A new top level domain name is now available:  .CO provides a new branding opportunity for companies to have a short, meaningful domain name.

From now until 10 June,  the domain names can only be acquired by trademark holders with exact match domain names registered prior to July 30, 2008. This allows companies to apply for their desired domain or domains and secure their trademarks. Matching domains will go to auction.

I would strongly recommend companies with trademarks to get these domain names during this period.

Once the intial sunrise registration period is closed, then the landrush registration period opens.  Landrush takes place from the end of June through mid-July, and will be open to anyone interested in registering domain names of high commercial value. Any interest in matching domains will go to auction.

And finally, the .CO domain name will open to general registrations on 20 July.  Currently there are 10 domain name providers selling these names.

Read full details of the .CO domain name launch:  http://www.cointernet.co/

The Internet Conference takes place on 14 May at the East Midlands Conference Centre;  10 reasons you shouldn’t miss it:

1. Learn from national experts. I’m delighted to have some of the UK’s leading Internet marketing experts presenting at the conference.
2. These are seminars, not sales pitches. Our conference presentations are not sales pitches, they will be packed full of information and you’ll have a choice of sessions to attend.  There’s something in the programme for everybody.
3. Charles Arthur, The Guardian’s technology editor, is our keynote.  He’s going to give us a heads up on what’s waiting for us around the corner on the Internet, and how we can prepare for success
4. Dave Chaffey will be speaking, and he has been named by CIM as one of the one of 50 marketing gurus who have shaped the future of marketing.  You’re bound to learn loads about using Google Analytics to improve your business process
5. Mike Baxter advises companies like Google, KLM, and Argos.   He’s the  Ecommerce User Experience guru, and he’ll be sharing his knowledge with us.
6. Free lunch.  Did I mention the free food?
7. Inspirational marketing practitioners sharing their knowledge and experience  including Kelly Herrick from Abacus Lighting, Mark Shaw from Nutshell, local SEO expert Ian Lockwood, and Richard Flewett from New Edge
8. Mingle with the experts.  This is a relatively small conference, and you will have the chance to meet with our speakers, and sit down for coffe and a chat.
9. Network with other marketers.  The delegate list includes marketers from pharmaceutical companies, law firms, manufacturers, the public sector, and marketing agencies.  This is a chance to share your own experience, and make new contacts
10. The Web Inspector.  I’ll be there, ready to review your website, live and on screen.  Come along and get my view on what is great, and not so great, about your website.

Book your place now at The Internet Conference.

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The Internet Conference, 14 May 2010 at the East Midlands Conference Centre is filling up fast.  Rates increase on 9 April, so don’t miss out on this event.  Register today for the special Early Bird conference rate.

8 Great Sessions – Meet the Top Leaders in UK Internet Marketing

1. The Web Inspector:  live reviews of websites, & your questions answered
2. Search Engine Optimisation
3. Social Media Marketing
4. Copywriting for the Internet
5. Improving your Ecommerce website
6. Google Analytics to improve your business results
7. Developing an Internet Marketing strategy

Register now and save

Be inspired by our keynote speakers, get practical and relevant advice on how to improve your website, and meet and network with top leaders in Internet marketing.

Google have announced another new search feature:  Google Stars.  Click the little star icon next to any particular search result, and you are tagging in and creating a set of pages that will feature in your own personalised version of the search results.

In this example, I’m searching for the infamous Turkey Point Lighthouse, which now has the greyed out star beside it’s entry which I have highlighted in yellow in this image:

If I choose to click on the star, next time I search, my starred items appear in a new category called “Starred Results” appearing at the top of my (and only my own) search results:

The real benefit of this, as compared to the former SearchWiki feature, is that you’re not changing the search results, just pulling together your favourite sites into an easily accessible set of selections.

You need to be logged into your Google account to use this feature

Learn more at

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/stars-make-search-more-personal.html

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Here is a summary of my Tweets from November, covering the Google Caffeine update, new features in Analytics, and valuable Internet marketing resources:

1. Google Caffeine live at this data centre, test your ranking on the new Google! http://bit.ly/4uEm9V
2. Intelligence feature in Google Analytics is available to all now. See Video http://tr.im/D7q9 RT @avinashkaushik
3. Social Media Marketing isn’t free, it isn’t playing, and it isn’t “cool.” It’s a tactic in your strategic armoury. #amadigitalday
4. Social media marketing can’t be airy fairy. It needs to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, & Timebound.
5. @pcmcreative The IKEA Social Media Campaign can be found at http://bit.ly/4psc3G 12:40 PM Nov 30th
6. Notes from my AMA Digital Marketing Strategy Framework can be found at http://bit.ly/6MH3DW #AMAdigitalday
7. eBusiness Conference 3 December Hashtag: #ebizconf
8. I’m getting Tweets as SMS text messages on my Orange mobile. Very annoying! Be sure to set Mobile Settings to DM Only.
9. I’m looking for an experienced UK based OSCommerce developer willing to further develop a large existing site. Recommendations?
10. Google replaces URLs with breadcrumb links in search results http://bit.ly/2HTtoU RT @patrickaltoft
11. Google Caffeine update won’t roll out til after the holidays. Merry Christmas, Google! http://bit.ly/1o71ux
12. The Disproportionate Value of Deep Links. What I’ve always suspected, and a good discussion. http://bit.ly/406QsC
13. Marketing Online wiki is a treasure trove of valuable info. http://bit.ly/2w73Py 1:18 PM Nov 4th from TweetDeck
14. Website speed a likely SEO ranking factor. See http://code.google.com/speed/

8 December:  Google Analytics Training

15 December: Search Engine Optimisation

Welcome to Gill Marriott, who has joined Hallam.biz as our new Events Manager.  She will be managing and coordinating our Internet marketing training programmes, and brings with her a wealth of training management experience.  I’ve worked with Gill for many years, and am absolutely delighted that she has decided to join the team.

She’ll be letting you know about our new courses:

The currrent training course schedule can always be found in the Events Listings.

Vitis PR, a Midlands PR agency, is riding high in the search engine rankings with help from Hallam.biz

This blog posting is a reprint of my article in the October 2009 issue of JAM: The Journal of Arts Marketing published by the Arts Marketing Association.  The issue is devoted to the topic of Mobile Marketing, and you can read the entire Mobile Marketing issue here. (PDF)

Mobile Marketing Research Round Up

Mobile phones aren’t just for talking on:  the UK’s burgeoning love affair with the mobile Internet means lots of new opportunities for arts marketing professionals.  Most handsets are now Internet enabled, mobile phone companies are offering “unlimited” Internet data tariffs, and 90% of UK residents live in postcode districts offering 3G mobile services with increased capacity for delivering high speed data and voice.[i]

But the love affair is still in its early stages, and adoption of the mobile Internet has plenty of potential for continued growth.   According to The Nielsen Company, over 8 million people in the UK, or 16% of adults, used their mobile phone to gain access to the Internet in the first quarter of 2009. And Nielsen also report that the number of people accessing the Internet via their mobile is growing more rapidly than those going online using their computer.

But do our audiences use mobile?  Is this mobile activity the sole preserve of geeks, and the younger generation? Orange’s Exposure 2 Research reports the average age of mobile media users as a surprisingly mature 36.  Men are twice as likely as women to access the Internet via their mobile phone , 15% and 8% of mobile phone users respectively, and the most popular activity for all users is sending or uploading of photographs or video clips.[ii]

Where do they use their mobile?  Exposure 2 reports the answer may be at home, with 67% of mobile users reading their email at home, and 56% engaged in mobile Internet browsing.  If they’re on public transport, they’re likely to be engaged with entertainment, and when about and about they’re looking for local information to help facilitate moving about.  This probably means more of your audience are looking at your content via mobile than you realised.  I may read your emails whilst at home, but there’s a good chance I won’t be reading them on my PC, but rather on my Blackberry.  How good do your emails look on a mobile phone?  How easy is it to interact with your website on a mobile phone if I want to see what’s on?

One surprising demographic that may challenge your assumptions, however, may be that teens browse the mobile Internet less than half as much as the typical user.  Today’s teens, or “Digital Natives,” are less likely than working adults to have all-day access to broadband connections, with 77% of teens saying they are not permitted to use their phone in class.[iii]

Apple iPhone users in particular are phenomenally busy on the Internet: comScore reports 79% of iPhone users accessed news or information via their mobile browser, four times the rate for all mobile phone users.  Keep in mind that only 2% of UK mobile phones are iPhones, and 75% of iPhone users are male, mostly between the ages of 18 to 44.[iv]

iPhone users personalise their mobile to suit their own preferences, and have downloaded more than a billion applications, or apps, in the first 9 months of the iPhone launch.  The all time most popular application is Facebook, but applications like “Artsnear Pro”[v] helps users to discover museums and galleries by city or by proximity, and includes calendars of events and openings.    The “Broadway in Chicago”[vi] app helps you to find what’s on stage, performance times, preview video, and purchase tickets. And here in the UK, Queen Theatrical Productions launched “We Will Rock You” in September 2009, professing to be the first UK theatrical iPhone game application.

This boom in mobile user activity leads inevitably to advertiser growth.  Advertisers spent £28.6 million on mobile advertising in 2008, and the Mobile Marketing Association predicts mobile will grow by 26% this year, despite the economic turn down, and despite the decline in traditional media advertising.[vii]

Developing a strategy for mobile marketing starts with understanding how, and why, your audiences interact with the technology.  Orange[viii] breaks the mobile users’ universe down into 3 groups correlating to age: Mainstream, Selective, and Tentative.  “Mainstream” users are under 25, accessing web based as well as mobile Internet sites, and for whom mobile entertainment is a key driver.  The 25-44 year olds are “Selective,” using the Internet to keep up to date, with email as their key driver, and wanting brief, to the point mobile information.  And finally, “Tentative” users are over 45, are aware there is a lot available on their mobile but not exactly sure what, and are using mobile to access sports scores or news.

There are specific mobile marketing opportunities for arts organisations, and one of the most significant is the mobile use of social networking sites.  The IAB reports (2009) that 25% of all social networkers use their mobile to check or update their pages.   44% of 16 to 24 year olds say they make updates via their mobile, with a further 17% of over 55’s also using mobile social networking. [ix] Facebook and Twitter have set up dedicated sites, formatted for the mobile screen. For lovers of social networking, mobile is now mainstream.

Mobile offers marketers a whole basket of new marketing opportunities.  Text messaging is a well established mobile application that integrates well with offline ads, and research from M-Metrics indicates 75% of mobile subscribers have sent text messages in reply to an offline ad.  Outbound SMS is already in use in a number of arts organisations around the UK including the Ambassadors Theatre who are developing strategies for outbound SMS messages to existing customers.

But mobile marketing isn’t just about text messages.  Other forms of mobile marketing will overtake SMS text ad spend in 2009[x] with growth  in mobile advertising in search engine advertising, display adverts and classified ads leading the way.

Mobile ticketing, which offers users the ability to store a ticket on their mobile phone for later redemption, is predicted to experience exceptionally high growth, with over 410 million users worldwide receiving and redeeming tickets by 2013.[xi] Benefits of mobile ticketing include reduced costs, reduced carbon footprint by reducing paper, and better security.

New forms of advertising will also show exceptionally growth, in particular “Idle Screen” advertising, which doesn’t interrupt a user’s activities.  Likewise, users are very interested in Location based advertising, which can be well targeted and the precision means relevant and engaging advertising.

So, how important should mobile be in your marketing mix? Is your audience using mobile technologies? Are there ways of using mobile services that fit your budget? And are you ready to experiment with some innovative marketing techniques?

References:

[i] Emily Keaney:  “The digital world: a review of the evidence” Arts Council England, May 2009

[ii] Exposure 2 Research Orange Home UK plc, March 2009

[iii] How Teens Use Media: A Nielsen report on the myths and realities of teen media trends. The Nielsen Company, June 2009 p.9

[iv] comScore releases First Data on iPhone Users in the UK. comScore Inc, March 2009

[v] Download at http://iphoneapps.oreilly.com/2009/07/artnear-pro.html

[vi] Download at http://www.broadwayinchicago.com/iphone.php

[vii] Mobile Marketing Buyers Guide eConsultancy, August 2009, pp 4-5

[viii] Exposure Research Orange Home UK plc, November 2007

[ix] Ten things you need to know about mobile advertising The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) May 2009 http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/10thingsyouneedtoknowaboutmobile270509.mxs

[x] Advertising – the future’s bright, the future’s mobile, a white paper in Mobile Advertising: Delivery Channels, Business Models & Forecasts 2009 -2014 Juniper Research, June 2009. http://www.juniperresearch.com/shop/products/whitepaper/pdf/JRL_Advertising%20White%20Paper..pdf

[xi] Mobile – Just The Ticket a white paper in Mobile Ticketing: Transport, Entertainment and Events 2008 – 2013 Juniper Research, October 2008, p6 http://www.juniperresearch.com/shop/products/whitepaper/pdf/Mobile%20~%20Just%20the%20Ticket.pdf

I spoke at a accountants’ conference earlier this week, and a delegate was keen to let me know only 20% of his clients use email.

Only 20%?  How can that be possible?

The Office of National Statistics have published a report that illustrates the kinds of people who do, and don’t, use the Internet. Approximately a quarter of the UK population doesn’t use the Internet.

The fractures appear along age, educational, and gender lines:

• 70% of people aged 65 or over have never used the Internet.
• 93% of people with a degree do have access to the Internet from home
• 29% of women have never used the Internet, where as only 20% of men have never been online

Other barriers might be geography, or cost

But perhaps most interestingly of all, 60% of the folk without access simply don’t want it,  or feel that they don’t need it.

Coming back to my accountant friend, he is based in rural Dorset and serving an older clientele.  On the one hand that would explain the lack of adoption of Internet, but my advise to his business would be to continue to test new Internet services for his clients.

Source:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/iahi0808.pdf

Barack Obama became America’s 44th President on 20 January 2009 at 12:00, and just one minute later at 12:01 the Whitehouse published it’s very first blog posting.

Change has come to the Whitehouse, and at least one of those changes is the aim of building community by using blogging, RSS feeds, and email newsletters.  These technologies were instrumental in the successful election campaign, and now they are being transferred to.

And the change wasn’t limited to just adding a blog.  The site has had a complete makeover.  Here is the new Obama verson of the White House home page, complete with compelling graphics, blog postings as the main content on the home page, videos to watch, Call to Action to subscribe to the newsletter:

Compare and contrast with the previous Bush version of the whitehouse.gov website:

Google Knows Who’s President

Speaking of change, it didn’t take Google long to update it’s database with  the correct information.  A search for White House displays the two lines of text in black from the newly revised meta description tag telling me about the new president:

On the other hand, at the time of this posting Yahoo! still hadn’t managed to update it’s database, telling me that Bush was still president: