Ecommerce and Digital Media Concepts for Entrepreneurs by March Oyinki

Digital Communication & Marketing
Office: 1 Ufondu Nnaji Crescent, United Estate, Sangotedo,
504101, Lekki, Lagos. Phone: 08058332988 admate@gmail.com
Business succeed when they know how to sell their brand
online to the public and attract the right customers.
You need an expert to help you make these far reaching
decisions.
If you have any questions, call us!
Online Advertising and
Digital Media Marketing

1. Social Media 101: Do's and Don'ts ……………………………………………….. 4
2. Why Brand Visibility is Important for Startups ………………………………. 14
3. Social Media: Clash between Business and Pleasure ……………………. 19
4. Affiliate Marketing: Why it Remains the Backbone of Ecommerce? 24
5. Is Eyeo's Ads Blocker Really Hurting the Digital Marketing Industry? 36
6. Online Marketing: Some Hard Facts you should know …………………. 44
7. Why some Online Marketing Campaigns Fail ……………………………….. 53
Contents

Social Media 101: Do's and Don'ts
01
4
© March Oyinki 2017

Introduction
Mobile devices have revolutionized digital communication, especially with the
exponential growth of social media. All kinds of apps are abound, from remote
access to 'jail braking' apps, and there are also a bunch of social media apps that
have completely changed the way people communicate. Both the young and
elderly are caught in this web of inter-connectivity that mobile devices have
provided. While this digital revolution is good for making life a lot more easy, by
allowing us to reconnect and relate with love ones and friends, it comes with its
down side.
Mobile phones and social media apps are so interrelated that one feels almost
incomplete when your phone is without data. While social media brings joy to a
lot of people, it also a reason for many deaths, broken relationships and
financial loss. It is pertinent to understand the rules and guidelines of the use of
social media for you to make the best use of it both in your personal life and
business endeavor as well.
e-Commerce and Digital Media Concepts for Entrepreneurs 5
Social Media 101:
Do's and Don'ts

Here are a few tips to help you have an effective and beneficial social media
experience starting with do's:
Do join the social media train: Social Media has come to stay as a form of
communication both for business and personal use. Be part of the social media
crave, shutting yourself out of it only complicate things. Social media has
become the fastest most cost effective communication tool. Allowing you to
share messages, photographs and videos with friends and customers real-time.
It has effectively diminished the application of traditional communication
methods such as facsimile, cable and photocopying machines, particularly for
informal communication.
Do respond to friends post: Participate in discussions, mostly with people you
know, be interactive. If you are cold and passive and do not like or comment on
other people's post, they are more likely to ignore your own post and that may
translate to poor acceptance of product promotion or advertisement.
Social Media 101:
Do's and Don'ts

Do connect to new friends: Building up a steady followers list allows you to
touch base with your family and friends in one go. It also provides you an
audience to promote your product and services particularly for those who are
into business, as a cost effective advertising channel.
Do post regularly: Most social media applications work the same way as search
engines. How visible your page is and are seen by your contacts, depends on
you activity level. Regular but intermittent post on your page or a simple 'like'
or short comment on someone else's post will greatly help to boost your online
visibility and increase your marketing reach.
Do promote your company: Be your company's brand ambassador by sharing
post or tagging photographs from your company's page, add your job title to
your profile. Ensure you clearly mark personal posts from company posts by
way of creating a group or a separate photo album for your team members or
Social Media 101:
Do's and Don'ts

employees, or use a hashtag(#) to clearly indicate that the posts are related to
the company, such as #WorkLifeBalance, #CompanyOfChoice,
#DiversityMoment etc.
Provided below are a few don'ts that you need to pay particular attention to:
Do not share obscenity: Social Media gives you freedom to post any and
everything under heaven, but you must know that every freedom has a limit.
Just as you have freedom to share, others also have the right to decide what
they receive. Keep it modest, because unlike traditional media where you have
control ratings such as G: General audiences, PG: Parental guidance suggested,
PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned, R: Restricted, social media has very limited
or no rating controls other than your privacy settings which most people don’t
even know about anyways.
Social Media 101:
Do's and Don'ts

