Early adopters of any new media outlet always seem to fight the growing pains that come with the success of popular websites.  Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are perfect examples.  It is generally inevitable that rapidly growing websites will be embraced (and sometimes expoilted by) by businesses seeking to leverage the user base to sell their products and services.  Traditional media has been no different over the past decades.  Newspapers, TV, etc. all exist to share information.  Gradually, as the readership/viewership grows a gradual influx of commercialization happens (i.e. selling advertising).

This is exactly what we see with the use of social media sites and Web 2.0 interaction.  Traditional media and the web use to be “read only” platforms. Now, users can interact, share information, etc. in real time.  As I refer to commercialization in this context, I am not even talking about the actual revenue models of these sites.  That is a whole other topic.  For example, when Facebook started posting advertising there was an immediate backlash from some users.  Many are still not that comfortable with it?  Why?  In my opinion if a user doesn’t care for the advertising they should simply ignore it…no big deal.  People seem to forget that when sites like Facebook were created the idea was to some day make money with them, or sell them to a company (for a huge valuation) that would implement various revenue streams (i.e. selling advertising).

When speaking about commercialization, I am referring to how users interact with these sites in order to communicate a message.  Social media marketing exists as a strategy to use social networks and rich media on the web to communicate a brand message and eventually gain a following of customers.  As social sites like Twitter grow (the user base grew well over 1000% in the last 12 months), it is inevitable that people will use them to promote their companies…or themselves.  That is simple a historical fact.  If this were not the case, these sites would not be experiencing the growth they are used to.  We are social creatures and it is our nature to communicate.  It is also our nature to utlize the resource around us to succeed.

Social networks and online social communities are all about value and communication.  For someone seeking to use social media as a marketing strategy, one must understand the rules and respect the purpose for which the community exists.  For example, a site like Twitter was not designed to promote any given service or product.  Therefore, one must respect that reality and gain a trusted following by actually providing value to the community before sending a “commercial” message.  There are endless tips and “how to’s” out there about how to be a good Tweeter but the basics are very simple.  Show respect and respect will be shown to you.

When creating a Paid Search Strategy Campaign, there are few factors you must always consider. I have listed some basic questions you should ask yourself before creating a paid search campaign.

1. How competitive are the keywords my business is competing for in the Paid Search landscape?
2. Have I created relevant ads and Ad groups associated with my keywords?
3. Should I Geo-target my ads for specific states, cities, etc..?
4. Have I created ads that really call out some quick features or deals  I am offering consumers for my product or service?
5. Do I have a specific landing page that I am sending my paid search ads to that highlights my ad offerings?
6. Do I have conversion tracking in place to monitor my campaigns success?

By answering the above questions you will be on your way to creating a more successful Paid search campaign.

So you have decided that you need a better online marketing plan to enhance your brand and maximize the return you get from your marketing budget.  Great idea!  Now its time to create that plan and execute!  The following suggestions can help you create and implement a plan the is suited specifically to your business. 

Research:  Just because you have heard that Internet marketing and online media is much more cost effective and measurable than traditional media doen’t mean you can’t waste money using it.  You first need to understand your industry, understand how others are using online marketing within your industry, assess the competitive landscape, and discover what interactive online marketing channels are best suited to your industry.  Take a look at your industry trade journals and do extensive online research so you can position your company ahead of the curve rather than behind it.

More Research:  Now that you have a better understanding of your online competition and how companies like yours are using Internet marketing to gain market share and improve brand exposure you can start looking at the specific marketing channels (i.e. improved website design and function, conversion optimization, search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, landing page strategies, social media, email marketing, online reputation management, etc.). 

Look at how companies like yours are using these channels and gain a better understanding of which components are best suited to your company.  Doing a little of everything may not be the best idea nor cost effective.  The next step will help you assess what channels are the most feasible and then you can work from there.

Budget Discovery:  Review your budget and see what funds can be allocated (or reallocated) to your online marketing plan.  Chances are you have dollars that you can pull from traditional media.  Just because you have been doing the same print adds for 10 years doesn’t mean you should still be using that strategy.  One $30,000 print add budget could be used to put together a great 6 to 12 month online marketing plan!  And guess what…its measurable, targeted, and more cost effective! 

Choose Your Channels:  Based on your budget, you can then start putting together your plan by first deciding which aspects of Internet marketing will give you the best ROI.  You may have used some of these before and not received a good ROI…don’t be gun shy.  Make sure you understand if you were using that channel correctly and measuring your success.  For example, maybe you have used PPC advertising before but you don’t think you got a great return.  A little research might show that your budget wasn’t appropriate, your ads were not targeted, your titles not compelling, you did not use proper landing pages, etc (i.e. the campaign was not properly managed).  Well, without all this you most certainly won’t get a great ROI so don’t be afriad to try again…but do it right!

In-house or Outsourced?  I will try to answer this in a non-biased way.  Most of the time companies will not have the in-house resources or expertise to handle a full Internet marketing plan.  Hiring people in-house to do this for you can be exptremely expensive especially if you are using many different channels.  For example if you are using SEO, PPC, and social media you will most likely need a good web designer (for conversion optimization and landing pages), an SEO expert and someone skilled in managing paid search.  If any of these people are not skilled in social media marketing then that is another person you may need to hire.  Just bringing on interns to handle these strategies will most likely not cut it.  It is much more cost effective to have an Internet marketing company help you with ALL of these steps to help you understand your budget needs, what channels to use, and how to implement it.

How to Choose and Internet Marketing Company:  Get ready for more research!  Look online for some Internet marketing companies and develop a list.  Ask people you know that have used firms they liked and trust.  Once you have a list you can send out a Request for Proposal.  This can be a good place to start but not necessarily recommended.  This is a very impersonal way to “interview” companies.  I suggest contacting them and setting up face to face meetings.  Give them some information about what your goals are and what Internet marketing options you might be interested in.  Let them present to you in person so you can meet them, see how they present, and see how much research and time they put into their presentation.  If the presentation is “vanilla” and not specific to your company, you may want to think twice.  If they do not want to go the extra mile BEFORE signing you as a client they most likely will not once you are a client.

Choose the company that:

• Gives you a great presentation
• Makes you feel a connection and trust
• Has a good client list with testimonials
• Understands your industry and has done their homework

Now you are ready…get adter it!

When one builds a house, you need a solid foundation and a good development team so that your home can withstand all types of weather and it will conform to all city restrictions and deeds.  Also, you want it done right the first time.  You don’t want to call back the contractor and have him redo anything again.  You paid your entire development team to build your home correctly and the only time you should call the contractor back is when you wish to add that new wing.

The same principles apply to creating a website.  Your firm should hire an reputable Internet marketing company to develop your site for you.  Yes, there are some applications you can use to build a site on your own but why would you risk building a site that may not be built correctly?  Would you build your own house if you read a book on how to build a house for beginners?  Probably not.  So why would you not hire a professional internet marketing firm to build your site?  Building a site is like building a home.  You probably don’t need as many trees but you still need to follow certain guidelines.  Internet marketing companies know these types of guidelines to follow and can make solid recommendations about your site should you want to make a solid ROI.  Your website should be the most valuable asset to your company next to your employees.  Your site is a symbol of your company that needs to be respected and cherished.  Don’t cheat yourself or your company – invest in your site because like your home, this will hopefully be forever.

These days it all comes down to budget planning.  The people making the “money” decisions will eventually hand over an overall budget for marketing that will no doubt be meant to use for any and all marketing expenditures.  The next step of course is trying to figure out how to allocate the appropriate amount of budget to each desired marketing channel.  Many companies are moving the majority of the budget only for a few reasons:

• Online marketing is more cost effective – companies have less money to spend and need to find the most appropriate channels while eliminating the excessively expensive media like print advertising.
• Internet marketing is more measurable – companies need to measure and track every penny to ensure their marketing budget is being spent in the best way and achieving the optimal ROI.
• Online marketing is more targeted – The best way to achieve that optimal ROI is to design a Internet marketing strategy that will focus on the exact target audience so no money is watsed on consumers that won’t convert.
• Online marketing appeals to the consumer more these days – The average consumer is more savvy and cost conscious than ever before.  They would rather go online and see what others consumers have to say (Web 2.0)

More and more companies are realizing that they need to improve their online brand if they want to survive and compete.  They understand that their competitors who are doing so, are gaining market share and reaching audiences that they themselves can’t currently target.

What are you doing about your online media strategy?

Whether you are a marketer or a company seeking an Internet marketing company, you no doubt realize the importance of an enhanced online plan.  Most of the top companies out there have shed the old ways and embraced interactive strategies that include search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, email marketing and of course….social media.

So the question remains, how do I allocate the funds available to each online channel?

These days budgets are tight so one needs to research each channel thoroughly to see if it is a good fit.  Just because you have heard of social media for example, it may not be appropriate for your immediate business goals.

Take the following steps:

• Finalize your marketing budget for the year broken down by quarter
• Outline your exact business goals
• Asses how you want to achieve those goals through your marketing strategy – a good Internet marketing company can help you put this plan together
• Choose the online channels that best suit your needs.  Traditionally, a good mix of different online components will give you the best comprehensive strategy.  Keep in mind though that if the budget is limited you should choose the best one or two components that compliment the overall plan.
• Execute your plan – don’t wait!  Business won’t grow by sitting around and discussing the marketing plan.

No go get ‘em!

Having a tracking and reporting tool installed to your website is a very important factor for conversion based websites and your SEO strategy. Make sure you have a tracking code on your site to track visitors and their behavior on your site. For example the bounce rate tells you how many people are coming to your website and leaving within 5 seconds this way you are able to identify which web pages are turning away the most visitors and which are making most conversions.

With today’s internet marketing technology you can run tests on different pages of your website and let your visitors decide the best version of that page. A – B testing serves the user 2 different versions of a particular page on a random basis. This way instead of just going with a gut feeling you will actually have the statistics from your users to prove usability.

The first step is to think of 2 variations of your page. The current one as the first and the second you can make a few small changes to the page. Maybe try changing photos or making links into buttons using large calls to action. Using tools like the Google website optimizer you can test your changes by randomly showing different visitors different versions of your site. These tools will then report back to you about the conversions and goals reached by each design. From these reports you can decide which design had the most valuable conversions dependant on the goals you set for your pages. These can be sales, links clicked, forms filled, etc.

Many think that there might be too many aspects of the website to change so why test at all? This is true there are many different components to each and every website but you can just start with your current most prevalent call to action on your page. Try changing simple links to buttons with calls to action. Try cleaning up the page to not be text heavy and insert some great images relevant to your business.
• Have a friend take a look! If you have a friend that doesn’t know your business very well have them take a look at your website. Give them 10 seconds to look and then ask them what you think the site is about?

• Give, Give, Give! Tell the user why they should stay on your website. Tell them the benefits of being your website: to look younger, to be healthier, to save money.

• Make your website relevant! Make sure that all of your client see your website as relevant starting with the content and pictures on the site! Make them personal and relevant to your website and your brand.

• Users love to shop and that is why they are on your website don’t make them search. Make it easy for the user to find what they want and make it even easier for the to convert. If you are basing your conversions on sales make the “buy Now” prominent if your conversations are tracked by sign ups make sure to have a quick and easy form on every page!

The fact remains that our population consists of 60% visual learners and 35% auditory learners (the other 5% are kinesthetic learners).  It is no wonder online videos are the ideal environment for people to learn about your brand, products, services and company.  With many online videos to compete with you’ll need to make yours the one to Twitter, Digg, bookmark and buzz about.  To make your online videos ‘viral’ is to create it so that it is indeed remarkable and worth remarking about!  Here are a few tips to creating remarkable and viral online videos:

• Don’t forget to consider production quality: lighting, sound, location, editing, etc.
• 15-30 seconds is ideal.  If creating a longer video, break into 10-15 second shots.
• Make your videos relevant and informative to your business.
• Have an engaging and shocking (if possible) story line.
• Connect with your audience by capturing a human element that people can relate to.
• Add some humor where appropriate- everyone loves a laugh.  This is what makes comedic videos so viral.
• Be clever in delivering your message.  If it appears like an ad, viewers will not share it unless it’s truly worth sharing.
• If possible, add a celebrity presence as it would attract more viewers.
• Don’t forget to add call to actions i.e. frame with your company name and website URL at the end of the video.

With the above in mind, it will make your Social Media Optimization (SMO) campaign more effective and possibly profitable for your company.  The Return of Investment (ROI) for online video marketing is astounding.  You can reach a global audience quickly with little investment as compared to traditional marketing.  The catch is that your online videos need to be share worthy backed with a SMO strategy!

Email marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing channels out there.  As more and more companies move away from print media and direct mail, more companies are enhancing their email marketing capabilities to target new and repeat customers.

3 Myths about HTML Email Programming

Myth #1

• I can design and code an email the same way I do for a web page

Truth

• Emails need to be written in the simplest HTML code as possible
• Minimum use of CSS style sheets should be considered in HTML coding of emails

Myth #2

• All email browsers render emails the same

Truth

• Email browsers such as Yahoo, MSN, Google all render emails differently
• Google Gmail does not support HTML Body background color elements
• Outlook 2007 does not support HTMl CSS background table colors

Myth #3

• Programming and deploying all image based emails will not hurt your email marketing campaign

Truth

• All image based emails are not a good email marketing strategy
• All image based emails generally have lower open rates, because most email service providers block from showing the images to the end user
• With the advancement of  web and email server spam software, there are a lot servers out there that block end users from getting image based emails all together

The days of simple on page optimization are over and have been for a while.  A year ago most search engine optimization strategies included the simple practices of basic site structure, seo copy written content, and building inbound links.  As Google continues to progress and make new updates to the algorithms, we must also adapt and develop new strategies that will keep us competitive.  A well-rounded approach is imperative which is why a good Internet marketing company can take on all aspects of search engine marketing and combine them to create a truly united front.

I tend to use the analogy of military combat when analyzing business and marketing situations.  For example, the reason a small special operations force that has superior training and works as a team will always defeat a larger force with mediocre training is becasue each person on the spec ops team works in complete synergy with one another.  In Internet marketing, it will no longer suffice to use one approach with a non-targeted strategy if you want to be competitive.  A comprehensive online marketing plan will ensure true optimization of all online assets and maximum exposure and conversions.

So what does all this mean?  What is Universal search?  What are digital assets?

Bascially, it means that optimizing all of a company’s digital assets is the best way to ensure good rankings as they apply to Google’s new “universal” search.  Universal search means that Google gives rankings to not only web pages anymore but also news results such as press releases, video content, images, local buiness results, etc.  Simply optimizing the pages of a website will not ensure that a site will rank as well as its competitiors.  Websites that use well rounded internet marketing strategies are getting traffic from other assets that appear in the search results pages.  For example, a company’s web page might not appear for a specific result but a SEO optimized press release might.  That press release if optimized properly would then have links back to the website which would drive trafic.  The same situation would apply for video content appearing in the results.  The vidoes if well optimized could then have links or calls to action noting the URL that people should follow. 

So are we taking about social media?

Basically, yes.  Social media is popular for many reasons other than viral marketing and online reputation management.  Social media can be a fantastic provider of inbound links which of course supports the ongoing organic search engine optimization campaign.  A good SEO company will optimize all a company’s digital assets to ensure the best possible ROI.

Where does conversion optimization come into play?

True conversion optimization is at the root of all online marketing strategies…or at least it should be.  Nobody wants to spend time and money implementing any marketing plan unless there is a strategy to ensure conversions and ROI.  Conversion optimization is more than just manipulating a web page to make the user do what you want.  All marketing strategies should be completely complimentary and support the same goals…that goes for offline and online components. 

Not so long ago, an SEO team would work independantly from a PPC team, and nobody would be communicating with the print team.  These days that is just poor marketing.  Everyone must be in constant communication with each other…that is, if you were to use different teams for each component.  The best practice for having a truly effective online marketing plan is to use the same team for all aspects and make sure that team knows how to coordinate with traditional media aspects as well.