Ecommerce sales are not just big business in Australia - they are HUGE. Online shopping is poised to rake in nearly 5 percent of the total retail-based sales nationwide for 2015 - and the holiday shopping season hasn't even arrived yet.

Well it’s an interesting question and one that I was recently asked by a potential client. The last time  I looked it was around 5%. The problem is that most SME businesses and start-ups fail to understand the importance of setting a marketing budget. Unfortunately it’s often overseen and also seen as an expense.  The truth is that most businesses fail not because they don’t have a great product or service, but because they fail to see the importance of marketing and having enough budget set to get the desired outcome. What’s worse is that in a tougher economic climate many businesses look to cut their marketing budget. Truth be told, you should probably increase your budget to ensure that you can continue to bring in enough revenue to support the business.

You may believe that bad reviews can mean the end of your business. However, I have a story of a very upscale business that actually killed themselves by trying to discourage bad reviews.

For many marketers, conversion rate is a critical metric when it comes to proving value. After all, the number of people converting is usually an easy method to see whether your marketing tactics are working. When sales, signups or leads go up, your marketing efforts must be working. So what if there was a tactic you could use that would make people 70 percent more likely to buy? You'd use it, right?

Helping local businesses with their search marketing strategy is difficult. However, those of us that assist businesses with hundreds, in some cases thousands, of locations understand that the task comes with unique circumstances. Getting one business location to rank is a feat, let alone hundreds of locations that are many kilometres apart.

While it may not be immediately obvious why email is such an important part of search engine optimization (SEO), there's no denying that there's an important connection between the two. It's true that having a lot of email subscribers is not going to improve your search engine rankings directly, per se. However, email is a great way to both gain the interest of your target audience and to encourage potential customers to purchase your products and services.

The mega-advancement of computer technology in the 21st century has honed the competitive edges between businesses to an unprecedented sharpness. Whether it’s “Mom and Pop” corner stores or huge conglomerates, immediate brand recognition often draws the line between success and failure. A primary key to achieving that critical recognition is effective navigation through the world of SEO. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, can make or break a new business.

One way many companies aim to drum up new leads and generate interest in their company is by holding an event. For example, webinars have taken off in recent years as a great way to find fresh new faces who may be interested in buying - or at least in signing up to receive your emails in the future.

Prioritization of e-commerce pay-per-click campaign builds have evolved in the past couple of years. Today, e-commerce sites may use various solutions including Google shopping, remarketing, search network ads, dynamic search ads and the Google display network to promote their business. Read on to find out more on how to prioritize e-commerce PPC campaign builds.

If a person is looking for a highly targeted platform that provides them with a great opportunity to promote their company, LinkedIn may be the best choice. With more than 300 million users and numbers that are increasing, it is a popular and flourishing social media platform for businesses and professionals across the world. Today’s marketers and media planners often overlooks LinkedIn’s self-service ad platform. However, the following facts and statistics are evidence that it is very popular.