Several of our clients have chosen to engage a medical practice or other industry-specific internet “expert” firm that offers a variety of services and tools to help you operate and market your business.  The reality is, however, that marketing is NOT always the so-called industry experts’ actual expertise.  The proof is in the results your business has seen from their efforts.

BrandON! marketing.technology is a local, Atlanta-based firm led by MBA graduates and expert marketers who understand how to generate new business for dental practices and other businesses.  We have successfully transitioned clients from other “industry experts” to independent platforms that your firm controls.

We have found that many of our clients don’t even actually own their URL, their brand on the Internet. Your URL, or domain name, is a business asset.  If your practice doesn’t own its own domain name, you are EXTREMELY vulnerable to the firm that actually does.  BrandON! NEVER holds a client hostage by registering URLs in our name or requiring the use of proprietary technology that unnecessarily ties your practice to our services.  Our results should be enough to keep you as our client.  If your internet marketing firm owns your domain or has shackled you to their systems, it’s not for your benefit. An ethical, competent marketing firm will let their results speak for themselves.  Own your own domain!

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This provocatively titled presentation presents some amazing facts and some great insight into the new realities of information overload.  It’s this over-abundance of bullshit and your prospects’ increasing ability to cut through it that will continue to fuel the transition from outbound to inbound marketing.

As inbound marketers, we’re constantly preaching the supremacy of CONTENT.  But there’s little value in content that’s actually crap.  For a short time, it may benefit SEO rankings…but those days are severely limited (if not already gone) as Google and the other search engines learn to also cut through the bullshit.

Check out Brad Frost’s presentation.  We would love to hear your thoughts.

Here are some favorite stats and take aways:

• 10% of all books ever published were published LAST YEAR
• 820,000+ websites are created every DAY
• 90% of all data ever created was created in the last TWO YEARS

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Inbound marketing continues to show remarkable growth across multiple industries.  For 2013, inbound has continued to grow budget share of marketing spend.  There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is… ROI.  Following are several quick facts about the ROI of inbound marketing from HubSpot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing report.

• In 2013, marketers are allocating 34% of their overall budgets to inbound marketing — more than banners, direct mail and other outbound strategies
• Twice as many marketers say inbound marketing delivers below average cost per leads versus outbound strategies
• 34% of all lead generation in 2013 comes from inbound marketing sources
• Inbound delivers 54% more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound leads
• 41% of marketers surveyed for the report say inbound produces measurable ROI
• Marketers spending more than $25K per year save an average of 13% in overall cost per lead for every new customer acquired versus those relying on outbound strategies

 Even more information can be found at http://www.stateofinboundmarketing.com/

82% of marketers who blog see positive ROI for their inbound marketing

Just 6% of leads will be generated from traditional advertising and PPC this year!  The world of marketing is changing incredibly quickly.

Inbound marketing is a holistic approach to connect with an increasingly fragmented audience who no longer respond to what has “always worked in the past”.  If you aren’t already using inbound marketing, contact a inbound marketing expert now to explore how inbound can work for you.

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Identify effective keywords to drive traffic to your website.  Effective search engine optimization (SEO) is a key to inbound marketing success.  The goal of SEO is to make your site easy to find by search engines, Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.  A search engine’s job is to provide the most relevant results when users search specific terms.  To help them identify your site as relavent, the terms that users enter to search for the information you have on your site must be included in the copy and description for your page.

Step 1 – Access Google’s Keyword Tool

Google’s Keyword Tool is free to use and relatively intuitive.  If you already have a Google AdWords account (to manage PPC or Pay-Per-Click advertising), you can find a link to the tool in the main navigation menu at the top of the page.  Click “Tools and Analysis”, then “Keyword Tool”.

If you do not already have an AdWords account, you can still access this tool here: https://adwords.google.com/o/KeywordTool

Step 2 – Find Potential Keywords

In the block at the top of the page, based on your knowledge of your business enter logical potential words and phrases that a prospect may use to find your service or products.  I have used a Ford dealership in Atlanta as the example, entering common phrases that someone looking for a Ford dealer might enter.  The keyword tool will provide other options along with an indication of how difficult it would be to rank on the first page for the each search term (competition) and the number of global and local monthly searches for each keyword or phrase.

Step 3 – Identifying Opportunities to Rank

To identify potential keywords and phrases, scan the results list for options that have “medium” or “low” competition with relatively high local monthly searches.   In this example, “ford atlanta ga” and “atlanta ga ford” have medium competitiveness and more than 8,000 searches per month.  This combination makes these two phrases excellent targets that have a better chance of success than some of the more highly competitive keywords.

Step 4 – Analyze Keywords in Google Trends

After identifying keywords with strong search volume and relatively lower competition, use Google Trends (formerly known as Google Insights for Search) to see if specific phrases are trending up or down in search volume and if certain search terms are more prevalent in your target market.  Sometimes a search phrase is used more prevalently in one area (even down to neighborhoods and suburbs) than in others.

To access Google Trends, click the drop down menu beside one of the keywords you would like to analyze.  Then choose “Google Insights for Search” from the menu.  (Eventually, this will change to “Google Trends”.  Google is still using their old term right now.)

The Google Trends page will plot the keyword from which it was launched automatically. To compare the search trends of other keywords, enter the others you identified above into the “Search terms” box on the left side of the page.

In the “Limit to” section on the lower left side of the page, restrict your analysis to your target market.  In our case, we have chosen “Atlanta”.

In this example, you can see that “Ford dealership” and “Ford dealers” have a similar number of searches…but that the search volume for “Ford dealers” has declined over time while “Ford dealership” has increased in popularity.

Step 5 – Identify Effective Keywords for your Target Market

Interestingly, although the search term “Ford dealers” has declined in popularity in metro Atlanta, it still may be an excellent keyword choice if your target market is within the city limits or in the suburbs of Alpharetta or Smyrna.  Residents of the suburbs of “North Metro” (due north of the Perimeter) search using that term much less frequently.  The Trends tool will also give you related terms that should also be considered.

There are many paid keyword tools with very robust features helpful to pros (we use SEOprofiler… SEOmoz is another popular choice).  However, insights to identify effective keywords can be found directly from Google for free.

If you need help with search engine optimization or your search engine marketing campaign, request a consultation with one of our inbound marketing experts.  We’ll be glad to explain our process and get your search engine marketing campaign off to a roaring success.

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First Facebook, now Apple has announced this morning that their computer systems have been hacked.  Just this week, Google flagged our own site saying that it too may be compromised or infected with malware.  (The issue has been resolved.)  If you have received a notification that your site is possibly infected…or if you are just concerned about its security, here are some tips:

1. Run a scan of your site using Sucuri SiteCheck (free)
2. Install a security plugin on your WordPress site such as the one that comes with a Sucuri account or BulletProof Security
3. Consider establishing an account with Sucuri to have any malware removed ($90/year)
4. Use strong, unique passwords that do not include common words, but do include numbers, capitals and special characters.
5. If your site is labeled by Google with the “This site may be compromised” flag, follow the instruction in the article: How to Remove This Site May be Compromised Warning from wpsite.net.

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A high bounce rate is an indication that your site’s content does not match what is expected from the visitor.  Following are our recommendations from a strategic, design and backend/technical perspective for reducing your bounce rate.

Strategy

• Make data-informed decisions
• A/B test designs, CTAs, forms, headlines…everything
• Compare better performing pages to underperformer using heat maps CrazyEgg is an excellent tool.
• Profile and segment on geography, language, browser, operating system, traffic source
• Compare keyword bounce performance and maintain keyword focus on each page
• Ensure headlines accurately represent the actual content
• Consider points of entry and perspective of landing as first page
• Link to the most appropriate page rather than home page
• Provide internal links to related content
• Address the user’s REAL need
• Incorporate video of people within the organization to allow visitors the opportunity to “get to know” us

Design

• Make sure the message is immediately obvious
• Don’t overwhelm with content
• Communicate who we are and what we do in 3 to 5 seconds
• Ensure proper color contrast for readability
• Design clean, accessible, intuitive navigation
• Eliminate distractions such as animation, fly-outs, surveys,
• Do not use auto-play video with audio
• Incorporate a search function and analyze searches for insight
• Avoid Flash
• Do not use “welcome/splash screens”
• Don’t get TOO hung up about staying above the fold.

Backend

• Improve loading times
• Lazy-load (AJAX) third-party content
• Use responsive screen design for desktop, tablet, and mobile
• Open all external links in a new window
• Check various browser performance

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Ritch Brandon, Chief Marketing Technologist for BrandON! marketing.technology, LLC, proudly announces the addition of two leaders in the incentive program management industry to our inbound marketing family.

Based in Atlanta, Ga., Incentive Solutions markets a range of incentive and motivation offerings to prominent corporations across the country.  Privately held ISI’s cutting edge technology manages online rewards programs, travel incentive events and debit card reward programs for some of the most highly recognized brands in the country, including Honda, Mohawk Industries, Pepsico Foodservice, Toro and GE.

Sister company, Loyaltyworks, provides incentive solutions for channel sales, customer loyalty, sales force and employee recognition for companies operating in the apparel manufacturing, electric utility, multi-product distribution, banking and construction industries.

Both companies use their proprietary and internally-developed RewardTrax platform that is recognized as the benchmark technology in incentive management.

Welcome to our digital inbound marketing family!

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WARNING: There are 70,000 computers in the U.S. that are infected with a virus that will deny access to the Internet MONDAY July 9 if not corrected this weekend. The FBI has a site to check if your computer has been infected. Click the link. If the screen is green, you’re good. If it’s red, follow the instructions immediately!

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Our client, Ernest Sports, has launched their Android App in addition to the existing iOS app already available. Look for more great things to come!

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