2009 July | Oasis Interactive

The little things that make the difference in your Google AdWords

July 29th, 2009 | 0 comments

If you thought composing a meaningful message within 140 characters in Twitter is difficult, you’re going to need to make it even more succinct with the 95 characters you have for a Google AdWords ad. And that translates to convincing someone to go to your site within 95 characters! No doubt a challenge.

There are plenty of tricks and tips out there in the WWW to refer to when you write your Google AdWords ad copy but here, we’ll like to share with you some very interesting statistics I came across at MindValley Labs – the good people there have some very interesting killer writing tips as well.

1) Dot Dot Dot…

MindValley Labs once placed 2 ads and the only difference between the 2 was 3 dots. Check out the statistics below:

And why did it work so well? Well, putting 3 dots behind a sentence tend to make people think there is more information waiting to be read after clicking on it isn’t it?

2) The Impact Of a Word Change

Can you spot the difference? Yes you got it. MindValley Lab found that when they changed the word “Changes” to “Change”, it resulted in a 180% increase in Click-Through Rate. What an impact it made!

Change versus Changes. The two words can be subtly read as “To change it yourself manually” versus “This will change automatically”.

Depending on your product, the words you use should imply differently. Think. What would your customers find more appealing? To have your product work for your customer or would your customer rather do it themselves?

Here are some examples:

Organize versus Organizes

Transform versus Transforms

Create versus Creates

You get the idea.

3) Capitalization:

The MindValley Labs folks have proven that by simply capitalizing strategically in your Google AdWords copy, it can maximize CTR and ROI. Capitalized keywords stand out more and almost always outperforms those ads that aren’t capitalized.

The above test done by MindValley Labs clearly show that by capitalizing the right keywords in your ad (except for words like, “in”, “and”, “on”, and those 2 words like “up”, etc…) can boost your CTR by 80%! Small but very impactful!

We always look forward to opportunities for sharing our knowledge and ideas. We hope you found this insightful!

More and more Singapore companies are recognizing the power of web2.0

July 20th, 2009 | 0 comments

Alas, the concept of the World Wide Web has finally evolved. Gone are the days of the dot.com era where useful web applications are still alien to all of us. We are in a moment in the history of digital, one that is now rightly balanced between the mass embracement, infrastructure and technology.

web2.0

Infrastructure: A Nation’s Initiative to build a digital expressway.
And Singapore has never had a better chance to be a global leader since the hay days when our beloved Changi Airport topped the aviation class chart. The Singapore government understands this and is pouring out millions every year on grants, initiatives and infrastructure. A waste of money? Hardly. Unlike building a strong culture and national identity for a small city state which is celebrating its 46th birthday this year, Singapore has what it takes to overtake many developed countries with the right type of seeding. With free wireless infrastructure placed across the island of Singapore and the ultra high speed digital highway ready by 2015, Singapore has set the right stage for a great performance in the many years to come.

Mass Embracement: Digital is our middle name.
We just love technology. The “IT Show”, “SITEX and “COMEX SHOW” are phenomenon that I believe would happen only in Singapore. Year in and out, these events bring the latest gadgets to town and Singaporeans spend tens of millions dollars in a mere couple of days. Today, every household has at least one computer at home with broadband connection. We also have one of the highest acceptance rate of smart hand phones in the world.

Technology = Efficacy
There is perhaps a logical reason for this. Efficacy. Technology brings along efficiency and living in such a fast pace society, IT allows us to get everything done efficiently, anywhere and anytime.

What will naturally progress on…

Remember that as a country itself, our economy strived till today without natural resources. The concept itself forms a very large reason why Digital will be a “natural” force here. Most businesses in Singapore have already established some form of web presence with basic information website that mostly preludes their product and services and contact details. But more and more are realizing digital as a “natural resource” that could bring in good harvest of lead acquisition and sales year in and out.

Web 2.0 brings about a whole different perspective how businesses market itself. Way before the existence of Silicon Valley where advertising companies in Madison Avenue, New York, made names for themselves, advertising was a godly term used to glorify brands in fantasy island. The underlying message was simple. Buy this product because we just painted the most beautiful picture to you on why it will provide for your need. Consumers in year 2009 hardly believe in this crap now. Globalization and Internet brings about Choices. And that is where Web 2.0 brings on the phenomenon of ground swell; The People’s Power. Consumers control what they want to hear about the Products.

And this is just perfect for most Singapore companies that are breaking into their different business zones, where industry leaders have already been established. They now have a chance to play “David” among the “Goliaths” and propel their products into a global platform, stripped down to its core and unfazed by all the marketing gimmicks, for the consumers to compare and give their voice of approval or genuine feedbacks. All this without equivalent of Goliath’s marketing muscles.

A singular genuine consumer’s voice of approval influences the community’s mindset in a flash. The viral word of mouth effect is the major difference between web2.0 and the rest of the media. Groundswell provides this viral effect for nothing more than a genuine good product itself. It would also seem that the bigger boys’ concern and hesitance when using digital media is exactly the flip side to this effect as well. The obsession to protect the image of the brand can be overzealous at times and result into reluctance to accept that web 2.0 has a genuine feedback channel.

There are many ways the web2.0 can work for all of us. Perhaps, ever more now with the surging support from Digital Media and its integration with the other Medias. While we know through our business, clients are more knowledgeable than ever about digital, we would still like to give a general friendly advice that it is not about buying some digital space (because it is affordable) and displaying creative banners, hoping consumers will click. The arena has turned more complex than that. Identifying good traffic sources to generate eyeballs, right earnest engagement with your consumers, understanding where your customers are in, social media engagement, identifying your consumer’s journey path, tracking and reviewing… At the end of the day, we believe a good digital strategy is important, not to influence or maneuver groundswell’s opinion, but to design a global stage that is fitting for your brand.

Twitter Explained

July 16th, 2009 | 0 comments

Twitter describes itself as, “a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

Well, that is kind of ambiguous but not to worry! We have found a really simple and straightforward explanation of just what Twitter is.

Twitter in Plain English. Video by Common Craft.

So if you really want to know what Twitter is in a nutshell, just watch the video .

Or send it to your colleague. Or boss. If any of them gets really interested to see how it can work for a business, we’ll be happy to pave the way for you.

Twitter as a marketing tool?
Twitter is an excellent source of free publicity that marketers in Singapore should all explore. Just to skim the surface of the possibilities of Twitter as a marketing tool, Twitter can be used as a micro content delivery system, promote products and services, offer real-time customer service and so much more.

Starbucks uses Twitter as a platform for Customer Service

Tweets today have evolved to more than just everyday experiences. People share links to interesting content on the web (just like what we do), converse on hot topics (using hashtags), share photos, videos, music and real-time accounts from people who are in the midst of a newsworthy event, crisis, or natural disaster. Do check out our post on 10 ways of using business in Twitter here for some ideas!

So what is Twitter?

So in a nutshell, what is Twitter? It is many different things to many different people. It can be used by a family to keep in touch, or a company to coordinate businesses, or the media to keep people informed or a writer to build up a fan base.

Twitter is micro-blogging. It is social messaging. It is an event coordinator, a business tool, a news reporting service and a social-media marketing utility. There. That wasn’t so hard now, was it?

For more on digital marketing, do follow our twitter at Oasis Digital.

Search Engine Marketing killer: Social Media?

July 15th, 2009 | 4 comments

Marketing, in accordance to Wikipedia, is defined as an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities discover that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others.

Finding the right engagement to marketing your products and goods (if defined correctly by Wikipedia) is identifying the Journey of Discovery. Long before the internet era, marketing was a simple word with major mass media like Television & Radio, Newspaper & Magazine, Direct Mailers and Billboard Advertisements. To have an integrated communication simply meant planning your media diary correctly to the launch and sustenance of your campaign.

Integrated communication takes on another meaning nowadays. The internet has stitched the world flat and helped pieced the continents into one. With a larger choice of media (outdoor ambience advertising, buses, trains, taxis, internet, mobile, movies, psp, iptv, sms, edm…), advertisers are finding it increasingly harder to match their target audience to the journey of discovering their brands. In fact, we have been driven so hard that it is a common phenomenon in Singapore to even have tissue paper packets to drive marketing messages as well!

With all the brands having unique selling points and catering to your needs, consumers can’t tell the difference between the good and the bad anymore. Where marketing tactics are driven by numbers nowadays, consumers are suffocating with too much over promises and deceit (at times).

From the mammoth growth in social media community, it has become clear that it is the consumer’s shelter of truth and refuge. Our recent survey with Synovate for a portal research showed that Singapore Consumers are likely to be irked by a social media community that has commercial and brand affiliation. Consumers are likely to contribute most if there is a cause that they believe in. It is also a sign of our times that the Journey of Discovery has evolved. With so many choices of handphones to select, consumers have added new milestones to their journey of obtaining their desired product. Besides the style and impression that different brands and models are projecting, more and more consumers are seeking like-minded groups for sharing of experiences and evaluation. You may be just one of them that goes through technology websites, forums, youtube and product websites before finally deciding on a handphone.

So is social media a killer of search engine marketing? The point I am trying to make is they are not in the same league in the first place. Search Engine Marketing helps advertisers find the right target audience in the galaxy of users. It is an essential tool in digital marketing and has delivered excellent results to many campaigns in this agency. But there is a new media that is very much a Neverland in the name of social media. Big brands fear its existence. Other brands are unaware how to engage it. Perhaps maybe social media sites are the last frontier for consumers that are afterall, just seeking the truth in what is being advertised.