How Pinterest Will Evolve for Business Marketing

Pinterest will be the hottest social media platform for business marketing…in a year from now. 

Despite the hype and the record-breaking growth rates, as it exists today, Pinterest is not ready for business marketers; the demographics are wrong, the categories are too consumer focused, and there are significant copyright and measurement issues to overcome.   

As it stands today, Pinterest is following the “next big social media thing” strategy of getting the audience first, and figuring out the business model later.  That audience for now is mostly women, who are, as Ryan Deshazer, VP of Search and Social at GSW Worldwide described in a recent post, doing “social scrapbooking.”  However, within that audience there are also business decision makers.

As Pinterest’s internal analytics capabilities evolve those business decision makers will become known, and when they do, the marketers will follow.   As a result, Pinterest could quickly become the best social platform available for business-to-business content marketers. 

While other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, are mostly content distributors (sharing), Pinterest’s platform has the potential to offer far more value as a content aggregation and curation tool, as well as a content destination and repository.   Here’s why:

• Scalability and Scanability – the rate of which new content is being added to the “www” is mind-boggling.  According to Hubspot, 70% of bloggers add new content weekly or daily, 500,000 new posts are added everyday alone on WordPress.com   As a result, it’s becoming more difficult to find high quality, relevant content.  The “internet” must evolve in order for audiences to navigate faster through this growing mass of content to find what they are looking for, which opens the door for Infographics and Pinterest.  By making content visual, it also makes it more scanable.  The average person reads between 200 to 300 words per minute, but visually it takes only 1/20th of a second to process an image.  Pinterest platform accelerates the process by aggregating and organize images by category or theme making it easy to search. 
• Valuing Content – business marketers are constantly wrestling with trying to understand the value of their content (relevancy, insight, utilization, etc.) based on how and when it’s consumed by various audience segments.  Lacking a closed loop system to provide feedback, it’s been difficult to know exactly what resonates, with what audience, and why. Curating content naturally within Pinterest provides marketers the opportunity to capture deeper insights into audience consumption habits.   For example, business marketers tend to organization content along the “buying process,” which is typically defined by steps within the sales process.  Marketers may find that business audiences within Pinterest organize and consume content by categories defined as “applications” -- how they intend to use the product, and not how they will buy it.  This insight could help define the real purchase path and key influences along that journey.    
• Audience Insight - lastly, and perhaps most interesting, will Pinterest have the ability to provide “affinity data”?  As Scott Bayer, CTO of Baynote wrote“individual pinning choices are interesting, but there is even greater opportunity to analyze segments of people who express an affinity for a product or category in aggregate.” 

If available, this information could allow marketers to create new segmentation clusters based on common interests, which could help improve messaging and targeting.  “Clustering” could identify brand advocates, key influencers and connectors, local “hot spots” and new ideas for reaching them.   

While we still have some time before Pinterest evolves there are few things to consider now:

1. Integrate “Pin it” button into your website - it will do nothing for conversions, but it may drive some traffic that could provide some insight.
2. Make your content more visual – if content marketing is part of your marketing plans,  experimenting using Infographics (visit Visual.lyfor a starting point).
3. Experiment – whether or not you’re a believer in social media platforms, the fact remains that Twitter and Facebook have impacted how we go to market.  Pinterest also holds the same potential to change the way we create, produce and consume content.  Start to brainstorm on what that change might be and/or what you might like to change given its functionality. 

I realize that there are skeptics out there, I might even be one, but as we’ve learned with other social media platforms, if you don’t think it’s valuable tool, then you’ll be right…it won’t.  Pinterest holds great potential for business marketers, but that “potential” will only realized by those who seek to define it by experimenting…or dare I say, “pin it.”  

SEO Research Story

Intro - SEO Good afternoon judges, faculty, members of the 7th District. I am David Ford….I’m Carla Fulwider, I’m Alex DeJarnette, and I’m Andrew Stearns…. and we are Ellipsis. This year our client, JCPenney, has offered one of the most comprehensive and direct case studies the National Student Advertising Competition has ever seen. It comes as no surprise that JCPenney understands its customers, as they have been a leader in the retail industry for over a hundred years. Not only did this case offer a great deal of information but raised the bar and delivered a challenge to acquire an even greater understanding of the women in our target. It has built a very strong platform and demanded a very strong campaign in return. Objectives - Alex ETSU has created a campaign for JCPenney that is uniquely built on four fully integrated objectives that are key components to increasing market share and building lasting relationships among our target audience. It is important for JCPenney to emotionally connect with our target audience by building a relationship founded on meaningful experiences, constant communication, and delivering promises that we can keep. Through this campaign we will acquire females ages 25-34, regain female customers, increase shopping frequency and grow share of wallet among their current female customers. We have created a fourth objective that we feel is imperative for JCPenney to execute and that is to regain lost relationships with our target audience. SEO Research – Carla We analyzed the case study but we still wanted more! So we listened to these women. We knew the information wasn’t going to come to us, so we went to them. We found them (cue the gradual fade in of audio quotes) on SEOs, we read their tweets, and Facebook posts. We sifted through thousands of reviews. There are so many women out there, with so many of their own opinions, and we wanted to listen to every one of them. What they love, what they hate, how they feel. (audio loud enough to interrupt Carla and then fades out abruptly) What Women Want/Expect – (during this summary pages 2 & 3 will be shown) - Carla So what did we get from this? Women don’t miss a thing! They want to be heard and more importantly understood. They want their retail experience to mean something…..to adapt to their ever changing needs. They want to love something and tell each other all about it. They don’t want to waste any time. Each moment is different and they know what a difference one moment can make. Lifestyle Segments – David/Carla JCPenney presented the women of this audience to us through four lifestyle segments: Traditional, Classical, Trendy, and Modern. One of the most important things we learned about these women is that they don’t fit into any specific categories because they are constantly changing, even throughout the hours of their day. They embrace their unique identity and expect retailers to offer them fashions to fit their individuality. Instead of labels, we segmented women by lifestyle. We have independent women and women with families. They value different things and have different shopping habits. But they also have a lot in common. Our campaign focuses on the similarities. Both groups of women are relationship focused and look for the greatest value at the most affordable price. Our campaign seeks to form connections and cater to their shopping habits. By appealing to these women on a personal level and avoiding labels, JCP will rise above competitors (Show them visually) SWOT/Competition - Alex In order for us to understand what JCPenney could do better we had to understand what everyone else was doing right. And as quoted in the case study “the competitive environment for department stores has become fierce over the last several years as consumers desire more value, style, and quality.” During our research we spent hours listening as women vented their frustrations and talked about the brands they love. Learning about our competition gave us great insight into potential opportunities for growth and improvement for JCP. It also helped us to recognize threats within the marketplace. These are some of the key points we pulled from what they had to say. Target is well known for strong brand meaning among the younger women in our market. They are a key leader in brand choice, commitment, momentum, and leadership, as well as word of mouth. When it comes to style, quality and price perception Macy’s and Kohl’s are ahead of the game. Beyond price positioning, Kohl’s is also a leader when it comes to loyalty programs, promotions and buying incentives. While JCPenney has long been known to have one of the most successful online retail positions, department stores and mass discounters like Target and Walmart have recently been showing a strong web presence. All of these points are threats for JCP. In addition to these well known department store competitors our audience values the experiences associated with boutique style shops. These shops offer women intimate and individual-focused retail experiences, an offering that JCPenney must consider in attracting these women. Some of the benefits of the boutique experience include unique and exclusive brands, a sense of belonging to the lifestyles represented, and comfort in knowing you will find exactly what you are looking for. We really hit something here-- we saw that this boutique feel was a great opportunity for JCP. BRSM Everything we have learned from our research supports the necessity of building long lasting, meaningful relationships with these women. They value all of the relationships in their lives. That includes not only human relationships with others but the emotional ties they have to their belongings. As we considered our communication strategy we realized we had to incorporate and foster human relationship concepts. We looked through countless relationship models outlined in psychology and sociology, comparing and contrasting models to see how we could apply them in a branding context. The key point being the foundation of any great relationship is effective communication. Our research led to the development of our unique communication strategy, the Brand Relationship Strategy Model. It combines sociology and psychology models with elements of integrated marketing concepts. But really its as simple as A,B,C, and D. Attraction - Women This is the critical first impression...experiencing those first physical attractions...its that stage where the thought of him lingers and his smile flashes in your mind. You replay those first moments where your heart flutters and you have a yearning to know more. Attraction - Retail JCPenney has to create the same first impression. It begins with getting noticed. If the audience takes notice and begins to like the brand, continued attention may lead to the next stage. But be cautious, acquaintances can be pulled quickly into the dreaded “friend zone.” They like your brand, but that's as far as they’ve come. Creating a sense of appeal or seduction is paramount in becoming interesting enough for them to want more. Building - Women Now you like each other, the excitement has begun. You’re infatuated. You begin to let your guard down and start to include him in your life. He meets your friends and you begin to wonder how you got so lucky. Now we’re a couple. Building - Retail These women actually want your brand to be a part of their lives. This stage is all about learning more and finding ways to be mutually beneficial in each others’ lives. These women begin to see where JCPenney fits in. This lays a firm foundation for a long lasting relationship. Continuation - Women Now you’re comfortable. Your high settles and you’re able to just enjoy the relationship. This bond matters to you and you want it to work. Things are going well, but maybe they are a little complacent. This is where he must continue to show his appreciation by surprising her with continued affection. Continuation - Retail JCPenney must continue showing these women they can rely on their brand promises. They must continue to surprise her with incentives and special benefits that no one else will offer her. While this is a relatively long stable stage of the relationship, JCPenney must work harder than ever to stay relevant or they will lose her. Deterioration - Women This doesn't always happen but we have all been there. You start to have those unwelcome thoughts of “maybe it’s not right.” You feel taken for granted. You get bored, resentful, and you need some TLC. This is where he has to listen and respond. Deterioration - Retail In addition to JCPenney’s primary objectives for this campaign, we know that lost customers are not lost forever. JCPenney can reach out and regain those once loyal customers. These women left because they lost their trust in the brand. JCPenney will regain that trust. Our Big Move After this model was created, everything clicked. We built our strategy on the concepts of the BRSM and on what women value. Our fully integrated campaign will acquire, retain, increase share of wallet, and regain female shoppers ages 25-34 by establishing a meaningful relationship between these women and the JCPenney brand. To accomplish this, we will change the target audience’s perception of the JCPenney brand, making it relevant to her life by specifically addressing her needs and desires. Relevancy will be built on communication, trust, respect, and a mutually empathetic understanding. Ultimately, our campaign will show these women how JCPenney will empower them throughout their everyday lives. We know that our target audience values quality, price, convenience, and real relationships. We also understand that the motivating factor behind these values is something very simple--- time. Women are always looking for ways to save time and make every minute, every hour, and every day count. Not that they’re rushing though, they still need that intimate and trusting relationship to rely on. JCPenney can give these women ease and organization in their shopping experience by providing lasting products at reasonable prices all in an environment that is convenient and pleasing to them. Creating a relationship based on these concepts will make these women feel that JCP understands how to make their time worthwhile. Time--- valued above all else is of significance to each and every woman. Our big idea will focus on being empathetic to the lifestyles of our target audience. We will emphasize the importance of each hour of her day with the slogan “ITS YOUR 24” This slogan emphasizes the individuality of each woman. As any woman knows, the timeline of their day is not set in stone. Women take on many roles throughout each hour of their day. It’s your 24 recognizes the moments that shape the experiences of every day. Through each of those moments and through every transition a woman goes through, they can know that JCP just gets it. (Our “big idea” is based on time. We will focus on the various feelings, thoughts, accomplishments, and roles taken on by women throughout the day. Our campaign is empathetic and is lifestyle-oriented. We will emphasize the importance of each hour of her day with our slogan: “It’s Your 24.” The campaign will focus on our different lifestyle segments of women and how their relationships influence them. The women in our target audience are experiencing many important transitions in their lives: getting married, having children, graduating school, and beginning their careers. “It’s Your 24” will show women what they want, expect, and deserve from a retail experience while being empathetic to who they are throughout their busy day. Ultimately, we are paying homage to the fact that each woman is more than just her day job, or her night life. We will depict and recognize these women as the diverse, ever-changing, versatile individuals that each of them are while showing how JCPenney fits into each moment.) “It’s Your 24” will have two communication platforms: Lifestyle Branding This is our overall branding campaign focused on matching audience experiences and lifestyles with JCPenney. This is the central theme of our entire “It’s Your 24” campaign. We will always communicate an empathetic understanding of today’s women while connecting JCPenney with style. Lifestyle branding will not only focus on the lifestyle segments our research provided but will also address why JCPenney’s is the perfect choice when needing a registry. Research indicated to us how important registries are to our target and JCPenney offers expert advice and planning tools for the important transitions in these women’s lives. Becoming a part of these life-changing moments offers JCPenney another chance to create a lasting relationship with our target audience. Amazing Women Promotion This is a communication campaign designed to highlight the roles of women in our society adding authenticity. The general audience will have a chance to nominate women who accomplish amazing things in their own “24” hour day. JCPenney will sponsor the promotion of this endeavor through content creation, media partnerships and public relations. Our campaign tactics are based on two platforms. All tactics tie into one or both these platforms and seamlessly cater to what these women want and value. The first platform is lifestyle branding. Now that we understand these women, we know that to them, each moment matters. Print Tactic Our print ads will make a connection between our target audience focusing on the relationship between unique and busy women and JCPenney. Magazine demographics and communication platforms will determine the focus of each ad, and ultimately direct the audience to connect with JCPenney via mobile apps, internet, and in-store. A few media vehicle examples include Cosmopolitan, Glamour, In Style, People, Elle, and more as you can see behind me (image of magazine covers). -Sheila Commercial Tactic We will also establish a commercial campaign evolving from the same premise for our print campaign emphasizing ambitious women and their various roles throughout the twenty-four hours of their day while connecting them with JCPenney. These commercial spots will be shown on television and will also be included in rich media online advertising. Amazing Women Promotion (in tactics) You all are well aware that women do amazing things. They face many extraordinary challenges and solve problems every day. But in busy and stressful times, it is easy for a woman to forget just how special she is. We have created a program to remind these women of how amazing they are. This campaign will showcase that JCP knows the significance of what one woman can accomplish. It is the perfect combination of recognition, pride, and sense of community. People will be invited to participate in this promotion by submitting stories of admiration for the women in their lives. JCP will then produce videos and initiate SEO conversations to give the audience a glimpse into the extraordinary lives of everyday women. This will go viral. To increase interaction, people will be able to vote, like and comment on their favorite and most admirable stories. From this, the top picks will have the opportunity to tell their story on national television. OR___ There will be testimonials, videos, SEOs, branded media partnerships, and community driven events to support the recognition of the amazing things these women do.

Iklan Internet Murah Efektif Berkualitas Indonesia

Iklan Internet Murah Efektif Berkualitas Indonesia

Iklan Internet Murah Efektif Berkualitas Indonesia

KETENTUAN UNTUK LOMBA SEBAGAI BERIKUT :
- Iklan Internet
- Murah Efektif
- SITTI
- Indonesia
- Berkualitas

Indonesia memerlukan Iklan Internet yang murah meriah namun berkualitas dunia maka daripada itulah, Siapanya blog dari sekian banyak yang mengikuti Iklan Internet Murah Efektif Berkualitas Indonesia

Dear SEO

Throughout the semester my writing has both improved and changed. I have never been a poor writer, but there were many things that I was unaware of before I entered this course. Some of these things were minor mistakes that I have merely been overlooking in my past writing courses; other mistakes were major ones that determined not only the organization of my papers, but also the clarity of them. Fixing these mistakes has not been easy and I find myself repeating them sometimes. This is not because I do not care to fix them, but simply because I have made a bad habit out of them. In my first essay, written on my connection with a childhood toy, the baby doll, I had a lot of trouble using specific evidence to back up my opinions and my perspective on things. At the end of one of my paragraphs I wrote, “Taking care of the baby doll was a major chore and a lot to handle”. Afterwards I did not go into details as to how taking care of this toy I played with was a chore or what made it hard to handle. Yet when it came to my second essay which described an advertisement, I did much better. I used specific examples and details from the ad that helped to support the points that I made throughout the essay. During the course I also learned how to fix my technical mistakes. Often times I used passive voice instead of active voice. For example, in my third essay which compared and contrasted the two television shows Grey’s Anatomy and House, I wrote “Every episode is revolved around one particular medical case” instead of saying, “every episode revolves around one particular medical case”. When I did my revision I made sure to fix this mistake and also look for the same error in other papers. In this same essay I also made the mistake of using second person instead of saying “the viewer”. I realized that I made fewer of these errors in this third essay than the first two, yet I was still having some trouble with them. Because of that I paid closer attention to this mistake for the fourth essay and did my best to fix the problem. This third essay was also the one that I did my major revision on. The first draft that I handed in was decently written, but it was unorganized and it did not contain enough contextual background information. Because of these errors I received a “C-” as my grade. In order to fix this, I added examples from specific episodes and provided detailed analyses in order to explain them and their relevance to my thesis. Along with the need to add more background information, the peer revision that I was given showed that I also needed to add more transitions in order for it to flow better. I fixed this and also rearranged the paragraphs so that they fit more coherently. It was also suggested that I reinforce my thesis more throughout the paper. To correct this mistake I added more examples and showed why the personal drama with the two shows that I talked about was the main appeal, rather than the medical issues that the show dealt with. Another problem that I realized I kept continuing to make was the irrelevance in some of my paragraphs. This was clear in my first formal essay which talked about a childhood toy. I was writing about how I can now look at the situation I had with the baby doll in a new perspective because I am older, and how I can now handle things more responsibly. I then go on to talk about how I am a cheerleader and being a part of a team has made those responsibilities come out: but there was no direct connection to the point I was trying to make. At the time I thought that it worked well with the essay, but now looking back on it I’m glad that in my later essays I focused more on relevant information instead of ones that do not make sense. As far as major improvements, I have fixed my technical errors the most. Along with now knowing when to use active versus passive, I have fixed other mistakes as well. I no longer use conjunctions. I had a big problem with that because I was so used to writing informally and not having anyone correct me on my mistake. The use of conjugations makes a paper seem less informal so I learned to look for them more carefully when checking over my work. My use of pronouns also improved. In my first formal essay I started a paragraph with “This later on reflected my avoidance and timid reactions to infants”. To start a paragraph that way, using the word “this”, made what I was talking about very unclear to the reader and also made the paper confusing in general. Little mistakes such as these can truly make or break a paper. If I focus on being more specific with my language then the quality of my writing will improve dramatically. Another technicality that I had trouble with were citations, and they were especially a problem when it came to writing the third essay. In this paper I talked about specific examples from different episodes of the shows that my paper was based on. Due to the fact that I am a big fan of these programs, I myself did not need much refreshing when it came to knowing and talking about specific examples. Yet I often forget that I need to write my papers as though the reader has no idea what these shows are about. Therefore I need to cite the sources and go into detailed explanation about the examples I am providing. I have to make the reader feel as though they have been watching the show for years. As a writer I believe one of my strengths is often my grammar. It is very rare for me to have spelling errors and I have been pretty consistent with my correct comma use and semicolon use as well. My main weakness as a writer is the lack of precision in my writing and also my informal language. I have gained a lot more knowledge on how to make my papers more concise. And I also learned that just because you are being concise does not mean that you have to state one thing and move on to another right away. It is okay, and correct, to analyze what you are talking about. The way I used to understand it was that analyzing was simply giving more examples. Although it does include backing up your point with examples, you also need evidence and opinions and references that help support your point. There is a lot more to being a good writer than I once believed. It is difficult to take the criticism and try to fix it and turn it into something positive, but looking back on my revisions it has made my papers much better.

The Best Plugin WordPress

Search Engine Optimization (SEO ) is most important for getting listed your sites in search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask . If you use wordpress then you may be familiar to wordpress Plugins. Here is list of Top 5 WordPress Premium SEO Plugins

Features Of Smart SEO (Search Engine Optimization – WordPress plugin) The easiest way to optimize your wordpress website for search engines! Settings – Here you have: Autocheck current post Autocheck timing – in seconds Title separator (default – ) Seo title position – in admin post listing Show smartSeo score On plugin deactivate – remove all current settings on plugin deactivate. Reset to default. SEO rules and settings. Keyword in title tag Keyword in Title tag – close to beginning Title tag 10 – 60 characters, no special characters Keywords in description Less than 200 chars.Google no longer relies upon this tag, but frequently uses it. Keywords in keywords Less than 10 words. Every word in this tag MUST appear somewhere in the body. If not, it will be penalized for irrelevance. NO single word should appear more than twice in the Meta tag as it is considered spam. Google purportedly no longer values this tag, but others do. Keyword in alt text Should describe graphic – Do NOT fill with spam Keyword density Individual keyword density 6% – (each keyword/total words) Keywords in H1, H2, H3 Keywords in font style – In strong, bold, italic, strong. DEMO / DOWNLOAD WordCompress WordCompress is a premium plugin designed for SEO and improving user experience and website performance. WordCompress is a compression and cache total that takes the existing code layout of a WordPress blog which includes CSS files, JavaScript files and HTML code. WordCompress will then minify all the code by deleting comments, whitespaces and compress the entire code into a single executable line. External and internal CSS and JavaScript files are also compressed. WordCompress has a cache system which means that before the user loads any of your blog pages; tags, author pages, posts, categories and the homepage – there will be a compressed updated version ready; WordCompress automatically updates in the background whilst your making new content and changes. WordCompress improves your rankings for PageSpeed as our software is automatically built to comply with the latest PageSpeed factors. SEO UI and UX Benefits Download time reduces about 45% File size reduces more than 80% Extra spaces, lines, and comments will be deleted. DEMO /DOWNLOAD NOW xCommenter is a powerful SEO WordPress plugin that will post unique (spun) content to your posts and pages and pings all the major RPC + search engines after the comments are posted. This will add unique content to your pages, entice user interactivity, and improve your SEO efforts by making your posts and page content fresh and updated when crawled by Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. - What xCommenter does: xCommenter will automatically create comments on your blog posts and WordPress pages. It does this by analyzing the post title, content and tags to determine find relevant Yahoo Answers comments and questions. Optionally xCommenter will then run the content through a powerful content spinner API to make the content more original and unique to improve quality. xCommenter then can approve it’s own comments if you wish, and once a new comment has been made xCommenter will then optionally PING the updated page URL to all the RPC Ping services listed within your WordPress Admin panel, getting the updated page crawled and indexed quickly and more frequently. All of this is done on auto pilot. DEMO /DOWNLOAD SEO Auto Title Suggestions Features Full automated Keyword research Compare Keywords Shows how many websites compete for a keyword Easy and Fast installation All languages supported This plugin gives you full keyword research power right at your fingertips while writing your post titles. It changes the way you write your titles: Enter a keyword related to the posts topic. Click on “Show Suggestions” You will now see a list of related keywords plus the amount of competing websites for each keyword. You choose a keyword with low competition and use this in your post title. DEMO/DOWNLOAD Key Features: Easy to adapt in your wordpress site All colors can be set in plain css OOP based SEO (search engine optimization) optimized. The biggest advantage over other full javascript or flash solutions is that the tiltles and descriptions from the video’s are placed into the source of the page so it can be retrieved by the search engines All scripts are well documented and uses shortcodes Checks if youtube video can be embedded Works in all major browsers DEMO/DOWNLOAD

About Google Penguin and Pointless

Google is at it again! With the Google Penguin update, some websites have seen a big drop in traffic. If your site was considered spammy, Google may have knocked you down a few (or many) pegs on the search engine results pages.

