When Tonya & I started Remerge back in early 2007, we kicked-off the company with a whirlwind tour or radio stations throughout the Midwest (30 stations in 30 days).  The very first slide we showed during our presentation looked like this -

Our slide clearly demonstrated that the radio industry (blue) had flat-lined as a $21 billion industry, while momentum and innovation were driving breathtaking growth for digital ad revenue (red). Our question to radio broadcasters was rather simple and straight forward: “How long before digital out performs traditional?”

Most broadcasters at the time, and many to this day, dismissed the obvious. At best, they paid digital lip service. While Clear Channel has used their broad reach to drive interest in the iHeartRadio app, there is still very little serious planning going on within the radio industry to confront new realities, and/or offer new solutions.

Radio revs for 2012 were at $17 billion, up 1% from 2011 – with the largest growth coming from… you guessed it… digital at 8%. While “up” is good, the industry is still down nearly 20% since we first did out presentation above.

Now comes a bit of info that should be slightly more disturbing to broadcasters… and it’s not merely the presence of Pandora, Spotify, Google’s new streaming solution, or Apple’s plans to join the streaming arena. Harris interactive just released the results of a study of over 2000 adults (not kids)… and 6 out of 10 feel terrestrial radio will be gone in 5-years.

Whatever challenges radio may have, their lack of attention to problem solving is certainly not helped by public perception believing radio is quickly becoming irrelevant… a feeling so strong, that 60% would predict an end to radio in 5 years!

Significant change is coming to the radio industry with or without their input. It appears peddling faster is no longer an option… radio needs to start shopping for a motor bike.

-Chuck Francis

One of the most common questions I get asked (which usually turns into a debate) is on the topic of Search Engine Marketing and Optimization.

It is inevitably asked by someone who has most likely already invested in this kind of marketing and the influx of traffic and orders they were promised by the SEM/SEO company don’t seem to be manifesting.

When someone works with Remerge Media to improve their organic position in the search results or increase order conversion from search traffic, we start with our philosophy:

Remerge provides basic best-practices advice on traditional search engine optimization and paid search strategies.  SEO is more art than science, and the algorithms put in place by the most popular search engines are constantly in flux (they keep changing the rules!)  

Some SEO companies use techniques that tie you to them beyond what you’d imagine from your original conversations. In a rush to deliver noticeable results in a short period of time, they create additional landings pages using domain names and URLs and mirrored sites that LOOK like yours, but don’t belong to you.  While those pages might have your contact info on them today, what do you think happens to these SEO-company owned pages the day you decide to cancel your contract? It’s possible your most-hated competitor’s information will now appear on those pages you’ve been paying to have pushed up in the search rankings!

Paid Search (SEM) is pure pay-for-play. In my opinion it’s a more honest business transaction than most SEO contracts. SEM runs on auction-based business model — if you bid the highest amount to pay in exchange for a click, your ads will be featured more prominently than anyone else. The twist is that you can always be outbid by a competitor (and some businesses you wouldn’t even consider a competitor are also bidding against you!) You receive benefit so long as you keep paying. Once you turn off the dollars, they turn off the ad links.

SEM can be effective for short-term (or long-term) advertising campaigns, but it is a poor strategy for creating a trustworthy brand based on delivering customer-value.

And none of the information above even begins to broach the subject of all the “black hat” techniques (practices that will cause search engines to penalize a website if they are caught subverting their system) that many less reputable (and many so-called reputable) SEO/SEM companies use without telling their clients.

Rather than trying to manipulate or game the search engine’s ranking algorithms, Remerge focuses on content-based SEO strategies that stress the creation of customer-focused, value-based information which your prospects are seeking out through their use of the search engines in the first place.  

At its core, our philosophy is to let the search engines focus on what they do best — finding information for the user — and let our clients focus on what they do best — solving problems for their customers. 

If you’d like a free consultation on how you can improve your search ranking without spending a DIME with an SEO or SEM company — give us a call at 614-245-0796.

What would local TV do if the networks decided they no longer needed local transmitters? Where would the TV programming come from? How would the local CBS, NBC, ABC, or Fox TV stations make money?

I know I’ve tortured many friends and colleagues over years and beers wondering aloud these very questions.

Well, it looks like we may get the answers sooner rather than later if this article on Forbes.com today is accurate. It seems that at least two of the four big TV networks are actually entertaining life beyond the airwaves.

Hey local TV - how big is your Doppler? Yeah, no one cares.

Chuck Francis
~Remerge

Many people are realizing an overall savings in their marketing expenditures by utilizing less expensive and higher-returning digital strategies, but are you taking the money you’re saving and putting it back into your business?

A recent study finds that most businesses are doing exactly that — and continuing to increase the results delivered from their established marketing budget by not redirecting the initial savings away from overall marketing efforts…

Many companies are reinvesting digital marketing savings
Many marketers are using the money they’ve saved by marketing via digital platforms to invest in additional digital marketing, according to a Gartner survey of 250 large U.S. companies.

Media companies spent an average of 12.7% of their total revenue on marketing and assigned 3.9% of total revenue to digital buys, leading all other sectors. The same marketers say they expect to increase total marketing spending by an average of 6% in 2013, with the media sector projected to have the largest increases, according to Gartner.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Savings-Fuel-New-Digital-Spending/1009754