I found this ad this morning while I was wondering if sun will ever come back to Ohio.

Someone emailed me this image on one of her favorite sites:

This is all done through retargeting or remarketing advertising.

Because you have come to the SageRock site you get this served to you daily. You will see about 3 to 5 of these a day.

The power of retargeting is that my ads are only being shown to people who have visited my site. It gives a really powerful effect because the person seeing the ad feels like SageRock is buying advertisement on a massive scale across many Websites to all visitors.

Retargeting advertising makes you look huge. But in reality you are only showing ads to people that have previously engaged with you.

So, you look like you are everywhere to everyone. But in reality you are only buying ad space for people that have previously shown an interest in you.

Before retargeting advertising I was obsessed with getting people’s contact information. If I bought advertisement to get people to come to my site I did everything in my power to get them to at least give me their email address. But now I’m not as obsessed with that conversion.

In fact, my call to action on my site can look way less obvious.

I was always advocating for really strong conversion-focused landing pages. Like this:

I would do everything in my power to compel people to fill out my form.

But with retargeting advertising I don’t care as much.

In fact, I don’t feel bad if there is a very minor call to action on my pages. I’m more interested in getting people to know me. I’ll sell them later as they surf the web.

On top of all this awesome laser beam targeting that retargeting gets me, I also love the cost.

Check out what I’m paying for 1000 impressions (CPM):

This is my current CPM (cost per 1000) for retargeting ads I’m running right now.

I love this because I know each and everyone of those people that see my ad know me. They know SageRock.

They’ve come to this blog. They have come to Friday Internet Marketing with Sage and Greg. They have looked at our services.

So now I can focus on what’s really important: getting people to know us and understand who we are as a company. I’ll talk about selling our services when they are looking at the weather or the news.

I also love this because it separates me from my competition. When I go to a trade show I’m one of many SEO companies in a sea of SEO companies.

But with retargeting advertising I’m the only digital marketing firm on the page. My competition is nowhere to be seen.

Also, my targeted key phrases in Google AdWords are extremely expensive. The phrase “SEO” is nearly $15 per click. And I guarantee at least some of those people are my competitors sniffing around to see what I’m doing. I don’t have that kind of budget to throw away.

At $2 CPM I’m very happy with my cost. In fact, this is usually way below the cost of what people want to sell me on my industry Websites. $20-$30 per 1000 views is a going rate. I oftentimes find my ads on their sites anyway because they are selling extra ad space through the retargeting networks I’m using.

But again, when I’m on my industry sites I’m there with all my competitors. I’d rather be on Treehugger because I’m the only Digital Agency for miles around.

Retargeting is incredibly easy too. You just ad a tracking pixel to your site for each retargeting network you want to use. You then tell the retargeting network how many times you want a person to see your ad in a day. You set your budget. And you’re done.

They also do a good job of showing you your conversion rate. So they will show you how many of your retargeted site visitors came to your site and did what you wanted them to do.

Retargeting advertisement blows my mind. It is so powerful, so affordable, so effective.

I’d love to talk to you about it more. If you’re interested in it all let me know. Just fill out the form below and we can chat. (In the meantime, keep an eye out for some of my retargeting ads. Imagine how powerful it would be if you were doing the same thing for people who had come to your site to learn more about you.)

The post The Power of Retargeting Advertising appeared first on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.

Facebook is everywhere. If your business isn’t on Facebook you are missing a huge opportunity.

• Total number of Facebook users: 1.11 billion
• Daily active Facebook users: 665 million
• Total number of Facebook Pages: 50 million
• Total number of Facebook mobile users: 751 million
• Total number of Facebook promoted posts: 2.5 million

The importance of Facebook cannot be overstated.

But using Facebook correctly for your business isn’t easy. You have to know what you are doing.

Using Facebook wrong can become a waste of time and money.

This free live Facebook marketing webinar will discuss the 5 most important tips you should be doing for your Facebook marketing.

