Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
http://feeds.feedburner.com/searchengineguide (19.08.2008 20:40:55)
Puppy's Picks - 08/6/08
by Jennifer Laycock
I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From the difference between building links and building content to principles of influence to a quick and easy keyword research tip, check out a roundup of five posts I classify as "must-read" for the day.
- Lee Odden looks at the difference between building links and attracting links in a post over at Top Rank Blog. Lee throws in a bit of history on how and why link building came about and asks if we aren't finally getting to the point with integrated marketing where link building is more about content creation than link placement. It's a good question, but just as search engine optimization will never "go away," but rather will blend into best practice marketing, link placement will likely do the same.
- If you're a fan of keyword research tools and consumer insight tools, you'll want to play with Google's latest offering. Barry Schwartz offers a nice overview of the new Google Insights for Search tool at Search Engine Land, complete with screen shots and sample searches. I played around with it a bit myself today and can see quite a bit of practical use for it.
- Since we're on the topic of keyword research, Karon Thackston has a quick post over at Marketing Words reminding us of the need to run a search for ambiguous keywords to see what search results get served up. Sometimes a phrase we take one way is more likely to get taken another way. She gives a great example in her post for this.
- Earlier today I gave a webinar with the teams from Market Motive and Search Engine Strategies on Viral Marketing. Any time I speak on viral marketing or social media, I feel like I spend a lot of time reminding people of the need to understand what makes people tick and to help them learn how to better communicate with their customers. That's why I liked the "6 Universal Principles of Influence" post over at the fuelNet blog today. These are simple, common sense factors that any business or business person can put to work to increase their ability to spread their message.
- Last month I wrote a fairly critical review of the Lenovo Voices of the Summer Games project. I've been keeping an eye on the campaign as it moves forward and it's been nice to see some of the changes they've made and some of the new aspects being introduced. Today on his blog, Rohit announced he and Ogilvy team mate Kaitlyn will be partnering with bloggers to produce some blog content, photos and interviews from Beijing. They'll be bringing us stories on Olympic marketing, Olympic PR and hopefully some athlete interviews and spectator insight as well. If you want to take part or simply follow along, check out A Beijing Experiment.
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07.08.2008 02:12:36 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Flash and SEO: Like Oil and Water
by Scott Buresh
We often deal with clients that are planning to "revamp" their sites with Flash, with SEO having already generated tremendous gains in their sales. The thing that we most dread to hear is that they've hired an experienced "Flash designer" that will be taking their websites to the "next level." Unfortunately, that "next level" is often the basement - at least in terms of SEO results.
The bottom line here is that a site built entirely in Flash still faces huge obstacles. While there have been recent moves from Google and Yahoo! to try to index the content from combined Flash/SEO sites, those moves have not yet, from my experience, translated into SEO results or success (at least when compared to html sites).
We should make a distinction here between embedded Flash and sites built entirely from Flash. For example, a site that contains Flash elements but still contains basic html elements will not overly suffer, as the Flash element (usually a movie in a box on the homepage or elsewhere) is externalized. A search engine spider will generally not try to parse through any files that have been externalized in the code - they will only index the code that is readily apparent on the source page.
However, from an SEO results perspective, there are still major issues with sites that are built entirely in Flash, and SEO is normally the first thing that suffers. First of all, the URL generally never changes no matter where people navigate on the site. As any decent SEO practitioner will tell you, every page of your site is a potential entry page for a search engine. With a site built in Flash, SEO suffers even more as you only have one potential entry page, which is the main URL. This cuts off dozens, hundreds, or thousands of potential pages that could otherwise be indexed in Google and Yahoo! (and all other engines). When your only potential entry page in the search engine listings is your home page, it is very difficult to target a wide assortment of keyphrases, potentially eliminating SEO results or rankings.
Content is another very large issue. Search engines rank pages based upon a number of criteria, but one of the most important to SEO results is the text that they can "understand" on individual pages. At present, search engines read primarily html text (although some also read text in the PDF format) - which means that if you decide that you want to use a rare and fancy font that must be displayed in graphic form (since the visitor may not have that particular font available on his or her computer while browsing), the engine will not read the text and therefore will not know what the page is about, which could harm SEO results. Naturally, this also includes any of the text included in Flash. While Yahoo! and Google have recently announced enhanced capabilities in reading content within Flash, I have not personally seen that translate into great SEO results for competitive keyphrases.
One other emerging aspect is that as search evolves, more and more people are looking for information while they are away from their computers. Many mobile devices are currently incapable of displaying Flash content, although recent moves by Adobe to make "Flash Lite" available may change this. However, it remains to be seen whether people that are seeking information on a mobile device will even want to navigate through Flash, especially if they can get the information that they seek from a fast-loading html page. In my opinion, lean html content will be at a premium when a company is trying to target a mobile audience.
Despite the difficulties, it is not the intent of this article to assert that Flash and SEO will always be incompatible - merely that it is the state of the current situation. You can find many differing opinions on mixing Flash and SEO on the internet, but the true test is to try to find a Flash site (that is to say, a site built entirely in Flash) that you admire and see if it ranks well in SEO results for 50+ competitive terms that are related to the specific business (in Google or Yahoo!). In my experience, such sites that combine Flash and SEO are nearly impossible to find. If anyone out there knows of one, please let me know.
Flash can be, and often is, used for great effect on the internet, in interactive kiosks, and in many other applications. I'm not from the "any Flash is bad" school, although I do think that many Flash practitioners tend to get a little carried away and often ignore basic usability issues. However, sites built entirely in Flash with SEO elements are still, again in my opinion, like oil and water - Flash and SEO are obviously individually useful, but they don't mix well. Until they do, I will continue to advise my clients not to build sites entirely out of Flash - or, at the very least, to have an alternate html option for search engine and user preference purposes. At the end of the day, many clients are surprised to find out how many visitors actually prefer "old school" html.
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06.08.2008 22:54:23 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Surprising Branding Benefits of Search
by Stacy Williams
One of the great benefits of search engine marketing is that it's more measurable than most other forms of advertising and marketing. Search marketers are able to see exactly how many conversions (online leads or sales) they've driven, along with revenue generated and ROI. It's every marketer's dream!
But are we missing half the picture by focusing on conversions? Just because we can easily measure conversions, does that cause us to focus solely on this single metric and ignore other, harder-to-track benefits of search engine marketing?
I'm talking about branding. You may be surprised to hear how much search engines impact brand awareness and the propensity to purchase.
Just seeing a paid search listing, for example, made searchers 38% more likely to have a perception of "exceptional quality" for the brands featured - they didn't even have to click to visit the advertised sites for this increase in brand equity to occur.
High search engine rankings translate into perceptions of leadership and credibility across various industries studied. For auto insurance purchasers, 79% said search introduced them to brands they were previously unaware of (2). For wireless service customers, 61% said they expect brand leaders to consistently be in the top results (3). And for travel web researchers, 56% said they looked at a site they didn't intend to because it was one of the first few results listed (4).
People using search engines are more likely to consider multiple brands (77% did so) than Internet users that don't use search engines (70%) or non-Internet users (46%). On average, searchers considered 2.5 brands before making a purchase (5).
The positive impact that search has on nearly every step in the buying cycle is increasingly being recognized and valued by marketers. Companies are now actually more likely to use search marketing for increasing brand awareness (61%) than for selling directly online (58%) or generating leads (20%) (6).
There's no doubt that conversions are critical, and fortunately it's easy for search marketers to measure the conversions they've generated. But it's important to remember that search impacts brand-building throughout the buying cycle, and is likely to have an even more positive affect on a company's brand -- and business as a whole -- than we'll ever be able to measure.
Sources:
Search Brand Studies, June 06
Yahoo Search Marketing Reach & Engagement, Nov. 05
The Role of Search in the Wireless Market, Aug. 05
The Role of Search in the Travel Research Cycle, Nov. 05
Yahoo's "Long & Winding Road"research, Dec. 06
SEMPO's annual survey of SEM agencies and advertisers, Jan. 08
Special thanks to Ron Belanger and John Cattarulla of Yahoo, whose presentation at the June meeting of the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association brought these statistics to our attention.
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06.08.2008 00:06:30 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Puppy's Picks - 08/05/08
by Jennifer Laycock
I scan a few hundred feeds and read dozens of articles a day so you don't have to. From understanding the Google AdWords system to getting your entire team involved in social media efforts, check out a roundup of five posts I classify as "must-read" for the day.
- If you're still learning the ins and outs of Google's AdWords system, you'll want to read the posts on Quality Score by the team over at PPC Hero this week. The first post focuses on quality score and minimum bids and day two follows up with a look at keyword targeted content ads and placement targeted ads. Combined, they give a strong overview of how the Google Adwords bidding and ranking systems work and can go a long way toward helping you cut costs on your paid search campaigns.
- If you can't squeeze attending a conference into your schedule this year, you might try the series of online workshops being offered by Search Engine Strategies and Market Motive. I'll be teaching a 2-hour workshop with them tomorrow on Viral Marketing with information on blogging and social media as well. The cost is $395 for the interactive webinar and you can register online.
- While there's something to be said for having people who focus on a specific area of your business, there's also something to be said for teamwork on the greater issues of your company. I've read quite a few books and sites that point out everyone within a small business should be "selling." It's on that same note that Amber Naslund points out everyone in your company should be involved in social media. The nice thing about Amber's spin, is she breaks it down by job type and points out the best use of social media for each job type in your business.
- Biznology guest writer Josh Greenfield pens a missive on the perils of outsourcing your search engine marketing efforts to two different companies. While most small businesses tend to outsource their paid search and their organic optimization to the same company, larger firms tend to split these areas up so they can hire specialists. Josh points out some of the reasons why this may not work as well as you'd like and gives some good reasons why companies should consider looking for one firm that excels in both areas.
- If you're a fan of Google Analytics, you'll be interested in the big list of Google Analytics tips put together by Ann Smarty for Search Engine Journal this week. From classifying site visitors to tracking outgoing links, Ann offers some advanced options that will help you get the most out of Google Analytics.
Free White Paper: How to Optimize for Google
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05.08.2008 19:07:11 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Why Destination Search Engine Marketing Is So Essential
by Stoney deGeyter
As I conclude this series on Destination Search Engine Marketing its important to answer the question "why?" Why go through the hassle of of building a Destination Website? Obviously, there are thousands of successful online businesses that don't operate anything that could be considered a "Destination". If they are successful, should you really go through the extra effort yourself?
When I was just out of high school we had this saying about Denny's Restaurant. "Nobody plans on going to Denny's, they just end up there." That's was because Denny's was the only restaurant in town that was open 24 hours (quick the snickering, I grew up in podunk Oregon!). If you were out past 10PM there were simply no other options.
Many websites are like that. People don't plan on going there, they just end up there. Thats not to suggest that these sites don't deserve top rankings. Many of them have earned their place by being the best of the sites that area available. But they haven't gone so far as to become a destination point for the industry.
That's where you and Destination SEM come in. These other sites have top rankings that you want. How do you displace them? In some cases it's more difficult than others. Sites that have been firmly entrenched in the "we just end up here" space can still be hard to bump aside. But when you build a Destination Website you build a place that your audience goes to. Deliberately. And once you start becoming that destination you start earning those top positions.
Overcoming the competition
Every year the online competition gets stiffer. Thousands upon thousands of new websites are introduced, some of which will be competing against you. Even if you're firmly established in your #1 position, if you're just another Denny's, you can't expect to hold your spots forever.
You may have done fine thus far, perhaps even dominating your market for a number of years. But if you're still not the go-to destination for your industry, then those positions are soon going to become a battleground. All it takes is for the next guy to come along with a better website that does a better job of meeting your audience's needs and expectations. It just takes one website to do a little bit more in delivering a quality user experience and customer satisfaction.
Your top positions are, essentially, hanging by a thread.
If you're not growing, you're falling behind. This is because others, looking for an edge into the market place, are looking for your weaknesses that they can exploit. They are looking for an unfilled need, or another way of capturing a piece of your target audience. They know they can only do that by being better and/or unique.
When you build a Destination Website, you're not waiting for your competition to get a foot hold. Even if you're the best today, you need to make sure that there is no room for someone to out flank you.
As competition gets more competitive, search engines also become smarter. They are looking for sites that truly provide the competitive advantage. They don't want to rank sites that are simply better at adding keywords, they want to rank sites that deliver what the searcher is looking for. The sites that will be at the top of the results are those that will have found a way to establish themselves as the go-to destination.
Destination SEM is about building a website that is unique among it's peers. It's about doing what you do so well that people can't help but to sit up and take notice. It's about achieving top search engine rankings because your site offers something that the 10,000 or 1,000,000 other keyword competitors can't.
You may not be able to compete with every site on every level, but you can compete on delivering customer satisfaction. Build your Destination Website and the rankings will follow. It's not about just achieving top search engine placement, it's about deserving it.
Read more about Destination Search Engine Marketing:
Part I: Do you Deserve Top Search Rankings?
Part II: What Would Sudden Exposure Get You?
Part III: Standing Out in a Sea of Thousands
Part IV: It's Not Just Marketing as Usual
Seven Building Blocks of a Destination Website
#1: Expert Information
#1b: Seven Types of Expert Information
#2: Usability
#3: Website Design
#4: Unique Value Proposition
#5: Time and Presence
#6: Voice
#7: Trust and Credibility
Conclusion: Why Destination Search Engine Marketing is So Essential
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05.08.2008 17:42:30 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Why Local Search Is Where It's At
by Miriam Ellis
If David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors left you longing for more local fare, Mike Blumenthal takes the cake by Cracking Google's Local Algo. Visit Mike's site for the presentation he just gave at SMX Local, and stay tuned there for a more in-depth report on our findings.
Have We Cracked The Code?
No, not yet. But we're working on it.
Over the past couple of months, my husband and I have been working with Mike, David, Dave Oremland, Will Scott and Tim Coleman on a project which basically involved collecting and analyzing oodles of data about local businesses and their standings within Google Maps.
Our purpose in this work has been to improve our understanding of the multiple factors that influence Maps rankings. By increasing our knowledge, we increase our ability to offer the very best local search advice to our clients. It's helpful for our own private projects as well, of course!
Local Search is still relatively new, but with experts opining that some 40% of searches are local in intent, the importance of understanding local search best practices is clear. This is truly the most exciting collaborative project I've had the pleasure of participating in, and through the course of the work, a picture is beginning to come clear.
