As you may already know, for over two years now, Connecting Images has been working with Future Fibre Technologies (FFT) to build its online, local and international presence.

Most recently, we have been busy implementing a strategic marketing communications plan that has proven to be a challenging but highly successful and rewarding task.

One of the great outcomes has been the production of a truly unique and invaluable resource, the 65-page Boundaries of Security – Global Trends in Perimeter Security report.

The report was intended to reinforce FFT’s position as one of the most credible, progressive industry authorities in perimeter intrusion detection. It is also a valuable resource, educating and informing security consultants, managers and specialists about currently available perimeter security solutions.

FFT’s success with this report has been outstanding, reaching both local and global markets. International Client Manager at FFT, Alec Owen agreed that the launch of this report was “the most successful and precisely targeted initiative we could have hoped for.”

Our focus was on generating quality leads, and attracting A-level clients. Whilst FFT’s initial hope was to obtain 20% of A-level sales leads, ultimately, 80% of the leads fall into this category. A highly successful achievement that exceeded even our expectations!

This quote from Morgan Stanley’s The Mobile Internet Report got Adam Cahill’s attention, and it certainly got ours too –

“Regarding the pace of change, we believe more users will likely connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PC’s within five years.”

So we decided to look into this a little deeper. Here’s what we found…

With the release of the smart phone, Australians are staying connected like never before. No longer a source for just making calls and texting, devices such as the iPhone, are an increasing function for checking emails, accessing information and of course keeping in touch via social networking sites.

Research conducted by dotMobi and AKQA Mobile found that 90% of consumer respondents were more likely to choose an airline with mobile check-in facilities over one that didn’t offer this.

Interestingly, the survey also found that 63% of respondents claim they would rather give up their money than their smart phone in a mugging situation.

If that isn’t loyalty, we don’t know what is!

Safe to say there has been a fundamental shift in how people use the Web for information, but what could this mean for marketeers?

Adam Cahill states that many brands are less inclined to accept this mobile transition, yet nonetheless should be ‘catching up’ to this steadfast phenomenon.

He suggests they do their homework and establish how, where and when consumers use their mobile phones to make purchase decisions.

Claire Cain Miller from the New York Times agrees, saying that customers are regularly using applications such as ShopSavvy on their smart phones to bargain hunt for the best deals on merchandise.

According to Accounting and Consulting firm, Deloitte, one in five shoppers said they would be using their smart phones to buy Christmas gifts last year. The survey revealed that 45% would research prices on their phone, 32% said they would use it to search for coupons and 25% said they would buy items on their phone.

Last year, Polo Ralph Lauren secured first place as the 2009 Mobile Marketer of the Year. Giselle Tsirulnik from Mobile Marketer says that Ralph Lauren’s “outstanding” use of mobile advertising and marketing won them the title.

Their work included collaborating with GQ magazine’s mobile application to promote fragrances and offer grooming tips. Ralph Lauren also launched a mobile shopping site whereby customers can purchase items, read the latest news and watch videos from current runway shows.

Evidently, mobile marketing IS a big deal! We know that the 2010 customer wants to hold all the information they can in the palm of their hand.

As we creep towards the end of January in what appears to be ‘the year of the mobile’, have you made the mobile transition?

Rumours have been circulating for several months now on whether there will be a new addition to the Apple evolution, specifically, the nicknamed “iTablet”.

Engineered to sit between an iPhone and touchscreen MacBook, the highly anticipated tablet has been dubbed as the “iPhone on steroids”, referring to its ability to play movies, read books and more.

Endless stories, rumours and theories have been abuzz on Apple’s soon to be released new gadget, including whether it will include a camera or not.

And according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, it is expected to sell anywhere between $500 and $700.

Debates over the actual size of the device have itself been in abundance, with sizes expecting to range anywhere between 7 to 10 inches. Dena Cassella suggests thinking of it as “small enough to carry in a handbag, but too big to fit in a pocket”.

Nick Gold, sales manger at Chesapeake Systems, believes the iTablet will fill the usability gap between smartphones and notebooks. “A laptop doesn’t offer the experience of an elegant digital note pad with Internet access, nor does an iPhone serve for anything but the tersest of notes. A tablet could potentially address this middle space quite well,” he says.

Another factor yet to be determined, is whether the iTablet will cease the end of the Kindle and other e-book readers. Shane Spiess, president of MacForce believes the iTablet will have the capability to do everything a Kindle can do. “It’ll be a success if it allows me to access basically everything I own, from magazines and books to movies and television shows, no matter where I’m at” he says.

Pending the rumours are true, the iTablet will have the functionality to do anything the e-reader can do, along with having access to applications and the web.

Having already achieved a huge amount of success with the iPod and iPhone, it is highly likely that the Apple iTablet will render much of the same enthusiasm and acceptance.

A media launch scheduled later this month is set to unveil the new product as well as clarify all those rumours and theories. The question that will remain however is, will customers still buy a Kindle, iPod, or laptop, when the iTablet can do the lot?

It’s no hidden fact that designing and building an effective website is probably one of – if not the most important – aspect to running a successful, results-driven business. 

Many websites however lack that all important strategic direction and functionality, when it comes to reaping in the ‘returns’. A website should function as a source of leads and revenue, not just an online brochure.

Reasons for Limited Investment Returns

Steven Leung says that there are three primary reasons why websites fail to bring in a profit:

1. Difficulty in finding through search engines – According to Nielsen, 70% of consumers use search engines to find local businesses. Sadly, many site owners focus too heavily on their websites’ ‘look and feel’ and not enough attention on search engine ranks.

2. There is no call for immediate action – Similarly, if there is no call to action (lead them to a purchase page, contact us etc), visitors will immediately go elsewhere. If this is happening frequently, it can be quite damaging to your company. All visitors are a potential lead and all leads are potential customers.

3.  The site isn’t strong enough for referrals – A majority of visitors will generally refer the site to a friend if they are impressed with it. It is no longer enough just to get people to visit. Ensure your website is convincing enough and merits a referral.

So how do you avoid these mistakes?

Follow Leung’s 5 C’s to generate leads and increase your revenue.

1. Create. Providing quality content on your website will assist visitors in making decisions, whether it be on purchasing a product or using a service. Remember to consider search engine functions and ensure your company is easy to find.

2. Compel. After visitors have read the content on your site, they should feel compelled to take further action. Whether this is signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase (hopefully it is the latter!). Ultimately, this should be your primary goal.

3. Collect. The visitor must first trust your website enough to allow you to collect their contact details. This way, you have obtained a lead which you can now follow up on. Be weary of requesting too much information as some people will either resent the intrusion or get bored and leave the page.

4. Count. Ensure you are clear on what factors are working for your website and which are not. Count and measure your website’s successes in order to reveal what needs improving and what is achieving profits.  

5. Change. Be open-minded enough to adapt to changing market conditions in order for you to stay ahead of your competition. Allow your website to be adaptable should you require any repositioning of your products and services offered. 

Use these points to build a productive and profitable website to ensure your business stays ahead of the online game and reaps in those deserving rewards!

We have just received an interesting alert from lawyers Barnes & Thornburg, thanks to the initiative of one of our very proactive clients – thank you Gordon New, Managing Director at Ronson Gears!

The news will be particularly relevant to a number of our clients, with offices in Asia and the Middle East for example, and relates to new developments on internationalised domain names (IDNs).

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has begun accepting requests from leaders around the world for new Internet extensions that represent their country name.

Currently, domain names only consist of characters from the Latin alphabet (a-z letters, 0-9 numbers and hyphens), whereas the new system would include the use of non-Latin characters.

This new development will provide opportunities for countries and territories to utilise country-code domains in their own language, such as Arabic, Chinese or Hindu.

These new additions are anticipated to become available to several countries over the next year.

Already, the Egyptian Minister of Communication, Tarek Kamel, has stated that Egypt will open the world’s first Arabic language Internet domain, using the Arabic words, “misr” meaning “egypt”.

Although overall acceptance of the IDNs is still tentative, Barnes & Thornburg have cautioned that this new development could provide further opportunities for cybersquatters to hold brand owners’ domain names to ransom.

David A. W. Wong from Barnes & Thornburg advises that, “The new IDNs are fertile ground for cybersquatters. Brand owners that have, or intend to have, an international presence should consider proactively registering new relevant IDNs before a cybersquatter or domainer does the same.”

Thanks to Gordon New and the American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA) for sending this information through.

As suggested by Elizabeth Arritt, Director of Marketing for the National Board of Teaching Standards (US), although the social media platforms that are appropriate for your business will vary depending on your industry, relying on just one won’t get the results!

Here are a few tips on how to select the appropriate activity for your business’ integrated social media strategy:

* Make sure you are where your target market is, to maximise the impact and effectiveness of your message.

* Try to avoid a baptism of fire. It is best to first observe and understand each social media platform so that you can establish the etiquette or unwritten rules, before you participate.

* Make it easier for yourself – there are now many ‘apps’ out there that can assist you in linking your social media accounts – if you update one, the others are automatically updated. However, it is important to remember not to get caught up in ‘blasting’ out the same updates, across all the mediums, all of the time.

* Make sure that your target markets know where to find you. To achieve this you can link to your business’ social media profiles on a new page on the company’s website or to its existing ‘contact’ page, on email signatures, in your corporate or eNewsletter and on your blog. You could also mention your Facebook account on your Twitter profile and vice versa.

As reported by Mumbrella there has been quite a buzz online this week surrounding insights that came out of Rupert Murdoch’s recent interview on Sky News. Murdoch stated that once News Corp’s websites transition to a paid model (where consumers must pay to access news articles) it would  de-list its websites from Google.

Think of the amount of hits that News Corp’s websites receive from Google each day! Internet suicide some would say?!

But herein lies Murdoch’s point. Its websites may receive staggering numbers of hits from the search engine but what type of quality of traffic is it driving? Will it encourage loyalty to its many printed publications when similar if not the same articles are available free online? And does the revenue received for online advertising make its websites profitable? Murdoch suggests definitely not.

In Murdoch’s logic, a low level of engagement with one-time readers drawn in by an eye-grabbing headline on Google does not encourage loyalty or increase engagement, which are two factors that can affect the pricing structure of online advertising.

Mashable claims that the interview illustrates how Murdoch is out of touch with how news and information is now disseminated. The article also outlines that it is possible to have paid news content partly accessible to search engines, enticing web users to pay to read the rest of the story.

Digital commentator, Jason Calacanis suggested that de-listing from Google creates opportunities for other search engines such as Bing to gain a competitive advantage, offering News Corp 50% more revenue then they are currently getting from Google search referrals in order to be exclusively indexed on Bing.

So who is right and where is the future of online news headed? If you have an opinion, leave a comment and let us know what you think.

The CME Group has successfully created an online community through its Twitter account, attracting nearly 800,000 followers.

So how did they do it?
According to Andy Sernovitz there are three top tips from CME Group’s Director of Corporate Communications Allan Schoenberg.

* Don’t be so self centred – It is best to limit tweets about your business to 30%, using the other 70% for industry information and interaction.

* One of the keys to the CME group’s success was being where its customers are. It knew that their customers were active users which made it worthwhile investing in.

* As well as sharing links to interesting content, CME group has become actively involved in conversation, engaging with its followers and conducting weekly live interviews with influential leaders in the marketplace.

Previously we have written about protecting the image and reputation of your business. As reported by Bnet, in a world of social media which has led to the blurring of the lines between our personal and professional lives, it has become increasingly important to take steps to protect your personal reputation. It doesn’t take much for a smear campaign against you to quickly spread across the internet which can be seriously damaging to your career.

You can use the following tips for tracking and repairing your online reputation:

Tracking your online reputation

* Make a list of the most likely places your name would appear online to begin monitoring your online reputation. Identify blogs, forums, and social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, which anyone within your professional circle may also use. You can even track your company’s corporate site and previous places of employment.

* You can then set up your own individual Google alerts for the sites you want to frequently monitor at www.google.com/alerts. Other monitoring tools include Twinbox, which tracks comments made on Twitter through Microsoft Outlook.

Repairing your online reputation

* Although the above tips are useful, unfortunately they will not prevent online attacks. The first thing to do is examine what has been said about you and whether it is accurate or not. If not, you should correct them immediately. If it is true, you should apologise via the same medium as the message.

* If your professional realm is under attack, consider advising your employer as well as the legal department – especially if the comments made are defamatory.

Other useful information

An important aspect of creating your own personal brand online is to separate your business and personal social networking contacts. For example, you could use Facebook for personal networking and LinkedIn for business networking.

You build and maintain others’ brands every day, why not start doing it for yourself?

Create your own PR that reflects the real you – the professional you. By circulating positivity around your name, the likelihood of negative commentary being regarded is reduced.

As the search and web page design evolve, users expectations are ever increasing. The need to capture attention quickly and demonstrate how you can solve the users specific problem is becoming increasingly important for online success.

This is not new news to most but recently Digital Media reported that the first 7 seconds are critical. This is when web users decide whether or not your website is what they are looking for.

A sophisticated and complex website does not necessarily equal a good impression on site visitors.

There are six main points to remember when trying to capture – and hold your audiences’ attention:

* Your website should communicate clearly what you are trying to say so visitors can determine whether this meets their needs or not.

* Optimising your home page creates several advantages. It will ensure first-time visitors stay and browse, increase the likelihood of their return, and increase the number of areas people interact with on your site.

* Your product, service or feature should be easily visible, either from the home page or menu navigation. Otherwise, visitors will quickly leave if what they are looking isn’t easily accessible. By not displaying the products and services your business offers in a straight forward manner, you may be losing potential customers.

* Your site should regularly present new and up-to-date information. This ensures you are constantly engaging with your audience and encouraging them to return. It also portrays a lively and active site, not one that is dull and uninteresting. A good way to do this is through regular blog posts and updates of a section of your home page.

* The second part of the 7 second rule is to then apply it to all other pages of the site. Lead the visitor towards taking a desired action (making an inquiry, subscription, purchase etc).

* There are usually several people involved in the creation of a website – designers, copywriters etc. They are all contributing different ideas and opinions which can become entangled if not managed properly. Ensure every-one’s input is communicated thoroughly and managed with proper instructions. If the development process has been a long one, consider refreshing content before making live – particularly on the home page.

Connecting Images takes all these factors and much more into consideration when designing or re-designing its clients’ websites. If you are feeling lost in all there is to consider with a new or redeveloped website and want to find out more about our website services, call Cal on (03) 9819 2566 to arrange to come in for a coffee and a chat.