Spending on online video advertising is still small compared to total online spending and television spending, but last year it grew by 126.5%. According to recent studies, online video advertising spend is expected to continue on its upward trend- increasing by an average of 41% per year over the next five years.

With online video popularity soaring and more video advertising platforms available than ever before, your company should seriously consider integrating online video advertising into your marketing mix. YouTube is a logical place to start because of its sheer size. In fact, YouTube revealed recently that:

• In a given month more Americans visit YouTube than watch the Super Bowl on average
• Every 45 seconds approximately more than 12 new hours of video are uploaded

YouTube’s Sponsored Videos advertising program is already being utilized by a wide variety of companies. Sponsored Videos reach a huge audience of online video viewers and are incredibly easy to set-up (think Google AdWords with only half the steps). (more…)

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User-Generated Content (UGC) is hot topic these days because it’s a relatively cost effective way to close the sale, create customer loyalty, and boost SEO.

In case you’re just getting started let me take a step back. UGC refers to any content that users create for your site. UGC can be large-scale (like Wikipedia and YouTube, where all of the site’s content is generated by users) or it can be small-scale (like customer reviews on a shopping site, where users just add to content that is already there). UGC is very affordable, because in most cases it’s free. It’s also viewed very highly by search engine algorithms, making it a vital piece of an overall SEO strategy.

A recent webinar by Bazaarvoice on UGC reminded us of five key aspects of UGC that even the most seasoned professionals can sometimes forget or overlook:

1. SEO Isn’t #1
   While it’s easy to tout the SEO benefits of UGC, the primary purpose of UGC is to improve user experience. Why is this distinction important?
   As a business if you handle UGC as an SEO-related activity you are categorizing it as a marketing effort to benefit your business. If you handle UGC as you should, as part of user experience, you are categorizing it as an activity to benefit your customer.
   In the end, both will contribute to the bottom line but having the right focus means that the parameters set for business decisions will be appropriate.
2. Reviews and… What Else?
   UGC is not just a fancy way of saying “customer reviews.” While customer reviews are the most widely used form of UGC for ecommerce businesses other UGC includes videos and images. Companies that best utilize these forms of UGC are ones that encourage users to take pictures/make videos of their products in use.
3. Even the Bad Is Good
   The beauty of UGC is that even the bad is good. Well… mostly. In terms of product reviews, some companies go to great lengths to make sure all feedback that is displayed about a product is positive. In reality, however, showing the good alongside with the bad is better for establishing consumer trust and loyalty. (more…)
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Today’s economic climate stresses the importance of a cost effective marketing strategy in order to achieve the most gain with the least expense. Blogs fit this bill because they allow you to reach a vast global audience with very little monetary cost. Free blog software has made blogs accessible to even the smallest companies, and the movement away from structured formal writing to a more conversational dialogue has made the average person well equipped to maintain a blog. With the explosion of the “blogosphere” your business can fall behind quickly without a regularly updated quality blog. This is why it’s important to know (more…)

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Drop shipping is a practice of order fulfillment where a manufacturer/distributor ships a product to a consumer on behalf of the retailer. Drop shipping can be very attractive because (more…)

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PPC and SEO are two acronyms that are thrown around a lot by businesses these days. But what exactly is the difference between the two? Please see our chart below for a full explanation of the differences:

Note: While some small businesses prefer to rely solely on PPC because it is faster and often much cheaper than investing in SEO, studies have shown that using PPC in conjunction with SEO efforts is the most effective way to drive traffic to your website.

Volusion’s Marketing Services

-Kate Pierce eCommerce Specialist

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