2008-10-30 Hi Everyone! For all you ghouls and goblins out there, make sure you have a safe and fun Halloween. Eat lots of candy so you're wide awake to implement all our writers' wonderful ideas! Have a great week! Rachel Phillips
The Choice of a Social Media Generationby Jennifer LaycockI've been watching with interest as some of my blogging buddies posted their reactions to the blogger outreach campaign Edelman is running for Pepsi. The crew behind the outreach program picked twenty five social media and marketer influencers and sent them a preview of the new Pepsi cans. They also opened up a room in Friendfeed to foster discussion about the brand changes. Social Media Can Be Cheap, But Its Not Freeby Mack CollierOne of the big reasons why social media can be so appealing to small businesses is because many of these tools/sites are free or very cheap to use. Which is perfect for small businesses that probably have very little in the way of a marketing budget to begin with. But there are still costs to consider when launching a social media strategy. Marketing in Hard Times: Pricingby Diane AullIs it a good idea to cut your prices when times get tough? When money's tight, it might seem that lowering prices would be the thing to do to stimulate more sales. But it's not always that simple - sometimes cutting prices can do more harm than good.... Getting Your SEO Campaign Off to a Great Startby Jennifer LaycockWhether you're getting ready to overhaul your site in-house to improve your organic search rankings, or you're planning on hiring the process out to a consultant or agency, you need to have a grasp on the fundamental steps of a search engine optimization campaign. Otherwise, you're bound to get most of the way through the process only to find you are missing vital information. Worse, you could end up with a projected that is completed, but severely lacking. LinkedIn Gets even More Useful with the Addition of Appsby Jennifer LaycockIf you're anything like me, you like to be able to customize things. You like a little extra juice on top of the standard options. You like to let your personality show through and you like to see a little personality from others. It's one of the reasons I reluctantly joined Facebook, though LinkedIn is the social network I find to be more practical. That's why I was so happy to hear the news about LinkedIn applications. Leverage Information from Google to Lower the Cost of Your PPC Bidsby Jennifer LaycockOne of the nice things about Google's somewhat complicated paid search advertising system is that as time passes, they give advertisers more and more information about their campaigns. While it takes time to learn how to read and interpret this information, doing so can go a long way toward helping you maximize your campaign performance while minimizing the amount of money you spend on it. 5 Tips to Help Drive Search Marketing Strategiesby Manoj JasraWhether you are an in-house search marketing strategist or you work for an SEM agency, there is a common barrier that you will consistently come across: Establishing priority for search marketing in conjunction with getting buy-in from required stake holders. Below I have outlined 5 ways you can push search marketing strategies along more effectively... Six Keys to a Viral Message that Sticks - Part Two: Deliver the Unexpectedby Jennifer LaycockIf there's one thing people are used to doing today, it's ignoring advertising messages. We switch the radio station when songs give way to commercials, we TIVO our favorite shows and play them back later without the commercials. We surf the web with "banner blindness" and we flip past the first twenty pages of a thick magazine because we know it's all ads. Six Keys to a Viral Message that Sticks - Part Three: Be Concreteby Jennifer LaycockWhen it comes to getting your point across in a marketing or viral message, there's no room to be vague. You have to focus in on your message and deliver it in a way that's crystal clear. Unfortunately, many companies fall into the trap of speaking in generalities. Why? Because it's easy. Companies tout lines like "we do the right thing" or "we have the lowest prices" and fail to get specific enough to differentiate themselves from the dozens (or hundreds) of other companies touting the exact same thing. Are You Putting Your Best Blog Posts on Display?by Mack CollierI talked to a blogger last week who explained that he had written a blog post last year that still gets traffic referrals. Which is great, but this blogger had his post buried in the archives of his blog. Instead, why not put the spotlight on your best posts? Comprehensive Guide to Keyword Research, Selection & Organization, Part VIIIby Stoney deGeyterAfter having researched through your relevant core terms and search phrases, it's time to start the process of looking more closely at each phrase. What you want to do is separate the good keywords from the not-so good. You need to find the search phrases that will ultimately provide you with the greatest benefit in your marketing campaigns, and eliminating or sidelining the rest. Comprehensive Guide to Keyword Research, Selection & Organization, Part IXby Stoney deGeyterAs you sort through your lists of keywords, you want to be sure to eliminate phrases that won't deliver converting traffic. Whatever keywords that you keep for optimization, you want each to be able to drive the most qualified traffic, giving you visitors that are most likely to buy your product or services. Comprehensive Guide to Keyword Research, Selection & Organization, Part Xby Stoney deGeyterThe most important aspect of analyzing and eliminating keywords is to fully understand what the customer is looking for. We often see keywords through our own lens of understanding. You think about things a certain way because you are educated and trained that way. But the customer may not be educated in the same way, or at all, in terms of industry related jargon. So you have to step outside of your own thought processes and learn to look through the lens of searchers who think differently from the way you do. Pictures Catch the Eye and Allow Your Words to Catch the Mindby Jennifer LaycockOne of my biggest struggle as a writer is finding a way to spin a tale or present an idea that captivates the mind long enough to keep someone reading to the end of my piece. A great way to do this is to captivate the eyes with images. It gives readers a break from all those words and it gives their mind a pleasant distraction that's brief enough to make them happy without getting them off track. Free Pictures Done Rightby Mike MoranYou're constantly getting advice, from me and all the Internet marketing gurus, that you need great content to succeed in search marketing (and lots of other Internet marketing techniques, too). And we all assume that you'll write this wonderful content yourself, because, God bless us, if you can write e-mail you can probably write a blog post or a Web article. But, if you're like me, you really want to include a picture. And if you're really like me, you couldn't take a decent picture if your life depended on it. And if you're a carbon copy of me, you... How to Grow Your Twitter Following (Even if You're Not a Marketer)by Karri FlatlaI'm not ready to talk about how Twitter has benefited me or my business yet--we have a complicated relationship. But I think it goes without saying that a lot of people (or should I say "peeps") would like to grow their Twitter following, and I think I've cracked the code. Whatever your social networking goals are, the following tactics will not only increase the number of people following you, but you will begin to experience that old fashioned thing called "community" right from your desktop.... You Can't Control the Conversation, But You CAN Change it!by Mack CollierOne of the biggest concerns I hear from companies and small businesses about blogging is 'what if someone says something negative about us?' Unfortunately, having a blog won't automatically mean that no one will ever say anything negative about your business. Social Media is Not an Excuse to Stay Homeby Jennifer LaycockHere's the funny thing about social media. It's all talk. It's a wonderful, amazing, effective way to get to know people...but it's all about the talk and not the action. It's a great starting point, but you really need to "seal the deal" with offline interaction as well. It's a point Mack Collier did a nice job of making over The Viral Garden this past weekend. Using Twitter for Customer Serviceby Paul JahnIn the last year, Twitter has been quite the buzz for online marketers. We use it in different ways. It could be for pimping out events, linking to different blog posts, or just random tweets about our pet peeves, what we're eating tonight, or the status from the latest "your-favorite-team" game. It's been a marketing tool, but it can be a better customer service tool (I'm a big fan of customer service), especially if you have an e-commerce site. Stick and Stones May Break Your Bones, and What You Say CAN Hurt Youby Jennifer LaycockI've written about the need to understand how "public" our thoughts, ideas and conversations are these days. Hundreds, no thousands of others have issued the same warnings. I think most people still figure we're talking about what you post online, but if you think about it, it's really not the case. Dear Miss Social Media Manners...by Jennifer LaycockIf you've ever read a Miss Manners column (or stepped foot outside your house) you're well aware of the sheer number of people who simply have no concept of proper etiquette. If you've set foot on a social network like Twitter, Facebook or MySpace, you've probably learned this lesson a second time. While there is no Miss Social Media Manners to turn to with your questions on the best way to interact with folks online, you can rely on good old fashioned common sense to guide you. When is Hiring an SEO a Bad Idea?by Jennifer LaycockI've been reading a lot of posts lately from small business owners and search engine optimization companies talking about the push toward organic search during a bad economy. After all, good organic search campaigns tend to deliver some of the most effective (and least expensive) traffic your site is likely to see. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. In fact, there are some instances in which you'd do best to focus your limited marketing dollars elsewhere. Return to the Top of this Page
Return to the Top of this Page In response to... Social Media Can Be Cheap, But Its Not FreeReally good post. Craig's List is a very effective advertising venue for our business, and lots of other apartment folks use it too. The listing is free, however it is far form free. In order to have successful ads, there must be good copy and content, and many folks aren't very good at that. There must be great photography, which doesn't just happen. A strange point here is, a marketing executive in our industry doesn't blink an eye at spending a lot of dough on prints ads and rental classified ads, (that don't really work, but are easy to do by calling the agency) but will have the property manager, who has no experience at writing copy or taking photos place the Craig's list ads, because those are free. I think Social Media is much like that as well. If you can't expend the resources, the result will be reflective of that. Eric Brown In response to... Six Keys to a Viral Message that Sticks - Part OneExcellent article on viral marketing. Most owners just don't understand viral marketing or how to implement it. Probably the biggest mistake I see business owners make when using viral marketing is where they place the Send To A Friend form. I have seen some owners place this form on their landing page. That is a big mistake. Why would you ask someone to refer a friend to your product when they haven't even tried it yet? Some owners place this form on their download page which is a mistake. All your new customer wants is to download your offer to fix their current problem. They don't want to spend any extra time doing anything else but consuming what they just bought. The ideal placement of the viral Send To A Friend form is on the return URL that you put into Paypal, also known as the "success" or "thank you for ordering" web page. But you can't just slap it there, here's a marketing trick that will increase the use of your form 50% or more. Put in a time delay on when you deliver the customer the product they just purchased if it is digital in nature. For example let's say you email your customers a link to download what they just purchased. On the "thank you for ordering" web page add something like, "You will receive an email that contains the URL to download xxxxx within 20 minutes." Immediately under this message, place your Send To A Friend form. It is amazing how well this works. The psychology of why it works is that you are forcing a time-out on your customer. Your customer can go take a smoke break, grab a bite to eat, or fill out your Send To A Friend form while she waits for her email to arrive. Complexity is the enemy of viral marketing. Always strive to present only one option for your customer to take at every step in the sales and viral marketing process. In the case above, she has already purchased, there is nothing more for her to do but wait 20 minutes for her email to arrive. You present her with only one option while she waits, to fill out your viral Send To A Friend form. Lance Jepsen Return to the Top of this Page Skaffe.com Directory: Show off your website Express Submit today.Quality directories like Skaffe.com offer you strong search engine exposure. Sporge Directory from Skaffe.comUnder new management! All new with low submission prices. WoW DirectoryPowerful and affordable directory marketing services. Submit your website today! New! Team Skaffe Directory from the editors of Skaffe.comUp to 4 links for every submission. Free submission for non-commercial websites. Free SEO ToolsThinking of buying SEO software? Then try the best SEO tools free first! Return to the Top of this Page Accurate Link Popularity Numbers List Of Do Follow Forums List Of Free Press Release Sites Get On Page 1 Of Google In One HourBLOGS AND BLOGGING 7 Ways To Increase Your Blog Traffic With FeedBurnerPAY PER CLICK Has Anyone Had Trouble With Ask.com PPCOTHER ONLINE MARKETING The Age Old Question... How To Get TrafficSMALL BUSINESS ISSUES Display Prices Or Not To Display Prices How To Get Customer Testimonials Pressed For Time. Franchise? Any Thoughts Ive Got It, But How Do I Protect ItPREVIOUS WEEK Small Business Forum Update For October 22, 2008 (If you like our search engine news, you'll love our small business news.) Return to the Top of this Page
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