Plus, you will be able to ask your own questions during the webinar.

Register here for the free webinar that fits your schedule:

Facebook marketing is one of the biggest opportunities to reach a massive, highly targeted audience. But there have been many companies that have met with less than successful results in their Facebook Marketing.

This free Facebook Marketing Webinar will help you make the right decisions in your Facebook Marketing.  We’ve seen and run many Facebook Campaigns. We can help you make the right choices quickly and accurately.

The post FREE WEBINAR – 5 Tips For Facebook Marketing appeared first on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.

The post The 3 Most Powerful Things You Can Do Online Right Now! appeared first on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.

We discussed what makes good content marketing. We also looked at examples of how other companies are doing content marketing. And then we wrap up with different kinds of content marketing you can do.

The complete session is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2TxEAVLQD4

The post Content Marketing – What it is appeared first on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.

Did you know today is Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday?

As most of you know, this is the second biggest holiday for Christians after Christmas.

Because of that I thought we might look at organizations that give back to the community. Non-profits and that sort of thing.

If you are a non-profit this month’s session is dedicated to you: for being really great to your community.

We can look at any kind of Web marketing to help you with your mission of awesomeness.

Digital Akron is the last Thursday of every month… which is today.

It’s from 4:00-5:30 pm.

We provide snacks and drinks.

Just come to:

15 Broad St.
Akron Ohio

We’d love to see you here.

You are welcome to show up. But if you would register that would be great. You can register here:

Digital Akron Monthly Event

Also, I might attempt to live stream the show on my USTREAM channel here:

Sage Lewis on USTREAM

I’ll put out a notification on Twitter if it’s going to happen here: http://www.twitter.com/sagerock

The post Digital Akron This Afternoon at 4:00 appeared first on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.

I’m really psyched about that because:

1. I’ve never spoken at Pubcon before.
2. I went to the first Pubcon where it was at a bar and we drank all day.
3. There are two people I attribute most of my base learning of SEO to. One of them is Brett Tabke the founder and CEO of Pubcon.
   

   Brett Tabke

   He has always been a major supporter of the SEO community. His WebmasterWorld was instrumental in getting a good, solid foundation of SEO principles.

Video is my bailiwick. I do a lot of video. And have done so since 2006. I joined Youtube
Feb 1, 2006, 

These are some of my top level stats of my Youtube Channel:

• Videos: 903
• Created: Feb 1, 2006
• Lifetime views: 451,882

I’m definitely not a “top Youtuber.” But I’m pretty happy with my presence in the Web marketing niche.

At any rate, I’m putting my list of topics I want to cover in a new tool I’m trying: List.ly. This tool lets you create lists that other people can add to and engage with and also embed it directly on your site.

So, as you look through the list below, if you see something I’m missing you can add it to the list.

You can also share the list as well, if you think it’s worth sharing.

There are still many areas that aren’t being crowdsourced… which is probably a missed opportunity. But now we can crowdsource our lists.

So, here’s the list I’ve been working on. Let me know what you think and let me know if you have any other items I should include on the list as I pull my data together.

The post Using List.ly for my Pubcon Video SEO Presentation Planning appeared first on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.

I did! I did get to stream it!

If you didn’t make it to the Hudson Library and need an SEO refresher, you might give these videos a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yvnEnjTaO4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHKu4cUlNds

I’m speaking as part of the Hudson Library speaker series they do.

This has become a very well regarded series in our region. They always have really cool people speaking.

I’ve been lucky to be part of the series 3 times now.

Tonight, I’m doing a presentation on: The top 10 things you should know about SEO for your small business.

I’m seriously considering doing a live stream of the session from my phone on my Ustream channel. The biggest issue with that is what kind of Verizon service they have there. If I can get a solid 4G signal I might just try it.

If I stream it live I’ll post the link to the live session at the top of this blog post and I’ll tweet it out.

This is a two hour session. So getting to 10 points in two hours makes for a bit of a whirlwind. But it should also make it pretty fun.

I thought I’d wet your whistle for the event by listing the top 10 of these points.

I’m pretty much just going to bullet point them here. But we’ll go into more detail of each at the event.

OK. Here you go the top 10 things your small business should know about about SEO:

1.  SEO has never, in the history of SEO, been harder for small businesses. Google would rather rank a large brand or a big publisher. Just type in your major key phrases and see if this isn’t true for you. But there are things you can do. Read on…
2. For your first line of key phrase research defense: Use the Google and YouTube suggested search listings. And also use Google’s Related searches at the bottom of the search results page. Like these:
   

   Youtube suggested search

   

   Google Suggested Search

   

   Google Related Searches

3. Use YouTube! This is the absolute best way to break into the search results at Google and YouTube. Google loves Youtube and still loves the small guy for video.
4. Don’t give up on optimizing your content. Use your targeted key phrase in 3 primary places:
   * Your page title.
   * Your body content.
   * Link text (anchor text) from other pages back to the page you are optimizing.
   If you do those things you are ahead of the vast majority of people.
5. Create content people want to talk about. Content that people share in social media, comment on and link to is going to be content that ranks well. You just have to be brilliant, that’s all
6. Claim and optimize your Local Listing on Google Places for Business
   

   Google Places for Business

   This is the most important thing you can do in local search.

7. Claim and optimize your Yelp listing. These listings appear in Bing Local search results.
   

   Claim Your Business Listing On Yelp

   Bing uses Yelp for its local listings. So having a good local listing at Yelp is going to help you on Bing.

8. Understand why people buy things. If you understand why they buy, you can understand what will motivate people to think you have compelling content. Read this article: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2118094/makes-people-reasons

9. Use Slideshare to get ideas for content. There’s a ton of great content over there… probably in your industry. You can use those presentations as inspiration for content for your site.

10. Write in-depth, long, thoughtful articles. Google is looking for the most relevant content. That is usually the most thorough article. “How to” articles are great. You probably will have better luck creating one great article a month versus 20 quick articles.

So there you have it: The Top 10 Things You Should Know About SEO For Your Small Business.

The post The Top 10 Things You Should Know About SEO For Your Small Business appeared first on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.

To kick things off, I present the You Do You Mug.

Here is the image for the mug:

I took this picture in Toronto on a business trip.

This guy was part of a “Naked Bike” club. (I’ve got some pretty crazy shots from this group that may be good for that extra snarky item in the future.)

But I really liked this guy. He’s totally naked. But he did an amazing full body paint job.

He reminds me that we can’t worry about what others think of us. It’s simply too exhausting.

I see people constantly worried about what people will think of them on social media. But in truth you have no idea what people are going to think of you. It’s impossible to ever really know.

Just: You do you. Forget about other people. You’ll never be the greatest person you can be if you spend all your energy worrying about other people.

And believe me: This message is as much for me as it is for anyone else.

So without further ado: here is my first official product:

The You Do You Mug.

Get the mug so you don’t forget.

Click the picture below to buy it:

You Do You Mug on Zazzle

The post The You Do You Mug appeared first on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.

I’ve been yelling about businesses needing to become publishers.

Unless you’re a big brand, it’s going to be the only way to get into Google’s organic results.

Please read this and check out the example businesses:

How Ecommerce Startups Are Marrying Content & Commerce

The post How Ecommerce Startups Are Marrying Content & Commerce appeared first on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.

For an agency, this article is just terrifying.

Is it just price people care about? Does quality really have no bearing? Is quality actually a deficit?

And if it’s not price is it just because you are the biggest or fanciest?

A Spy in the Agency-Review Process

This kind of realization actually makes me sick to my stomach.

The post A Spy in the Agency-Review Process | Small Agency Diary – Advertising Age appeared first on SageRock Digital Marketing Blog.