Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

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Comprehensive Guide to Keyword Research, Selection & Organization, Part X

by Stoney deGeyter

This is part 10 of a 12 part series on keyword research. This series will guide you through four distinct phase of the keyword research process, providing you step by step guidelines to help you gather, sort and organize your keywords into an effective marketing campaign.

Analyzing Phrases for Quality

As we began Phase III of our keyword research process we discussed several different aspects of analyzing phrases. This helped us better understand the value of each phrase and the pros and cons that each bring to the table. Each of these much be considered and weighed carefully when determining if a keyword is valuable or not.

All of the above noted elements are pretty cut-and-dry and fairly easy to analyze. But in addition to those there are also some more vague elements that must be duly considered as well. These additional elements are far more subjective and require a good deal of thought and analysis.

What's the customer looking for?

The most important aspect of analyzing and eliminating keywords is to fully understand what the customer is looking for. We often see keywords through our own lens of understanding. You think about things a certain way because you are educated and trained that way. But the customer may not be educated in the same way, or at all, in terms of industry related jargon. So you have to step outside of your own thought processes and learn to look through the lens of searchers who think differently from the way you do.

One question you have to ask is, what does the searcher really mean when they type in a specific query? Often times the query itself isn't clear at all and what you are thinking they mean may not be what they are thinking. Ranking for these types of unclear terms is pretty valueless. Few searchers will even click on the site if they scan the results and don't see what they are looking for.

The searchers intent can also be different from the results produced. In these cases the search engines are determining the intent of the search and produce the results by their best algorithmic estimation. Again, if the searcher sees somethign different in the SERPs from what they wanted they'll go back and perform a new search.

In these cases, how do you get into the mind of the searcher? You can't always, but what you can do is scan through the search results for any given query. If the results are a match for what you offer then great, you've got yourself a worthwhile phrase. On the other hand, if the results are all for something completely different, then likely the searcher isn't looking for what you thought they were looking for.

Other times you just might to have to think through logically. If the searcher is looking for "wet t-shirts" you can be pretty sure they are not looking to buy a t-shirt that's waterproof. That's an extreme example but you get the point.

Future and seasonal trends

Trends can play a significant factor in determining the value any particular keyword. Several years ago I was doing keyword research for a client in the wedding planning business. This was just as the movie "The Wedding Planner" was hitting theaters which caused searches for "wedding planner" to be skewed much higher than normal.

Understanding current trends such as this can ensure you don't make an error in your keyword targeting. For this client "wedding planner" was still relevant despite the higher than normal search volume, but if the trends were not considered the client might assume this was the absolute best keyword to target over others such as "wedding planning".

As the above case proves, search volumes can often be over inflated, or even under inflated at different times. This is especially true with seasonal based products. Performing your keyword research at the right time of year is important, but it's also important that you understand the ebb and flow in overall search volume.

It's also a good idea to keep an eye on potential future trends. Some valuable queries may not be searched at all today, but can become extremely relevant and highly trafficked at some point in the near future. Getting a jump on any such terms can be a great investment in future returns. Also keep in mind that today's popular terms can fade and will be searched less and less over time. There is nothing you can do to avoid that when it happens, other than just be ready for that possibility.

What's missing in SERPs

Another way to determine what keywords might be good to target for optimization are areas in the search results that there is little or no competition. Search for your keywords looking for any gaps that are not being filled. Search volume for such phrases may be low, but if competition is low then you increase your chances of getting clicked. That, and if that term does become hot, you've laid claim to the top spot and it'll be much harder to push you out.

When performing these searches you can also get a good feel for the competition. Sometimes a good keyword will produce a lot of results, but the competition itself is easily displaceable. Size up the competition to see where you might be able to easily overcome them in the results.

Return on investment

The most critical thing to look at regarding keywords and phrases is whether or not the keyword will produce a return on investment for you. And this is where all of the elements noted here and in the previous posts must all be weighted together, adding in the factor of time. Knowing how much time and effort will it take to get any particular keyword to rank can be vitally important to understanding if that effort is worth the return that particular keyword will provide.

Putting all other factors aside, we have found that phrases that are two to four words provide the best return on investment. This allows each search term to be both descriptive yet specific, both of which are key. If such a term is typed into the search engine and your site appears, the searcher knows you have precisely what they are looking for.

The image below gives you a general rule of thumb of where your ROI is in keyword phrases. You can see that as more traffic is delivered, the conversion rated decrease and as the keywords that bring in less traffic produce higher conversion rates. And there in the middle are your three- and four-word phrases that generally produce the best return on investment.

Don't rely on your own analysis

When analyzing keywords another big help can be seeking out the opinions and thoughts of others. Again, this goes back to not looking solely through our own lens but allowing ourselves to look through the lens of others. And there is no better way to do that than to actually get the input from others.

When seeking outside opinion, here are a few people that you can seek out:

• Colleagues
• Assistants
• Managers
• Outside experts
• Clients

If you perform SEO for someone other than yourself, your client can be one of your best resources. Go to them at all stages of the keyword research process to get their insights and opinions. Otherwise, seek out other qualified and even unqualified individuals as they all have a unique perspective to share that can be valuable in learning more about your audience.

Missed one of the steps in this series? Click here to go back to the introduction and follow the links at the bottom.

Check out our small business news site.

30.10.2008 17:58:15 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

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Social Media Can Be Cheap, But Its Not Free

by Mack Collier

One of the big reasons why social media can be so appealing to small businesses is because many of these tools/sites are free or very cheap to use.� Which is perfect for small businesses that probably have very little in the way of a marketing budget to begin with.� But there are still costs to consider when launching a social media strategy.

I'm often asked 'how much time a day should I spend on blogging?'� It depends.� If you want, you can probably get away with spending 30 mins a day on your blogging efforts.� They might not be that effective, but you'll be blogging.� But like so many things in life, the more time and effort you invest in your social media and blogging efforts, the better your results.

Take this graph of my blog's traffic for the last 12 months, for example:



Notice in the 7th and 8th month that traffic slipped, then suddenly shot up again in the next month, and has continued to increase.� What changed?� In the 9th month, I started spending a lot more time interacting with people on Plurk.� Since then, I've also started spending a lot more time on Twitter as well.�

The point is, while it might not cost a lot to get your social media efforts off the ground, you still need to make a time investment.� And the more time you can invest, the better your results.� Don't enter into the social media space unless you can commit to being here for the long haul, and unless you can commit the time that this space requires.� If you can't invest hours at first, then start slowly, and as you get more accustomed to these sites and tools, and as your efforts improve, then devote more time.� I was talking last week to a guy that spends a lot of time on Twitter and he explained that he could justify spending more time there, because he's starting to see results from his efforts.

I think you'll see the same, if you can commit to spending time on your social media efforts.�

Check out our small business news site.

29.10.2008 22:14:55 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

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Marketing in Hard Times: Pricing

by Diane Aull

Is it a good idea to cut your prices when times get tough? When money is tight, it might seem that lowering your prices would be the thing to do. Customers are bargain-hunting, and you may think lower-priced competitors will eat your lunch unless you offer an even better deal.

But it's not always that simple. And sometimes lowering your prices could end up doing you more harm than good.

Sure, you might feel you're being forced into it. When all your competitors have lowered their prices, and you're hanging out there as the most expensive alternative, you might feel as though you have to match their price cuts.

But before you run to the stock room to retrieve your pricing gun, consider this:

Even in hard times, not everyone shops price. And when people do shop price they generally don't shop price alone. They still understand worthless junk is a waste of money, no matter how cheap it might be. Especially when times are tough, people want to be sure they get good value for the dollars they spend.

How you price your products and services plays a huge role in how your business will be perceived by others. Before you rush into cutting prices, consider the implications carefully to ensure you don't damage your reputation and your brand. The perception your customers and prospects have of your business can be more powerful than you might think.