As Mike's slideshow illustrates, we are dealing with a variety of apparent factors in Google's Local Algo, including:
- Distance from city centroid
- Business name
- Business category
- Trust
- Citations from other websites
- Explicit anchor text
- Traditional SEO factors
We feel that there are many unknown factors pulling rankings this way and that, as well, but we've made what I believe is a very good start in identifying some of the most important signals here. There is still so much to study and learn, but we've begun to crack the code.
Local Search - Wagons, Ho!
Back in the day, it took a bunch of SEOs working independently and together to realize just how much title tags count in Google's organic algorithm. Meta tags became the subject of heated debate, and forum wars were waged over pagerank. The permanent documentation of these fascinating discussions and findings is available for all to see - the fruits of ingenious labor that now enable a new SEO to progress quickly from total novice to reasonably educated, if he or she has a taste for reading.
An oft-voiced refrain one encounters these days wherever SEOs congregate is that the pioneer days are over. No one really needs to have another discussion about links or content being king, queen or what have you. SEOs have grown with the evolution of the Internet - in fact, I don't think it's putting it too strongly to say that they have pulled the Internet their way in some cases.
There's a little bit of irony somewhere in the fact that while the need for SEO basics is far from over, (yes, scary websites continue to multiply unabated) the SEOs themselves seem to have discovered they need more. Search Marketing has expanded to encompass a tremendous variety of areas of specialization from social media to video production.
Take a glance at Sphinn any day of the week and it quickly becomes apparent that so many of the hot topics have nothing to do with the optimization of web pages. The bright ones are talking about marketing - traditional marketing sprouting in new, interesting ways in the 'new' medium of the web. It's engrossing, it's au courant, but I don't think it can really be called SEO, and I sense a sort of repetitive motion fatigue in the industry whenever someone new shows up to ask about meta tags, don't you?
And then, there's Local Search. No one is yawning here. I sense in my Local colleagues an enthusiasm, a hunger for information, a yearning to experiment, test and study. There is the kind of camaraderie and generosity that has always been the hallmark of the best SEO circles. It's the kind of frontier living that the first SEOs throve on and there is still so much to be learned. Right now, I'm finding that I literally can't wait for my Local colleagues to post on their blogs. I get really excited when they send me emails. Working with them is stimulating, rewarding.
If it's been awhile since you've felt like that about the industry you work in, maybe now is the time to expand your interests. Maybe you'll get really into Social Media, or maybe offline conversions hold special charms for you. Or, maybe, Local Search is just waiting for you to discover it. With groundbreaking documents like Mihm's and Blumenthal's hot off the presses in this virtually uncharted new territory of SEO, it's getting pretty exciting around here.
Free White Paper: How to Optimize for Google
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05.08.2008 06:44:47 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Site Clinic: No Good Web Design Idea is Original, So Use It!
by Jackie Baker
One thing
you'll hear me say over and over again in this column is that good usability
and design comes before optimization. It can be all too easy to market online
through optimization, link building, blogging, and social media ( to name a
few) and see that immediate upsurge in traffic, but not see any change in
conversions.
One of the main
usability pitfalls on the current AlaskaStock.com website is the lack of visual
contrast; blue and gray text is on top of a gray background, which will get
very washed out on varying monitors or for people who are color blind or have
vision problems. The blue, gray, and lighter gray color palette is very low
contrast, which causes all of the elements on each page to blend together.
Using colors with higher contrast will make the site easier to read, and make
it easier for visitors to distinguish the sections of each page (such as
navigation, content, search, etc).
Logical,
easy to find and follow navigation is critical to good usability. While it's
great that AlaskaStock.com has multiple ways for visitors to navigate to
information, it is spread out and hard to find on the page. On the homepage
alone there are 5 different ways to navigate:
- Global horizontal bar with
contact, help, my account, etc
- Left sidebar with option to
browse by popular searches
- Search bar in header
- Four vertical feature boxes on
the left side of the content area
- A horizontal navigation list underneath the large homepage image.
- a horizontal bar with all
account, cart, and related visitor info. Notice that the "register" and "sign
in" links have been paired with this information. All of the visitor's
necessary information to purchase on the site is easily accessible in one
area.
- a vertical bar with the search
options. AlaskaStock.com could take some cues from Comstock and move the
search function above the popular searches in the left sidebar. This type
of organization moves similar information to the same location, simplifies
the design, and makes it easy for visitors to see that they can navigate
the site in both of the those ways.
- a horizontal bar below the
content with all of the housekeeping links for home, contact, about, etc.
Comstock's
navigation options are simple, logical, and organized by type of information.
AlaskaStock.com could greatly improve it's usability by incorporating some of
these ideas.
Many of the
major stock photography sights whether they are rights-managed, royalty-free,
subscription-based or otherwise are displaying images similarly. The AlaskaStock.com
image results look messy because the image thumbnails are different sizes; some
are horizontal, some are vertical, and their descriptions are at all different
locations. It creates a less than professional look that is also difficult to
scan, a key element of usability.
Comparison:
Look at iStockPhoto.com's method for displaying images.
While the
AlaskaStock.com images do have unique titles with some keywords, these images
aren't ranking well in web or image search results. It's time to do a little
keyword research and start incorporating specific phrases that searchers are
using such as:
- Kotzebue
- Barrow
- Homer Alaska
If you're
feeling really brave and are prepared to take a big step in marketing online,
start getting the AlaskaStock.com photos posted on Flickr.com. There are a few
major benefits to posting photos to Flickr:
- more links to your site, which
equals more traffic
- multiple ways for people to
find your images
- your optimized images will show
up in Yahoo web and image search results.
While putting
images out on a photo sharing site can be scary, taking that step as well as
improving your image optimization will greatly increase your online visibility.
Designers and marketers who don't know about your site and go to a search
engine looking for photos of Alaska will find you more easily, which is good
for them and for your bottom line!
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04.08.2008 19:30:06 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Seven Building Blocks of a Destination Website: #7 Trust and Credibility
by Stoney deGeyter
The first six building blocks in creating a Destination Website; expert information, usability, website design, unique value proposition, time and presence, and voice are all things that we, more or less, have direct control over. The exception is time. We don't control time but we do control how we build up our presence over time.
Trust and credibility are also partly in our control but also two of the most difficult things to achieve. We determine whether we move forward in a trustworthy way, and whether or not to act in a credible manner, but no matter how hard we try, we cannot wish those two things into existence. We cannot force someone else to trust us. We cannot tell someone to find us credible and expect them to do so on our word.
We can go about doing all we can to build both trust and credibility, but, in the end, whether we are trusted or not lies not with our own efforts but other people's perceptions. If you spend months and years showing you can be trusted and proving that you're credible, but one one knows or believes it to be true, then you just aren't. These are not physical things that can be touched, they simply must be understood to be true.
How to build trust and credibility
So while we cannot make a few tweaks here or there and suddenly expect to be deemed as credible, there are things that we an do to help build the perception of trust in the minds of our visitors.
Answer phone calls and return emails
I'm amazed at how often I run across businesses that don't do this. You would think that this is one of the basic no-brainers of doing business. Heck, if you can't return a call or reply to an email, what signals are you sending to the potential customer? First question: are you a legitimate business? Second question: if I have a problem, who's going to be there to help me out?
It's bad enough that potential customers call and get a voice mail during business hours. Worse when those calls are not returned. Rule of thumb, you have about 24 hours to respond to messages and emails before your credibility is questioned. However, if you really want the customer, you should respond much faster. Twenty-four hours is a long time on the web and if you wait too long, you just might have lost them to a competitor.
Keep information secure
Security is important to conveying trust. Whether you are selling products or just capturing leads, visitors need to know that their information is going to be kept secure and it won't be used for nefarious purposes. Using trust symbols such as Thawte, Better Business Bureau, and HackerSafe can all provide additional feelings of trust. Linking to privacy and security policies from your forms can help as well.
Open communication
Keeping communication open between you and your customers is essential. This is more than just returning calls, but it's active participation. Both in meeting customers needs but also in anticipating them. It means finding where your audience is and engaging with them in forums, chat rooms, blogs and the like. Keeping communication open gives you opportunity to be honest with your shortfalls, own up to your mistakes, and to present yourself as you truly are, a real person who cares genuinely about the needs of your audience.
Put the customer first
We've all heard it said that "the customer is always right." Now I don't necessarily believe that's true in all situations, but the point is, to survive in a customer oriented business, we have to put the customer first. This means going out of your way to ensure the customer is satisfied with their purchase and transaction and if not, finding out what areas they are dissatisfied in and provide a solution to make them satisfied.
Exceed expectations
One of the best ways to build trust and credibility is to simply exceed the expectations of your audience. This can be both easy and difficult. It's easy to find little ways to go the extra mile. To provide a little extra service or extra benefit. It can be difficult, however, if you over-sell yourself. If you do that then you make it difficult enough just to meet expectations. Look for opportunities to do something your customers or prospects don't expect. Ways to prove to them that they are special to you.
Of course, all this isn't just about building perceptions, but proving those perceptions to be true. Creating a perception of trust, only to have it proven false is far worse then never having built the aura of trust to begin with. If you fool visitors into thinking you're credible, they'll soon find out you're not. Both are harder to rebuild than to build in the first place.
Putting them all together
When building a Destination Website, all six other building blocks can be in place, but without this seventh one the first six are meaningless. Usability, voice, design, expert information, etc., all just become part of the ruse. But, if you are truly building up trust that can be trusted and credibility that is credible, the first six building blocks all lend a hand to that end. They all play a role at helping to establish and prove your trustworthiness.
Very successful businesses, both on-and offline have been built on this last building block alone. In fact, only this last one is required for success, though all seven are required to build a Destination Website. Like any good foundation, all seven building blocks provide support for the other six, with trust and credibility being the most crucial piece of the pie.
Read more about Destination Search Engine Marketing:
Part I: Do you Deserve Top Search Rankings?
Part II: What Would Sudden Exposure Get You?
Part III: Standing Out in a Sea of Thousands
Part IV: It's Not Just Marketing as Usual
Seven Building Blocks of a Destination Website
#1: Expert Information
#1b: Seven Types of Expert Information
#2: Usability
#3: Website Design
#4: Unique Value Proposition
#5: Time and Presence
#6: Voice
#7: Trust and Credibility
Conclusion: Why Destination Search Engine Marketing is So Essential
Free White Paper: How to Optimize for Google
A free 10 page white paper on how to optimize a website on Google the right way - so the website succeeds.
04.08.2008 17:13:08 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
If you're not careful, Twitter could be your next newsreader!
by Craig Sutton
Many people use the Twitter service to meet other interesting people, both with similar likes or just to hear what others have to say. This method of online socialization has become quite commonplace in the online world.
I myself started using twitter after being introduced to it at Small Business Marketing Unleashed by Jennifer Laycock. I found it to be quite entertaining and an interesting way to keep up with some of the people I met. I then started to realize the value of searching out like-minded people and watching what they had to say. I have really gathered some insight that I’m not sure would have been possible otherwise and have both learned and shared ideas on personal and business levels.
However, after following almost 400 people, which for some is but a fraction of the people they are listening to, I had discovered that for the small amount of time I could dedicate to Twitter, this was more information than I knew what to do with.
So I set out on a mission, to reduce the number of people I’ve followed down to the people I found myself communicating with most often and those that communicated with me. And now a couple of months later something interesting has dawned on me. The majority of people I am following are actually more often using the service to drive traffic back to their personal sites. This wasn’t the case when I was following 400 people.
Now I’m not saying that Twitter lacks usefulness in my application, however I could probably accomplish the same goals with a newsreader. So my thought is this, be involved in Twitter for its conversational use or just to share your random ideas, perhaps even just a crazy thought.
As for me, I plan to begin to follow more people again and try to use the service for what I believe was its original intention. A small note however, I do believe that people posting links on Twitter have provided a valuable service in many cases and should continue. I would not have learned of many of these people without it. Thank you to all of you that contribute.
Free White Paper: How to Optimize for Google
A free 10 page white paper on how to optimize a website on Google the right way - so the website succeeds.
02.08.2008 17:49:32 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
Social Media Marketing? Not in Columbus (or Social Media Isn't a Free Pass to a Good Campaign)
by Jennifer Laycock
Last night I had the pleasure of meeting up with a couple dozen other Columbus bloggers for a preview of the new Experience Columbus marketing campaign. The campaign was touted as having a heavy social media component and since I'm in the process of promoting Columbus myself with our upcoming Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference, I was excited to see what they had put together. Unfortunately, the night featured quite a few classic social media marketing mistakes.
The Background
Columbus is one of those cities that never gets it's just due. We're the 15th largest city in the United States and have an incredibly low cost of living. We're home to companies like Nationwide Insurance, Wendy's, Limited Brands and one of the largest universities in the world. We've got pro sports teams, awesome concert venues and shopping and food that can rival nearly any city in America.
I could go on and on.
I moved to Columbus 15 years ago and fell in love with it. Since then, I've joined every other Columbus resident in defending our town from the "wow, you have traffic lights in Ohio?" and "you know what the opera is, right" jabs they like to throw our way. It's ok though, because we have a sense of humor here in Ohio.
It was with that reputation in mind that the teams at Experience Columbus and Engauge decided to build their campaign.
The Idea
From the dawn of time, tourism campaigns have focused on one of two things...
1.) Everything there is to do while you're here
2.) How very relaxed you can be while here
The idea for the Columbus campaign was to focus on a social media push that equipped the local community to poke a little fun at ourselves before pointing out what we do have. It was to catch people's attention in a different way, cause an eyebrow to raise or a chuckle to occur and then deliver the punch explaining why Columbus was a worthwhile destination.
Overall, an intriguing (and potentially fantastic) campaign.
Unfortunately, the Campaign Is Lacking
The new campaign from Experience Columbus is broken down into four different areas. There's a print campaign, a YouTube video campaign, a banner ad campaign and a web site. They've also created t-shirts that they hope will be a catalyst for helping spread and build interest in the rest of the campaign.
You can view the components of the campaign (save the web site, which hasn't launched yet) at the Experience Columbus web site.
Some areas of the campaign, like the banner ads and the t-shirts are a home run. They do a wonderful job of changing up the stereotypical tourism pitch, catching your eye and giving you a chuckle. They draw you in and they spark conversation. In all honestly, I was pretty impressed with the fun and fresh take on something every city in the world has struggled with.
In fact, they're almost a perfect fit for the very concepts that drive social media and viral marketing. They deliver something different, something that plays off of people's ideas and misconceptions about Columbus and they show a sense of self-deprecating humor. That said, they also deliver a marketing punch via the "you can do everything else" side of it.