Do not engage in falsehood: There is a lot of falsehood circulating in social
media. Greater number of information shared in Social Media are falsified,
adulterated or outright made up. There is a high prevalence of impersonation,
fake personalities and fraudulent characters present in Social Media. Sharing
false information will lead to distrust and eventual unfriending.
Do not allow social media suck you in: Social Media is addictive, just like any
other thing about life, abuse leads to addiction and the consequences of that, in
a lot of cases, are dare in private, social and business life. Ensure social media
does not distract you from more important things like work and relationships. It
is reasonable to maintain a balance. Spending much time on frivolities on social
media, amounts to waste of money.
Social Media 101:
Do's and Don'ts

Do not accept strangers as friends: Do not accept a friend request just
because someone sends you a friend request. Only accept people you know or
have been following for some time and you have reasonable background
information about. Always do background checks of persons before accepting
their friend request. Engaging such persons on a telephone or Skype
conversation helps you understand the personality and disposition of that
individual, as it provides both voice and face-to-face interaction. Above all,
phone numbers are a verifiable form of identification that can easily be traced to
their owner.
Do not be an expert in everything: The saying that “jack of all trade is a
master of none” still holds sway on social media. An audience that is feed with a
barrage of expert advice on varying subject matter, will easily loose their
confidence on such a person. Create a personality for yourself by being focused,
because, multiple personality may confuse your audience and that in turn may
lead to distrust.
Social Media 101:
Do's and Don'ts

Do not download unsolicited files: This is peculiar to mobile phones,
especially WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, where contacts send you
unsolicited large file size images and videos that are of no significance, and they
come in their numbers. Opening or downloading these files, exhaust your data
very fast and increases your phone bill. Delete all such files from unsolicited
sources immediately you see them.
Social Media 101:
Do's and Don'ts

Why Brand Visibility is Important for
Startups02
12

Introduction
The primary reason why businesses are started is to offer service in exchange
for money. The act of creating awareness and making your business visible is
what we term as Brand visibility. This is an important aspect of establishing a
business, because it is only when the public knows you exist would they even
consider whether to patronize you or not.
What is Brand Visibility?
Brand visibility in the digital space, can be referred to as the process of creating
an online brand or web presence that ultimately helps to create brand
awareness. Brand Visibility can be defined as the frequency at which people see
your brand in search results, on social media, email marketing and other online
marketing channels. Brand visibility is about engaging in active online
marketing to help draw attention of your customers to your brand.
Why Brand
Visibility is
Important for
Startups

Creating a Brand Identity
Promoting brand visibility online requires having a web domain or a web
location where customers can find your brand, get information about your
brand and initiate a transaction. The first item in your communication plan
should be to create a brand identity. The brand identity of an organization are
elements of the company that enables it assume a personality of its own, and
gives it the legal status of a corporate citizen. The brand identity of a company is
the corporate image it wants to be identified with by it customers.
Investopedia defines a company brand identity as how that business entity
wants to be seen by customers of the brand. Some of the visible elements of the
brand, consist of the company name, logo, tone, tagline, typography, and they
are all creation of the business to represent the set value the company is trying
to bring to the market and appeal to its customers.
Why Brand
Visibility is
Important for
Startups

Once you have created a brand for your company, its time to start creating
brand visibility and spreading the word of your brand through promotions and
advertisement using various available channels.
The reputation of a company is associated with its brand identity, just the same
way the integrity of an individual is associated with their reputation. People like
to do business with companies they can identify and have a name, registered
office address, and good reputation. Customers also use these criteria and
others in rating businesses. Other considerations such as timely service delivery,
good refund policy, courteous customer relation and 24/7 customer service,
and open communication channels such as phone, website, live chat, email,
Skype and social media.
Why Brand
Visibility is
Important for
Startups

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As an entrepreneur, you are expected to have a communication plan with a
small budget that is enough for advertising and brand promotion. If you start up
a company and no one knows you exist, then, what is the essence of starting it
in the first instance. One of the ways you can create brand visibility is through
search engine optimization rankings, which help to position your brand both in
organic and paid search results.
Choosing the Right Keywords
Ensure that you have the right keywords in the meta section of your website
that If your brand is appearing regularly on keyword searches, it tend to
increase traffic from organic to your site, and that helps to establish your brand
among your competitors and gradually move you up the search list. Selecting
appropriate keywords help your brand to gain visibility by appearing each time
a search is conducted using those keywords.
Why Brand
Visibility is
Important for
Startups

Online Marketing Channels
To promote your brand and engage your target audience, there are a number of
online marketing channels that caters for these needs and also serve a unique
audience. Social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and
Google+ are quite effective, while for promoting visual and video contents,
Instagram, Pinterest, Vimeo and YouTube are great channels for creating brand
presence.
Regular Content Update
Activity is key to remain top of the pack. Regularly providing fresh information
to customers mains them visit your site for updates when they trust that there
will always be something new from you. Post new products, promotions and
information about your brand helps to keep your site active. Search engine
optimization algorithms are based on several factors including, content
Why Brand
Visibility is
Important for
Startups

relevance and title choice, speed of site upload, number of active domain level
links, and many more. Debashre Cchanda in his article 205 Google Ranking
Factors – Ultimate SEO Checklist for 2017, quoted Matt Cutts, Google engineer,
as saying that, in Google algorithm, good content matters more.
Engage in Brand Advertising
In assuming this corporate identity, and trying to project a unique image,
engaging in Brand Marketing and Advertising will help to push the boundary of
your brand visibility even further. As part of your communications plan,
endeavour to create a small budget for online marketing and advertising. In
2017, advertising spend will increase, an indication of a healthy market.
According to a report by Statistas, Digital Advertising revenue will account for
US$198,439m in 2017, and Global mobile advertisement spend in the same
period will account for nearly 62%, while Social Media Advertising will reach
US$27,065m, with U.S. and China leading the market.
Why Brand
Visibility is
Important for
Startups

Social Media: Clash between Business
and Pleasure03
19

Introduction
The impact of social media on productivity has both negative and positive sides.
For some employers, socializing during office hours is a complete taboo. It is
seen as a big source of distraction to the workflow process, a complete waste of
valuable time and loss of productive man-hour. This position is an extreme case,
pitched by some social commentators on the employer’s side of the divide,
while on the moderate side; there are companies that have established a social
media policy and rolled out guidelines on the use of social media in the
workplace.
These companies understand the important role social media plays in the
online marketing environment and appreciate the benefits it will bring to the
company, by allowing employees to have controlled access and use of social
media platforms to tell their stories, promote and engage prospective customers
and also to advertise the company’s brands, products and services.
Social Media:
Clash between
Business and
Pleasure

Some organizations have even gone further to develop customized social media
application for company employees.
By no mean can the importance of social media be down-played, because it has
fully become part and parcel of our daily lives. The interactive nature of social
media has made it so relevant, especially with mobile phones, that it has
become a companion to many, almost providing the same level of
companionship as pets, and to others, it is a pre-occupation. For these set of
people, life becomes boring and unbearable without interacting on social
media. Social media has made informal communication so easy and accessible,
particularly with instant messaging Apps, that you just find yourself glued to
your screen.
Social Media:
Clash between
Business and
Pleasure

For both cooperate and private users, it is necessary that we understanding how
to moderate the amount of time that is spent on social media. That is of great
importance and even more so, if time spent on social media are official work
hours or time that you would have used more productively in your private
endeavor. So many persons have lost their jobs on that basis, and relationships
have been severed as a result of over-indulgence in social media.
Social media is no longer just for socializing, they now have commercial aspects
which can help you generating new stream of income. There are quite a number
of social media channels that now provide features that enable users to display
and sell products on their Walls or Pages. The Facebook Storefront is a typical
example of such channels. Other channels such as Affiliate Marketing Networks,
Amazon Resellers, Google Shopping Feeds, eBay Resellers, Google Search
Network also provide ecommerce opportunities.
Social Media:
Clash between
Business and
Pleasure

Social media is not only for sharing family experiences, news, videos and music,
these new storefront features now allow you to share products and services
with your contacts, and to those within networks or groups that you belong.
Instead of using that valuable data credit in your mobile device or laptop to
upload images and videos that are of no economic value to you, rather, an
absolute waste of money and precious time, both to you and the person at the
other end who eventually will have to download or view your post.
Most of these ecommerce features come for free, and for those who want to
promote their products or services, it cost just a little amount to promote or
advertise your storefront. It will definitely pay you better if you divert the energy
you spend posting all sorts, and viewing everything under heaven, to begin to
advertise those products, services or skills that you have. If by any chance you
make any sales and start earning an income, it means you will be able to cover
the cost of your data subscription at the least, and pay some other bills while
you are still socializing and having a great time with friends and family.
Social Media:
Clash between
Business and
Pleasure

