Content Marketing – A 6-Step Approach

July 27, 2010 Filed under: Internet Marketing,Social Media Marketing,Web Analytics — Tags: , —

Do you have a Content Marketing Strategy?  Maybe you should.  Content Marketing is a way to think about Social Media as a deliberate branding strategy for your business.   Think of it this way: Social Media provides a way for people to easily share information they care about.  Content Marketing is the mirror image  – a way to provide information that people will want to share.   Companies that practice Content Marketing can establish themselves as a trusted information source, and let that reputation spread through the natural process of people sharing and talking.  It’s a great way to approach Social Media involvement through the lens of business goals.

With the skyrocketing popularity of social media, consumers of all types are becoming more and more comfortable consuming and sharing information, opinions, and ideas openly across the Web.  It can be fun and engaging to jump right in – watch videos on YouTube, share pictures and stories on Facebook, voice your opinions on Twitter – and see what the commotion is all about.  There’s nothing wrong with diving in – in fact, it’ll give you a good feel for what people are saying about your business or industry, what topics are popular, what behavior is acceptable, and who are the opinion leaders in the social media realm. But after your initial immersion, you’ll likely soon be asking how you can gain business value from these new tools.  Try this 6-step approach. (more…)

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Google Local – Changes Coming

July 21, 2010 Filed under: Internet Marketing,SEO — Tags: , —

There’s been quite a buzz going around in SEO circles about changes that Google appears to be testing and is expected to roll out soon for their Local Search results.  These changes were first noticed in a Google test by Linda Buquet, and she writes about the news in her Catalyst eMarketing blog.  Her initial discovery was first shared in Mike Blumenthal’s blog Understanding Google Maps and Local Search, a terrific resource for following everything that goes on in the Local Search arena.  The gist of the coming changes is that Google will be making Local Search Results much more prominent on the search results page and will make it easier to identify and find a company’s Google Place Page.  This is good news for companies with a local market focus, and makes it more important than ever for those business owners to make sure they have a strong, complete, and compelling presence on their Google Place page (see my recent video post on Getting Listed in the Local Search 7-Pack).

Another new offering from Google in the local business category is Google Tags, which are yellow markers displayed on a company’s Local/Google Maps listing to announce advertised specials — coupons, special offers, and other advertiser-supplied content.  Unlike Google’s Adwords pay-per-click advertising, Google Tags advertising is available for a flat monthly fee of $25.  Google is running a promotion this week (through Friday, July 23) for a 30-day free trial of Tags for new customers.

Don’t neglect this important element of your Internet Marketing activities…Google Local Search for small businesses is becoming an increasingly important way for your customers to find you!

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Google’s Local Business Center – Getting Listed in the 7-Pack

July 19, 2010 Filed under: Internet Marketing,SEO — Tags: , —

The Google Local Business Center – renamed recently as Google Place Pages – offers a great opportunity for your business to be found by local searchers.    When a searcher is looking for a business that serves the local market, Google will display what’s known as a “7-pack” of business listings alongside a map of the area that pinpoints their locations.  So how, you may ask, can you get your business listed in this premium “7-pack” for your local market?

See the short video below for a quick training and overview of the 7-pack and what you can do to get listed.   If you’re looking for more in-depth training and information, check out the link below the video.

For more information and to see what the local search “experts” say, see this June 7, 2010 report on Local Search Ranking Factors, from David Mihm.

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5 Big Worries of a First Time Blogger – And How to Overcome Them

May 10, 2010 Filed under: Internet Marketing,Social Media Marketing — Tags: , , —
  • What if I blog and no one cares what I have to say?
  • What if I run out of interesting things to say on my blog?
  • What if customers post negative comments on my blog posts, in front of all my other customers?
  • How can I possibly find time in my busy schedule to author a blog?
  • Aren’t most blogs just insiders talking to insiders?  My customers won’t care.

Sound familiar?  Have these fears kept you up at  night as you weigh the decision of whether to join the ranks of bloggers?  These are the very real and understandable concerns of clients we’ve worked with as they face the decision of whether to blog.  To blog or not to blog – that is the question. 

It’s a good question, and one that any potential blogger should think through carefully.  The above list of worries, while they are often just a case of the jitters, deserve serious consideration before taking on the considerable commitment of becoming a blogger.  Rather than brushing away these fears, I typically encourage clients to dig in and think them through, as the answers will give them important insights into whether they should blog and what kind of blogger they should be.   So, here’s a paraphrased conversation I had recently with a small business owner who is currently wrestling with this very decision. (more…)

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Internet Marketing: 3 Steps to Connect the Dots

May 5, 2010 Filed under: Internet Marketing,SEO,Social Media Marketing — Tags: —

Blogging is your hubBlogging.  Twitter.  LinkedIn.  YouTube.  Facebook.  Are you doing all of these?  Some of these?  Wondering how to pull it all together into a cohesive package and customer experience?   You’re not alone.  The brave new world of Internet Marketing has created lots of self-appointed experts who are happy to publish and share their advice, experience, and even training — much of it for free.  Indeed, there’s a wealth of expertise available for anyone willing to put in the time to learn, experiment and launch all these new approaches.

