Posted by Patrick Schaber | Posted on 18-12-2006
Category : Uncategorized, online marketing, search engine marketing
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I recently had some friends and readers review my posts and offer their opinion. I’m thankful for their input! But, a consistent question from them was, “What are you doing to get links into your blog?” and “Have you started emailing everyone for links?”. I don’t have two feet to stand on in the link discussion – there are others with much more experience at linking for SEO purposes, but I can offer my thoughts from a blogger standpoint.
A salesperson rarely gets business from walking into a brick-and-mortar company they’ve never talked to before, displaying their product and a smile, and leave with a purchase order. Rather, some of the best relationships built between salesperson and customer is one where much effort has been made to build a relationship. Over time the salesperson can show how their product or service can help the customer.
I feel this is the case with blogging. My goal is to provide useful content that readers enjoy and come back often to read. Hopefully, over time, they’ll find reason to link to my blog – and vice-versa.
In the meantime, please take the time to read Danny Sullivan’s post on Search Engine Land. He breaks down the details of a recent Google post.
Posted by Patrick Schaber | Posted on 18-12-2006
Category : online marketing, strategy
1
As a Minnesota Vikings fan, Monday mornings are a great time to play Monday Morning Quarterback. There are always many instances in Sunday’s game that can be reconstructed, second-guessed and talked about around the water cooler.
But, I encourage you to also play a round of Monday Morning Marketing Quarterback. I’ve made the habit of grabbing a cup of coffee, opening my results tracking spreadsheets and figuring out what worked and what did not from the week before. Which banner ads got the most clicks? Which Google Ad converted the most new customers? Which text seemed to connect most with its intended audience? I check all my landing page URLs and check to see which had a high bounce rate and which sent the prospect deeper into the site. I’ll count up leads and where they came from – giving me an indication of which ads hit the mark.
As a small business marketing manager, results tracking is key to any program you run. Otherwise, how do we know what worked and what did not? What spend was worth it and what was not?
I came across an article on iMedia Connection by Reid Carr talking about metrics and how analytics programs can give you insight as to how your web site is running.
So, take some time this morning and learn from last week – and of course check ESPN to see what the future holds for your team as well.
Posted by Patrick Schaber | Posted on 16-12-2006
Category : Uncategorized, online marketing
0
As more of us move marketing dollars from print and other traditional avenues towards online marketing, we need more and more reassurance that we’re getting results from our dollars spent. Since many analytics programs don’t give us the warm fuzzies we need, we can at least be comforted by some studies and polls of Internet users. Check out this quick blurb on a study done by DoubleClick posted on the BtoB Online website.
“The survey found that 19% of influencers cited Web advertising as a source of information when they were researching a purchase, compared with 8% for noninfluencers.”
Posted by Patrick Schaber | Posted on 14-12-2006
Category : email marketing, online marketing
0
In a recent BtoB Online Email Marketer newsletter I received, Mark Organ – CEO of Eloqua Corp. – wrote a good, quick article outlining some valuable tips to increase open rates and overall experience of email newsletters. Email marketing is getting tougher. I’m experiencing this as I work to increase my own click-through rates and decrease bounce rates on my landing pages. Blogs, RSS Feeds, and Podcasts are jumping to the forefront as methods people are using to get the information they want. Plus, corporate email filtering is getting tighter. Email marketing is not dead despite what some industry analysts think, but the road to success is not a smooth ride. The main tips from Mark’s article are:
- Success begins with the subject line. Keep your subject line succinct, around five or six words. Stay away from personalization-such as using the prospect’s first name-in the subject line. The golden rule is to make sure that your subject line is something you would feel comfortable sending to an existing prospect.
- They’re in … now what? Your prospect must be able to quickly determine the benefits of the e-mail. Integration with Web marketing tools such as forms and landing pages can impel a prospect to explore these benefits. Include many clear links to click on high up in the e-mail, “above the scroll.” Make sure that hyperlink words conjure up a benefit in the reader’s mind-such as “Learn more”-and avoid using passive words.
- Lead them to a landing page. Drive prospects to a campaign-specific landing page, not your company’s home page. Your e-mail and landing page should be designed with the same look to smooth the transition. Within the e-mail, include a link that offers an immediate call to action. On landing pages, be sure to minimize required information on initial registration forms; prefilling registration forms with known contact information can increase response rates. Creative imagery at the top of the landing page can show the prospect what he or she will get for moving forward. Last, an auto-response e-mail should always be sent when a form is submitted.
- Hone in with dynamic, personalized microsites. Include links to microsites that have personalized URLs and messaging. Dynamic content can be triggered by the prospect’s region, language and industry. Both the personal URL and targeted experience can dramatically increase response and conversion on the site (a 200% to 300% increase from initial rates).
Posted by Patrick Schaber | Posted on 14-12-2006
Category : online marketing, paid search, search engine marketing
2
I’d never seen this site before but came across it while reading a comment to seoroundtable’s post about keyphrases that you should think twice about before trying to conquer. The site is called RankPulse and it ranks the top 1000 most competitive keywords. Good site to find out what to stay away from!