Affiliate Marketing: Why it Remains the
Backbone of Ecommerce?04
24

Introduction
Affiliate Marketing is the most popular online advertising channel used
by Publishers to distribute content through various affiliate partners who direct
traffic to Advertisers websites for a commission. It is the highest revenue earner
in the digital marketing space, over-taking Email Marketing. It has provided
many small businesses and home office owners the opportunity to earn
multiple streams of income just by owning a laptop computer and registering
with a Merchant program.
In a survey released in February 2016 by Rakuten Affiliate Network on the
perception and effectiveness of affiliate marketing programs, shows that nearly
90 percent of advertisers said that affiliate programs were important or very
important to their overall marketing strategy, and majority of publishers also
revealed that affiliate partnerships drove more than 20 percent of annual
revenue. According to the report, affiliate marketing spend in the U.S. alone will
increase by a rate of 10% in the next five years, accounting for over USD$6.8bn.
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?
25

What is Affiliate Marketing?
In the beginning there was the world wide web, and electronic commerce was
the driving force during the early 90's when the technological revolution
now known as the World Wide Web evolved, and Information Technology
companies at the time, upon the realization that there were opportunities in this
new market, quickly rise to the occasion. Website owners started selling contents
created by advertisers to millions of consumers across the globe, turning
the Internet into a market place for ecommerce.
Advancements made in the area of search engine optimization (SEO) availed a
whole new opportunity for rapid growth of the web as it is today. Affiliate
marketing came to be when product owners or advertisers started registering
with Publishers and offering a fee based on traffic directed to their websites
through a process known as pay-per-click (PPC).
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?

Affiliate marketing is defined by Wikipedia as a type of performance-based
marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or
customer brought by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. It is a marketing
arrangement by which an online retailer pays commission to an external
website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
Affiliate Marketing is a tripod relationship between three key players in the
sector consisting mainly of the Advertiser, who is the product owner; Publisher
as the Merchant; and the Consumer who are the end users. The product owner
registers as Advertiser with the Publisher and offers a fee based on pay-per-click
(PPC) to Publisher. The publisher then distribute these adverts in form of codes
to its Affiliate channel websites either as banners, links or as content to be sent
as email message.
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?

Affiliate marketing programs use cookies to track transactions between the
Publisher, Advertiser and Shopper. A cookie is a technology that works with web
browsers to store information like user preferences, login or registration
information and shopping cart contents. A cookie is what enables your online
account or website remember your password and username, and displays pop-
up banners that are closely related to your search criteria. The reason why such
ads appear is that the browser has already stored your cookie.
In affiliate marketing, one task that cookies manage is to remember the link or
ad the visitor to a website clicks on. Cookies can also store the date and time of
the click, they can even store information about websites or content you like
most. There are several types of cookies and their uses, and the kind of cookie
used for affiliate marketing is the first-party cookie.
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?

Every visitor to a publisher's website and clicks on an advertiser's link or banner
advert are capture by the browser through the tracking cookie of the affiliate-
marketing program using unique identifies provided by the advertiser, and
records of each transaction and commission that is due. This data is stored
within the link information called parameters, and can include several
anonymous data used as attributes.
A link contains some of the identifiers used for proper tracking and auditing of
the affiliate marketing process. These links which contain unique Identifiers or
numbers are attached to the publisher’s website, advertiser and shoppers as
attributes.
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?

What are Identifiers?
Identifiers are a set of codes used by affiliate marketing channels to track
activities of publisher’s websites. In affiliate marketing, there are three levels of
players, the publisher, advertiser and shopper, with each having a unique
identification number known as Identifiers, issued by affiliate marketing
channels. The three Identifiers are the Publisher’s website Identification (PID),
Advertiser’s identification (AID) and Shopper’s Identification (SID).
Publisher’s website Identification is the number used in identifying the
publisher's website. A publisher may have multiple PIDs under one single
account, and multiple websites will have multiple PIDs.
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?

Advertiser’s identification is a number, which identifies a specific link and
enables publisher to track creative performance as well as credit the publisher
when they earn a commissionable transaction. Because each link has a unique
AID, it also allows publishers to identify the appropriate advertiser.
Shopper’s Identification is the number that enables publisher to track where
their referred actions originated from, thereby allowing them to identify and
reward their unique shoppers, and whenever a visitor makes a purchase or
completes a lead form; the SID keeps track of transactions and sales records of
shoppers.
There are several Affiliate Network Marketing programs, which are capable of
tracking and processing an enormous volume of actions and transactions.
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?

Commission Junction, Rakuten and One Network Direct are the top Publishers,
and for marketing channels, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are some of the
leading names in the global arena, while the top marketing channels in Nigeria
are Nairaland, Konga and Linda Ikeji.
Why Conversion Rate Drives Sales
The whole essence of affiliate marketing is the rate at which clicks by visitors
convert to purchase. Text and banners with links created by Advertisers are aim
at attracting visits to the websites by inserting attributes with unique Identifiers
in selected top-rated online marketing channels. For a website to achieve a high
conversion rate, the traffic to the site must be high.
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?

Reports from marketing studies estimated the average ratio of conversion as 200
visits to one, meaning that for a website to convert a single paying customer, the
visitors to the site must at least be up 200 in number, and that really does still
does not guarantee sales. For a conversion of 1000 paying customers monthly,
the average traffic will be at least 200,000 visitors. This gives an idea of the
extent of marketing and advertising efforts required to achieve high conversion
rate.
Providing Good Content is Key
Content is the king of Affiliate Marketing. How you coin your messages, and
create visual contents matters a great deal to the success of online marketing
campaign. In an article '205 Google Ranking Factors – Ultimate SEO Checklist
for 2017' written by Debashre Cchanda, quoted Google engineer, Matt Cutts, as
saying that, in Google algorithm, good content matters more.
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?

Keeping an Eye on the Bottom Line
On the side of the Publisher, the main interest is sales, whereas earning as much
commission as possible, is where the Advertiser's interest lies. For both
publisher and advertiser, the bottom line is profit, and in the Affiliate Marketing
business, the customer is king. If there is no sales, there will be no commission,
and the process of ensuring proper tracking of sales, and payment of
appropriate commissions is of great importance to both Publishers and
Advertisers. Rating the effectiveness of Affiliate marketing programs and how
efficient their tracking and payment processes are, is actually based on this
these and other considerations.
Revenue earnings remain a major driver for the affiliate marketing business, and
market watchers and advertisers are quick in going the direction of current
trends, and are ready to pitch their brands where the money lies. The Rakuten
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?

Affiliate Network report, which shows that Affiliate Marketing will continue to
record the highest revenue earnings globally, accounting for $6.8 billion over
the next five years, has made it clear that advertisers and marketers will
continue to make Affiliate Marketing programs their first choice online
marketing channel.
To give credence to the position, the survey also established the fact that
marketers use affiliate programs at all stages of the customer journey: 83
percent targeted consumers during the discovery and awareness phase, 79
percent during conversion or purchase and 79 percent to create ongoing
customer engagement.
Affiliate
Marketing:
Why it Remains
the Backbone
of Ecommerce?

Is Eyeo's Ads Blocker Really Hurting the
Digital Marketing Industry?05
36

Introduction
The digital adverting giant Facebook, is stirring up a storm over Eyeo Ads
Blocker for preventing its ads from displaying. The rift between both companies
has com3e to be known as #AdblockWars, and described in some circle as the
cat and mouse game, with Facebook being the cat and Eyeo, the mouse.
Ironically, since Facebook is a much bigger company, Eyeo is seen as no match
in this Ads Blocker War. Media reports are already clearly in favour of Facebook
as the likely winner of this war, while the battle is still raging.
What is Ads Blocker?
Doc Searls' articles titled 'Marketing bullshit is a Structured problem' gives an
insight into the sordid nature of the battle between advertisers and the public,
of which Ads Blocker are of immense value.
37
Is Eyeo's Ads
Blocker Really
Hurting the Digital
Marketing
Industry?

Why Advertisers are Kicking
Ads Blockers are making Advertisers to lose about $3.45 Billion annually, and
that is not good for the industry. Mihir Patkar's Blocking statistics firm, PageFair,
estimates that usage grew by 70% between June 2013-June 2014, with 41% of
18-29 year olds using it. In total, there are 144 million active adblock users on
the web. That’s roughly 5% of the total Internet population. Dwindling
advertising revenue has led many publishers and content provides to fight back
by offering their customers the choice of unblocking before they can access full
news feed.
This whole crises started 12 Aug, 2016, when news filtered out that Adblock
Plus was blocking both posts and ads, and that prompted a swift reaction from
Facebook, which immediately announced that it has written a code to unblock
Ad Blocker Plus, removing all ads blockers in its News Feed. Just after two days
of the Facebook's announcement,
38
Is Eyeo's Ads
Blocker Really
Hurting the Digital
Marketing
Industry?

Eyeo also released a 'workaround' filter upgrade of its Adblock Plus software
which unblocks and then reblock Facebook's unblocker. The tussle between
Facebook and Eyeo became a case of who is better at Ads Blocking or
Unblocking.
Eyeo's side of the Story
Ad blockers have provided a quick fix by allow customers to take control and
filter out bad ads, and that is the crux of the matter, and at the center of this
Adblock War are Mark Elliot Zuckerberg's Facebook and Eyeo's founder
Wladimir Palant's Adblock Plus. The war is actually between the public and
some unscrupulous Ad companies, that places deceptive advertisements on
Facebook that leads unsuspecting public to scam websites.
39
Is Eyeo's Ads
Blocker Really
Hurting the Digital
Marketing
Industry?

According to Ben Williams of Adblock Plus, Facebook’s action is a “dark path
against user choice.” This action and counter-action escalated the Adblock War,
and Facebook promptly followed with an counter-announcement that it would
regularly release updates of its unblocker to knock Adblock Plus completely out.
Now, it looks like Adblock Plus’s workaround is dead, according to Matthew
Ingram, in his article in Fortune magazine, titled "Here is Why Facebook is
Aways Going to Win the Adblockers War," the social media gaint will always
muster its tech team to find a way around Eyeo's Adblock Plus.
The current trend is indicative that consumers are not pleased with publishers
and online content merchants, who allow the proliferation of 'Bait Advertising'
on social media and news feeds channels, that misleads customers to products
or services that are completely different from what the ads display. In other
cases, ads are displays with low price, but on visiting the online store, the
customers discover that the advertised products are of inferior quality, and
often at higher prices.
40
Is Eyeo's Ads
Blocker Really
Hurting the Digital
Marketing
Industry?

According to Ben Williams of Adblock Plus, Facebook’s action is a “dark path
against user choice.” This action and counter-action escalated the Adblock War,
and Facebook promptly followed with an counter-announcement that it would
regularly release updates of its unblocker to knock Adblock Plus completely out.
Now, it looks like Adblock Plus’s workaround is dead, according to Matthew
Ingram, in his article in Fortune magazine, titled "Here is Why Facebook is
Aways Going to Win the Adblockers War," the social media gaint will always
muster its tech team to find a way around Eyeo's Adblock Plus.
The current trend is indicative that consumers are not pleased with publishers
and online content merchants, who allow the proliferation of 'Bait Advertising'
on social media and news feeds channels, that misleads customers to products
or services that are completely different from what the ads display. In other
cases, ads are displays with low price, but on visiting the online store, the
customers discover that the advertised products are of inferior quality, and
often at higher prices.
Is Eyeo's Ads
Blocker Really
Hurting the Digital
Marketing
Industry?

Technopedia defined 'Bait Advertising' as an unethical advertising technique that
involves luring the customer in with a promise of a sale or an inexpensive item
they may be interested in, and once their attention is captured, the online
advertiser changes the scheme by making the product unavailable and then
directing the consumer to like a product that is more expensive.
The Future of Ads Blockers
Matthew Ingram believes that one advantage Facebook has over Eyeo is the fact
that Facebook users don have to know when they find a way around Adblockers
patches, while for Eyeo's Adblock Plus, users must update these patches each
time it creates a filter.
Personally, I do not agree with Ingram that Adblock Plus will or has been
completely wiped out, because the Ads blocker War will be just like the Virus
War. Just as new anti-viruses are released, so too are new strands viruses
introduced, and the battle continues.
Is Eyeo's Ads
Blocker Really
Hurting the Digital
Marketing
Industry?

. This war will not end so soon, because this is a war of right of control by users
over steady revenue earnings from advertisements by publishers. It is a tough
battle and this is just the beginning.
The side of the divide I will pitch tent with depends absolutely on where my
interest lies at any particular time. If I become a publisher, sure, I will swing
towards unblocking Adblocker, but if I am a victim of bait advertising, like most
of us are, Eyeo's Adblock Plus will be my first choice.
Is Eyeo's Ads
Blocker Really
Hurting the Digital
Marketing
Industry?