Don’t forget, however, when you’re feeling enamored with all these new possibilities, that your diverse efforts need to hang together in the eyes of your target audience.   Wherever your potential customer sees your company on the Web, the image you portray should use consistent themes and words, should carry the same message, and should link to your other presences across the Web.    (more…)

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PPC Advertising – Using Your Results to Improve Your Business

April 27, 2010 Filed under: Internet Marketing,PPC — Tags: , , , —

This is the fourth post in a series on Pay-per-click advertising.  Lots of our clients struggle to understand PPC so they can evaluate it as an investment, compare it to traditional advertising, figure out how it works, or sometimes just explain it to their boss.  The explanations can get rather complex, so I decided to make a series of blog posts to help educate clients, readers, and anyone wanting to learn more.   This is the last article in the Pay Per Click Advertising 101 series.

 What You Can Learn – And What To Do With It

 A well-planned and well-executed PPC campaign can achieve your advertising goals AND a positive return on your advertising investment.   Data collected from your campaigns can help you answer important questions about your ad campaign, your website and your business.   What we didn’t cover last time – what this post is about – is what you can DO with all these answers.  Certainly you can use the information to improve your PPC ad campaign (we can do that for you).  But the insights you’ll gain can also go further than that.

 Critical things you can learn about your market

  • What search terms are people using when they look for a product or service like what my company offers?
  • Where (what websites) are people are coming from to visit my website?
  • What words, designs, or ad copy get them to spend more time on my site?
  • What gets them to take the actions I want them to take on my site?
  • How much revenue am I generating for the cost of my PPC campaign?

How to Use What You’ve Learned (more…)

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PPC Advertising – Measurement and Analytics Tell the Real Story

April 20, 2010 Filed under: Internet Marketing,PPC,Web Analytics — Tags: , , , —

This is the third post in a series on Pay-per-click advertising.  Lots of our clients struggle to understand PPC so they can evaluate it as an investment, compare it to traditional advertising, figure out how it works, or sometimes just explain it to their boss.  The explanations can get rather complex, so I decided to make a series of blog posts to help educate clients, readers, and anyone wanting to learn more.   This is the third article in the Pay Per Click  Advertising 101 series.

The Control Metrics – Measuring ROI

If it’s indeed about control and ROI, then the metrics are key to PPC.  And they are.  There are innumerable Web Analytics tools available to help you measure and analyze the activity on your website, but the easiest to start with (for free!) is Google Analytics.  Anyone who wants their website to work for their business should use Google Analytics.  If you’re running PPC ad campaigns, it’s a good place to start, and here are some key metrics to watch: (more…)

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PPC Advertising – Controlling the Inputs to Optimize the Results

April 13, 2010 Filed under: Internet Marketing,PPC — Tags: , , , —

This is the second post in a series on Pay-per-click advertising.  Lots of our clients struggle to understand PPC so they can evaluate it as an investment, compare it to traditional advertising, figure out how it works, or sometimes just explain it to their boss.  The explanations can get rather complex, so I decided to make a series of blog posts to help educate clients, readers, and anyone wanting to learn more.   This is the second article in the Pay Per Click Advertising 101 series.

The Control Levers

Picture us inside a big black box.  Big – as in the size of your house.  On one wall, picture rows of knobs or levers, and then imagine us, on your behalf, poised to turn them, pull them, or simply adjust and tune them.   In reality, all the knobs and levers are on our computer, controlled with a simple mouse click.  Best of all, they take effect immediately and will start generating immediate feedback.  When it’s done well, PPC gives a level of control that’s superior to nearly every other form of advertising.  Here’s what we’re controlling to make your PPC campaign work its best for you:

(more…)

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Pay Per Click Advertising 101

April 6, 2010 Filed under: Internet Marketing,PPC — Tags: , , , —

This is the first post in a series on Pay-per-click advertising.  Lots of our clients struggle to understand PPC so they can evaluate it as an investment, compare it to traditional advertising, figure out how it works, or sometimes just explain it to their boss.  The explanations can get rather complex, so I decided to make a series of blog posts to help educate clients, readers, and anyone wanting to learn more.   This is the first article in the Pay Per Click Advertising 101 series.

 PPC Advertising:  It’s All About Control and ROI

Many clients we talk with start out feeling wary of pay per click (PPC) advertising.   Maybe they’ve tried it and felt it was a waste of their money.  Maybe they’ve read about scams or been approached by PPC salesmen they don’t trust.  Maybe they’ve seen false or deceptive claims in sponsored ads on Google.  Whatever the source of concern, PPC advertising has suffered from undeserved negative attention because many people don’t give it the patience & attention it needs to perform well.  It’s true that PPC can be wasteful if you “set it and forget it.”  If ads are not tended and managed, they can burn through money FAST and never have a chance to achieve your goals.   On the other hand, a well-crafted and well-maintained PPC campaign can achieve a greater return on your marketing investment than almost any other form of advertising.    As in most things, doing it well makes the difference.

 PPC Goals

The goals of your PPC campaign should be to reach your intended audience, deliver a compelling message, incent them to take an action, and measure your effectiveness so you can improve next time around.  Ultimately, your goal is to achieve a return on your investment for every ad you run, e.g. make more money in new revenues than you spend on each ad.  You do this by throwing a broad net when you start; then, over time narrowing it to a laser focus on just the search terms and ad copy that work for you.  The immediate goal is to make constant improvements in your campaign; longer term, you’ll make statistically significant improvements in your bottom line and gain insights that will improve your marketing efforts overall.

 How it Works

A PPC campaign starts with keyword research, to determine a broad list of search terms you want to test.  The goal is to optimize your ad copy and landing page copy using the words that your potential customers use to describe your offerings.  How do you find this out?  

 When we setup a PPC campaign, we use a calculated approach and a variety of specialized tools.  We split an ad campaign into multiple ad groups to test effectiveness of ad copy, landing pages, and specific keyword phrases.  If necessary, we’ll create multiple campaigns to test different geographical regions and different groups of keyword search terms.   We then perform iterative testing of these multiple variations (called multivariate testing) — let them run, collect data, analyze the data, and improve.  This is the essence of PPC advertising campaigns — ongoing iterative optimization.  Throughout the process, using our experience and tools to constantly tweak and optimize, we keep the best performing variations and update the worst, in an ongoing process of improvement.

 Look for my next posting, Part 2 of the series on PPC Advertisting, called “PPC Advertising – Controlling the Inputs to Optimize the Results.”  Any questions so far?  Want to share your own experience?  Feel free to leave a comment below.

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Content or Die?

March 30, 2010 Filed under: Internet Marketing,Social Media Marketing — Tags: , , —

It’s a gloomy, rainy Tuesday in Seattle, and the weather is making me rather philosophical.  So, rather than sharing my own tips and experience, I’m going to share my reactions to a recent blog post entitled “A Challenge: Content or Die“.  Sounds pretty dire, doesn’t it?   The author’s point isn’t quite as extreme as the title suggests.  I invite you to read it, but let me summarize it quickly:  if you don’t keep creating new content, your web presence will stagnate, your search ranking will suffer, your revenues will drop.   It may not mean death, but clearly it’s not good.

The author’s point is valid.   I’ve been in marketing for a long time.  Before the days of social media, marketing consisted largely of advertising, public relations, events and sponsorships.  They were all ways of communicating your brand to your public.  And they were all big, costly undertakings.  Because they were big and costly, each campaign had to last a long time, so marketers got used to communications with a long lifespan.  In advertising, you would pay big money to develop an ad campaign, and it would run for months.  In PR, you’d need “big news” to compete for limited print stories, and big stories don’t happen very often.  And sponsorships or events, well, they only happen a few times a year.

Now, we’re talking about search engines that come looking for new information multiple times a day.  They’re hungry and they need to be fed.  If you don’t feed them fresh, new food (content), they won’t regard you as highly as sites that do.  And they may not come to visit that often, if they don’t expect to get fed.  Online marketing, therefore, requires a major  change in mindset. 

If you want to keep the search engine spiders happy and well-fed, you need to change the way you think about the lifespan of your information.  You need to deliver good content on a regular basis and you need to keep it coming.  I don’t mean to suggest that content becomes obsolete as soon as it’s published; in fact, if it’s good, it may get shared, bookmarked, retweeted, and linked-to — and in the process get noticed by a far larger audience than you anticipated.   But the more frequently you add fresh content to your website or new posts to your blog, the better your chances of ranking well, being found, and building your brand.

The Bottom Line: if you want to market your brand on the web, you need to adopt a new marketing rhythm.  Think short and compelling content, frequent publishing schedules, and active online engagement if you want to do effective branding in the virtual world.   And measure your results so you can continually revise and improve as you move along.

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