com

Microsoft has announced its new line of retail stores are on schedule to open before the end of 2009, as part of their ongoing marketing strategy. Interestingly, or perhaps oddly, Microsoft claimed this week that their shops will be springing up right next door to Apple Stores, highlighting the clear head-to-head idea behind the venture.

In direct contrast to the thinking behind their newly launched search engine Bing (an unofficial acronym for “Bing Is Not Google”), Microsoft is spelling out their aims for the retail store in unambiguous terms, making it clear that it sees it as a like-for-like competitor to Apple’s store.

Whether it’ll be a good move for Microsoft remains to be seen, but there are a number of reasons why the company’s established behemoth status might just not be enough to guarantee success on the street;

1) A Zune is not an iPod

Microsoft’s proprietary products aren’t exactly exciting. If they’re going to fill the shops up with copies of Windows7, Zunes and peripherals then the doors aren’t likely to be broken down with a customer stampede.

2) If it isn’t broke…

The high streets and retail parks are awash with PCs, with the vast majority tied in with Microsoft operating systems and software packages. Adding yet another option for the consumer with a purely Microsoft store risks cannibalising the retail model that helped make the company such a success in the first place. While it might just be intentionally targeting Apple Stores, Microsoft will also need to compete against the major established PC outlets whether it wants to or not.

3) It’s not very 2009

As primarily a software company, Microsoft is in the best possible position to make a stand for the reliability and robustness of downloadable products and services. The company’s own Xbox360 games console is a positive trailblazer in downloadable content and potential – so why not take the expensive and hard-won lessons from the Xbox Live community and create a purely online centre for retailing all things Microsoft? It’s obviously the future of the market, so why not bring it forward? Launching a brand new bricks and mortar venture in 2009 seems bizarrely, almost surreally late in the day.

4) It shows competitive concern

Coming so soon after the negative retort of the the “I’m A PC” advertising campaign, it’s yet another sign that Microsoft strategises in direct response to Apple’s activities. As the vastly smaller of the two companies, being recognised and referenced in such a clear way helps to validate Apple. Maybe Microsoft would be better served by emphasising its market dominance for the right reasons. It’s not through luck that Microsoft finds itself at the top of the pile – perhaps it should be pushing the positives and getting on with its own thing, without looking over its shoulder at whatever Apple are up to.

5) It’s unknown territory

While it’s undoubtedly the biggest fish in terms of market share, Microsoft is taking a leap in the dark on the retail store front, and it couldn’t have picked on a more polished opponent. Apple has already got it right with most aspects of their retail stores. They’ve got the clinical feel of a futuristic spa waiting room, and are stacked with products like iMacs, iPhones and cinema display monitors – all of which perform a tractor-beam pull on passers-by of a certain disposition. Even the exteriors of the stores are desirable – typically chromed steel and glass framed, like artworks planted into the street by a spaceship. Microsoft has its work cut out in providing a style that will match this, let alone surpass it in direct competition.

With the first of the new stores opening in the US in the Autumn, we won’t have long to wait to see if it’s a gamble too far for Microsoft.