Perception is Reality

I ran across an interesting study not too long ago. A researcher named Dr. Antonio Rangel of the California Institute of Technology told participants they were going to be rating five wines ranging in cost from $5 a bottle to $90 a bottle. He told the participants the price as they sampled the wine, and asked them to rate how much they enjoyed the wine. But Dr. Rangel and his colleagues not only asked the participants about each of the wines, they also measured each participant's brain activity, specifically in the "pleasure center" of the brain. With this set-up, they could objectively compare each participant's level of real, physical enjoyment.

Not surprisingly, when most of the participants sampled what they were told was more expensive wine, they said they enjoyed it more -- and, indeed, their brain-wave activity showed they weren't just saying that to be nice. They really did experience more pleasure when drinking what they thought were pricier wines.

The only thing was... there were only three wines, not five. Dr. Rangel served up two of the wines twice at different prices. Turns out, when people were told a wine cost $90 a bottle they enjoyed it more than twice as much as when they thought it cost $10 a bottle... even though it was the same wine both times.

See, Dr. Rangel wasn't taste-testing wines. He was testing how much people's perception influenced their physical reaction. And, it turns out, what people think can (at least to an extent) actually become their reality.

The Wal*Mart Effect

A lot of people I know, when they talk about shopping at Wal*Mart, are almost apologetic about it. "I know the stuff there is crap, but it's so cheap I can't resist," they'll say. The only thing is, in many cases Wal*Mart carries the same quality brand-name products as other hardware stores, toy boutiques and grocery stores... but they've made their reputation as the place for "always low prices," and for at least some people the perception is: cheap = junk.

And the interesting thing is, some people just won't shop at Wal*Mart no matter what. They voluntarily -- in full awareness of what they're doing -- go to a higher-priced store so they can pay more to buy the exact same stuff they could buy for less at Wal*Mart. They'll come up with all kinds of reasons to explain (or at least rationalize) their behavior: the other stores are better-organized, or they have nicer sales associates, or they're in a more convenient location, or whatever.

Now, Wal*Mart can get away with rock-bottom pricing because they're huge. They have the clout to negotiate concessions from their vendors the average person or business can't. And with the volume they do, even a few pennies per item sold can translate into zillions in total profit. So they're happy to target the penny-pinching cheapskate shoppers like me. They frankly don't care if some people perceive them to be a purveyor of low-quality merchandise. They can cry all the way to the bank about the unfairness of it all.

Doesn't quite work that way for the rest of us, though.

Pricing to the lowest common denominator is potentially a workable strategy if you're looking to make spare cash running a weekend flea market stand. It's almost certainly a mistake if you're trying to make a full-time living from your business.

The economy is going to get better. And when it does, you may not want your products or services to be locked in the bargain basement while your competitors have moved into the penthouse suite. So be careful. The pricing decisions you make now can have long-lasting repercussions for your brand.

A Value-Added Proposition

Of course, if your prices are waaaay above everyone else's, you may have to adjust downward to stay in the ballpark. But you certainly don't need to price lower than the competition! Nor do you want to -- at least, not if you value the long-term health and viability of your business.

Before you rush headlong into dealing with a down economy by trying to drastically undercut your competitors' prices, try this instead: add value to attract and retain customers without resorting to bargain basement pricing.

There are likely any number of "bonus" items or services you can offer that your customers want, but that won't cost you an arm and a leg. Give them at least some of these things, and you can position yourself in the market as a premium provider -- thereby justifying higher prices (and higher profit margins) for you.

Its what smart retailers do when they find themselves in competition with Wal*Mart. They don't try to beat Wal*Mart at their own low-prices game. That's almost certainly a losing proposition, thanks to Wal*Mart's size and volume business.

No, they keep their prices at a profitable level and instead help potential customers rationalize spending more with them by giving them reasons to justify the extra expense. Remember, there are customers out there who really don't want to shop in the bargain basement. So help them out! Save them from the work of coming up with their own justifications to buy from you and hand them a bunch of ready-made reasons on the proverbial silver platter. Use your marketing and advertising to spread the word -- "Those other guys may brag about their low prices, but we give you better value for the money."