That said, two other areas of the campaign are not just sorely lacking, they're downright awful.
The Videos
First, let's take a look at the videos. There are four of them, all with the same theme of "Not in Columbus." When the first video started playing, I had high hopes. When it was done playing, I was a little bit dumbstruck.
For the life of me, I can't fathom how that would make someone want to visit the Experience Columbus web site. They hit the "what we don't have" key perfectly (and with humor) but they never even tried to hit on the what we do have. I've shown the video to about a dozen people since I came home last night and ever last one said "really? THAT's what they came up with?" In fact, Matt Bailey summed up the YouTube campaign as "Columbus: If you have no where else to go."
What's sad, is they all also knew how to fix it.
"Why don't they finish with a clip of what you DO have?"
Exactly. Take that cheese bouncing video and finish it with "But we do have X other festivals that will give you a taste of Columbus you'll never forget" and shots from events like Comfest, Red, White and Boom, the Jazz and Rib Fest, the Arts Fest and more and you've suddenly got something.
Now as much as I didn't like the YouTube videos, even they looked good compared to the Not in Columbus web site. (Not yet live)
The Web Site
The site was created as an all Flash "experience" site that builds upon the theme "Not in Columbus." It featured what looked like a road in the Nevada desert. On the site were images of a Pyramid, the Eiffel Tower, a Mermaid, a space ship, a shark in a pond and a few other things. It was an absolute case study in Mystery Meat Navigation. You had to roll over things to find any content and you had no idea what content you'd find where. I know I saw the shirts pop up once and the print campaign pop up once, but the only thing of value on the site seemed to be the "Not in Columbus Quiz" that showed up when you rolled over an image of a mermaid.
The quiz showed pictures of places and asked you whether or not the picture could be found in Columbus. A cute idea, but like the YouTube videos, one that focused heavily on what we don't have and sort of sarcastically brushed aside what we do have.
In fact, the web site featured NO content on Columbus tourism. You had to click through to the Experience Columbus site to find out anything about the city.
Apart from the fact that I simply think the web site is a poor marketing tactic, there are some serious issues with how the site was created. As with the Lenovo Olympics site I wrote about last month, the site was created without any thought to linking or search engines. Because the site was created entirely in Flash, there are no URLs to take you directly to your favorite area of content. If I wanted to link someone to the Not in Columbus Quiz, I wouldn't be able to. Instead, I'd have to link to the home page of the site and tell them to click on the Mermaid with the Viewmaster.
Beyond that, the site also isn't search friendly. While I understand there's been a lot of buzz about the fact that search engines can now read content in Flash files, it's essential not to jump to the conclusion that they DO. Flash files can still mean death to search engine rankings, especially if you don't know how to properly build a Flash and alternative HTML site.
As I mentioned in the Lenovo review, there are plenty of ways to create interactive sites that have the appearance of Flash effects but are still both link and search friendly. I've watched CSS gurus like Scott Allen of Hybrid 6 and my husband create HTML/CSS sites so good, you'd be surprised to learn they weren't Flash.
If the Experience Columbus team truly wants this campaign to take off via social media channels, they need to give serious thought to revamping that web site to make it more link and search friendly. Otherwise they're simply throwing away potential traffic.
The Lessons to Learn...
There are certainly plenty of things the Experience Columbus team did right. The intent behind the campaign is brilliant. Columbus residents have spent years defending their beloved city. We're not New York or LA, but we're also not a cow town. We know that outside visitors are often surprised at just how much there is to do in the city. This is the type of campaign we can embrace, make our own and really get behind spreading. The fact that they brought local bloggers in to review the campaign before taking it public showed huge initiative. They clearly get what they need to be doing to move forward.
Unfortunately, the execution of the campaign is lacking. In fact, the teams behind the Not in Columbus campaign made several key mistakes that you can learn from before launching your own campaign.
Lesson #1: Having Videos on YouTube Does Not Make it a "Social Media Campaign"
One of the things that most caught my attention when they talked to us about how they came up with the campaign was their desire to focus on social media. They talked about how much money gets spent on advertising these days and how easy it is to ignore ads. They talked about the power of social media and blogs in terms of spreading a message and they said it was one of the core considerations in building this campaign.
Knowing they'd decided to launch the campaign with local bloggers instead of traditional media left me feeling pretty confident they "got it."
Then I spent the entire meeting trying to figure out what the social media aspect of the campaign was. Surely they didn't think the fact that they'd put a few videos on YouTube and the t-shirts all have quick links for social bookmarking meant they'd launched a social media campaign?
At one point, Angelo Mandato even asked what the social media component of the campaign was. The response was something along the lines of how they might let people make their own YouTube videos and upload them and that people could submit a new t-shirt idea.
After I got over my internal laughter at the idea that they "might let" people make YouTube videos, the sobering reality of missed opportunity hit me.
