In recent years, boxing has given up ground to a new combat sport, mixed martial arts. The overall idea remains the same: get two tough people in a ring and let them try to knock each other out, with high kicks, choke holds, arm bars and other types of moves now a standard part of the contest.

For fans of MMA, this just adds to the excitement. To those of us in the web design and Internet marketing industry, it makes for a good analogy. After all, the web is getting more complicated – and more competitive – than ever before. It isn't enough to just have a great website, blog, or even a search marketing plan these days; you have to have a mobile strategy, social platform, and so much more just to stay competitive and profitable.

Flip on your television over the next few weeks, and you'll be reminded of the many heart-warming lessons of love this holiday season. Pay attention to the way shoppers and customers act, however, and you can learn a lot that can help you grow your business for any part of the year.

You see, the same things that make December a month of celebration also make it a unique lens for viewing human behavior. That means that, if you're looking closely enough, you can learn some important lessons for your ongoing marketing efforts:

Today Anduro Marketing launched a campaign for Oasis Wellness Centre & Spa for their holiday gift specials.

Randy invited me to write a post as a guest on his blog. Thanks Randy for the invitation. To give you a bit of background, my name is Jeff Nelson and I am one of the owners of Anduro Marketing, a company based in Calgary, Alberta. We have been doing online marketing since 2001.

In past years the owner, Peter Smed, has focus on generating traffic to his website from radio ads and email blasts. This year he has the same objective (sell lots of gift certificates) but he wanted to do something different. He approached our company with the idea of adding an online component to augment the radio ads. We thought the idea was brilliant.

It can be hard to believe that a platform, which is seemingly famous for sneezing pandas and talking dogs, is also a powerful platform for businesses. As of February 2011, YouTube had 490 million users who spent a combined 2.9 billion hours, in one month, viewing content. More video content is uploaded on YouTube in 60 days than CBS, ABC, and NBC have created in the last 60 years![i] Considering these facts, you can see that YouTube is an immensely popular resource that your marketing team simply cannot avoid.

Why a Facebook page should be at the top of your social media to-do list.

1. Facebook demographics favor business.

It’s not just kids on Facebook anymore. Nearly 42% of all Facebook users are over the age of 35. That percentage translates into a whopping 350 million people! And if we branch this statistic out to include any legal adult, that number nearly doubles to 650 million. If Facebook were a country, its population would be the third largest in the world. Imagine the difficulties and cost associated with reaching a customer base this size through traditional marketing initiatives. If your presence on Facebook is lacking, you pass up an undeniable opportunity to reach current and potential customers.

Making sure social media works for your business.

Now that we’ve gone over some of the major social media platforms you’re likely ready to get going or have already started. But there is one important step you should consider before jumping into the deep end. That step is to create a policy regarding social media. Here are some suggestions to consider: