9th
APR
5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix
Posted by BlogPostman under Pay-Per-Click
Since late 2009 when Google introduced real time search, the concept has gained a lot of attention. Today, real time search is at the top of the priority lists for all the major search engines – Google, Bing and Yahoo!. As part of the new technology, Google is combining live updates from sites like Twitter with the latest news headlines and blog posts in search results. For web searchers, real time search means the ability to discover breaking news the minute it’s happening. For marketers, it presents a whole host of opportunities to increase online visibility. Here, we’ve provided five ways to leverage real time search in your online marketing efforts. 1. Develop the type of content that supports real time SEO With real time search, frequently publishing online content becomes a must. Try incorporating these three types of content to support both traditional and real time SEO programs: Tweets and Facebook fan page updates: Micro content from social sites now has the ability to appear in search results. It’s quick and easy to frequently post Tweets and Facebook fan pages updates, so both should play a big role in your real time SEO content strategy. Blog posts: Blogging presents the opportunity to help your content rank and show thought leadership at the same time – since blog posts can offer more valuable information than micro content. Optimized press releases: By optimizing press releases and submitting them through authoritative newswires, you can help your content achieve high rankings. 2. Mobilize your fan base Creating a core group of brand advocates is important for a number of reasons. They recommend your products and services to their friends and family, defend your reputation in times of trouble and are more likely to adopt future products and services you introduce. Now add one more benefit to the list: Brand advocates – particularly authoritative ones – can link to your content to help keep in the real time stream. In addition, brand advocates who are active on social sites like Twitter can create their own content about your company that can appear in real time search results. 3. Know what’s hot in the news With real time search, it’s important to recognize both what users are searching for online and what they’re discussing via social channels – at this very minute. Create frequently updated content that speaks to the latest topics and trends, and is optimized for the latest search terms. A variety of tools exist to help monitor search and conversation trends: Google Trends : Use this free tool to find the hottest topics and hottest searches in Google Social Mention : Determine the strength, sentiment and reach for terms used throughout the social web, including blogs, microblogs, social networks, video sites and news sites BlogPulse : Find the top blog posts, key phrases, new stories and more from across the search universe or related a specific topic Delicious : See the types of content that goes wild across the social web Trendistic : Learn trending topics in Twitter over the last 24 hours, week, month or more (see image below) Trendistic shows “online marketing” trends over the past 30 days. 4. Time your content promotion efforts wisely Give your content an extra boost by monitoring when blog posts, articles and other online content are indexes in Google News or Google Blog Search. Then ensure tweets, Facebook fan page updates and other social content promotions are timed right after the content is indexed. Doing so will help you take advantage of every opportunity to appear in real time search results. 5. Optimize your web site and online content for mobile technologies Real time search is relevant on many mobile devices, including Android and iPhone devices. So Web site optimization for mobile technologies becomes even more important. Consider these few mobile SEO tips: Limit the use of images Keep the design simple and clean Test to ensure your site appears as it should across various mobile devices The bottom line is, it’s crucial to take advantage of every real time search opportunity that comes around. Remember that these opportunities won’t stick around for long – presenting themselves quickly and then disappearing. It is real time, after all. Have you implemented real time SEO into your online marketing mix? Tell us what best practices you’ve found so far. © Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | 5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com
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5 Ways to Leverage Real Time Search in Your Online Marketing Mix
8th
APR
Setting and Measuring Goals for Business Blogging
Posted by under Blog Marketing, Pay-Per-Click
As companies that realize the value of online marketing understand the need to publish engaging content, one of the most common considerations is a company blog. Blog software is fundamentally one of the easiest content management software systems to install and use. Of course the software isn’t magic. The content and ability to reach and engage with customers is a big part of what makes a business blog successful. For those companies that are thinking of starting a blog or reinvesting resources into a company blogging effort that has gone stale, some of the most important questions to ask are: Have you identified specific goals for the blog? How will you measure success? In sports you can’t score if there isn’t a goal and it’s no different with business blogging. There are a variety of reasons why publishing ongoing communications that allow readers to interact adds value to a business. Add to that the distribution via RSS that extends the reach of your message and it’s easy to see why so many companies start blogging. The failure for many business blogs is centered around not making a connection between business goals, blog specific objectives and most importantly, how meeting customer needs leads to the first two. Here are three key questions to consider as you design your plan for business blogging success: Why start a business blog? What end goals or outcomes can you reasonably expect? There are many good reasons to start a blog. But are those reasons good enough to start and stay blogging for the long haul? Our survey on blogging and SEO showed 90% citing blogging as important, significantly important or a primary SEO tactic. 94% of bloggers reported seeing measurable SEO benefits from blogging within 12 months. Initiate and foster customer engagement Improve coverage by media and bloggers Improve search engine visibility Increase mentions on other blogs, social networking, news, bookmarking and media sites Build thought leadership Provide an informative communication channel Recognize employees, clients, marketing partners and especially brand evangelists How will you know your blogging efforts are successful according to those goals? How are you measuring blogging success? We ran a poll last year with our readers that ranked their most important measures of blogging success. Here is the distribution: Engagement: comments, links 36% Improved brand recognition 31% Build thought leadership 31% Search engine rankings 31% Better communicate with customers 30% Traffic to the blog 27% Coverage by media and other blogs 18% Traffic to the corporate web site 16% Sales leads 16% Industry Recognition 13% Sell products 2% Improved customer satisfaction 11% Page views 9% Time on Site 6% Ad revenue on the blog 5% What tools are you using to measure blog performance? Goals for business and the blog are great but it’s essential to have the right tools in place for analytics. One of the biggest mistakes is to rely on things like Google Alerts. Web analytics (Google Analytics, Woopra, Clicky, etc) Feedburner Social media monitoring tools Link analysis tools Comment tracking tools Clipping services Forum conversation tracking tools It’s fundamental, this notion of setting goals, understanding outcomes and the tools needed to measure. But you know the saying, “Common sense is the least common thing on Earth.” Companies can achieve great return on investment with the right plan and leadership in a blogging effort. The key is to do the baseline work to build a foundation upon which it can grow and succeed. Stay the course and leverage both listening and engagement tools to guide content. Develop networks and distribution channels to grow readership and reach. Take the time to really understand the impact of data provided by reporting tools and create reports for executives that highlight business goals. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced with setting, measuring and reaching business goals through corporate blogging? Have you started a business blog only to shut it down? Have your company blogging efforts been successful beyond expectations? © Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Setting and Measuring Goals for Business Blogging | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com
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Setting and Measuring Goals for Business Blogging
8th
Widen Your Visibility With Ppc
Posted by under Pay-Per-Click
The internet is a tool that has immensely positive potential. Simply by entering the scene and throwing their hat into the ring, advertisers can increase their visibility exponentially. Advertising to the known Using PPC, advertisers will be able to put their message out to the people they know they already want: their target audience. Knowing the websites frequented by a particular population will help widen visibility among that particular demographic. Through this sort of targeted approach to PPC advertising, advertisers are able to widen their visibility among the known. Advertising to the unknown PPC has the ability to defy demographics. For advertisers who may either be seeking to diversify their consumer population or seek out other possible markets, PPC is a gift. By selecting publishers that tend to attract traffic of a less predictable or more diverse nature, advertisers are able to advertise to the unknown. This practice could return many dividends, especially for businesses or enterprises looking to keep themselves relevant in an ever-changing world. Advertising without paying PPC only calculates an advertiser’s cost by the click. However, the ad may appear in a rotation of other ads with frequency negotiated between the advertiser and the publisher. This set-up means that an ad may appear countless times to potential consumers without ever being formally selected. However, by becoming a repetitive presence, advertisers can benefit from the passive effects of being seen. Online seekers who are repeatedly exposed to the ad will be more likely to select that ad when they need the offering listed. By using the power of the internet and PPC, advertisers are able to widen their visibility. This visibility could potentially translate to higher dividends for the wise advertiser. - About the Author: Joe Praveen Sequeira ~ is an award winning, best-selling author, speaker, educator and professional Internet Marketing Consultant focused on helping businesses of all sizes, increase their online sales, boost web site traffic and strengthen their overall brand through established online marketing strategies. He has overseen hundreds of Internet marketing campaigns for fortune 500 companies and is the Founder & CEO of The eMarketing Pro , a thriving Internet marketing and eBusiness consulting firm. Article Source
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Widen Your Visibility With Ppc
7th
APR
Losing Time on Social Media
Posted by under Pay-Per-Click
Social media is everyone’s shiny object in the digital marketing world. Personally, professionally and otherwise, millions of people worldwide are switching from other information and entertainment channels (or multitasking) for social destinations online and on the mobile web. I know there are a good number of early adopters that read Online Marketing Blog and since you’re probably prone to trying the latest apps and tools, there are undoubtedly certain types of social media sites that have really turned out to be a time suck. That assumption leads us to our 60th Reader Poll! (pick up to 3) Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. No, I didn’t include online games of any kind in this poll because, while they can absolutely be social, I consider them to be inherently time wasting. Whereas the sites/tools listed in the poll above have at least the remotest possibility of helping people become more productive. If your top time waster isn’t listed, please share in the comments. I’d also like know your preferences on topics for future Reader Polls. If your suggestion is picked, we’ll give you credit and a nice juicy link when the poll is run. © Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Losing Time on Social Media | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com
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Losing Time on Social Media
6th
APR
Landing Page Optimization Deep Dive: Interview with Tim Ash
Posted by under Pay-Per-Click
Tim Ash is a marketing machine. He writes a blog, contributes to Search Engine Watch, hosts a weekly show on WebmasterRadio.fm, is author of the book “Landing Page Optimization”, speaks at numerous conferences and is the chair of the upcoming Conversion Conference in May. Oh, and he also runs SiteTuners , a successful landing page optimization consulting business and has launched a new tool called AttentionWizard that offers eye tracking “without the eyes”. Tim has worked with American Express, Sony Music, American Honda, Coach, COMP USA and many other major brands. “Landing page testing is the best accelerator of your business that you have available.” Tim is a very smart and very nice guy who took a few rare moments of time to answer a few questions about measuring social media ROI, budgets for testing, common mistakes, tips, tools and how he stays current in such a fast paced and changing field. Please tell us about your background, your business, and the book? I am a recovering technologist. I almost got my PhD in computer science, but dropped out to start my first Internet consulting business. Over the years we have focused on driving traffic. But after a while it became clear that the bigger problem (and business opportunity for us) was to improve the efficiency of that traffic once it landed on the website or landing page. That’s how SiteTuners was born. We offer a range of consulting services to improve conversion, full-service landing page tests in which we guarantee performance improvement, and software such as out cutting-edge TuningEngine testing software, and the AttentionWizard visual attention prediction tool. We work with some of the biggest companies in the Internet universe, as well as scrappy smaller companies. I wrote the Landing Page Optimization book a couple of years ago and it has been very well received. Wiley Press has asked me to write a second edition that I am co-authoring with Rich Page and Maura Ginty. It will be out early next year and will have over 150 pages of completely new content. There’s a lot of speculation about social media and measuring ROI . Do you have examples where conversions were improved from content on a social network or other social media site as a result of a/b or multivariate testing? What is significantly different about measuring social media marketing efforts versus search marketing where the goals are conversions? The fundamental principles are the same – you should be trying to increase the efficiency of conversion actions that have a measurable impact on your business. The only difference is that the conversion actions might not be sales, but rather “micro conversions” such as re-tweets, fan page sign-ups, or visits to blog or content pages that you are trying to promote. So if you can lower your cost-per-acquisition for any of those actions, that is good. What makes testing a bit more tricky to conduct in a social media setting is that you need steady traffic sources over an extended period of time. Unfortunately much of social media happens very quickly and results in one-time traffic spikes that go away. The type of social media marketing executed by many SEOs does seem to behave according to the “go hot” principle where content gets voted on and attracts spikes in traffic. However, many companies are building networks on social channels and community participation often drives more steady streams of traffic according to the content publishing schedule of the brand. When it comes to measuring social ROI, are you seeing more social media marketing efforts fall in the first situation versus the second? Many social media programs are based on “go hot” kinds of activities. The content is often “perishable” and time-sensitive. But there is also long-term “content farming” activities which continue to add to a pool of general company awareness through creation of new content pages on the website, whitepapers, blog posts, and media placements. This takes a more disciplined approach and a long-term commitment of resources, so in our experience is more rare. This is one of those “it depends” questions but let’s give it a shot. Is it your experience that most marketers allocate budget for testing as part of overall web analytics? What percentage of that budget should go towards ongoing testing for say, an ecommerce site? What advice do you have for getting more approved? Landing page or conversion rate optimization is not a part of Web analytics. It is a top-line revenue-growing activity. How much would you pay for a 5% increase in volume? 10%? 50%? Landing page testing is the best accelerator of your business that you have available. It should not have a fixed budget. The economically rational thing to do with any marketing activity is to keep spending money on it as long as it produces a positive ROI. Setting fixed budgets is the same kind of silly logic that some companies use when driving traffic. If you have a fixed pay-per-click budget and you could buy more profitable traffic above that threshold, you are just throwing profits away. It’s interesting that you say that when it comes to budget allocation, since both concern measuring and improving web site performance. Of course there are many things that make sense to a consultant or service provider that don’t necessarily fit with the reality of how companies forecast their marketing budgets. Have you been successful at winning more budget with the “keep spending money on it as long as it produces a positive ROI” argument or do you only work with companies that have more flexibility with where they spend? Technically landing page testing is part of measurement and Web analytics should always be actionable. Unfortunately often it is just looking in the rear-view mirror at things that have happened in the past. My friend Jim Sterne insists that all Web analytics should be forward looking and actionable, otherwise it is useless. But in practice most analysts spend more time on data mining and not on landing page testing. If you have a testing mindset, then the question you continually ask is “Where can I make the biggest impact on our business by tweaking a mission-critical step in our value creation chain?” If you do that, the resulting improvements should make the business a big pile of money and will create psychological momentum inside of your company for further testing and experimentation. Once an organization gets excited and buys into this continual-improvement mentality, the testing budget question often goes away. What are some of the most common mistakes experienced search marketers make when it comes to landing pages? Top 5? That’s easy – I can give you more than 5. If you have heard my “ Seven Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design ” presentation, you know that there are seven common types of mistakes on all landing pages: unclear calls-to-action, too many choices, asking for too much information early in the process, too much text, not maintaining continuity with the expectations that were set upstream of the actual landing page, visual clutter and distraction, and lack of trust and credibility. What tools do you recommend (in addition to Google Website Optimizer and those at SiteTuners like AttentionWizard) for corporate marketers that are still fairly new to conversion rate improvement? Advanced tools? There are a number of tools that have come out in just the last couple of years that make it much easier to diagnose and correct conversion issues. These include ClickTale.com , CrazyEgg.com , UserTesting.com , and CrossBrowserTesting.com . How do you stay current with practices? Do you have favorite conferences, books, blogs, newsletters or other resources that you rely on? Wow – that’s tough. There is an explosion of resources around landing page optimization. I pay attention to Bryan Eisenberg , Avinash Kaushik , Anne Holland , and try to look for interesting resources through Twitter tags like #lpo, #cro, and #measure. Conferences like Search Engine Strategies, eMetrics, and PubCon always feature solid content on the topic. Conversion Conference is coming up soon (May 4-5 in San Jose) with some big names in the conversion and testing space including Bryan Eisenberg, Jakob Nielsen, and yourself. Who is the conference for and why should they come? What prompted you to start it? I created the new ConversionConference.com series to give conversion improvement it’s own home. Until now, conversion has been a side topic at conferences that focused on driving traffic. The first event will be in San Jose next month, and then in Washington DC in the fall. There is also a German show in Hamburg, and other international shows on the drawing boards. The San Jose show will feature three dynamic keynotes that you mentioned. There will also be twenty six fast-paced sessions over two days covering all aspects of conversion. The presenters are all top notch. The show is held in parallel with eMetrics and will share the expo hall, lunches, networking events and the Conversion Bash party put on by WebmasterRadio.fm. The top conversion tools and services companies will also be there. If you want to turbocharge your online marketing you should be there. By the way, your readers can use an exclusive promo-code “ CCW562 ” for an additional $100 off of the early bird rate if they register by April 15th. Thanks Tim. You can connect with Tim Ash on the social web at: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Blog © Online Marketing Blog , 2010. | Landing Page Optimization Deep Dive: Interview with Tim Ash | No comment | http://www.toprankblog.com
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Landing Page Optimization Deep Dive: Interview with Tim Ash
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