Offer your customers value-adds the bargain-basement gang can't afford to give them. Real honest-to-goodness personalized service. Hard-to-find merchandise. Luxury amenities. It needn't be a huge thing -- might be as simple as always having a platter of fresh-baked homemade cookies and a pot of hot coffee on your reception desk. Giving everyone free same-day delivery as a matter of course. Offering to meet them at their home or place of business instead of making them come to you.

Remember, what they perceive about you will become their reality. When they perceive you're the one who cares about their needs and their concerns and their comfort, you'll earn some incredibly loyal customers who don't mind paying a little extra to do business with you.

Talk to your customers. What can you offer that they need or want, but aren't getting from your competitors? Think about ways to become not the vendor who cuts back when times get tough, but the vendor who adds value, and your brand will be positioned to fly higher than ever when the economy picks up.

Check out our small business news site.

29.10.2008 20:09:14 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

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Getting Your SEO Campaign Off to a Great Start

by Jennifer Laycock

Whether you're getting ready to overhaul your site in-house to improve your organic search rankings, or you're planning on hiring the process out to a consultant or agency, you need to have a grasp on the fundamental steps of a search engine optimization campaign. Otherwise, you're bound to get most of the way through the process only to find you are missing vital information. Worse, you could end up with a project that is completed, but severely lacking.

That's why Donna Fontenot's latest post over at Online Marketing for Marketers is a handy one. She does a great job of outlining the core components of a search engine optimization campaign and reminding you why they each count.

Donna's list includes:

• Defined Goals
• Keyword and Competitive Research
• Content Outline
• Evaluate and Address Technical Issues
• Offsite Marketing
• Take Action

She goes into nice detail with each of the six sections, and if you read it closely, you'll find a few gems other lists tend to miss. For instance, in her section on creating a content outline, she writes:

Many times, a site may already have a significant amount of content that addresses the core topic. If so, that content should still be picked apart and evaluated. A fresh eye can often see what the original publishers could not. Content can be tightened, refocused, and expanded upon to create an outstanding resource for the subject matter. No matter how much content already exists, a new outline should be considered. Is there enough information? Is the information arranged logically? Do page titles and section headings represent the key concepts that are being targetted? For every question a user might have about the topic, is there content to answer the question? Does the topic include multimedia whenever multimedia would be useful? Are illustrations and diagrams included when possible? Have podcasts, video, and screencasts been considered as compelling content? Does the copy satisfy both the user's needs as well as the marketing goals? The content outline should be the ultimate plan for each page of the topic section.

What's so unique about that you ask? Well, look at the last section again...

Are illustrations and diagrams included when possible? Have podcasts, video, and screencasts been considered as compelling content?

Far too often I see sites focus online on their text content. There's absolutely no reason not to also focus on how you can optimize visual content, audio content and the like. You can publish transcripts of your podcasts or videocasts...which suddenly gives you more search-accessible content. You can also make great use of graphics, charts and visual data, so long as you include descriptive text along side it.

This is why reviewing the basics is so essential. Otherwise it's too easy to lose focus and skip over some of the steps that could lead you down the road to fantastic content.

(Hat tip to Sphinn. Flickr photo from WorldIslandInfo of Futurist Movies.

Check out our small business news site.

29.10.2008 17:48:01 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

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Comprehensive Guide to Keyword Research, Selection & Organization, Part IX

by Stoney deGeyter

This is part 9 of a 12 part series on keyword research. This series will guide you through four distinct phase of the keyword research process, providing you step by step guidelines to help you gather, sort and organize your keywords into an effective marketing campaign.

Yesterday we began Phase III of the keyword research process discussing several elements of key phrase analyzation. We'll continue today looking at a few more considerations when determining how valuable any particular search phrase is.

Phrases that convert

As you sort through your lists of keywords, you want to be sure to eliminate phrases that won't deliver converting traffic. Whatever keywords that you keep for optimization, you want each to be able to drive the most qualified traffic, giving you visitors that are most likely to buy your product or services. Many search terms, if ranked high, can generate tons of traffic, however any term does not directly apply to your site or what you offer, should be scrapped.

Your job here is to make sure that the searcher finds precisely what they are looking for on your site. If your site cannot satisfy the searcher's intent, they will quickly leave in favor of another more 'relevant' site in the search results. Targeting keywords that delivers traffic that can't find what they intended are a waste of resources and should be deleted or benched until you can satisfy that particular query.

While high-converting terms are usually not searched as often as the general one-word search phrases, they are more likely to achieve top listings and therefore more likely to produce sales. Why? Because when a searcher types in exactly what they are looking for, they are more likely to find exactly what they want, provided you have what they want. If the visitor lands on a page most relevant your site is relevant and clicked, you just likely made a sale.

It's often tempting to try and optimize for keyword phrases that are not necessarily represented on the site but you feel will bring traffic that is looking for something similar to what you offer. An example of this would be if Adidas tried to optimize their site for 'Air Jordan' under the belief that anyone searching for Nike Air Jordans might be able to be sold a pair of Adidas instead. This is a mistake and borders on deception if you target these "incorrect" keywords . At the very least the searcher will come to your site see that you don't offer what they were led to believe. At worst, you push a negative branding experience on the visitor.

There are some situations when you can get away with doing this type of keyword targeting but you have to proceed carefully. The most legitimate way to take this approach is to provide information on the alternative products, comparing them with your own. You could then try to sell your product as the superior one. While doing this still won't bring in the most qualified traffic to your site you would at least have a chance at converting visitors this way than by not providing any such information. In any case, always check with a lawyer before optimizing for some else's trademarked terms.

Another example of targeting improper phrases is when the descriptive words don't fit what you sell. Let's say you sell high-end ski clothing. The terms "wholesale" or "cheap" and "discount" don't apply. For this reason you don't want to target keyword phrases with these words. Again, doing so would be misrepresenting yourself and leaving a sour taste in the mouth of the searcher as they leave your site for another.

Eliminating keywords that don't drive targeted traffic to your site is essential to ensure that you're focusing your efforts on the terms that will provide visitors that are more likely to become customers. The more targeted the phrase, the more likely you are to get a sale. And with that you are building a positive experience with your customers while also ensuring that you get the best ROI possible out of your marketing efforts.

Volume keywords

When finalizing your keyword list you want to make sure your search terms are all actively being searched (with some exceptions allowed as noted earlier). Achieving a top ranking for a term that nobody types in the search engine will ultimately be useless in driving traffic to your site.

Time after time I've seen people be adamant about going after certain search terms because they felt that the terms were very specific what their site offers. The problem was that the terms were too specific and virtually nobody was performing a search for them. The top listings were easily achieved but the end result was disappointing. You need to balance out choosing specific keywords with actively searched terms. They are both equally important.

You have probably heard the phrase "the long tail" when referencing keywords. This simply means going after the lower volume, but highly targeted phrases. Depending on your industry long-tail keywords can produce 50% or more of your total traffic. While each long-tail keyword produces less traffic than the primary keywords, combined they can add up to a significant portion of your traffic.

The long tail strategy is a good one but just be sure that any long tail keywords you specifically target will be searched enough drive traffic in the first place. There is nothing wrong with covering your bases on sporadically searched phrases such as "kids winter boots" but stay away from never-searched phrases such as "kids sheepskin winter and snow boots".

Informational queries

One type of non-converting phrase that you actually may want to consider taking the time to optimize for are informational queries. An example of an informational query would be a "how to" phrase, such as "how to create a gift basket". If you sell gift baskets these searches can be good at driving traffic, but won't necessarily produce immediate sales. However, over the long term, you can create visitor loyalty (assuming you continue to post such helpful content) that will continue to bring these visitors back to your site and eventually lead to new sales.

While this kind of traffic isn't the best at creating immediate revenue, building the audience can be crucial for long-term success. Some of these informational searches provide ways to capture traffic from those who are very early in the buying process.

Anyone searching for "best digital camera" is generally a comparison shopper, or is gathering product information for a later purchase. Bringing in this kind of traffic will produce an extremely low conversion rate but you can often get some visitor loyalty out of it. A fraction of those searchers may bookmark your site (or even give you a link. Yay!) and come back to you when they are ready to finally make their purchase.

When it comes time to go after these phrases you want to be sure to have a library of helpful information on your website. You could have a section of your site dedicated to product reviews, comparisons, how-to articles, etc. You could smartly use these pages as a means of up-selling your visitors to your own products or services.

Again, these are not ideal first pass keywords to optimize because of the low conversion rate but they do make great blog fodder, which builds up your community, trust, and links, which all assist with exposure and rankings, which is what drives targeted traffic.

Missed one of the steps in this series? Click here to go back to the introduction and follow the links at the bottom.

Check out our small business news site.

29.10.2008 17:31:11 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

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LinkedIn Gets even More Useful with the Addition of Apps

by Jennifer Laycock

If you're anything like me, you like to be able to customize things. You like a little extra juice on top of the standard options. You like to let your personality show through and you like to see a little personality from others. It's one of the reasons I reluctantly joined Facebook, though LinkedIn is the social network I find to be more practical. That's why I was so happy to hear the news about LinkedIn applications.

Reid Hoffman announces the launch of the new LinkedIn applications on the LinkedIn blog:

This initial roll out features productivity applications that range from gathering information that professionals around you are generating to enhancing your abilities to collaborate and communicate more effectively. You'll be able to work much more closely with your contacts on LinkedIn with tools such as file sharing, project management, business trips and many more.

The nine applications that you see live today on LinkedIn include productivity enhancing applications from Amazon, Box.net, Google, Huddle, Six Apart, SlideShare, Tripit, and WordPress as well a Company Buzz application developed by LinkedIn. Each of these applications will help you stay current and competitive as a professional in today's rapidly changing business world.

Quite honestly, I'm pretty excited about this. While I've long said LinkedIn is my favorite social networking tool online, it's still one I don't use on a regular basis. It's my "go-to" tool for gathering feedback and advice and for finding contacts, but I've always felt it would become even more valuable with expanded functionality.

Apparently the team at LinkedIn agreed.

Check out LinkedIn's promo video for the new applications below:

I tried to install the Amazon Reading List application this morning, but it seems to be having some technical difficulties. I'll be keeping an eye on this one as I think I'll find it useful. Especially since I know many of my LinkedIn contacts are prolific readers and I'm always trying to figure out what book to read next.

I also tried to install the SlideShare application. (Unfortunately it hung up at about 10% complete...no doubt the system is absolutely overloaded today.) I generally get inundated with both LinkedIn requests and emails asking for copies of my presentations after shows, this seems like a really easy way to tie the two together.

While it may be a day or two before the system eases up enough that you can really get in and play with apps, it's at least worth taking a look at the options they're rolling things out with. You won't find any "rate how hot your friends are" or "get attacked by Zombies" showing up on the list...yet. Here's hoping it stays that way.

Check out our small business news site.

29.10.2008 16:49:41 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

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Leverage Information from Google to Lower the Cost of Your PPC Bids

by Jennifer Laycock

One of the nice things about Google's somewhat complicated paid search advertising system is that as time passes, they give advertisers more and more information about their campaigns. While it takes time to learn how to read and interpret this information, doing so can go a long way toward helping you maximize your campaign performance while minimizing the amount of money you spend on it.

That's what Joe over at Adventures of PPC Hero helps you do in yet another excellent post on Google's AdWords Quality Score and the AdWords reporting system.

Joe writes:

...over the past year Google has been lifting the thick veil that hides the mechanics of the Quality Score in order to give advertisers more visibility as to how their keywords are scored. Recently, Google AdWords made another leap forward in helping PPC managers get a better grasp on the Quality Score.