Online Marketing: Some Hard Facts you
should know06

Introduction
Online marketing provides businesses with readily available audience and a
large array of channels that allow you to promote your products and services.
There are many success stories of businesses that have made a wind fall from
online marketing, and so also are there many cases of woeful failures.
Online marketing in simple terms means advertising and promoting your
products and services on the internet. By definition, it is the use of marketing
software applications, such as social media channels and email to promote,
advertise and market your corporate brand identity, and products and services
on the internet.
Online Marketing:
Some Hard Facts
you should know

According to Invespro, global online retail sales for 2016 hit $1.888 trillion and
a growth rate of 7.4% with a projection of $2,489 trillion and estimated growth
8.8% in 2018. United States is eight on the list of countries with the most
online retail sales, with countries like china and United Kingdom occupying
second and first places with 12.0% and 14.4% growth rates respectively. In
Africa, Nigeria tops the online retail sales with 2.3%, followed closely by Kenya
2.0% and Algeria 1.6%.
The online marketplace avails users with different methods of marketing their
products and services. There is the option of marketing by email, often called
email marketing, and we also have online merchandising, pay-per-click, network
marketing and affiliate marketing channels. These marketing channels have one
basic objective, and they are primarily to stimulate interest and entice customers
to make that online purchase.
Online Marketing:
Some Hard Facts
you should know

The online marketplace avails users with different methods of marketing their
products and services. There is the option of marketing by email, often called
email marketing, and we also have online merchandising, pay-per-click, network
marketing and affiliate marketing channels. These marketing channels have one
basic objective, and they are primarily to stimulate interest and entice customers
to make that online purchase.
The questions you want to ask are, how effective are these channels, and how
much work and time do you have to put to make them work and how much
funds do you need to commit to achieve results? If you have answers to these
questions, you are likely to find somewhere in the answers the reason why
marketing experts say that there are no easy ways to achieving online marketing
success.
Online Marketing:
Some Hard Facts
you should know

Successful online marketing depends largely on the target audience, the
marketing channels and of course the product itself. You really require a wide
audience as out of every 200 views of your promotional advert, it has been
statistically proven that you are likely to get no more than one click, and to get
just one willing buyer, you are required to generate another 200 clicks, meaning
that your product much reach at least 40,000 people for you to make a
successful sales.
This same reason is why it is very difficult for businesses that are not using paid
services of already established marketing channels such as Google, Yahoo!,
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the Affiliate Marketing channels, can hardly
succeed on their own. Most businesses are unable to drive sufficient traffic to
their sites to make the required sales figure that they expect.
Online Marketing:
Some Hard Facts
you should know

Engaging the services of these established marketing channels that have the
audience and capacity to drive traffic to your site is costly, and you are still not
guaranteed sales. All they can do is help to drive traffic to you site. Many
business owners have spent invested much on online advertising and have
nothing to show for it in terms of sales. Just being online does not guarantee
sales, neither does online promotion guarantee sales.
It depends mostly on the size of the audience, advertising medium or
marketing channel, and product branding and product quality. Often times,
business owners try on their own to use social media platforms to promote
their products and services without actually using the paid advertising plans
available in these social media platforms, and they end up wasting time and
effort and at the end of the day, they fail to make any sales.
Online Marketing:
Some Hard Facts
you should know

Just because you have a website for your products and services does not mean
you will start making online sales. There are certain minimum requirements.
Your site must be light, navigable, that is, it must be user friendly, and must
have a clear and simply product display or list, competitive pricing and quality
service or goods. The site must also have a merchant account for payment in the
currency in which you expect to be paid. It must also have a secure site stamp
from a reputable organization to guarantee that the customer can trust your
site. There must be a live chat and 24/7 customer care phone number on the
site.
It is at this point it can be said that you have setup a workable website for your
business. All these still does not guarantee instant online sales, if as mention
earlier, you do not have the required large following online to support your in-
house marketing efforts, whether it is on social media, email or affiliate
marketing channels. The hard fact is that even with all these in place, and you
use paid online marketing platforms, your sales expectations are still hanging in
the balance – 50/50.
Online Marketing:
Some Hard Facts
you should know

No advertiser will ever offer you a sales guarantee, all they can do is to ensure
that your promotion gets to the target audience and in the numbers that your
advertising budget covers. It a very dicey situation, that is why organizations that
understand these principles, tread carefully not to get entangled in the
marketplace on the web.
Online Marketing:
Some Hard Facts
you should know