Also, as a side note, I saw on a variety of blogs this morning including Inside AdWords that they have new tutorials available on how to use the AdWords Editor Tool. I tried the tool and was not that thrilled with it, but am thinking about looking at the tutorials to a see if there was anything I missed that would make it more attractive to use.
Posted by Patrick Schaber | Posted on 14-12-2006
Category : Uncategorized, online marketing, paid search, search engine marketing
0
I’ve come across another great article on turning search engine searchers into customers. I recently did a post on how paid search has to be more than just click-throughs – it has to be a focused sales campaign with the end goal of converting the searcher. This article on iMedia Connection by Dale Hursh talks about this very topic.
“To maximize search marketing ROI, you must manage the entire search marketing lifecycle, from Search-to-Sale. This includes finding and driving traffic to your website, as well as converting the visitor by persuading them to take the desired action.”
Check out the article…
Posted by Patrick Schaber | Posted on 12-12-2006
Category : Uncategorized
1
It’s that time of the week where I get the privilege of introducing you to some of my favorite blogs! I’ve truly gotten some great information from the these posts and look forward to passing you on to them. Needless to say, they’ve been added to my blogroll.
David Temple at SEM SEO Certification & Training has some great information pertaining to SEM/SEO training. He covers programs that offer the basics as well as critical best practices. For small companies his information is invaluable if you don’t have the time to research all of this on your own.
I also recently found Rajan Sodhi at Big Marketing for Small Business. Rajan offers great content on how small marketers can better understand the direction they’re taking with their marketing. I’ve found his posts to be very informational.
These blogs are well worth your time – Enjoy!
Posted by Patrick Schaber | Posted on 11-12-2006
Category : Uncategorized, online marketing, print advertising
0
I’m in the middle of analyzing and signing a ton of print and online advertising contracts for 2007. The whole process has officially given me a headache this year. While I enjoy researching new mediums in which to advertise our products, wading through all the options available can be maddening.
With that said, I have a few observations this year that are unique to other years I’ve been doing this.
I’m being proposed more print and online bundled solutions from vendors and my pricing is based on CPI (cost per impression). I’m used to analyzing online marketing by impressions and click-throughs, but not print. After you untangle the mess of a proposal you see that these vendors are bundling their online with their print and jacking up their impressions with their print readership statistics.
These proposals are more common from magazines who were built on print ad sales and are having a tough time selling online ads because their websites don’t get the traffic that more online-centric websites and publications do. You need to be careful not to jump at the total impression method of proposing. I don’t believe it accurately depicts what you’re buying.
White Papers, White Papers, and more White Papers. Obviously, White Paper syndication is hot. For those of you not familiar, White Paper syndicators will post your WP content and pass along contact information for people who register to download the content. Its a great source of lead generation. The people who register to receive the content – you would think – are genuinly interested in what you have to offer.
Well, many vendors are now a WP syndicator and vendors are offering discounts on print and online marketing if you post your WPs with them. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a big fan of this method of distributing your content – BUT, I don’t have any fresh content! I’m also a believer that that your content needs to be informative, fresh and loaded with the latest information – otherwise the reader may think you’re company is old news.
The folks over at My Educated Guess have a post up today talking about successful syndication. They also have a variety of other quality posts talking about White Papers.
Posted by Patrick Schaber | Posted on 10-12-2006
Category : paid search, search engine marketing
0
There is confirmation that Google is testing the idea of allowing advertisers to see their Quality Score in Google Adwords. Andrew Goodman‘s interview with Nick Fox of Google confirms the rumors. I think this could be a nice advantage for small business marketers doing Adwords paid search as part of their Internet marketing campaigns. Optimizing campaigns can be time consuming and knowing how changes affect your quality score could save valuable time.
The optimization component is what allows small companies to compete with bigger companies with endless wallets. Writing more relevant copy, staying on top of popular keywords, and designing informative landing pages keep ads higher in the rankings for a lesser cost. If the Quality Score shown is real time, we’ll be able to immediately see how changes we make will affect our campaign. If this happens I’ll be curious to see if changes in Quality Score actually affect conversions.
Posted by Patrick Schaber | Posted on 08-12-2006
Category : Uncategorized, email marketing
0
I suspect that in a few years RSS feeds and other cool eMarketing technologies will replace email marketing, but right now emails are a very viable source of marketing. Small businesses can truly take advantage of this low cost exposure. Much can be done in-house with basic HTML creation and database management, but even outsourcing isn’t that expensive these days.
BUT…and there is always a BUT…email marketing has to be done right or it can be a waste of time and money and a potential irritant to your valuable customer base. I came across a couple of articles recently that I thought spelled out some good email marketing tips and techniques. If you get a minute, they’re a pretty good read.
- BtoB Online is a great source of information and this email marketing article written by Karen J. Bannan is no exception. She explains how to make the most out of email preview panes and text descriptions.
- Bill Nussey of Silverpop writes a good article telling about some 2007 tips for email marketing. He talks about surveys as a relationship building tool and delivery times as a key to open rates.
I believe email marketing is a tool that you get out of it what you put into it. A quick, shabby job of producing the email and delivering it won’t give you high click-through-rates, conversions or page views. But, a quality, detailed piece can be highly effective and very informative to your customers.
