On 26th May 2012 all UK web sites must offer users opt-in consent tools to allow cookies (used by Google and other web analytics) that pass information about your browsing activities to 3rd parties.

We have canvassed opinion from all of the major browsers and Google themselves and there seems to be a 'wait and see' attitude. The industries opinion is that the Law makers have over legislated and that the legislation will be changed or withdrawn. That may be true but for now the legislation stands and with 17 days left before it comes into effect it's decision time....

Option 1 - Do Nothing

As this effects 90% of websites in Europe it is going to be impossible for the legislators to enforce this on mass. The most likely outcome is that they will target some high profile companies and fine them in the hope that word will spread. The maximum fine is £500,000 so although the chances of it effecting you are slim, doing nothing is risky.

The Google Research team has a new study out today that examines how organic search results and ranking impact ad impressions and ad clicks. The team analyzed 390 Search Ads Pause studies and found, on average:

• 81% of ad impressions and 66% of ad clicks occur in the absence of an associated organic result on the first page of search results. All ad clicks in these situations are incremental.

• On average, for advertisers who appear in the top rank organic slot, 50% of ad clicks are incremental. This means that half of all ad clicks are not replaced by organic clicks when search ads are paused.

• For advertisers whose organic search results are in the 2nd to 4th position, 81% of ad clicks are incremental. For advertisers appearing in organic position of 5 or lower, 96% of ad clicks are incremental.

  ...

Here at Red Wasp we are all about Digital to Direct Marketing (and if you haven’t heard the term before, then check out this blog which will explain!) The concept is based around driving traffic to your website, identifying that traffic, then following it up.

The reason we use this model is because it eliminates cold calling, which, if you have done any form of telemarketing, you would know can be a gruelling experience! Even when you are calling direct from a bought in list, the data you are calling on is rarely perfect. There will always be a number missing here or there, a Decision Maker who has left the company or changed roles or even a record with just the company name as your starting point.

For every problem there is a work around, and we've developed several. Particularly when following up from web traffic we tend to start with a deficit of information, although once we get through, the level of interest is usually higher. Because of this, the workarounds we use become much more important.

The past few years have seen the growth of Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing as one of the best methods to advertise online.

PPC, also known as pay per click, is a marketing tool where advertisers pay site publishers, particularly search engines, every time their ad is clicked.

5 mistakes to avoid when using...

Google Adwords remains one of the most powerful web marketing tools out there and PPC is at the forefront of many companies' digital marketing campaigns. However, with more advertisers than ever before using Adwords, it can be tough to to ensure your campaign is as successful as it should be, especially when you are competing against so many others for keywords. By avoiding the mistakes below, you should be on the right track for a successful PPC campaign.

Online shopping surges this Christmas, but so do empty carts

Did you know that upto 96% of people visiting your website will leave without completing any kind of transaction? According to a recent report by Comscore, the figure really is that high. As the holiday period well and truly gets underway, almost $25 billion has already been spent in the US alone. After what can only be described as a tough year, its important businesses are maximising the online profit-making potential of the Christmas build up.

7 Superb Suggestions to Boost Conversion Rates on your Landing Page

An effective landing page is essential for a high conversion rate. Even with a bulletproof PPC strategy, if you fail compose a landing page that is simple, effective and sells to your customers, you will find your ability to convert seriously damaged. By following the 7 superb suggestions below, you'll certainly be pointing in the right direction. So make sure you have the basics covered!

1. KEEP IT SIMPLE

Gmail Advertising, otherwise known as “Mind-reader Marketing” is an exciting part of Google’s content network and works by reading emails you send and receive by looking for keywords and then showing related ads within the users Gmail account.

Highly targeted and cost effective, this method of advertising can be used as part of a very powerful marketing strategy and is therefore growing in popularity.

To give a brief example of how Gmail Advertising works imagine someone was to write an email about their upcoming honeymoon plans and it contained the following words; "affordable", “beautiful” and “romantic” and phrases such as "crystal blue seas" and "golden beaches", Google may display an advertisement above their Gmail Inbox, as demonstrated below:

Most companies now have a Social Media strategy in place, whether it be in use for PR purposes (as a lot of big companies are doing with Twitter) or for Lead generation (this is the side that most marketing companies are talking about). Regardless of your approach, it's going to be important to understand how things are working for you.

There are some important statistics that you're going to have to monitor, like audience size and interactions, but if you're active across multiple platforms this can get a bit confusing. The fact that there are hundreds of different terms being thrown around, all of which basically mean the same thing, doesn't exactly help. On top of this, there's some more important and all together more interesting things you're going to want to monitor, and they may not be the first thing that gets drawn to your attention.

What I'm going to do is break down for you all the different things that might get mentioned in a report to help you get a clear picture of how your campaign is going.

Audience

After much speculation and what seemed like an eternity, finally - the Facebook Timeline for brand pages is now live!

Facebook Timeline for pages is a great opportunity for brands that want to tell a more engaging and authentic story of their company.

Timeline makes it easier for people to find information by pushing the Info section, photos, apps and map to the top of the page in a clear navigation bar.

It gives companies of all sizes the opportunity to get creative and use their cover photos, app designs and interactive features to grow their overall presence and influence in the world of social media.

With all this in mind, I will now show you how to get your company's page up-to-scratch and ahead of your competitors!

Firstly however, it is important to note that there are some major changes to company pages such as; how the applications are displayed, the introduction of cover photos (the default landing pages have now gone entirely) and the options for fan interaction have now been improved.

You can enable your new brand page now but on the 30th March 2012 your Page will automatically convert to the new format (much in the same way the new Timeline for profiles was introduced earlier this year) – so it's best to get prepared beforehand.

Follow my guide on how to enable it NOW:

By now we've all heard of Pinterest. You'd be hard pressed to have escaped it in fact. For some of us it's just another one of those Social Media sites floating around in the background and for others it's a big deal. No doubt some of you will have been running around over the last month or so trying to find out all about it, and even more importantly, how to generate leads from it.

There's a lot of blogs out there from people who've been on this from the word go, trying to pinpoint the best strategies for building a brand identity on the site. Pun not intended of course. Now some of these blogs are pretty useful, and at this point there's more than enough information out there to make sure that your brand is forced down peoples throats deep enough that they'll never forget the experience. Some of the strategies are pretty clever too, though they don't vary too differently from that of other platforms.

Twitter moves closer to PPC as it launches self-service advertising

With the rise of social media and it's use in business, different platforms have been quick to bring advertising services to the table. And why not? Google PPC and Facebook PPC are valuable weapons in any company's digital marketing arsenal. However, Twitter have been somewhat slower on the uptake. Whilst its true that there millions of punters on Twitter, all conversing on topics potentially relevant to your business, most people seem to agree that introducing an advertising platform that doesn't compromise the service will prove difficult.

Digital to Direct Marketing – How to make telemarketing the most powerful asset to your marketing strategy

You may not have heard about 'D2D' Marketing. The whole process is a fairly new concept...but one which we feel gives us at Red Wasp the pioneering edge.

Most people are aware of how telemarketing works. You get a list of data to call (usually cold with no prior contact) and work through it systematically, ensuring that call backs are hit on time and opportunities are converted into qualified leads.

Some of you may already have the benefit of having warm leads to follow up on, be it registered interest from a prospect at a trade show or previous customers, which is great, but targeting the cold data is where the hardest challenge lies. So how can we improve that?

The answer is simple. Website traffic. If someone has come to your website, the chances are they are looking for your services or interested in your product. With 'D2D' Marketing there are three steps you need to take to turn these potential interests into the qualified leads we all fight for, and here they are: