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Useful Australian Digital Stats - Q2

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Quarter 2 has been quieter on the Australian digital research and trends front but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been able to find some interesting statistics to share with you. I have compiled 15 of the most interesting Australian digital statistics released in Q2 of 2009. To view the 20 most interesting Australian digital statistics for Q1 click here.

Online Behaviour (General & Industry Specific)

A recent study by Monash’s Australian Centre for Retail Studies revealed 50% of Australian shoppers investigate their purchases online before going in store to make their purchase. - Dynamic Business

According to the ABS, Australian household internet consumption has increased 37 fold in 8 years

Australians aged 16 – 17 are spending 3.5 hours online per day - The Age

A new survey has revealed that 56% of Australian teenagers lie about themselves when they are online, with most teens faking their age - Full Story

According to Nielsen statistics, 87 per cent of Australians looking for real estate are using the web to find properties - News

Australians are among the biggest users of online banking in the world with more than 50 per cent of customers using internet banking at least once a week.

Social Media
In the year to April, visits to social networking and forum sites increased by 16% in Australia, whilst visits to blogs dropped by 27.5% - Stuff

In Australia, there are 850,000 to 900,000 people on LinkedIn, and about 15 per cent of those are HR people or recruiters - News

Facebooks user base has hit over 6 million Australians - The Age

In June the MySpace subscriber base using their mobile to access the platform was revealed to be 340,000 strong in Australia - bandt

Australians are believed to be viewing 85 million MySpace pages per month via mobile phones, with each visit lasting between 11 and 15 minutes - bandt

Search
Since the launch of Bing, Microsoft’s search share in Australia has increased. Stats for the week finishing 4th July show Bing.com has 5.02% share, compared with 3.91% in late April - Hitwise

Head of Online at Google revealed in June some of the growth areas in search queries were - Accounting and tax-related search queries are 63 percent higher this year than last. Mobile queries are 82 percent higher this year than last. Office supplies searches are 36 percent higher in 2009. - Dynamic Business

Online Radio & TV
A report released in Apr 09, showed digital radio consumption had grown from 4.2 hours in 2007 to 4.9 hours in 2008 - Nielsen Online

According to Nielsen, 47% of metropolitan internet users have viewed TV content online or downloaded it, whilst 12% had done so frequently - Nielsen Online

Do you have any other interesting statistics to share on the Australian digital market? If so please share them below.

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Posted in Digital News, Digital Trends, Mobile Marketing, SME Digital Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Website Strategy | 1 Comment »

Google’s Marketing Toolbox – 20 Free (OR Nearly Free) Google Marketing Products

Monday, April 13th, 2009

In their quest to dominate our entire internet experience, it is no wonder that Google wants to be a 1 stop shop for marketers – given that we pay the bills.

I have summarised the Google tools that we know are out there for marketers to use. If we have missed any please add them below.

Site Resources & Tools
Google Analytics - www.google.com/analytics/
Google Analytics provides a complete website analysis tool to track site performance. Over the years Google has built on the basics to provide a sophisticated web analytics tools which offers conversion analysis, site overlay analysis, custom reporting creation tools and benchmarking along with all of the standard reporting metrics to measure site performance.

Website Optimiser - www.google.com/websiteoptimizer
Website optimizer provides a tool to conduct A/B and multi-variant testing on your website to improve conversion of landing pages. The website optimiser has been built with in-depth but visual/easy to read reporting to make informed decisions based on tests results.

Google Site Search - http://www.google.com/sitesearch/
Google site search provides web owners with the ability to create a simple onsite search function to enable users to search onsite content. This is one of the Google products which incurs a charge – however pricing starts from as low as $100 per year.

Google Custom Search - http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
Google custom search is a more sophisticated search function which enables websites to aggregate search results from a variety of other sites/sources. This function is free however search results will also appear with paid ads included, however for a fee of $100 per year search results will appear with no ads.

Google Maps – www.code.google.com/apis/maps/
The Google API for Google Maps allows organisations to plug Google Maps into their websites. The API allows you to customise maps to feature a range of content/information to enhance your users experience.

Google AdSense - https://www.google.com/adsense
Google AdSense enables website owners to publish relevant advertising content on sites and earn revenue from Google by doing so. The sites added to AdSense are part of the Google Content Network.

Search Tools
Google Toolbar – www.toolbar.google.com/ - The Google Toolbar is a browser application which displays the PageRank of the particular page a user is viewing on a site.

Google Webmaster Tool - www.google.com/webmasters/tools/The Google Webmaster Tool provides you with the ability to view detailed information as to see how Google perceives your site to be performing. The kind of data available includes site errors, top performing keywords your site is ranking for in SERPs and actual positions, internal/external linking data, along with the ability to upload an XML site map.

Google Trends - www.google.com/trends
Google Trends provides “hot trends” for the top 100 terms searched in the US (so not that useful for Aussies) but it can also provide trends for particular websites across the world. With the tool you can view the growth of Twitter over the past few years and identify similar sites in that category which can lead to new marketing opportunities.

Google Keyword Research - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
The Google Adwords Keyword Tool provides you with a keyword research tool for both SEO and PPC campaign research. The tool provides keyword volumes for the previous month, plus graphical representation of keyword traffic over the past 12 months.

Google Insights - www.google.com/insights/search
Google Insights provides a tool to gauge keyword trends, determine where the search volumes are more/less prevalent across a given country, the type of content search being conducted ie image / video, local etc and a host of other information.

AdWords Editor - www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/
Whilst the Google AdWords program is a paid resource, the AdWords editor provides an offline campaign tool which makes the creation of PPC campaigns, light work. Once completed the data can be uploaded into your Google AdWords account.

Social Media Tools
Blogger - www.blogger.com
Bought by Google in 2003, Blogger is one of the leading free blogging tools on the market. Blogger provides the ability to upload everything from text to images and videos and even the ability to blog via your mobile phone.

Google Alerts - www.google.com/alerts
Google Alerts provides an email alert service based on a query or topic. The alert service can be utilised to identify online reputation issues, track community discussions and even track competitor activity.

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Posted in SEO, SME Digital Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Web Analysis | No Comments »

A Closer Look At A Social Opportunity

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

March has been dominated by Australian research reports suggesting that we Aussies have an obsession with social media.

Which sites are most popular?
According to Alexa, social media sites are dominating the top 100 Australian sites. In particular 20% of sites within the top 20, are of a social media kind.

Here is a summary of the results;
Facebook Position 3
YouTube Position 6
MySpace Position 11
Flickr Position 18
Bebo Position 21
Photobucket Position 32
Friendster Position 81
Twitter Position 89

A closer look
Social networking sites are definitely a winner with the Australian population. According to the Digital Life Survey one in every two Australians use social networking sites. In particular consumption is as high as 91% for those between the age of 15 – 19. In addition on average Australian’s are members of 2.7 different social networking sites which is above the world average of 2.5.

Facebook & MySpace continue to dominate the landscape with Facebook attracting 4,682,000 unique visitors in December 2008, compared with just 2,362,000 for MySpace. However investment in Australia by Friendster, shows dedication and aspirations for growth thus this is one to watch.

Twitter is also definitely a surprise – with all of the hype around the site it is surprising that it has only just snuck into the Top 100.

But I wouldn’t discount it just yet. From January to February 2009 Twitter’s Australian user base has grown by 100,000 (67%) moving it to the mainstream. Given this growth it is no doubt Twitter will have significant reach by years end.

Are brands doing enough with social media?
An article recently published on the Sydney Morning Herald website stated that Corporate Australia must try harder to tap into social tools. However if you are new to social media this can be somewhat daunting.

Some words to the wise;
For those fairly new to social media, a good place to start is to listen. Traditional marketing is dominated by one way dialogue and Web 2.0 has opened the channels of communication BUT before engaging in conversation start by observing. Through observation an organisation can gauge the key theme’s emerging on both their brand and in the industry and also determine where online your brand is being discussed. From there you can map the type of content being discussed and the key sites being utilised to discuss your industry/brand. This will then allow you to create a strategy for areas which require the most attention or where you can create the biggest impact.

Not Just Another Channel
If you do wish to delve into social media marketing it is important to understand the different dynamics of this channel and not to simply use the channel to push marketing messages. The very nature of social media is the facilitation of conversations and relationships thus it is important to ensure there is mutual benefit derived for both parties.

Know what you are getting yourself into
It is important that organisations considering social media marketing, are prepared to invest time in this area. Social media marketing is not a short term strategy, it takes time to build trust and relationships with your target market and this is not usually gained overnight.

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Posted in SME Digital Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

5 Digital Marketing Tips For Those On A Budget

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

If you have worked for an SME you will know doubt understand the frustrations of a lack of budget. And with the economy becoming tighter, it will be survival of the fittest. So when it comes to marketing professionals we must become more resourceful with the already limited financial/manpower resources we have.

Here are 5 of The Best Tips For SME Marketers On A Budget

- Paid Search Marketing

Paid search is not new to the Australian market, but many businesses are still yet to benefit from this cost effective and measurable form of advertising. Google AdWords provides the ability to set up a free account, and will step you through the process of creating a campaign. With however the vast proportion of companies advertising on Google, much cheaper paid search opportunities exist on the Yahoo & Ninemsn network through Yahoo Search Marketing. With 11% of all Australian searches conducted on this network and only 3.7% of total search advertising conducted on this network it can provide a lower cost alternative channel for promotion. And the best bit is that you can set your daily budget on these networks to control your costs.

- Prepare A Press Release & Distribute It Online

Distributing a press release online can be an effective way of increasing traffic and bringing engaged users to your site. There are many tools available online to distribute PR releases. One such company providing PR distribution to Australian media channels is www.seekingmedia.com.au. For as little as $100, seeking media can distribute press releases to a plethora of media channels including Google News Australia. This site also provides tools to assist you to prepare a release which is informative, newsworthy and is likely to be published. And the best bit is that any online PR conducted will also assist you to improve your SEO rankings.

- Blogging

Another free tool available to the masses is that of blogging. When it comes to blogging you also have a few options available. If you have a lot of valuable information to provide to users, why not consider setting up a blog on your site. You can obtain a free blog from wordpress.org and place it on your domain. The added benefit of a blog is also that search engines love content so by having a blog you may also improve your search rankings.

The other opportunity is to find other sites which you can blog on. If you choose this route it is important to understand that plastering your message on every forum and blog you can find is not the most effective way to leverage these sites. Use your expertise to help people and as part of this subtly include your company contact details. This will help you to position yourself as an authority on a given subject.

- Social Networking Ads

As nearly half of all Australians have a profile on a social network, and the average time users spend on these networks at nearly 30 minutes per week this is another low cost opportunity to exploit. Both MySpace & Facebook offer pay per click advertising opportunities as low as USD $.15 cents per click. Best of all both the MySpace & Facebook networks offer targeting options to ensure your advertising reaches your desired audience.

- Article Distribution

In the digital age where content is king, sites are always on the look out for new content. On many community/networking based sites organisations have the ability to upload articles/resources on a range of topics. In addition articles can be loaded to article specific sites which can be listed on the site as well as can be re-printed on other sites.

If you have any other low cost tips share them below.

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Posted in SME Digital Marketing | No Comments »

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