No matter what happened with this SEO update it’s important for you to realize something. Google will probably never stop tweaking and adjusting their algorithms. Your job with SEO is never ever going to be done (NEVER! Cue: evil laugh…)

Continually tweaking the algorithms is Google’s concerted effort to operate with continuous improvement principles. It’s how they hope they’ll hang onto the lion’s share of the internet search market by staying ahead of evil SEO super villains who find ways to fake their way to the top.

What does this mean to you, the company who isn’t trying to game the system and who just wants to do the right thing so that you can attract customers to your site and provide them with an honest-to-goodness product or service? It means you’ll want to continually watch your back, for one thing!

Should you just forget SEO and leave things to chance since Google seems like it is constantly trying to stop people from succeeding at it? No. The right strategy for SEO is more important than ever. The right strategy should encompass doing your very best to please your customers and to make quality a top priority.

• Don’t get as hung up on keyword density.

• Don’t be as concerned about link juice and linking strategies.

• Do get really in tune with what your customers want.

• Do put quality at the top of the priority list and keep it there.

Sure, keywords, tags, and other SEO elements are still important. But search engines look at obvious attempts to game the system. They also look at your conversion rate to see if you’re doing a good job of servicing the traffic they send you. When the search engines measure your site, they want to know if you’re doing things in a way that is bringing you converting traffic. If they send you 10000 visitors today and 0 of them convert, search engines will re-assess whether or not you deserve that traffic.

By the same token, if you’re on the bottom of page 1 and are getting more positive results than your competitors in spots 1 and 2, search engines will take notice and you’ll inch your way up those ranks.

SEO isn’t Pointless!

If you’ve lost rankings, you might be thinking that SEO is pointless. But it’s not. It’s important to do things so that your customers can find you. The right SEO strategies also include smart on-page optimization strategies that logically walk the visitor through the site. The best SEO results happen when you know your customers, know your industry, understand how search engines work, avoid duplicate content, avoid common SEO mistakes, et cetera.

SEO isn’t the be-all and end-all. Make sure you employ diverse online marketing strategies. Content marketing, social media, pay per click, email marketing, and other marketing methods can all help you too. Develop multiple streams of traffic and a solid customer relationship management strategy so that you don’t have to continually chase after new traffic as your only source of income. Your existing customers can keep buying and can be a great source of word-of-mouth referrals as well!

Apple’s Biggest Innovation: The Swipe?

Years from now, will we look back and realize that Apple’s biggest innovation was not a device, but rather a physical gesture? 

The right-to-left swiping motion used with Apple devices to sort through photos or to navigate certain apps is quickly altering how we seek and absorb information.

David Payne, chief digital officer of Gannett & Co. Inc., parent company of USA Today, delivered this point eloquently at the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summitearlier this month. In his opening speech, he pointed out that the digital world changed when Apple introduced “touch” with the iPod, and then more broadly with the iPhone.  

Touch screens had been around for years, but Apple brought them into our daily lives, in particular with the iPhone. As a result, the way we engage and interact with devices has changed, as evidenced by the dramatic decline in sales of the BlackBerry. And now with the explosive growth of the iPad, it’s about to change again. This time, though, it will be even more dramatic. 

Payne referred to the “swipe” as the game-changer, or as he called to it, “petting the cat.” This new right-to-left world has caused Gannett to rethink the traditional “top-to-bottom” experience of its websites, in particular how it organizes content. As evidence, Gannett has incorporated this new “petting the cat” thinking into its new USA Today app (it’s worth downloading). 

Last week, Fast Company ran a story on a new technology MIT developed that enables users to drag files across devices with a swipe. Coincidentally, it’s called Swyp. Nathan Linder, a PhD student in the fluid interfaces group at the MIT Media Lab, said, “Our framework allows any number of touch-sensing and collocated devices to establish file-exchange and communications with no pairing other than a physical gesture.”

Apple’s impact on design has enjoyed much acclaim and is noticeable in almost any new technology designed. But what may be overlooked is the impact Apple has had on the user experience and how users interact with technologies. And that impact goes far beyond just Apple devices. 

For example, one attendee mentioned that his 3-year-old went up to the television and tried to “swipe” it to change the channel. A colleague mentioned that she is  constantly cleaning her computer screen because her kids try to open photos on her desktop by touching them. Apple has, and continues to have, the ability to change consumer behaviors, requiring the rest of the world to catch up.

Marketers must now realize that we are a step behind. We recognize the importance of adapting digital assets to fit the device, but we haven’t thought through the ramifications of “petting the cat” behavior. The swipe is here to stay. It’s now time to reset our navigation point from North to South to East to West.   

You Must Include This Keywords

Keywords are the most important SEO element for every search engine, they are what search strings are matched against. Choosing the right keywords to optimize for is thus the first and most crucial step to a successful SEO campaign. If you fail on this very first step, the road ahead is very bumpy and most likely you will only waste your time and money. There are many ways to determine which keywords to optimize for and usually the final list of them is made after a careful analysis of what the online population is searching for, which keywords have your competitors chosen and above all - which are the keywords that you feel describe your site best.

1. Choosing the Right Keywords to Optimize For

 

 It seems that the time when you could easily top the results for a one-word search string is centuries ago. Now, when the Web is so densely populated with sites, it is next to impossible to achieve constant top ratings for a one-word search string. Achieving constant top ratings for two-word or three-word search strings is a more realistic goal.

For instance, If you have a site about dogs, do NOT try and optimize for the keyword "dog" or "dogs". Instead you could try and focus on keywords like "dog obedience training", "small dog breeds", "homemade dog food", "dog food recipes" etc. Success for very popular one-two word keywords is very difficult and often not worth the trouble, it's best to focus on less competitive highly specific keywords.

The first thing you need to do is come up with keywords that describe the content of your website. Ideally, you know your users well and can correctly guess what search strings they are likely to use to search for you. You can also try the Website Keyword Suggestions Tool below to come up with an initial list of keywords. Run your inital list of keywords by the Google keyword Suggestion tool, you'll get a related list of keywords, shortlist a couple of keywords that seem relevent and have a decent global search volume.
When choosing the keywords to optimize for, you need to consider not only the expected monthly number of searches but also the relevancy of these keywords to your website. Although narrow keywords get fewer searches they are a lot more valuable than generic keywords because the users would be more interested in your offerings. Lets say you have a section on your website where you give advice on what to look for when adopting a dog. You might discover that the "adopt german shepherd" keyphrase gives you better results than a keyword like "german shepherd dogs". This page is not of interest to current german shepherd owners but to potential german shepherd owners only. So, when you look at the numbers of search hits per month, consider the unique hits that fit into the theme of your site.

2. Keyword Density

 

After you have chosen the keywords that describe your site and are supposedly of interest to your users, the next step is to make your site keyword-rich and to have good keyword density for your target keywords. Keyword density although no longer a very important factor in SEO is a common measure of how relevant a page is. Generally, the idea is that the higher the keyword density, the more relevant to the search string a page is. The recommended density is 3-7% for the major 2 or 3 keywords and 1-2% for minor keywords. Try the Keyword Density Checker below to determine the keyword density of your website.

Although there are no strict rules, try optimizing for a reasonable number of keywords – 5 or 10 is OK. If you attempt to optimize for a list of 300, you will soon see that it is just not possible to have a good keyword density for more than a few keywords, without making the text sound artificial and stuffed with keywords. And what is worse, there are severe penalties (including ban from the search engine) for keyword stuffing because this is considered an unethical practice that tries to manipulate search results.

3. Keywords in Special Places

 

Keywords are very important not only as quantity but as quality as well – i.e. if you have more keywords in the page title, the headings, the first paragraphs – this counts more that if you have many keywords at the bottom of the page. The reason is that the URL (and especially the domain name), file names and directory names, the page title, the headings for the separate sections are more important than ordinary text on the page and therefore, all equal, if you have the same keyword density as your competitors but you have keywords in the URL, this will boost your ranking incredibly, especially with Yahoo!.

a. Keywords in URLs and File Names

The domain name and the whole URL of a site tell a lot about it. The presumption is that if your site is about dogs, you will have “dog”, “dogs”, or “puppy” as part of your domain name. For instance, if your site is mainly about adopting dogs, it is much better to name your dog site “dog-adopt.net” than “animal-care.org”, for example, because in the first case you have two major keywords in the URL, while in the second one you have no more than one potential minor keyword.
When hunting for keyword rich domain names, don't get greedy. While from a SEO point of view it is better to have 5 keywords in the URL, just imagine how long and difficult to memorize the URL will be. So you need to strike a balance between the keywords in the URL and site usability, which says that more than 3 words in the URL is a way too much.
Probably you will not be able to come on your own with tons of good suggestions. Additionally, even if you manage to think of a couple of good domain names, they might be already taken. In such cases tools like the Tool below can come very handy.

File names and directory names are also important. Often search engines will give preference to pages that have a keyword in the file name. For instance http://mydomain.c*m/dog-adopt.html is not as good as http://dog-adopt.n*t/dog-adopt.html but is certainly better than http://mydomain.c*m/animal-care.html. The advantage of keywords in file names over keywords in URLs is that they are easier to change, if you decide to move to another niche, for example. 

 b. Keywords in Page Titles

The page title is another special place because the contents of the <title> tag usually gets displayed in most search engines, (including Google). While it is not mandatory per the HTML specification to write something in the <title> tag (i.e. you can leave it empty and the title bar of the browser will read “Untitled Document” or similar), for SEO purposes you may not want to leave the <title> tag empty; instead, you'd better write the the page title in it.

Unlike URLs, with page titles you can get wordy. If we go on with the dog example, the <title> tag of the home page for the http://dog-adopt.net can include something like this: <title>Adopt a Dog – Save a Life and Bring Joy to Your Home</title>, <title>Everything You Need to Know About Adopting a Dog</title> or even longer.
c. Keywords in Headings

Normally headings separate paragraphs into related subtopics and from a literary point of view, it may be pointless to have a heading after every other paragraph but from SEO point of view it is extremely good to have as many headings on a page as possible, especially if they have the keywords in them.

There are no technical length limits for the contents of the <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, ... <hn> tags but common sense says that too long headings are bad for page readability. So, like with URLs, you need to be wise with the length of headings. Another issue you need to consider is how the heading will be displayed. If it is Heading 1 (<h1>), generally this means larger font size and in this case it is recommendable to have less than 7-8 words in the heading, otherwise it might spread on 2 or 3 lines, which is not good and if you can avoid it – do it.

10 Things You Need to Know about Selling to Business Owners

Large companies have long recognized the opportunity to address the needs of small business (26 million firms <99 FTE’s).  Over the years, companies like IBM, American Express and Google have spent millions to try to understand the segment and convince business owners that they have the products and services owners need.  

Yet, marketers still struggle to capture of the opportunity in this segment, for a number of reasons.  Despite their best efforts, they often fall back into their “big company” ways.  Speaking the wrong language, misaligning offers, and/or reinforce perception that Fortune 500 companies are too big to serve small businesses.  

Whether you work for a "big company" or an INC 500 firm, here are 10 key points to keep in mind when selling to the Small Business segment.  All Insights below are taken from various research reports produced by the Executive Council on Small Business. 

1. Don’t call them Small Business Owners – despite the fact that 60% of small businesses, as defined by the U.S Census Bureau 2008, have less than 5 employees, don’t call them a small business. 
2. There are 2 different types of business owners – one type of owner is focused on growing their business, the other surprisingly, is not. Know the difference when targeting this segment. “Satisfaction owners” represent 46% of all small business owners.  Also known as “lifestyle owners” they are older (>46) and more likely to have higher revenue businesses.  They are "in it" because they love what they do and enjoy the work-life balance ownership present. “Growth” owners (36%) are more likely to be in retail, and more likely to have owned or own more than one business (serial entrepreneurs). 
3. They are in the Service Business – for the most part small businesses are focused on providing services.  60% of small business are; professional services or other services.  
4. Speak THEIR language  – As you might have already picked up, this will be a reoccurring theme in the post.  3X as many business owners find a sales person more trustworthy if he/she discusses savings in dollarsrather than percentages.  To be credible give them specific details, contact information and testimonials for other business owners.
5. Small things are a BIG Deal – according to the research, a major purchase decision starts at $500.   Cash flow is the lifeblood of small business don’t under estimate your need to prove value or ROI on what you would consider small transactions.   If you’re talking about cost savings, express it in monthly terms rather than annual.   2X as many owners expressed seeing savings monthly rather than yearly.
6. Resources and Time are Tight - owners now make a purchase decision in less than a week for complex and simple products.  43% said that it now takes them less time to make a decision than it did 5 years ago.   They search online, visit your website, and then call to confirm what they’ve learned.   SEO is critical if you’re going to play in this segment, as you will see below. 
7. They Love to Search - Business owners purchase patterns have changed, instead of contracting it’s now expanding.   Rather than narrowing their list of vendors, 60% of owners now report expanding their consideration set through research.
8. And it’s Local – business owners search for a product or services by name, not a brand, and they include their local area (e.g. “internet providers in St Louis”).  They don’t include “small business.”  
9. Search is Important, but Social Isn’t – as you saw in the previous examples Search is critical for being considered, but interesting enough, Social Media is not.   The reason - small business owners view social media as a channel to speak about their businesses, rather than hear what suppliers have to say.
10. If You’re Not Relevant…You’re Not Relevant.  In today’s marketplace to resonate with audience content must be personalized.   A recent Forrester report showed that most sales forces are very capable of discussing their products and solution, and even the industry issues, but when it came down understanding the buyer’s role or situation they failed.  

Business owners in healthcare, construction and manufacturing want information specific to their industries.  Owners of professional services or retail want information specific to them. 

Satisfaction owners are looking for products and services that save them time savings and strengthen their relationship with customers.   With Growth Oriented owners talk ROI, and time to payback.

Summary – it’s OK to categorize your services or products as small business solutions, but don’t call the buyers small business owners.  Recognize that there are two different types business owners focused on two different goals - lifestyle vs. growth.  Both groups are interested in hearing your value proposition in terms of real dollars on a monthly basis, not over course of the year.

Business owners are heavy users of search for researching vendors, and they use social media to promote their business, but not for buying from vendors.   To be relevant your content must speak to their industry or similar size businesses. 

If you talk to them like you know them, show them you are committed to building a lasting relationship this dynamic market can power your organizations growth.      

@Work State of Mind

For the last two years, I've been part of an effort to better understand how technology has blurred the lines between our personal and professional lives.  Today gyro released the results of extensive research project that shows the impact.  gyro collaborated with Forbes Insights, speaking to 543 marketers at Procter & Gamble, Hewlett-Packard and many other top companies.

We asked top executives how they receive information and how it is influencing their decisions. Most important, we asked them how they felt about it.

Almost all (98 percent) said that they send e-mails outside of the typical “9-to-5 work week.” Contrary to negative perceptions, this new reality has had a positive effect on their work and personal lives.  For the full report click here.  

