Sticky is looking for the right person to join our innovative digital agency.

We’re growing rapidly and need an account manager with great project management skills to fill a key role liaising with our local, national and international clients and digital production and SEO team.

Here’s what you’d be doing:

• Acting as the main point of contact for clients

• Mapping out project timelines and deliverables in liaison with our digital team

• Managing projects in order to meet goals and deadlines

• Communicating client requirements / amendments to our digital team

• Involved from initial strategy and project scoping right through to roll out

• Writing proposals

• Guiding and making recommendations to clients for best possible outcomes

You’ll need to:

• Have outstanding communication skills, both written and verbal

• Be able to confidently present to senior executives of major national organisations

• Understand web design, marketing and SEO principles (we have our own methodologies and systems and will train you further)

• Be able to take the initiative, not wait for directions

• Be extremely organised, with an eye for details

• Have an excellent customer service ethic

• Be based in our Newcastle office (on the waterfront, great coffee, exciting environment)

• Live and breathe online marketing (we’re sort of obsessive)

• Have reliable transport

• Have a good sense of humour (life’s too short)

Previous experience within a digital agency or digital arm of an advertising agency is very favourable.

This is a key role. We’ll take our time to find the best available person for the job, but when we identify that person we’ll move fast.

Salary: negotiable.

We’ll accept APPLICATIONS via email only. Send them to enquiries@stickyads.com.au with the subject line DIGITAL ACCOUNT MANAGER. A cover letter and one page resume outlining RELEVANT experience will suffice. Bog-standard resumes bore us to tears. Please include links to your Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogs if you have them.

Anything else that demonstrates your suitability for the position or other digital skills wouldn’t go astray but isn’t essential.

We’ll invite you in for a chat if we think you might be the person we’re looking for, and we’ll let you know via email if you’re not.

Is your business still rolling out the same marketing plan in 2009 as you have in previous years? If so, why?

There is now an abundance of evidence that audiences are changing their media consumption habits and that online is becoming the hottest place to start directing your marketing dollars. Even traditional media placement legend Harold Mitchell told Adnews recently that he saw 2008 as a year of significant change in the advertising industry, one that cemented the digital age as the permanent force in media.

But how many businesses owners and marketing managers have started making the transition with their own businesses? How many are currently sitting down and mapping out the same old marketing plan for 2009, allocating a budget to Yellow Pages that go unread or old media with declining audiences but higher rates?

There’s no doubt that we are entering a difficult economic climate. Businesses that adapt quickly and implement cost-effective changes reflective of the new media landscape will emerge in a much stronger position.

If you haven’t already begun exploring new options for your marketing, then make 2009 your year of transition:

• Create a truly informative, conversational and interactive website

• Cut back your Yellow Pages spend and allocate it to search engine optimisation so you can drive more relevant traffic to your site

• Begin exploring social media and engaging with people in and around your industry

• Ensure all your advertising encourages people to visit your website where you can explain more about your product or services

• Discover the amazing measurability of online marketing where you can constantly tweak your efforts to improve results

• Generate free publicity online or in the traditional media from strategic website content and commentary

• Place your TV and radio ads online

• Create online video content so people can see your product or services in action

• Create an online community around your business or product

Don’t get left behind. Start allocating part of your advertising budget to digital media. If you have any doubt at all about the effectiveness of your marketing then you owe it to yourself to explore more measurable and cost-effective options.

And of course, we’d like to help you.

Sticky understands how effective a good online strategy can be and we know how to achieve it.

This website has the highest traffic rank (according to Alexa) of any Newcastle advertising agency.

Sticky have 3 sites ranked in the top 50 Australian marketing websites

Our sites rank very highly in online searches and so do our clients

Last year it was suggested that Sticky could be the “top dog in social media by 2010″

We have contributed to two international marketing books discussing social media

In short…we live and breathe this stuff.

If you’d like to discuss how you can blend your traditional media budget with an powerful online strategy, give us a call, drop in for a coffee and lets talk.

Australia now has over 14 million online users and according to recent research conducted by Ansearch, “each month over 8 million of these users hit one of the various search engines EVERY DAY.”

“And depending upon the source it is generally accepted that between 50-80% of all searches are commercial-in-nature.”

Compare these figures with Yellow (Pages) own published figures of over 7.7 million people using their printed directories to search for businesses EACH MONTH.

So why are you still spending a fortune on Yellow (Pages)?

Presenting these numbers heavily in favour of online search and with the growing trend for Australian consumers to shop more online makes a very strong argument for advertisers to move all or a good size of their print directory budget over to building their online presence and making sure its more search friendly by investing in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

And then there is the COST! Yellow (Pages) advises businesses to go for ‘SIZE, COLOUR & POSITION’ to be noticed, an advertising exercise that may well cost upwards of ten to twenty thousands dollars for a single ad.

And, if an advertiser needed to place ads in all or just a few of Yellow’s (Pages) 6 metropolitan and 49 regional print directories, then this becomes a very costly campaign that can neither be changed or easily measured.

Whereas a SEO campaign identifies where and what people are searching, places your website where people are looking, ability to target multiple audiences and locations and flexible enough to change focus, if required. Depending on the programs complexity and advertisers needs, an SEO campaign start from a few hundred dollars a month and it’s measurable.

Here at Sticky, 53.45% of all web traffic originates from organic Google searches, 16.68% come direct, 9% Sticky blogs, 3.41% Yahoo, 3.20% Twitter and 1.36% www.yellowpages.com.au (paid).

If you are not convinced of this argument then ask yourself. When did you last use a Yellow (Pages) print directory? When did you last have a product enquiry from someone using a Yellow (Pages) print directory? And how do you search for products or services?

Before you sign-off on the next Yellow (Pages) directory have a good look at the opportunities available to your business via online search. We’d be very happy to show you the number of searches done online around your industry each month and how easy it is to put your business near the top of these searches.

By the end of the 1990’s most businesses had a Web 1.0 website. They were basically glorified brochures and they cost a lot. Then in the mid 00’s Web 2.0 begin to emerge. Sites were more interactive, linking and sharing became de rigueur and the power of the Internet took on a whole new meaning amongst the smart online operators.

However, for much of the business world Web 1.0 sites are still being pumped out at an alarming rate. The boss realises he needs a website, or a new site, and then either the company IT person or contracted web designer dutifully bangs out a digital brochure. Build it and fill it with every detail about the company’s products or services and they will come.

No they won’t.

Your company doesn’t need a new website, it needs a great web strategy. Done well, businesses can derive an amazing number of benefits from its online presence. In fact, it’s arguable that you could build your entire marketing strategy around your web presence.

How? Let me explain.

You must immediately cease thinking of your online presence as a destination. That is merely part of its potential. A great web strategy allows you to find new customers, obtain information, broaden your geographic reach, streamline operations, improve customer relations, lower communication costs, generate PR and free publicity, look like an industry leader and…..have complete marketing measurability.

Find new customers
Excellent search engine optimisation (SEO) means that your site(s) will be found by more people who are making relevant searches around your industry. This can be as narrow or as broad as you desire. Whereas, most businesses are relying on potential customers to type in their URL or name in order to reach their site, good SEO delivers potential customers who are interested in what you have to offer but haven’t necessarily heard of you.

Obtain information
A proper web strategy can deliver a startling amount of invaluable information. Electronic newsletters can be tracked and measured in any number of ways. Site analytics can tell you wonderful information about who is visiting, what they are searching for and what they like on your site. Simple site prompts can have visitors leaving contact details.

Broaden geographic reach
This was part of the original promise of the Internet…..international businesses from the lounge room. Its still possible, but you must be realistic about the market you are trying to reach. Nonetheless, by concentrating on a niche rather than your broader industry you can become a leader in a much wider geographic market. Your online strategy can allow you to effectively network and market to that niche.

Streamline operations
The number of potential savings here can be staggering and too extensive to explain in one post. But needless to say, if your online presence is at the centre of your operations you can share information, market more efficiently, reduce travel costs, and complete projects in record time. This list goes on, as do the efficiencies.

Improve customer relations
When you start thinking of your online presence as an ongoing dialogue rather than an advertisement, you begin realising the potential to build goodwill amongst your people and customers. By creating an online resource for customers and potential customers you will have them visiting regularly and developing a better understanding of your services.

Lower communication costs
Spending a fortune on media and PR? The right web presence can reduce those costs quickly. If your search engine optimisation is right you will have a lot of relevant people visiting your site(s). If your site(s) are good you will have increased sales and enquiries. You can hit the right markets quickly and cost-effectively online and then measure the results immediately.

Generate PR
The PR industry is under serious threat from online. Why pay someone a fortune to send press releases to the media and hope for the best when you can reach the people you want with the right online communications? And then have those people extend your reach by linking and posting about your story! It can be so powerful. PR is short for public relations, and a good web strategy can be exceptionally effective for yours.

Free Publicity
The right web strategy can deliver free publicity in so many unexpected ways. Strike the right chord with your content and suddenly it can be spreading like a virus across the web. Mainstream media are now monitoring blogs and conversational sites for news, information and fresh perspectives. This can lead to interviews and profiles on TV, radio, press or even other online sites, raising your professional profile and credibility. Our own agency has benefited enormously from the free publicity our online presence has delivered.

Measurability
The Holy Grail for many marketers is measurability. So many forms of advertising and marketing see a lot of expenditure, which can be hard to measure in results. Online strategies can be measured in a number of ways and in amazing detail. Measure the traffic to your sites, the origin of the traffic, clicks through, search terms, electronic mailing hit rates and then, of course, sales. The level of sophisticated measurement can be staggering.

As you can see, your online presence has amazing potential. By changing your thinking from building a site as a destination to creating a total strategy, online can become the centrepiece of your marketing efforts.

If you’d like to know more about creating your ideal web strategy contact us here at Sticky.