So – You’re making a new TV ad for your business.

You go out and hire the best creatives you can afford.

And after a long pitch process, going through idea after idea, you find “the one”.

Then there’s filming, location, editing and a host of other costs to be negotiated. But once you get the edits through, it all starts to look much more exciting. Then there’s the back-and-forth with the editors until you’ve finally got a finished product that you’re absolutely delighted with. And your agency is thrilled at the prospect of perhaps winning an industry award.

But then it dawns on you that with all the additional changes, locations, actors, revisions, re-shoots and so forth, there’s not actually any budget left to put it on TV anywhere meaningful..!

So it goes out at 3am on an obscure local channel that no-one watches. And you’ve got away with it…until that is, the CEO asks why he hasn’t seen the ad on TV.

Sounds ridiculous right? I mean, who’d do something like that?!

Turns out plenty of people would: There are a lot of websites in NZ that have had five and six-figure sums spent on them along with the associated amounts of time looking at visuals, concepts, wire frames, beta versions, user testing and so forth. Yet when you search online for the products these sites sell (and at least half of NZ consumers do just this), you just never see their (amazing) new site in the search listings.

Anywhere.

And there’s no budget left to run a search engine advertising campaign (eg. AdWords) or to do SEO properly – the budget has all been spent!

Hard to believe..?

Try searching on Google for, say LCD TVs –  some retailers have put obvious effort into both paid and natural search. Others simply have not.

Or maybe you’re trying to buy books online, say as a Christmas gift. Again, there is a lack of proactive SEO, or PPC campaigns for that matter, from some New Zealand retailers.  The results speak for themselves.

Making TV ads and then not showing them to anyone sounds ridiculous and you’d never do it.

So why is it ok to do exactly that with your website..?

The tension is becoming stronger and stronger as publishers are forced to deal with the prospect of having advertisers say to them: “I like your site but I don’t want to pay per impresssion”

Chief operating officer Samuel Stadler spoke to The Independent about SEO, PPC and Online Advertising [PDF].

Christmas is just around the corner, so is your site and online marketing ready for the silly season? In this blog post we’ve decided to cover some of the most important things you will need to consider.

Note: This post is mainly relevant to e-commerce stores. Obviously if you are selling truck axles, or something equally as un-festive, you are going to need a very different strategy.

Getting Your Online Marketing Ready For Christmas

It’s not business as usual. The first thing you need to do is…. change! December is not just another month in the calendar. The very nature of the web will be changing around you over this period, so it’s essential your web presence does the same.

• Make changes to your site. Whether that means adding new content focusing on Christmas, or even going a bit Google and changing your logo to be a bit more festive, you will need to make some changes to get the most out of the season.
• Make sure you have links going to the new content on your site. There is no point making a great Christmas presents page if nobody can find it. Link to it from a banner on your homepage, or put a ribbon at the top of your site. Make it obvious!
• Promote your popular products. If you have a product you know is at the top of everyone’s wish list this year, or has always proven to be a good seller at Christmas time, promote it! Put it in a place where everyone can see it.
• Make your shipping times obvious. Let all your users know what your final shipping dates for Christmas are. This will not only make sure they don’t miss out, but can help assure them that they will get the goods on time, and encourage them to buy from you!

So perhaps you have now got some work to do, here is the next big question: When do you need to do it?

Christmas PPC – Getting the Timing Right

The Christmas rush is all about timing. Getting your product to the market at the right time can make a huge difference to your sales. Search traffic around Christmas related terms really picks up in mid to late November, and peaks in early December. The Google Insights graph below shows the Christmas search traffic for one of the most obvious keywords, ‘gifts’.

(Above: Google Insights graph showing search volume for the keyword gifts in New Zealand)

Using ComScore worldwide data, Volusion, the ecommerce system providers, put the following chart together showing that the date when most people are buying for Christmas keeps on getting earlier and earlier each year, with their prediction for 2009 being the 8th of December.

Above: Volusion’s graphical representation of the busiest online shopping days. Sourced from: http://onlinebusiness.volusion.com/articles/green-monday-2009

So armed with the above knowledge, you should be able to schedule your online advertising budget according to when you expect the most people to come to your site. Watch it carefully though, NZ consumers are likely to behave a bit differently still to their US counterparts.

Obviously if your last day for delivery by Christmas is the 20th, you dont want to allocate half your budget to the final rush. However, if you have ‘virtual’ products that don’t need delivery you may find you need to allocate more to attract those last minute spenders who need something on Christmas Eve.

What It Means for Your Online Advertising:

With the increase in the search volume, there tends to be a jump in the CPC bids you can expect to pay over this time. Google have provided us with an example average CPC graph for the keyword ‘toys’, as is shown below.

(Above: Google provided CPC data on CPCs for the keyword ‘toys’ over the Christmas period.)

It is therefore essential that you are focusing on having the highest AdWords keyword quality scores possible to ensure you don’t start paying significantly more just to keep up with the other advertisers. A higher quality score will mean you won’t be affected by this as much.

There will be a lot of new keywords related to Christmas that you should be targeting around this time, and you should be editing your creative to target Christmas shoppers. First Rate Consultants are starting to trial different creative strategies already to see what will work best for your target market this year.

To really target all those new keywords and the higher bids you will likely face, the online campaigns will need some additional budget. If you are not able to give your campaign a budget injection, consider using some of your January budget in December, as January is generally a much quieter month.

If you have an email you want to send out to your user base, make sure you time it right. If you send it too late, you may find most people have already completed their online shopping. Send it too early and you will find your open rates suffer as nobody takes interest.

Is It Too Late For This Christmas..?

It’s not too late to change your site or your online advertising campaigns for this Christmas, just get onto it right now! First Rate consultants have already been working hard on providing recommendations for First Rate clients, and are looking forward to the jump in traffic and sales that December can bring.

But if you are hoping to rank really well in the organic rankings for that product you know is going to sell well… that is going to be a lot more difficult.

Why not contact First Rate about an SEO project to make sure you get there by next Christmas..?

First Rate’s Chief Operating Officer, Samuel Stadler, presented at the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) yesterday.

Samuel spoke on how multi-channel marketing for retailers is more important than ever, how online ad spend supports offline store sales and how consumers are using predominately generic, product-focused search terms – not necessarily branded terms.

One interesting statistic to lift out from Samuel’s presentation Online Retailers & The Power of Search:

The Amcham Retailers Power Breakfast Forum was held in association with the New Zealand Retailers Association. The topic was: “What retailers need to know to grow and prosper in 2010 – five specialist presentations from leading experts, including Steve Kulmar and Stefan Preston”, and the presentations covered the following topics:

• Making sustainable retailing practices work for you
• Integrating design into the retailer’s DNA
• Feminizing the in-store experience to avoid losing customer engagement
• Personalising the experience; talking with and listening to your customers
• Learning the essentials of search marketing for successful e-tailing and online marketing
• Streamlining HR and recruitment

New Zealand Retailing – What Retailers Need to Know to Grow and Prosper

• “How sustainable retailing practices are working overseas and top tips on how to make these new trends work for you” – Steve Kulmar, Retail Consultant, M&C Saatchi Retail

• “Managers are now forced to rethink the way the work environment contributes to productivity and creativity. Top tips on how your company can integrate design into the company’s DNA.” – Stefan Preston, CEO, Ingenio

• “Feminizing the in-store experience or suffer losing engagement. How in-store architecture and design is crucial to the retail marketing mix.” – Gary McCartney, Managing Director, Brands in Space

• “Personalising the experience; talking with and listening to your customers rather than shouting at them. Why personalising the offer in retail is important and top tips on providing targeted offers and servicing based on individual profiles.” – Darryn Melrose, CEO, M&C Saatchi

• “The power of Search: Why every business needs a strong presence on search engines and how measurable it can be, especially when compared to alternative forms of marketing. ” – Samuel Stadler, COO, First Rate

• “Permission based email marketing” – Toni Knowles, New Zealand Country Manager, 3di Interactive

Please follow the link to download Samuel’s presentation on New Zealand Retailers, Search Engine Marketing & Google Analytics.

Usually First Rate’s blog is focused on internet marketing thought leadership, search marketing, performance advertising, industry research and trends affecting New Zealand Business.

Today we want to write about something entirely different.

First Rate has decided, as a company, to sponsor a child with ChildFund. We are proud to be working with ChildFund to help generate awareness of the global needs that exist for saving children’s lives.

Has your company considered a donation? Why not sponsor a child?

Give a child the chance to break free from the cycle of poverty, and the opportunity to grow into a leader, innovator, teacher or worker who will bring growth and change for the better. Your sponsorship provides food, water, schooling, health care and immunisation to protect against disease. Sponsoring a child is one of the most powerful giving experiences you will ever have.

Whilst one sponsorship does not save the world, it does make a massive personal difference for our sponsored child, Faith.

Here is a bit more information about her:

Do you have the guts to raise child sponsorship at the next weekly company meeting?

Think about it.