Nova Advertising

Push and Pull Strategies, Online and Offline Integrated Marketing

Lateef Mauricio — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:34:09 +0000

Pushing and Pulling for Clients, Everywhere they are…
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is done to get your website “organic” (unpaid) promotion on search engines, this is a “pull” strategy, customers find you…at the same time though, businesses need to run a concurrent “push” strategy, where you find clients. When you start working on your website’s SEO you’ll be happy to see the website’s analytics reports show increases in qualified traffic from month-to-month, but we mustn’t lose site of your overall marketing strategy. Especially with the majority of local business taking place in the offline world, it is important to get organic promotion in the real-world. In a strange way, online marketing is reinforcing traditional marketing tactics by emphasizing the importance of being at the right place, at the right time, when your customer is ready to listen to your pitch.

How are you building this organic promotion for your business?
In this down economy there are a lot of businesses that are struggling to keep their head above water, you might run one of those businesses, but don’t worry…you can get out of this. While the competition is busy chopping their prices and cutting overhead costs, you can make wise investments that get you that “leg up” on your competition, thus putting more strain on their business and contributing to increased market share for your own business. We often get so caught up in trying to find customers that we forget one of the most efficient methods for getting qualified leads and prospective clients, referrals. Build alliances with complementary businesses, for example, if you’re a jeweler you can build excellent long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with bridal consultants and fashion designers.

With a network of formal agreements with complementary businesses you’ve established your offline search engine optimization strategy…when someone’s looking for your services, one of your alliances will mention your name and provide your contact information to the prospective client.

Introduction to Search Engine Advertising

Lateef Mauricio — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 06:17:52 +0000

This is by far the most common method of advertising – when you type a search query into Google you instantly get about 11 ads displayed to you. Three of which you are forced to read before going on to the unpaid search engine results.

Most of us won’t realize this, but all the major search engines including Google, Yahoo, and Bing, have been consistently changing the way that their paid advertisements are displayed. Up until November of last year (2010) Google was calling their paid links “Sponsored Links,” now they identify them simply as “Ads.” This is in part due to an FTC mandate for search engines to clearly label advertisements so as to not trick consumers into clicking on ads – but this was also done for scientific reasons…long and intense research is constantly conducted by these search engine companies to ensure that advertisements are being displayed to the right audiences to deliver higher return on investment to advertisers and to ensure that search engine users aren’t clicking on links that are irrelevant, which would tarnish the search engine’s reputation and lead the user to try a different search engine. At any rate…

To get an advertising space on Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) you sign up for an account on Google AdWords, deposit money, create advertisements, then sit and wait for people to click on your ads. Search Engine Advertising follows the Pay-per-Click (PPC) model. Which means that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Other online advertising payment models include Pay-per-impression (PPM) where you pay each time someone views your ad and Pay-per-action (PPA), where you pay only when someone clicks on an ad and completes a pre-determined action on your website, like filling out a form or purchasing a product. The latter two models don’t apply for search engines so we’ll get back to those later.

Continue Reading:
Part 3: Search Engine Advertising: Online Ad Campaign Management
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This was just a part of The Guide to Online Advertising – download the complete guide here.

Online Advertising – Part 1: Introduction

Lateef Mauricio — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 06:03:31 +0000

Just as we see products and services being advertised to us in the offline world, by passing a billboard, flipping on the radio, receiving junk mail at home, the internet has become quite the marketplace. You see ads everywhere you go online these days – whether it’s checking your web-based e-mail, using a search engine, or visiting your favorite websites, you will find that ads are being displayed mostly everywhere you can go online. Just like in the real world, these are paid advertisements – but in many ways they are much more effective than traditional offline advertisements.

When you advertise online you can control variables much tighter to focus on specific audiences, offering the ability to avoid mass marketing and instead focus on niche marketing campaigns that are fine-tuned to target specific markets and ensure higher success rates.

You also benefit from being able to analyze performance in ways that are impossible with offline advertising by using analytics software that tells you how many people have viewed your ad, how many people clicked on it, and how many people clicked on your ad but weren’t impressed by your website and took a hike without purchasing anything.

There are many places you can advertise online, here we’ll cover the major ones:

Search Engines
Social Media Websites
Private Websites
Affiliate Networks

Continue Reading
Part 2: Search Engine Advertising

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This was just a part of The Guide to Online Advertising – download the complete guide here.

Marketing to American Muslims: The Largest Untapped Consumer Niche

Lateef Mauricio — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:07:46 +0000

[Download PDF: Marketing to American Muslims]

The American Muslim Consumer
The Muslim population of the United States represents a niche consumer group that is largely untapped, proven to be loyal to brands, generally well educated, and best of all for marketers, it represents annual disposable income of at least $107 billion according to a new study by Dinar Standard (JWT estimated disposable spending at about $170 billion in 2007).

Communications directed at these consumers doesn’t necessarily mean Arabic headlines and Hijab-clad women on every ad. At the very least, the consideration of basic sensitivity factors would ensure better response from Muslim American consumers. The market is garnering more attention as of late, with advertising giant Ogilvy recently rolling out its new Islamic branding consultancy Ogilvy Noor and the annual American Muslim Consumers conference garnering increasing attention every year. Pew just published a report that should help allay some brands’ PR concerns by finding that there are “no signs of growth in alienation or support for extremism” among Muslim Americans. Let’s get into it a bit…

Unique Communications Factors: An Example
There are many unique factors that could go into a brand’s American Muslim-targeted communications campaigns, here’s an example:

Modesty. The concept of modesty encompasses every facet of life in Muslim households, with varying levels of intensity from household to household. After all, to Muslims, Islam is not just a religion, but a “way of life,” and religious materials as well as cultural norms have a lot to say about maintaining modesty and humility.

Modesty of Appearance can be as strict as full body coverage from neck to toe (and head to toe in smaller populations) to as liberal as allowing exposure of the legs below the knees. These rules apply to women just as well as men, in fact, even for men a revealed chest is likely to be viewed as immodest [see: aura]. For example, ads that reveal too much of the body (whether clothes are form-shaping or skin is bare) will definitely reduce Muslim American brand sentiment.
Modesty of Actions is an important trait in Muslim households. Violations of modesty can be a cause for ostracism in the more strict households; nevertheless, even in the more liberal, assimilated Muslim American households, immodest behavior is easily detected and shunned. Most important behaviors to watch include the consumption of alcohol, pre-marital relationships (platonic or not)

Brand Loyalty
The American Muslim consumer market has proven to be quite loyal to brands with 70% of Muslim American respondents to JWT’s 2007 study claiming that “brands play an important role in their purchasing decisions, compared to 55% for the average American.” The flip side of this brand loyalty of course is the boycotting of brands, something that Muslims worldwide have done more notably with Coca Cola (several times) and Nike for varying reasons.

Brand Neglect
When it comes to food products though, it’s the lack of information provided by brands that deters many Muslim consumers from buying their products. For example, most of the products on our supermarket shelves don’t disclose the sources of ingredients like monoglycerides (which can come from vegetable or animal sources) and gelatin, which is always sourced from animals but the difference between pig-based or non-pig-based gelatin could mean that less strict Muslim Americans are still potential customers. This lack of information gives rise to misinformation as consumers attempt to educate themselves, the longer this misinformation continues the more difficult it becomes to rectify the information. Many Muslim households have learned to read the Kosher symbols found on many food packages to decipher the product’s content…but this can only help so much – at the end of the day Kosher isn’t Halal so Kosher Gelatin might be okay for less strict Muslims (because they know it’s not sourced from pigs), but those that eat strictly Halal won’t settle for less than Halal.

Homogeneous Religion, Disparate Ethnicities
Muslim Americans are also easy to accommodate in terms of language. While 1st and 2nd generation immigrants are likely to speak the mother tongue in their American homes, English is highly likely to be spoken outside the home so English is the natural language for communications to Muslim Americans, who may be homogeneous in terms of religion, but quite disparate in terms of ethnicity. This brings up an important note in the Muslim American market – diversity. Just as well as Muslim Americans are able to identify with the global Muslim population in terms of religion, they are likely to have largely varying sets of cultural norms and ethnic traditions. Major cultural differences across Muslim American households to consider when developing communications campaigns include varying perceptions of colors, music, and gender-mixing.

How niche can you go!
Once we start diving in to any niche market our passion for high ROI communications campaigns drives us to fragment the market even further, calling for more research and understanding at more granular levels. In fact, because consumer profiles can vary so much in Muslim American markets, one can easily come up with primary sub-niches based on country of origin or level of religious adherence – but right now, this is a red herring until brands start marketing to American Muslims at the population level.

Using Social Media to Derive Market-Defining Data

Lateef Mauricio — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:19:07 +0000

Marketing and outreach campaigns are most successfully planned when we know as much about our target markets as possible. Using this market-defining data we deliver separate campaigns to audience groups that are likely to react in a similar manner.

This is what makes online marketing so strong – the ability to track and analyze the actions taken by specific web users. When we know that you frequently share stories on Facebook about healthy living…we will target you when developing an advertising campaign for a new organic food product line.

This is a good thing because as consumers we see advertising that is relevant to our personal interests…but, throughout the pursuit of that market-defining data, it’s possible for businesses to become cumbersome…thus, affecting their long-term ability to collect market-defining data (and concurrently, as “How Facebook is Ruining Sharing” states, folks may be dissuaded from sharing at all).

Combating patient prescription non-adherence, Merck’s Adherence Widget

Lateef Mauricio — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:23:55 +0000

This concept, reviewed in MM&M, is a great leap in establishing goodwill with consumers – the consumer education and awareness information that was already previously offered is a standard method for generating a positive brand perception…on the other hand, this interactive widget is just that, “interactive,” which requires consumers to act rather than sit back and absorb information without providing feedback.

The catch is…implementation. The idea sounds great – but I doubt that Merck’s new widget, which is nothing more than a web form with three drop down selectors, will be engaging enough. Patients that use the Adherence Estimator get back results that essentially advise them to consult with their health care professional (HCP) and to continue taking prescribed medication as a means to maintaining good health. Pretty generic stuff.

In Summary, an interactive approach to consumer outreach is critically important to stand out from the competition. This is why we emphasize the return-on-investment (ROI) of social media and general online communications that “join the conversation,” that is, interact with the community of consumers. However, there is a terrible downside to excessive information. This infoglut that we’re all subject to nowadays with the world wide web at our fingertips is increasingly causing consumers to become complacent with corporate-generated information. A sense of distrust continues to foment in consumer’s minds when they repeatedly read or see generic, non-tailored information dished out to them from corporate sources.

The Importance of Cultural Sensitivity in Marketing Campaigns

Lateef Mauricio — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:32:22 +0000

When it comes to marketing, ethnic minorities tend to be neglected. Sure, immigrants are expected to adapt to US culture, but one cannot ignore that an immigrant’s identity will likely continue to play an influential role in purchasing habits, even several generations out. One barrier that prevents businesses from dedicating resources towards marketing to immigrant communities is a preconceived notion that ethnic minorities are small fish, with a lesser average purchasing power than that of ethnic majority populations. This presumption may be true on a nationwide economic level, but there is little reason to apply national averages to a single company’s definition of its target markets. Just as we’re able to come up with a highly-qualified segment of prospective customers in our non-minority, non-immigrant markets, we can do the same with ethnic and immigrant markets.

Appeal to Cultural Emotions and Logic.
The reason for this article is to emphasize that targeted marketing is substantially more successful than mass marketing – this is a general marketing principle regardless of demographic factors. Once we take on the initial task of segmenting our markets according to traditional segmentation principles such as geographic location, age group and gender – we find that our targeting can be so much more specific. Short of targeting each prospective client individually, the most effective outreach campaigns involve the creation of a marketing message that appeals to their emotions and logic. By developing communications that carry cultural flavor, prospective clients instantly identify with your business, and feelings of trust begin to emerge, improving the possibility that they’ll work with you.

When you can’t niche market, be culturally sensitive in broad marketing.
Culturally targeted comunications have many positive effects on business growth. As culturally aligned groups become increasignly aware of your brand, their connection and respect for your company becomes the basis for strong brand loyalty. These culture-centric marketing programs are developed as a result of well-defined research that singles out the specific ethnicities and cultures that are important to your business’s growth.

But, when these culture-sepcifc goals haven’t been defined, the next objective of marketing is to generate marketing campaigns that appeal to the broadest audience possible. This is where special attention to “cultural sensitivity” comes in as a warning as well as a best practice to marketers. The warning is that it is very possible to exclude, and in worst cases, offend cultural groups. The best practices are a set of techniques that help to ensure sensitivity, and more importantly, promote inclusivity across a diverse variety of cultural groups in order to maximize your campaign’s return on investment (ROI).

NOVA Advertising’s Ethnic Marketing division has been delivering culturally sensitive, relevant, and profitable marketing campaigns for over 10 years. Call us at (703) 855-9641 or drop us a quick line here for more information.

Web Strategy Defined

Lateef Mauricio — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:39:44 +0000

The goal of Web Strategy is to qualify the importance of your online presence as an essential component of your business’s success. A decade ago many small businesses didn’t even have a corporate website on the net, and when they did have a website up it was very likely that they weren’t worried about growing their business online. Today, we can tell that the internet is much more important to businesses then it ever was, and it will continue to increase in importance into the unforeseeable future.

Now that consumers are more likely to visit Google when they’re looking to purchase something we are beginning to understand the importance of being there when potential customers search for something that you sell. This involves two components of Web Strategy: Search Engine Marketing and Online Advertising, which we will return to in a bit

Being there for your prospects when they are looking for you is what effective marketing is all about. It means stocking candy bars at the checkout aisles so you can impulsively pick one up to hold you off ‘til you get home. Here’s something interesting, when you look down at the checkout snacks it’s very likely that you’ll see a Snickers bar and remember their slogan “Hungry, why wait?” This is because they’ve generated brand awareness for their chocolate bar, and on top of that, made the bar available to you when you need it the most. This is how effective marketing works – you’re there when your prospects want you to be there…or when you know you can convince them with the least resistance.

Being there when it matters is why we turn our attention to establishing engaging and effective online social networking profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Places, Twitter and Yelp. This introduces another component of Web Strategy: Social Networking.

The most important component of your web strategy though, is not the clever technologies or cool social networking websites you use, rather, it’s the formal evaluation of the ability of your web presence to help your business achieve its goals. This means that we must correlate online business to offline business, which is where most business is actually based. For example, as a real estate agent you can post a new house for sale on your website, tweet about it and cross post it to your Facebook page and still not receive any inquiries about the house. This means that something is off – you might not be attracting the right folks to your website, you might not be attracting much traffic at all, and more importantly…you don’t have a formal plan for marketing your products and services online

This was just a part of The Guide to Online Advertising – download the complete guide here.

Online Advertising vs Traditional Advertising

Fred Ostovar — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:59:15 +0000

The growth of technology and online information has dramatically changed the advertising landscape in recent years. The number of active internet users is rapidly increasing. It attracts people of all races and cultures with unique features that help benefit people in any age range. This amplified internet movement has generated many new marketing channels for internet advertising.

With the recent explosion of internet usage, the demand for online advertising has skyrocketed and it has replaced traditional advertising mediums such as magazines, newspaper, radio and televisions. We at NOVA Advertising are strong advocates of online advertising and believe with good strategy and market awareness; businesses can utilize this powerful tool to achieve effective and cost efficient marketing. Below you can find a few comparisons drawn between online and traditional advertising.

Online Advertising is Targeted
Instead of wasting time and effort and sending out mass mailings and junk mail with low return on investment, businesses can allocate their money smarter and more efficiently with online advertising. With various ways of targeting your specific audiences who are actually searching for you, businesses can forget costly machine-gun strategies and advertise smarter and more effectively.

Tracking and Conversion
So how many people have really gotten exposure to your ads? It’s very difficult to measure the effectiveness of traditional channels such as direct mail, newspaper and TV advertisements. Online advertising however, empowers businesses with powerful tracking tools that can measure the smallest details such as impressions, conversions and ROI.

Lower Entry-level and Ongoing Fees
Ever tried a yellow page ad or a magazine ad placement? If you have then you know that it can cost several hundred dollars to just get your ad up and much more to sustain. Internet advertising has yet again empowered the users to control their budget by allowing various bidding methods and low initial fees. Due to the targeted nature of online advertising and the ability to track the effectiveness of ads, making instant adjustments to campaigns is much cheaper than non internet advertising mediums.

Internet gives businesses a broader range
The biggest advantage of Internet advertising is that it is the most powerful communication tool available. It can reach households and other businesses via computers, mobile phones and tablets. Rather than allocating your efforts on finding different mediums for various regions, audiences; you can focus on what you do best and let your clients come and find you by setting up targeted campaigns that are aimed at your ideal prospects and geographical regions.

Better Branding
Any form of advertising helps in improving the branding, but online advertising stands a notch higher in effectiveness of improving the branding of your company, service or product. Internet advertising can expose a small business to potential customers all over the world. This would be far more difficult and expensive to achieve with conventional forms of advertising. There are, however, demographics that it can’t reach, making it better suited for some products and services than for others. When used for the right products and in the right way, it has the potential to reach more customers for less money than any other form of advertising.

Online advertising has evolved into a powerful tool for businesses to effectively get the word out and achieve their marketing goals. At Nova Advertising we can help your company develop a successful internet marketing campaign. Working together to set and achieve goals, Nova Advertising innovative online advertising strategies can bring your business to the next level. So when you’re in the market for some fresh ways to reach new demographics and potential customers, give us a call.

Personalization in a Digital World

Marc Hopkins — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 03:11:15 +0000

Like most businesses, NOVA Advertising is always looking for new opportunities to expand. While sites such as Facebook and Twitter offer great networking and expansion possibilities, no website can truly compare to actually meeting potential clients face to face. Business conferences and exclusive presentations provide a perfect channel for personalized networking in a digital word. It remains without question that a personal touch is the key to developing long lasting and successful business partnerships.

It has been proven time and time again that no amount of online or telephone communication can replace the intimacy and feel of face to face interaction. Many businesses have slipped away from this practice because of the time saving capabilities of the internet. Though recent technology has made communication easier, often time’s messages get lost in translation.

Personal communication is clear cut and understandable while online and telephone conversation can sometimes prove misleading or deceptive. This has posed a real problem for companies in business to business or business to consumer industries. Frequently, with larger corporations you end up just being looked at as a number due to the sheer amount of clients they have. When you need something you may not get the proper attention or desired personal support needed to solve your problem. This can prove fatal to the relationship between various businesses.

One way to solve this is for companies to become more involved with their customers in a personal manner. Hold face to face meetings rather than Skype meetings or check in with a client using an in person visit, rather than just sending a text message. Using these tactics will give you a notable advantage over others. Consumers love to see that companies who are actively involved and dedicated through personal contact.

At NOVA Advertising we understand the importance of personal communication and strive to give you the utmost support through personal relationships and face to face meetings.