Why some Online Marketing Campaigns
Fail07

As a result of better and secure online payment systems, a lot more people have
come to embrace ecommerce, and doing business online has now become the
trend. Consequent of this development, companies and individuals have
thronged the Internet, trying to catch-in on the opportunities created by the
ever expanding e-Commerce business. Online marketing continues to play an
extremely valuable part in the whole ecommerce system, and the main reason
why companies and individuals engage in online marketing is to create brand
awareness, generate lead and traffic, and educate customers.
Online advertising and promotion attracts enormous investments by companies
and individuals who are trying to secure a market for their products and
services. There are many who engage in online marketing without the required
understand of the principles of the market. Therefore, it is not unfamiliar to
hear argument or read about how many have invested their time, energy and
resources in marketing campaigns that have ended up to be ineffective because
they delved into it without understanding or considering the principles behind
the online market place.
Why some Online
Marketing
Campaigns Fail

Many companies and individuals make the mistake of signing up with
advertising channels to promote their products and services without giving
consideration to the target audience. Every product or service has its own
peculiar target audience; it is not a one size fits all marketing campaign. It is
definitely unproductive to promote car products in an online channel that has
dedicated patronage mostly by teenagers and young adults.
To appropriately promote your brand and engage your target audience, there
are a number of online marketing channels that caters for these needs and also
serving a unique audience. Social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn and Google+ are quite effective, while for promoting visual and video
contents, Instagram, Pinterest, Vimeo and YouTube are great channels for
creating brand presence.
Why some Online
Marketing
Campaigns Fail

The whole essence of corporate brands, products and services is to promote
online marketing and generate sales. Generating sales is an entirely different
ball game, and the channels used for this purpose are equally different too.
Ecommerce sites and other storefronts use these specific channels to generate
sales. Affiliate Marketing Networks, Amazon Resellers, Google Shopping Feeds,
Facebook Storefront, eBay Resellers, Google Search Network are some of these
channels.
Lead generation is an aspect of online marketing, whereby information of
potential customers are collected through links placed on specific marketing
channels that are more suitable for that purpose. These channels include, Pay-
Per-Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Email marketing, Blogs and
Feeds, and Display Advertising.
Why some Online
Marketing
Campaigns Fail

Understanding the role of each channel and combining them to derive the
desired goal is paramount to the success of online marketing. The key word
here is ‘target market’. The market is broadly categorized into three segments;
male, female and general, with further segmentation into children, teenagers,
adolescent and the elderly. In proposing a marketing campaign, it is critical to
understand that every single product or service is targeted at one or all of these
categorization.
Certain online channels are more suitable to promote products targeting
children, some are best for teenager and adolescent, while others are more
effective for general and the elderly, all depending on the type of product or
services that you intend to promote. Choosing a channel that will provide the
most efficient and effective results are key to a successful marketing campaign.
Why some Online
Marketing
Campaigns Fail

In an article published by Selligent, it maintained that there is no such thing as
a best marketing channel for your business and customers, instead, it is about
what is the best mix of efficient channels for different consumer segments,
rather than about which channels show the best results, but it failed to identify
the fact that products and services have target audience, and so also are their
different market segments.
While channels such as Affiliate Marketing Networks, Amazon Resellers, Google
Shopping Feeds, Facebook Storefront, eBay Resellers, Google Search Network
attract elderly individuals who are looking for tangible items, ranging from
home appliances to machine tools, and they have the means to pay for products
and services straight on. On the other hand channels such as Twitter, Facebook,
and Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Vimeo and YouTube, are patronized by
teenagers and adolescents who are mostly following the latest trends in fashion,
games, movies and music.
Why some Online
Marketing
Campaigns Fail

Often times the teenage and adolescent market segment may not have the
ability to convert their interest for items they find online to instant purchase,
and may have to fall back on their parents to make the purchase for them at a
later time. Same applies to children, whenever they find anything item online
that is of interest to them, they call the attention of mommy or daddy and
request for it to be bought for them. While it is strategic for online marketers to
target children and adolescent market, they should know that indirectly
targeting it is still the adult population that has the power to convert lead to
purchase.
Why some Online
Marketing
Campaigns Fail

Ecommerce and Digital Media Concepts for Entrepreneurs by March Oyinki

Ecommerce and Digital Media Concepts for Entrepreneurs by March Oyinki

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Ecommerce and Digital Media Concepts for Entrepreneurs by March Oyinki