So what could they have done (or still do?) Off the top of my head:
1.) Fix the YouTube videos to include a positive ending. Then provide the public with a logo and soundtrack and encourage them to create their own videos. Offer an incentive by picking the best one each week and giving away a "best of Columbus" pack, or heck, one of those t-shirts.
2.) Create a blog (yay, search friendly content!) for the web site and have the posts be a continuation of the Not in Columbus theme. Find the weirdest, most obscure stories, festivals, places and write "we don't have X, but we do have Y" posts that are fun and creative.
3.) Create a humorous Not in Columbus Facebook app targeted at college students who have moved here recently and don't know much about what is and isn't in Columbus.
Lesson #2: Good Social Media Campaigns Often Have an Offline Component
I kept hearing this conversation last night about how important the web is and how unimportant offline components are. There's no TV or radio ads planned as part of the campaign and the only real print campaign is focused at meeting planners. That means pretty much everything is being done online.
That's fine and dandy (and good for the budget) but you can't stop there. When you're marketing a physical product (or location) you sometimes have to put your computer down and head out into the real world to start generating the buzz with something tangible.
A few ideas:
1.) As Ryan Squire pointed out after the event, Ohio State University will be starting the fall quarter in a couple of months. Setting up a Not in Columbus display on campus and finding a creative way to give out 5,000 or 10,000 of those t-shirts would be a low cost way to start building some buzz among the age group most likely to go online and spread the word on this.
2.) Set up shop at Easton Town Center with a giant fake Pyramid and a "We don't have Pyramids in Columbus" sign. When people come wandering over to see what the deal is, give them free passes to what we DO have and tell them about the campaign.
3.) Build a scaled replica of the Eiffel Tower at this month's Ohio State Fair. When people come to find out why someone has a giant sign reading "You Won't See the Eiffel Tower in Columbus" tell them about all the amazing food they will find and hand out samples of local favorites like Jeni's Ice Cream, Brownie Points, SugarDaddy's and Pistacia Vera.
The Experience Columbus team made it clear their intent was for Columbus residents to "embrace the campaign and push it outward." That's fine and dandy, but to do that, you need to go to where they are, not wait for them to find their way to a web site that can't even be read by search engines.
Lesson #3: Understand What Social Media Really Is
It was great to see the Experience Columbus team invite Columbus bloggers to preview the campaign. In fact, for a campaign they are hoping will spread via word of mouth from inside Columbus out to the rest of the country, it was as great start. It's why I went in to the meeting with such high hopes.
Unfortunately, I don't yet see how people are really going to get involved and invested in this campaign. As far as I can tell, the extent of the social media campaign is "we really, really, REALLY hope people will take it upon themselves to market this for us."
In my world, that's about the same as saying "we made X, now we want you to make it go viral."
I understand how it happens, but it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how social media and viral marketing works. It works on the assumption you can create campaigns the way you always have then push a magic button and get a bunch of free advertising. I understand the appeal, but as Matt McGee says "hope is not a marketing strategy."
You have to find ways to actively involve your community. That might be by arming them with the tools they need to make more viral videos, it might mean bringing on guest bloggers, it might mean a traveling conversation sparked by the campaign theme on local blogs, or it might mean a Twitter based scavenger hunt for what Columbus DOES have.
Lesson #4: Don't Forget to Market
This may be the biggest lesson of all from this campaign. The t-shirts and the print and banner ads are throw-backs to the old way of marketing and the team's skill in terms of delivering a marketing message shines through if you only look at this part of the campaign.
The problem really does come in on the social media side of things when you look at the YouTube videos and the web site. As best I can figure, the team got caught up in the "you have to be funny and irreverent and not push your stuff to hard" line of thinking and forgot a key point.
If it's a marketing campaign...you still have to market.
See, my problem with the videos and the web site is they focus solely on what Columbus does not have. They never follow through to deliver the positive message of what we do have. That simple change would make a world of difference. Instead, they rely on the viewer to go and seek the positive out for themselves...something you've really given them no incentive to do.
Presenting people with a negative impression of your product or service (even if it's a funny negative impression) only works if you then deliver an even more compelling positive. It's simple psychology.
Campaigns Evolve and This One Can Too
I applaud the team for taking the chance and moving into new territory. I know how hard it can be for traditional agencies and organizations to wade into these complicated new waters, but that doesn't mean you can forget the core lessons of marketing.
That said, the beautiful thing about marketing online and via social media outlets is you're never locked in to your message. They haven't spent millions on TV and radio advertising. They haven't bought full page ads in newspapers and magazines around the country. There's still time to change the approach and sharpen the campaign to let it live up to its full potential.
That same benefit holds true for everyone else looking to market via social media as well. You can experiment. You can try an idea and see how it flies. You can backup and try a different approach. You do test and test and test again and then put your full effort behind what worked best.
Here's hoping the team at Experience Columbus does just that.
ETA, other local bloggers are also sharing their thoughts on the campaign. Check them out:
Social Avenue
Tangled Up in Blue
Urban In-fill
Podcamp Ohio
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01.08.2008 22:28:49 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing