Archive for the 'SEO' Category

How Online Marketers Adjust in Tough Economic Times

Published
by
Eric Dudley
on October 13, 2008
in Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, Email Marketing, Online Marketing, Paid Search, SEO, Search Marketing and Social Media
. 0 Comments
The plunge of the stock market last week is certainly a reflection of the weakening economy and dare I finally say recession.  Few of us are unaffected that have investments in the market, however, it was encouraging to see the Dow’s 11% rebound today!  Frankly, I am still in shock over Wachovia’s failure and acquisition by Wells Fargo in a week’s time.

With the market turmoil and economic factors that we don’t control placing pressure on marketing, what are smart marketers doing? I recall a Bain study, that said in a downturn:

Savvy management teams look beyond cost cutting and seek out opportunities to grow the top line and improve their strategic position

As strategic online marketers, we are helping our client focus on driving measurable results that can be monetized and scaled for the upturn.  Equally important is strengthening the bonds of loyalty with your team, customers, and key partners.

Interestingly, in the first quarter of this year, Forrester and MarketingProfs survey of Online Markters found that in a recession the top 5 marketing channels that they would increase in investment include:

  1. Social Networking
  2. User Generated Content
  3. Email Marketing
  4. Blogging
  5. Search Marketing

Online Marketing Adjustments in a Recession

In a very recent less scientific poll from Top Rank Online Marketing when asked of online marketers ”what top 3 internet tactics will you emphasize most in the next 6 month“, the top 5 online marketing tactis were:

  1. Search engine optimization
  2. Blogging
  3. Pay per click
  4. Email marketing
  5. Social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn)

What marketing channels are you increasing or shifting in this economy?  And does it surprise you to see search engine optimization, Social Networking and Blogging as high on the list?  Let me know your thoughts.

How To Plan Your ‘09 Online Marketing Budget

Published
by
Eric Dudley
on September 16, 2008
in Branding, Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, Email Marketing, Lead Generation, Media Buying, Online Marketing, Paid Search, SEO, Search Marketing, Social Media, Website Analytics and Website Effectiveness
. 7 Comments

During these tough economic times, budgeting is becoming an even more critical aspect of the planning process.  It’s easy for many companies to immediately dismiss marketing as a disposable expense, however, research shows that companies which continue to market during an economic downturn are that much farther ahead of those that don’t.

We consult with many clients regarding their annual online marketing strategies and plans.  Here are some tips to consider to get your 2009 Online Marketing budget approved.

1. Outline expected results

Your goal is to link marketing initiatives and strategies to financial outcomes, therefore you need to make sure you can effectively show how investing in online marketing will result in specific goals and objectives.

For example, your marketing initiatives may include one or more of the following:

  • Drive incremental sales. Show how your online marketing plan will directly impact sales. Your outcomes are pretty straightforward if your marketing directly generates sales. Tactics may include Paid Search, search engine optimization, online media buying, and email marketing.
  • Drive leads into the sales pipeline. Show how you will engage your online audience and generate interest and demand that results in generating a lead.  Tactics may include Paid Search, search engine optimization, online media buying, and email marketing.
  • Engage and convert more visitors.Show how you will engage more visitors and get them to respond to your offer.  Small lift in conversion rates can easily multiply sales.  Tactics may include web effectiveness and multivariate testing.
  • Interact with your audience.Show how you will engage your audience where they spend time online today.  Buzz and referrals can be powerful and result in customer evaluation and adoption.   Tactics may include web analytics, multivariate testing, and social media.
  • Building your brand. Show how exposing your brand will result in greater recognition and adoption resulting in greater engagement and ultimately sales.  Granted, this is a longer term approach that requires more buy-in.  Tactics may include paid search, online media buying, and social media.

To project your expected outcomes, quantify the results you have achieved prior and make sound assumptions. This gives more weight to your strategy, shows sound thinking, and often creates a positive collaborative dialog.

2. Educate decision makers on the dynamics of the strategy.

The next step and one of the most critical is getting buy-in and approval from the powers that be.  Educating your executives on the core strategy to the point that they are nodding their heads in agreement is important.  Identifying any threats to the strategy and plan should be highlighted, but not magnified. It is important to reinforce with the decision makers the following:

  • Integrated plan with critical mass. Show how complementary tactics yield even better results.  For example, how search marketing and online media combined yields higher returns when integrated successfully.
  • Marketing needs to be supported through the entire funnel. If there are other dependencies to driving sales, ensure that those parts of the funnel are held accountable to their target conversion rates.
  • Budgeting for analytics is critical to measuring and delivering expected outcomes. Without a unified measurement tool, showing expected outcomes will be challenging.  Ensure you have an analytics platform that captures leading KPIs along with bottom-line conversions.  For example, your web analytics platform should be able to tell you how a opt-in email marketing campaign directly impacts sales on the website.
  • A testing budget that allows for new champions to surface. We recommend setting aside around 10% of your budget if possible to test new hypothesis and in some cases emerging tactics.

If asked how to reduce the overall budget, suggest that the decision makers take more budget and wipe out the integrated approach because it may not be effective enough to make a substantial impact.

3. Build executive confidence in your online strategy with clear financial expectations and outcomes.

With an integrated, well thought-through strategy, and the measurement of analytics to determine the financial outcomes, you will build confidence in your executives and gain support to approve and execute your online marketing plan.

I welcome your comments and feedback below:

How to Select an Online Marketing Agency

Published
by
Eric Dudley
on September 12, 2008
in Online Marketing, Paid Search, SEO, Search Marketing, Social Media, Website Analytics and Website Effectiveness
. 0 Comments
How to Select an Online Marketing Agency

Jeannie Moran, eCommerce Marketing Director of AutoNation, shares how to select an online marketing agency at SES

Many marketers have struggled with this topic: How To Select an Online Marketing Agency.  I attended this session at the Search Engine Strategies conference a couple of weeks ago.  Veteran marketer Jeannie Moran, eCommerce Marketing Director, of AutoNation, shared her experience with fellow marketers.

From a marketer perspective here is what to look for when selecting an agency:

5 Fundamentals- Per Jeannie Moran, eCommerce Marketing Director, AutoNation, inc.

  1. Sign a MNDA
  2. Be aligned with vision and be able to introduce the agency to your boss
  3. Build trust and set reasonable expectations
  4. Be honest about working with multiple partners
  5. Make sure it’s worth everyone’s while

Must haves - Groundwork for Success

  1. Understand what you are buying - educate yourself
  2. Ask the right questions - be cautious about guarantees
  3. Always meet with the team that will be delivering
  4. Make sure to use compatible technology
  5. Get all promises in writing
  6. Negotiate a trial period - test pilot for 90 days minimum
  7. Uncover any hidden costs
  8. Ensure one common platform for tracking
  9. Determine if application supports foreign languages and currencies

SEO Vendor Considerations

  1. Strong keyword research strategy
  2. Strong copy writing and link building
  3. Optimization plan for organic pages
  4. Measure organic conversion and ROI
  5. Proven results

Paid Search Vendor Considerations

  1. PPC programs in Google, Yahoo and MSN
  2. Web traffic measurement tool to measure your precise return on investment
  3. A/B testing of PPC ads and landing pages to identify the most effective campaigns
  4. Account managers that are Google AdWords certified and are Yahoo Ambassadors

Social Media Vendor Considerations

  1. What channels are you currently active in for clients?
  2. Give examples of how channels might be used to bolster the overall SEM effort
  3. Proven results?

Key Takeaways

  1. Educate
  2. Invest
  3. Agree and document billing model
  4. Start small and scale
  5. Monitor, measure, optimize

There are key advantages of one vendor for both SEO and SEM

Using a holistic strategy and partner will allow you to:

  • Identify opportunities that can improve performance
  • Optimize across all search channels
  • Combine campaign metrics and reporting

Outcome:  Increased ROI and Cost Savings

At WebsiteBiz, we offer both Paid Search, SEO, and Social Media capabilities.  Our clients tell us the integrated approach yields higher returns along with cost savings and who wouldn’t want this? J

SES - Black Hat, White Hat: Playing Dirty with SEO

Published
by
Tom Dressler
on August 20, 2008
in SEO
. 0 Comments

Some say that “black hat” search marketers will do anything to gain a top ranking and others argue that even “white hat” marketers who embrace ethical search engine optimization practices are ultimately trying to game the search ranking system. Are white hats being naive? Are black hats failing to see the long-term picture? This session will include an exploration of the latest black and white issues, with lots of time for dialog and discussion.

Moderator:
Speakers:
Notes:
  • No Presentations will be given. It is a packed session here at SES. Quite a rowdy crowd. The discussion will be town hall format.
  • Definition of Black Hat -
    • Bruce Clay: The search engines define what it is. Most white hats play in the middle; gray hats play on the edge; black hats focus out of bounds
    • Jill Whalen: Attempting to deceive the search engines
  • Definition of White Hat -
    • Todd Friesen: He agrees with Jill’s assessment but brings up the verticals differences
    • Greg Boser: White hat is defined as SEO with no game
    • Dave Naylor: Black Hat is like driving a Porsche in competitive industries
  • Is there risk in both white and black hat techniques?
    • Jill says work hard to make a great website
    • Bruce says if you are working on your site and Matt Cutts comes up behind you, you close your notebook- you are at risk. White Hats color within the lines. Since search engines don’t publish the rules some white hat techniques can appear as black hat even though legitimate.
    • Todd agrees.
    • Greg indicates that most of the black hat techniques are server on his personal site not clients.
    • Jill brings up the idea of incompetent SEOs and the fact that they are the worse group. The crowd agrees!
    • The topic has turned to buying links and what that really means to the search engines. Dave says what does the footprint of a specific tactic look like. Black hats are always testing the limits of link building.
    • Bruce agrees if we spend time working on a project we need to know what the rules are. The question becomes do we take the time or do we buy links.
    • Jill chimes in on the rules…don’t read Google’s guidelines she says it’s common sense. We are all adults. Todd disagrees…this is not common sense.
Questions now coming from the floor.
  • Will links in RSS feeds help?
    The panel defines it as really simple spam (LOL) This could be a dangerous technique.
  • Using widgets effectively could be helpful.
  • The owner of SEOChamp.com chimes in about how black hat techniques are coming from overseas. He really is passionate about how there are 70 parts to the Google algorithm. Matt chimes in at over 200.
  • The challenges between a 1 month vs long term plan. Ticket brokers buy links and it is a tough space.
    • Greg says look at the competitive research and then explain what can be dome and what is the risk tolerance.
  • Affiliate marketing does get a bad rap sometimes. Todd is a big fan of making money. Certain verticals have a hard time following the rules to compete.
  • Bruce says you should take time to build credibility over time and that an aggressive link building techniques can be risky.
  • The BMW brand who was penalized for 72 hours shows that the bigger the brand the easier it is to ask for forgiveness. The interesting fact was they got tons of blog links fro the PR. The BMW SEO work was amateur at best.
  • Now Matt Cutts has asked for the mic: His disclaimer is when we remove sites, they are removed based on the facts not the name. Matt indicates that there is a large subsection of a major newspaper that is currently banned and has been banned for some time. Google does not talk about what sites big or small that they take out. Matt says don’t take the risk.
  • If you are banned you can ask for re-inclusion. Greg says look at the entire space when you choose to ban sites.

Search Marketing Conversation with Google Engineer Matt Cutts

Published
by
Tom Dressler
on August 20, 2008
in SEO and Search Marketing
. 0 Comments
Tom Dressler and Eric Dudley with Matt Cutts from Google

Tom Dressler and Eric Dudley with Matt Cutts from Google

Eric Dudley and Tom Dressler spend time with Google Engineer Matt Cutts at SES San Jose.