Previously we looked at how Internet User behaviour has caused marketers and marketing agencies to become more creative in trying to reach consumers.

As a result, marketing budgets have shifted towards inbound marketing such as social media, organic search engine optimization (in response to a user driven query) and virtual events/meetings.

Noticeably social media budgets have almost doubled in the last two years.

The money spent on inbound marketing is more effective from both a cost per lead and revenue generation perspective costing only about 1/3 of what it costs to generate an outbound lead.

And these leads often generate revenue.

What does this mean to Kelowna businesses?

Kelowna businesses need to engage in inbound marketing. A cheaper way to generate leads that result in revenue, even small businesses can afford to compete.

The Internet has fundamentally changed the way people find, discover, share, shop and connect with each other. The Internet has evened the playing field when it comes to access to information. Whether you live in a small town like Kelowna or a big city like Vancouver, your access to information is the same.

In the U.S. over 3/4 of adults are online and these people are spending ever increasing amounts of time online.

The Internet has become pervasive to everything we do.  From communicating with each other, to researching what movies are on and where, to paying our bills and taking online classes.

All of this access to information means that the average person in Kelowna today is inundated with more than 2000 marketing interruptions per day. This has caused us to become more selective about what information we consume.  We have become more and more creative at blocking marketers efforts to get to us, whether it is called id, spam filtering or Personal Video Recorders. Instead consumers prefer to pull the information they need when and where they want it rather than waiting for it to arrive in a timely way.

These consumer habits have resulted in the reduced effectiveness of traditional marketing efforts aimed at marketing to the masses of people trying to block them (outbound marketing). Instead smart marketers and marketing agencies are looking at how they can engage consumers that are actually interested in the products they sell and who approach the organization or business in some way (inbound marketing).

In the second part of this article we'll look at what this means to Kelowna businesses.

We have already suggested that Kelowna businesses blog at least weekly to maximize blog effectiveness, but time of day is important too. Most blog tools allow the person doing the marketing to schedule posts at different times of day. This ensures that your Kelowna business doesn’t post when your target audience is sleeping or busy with dinner!

Evidence suggests that most blog readers are morning people. This may be because blogs have taken the role of newspapers as a way for Internet users to obtain news and we are habitually seeking our news first thing in the morning to set us up for a day of sharing and discussing the news with others.

Link-sharing is one common way blog readers share interesting articles and new product information. For Kelowna businesses, this means ensuring your blog has an easy way to share the articles, such as a social media toolbar, to help your blog readers share the articles with other friends in Kelowna.

Commenting also peaks in the morning.  If you are the marketer in a Kelowna business, you should make time in your morning to read blog comments and respond to them.

What does this mean for Kelowna businesses?

Blog early and often (at least weekly) to maximize your exposure. Encourage users to share the messages and to leave comments.

Blogs are web site journals or logs that are article based and many Kelowna businesses already have a blog.  They are some of the currently 152,000,000 blogs on the Internet, which is 31% more than 3 years ago.  These blogs are growing in volume, readership and subsequently in value.

Blog readers tend to read blogs more than once per day and read 5-10 blogs on a regular basis.

Blogs in Business

Nearly 40% of companies blog for marketing purposes and these companies have 55% more website visitors than those that don’t blog. These blog articles often influence purchases and generate more leads.

Blogging frequency is important.  If you are the marketing person in a Kelowna business, you should try to blog a minimum of once a week to maximize the effectiveness of the blog as a marketing tool. By blogging at this rate, you are generating lots of keyword-rich content which search engines will index frequently, as well as giving your readership a reason to subscribe so they don’t miss the latest post.

In the next post we'll talk about what this means for Kelowna businesses.

With Internet Users having such great presence on Facebook, it has real business value.  Users engage with business pages on Facebook, including Artists, Media and Brands.

Businesses are noticing the benefits. In Kelowna, our internet marketing agency has noticed that businesses with a Facebook page are more likely to engage with their customers, offer promotions and respond to customer feedback. These activities are rewarded by more “Likes” to their page which generates more brand awareness.

Despite Facebook’s prevalence as a social networking site for individuals and not businesses, even B2B companies are acquiring customers through Facebook.

What does this mean for Kelowna businesses?

Don’t overlook Facebook as a tool for attracting customers whether your business is B2B or B2C. A Facebook Page is a necessity.  Make sure to reward your loyal fans with offers and promotions, as well as timely information and announcements.

Facebook is about connecting with friends and sharing information.  There is an inherent amount of trust when content is shared by friends.

Facebook is a phenomenon matched by no other website. It’s number of users are huge and they are highly engaged.

Around the world and in Kelowna, Facebook has replaced many other internet activities such as email, instant messaging, photo/video sharing, blogging, games and online shopping.  It has become a conduit for most social activities we perform online. It’s not wonder that we are spending huge amount of time on Facebook.

In the second part of this article, we'll discuss what this means for Kelowna businesses.

We have already mentioned that Twitter is a tool that allows users to broadcast 140 character messages to your followers. With over 1/2 active Twitter users following businesses, it is important that Kelowna businesses engage and retain their followers.

Twitter plays a role in purchasing decisions in many different ways from asking for opinions and recommendations to actively seeking discounts and promotions.

Many U.S. businesses have realized that Twitter has a potential to create leads for their business.

And those companies that are use Twitter have twice as many leads per month regardless of business size.

In the case of B2C, this number grows even higher as the number of followers increases.

What does this mean for Kelowna businesses?

Don’t be a twit. Start tweeting. Engage your followers, remember following a business is a choice and needs to provide value to the follower.

What if you need help?

Our marketing agency recommends that each of our B2C clients create a Twitter account. We then provide our clients with social media training and marketing tactics for growing, engaging and retaining Twitter followers. If the business chooses not to manage their Twitter account themselves, we offer a social media management program that includes daily tweets.

Most Kelowna businesses know that Twitter is an online tool that allows users to broadcast 140 character messages to your followers. As messages are public, users are also able to search all messages by keyword, not just the messages of people they are following.

Looking at some recent statistics put out by HubSpot, Twitter users are young, smart, affluent and tech savvy.  Although these stats are American, us Canucks are probably similar.

Twitter users around the world and in Kelowna use the tool for different purposes including status updates, sharing links, asking questions, and engaging in dialog with others.  Twitter is a face-paced, information rich, communications channel.  Twitter COULD be an effective marketing channel for your business or cause, but like all channels, needs to be used inside an overall strategic plan.  Hint: a good rule of thumb we like to follow... ask yourself, "Are my customers using __marketing channel X (ie. Twitter, Facebook, radio, newspapers, YouTube)__?"  If the answer is "yes", then consider reaching your customers through that channel.

Social Media is a new weapon in the arsenal for our Kelowna-based digital marketing agency and our clients are not the only ones using it for lead generation.

In fact 53% of U.S. Small to Medium sized businesses consider social media sites to be of some level of importance in making sales.

For B2B purchases, LinkedIn - the leading social network for business people - is the most effective social media network and generates the most conversions.

LinkedIn also generates conversions.

And for B2Cs conversions the leading social media source is Facebook.

What does this mean for Kelowna businesses?

It’s time for your Kelowna business to get social and start a two-way dialogue with customers.  Get involved in the Kelowna community and with your customers.

Nearly 2/3 of US Internet users regularly use a social network and the number is increasing every year.  Internet users now fall into all age groups with even the smallest age group (65+) still being online in large way with almost 1/3 online.

What most Kelowna businesses don’t realize is that Internet users now spend 3x more minutes on blogs and social networks than on email and email use among younger generations is rapidly decreasing.  And all this social networking directly impacts the how, who, what, where and why of their purchase.

As a Kelowna business, the importance of social media to your marketing efforts cannot be underestimated. Businesses around the world and here in Kelowna are rapidly embracing social media and its ability to generate leads.

As a low cost marketing medium, even small to medium businesses can compete on a level playing field with the big players, spreading marketing messages by word of mouth to directly impact sales. And they say it works, which is why it has become a new weapon in the arsenal for our Kelowna digital marketing agency.