Tag: Online Advertising

Free Google Analytics and AdWords masterclass available on demand now via One Wimpole Street

Posted on by engineroom

A video delivering the inside scoop on Google Analytics and Adwords and their impacts on website performance over time is now available to view online for free, thanks to the team at One Wimpole Street.

Featuring the last session in the venue’s popular 2012 technology masterclass series, speakers David Miles, director of online marketing training consultancy Divadani, and Jeremy Nelson-Smith, director and internet marketing consultant at The Internet Specialist, come together in the video masterclass to provide free and valuable tips for maximising the use of Google AdWords as an advertising tool and for optimising website performance by accurately analysing data available via Google Analytics.

The masterclass video is available on demand now, free of charge to event planners, event buyers and event marketing professionals. Viewers are able to choose between watching the whole masterclass sequence, or viewing the two speaker sessions individually.

Miles champions the idea that Google AdWords is an extremely powerful advertising tool, delivering rapid results and a great return on marketing investment. He also explains how Google AdWords works and what benefits it has over other methods of driving traffic to your website. Crucially, he highlights the things you need to be aware of in order to avoid wasting money on AdWords.

Nelson-Smith unravels web analytics to demonstrate the need to use Google Analytics to increase website performance and make better business decisions. He explains how to measure and understand which marketing channels are most effectively delivering quality visitors to your web pages, whether your content is doing its job in engaging your visitors and how to use this vital knowledge to increase your sales.

One Wimpole Street will be launching a new masterclass series in 2013. To be the first to find out more, register your interest by clicking here. To watch the free video of the Google Analytics and AdWords masterclass on demand, click here.

Booking event space online? You could be missing out on inside knowledge from venue staff

Posted on by engineroom

By Clare Hodgkinson, marketing executive, Church House Conference Centre

For event organisers time is precious. Today, through advances in technology, event organisers are being given the option to take a virtual tour of a venue, book event space, catering and AV, and make payment at the click of a button. But is this the way forward for all venues?

Are those venues that don’t have online booking facilities regarded as old fashioned and missing out on business? Will all event booking be done online in future?

There are many advantages to online booking, but it may not necessarily be the most practical option for everyone. For venues with similar sized event spaces, online booking could be a feasible option, but for unique venues with diverse event spaces, like those at Church House Conference Centre in Westminster, these are more effectively booked by the in-house events team. That’s because it’s the in-house events team which has the best insight into the most suitable event spaces for the client sourcing a space for a particular event. It’s also because they know the tricks for maximising space.

Having that human element in your booking process means you are talking to an events professional, whether that is via telephone or by coming to a venue to meet their team and have a showround. This one-to-one interaction can have a significant influence on whether a booking is made.

The friendliness and professionalism of a venue’s team is often a crucial factor, and this of course cannot be judged online. Furthermore, it is still widely acknowledged that people buy from people.

In addition to these factors, it has to be questioned whether it is a good thing for clients to be able to see availability. Due to the logic of supply and demand, if a client sees there are very few bookings around the time of their event, they may be inclined to push down the pricing significantly. Furthermore, if a venue is suffering from lack of business, it is unlikely this is something they would want to advertise.

So what’s the solution? Is it about finding a compromise? Having some event spaces and services available for booking online whilst keeping others offline? Or should venues that choose to keep booking offline simply pride themselves in the personal and friendly service they offer? People are, after all, at the very heart of the events industry.

Online Advertising Vs Printed Advertising

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By Rachel Hammond, RICS at Parliament Square

Advertising in general is used as a method of informing customers of your company or product and attracting new customers. This is achieved through the medium of eye-catching colour schemes, animation, pictures and informative text. Two of the most used forms of advertising are online and printed documents such as leaflets and flyers. Both have their strengths and weaknesses which are explored below.

With increasing numbers of people now using the internet every day, online advertising has increased dramatically within the last few years, and most notably between the years of 2007 and 2008, where online advertisement suppliers recognised an increase of 10.6% across the industry. In the same year, online advertising increased 4.7% in the market share, even when advertising on the whole was decreasing. It is now clear to see that online and digital advertising is an integral part of the advertising world. This can be due to a number of different factors:

Firstly, it is convenient and is very likely to make an impression on consumers as they have selected a time and place to browse the internet therefore allowing themselves to be susceptible to advertisement campaigns.

There is also a great variety of options when it comes to online advertising which cannot be achieved with printed advertising. Animation can be used, with links to other sites and changing images, this can result in a greater message being put across in a smaller space, whereas printed advertising only offers options in size, colour, shape and text.

The click through element to online advertising is especially advantageous. Not only for directing people to another site, possibly with more information, but also, for recording how many people have paid attention to the advertisement. By using aids such as Google Analytics it is possible to see who and how many people have arrived at your site by clicking through the advertisement.

Online advertising can also have its draw backs. It is all very well to have an excellent idea and promotion, however, it is possible that if a consumer sees an attractive promotion online, they may forget about it by the time they have finished browsing the internet. Even if the consumer does go to the effort of printing the advert out, this is time consuming and defeats the object of online advertising being more environmentally friendly. It is important for a company to know their target market, especially regarding the older generation, who on the whole are not as susceptible to online advertising. It is a generalisation to say that this generation is more likely to take ideas from newspapers and leaflets; this is a practice that has been established for over 150 years, where as online advertising has only become predominant within the last decade.

With the younger generation now becoming an electronic generation, it is sometimes not appreciated when a promotional leaflet is thrust into your hand whilst walking down the street. It is safe to say that many pedestrians find this annoying and flyers and leaflets can become an encumbrance. Furthermore, many people are likely to either throw the flyer in the bin, where it is not guaranteed to be recycled, or create litter on the floor. Due to this; many people are now more opposed to a printed advertisement as it is less environmentally friendly.

Nonetheless, printed advertisements do have their advantages. It can be done fairly cheaply. This is especially good for companies with a limited budget or for small organisations. It is also a tangible aid, people can come back to something they picked up earlier and it is less likely to be forgotten about. Printed advertising can also be noticed in more than one place, where as online advertising is confined to the computer. It is possible to be drawn in to adverts and promotions wherever you go, whether it be on public transport, billboards, building sides or printed publications, therefore printed adverts have an advantage over online advertising in this respect.

Concluding, it would not be possible to advertise using just one medium, this would greatly lessen a company’s range of consumers, therefore reducing the cost benefit of advertising. However, when different types of advertising are combined using cross media, it is likely that the company would gain the greatest benefit, not only by appealing to a larger audience but by playing to the strengths of different forms of advertising.

www.parliamentsquare.org