The Best Meta Tag Description

The keywords and phrases you use in your Meta description tag may not affect your page's ranking in the search engines, but this tag can still come in handy in your overall SEO and social media marketing campaigns.

What Is the Meta Description Tag?

It's a snippet of HTML code that belongs inside the <Head> </Head> section of a web page. It is usually placed after the Title tag and before the Meta keywords tag (if you use one), although the order is not important.

The proper syntax for this HTML tag is:

<META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Your descriptive sentence or two goes here.">

If you're using a content management system (CMS), look for a field to fill out that's called Meta Description, or possibly just "Description."

Many years ago, the information contained in a Meta description could slightly help a page rank highly for the words that were contained within it. Today, neither Google, Bing, nor Yahoo! use it as a ranking signal.

In other words, whether you use your important keyword phrases in your Meta description tag or not, the position of your page in the search engine results will not be affected. So in terms of rankings, you could easily leave it out altogether.

But should you?

There are 3 important ways that Meta descriptions are being used today that make them an important part of your SEO and overall online marketing strategy:

1. They can be used as the description (or part of the description) of your page if it shows up in the search results.
2. They are often used as part of the descriptive information for your pages when Google shows "extended sitelinks" for your site.
3. They are often used as the default description in social media marketing links such as Facebook and Google+.

Let's look at each of these in more detail.

1. Meta Descriptions in the Search Results

People often think that whatever they put in their Meta description tag will be the default description that the search engines use under the clickable link to their site in the search results. While this is sometimes true, it's not always the case.

Currently, if you're searching for a site by its URL (for example www.highrankings.com) Google tends to use the first 20 to 25 words of your Meta description as the default description in the search engine result pages (SERP). However, if you have a listing at DMOZ, also known as the Open Directory Project (ODP) and are not using the "noodp" tag, they may default to that description instead. (Do a search at Google for www.amazon.com to see an example.)

Bing and Yahoo!, on the other hand, don't always default to the Meta description tag for URL searches. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. A search for www.highrankings.com at Bing or Yahoo! shows content from my home page as the description rather than the contents of my Meta description tag.

Of course, real people aren't typically searching for a site by URL, so what the search engines show for those types of search queries is not as important as a true keyword search. So don't get hung up on what you see when you search for your site by its URL or if you're doing a "site:command" search to see how they're indexing your pages.

Instead, go to your favorite web analytics program and find the keyword phrases that are currently bringing you the most traffic. Then see what your description looks like at Google when you type in those keywords.

And surprise! What you'll find is that your search results description will be different for every search query! You may see any combination of the following used:

• Your entire Meta description tag text as the complete description (typically if it's highly relevant and contains no more than 25 words).
• A full sentence pulled from your Meta description tag, but not the entire Meta description (if it contains more than one sentence).
• Text from one part of your Meta description mashed together with text from another part of it (if it's more than 25 words long).
• Some text from your Meta description mashed together with some text from the page.
• Some text from your page mashed together from some other text from your page (nothing from the Meta description).

Some of the circumstances that cause Google to not use text from your Meta description may include:

• The information in the Meta description tag was not specific to the page it was on.
• The search query used some words that were not in the Meta description, but those words (or some of them) were used in the page content. This includes words that Google considers somewhat synonymous, such as "copy" and "copywriting" or "SEO" and "search engine optimization."

But even the above are not hard and fast rules. Google doesn't always use all or part of the Meta description even when the exact search phrase was contained within it – especially if the search query is also contained within the content of the page. Suffice it to say that there are no hard and fast rules for when Google will show it and when they won't.

My recommendation is to always use description tags on any pages where you get search engine visitors (or hope to get them). Make them very specific to the page they're on by describing what someone will find when they click through to the page from the search results, while also using variations of your targeted keywords.

Because Google will show only show around 20 to 25 words as your description, many SEOs recommend that you limit this tag to a certain number of characters. In reality, however, you're not limited to any specific number. Your Meta description tag can be as long as you want it to be because Google will pull out the relevant parts of it and make their own snippet anyway.

For instance, if you're optimizing a page for 3 different keyword phrases, you could write a 3-sentence Meta description tag, with each sentence focusing on a different phrase. You could probably even insert more than 3 phrases in those sentences if you're a good wordsmith. The idea, however, is not to stuff this tag full of keywords, but to write each sentence to be a compelling marketing statement – a statement that naturally uses the keywords people might be typing into Google to find your site.

2. Meta Descriptions and Extended Sitelinks

These days, Google often uses the first few words from your Meta description tag when they create the "extended sitelinks" for your website. But this too is not set in stone and is highly keyword dependent. You'll see different sitelinks and different descriptions showing up depending on the words a searcher used at Google.

As an example, if you do a search for "High Rankings" at Google, you'll see my sitelinks for that search query.

At this moment, Google is showing my home page as the top result with 6 inner pages beneath:

• Forum home page: Description is from DMOZ/ODP. This page has the generic Meta description that is on every page of the forum.
• Link building forum home page: Description is content pulled from the page that uses the words "High Rankings" in it.
• SEO articles page: First part of Meta description.
• Newsletter home page: First part of Meta description.
• SEO/SEM resources page: First part of Meta description.
• SEO classes page: First part of Meta description.

For the most part, they're using the first part of the Meta description as the sitelink snippet, but not always. You may have noticed that I optimized those Meta description sitelink snippets that are showing by front loading them so that the first 5-7 words or so are a short description of what the page is all about.

But here's the rub. Do a Google search for "Jill Whalen SEO." You should still see sitelinks, and you'll even see some of the same ones as with the previous query, but some of the descriptions are different:

While the forum home page shows in both, this time Google has pulled text from the page rather than using the DMOZ/ODP description. This is likely because this search query had the word "SEO" in it while the other one didn't. The SEO articles page also shows up here, and it is using the same Meta description snippet as the High Rankings query. The other sitelinks are different from before, with 3 out of 4 using the Meta description.

As you can see, while you do have some control over your sitelink descriptions via your Meta description tag, Google might not always use them (just as Google does with their regular search results). Your best chance of having them show is to use, close to the beginning of your description tags, the words that you know pull up sitelinks. Also, be as descriptive as possible within the first 5 to 7 words.

3. Meta Descriptions and Social Media Marketing

Ever wonder why some Facebook links have great descriptions and others don't seem to make any sense? It's because some site owners have taken the time to write a summary of the article and place it into their Meta description tag, and some have not. If your article has a Meta description, Facebook and Google+ will default to that when you share a link on your profile or "Page." If there's no Meta description, you'll usually see the first sentence or so from the page being used as the default.

While anyone can edit the description that Facebook defaults to, most people don't. And at this time on Google+ you can't even edit the default description. You can either leave it as is or delete it all together. Let's face it -- most of the time the first sentence of an article is not a good description of the rest of it. It's not supposed to be, because that's not what a first sentence is for!

Therefore, I strongly advise you to always write a compelling 1- or 2-sentence description for all of your articles and blog content that may be shared via social media, and place it into your Meta description tag. This will give you a big jump on your competitors who haven't figured this out yet, making your social media content much more clickable because people will know what the article is actually about before they click on it.

Overall, the Meta description tag gives you a little bit more control over what people might see before they click over to your site. The more compelling it is, the more clickthroughs you should see. If your Meta description tags can help with that, then it's certainly worth the few minutes of time it takes to create interesting, keyword-rich tags that sum up what users will find when they arrive!

How Make Money For SEO

If you’re in business and make money, then you likely understand that you need to spend SEO to make money. However, unless you’re running a charity, you’ll want to make sure that the money that you’re spending in order to attract consumers and create conversions is money well spent. Most people understand the importance of hiring talented graphic designers and web builders – after all, unless you’re a programmer or designer of your own merit, it’s very likely that you will be unable to complete these tasks without the help of an expert. The next following steps in order to make money online with Google is to get your website or blog fully optimized so it will increase your chances for your site or content to get first page ranking on Google. Go to this blog post to get more details on the proper ways on implementing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so that your site can be found from the search engines. Prior to start creating content on your website, It is essential to do the proper keyword research for your articles or blog posts. However, many people raise an eyebrow at the thought of hiring someone to write the content on their website. After all, there probably is someone on your team who possesses a word processing program and is able to type in English. Why should you pay to outsource your copy to an SEO writer when you can produce your own?

The SEO Writer: Artist and Scientist

The truth of the matter is that SEO writing that is high-quality and actually works to improve your SEO requires a considerable amount of skill and research to accomplish. Good SEO writers understand that there is more to the Google algorithm than simply inserting keywords into text. Let’s face it: if this were the secret to SEO, people would be wearing out the copy and paste functions on their computers as quickly as technology can advance.

In reality, good SEO writing involves an understanding of the science behind the way Google and Bing work. It also requires a happy talent for mixing keywords and language in a way that is informative, engaging, and encourages the consumer to stay on your site. 

1. Brush up on AP style guidelines. Many people that hire content writers require that the articles be written in AP style. AP stands for Associated Press. Every year the AP comes out with a guide, "The Associated Press Stylebook and Liable Manual," that teaches writers the top tips for writing quality articles. If you are able to string words together and are able to follow the AP guidelines then you can be a content writer.
2. Research the best SEO keywords. Keywords are words that are placed throughout an article that identify the topic. Search engines pick up on these words and give the article's web page a higher ranking depending on how relevant the keywords are to the search. The higher in rank, the more hits the site receives, and the more money it makes. People want articles that drive traffic to their website.
3. Keywords can be tested with Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Popular keywords get more hits. For example, if you are writing an article about How to Draw Ducks and used the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, you would see that the keyword "wild ducks" is very popular, so you may want to include it several times in the article.
4. Choose three popular keywords for your article that fits the subject well and and use each one two to four times in the article. SEO articles range from 300 words to 600 words, generally, so you want to adjust your keyword amount depending on the overall amount of words in the article.
5. Make sure not to put an overabundance of keywords in the article. Search engines, especially Google, will penalize the article's ranking. This is because articles with too many keywords look like articles with no useful content. Google's job is to direct users to informative content, not junk.

Selling Your SEO Articles

6. Trolling writer's job boards are probably the best way to find buyers for SEO articles. Some great boards are Freelance Writing Gigs, Online Writing Jobs and SunOasis.
7. You can also advertise that you have articles for sell on certain forums designed for selling content, such as the Digital Point Forums.
8. Avoid jobs that pay $3 an article. Even though most SEO writers can pump out a new SEO article every 30 minutes or so, $3 is still not a good rate. Think about it: one article written in 30 minutes equals $6 an hour. That is a poor rate.
9. With a little perseverance, though, you can find jobs that pay $10 to $15 per keyword article. These are the ones to get. One article written in 30 minutes equals $20 an hour. That is pretty good money.
10. Set up a PayPal account. Most buyers only pay through PayPal because it is convenient and secure. All you have to do to get payment is use PayPal's invoice system or give the buyer your PayPal email.

Google pays attention to more than the keyword content of your copy. They pay attention to the amount of time that consumers spend on your website looking for information, and they pay attention to the number of consumers that link to your page. The more one-way links that you get on your page, the more Google and other search engines consider your site and informational source. Being considered an informational source is worth more on the Google charts than any amount of keywords.

This is where your SEO writer comes into play. The SEO writer should be able to take your company and your keywords and be able to deliver on point and informative content that will not only grab the potential of Google, but also grab the attention of the web surfer. It is a unique subset of writing that deserves more consideration than it gets.

Retaining Customers in a Digital World

This Valentines Day I sent my wife flowers, bought her a small gift from Tiffany’s and took her away for the weekend.   All things well deserved for a loving soul mate and mother, who tolerates my constant travel, work schedule, and me in general. 

On February 27^th, I received a hand written thank you note from the Tiffany’s sales associates that assisted me with my purchase.  It’s not uncommon to receive a thank you given Tiffany’s reputation for service, but in the same pile of mail was a hand written thank you from my florist; the first I’ve received after years of doing business with them.  

Minutes later, I received a phone call from Pete, the manager of the Lorien Hotel and Spainviting my me and my wife for a return trip - free of charge - as a result of some service issues we experienced during our stay.  Pete realized that those misfires disrupted an important customer experience (see my note above about “constant travel” and “well deserved”) and offered to make it right. 

Significantly impressed with the three simultaneous acts of kindness, I thought to myself that maybe there is a silver lining to the recession.  Maybe companies have been reminded that customers are, in fact, important to their success. 

A customer defined as an individual, not a segment that scores the highest on a propensity model or an occupation with a “desirable socioeconomic profile.” A person with feelings and beliefs that has had an experience with a brand, a company representative or a product or service, and most likely will decide to buy it again, and/or tell a friend…if that experience was a good one.

In a new study published by Accenture titled; The New Realties of “Dating” in the Digital Age, 85% of consumers who posted a comment about a negative online experience switched providers.  And they are getting harder to please, customer service expectations have been increasing consistently over the last four years with 44% of consumers saying their expectations are slightly or much higher than the previous year, compared to only 31% in 2008.  

The study also identifies five potential blind spots over the course of the provider-customer relationship that could predispose customers to switch providers:

1. Nice to Meet You – Missing the chance to set the right expectations at the onset of the relationship.  
2. You Don’t Know Me Anymore – Missing subtler changes that matter in customers’ need for special treatment or reward. 
3. Cheating Heart – Overlooking signs customers are itching to switch.
4. Are you Listening – Failure to offer consumers opportunities to engage with a provider.
5. Trinkets Won’t Save Me – Relying on point solutions to satisfy and keep customers.

The “cheating heart” effect points to companies over emphasis on retention which may cause them to miss important shifts in buying behavior that may signal a future switch in vendors.  Thankfully, my florist carefully monitors my purchase patterns, and reminds me of purchases I make at certain times of the year (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.), creating a win-win for both of us.  

As the researchers note, failure to notice these subtle changes in behavior puts the company at risk for eventually losing the customer. For example, 27% percent of respondents mentioned that they had stayed with their bank/financial services provider but have added another provider (a partial switch).   A foot out the door that eventually leads to customer attrition. 

Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty 360 in an interview identifying the Top Loyalty Trends for 2011 stated, “Loyalty will focus more on emotions than on rational, incentive-based initiatives.  Behavioral economists tell us that economic decision-making is 70% emotional and 30% rational.  Which is why incentive-based loyalty programs that tend to be rational do not work well.  It’s the emotional side of the decision making process that creates connected, passionate, engaged customers.“ 

The thank you cards and the phone call I received were specific to me, and my experience.  They weren’t form letters generated by a transactional or CRM system, based on my purchase.  The notes were hand written by the people who served me and mentioned the specific purchases I made with them.  

They were relevant to me, left an impression, and got me talking about the experience.  I didn’t receive bonus points or special discounts. Instead, I got a response from someone who cared about my experience with their service and product – and that’s how you create connected, engaged customers ...and prevent “a cheating heart.”  

Build SEO

Building are growing SEO more aware of the need to understand and implement at least the basics of search engine optimization (SEO). But if you read a variety of blogs and websites, you’ll quickly see that there’s a lot of uncertainty over what makes up “the basics.” Without access to high-level consulting and without a lot of experience knowing what SEO resources can be trusted, there’s also a lot of misinformation about SEO strategies and tactics.

1. Commit yourself to the process. SEO isn’t a one-time event. Search engine algorithms change regularly, so the tactics that worked last year may not work this year. SEO requires a long-term outlook and commitment.

2. Be patient. SEO isn’t about instant gratification. Results often take months to see, and this is especially true the smaller you are, and the newer you are to doing business online.

3. Ask a lot of questions when hiring an SEO company. It’s your job to know what kind of tactics the company uses. Ask for specifics. Ask if there are any risks involved. Then get online yourself and do your own research—about the company, about the tactics they discussed, and so forth.

4. Become a student of SEO. If you’re taking the do-it-yourself route, you’ll have to become a student of SEO and learn as much as you can. Luckily for you, there are plenty of great web resources (like Search Engine Land) and several terrific books you can read. (Yes, actual printed books!) See our What Is SEO page for a variety of articles, books and resources.

5. Have web analytics in place at the start. You should have clearly defined goals for your SEO efforts, and you’ll need web analytics software in place so you can track what’s working and what’s not.

6. Build a great web site. I’m sure you want to show up on the first page of results. Ask yourself, “Is my site really one of the 10 best sites in the world on this topic?” Be honest. If it’s not, make it better.

7. Include a site map page. Spiders can’t index pages that can’t be crawled. A site map will help spiders find all the important pages on your site, and help the spider understand your site’s hierarchy. This is especially helpful if your site has a hard-to-crawl navigation menu. If your site is large, make several site map pages. Keep each one to less than 100 links. I tell clients 75 is the max to be safe.

8. Make SEO-friendly URLs. Use keywords in your URLs and file names, such as yourdomain.com/red-widgets.html. Don’t overdo it, though. A file with 3+ hyphens tends to look spammy and users may be hesitant to click on it. Related bonus tip: Use hyphens in URLs and file names, not underscores. Hyphens are treated as a “space,” while underscores are not.

9. Do keyword research at the start of the project. If you’re on a tight budget, use the free versions of Keyword Discovery or WordTracker, both of which also have more powerful paid versions. Ignore the numbers these tools show; what’s important is the relative volume of one keyword to another. Another good free tool is Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool, which doesn’t show exact numbers.

10. Open up a PPC account. Whether it’s Google’s AdWords, Microsoft adCenter or something else, this is a great way to get actual search volume for your keywords. Yes, it costs money, but if you have the budget it’s worth the investment. It’s also the solution if you didn’t like the “Be patient” suggestion above and are looking for instant visibility.

11. Use a unique and relevant title and meta description on every page. The page title is the single most important on-page SEO factor. It’s rare to rank highly for a primary term (2-3 words) without that term being part of the page title. The meta description tag won’t help you rank, but it will often appear as the text snippet below your listing, so it should include the relevant keyword(s) and be written so as to encourage searchers to click on your listing. Related bonus tip: You can ignore the Keywords meta tag, as no major search engine today supports it.

12. Write for users first. Google, Yahoo, etc., have pretty powerful bots crawling the web, but to my knowledge these bots have never bought anything online, signed up for a newsletter, or picked up the phone to call about your services. Humans do those things, so write your page copy with humans in mind. Yes, you need keywords in the text, but don’t stuff each page like a Thanksgiving turkey. Keep it readable.

13. Create great, unique content. This is important for everyone, but it’s a particular challenge for online retailers. If you’re selling the same widget that 50 other retailers are selling, and everyone is using the boilerplate descriptions from the manufacturer, this is a great opportunity. Write your own product descriptions, using the keyword research you did earlier (see #9 above) to target actual words searchers use, and make product pages that blow the competition away. Plus, retailer or not, great content is a great way to get inbound links.

14. Use your keywords as anchor text when linking internally. Anchor text helps tells spiders what the linked-to page is about. Links that say “click here” do nothing for your search engine visibility.

15. Build links intelligently. Begin with foundational links like trusted directories. (Yahoo and DMOZ are often cited as examples, but don’t waste time worrying about DMOZ submission. Submit it and forget it.) Seek links from authority sites in your industry. If local search matters to you (more on that coming up), seek links from trusted sites in your geographic area — the Chamber of Commerce, local business directories, etc. Analyze the inbound links to your competitors to find links you can acquire, too. Create great content on a consistent basis and use social media to build awareness and links. (A blog is great for this; see below.)

16. Use press releases wisely. Developing a relationship with media covering your industry or your local region can be a great source of exposure, including getting links from trusted media web sites. Distributing releases online can be an effective link building tactic, and opens the door for exposure in news search sites. Related bonus tip: Only issue a release when you have something newsworthy to report. Don’t waste journalists’ time.

17. Start a blog and participate with other related blogs. Search engines, Google especially, love blogs for the fresh content and highly-structured data. Beyond that, there’s no better way to join the conversations that are already taking place about your industry and/or company. Reading and commenting on other blogs can also increase your exposure and help you acquire new links. Related bonus tip: Put your blog at yourdomain.com/blog so your main domain gets the benefit of any links to your blog posts. If that’s not possible, use blog.yourdomain.com.

18. Use social media marketing wisely. If your business has a visual element, join the appropriate communities on Flickr and post high-quality photos there. If you’re a service-oriented business

Will the Rise of Daily Deals Signal the Decline of Brand Advertising?

Hotel ads featuring palm trees and white sandy beaches start to look very appealing during the winter months. However, according to recent research, the imagery and copy does little to motivate travelers to book hotel rooms

Hawk Partners research on Hotel Channel Usage find that 65% of travelers who booked a recent stay are most likely to have used Online Review sites, such as Trip Advisor to select their hotel rather than those picturesque ads of beach scenes.  74% of the 1200 travelers surveyed said that Advertising (defined as TV and Print) had no impact on their selection. 

Asked to comment about which channels had the most influence on hotel selection, travelers responded with Promotions (Groupon, Living Social, Reward Sites) and Social Media ranking highest, with advertising coming in a distant forth.

Has the struggling economy and the rise of daily deal sites like Groupon and Living Social given rise to a new breed of consumers who put a premium on price over brand? Bryan Gernert, CEO of Resonate Networks states that “It depends on what consumer segments you’re looking to target [however]…and as this is election year you may even want to think about their party affiliation.

For example: consumers who identify themselves as Republicans 35-44 are 41% less likely to buy based on brand, and 38% more likely to buy on price, compared to boomers.   Boomers, on the other hand, still value brands regardless of political affiliation.  Consumers 55-64 are 35% more likely to buy on brand than any other consumer segment.“  The trend was mirrored in the Hawk Partners research, which found travelers under 45 to be more influenced by promotions.  

Brand does still matter and so does price.  As channels continue to expand and evolve, marketers need to have deeper insights into audience behaviors and influences, in order to understand which segment to target with what offer.   As a result, the Digital Advertising Alliance has just launch a new campaign promoting the benefits of “interest based advertising” and companies, like Resonate Networks, are providing deeper insights into buyers psyche based on their attitudes, beliefs, and values.

Why is that important?  Because consumer behaviors are constantly changing, often shaped by new technologies and channels.  While the study findings only apply to the travel and hospitality industry, the data could be a signal for a broader trend worth following.  Specifically, the surprising find that Promotions’ channels are impacting what have traditionally been considered key brand advertising oriented metrics. 

Those travelers using promotional channels for selecting hotel brands are more likely to recall that brand top of mind on an unaided basis than guests who used other channels.  Additional, they are also more likely to stay at the hotel again and recommend that brand to friends, compared to those who used other channels. 

“What we may be seeing is a “halo” effect of the deal” says Rob Duboff, CEO of Hawk Partners, “Consumers like the deal, and as a result, the brand.”   And that is significant, because personal recommendations (77%) and online review sites, (65%) which are shaped by personal experiences, have the largest impact on influencing hotel selection.   

As the authors of the research note, advertising has “significantly more influence than guest give it credit” which has long been the case.  Brand advertising does provide a lift effect that has always been hard to quantify, but given the importance being placed on ROI, the impact of Promotional channels is worth noting and watching…as well as, the consumers who use them.