Avatar News April 19, 2007

Beginners Guide to Search Engine Advertising

Ready to give your marketing cocktail a bit of a shake-up? If you're not already using search engine advertising, you may want to think about advertising your business, your latest special offer or a seasonal promotion through those little ads on search engines (see examples to the right).

Using search engine advertising can be an effective way of getting instant search engine coverage, competing with your competition and balancing more long-term search engine optimisation strategies.

Here are some guidelines to help you get started with a search engine advertising campaign:

• Clearly identify the purpose of your advertising campaign
• Decide who and where your target audience is
• Decide what your budget is
• Decide which search engine you want to advertise on (Google Adwords or Yahoo! Search Marketing)
• Select keywords that are relevant and affordable for your campaign
• Write relevant, interesting and persuasive adverts (both search engines offer guidelines on how to do this)
• Point the ads to relevant pages on your Web site
• Test and measure your results
• Refine your ads, your keyword selection and your landing pages to improve your results for this campaign (and the next!)

Whilst Yahoo!'s upcoming 'Panama' platform promises an upgrade of its advertising program, the key difference between Google and Yahoo! is simply that most people still prefer using Google rather than Yahoo!.

Need Help With Your Search Engine Advertising Campaign?
We recommend that clicks on your search engine advertisements lead people through to specific Web advertising 'landing' pages. (You may need to book in some of our Web design time for the pages in advance of your promotion.) If you need help with planning your campaign, writing ads or creating additional Web landing pages, please feel free to contact us to discuss your needs.

New Zealand Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act

You now have six months to make sure that you are not an illegal spammer. New Zealand has passed its anti-spam law in the form of the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2007. In the next six months, before the law comes into force, you need to review your email practices to make sure that you comply. There are significant penalties for getting it wrong (and of course your reputation will suffer), so the Act isn't something you can afford to ignore.

Avatar asked Rick Shera, of Lowndes Jordan, one of New Zealand's leading ICT (information, communication and technology) lawyers, to give us a few pointers. Here's what Rick has to say:

What The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act Applies To
The Act primarily applies to New Zealand connected (e.g., sender or receiver in NZ) email (not letters, voicemail or faxes), which markets goods, services, land, business or investment opportunities. The main change is that before you send anyone a commercial email, you need his or her consent.

What Consent Means
You can have express consent (i.e. where someone has agreed that you can send them the email) or inferred consent. So, we hear you ask, what does inferred consent mean? We can divide 'inferred consent' into two categories — existing contacts and new contacts.

Existing Contacts
You can send a commercial email to your existing contacts without express consent if you have a business or other relationship, which indicates that they would expect to receive that email from you.

For example, as a lawyer, I can email my clients with legal information without having to obtain their express consent - I can infer consent because that is the focus of my business relationship with them. However, I could not send them an email promoting, say, a new invention, since that is outside that relationship.

New Contacts
You can send a commercial email to new contacts without express consent if:

• Their business email address has been conspicuously published; and
• They have not stated that they do not want to receive unsolicited messages at that address; and
• The message you are sending is relevant to the business, role, functions, or duties of the recipient, in their business or official capacity.

For example, I could send an email to the directors of a company, having obtained those addresses from the company Web site, notifying them of a change in the law relating to directors' duties. However, I could not send that information to someone who is not a director as it is not relevant to his or her role.

There is a lot more in this new law and we'll keep you posted with more information over the next few months. If you want more detailed advice, please feel free to contact Rick on 0800 LAWFIRM (0800 529 3476).

Bullet Proof Your Web Site Text — This Month's Special Offer

Although you've probably checked the text on your Web pages before it was published, it is notoriously difficult to spot your own mistakes. With this in mind, this month's special offer is for proof reading your Web page text.

We'll send you paper print outs of your Web pages, clearly marked up to identify:

• Any typos in page text and graphics
• Errors and inconsistencies in grammar, capitalisation, punctuation, treatment of numbers and abbreviations
• Confusing, unclear language
• Broken links
• Problems with functionality
• Inconsistencies with text alignment

If you want a second pair of eyes to check the finish on your Web site text, please contact us.

We are offering this service at a discounted hourly rate of $60+gst. A time estimate will be provided based on your requirements.

Interesting Tidbits

• The best April Fool's Day gags ever. Enjoy these classic April Fool's Day stunts including the left-handed burger and the Swiss spaghetti harvest.
• New position for product placement? You've seen movies with products placed strategically in each shot; now watch out for products placed in your search box. One blog recently noted that MSN UK were pre-loading a search-query into the search box.
• Hackers hit TK Maxx to the max! Hackers have stolen information from at least 45.7 million payment cards used by customers of US retailer TJX. It's worth keeping a close eye on credit cards and statements with these sorts of hacks happening!
• Microsoft issues emergency security patch. Talking of hackers, at the beginning of the month, Microsoft issued a security patch to fix a security flaw in animated cursors, which was being exploited by hackers to hijack PCs.
• Friends online. Getting your friends hooked up to Facebook can save you loads of time trying to keep up to date with your friends' photos, news and chitchat.
• Are you a wilfer? If you have surfed the Web somewhat aimlessly and you're regularly thinking, 'What was I looking for (again)?' - you've been 'wilfing'. According to a recent survey of UK adults, up to 2 days per month can be lost wilfing!
• Make the world a happier, wigglier place. You can join Team Wiggly's mission to make the world a happier place by creating wiggly-eyed faces in public places to raise a few smiles.
• Aroma alarm... Not one for the veggies amongst us, but if you love bacon, you may like the sound (and smell) of this ingenious alarm clock, which wakes you up to the gentle waft of a frying rasher.
• Are you due for a windfall? Check out IRD's record of unclaimed monies from 2005 — one unclaimed fund was for $55,042.99!
• Make New Zealand a little greener. We're not talking gardening here, but car-pooling. Carpool NZ aims to help people share rides around New Zealand saving petrol, money and a little bit more of the planet!

Sites of Interest

Here's a selection of sites we've designed, updated and/or marketed recently...

• Lake Tekapo Scenic Resort (design and promotion)
  Quality and comfortable accommodation choices in units and studios with lake and alpine views of the Tekapo area.
• Maugers Rentals (design and promotion)
  Minibuses, minivans and trailer rentals from 'The Minibus Specialist' based within 5 minutes of Christchurch International Airport.
• Signal Motors (design and promotion)
  Toyota Hiace van specialists based in Christchurch dealing in used and imported vans.
• Elm Tree House (promotion)
  Christchurch bed and breakfast accommodation in an elegant 1920s setting.
• Totalspan (update)
  Garages, commercial buildings, carports, sheds and temporary accommodation from New Zealand's leading manufacturer of steel buildings.
• ARF Rentals (update)
  Rental cars, 4WDs and camper cars from car rental company with offices in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch.
• Lizzie Cook (update)
  New Zealand singer-songwriter and accordion player writing jazz-inflected, world folk music for the accordion. CDs and sample music available online.
• Fiji Weddings (update)
  Dream Fiji weddings for anyone desiring a wedding or honeymoon in an earthly paradise.
• Tipi & Bob's Waterfront Lodge (update)
  Waterfront accommodation on Great Barrier Island, New Zealand enjoying spectacular views of Tryphena Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf.