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© andresmh

Online video has become one of the best direct online marketing tools, and increasing the variety of online video services can accelerate consumer engagement. The on-demand service enables advertisers to link their campaigns with broadcast quality content on the web and to efficiently reach a highly targeted and engaged audience.

Further, the growing presence of online videos as a part of marketing and ad campaigns reflects their effectiveness, and the value of permanently accessible content on the internet for consumers. Recent research has projected that by 2016 the number of people viewing online videos will exceed 1.3 billion, which is almost double the 2010 statistics. The rising popularity of sites like YouTube, Vimeo and social media channels like Facebook and Twitter are accelerating the returns to video advertising as a direct marketing tool.

© ComputerMonger

Link building is the missing piece in many online marketing plans. Onsite SEO marketing and content are important, but there is nothing like good, strong, focused links to your site's pages to have a big impact on ranking. Of course, link building is not the most fun part of SEO for most.

But there are things that can be done to make it easier. Rex Swains HTTP Header Check is a tool that is useful for link building. Many people do not use 301s properly, and if you are building links to a site it's important for that redirect to be in there. Tools that help with automation are crucial. Good SEOs use tools to automate their efforts and become more efficient. Google's Toobar PageRank is not very useful as a link building metric, according to experts. Using audits pre and post publish is helpful to monitor your links and make sure they are all live, constructed properly and in good neighborhoods.

© kpwerker

There has been a lot of debate over the value of social media in direct online marketing campaigns. The focus of that debate is currently centered on the best way that social media can create value for companies, although there are still some who are totally against the use of sites like Facebook and Twitter in their campaigns (about 15% of companies today).

Many marketers have also been looking beyond social media to other online methods for their campaigns, despite the emphasis that the business world has placed on social platforms in recent years. Companies find they are facing a lot of challenges in the current market environment, and are looking to outside partners to help them address these challenges. However, in too many cases they are finding a market flooded by providers who sell little more than an idea that social media is the end-all and be-all of a successful online presence.