If you have run a keyword/placement report within AdWords recently, you'll notice that you can now included Quality Score data as well as estimated first page bid information.

Joe goes on to offer up some great screen shots from the AdWords system and to explain how to use the information Google is giving you to get more of your ads to show on the home page. He also points out how this information can be used to lower your bids.

For one keyword, my "estimated first page bid" was $1.25 and I was bidding $2.50. So, I lowered my bid slightly because I would prefer to keep my ads in the 3-5 position and stay on the first page of results, and pay less per click.

If you've set up a Google AdWords campaign and left it to run without checking in on a regular basis, you are probably over paying for campaigns that are under performing. Take the time to learn the basics of paid search and to read more about how each engine works. Learning even just one new thing about an engine's paid search algorithm can pay off big time in terms of higher ROI.

Flickr photo from Joshua Davis via creative commons license.

Check out our small business news site.

29.10.2008 15:59:11 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

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5 Tips to Help Drive Search Marketing Strategies

by Manoj Jasra

Whether you are an in-house search marketing strategist or you work for an SEM agency, there is a common barrier that you will consistently come across: Establishing priority for search marketing in conjunction with getting buy-in from required stake holders. Below I have outlined 5 ways you can push search marketing strategies along more effectively.

�

Relationships:��You will find there are numerous stakeholders involved with every task. Establishing strong working relationships with team members in marketing, IT, and design is extremely beneficial in understanding the corporate structure as well as the flow for strategic processes.

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Quick Wins and Tips: Once you have established some decent relationships it's a good idea to understand each individual's priorities/responsibilities. From there you should begin to pass along occasional quick wins and tips allowing these individuals to be more effective with their day to days tasks. This idea will really help build your trust level and make your team members looks good infront of their bosses.

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Training: This is a technique I have had great success with. In order to get buy-in on the implementation of SEO and PPC strategies from my marketing team, I designed one hour SEO/PPC training sessions for groups of intimate groups of 5-7. With a better understanding in both SEO and PPC the marketing team was more open to asking for my help in future strategies. I kept the groups small to help promote questions and conversation during the training sessions.

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Get Involved: If you see an opportunity to help out or add insight, take it. A suggestion for an A/B test for an email marketing campaign, a missing competitive term in a PPC campaign, an important tweak to a landing page or missing meta tags for a prominent product page - Word these hidden opportunities with benefits and you will find success.

�

Long Term: Don't just stop at the basics, once you have established relationships and received some buy-in, continue to evangelize search marketing with on going strategies. Find yourself a seat at meetings related to new website designs, CMS selection, and online campaigns so that you can continue to give search marketing a voice a the table.

Check out our small business news site.

29.10.2008 07:58:08 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

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Six Keys to a Viral Message that Sticks - Part Three: Be Concrete

by Jennifer Laycock

I've written quite a few articles about building and launching a viral marketing campaign over the past couple of years. In general, I write about the brainstorming process or how to put your pitches together. In this new series, I'll be looking at the six key components that make people remember a message and therefore, make it more likely they'll pass it on.

(I've pulled these six components from Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick and put my own spin on them.)

Part One: The Need for Simplicity Part Two: Deliver the Unexpected

When it comes to getting your point across in a marketing or viral message, there's no room to be vague. You have to focus in on your message and deliver it in a way that's crystal clear. Unfortunately, many companies fall into the trap of speaking in generalities. Why? Because it's easy. Companies tout lines like "we do the right thing" or "we have the lowest prices" and fail to get specific enough to differentiate themselves from the dozens (or hundreds) of other companies touting the exact same thing.

This is where the third key point from Made to Stick comes in.

Be Concrete

If you want a message to stick and stick well, it needs to be concrete. That means you need to take your unique value proposition and explain it in such a way that it's easily understood. Saying "we're fast" is not concrete because what I define as fast and what you define as fast are not likely to be the same.

For example, let's consider words and pictures.

If I asked you to picture something "colorful" in your mind, I'd be asking you to do something that was not concrete. I'd be giving you a general idea of what I wanted, but it would be up to you to work out the details. On the other hand, if I showed you the following picture, I'd be giving you a concrete example of what I mean when I say "colorful."

The key to remember when it comes to offering up concrete marketing messages is that you need to spell it out. A selling point is broad; good customer service, low prices, speedy delivery or great selection. A good marketing message is concrete; free overnight shipping, find a lower price and we'll give you 10% back, delivered in 30 minutes or it's free or "enough books to stretch to the moon and back, twice."

Making Your Message Concrete

So let's build an example here to show the difference between a broad selling point and a concrete message.

Let's say you run a small town plumbing business. You decide that your selling point is quick service. After all, who wants to sit around all day waiting for a plumber to show up? You're small, you have a tight budget and you don't have a lot of time to craft your marketing message. You might put together an ad like this one:

The name of the company is "A-1 Speedy Rooter" and the ad touts their 24/7 service line. I see where they're trying to go with this, but they're still being fairly general in their message. There is nothing that gets across exactly what makes them speedy, thus you have no reason to believe they'll live up to your expectations.

A better option would be to come up with a concrete (i.e. clearly and fully defined) example of how and why you are speedy. With that in mind, I sat down and thought about how I might create a concrete message for a plumber who wanted to promote quick and speedy service.

My first thought was "we need to put a dollar amount on this." It doesn't have to be a ton of money, but it needs to be enough to make it clear the guarantee will be taken seriously on the part of the company. That means it will also be taken seriously by the customer. $50 is a nice round number that is still a small portion of your typical plumber bill, but is enough to catch someone's eye in terms of savings.

Since a plumber should show up when they say they will show up (or before), I also figured it was safe to go with "on time" as the guarantee. If the company tells you they will be there by 5pm, they better be there by 5pm.

Now, if you're looking to give something viral potential, it's handy to throw a little dose of humor in there. In trying to come up with a humorous and creative twist, I found myself thinking back to some of the plumbing work we had done when our basement drains backed up. Plumbers tend to deal with a lot of...crap. A plumber's equipment (and sometimes the plumber) can easily pick up some unpleasant odors. Now obviously a good plumber is going to take care of those odors before they come to your home, but we all know many of them done.

So, that was my final "hook" in my concrete message. Here's what I came up with:

If you take a look at the message in the first ad and the message in the second ad you'll have a great example of the difference between a broad selling point and a concrete message. One implies the service is fast, but leaves it up to you to determine what that means. The second spells it out crystal clear.

Take some time to think about the message you are trying to push. Share your message with a friend or family member and ask them to tell you what they think it means. If they can't, or if their interpretation doesn't match up with yours, chances are high your idea is not yet concrete. Head back to the drawing board and try again.

In part four of this series, I'll take a look at building a message that carries credibility.

Check out our small business news site.

28.10.2008 23:24:45 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

Hard link

Are You Putting Your Best Blog Posts on Display?

by Mack Collier

I talked to a blogger last week who explained that he had written a blog post last year that still gets traffic referrals.� Which is great, but this blogger had his post buried in the archives of his blog. Instead, why not put the spotlight on your best posts?

Think of your blog posts, do some of them seem to get more comments than the average?� Did one particular one surprise you by getting 25 links?� Then these posts were obviously ones that resonated with your readers!� Find a way to put them on display so your audience can find them!

A simple way to do this is to create a 'best of' section for your blog that highlights your most popular posts.� I did this on my blog by simply creating a section on my blog's sidebar that links to about 10 of my most popular posts.� This is also a great way for new readers to quickly get up to speed on what I discuss on my blog.�

If your business sends out a regular newsletter, then why not add a link to a blog post with each one?� This is a great way to focus on your blog's best content, but it can also expose your blog to a new audience!

So start thinking about ways that you can resurrect some of those posts that might be buried in your blog's archives, but that still generate interest from your readers!���

Check out our small business news site.

28.10.2008 22:23:33 - Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing