The WebMarketCentral Blog

Will Content Marketing Kill Trade Publications?

2009-11-09T06:51:00.001-06:00

Content marketing is all the rage. Check out Joe Pulizzi's Junta42 blog, pick up a copy of Ardath Albee's wonderful new book eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale (which builds upon the foundation laid by David Meerman Scott and others), follow @Mike_Stelzner on Twitter—it's everywhere. Marketers are becoming publishers, writing valuable thought leadership and how-to content in order to build name recognition, credibility, and even sales pipelines.

Back in the pre-Internet days, trade publications were pretty much the only way to efficiently reach narrowly targeted niche audiences, like architects, chemical engineers or IT help desk managers. Even in the early days of online, trade publication websites and their newsletters were essential media.

But there's no question that journalism is taking a beating during this downturn. Across all media, more than 35,000 jobs have been lost in the past year. While a large share of those positions have been shed in broadcast and newspapers, trade publications haven't been immune.

The challenges faced by trade publications go far beyond the current economic slowdown. Trade pubs traditionally flourished due to five conditions which simply no longer exist.

Audience. As noted above, trade publications were once the only way to reach niche audiences. Today, there are far more options: specific segments can be reached through SEO, SEM, industry-specific blogs, LinkedIn groups, Twitter and other venues. Certainly, trade publications still have value in delivering targeted audiences, but they no longer have a monopoly.

Authority and independence. Content produced by marketers and PR professionals is always, of course, self-serving: that's their job. Content produced by trade publications, in contrast, has been seen as less biased and more independent. But the fact is that no type of media has ever been truly objective, and it may not even be possible. With the dramatic increase in content enabled by online publishing, this has become ever more apparent, and cynicism has grown. People now understand that CNN doesn't provide the "news," it serves up the liberal take on it—as Fox serves the other end of the political spectrum. And the reporting in trade publications, despite assertions of a "Chinese wall" between editorial and ad sales, has always been influenced by advertiser spending. In the late 1990s, when big companies were taking huge write-offs and even declaring bankruptcy due to failed implementations of large ERP systems, ComputerWorld stood out with its honest reporting; most other publications continued to push bubbles-and-sunshine pieces about these systems and vendors.

Expertise. The editors and reporters at trade publications were once looked to as experts in their specific fields, and in many cases they were (and still are). But many of the writers were just that—writers. They may reported for Golf Digest one day and a niche publication focused on mechanical engineering the next. How did they get their material? By interviewing experts on both vendor and user sides. Today, those vendors and users can publish their own content in blogs, article publication sites and elsewhere, without the need for a middleman.

Advertising. Designing clever ads and placing them with targeted publications used to be a primary method for brand building and direct response. But as books like those from Ardath Albee and David Meerman Scott noted above contend, with individuals now exposed to 4,000-5,000 advertising impressions of some sort on a daily basis, advertising in general has become less effective. People use technologies like iPods, TiVo and even online ad blockers to avoid additional advertising exposure. Marketers today are relying more on producing thought-leadership content to attract prospects than on traditional in-your-face advertising, according to a recent study reported by HubSpot. As the report also notes, advertising still has its place, it just doesn't have the same priority, or share of budget, that it once did.

Aggregation. Trade publications used to serve the role of content aggregator, bring together the best content from experts on both the vendor and user sides as well as leading industry analysts. While they still provide that service to some extent, trade pubs are no longer the only game in town. Content producers now have many more options, including their own company websites, product or service microsites, blogs, article sites like Ezine Articles, Hub Pages and Google Knol, and other venues. For example, this article on H1N1 and pandemic planning was self-published on a company site, drawing traffic through SEO and social media. And other sites, such as the B2B Marketing Zone, aggregate blog posts on specific topics (b2b marketing in this case).

Perhaps "kill" is too strong a word, but the changing content landscape and plethora of publishing options certainly present significant challenges for trade publications and are forcing changes to their business model. What do you think?

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2009 (So Far): Social Media Marketing, Part 2

2009-11-05T08:17:00.001-06:00

Social media, and discussions of its value for PR and marketing, have become ubiquitous. But which social media tool do marketers find most valuable? What's the best tool for social media research and learning? How can you maximize the business value of tools like LinkedIn and Twitter? How can you explain the value of social media to skeptics?

Find the answers to these questions and others here in more of the best articles and blog posts on social media marketing from this year so far.

11 Reasons You Can’t Ignore Social Media in 2009 by Digital Labz

Social media now has wide adoption as a marketing and PR tool, but for those still reluctant to use tools like blogs, video, LinkedIn and Twitter for marketing, Eric Brantner offers almost a dozen reasons to get started, such as "social media is gaining trust," it's fast, it's passionate, and it's free (at least the tools are for the most part).

Study: Company Blogs Lead Social Media Options by MediaPost

Mark Walsh reports that "blogging (is) the most important lead-generation source among social media options, followed by StumbleUpon, YouTube, Facebook, De.lic.ious and Digg" (not a surprising result, considering that those other sites tend to support a corporate blog, not replace it). He also quotes a HubSpot study finding that three-quarters of bloggers in small to midsize companies say that "their company blogs were 'useful,' 'important,' or 'critical' to their business."

Another MediaPost article worth checking out is Scout Labs Offers Cheaper Way To Monitor Consumers. Gavin O'Malley writes that Scout Labs offers "a more economical consumer sentiment-tracking service for agencies and marketers" than Nielsen BuzzMetrics or TNS Cymfony. The company has an impressive list of clients using its tool to monitor and analyze brand conversations across the social media landscape.

Top 5 SlideShare Groups – A Rich Learning Environment for Social Media by uber.la

John McElhenney praises SlideShare as an innovative social media tool and links to his favorite groups for learning about and sharing knowledge of social media.

How to be a LinkedIn superstar by iMedia Connection

Larry Weintraub explains how to get the most out of LinkedIn, from creating the right kind of profile, building connections and soliciting recommendations to working with LinkedIn groups.

Social Media Marketing 101, Part 1 by Search Engine Watch

For those either still new to social media, or just struggling to explain its value to a manager or client, Ron Jones provides an excellent explanation of social media, the different types of sites on the social media landscape, and the marketing and PR benefits of using social media.

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business by Social for Business

As the title promises, here are more than four dozen ideas on how to use Twitter for business, categorized into five groups including "Ideas about WHAT to Tweet" (e.g., ask questions, retweet interesting information from others, and when retweeting your own stuff, make sure it has value to the reader and isn't just self-promotion) and "Some Positives to Throw Back" when people argue that Twitter is a waste of time, such as Twitter's value in breaking real-time news and quickly collecting market feedback.

The Periodic Table of the Social Media Elements by eyecube

This very clever and ambitious post compares social media to chemistry, and lays out a "periodic table" for social media encompassing different behaviors (e.g., sharing and listening), key influencers (David Meerman Scott, Brian Solis, Joe Pulizzi, etc.), tools (delicious, Feedburner, LinkedIn et al.), practices, blogs and more.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2009 (So Far): Social Media Marketing, Part 1
Best of 2009 (S0 Far): AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): Blogging for Business, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): Cool Web Tools, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): Twitter Tips and Tactics, Part 1

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technorati tags: social media marketing social media tools LinkedIn Twitter Digital Labz Eric Brantner MediaPost Mark Walsh HubSpot Scout Labs Gavin O'Malley Nielsen BuzzMetrics TNS Cymfony uber.la John McElhenney Larry Weintraub Search Engine Watch Ron Jones eyecube David Meerman Scott Brian Solis Joe Pulizzi

del.icio.us tags: social media marketing social media tools LinkedIn Twitter Digital Labz Eric Brantner MediaPost Mark Walsh HubSpot Scout Labs Gavin O'Malley Nielsen BuzzMetrics TNS Cymfony uber.la John McElhenney Larry Weintraub Search Engine Watch Ron Jones eyecube David Meerman Scott Brian Solis Joe Pulizzi

icerocket tags: social media marketing social media tools LinkedIn Twitter Digital Labz Eric Brantner MediaPost Mark Walsh HubSpot Scout Labs Gavin O'Malley Nielsen BuzzMetrics TNS Cymfony uber.la John McElhenney Larry Weintraub Search Engine Watch Ron Jones eyecube David Meerman Scott Brian Solis Joe Pulizzi

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

SEO for Product Pages

2009-11-03T11:04:00.001-06:00

It seems like so much of what is written about search engine optimization (SEO) assumes that you're writing a blog post, or a news story, or the next great "how to" article that's going to be syndicated far and wide on article marketing sites.

Sometimes that is what you're doing, but often writing for the web—and SEO—involves less glamorous pages like product or service descriptions. Of course, such pages are critical: no one will buy anything from you if they don't understand what you offer. It's just that, no matter how creatively written and carefully optimized, your "About Our Widgets" page is never going to make it to the first page of Digg. It simply can't compete with the latest Britney-Spears-abducted-by-a-three-armed-alien type story.

So how do you add life, and SEO value, to a product page? Here are four complementary techniques:

1) Use the words your prospects use. It doesn't matter if your product is technically more of a thingamabob than a whatchamacallit, if your prospects are searching for whatchamacallits, and that's the competitive set they place your product in, that had better be the term you're using. Use a keyword research tool to help identify which terms to use.

2) Tell a story. Incorporate the keywords you just identified into a compelling story that helps your prospective customers quickly understand how their life will be better once they buy your widgets. Be as specific as possible, and link to case studies to support specific claims.

3) Write detailed product descriptions, again incorporating keywords. The more detailed and vivid the description, the more appealing it will be to both human prospects and search engine bots.

4) Use pictures if at possible, and optimize the alt tags associated with the images, again using the keywords identified above. Photos and diagrams add interest and aid in understanding for your human prospects, while the alt tags communicate the value of the images to search engines. Also use keywords in the file names of your images.

As prospects work their way through the research process, from general how-is-this-problem-being-solved-today research to specific types of products or services, make sure that your content fits their needs—and that the search engines can find it.

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technorati tags: search engine optimization SEO article marketing sites product pages keyword research tool product descriptions

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icerocket tags: search engine optimization SEO article marketing sites product pages keyword research tool product descriptions

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Top Marketing Budget Priorities for 2010

2009-11-02T11:47:00.000-06:00

Given the continued high unemployment rate and uncertain prospects for economic recovery, marketing budgets will be tight heading into the new year. Most B2B marketers are likely to find themselves with fewer dollars to spend but more pressure to spend them carefully.

In this environment, what are the three or four areas where marketers should focus scare resources? One area clearly is organic search engine optimization (SEO). While it isn't necessarily cheap, it's inexpensive in comparison to most other types of online marketing and advertising programs, and nothing is more effective at drawing targeted website traffic at the time prospects are looking.

According to eMarketer, SEO tops the list of effective web lead generation methods, as "Forty-eight percent of marketers (in a 2009 study by Forbes) said that SEO was the best method for generating conversions online." In addition, a 2009 SEMPO study found that SEO was second only to paid placement at producing the best ROI of any marketing tactic.

Where else should scarce dollars be allocated? Check out The Top 3 Priorities for 2010 Marketing Budgets at B2Bbloggers.

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2009 (So Far): Twitter Tips and Tactics, Part 1

2009-10-26T07:23:00.001-05:00

Despite a recent dip in users, Twitter remains a hot social media platform (and arguably a better venue for b2b marketers than Facebook). Bloggers not only use Twitter to promote their content, but writing about Twitter frequently is their content.

Want to learn more about how to use Twitter for marketing, which mistakes to avoid, and learn from brand that are using the microblogging platform successfully? Check out these posts, the first of the best from this year on using Twitter for b2b marketing.

Twitter in B2B – a Velocity Slideshare by The B2B Marketing Blog

Doug Kessler outlines his firm's presentation on seven ways to use Twitter for b2b marketing. Advising b2b bloggers on the use of Twitter, Doug writes "Twitter is already playing a role in content marketing campaigns — for finding topics, inviting input and promoting the finished pieces. It’s all about the engagement."

10 ways to get your business in on the microblogging craze by iMedia Connection

Clay McDaniel offers some basic but solid advice in this guide to making Twitter work for marketing, such as pick a leader (so there is "one personality driving the charge"), establish a regular rhythm, and "talk like a real person" (not as obvious as you might think). Three other articles from iMedia Connection worth reading are 7 marketing mistakes to avoid on Twitter by Rodney Rumford, Meet the brands that 'get' Twitter by Michael Estrin, and 7 tips for the perfect Twitter profile by Jason Baer.

Twitter 101, Part 2 by Search Engine Watch

Ron Jones reviews popular Twitter tools, offers tips on finding the right people to follow while growing your own following, and provides a basic guide to understanding Twitter lingo. This post is an excellent starting point for those new to Twitter.

Case Study: How I Used Twitter to Generate 35,967 Extra Hits to my Site in Just 14 Days by Winning The Web

Gyutae Park details a real-world case of how to use Twitter to drive traffic to worthwhile content, using a hot topic, your network of followers, social bookmarking sites, the Tweet This Wordpress plugin, a helpful follow-up article—and a bit of luck.

Twitter background guidelines by Croncast

For anyone still using a "canned" Twitter background found somewhere on the web, or worse, one of Twitter's own default backgrounds, this post provides the technical specifications—file dimensions, size, coordinates and instructions—for creating a custom Twitter background image.

Twitter FAIL! The 8 worst brands on the world's hottest microblog by Revolution

Gareth Jones heaps scorn on eight global brands that got Twitter wrong, and explains why their strategies (or lack thereof) went awry. Astoundingly, as of May of this year, major brands like McDonalds, Pepsi, Vodafone and Gucci each had less than 1,000 followers. This article lets you learn from their mistakes.

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technorati tags: Twitter social media platform b2b marketing Facebook microblogging The B2B Marketing Blog Doug Kessler b2b bloggers iMedia Connection Clay McDaniel marketing mistakes to avoid on Twitter Rodney Rumford Michael Estrin Jason Baer Ron Jones Winning The Web Gyutae Park Croncast Twitter FAIL Gareth Jones

del.icio.us tags: Twitter social media platform b2b marketing Facebook microblogging The B2B Marketing Blog Doug Kessler b2b bloggers iMedia Connection Clay McDaniel marketing mistakes to avoid on Twitter Rodney Rumford Michael Estrin Jason Baer Ron Jones Winning The Web Gyutae Park Croncast Twitter FAIL Gareth Jones

icerocket tags: Twitter social media platform b2b marketing Facebook microblogging The B2B Marketing Blog Doug Kessler b2b bloggers iMedia Connection Clay McDaniel marketing mistakes to avoid on Twitter Rodney Rumford Michael Estrin Jason Baer Ron Jones Winning The Web Gyutae Park Croncast Twitter FAIL Gareth Jones

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

3 Reasons it's Tough to Measure the ROI of Social Media

2009-10-22T12:59:00.000-05:00

Social media marketing is a hot topic, with 75% of marketers planning to initiate or increase social media use next year. With larger budgets and more time devoted to social media will come increased pressure to demonstrate ROI.

While it's not necessarily difficult to show an ROI from social media, accurately measuring the return on investment is challenging for at least three reasons. First is the problem of "last click attribution." A recent study found a 50% CTR increase in paid search when consumers were exposed to both social media and paid search for a brand, but if the actual click comes from AdWords, good luck convincing your executives that social media efforts led to that click. Similarly, a click-through from Twitter or Facebook may have been influenced by any variety of other online and offline marketing efforts, so giving 100% credit to social media for lead may be overstating the case.

For the complete story, read Three Challenges in Measuring B2B Social Media ROI on the B2B Online Marketing blog.

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technorati tags: b2b lead generation, social media marketing ROI, social media marketing research

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icerocket tags: b2b lead generation, social media marketing ROI, social media marketing research

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2009 (So Far): Cool Web Tools, Part 1

2009-10-21T06:55:00.000-05:00

Looking for a slick tool to easily build branded widgets? How about a social media browser that integrates social search and sharing across multiple sites? Maybe a cool application for online project management? A sophisticated yet free analytical tool for optimizing your CRM implementation? Low-cost video production? Social media analytics?

Find them all and others here in the first set of the best cool web tools for 2009.

Sprout Builder

In their own words, Sprout Builder is "a visual authoring studio that allows creative professionals to quickly and easily create branded, rich-media content and widgets." It enables designers build anything from simple Flash banners to a sophisticated widgets with multiple media types, feeds and sharing options by dragging different media types onto a canvas and controlling effects. Pricing ranges widely from $19 per month for the individual option to $299 per month for the professional version, but there's a 30-day trial for the curious to try this out.

Flock

Flock is a "social web browser" that integrates email, photos, video and social media sites into a single interface, while simplifying sharing and publishing. It runs on Windows, Mac or Linux and supports multiple webmail types (Gmail, AOL, Yahoo! Mail), social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace), blogging platforms (WordPress, Blogger, TypePad), media sites (Flickr, YouTube) and more. It includes features like a People Sidebar for staying in touch with your social connections, an integrated RSS feed reader, blog editor and web clipboard. And it's free.

Huddle

Huddle is an online project management, collaboration and file sharing tool along the lines of Basecamp, DeskAway and Projjex. It supports unlimited users, online chat, project alerts, a whiteboard feature, document management (approvals, workflow, audit trails), and collaborative document editing. Pricing ranges from a free, ad-supported version to $200/month for the enterprise package, with the most popular service level at $38 per month.

CRM Diagnostic

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems have become ubiquitous, yet many—perhaps even most—implementations fail to take full advantage of the software's capabilities in one or more areas. Most companies could be getting more benefit from their existing systems, but identifying the problem areas, and what needs to be done to improve use of the software, can involve a long and expensive consulting engagement. This free analysis tool from on-demand CRM consulting firm Demand Chain Systems short-circuits that process, helping to identify the most promising areas for improvement in just 40 minutes.

Jing

Jing lets you capture on-screen action or animate still images, add narration, and upload the final video or YouTube or other video-sharing sites or share by email. Available for Windows and Mac, Jing lets you add call-outs to screen captures or images, share your video or output it for further editing in other tools. There's a free version for casual home users, or a Pro version that adds features like additional output options and webcam capture (Mac OS X Leopard only) available for just $14.95 per year.

Skimmer

Skimmer is a free Adobe AIR desktop application designed to organize your social media activities and make interaction easier by aggregating your friends' feeds from Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Blogger on one screen. It provides instant access to any video linked in a feed post, a slideshow view for Flickr photos or YouTube videos, and the ability to customize your profile and the appearance of your content.

TubeMogul

TubeMogul is a free online video tracking and analytics service that provides a single point for uploading to the top video sharing sites, and powerful analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed. TubeMogul tracks viewing statistics far beyond "views," including per-second audience dropoff, audience geography and more. According to their site, "TubeMogul's analytic technology aggregates video-viewing data from multiple sources to give publishers an improved understanding of when, where and how often their videos are watched, track and compare what's hot and what's not, measure the impact of marketing campaigns, gather competitive intelligence, and share the data with colleagues or friends." There are also fee-based versions that provide more advanced analytics and video promotion features.

Check whether the Twitter conversations about you are positive or negative with twendz by Advocable

Palin Ningthoujam reviews twendz, a free social media tracking and sentiment measurement tool that shows you who is talking about your product or brand (or any other topic) on social media sites, what's being said, a keyword cloud of the terms most commonly used in the conversations, and the overall tone (negative, positive or neutral) of the conversations. While not as sophisticated as professional monitoring tools, twendz does provide a quick, easy and free snapshot of the content and sentiment around any topic of social media discussion.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2009 (So Far): Social Media Marketing, Part 1
Best of 2009 (S0 Far): AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): Blogging for Business, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): SEO Guidance, Part 1

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technorati tags: social media browser online project management Social media analytics Sprout Builder Flock Huddle Basecamp DeskAway Projjex CRM Diagnostic Demand Chain Systems Jing video production tool Skimmer TubeMogul online video analytics twendz Advocable Palin Ningthoujam social media tracking sentiment measurement tool

del.icio.us tags: social media browser online project management Social media analytics Sprout Builder Flock Huddle Basecamp DeskAway Projjex CRM Diagnostic Demand Chain Systems Jing video production tool Skimmer TubeMogul online video analytics twendz Advocable Palin Ningthoujam social media tracking sentiment measurement tool

icerocket tags: social media browser online project management Social media analytics Sprout Builder Flock Huddle Basecamp DeskAway Projjex CRM Diagnostic Demand Chain Systems Jing video production tool Skimmer TubeMogul online video analytics twendz Advocable Palin Ningthoujam social media tracking sentiment measurement tool

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

A Unique Approach to Integrated Advertising Campaigns: Nabbit

2009-10-20T06:59:00.002-05:00

In March of last year, I highlighted Nabbit as a cool online tool for tagging songs on the radio using your cell phone. It still is, though there are now competing technologies available.

But what sets Nabbit apart, and makes it interesting to both b2b and b2c marketing professionals, is the tool's ability to serve as a platform for integrated advertising campaigns.

To learn more, I spoke with John Freund, CEO of Jump Technologies, Inc. (JumpTech), the creator of Nabbit and Nabbit Ads. Here's our discussion.

WebMarketCentral (WMC): What exactly is Nabbit Ads, and how does it work?

John Freund (JF): Nabbit Ads® allows advertisers to create integrated radio, tv, outdoor, print, mobile, digital and social network advertising campaigns. For example, a listener on the radio hears an ad from a coffee vendor (lets call it “Joe’s Java”) that says to text in the word “coffee” and receive a coupon on your phone good for a free cup of coffee today. When the listener sends in the text, an ad for Joe’s Java is automatically saved for them in their Nabbit account. If the listener didn’t have a Nabbit account, one would automatically be created for them and a follow on text message would be sent telling them about the account.

If the listener has opted to share their Nabbs with their friends on Twitter or Facebook, a message would also appear there. For example, the message would say “Tom Pick just nabbed a free cup of coffee from Joe’s Java. Text Coffee to 545454 to get yours”. This is an example of a radio ad that drives a mobile coupon that launches a digital ad on Nabbit.com as well as a social message on Facebook.

WMC: What kinds of companies can benefit most from using this technology?

JF: Any business can benefit from Nabbit Ads. At its core, Nabbit helps people remember what they heard on radio, saw on TV or read in print. I am sure you can remember a time when you heard an ad for a product or a service that you wanted to act on but couldn’t because it wasn’t convenient. Nabbit allows the consumer to Nabb the ad and act on it later.

So, if you are a retailer and want to launch a coupon promotion, Nabbit Ads is a great tool. If you run a service group and want people to remember to go to your website, Nabbit Ads can help with that. If you own a restaurant and are looking to drive people into your store, Nabbit helps that tremendously. Again, Nabbit allows the consumer to Nabb the opportunity at the time they hear it, and act on it when it is convenient for them. Nabbing the ad sets in motion a sequence of events that spreads it in a very viral way through mobile, the internet and social networks.

WMC: Can you provide some real-world examples of companies using Nabbit Ads and what results they’ve seen?

JF: We helped Fox Television launch the Dollhouse series by adding tags to the end of their existing radio spots that said “To be reminded to tune into to the premier of Dollhouse, text the word 'Dollhouse' to 545454." Listeners who sent the text received a message one hour before the show started, reminding them to tune in. Listeners who requested the reminder also received an ad in their Nabbit account for a Dollhouse contest where they could win wardrobe from the show by answering a question during the show.

We also either Tweeted or posted a Facebook news feed that alerted the listener’s friends and followers that they had just set a reminder to watch Dollhouse. The message also instructed the friends and followers to text Dollhouse to 545454 to receive their own reminder. Any person who responded to the Tweet or Facebook item also received the contest ad in their Nabbit Account.

The contest was designed to cause the viewer to tune in live during the show. A question about the show was posted at Nabbit.com. The user saw the question by clicking on the link in the Nabbit Ad that was posted when they texted in for their reminder. Once at that link, they read the question and then watched the show for the answer. We created a “Fox Channel” on our Nabbit phone applications (iPhone, m.nabbit.com and our Java Mobile app) and made it available to those who registered to participate in the contest.

During the show, viewers opened the Fox Channel in Nabbit on their phones and saw four possible answers to the question. When they thought they knew the answer, they pressed the corresponding button on their phone. The winner was selected out of all who submitted the correct answers. Again, this only worked during the actual broadcast. If a viewer watched Dollhouse on their DVR after the show, the contest didn’t work.

Fox was looking to accomplish two things in this campaign: increase viewers to the premier as well as increase live viewers rather than DVR viewers (as people with DVRs can fast forward through commercials). 33% of those who registered for the contest actually participated, which meant that they actually watched the show live—a number much higher than Fox anticipated.

WMC: Nabbit Ads seems like a pretty unique product. Who do view as competitors and how does Nabbit Ads compare to their offerings?

JF: Our primary competition comes in two areas. First, just within the marketing departments of the companies we are talking to, responsibility for mobile, digital and social network advertising is often fragmented. Many companies now have a traditional marketing group, a digital group, a mobile group and a social network group. In most cases, these groups don't work well together.

We came across one company that contacted us through their radio buyers asking to run a mobile campaign with us. We later found out that this company's mobile group was planning the same type of campaign. The radio people were trying to buy mobile and the mobile people were trying to buy radio—a real waste of time and money. We spend a great deal of time in our sales cycles just trying to get these groups to work together and drive much higher ROI from leveraging the strengths of each platform to work together.

Our second form of competition comes from the mobile text messaging crowd. There are literally hundreds of companies like Hipcricket and Vibes that sell mobile texting campaigns. While great companies with good products, they are very one-dimensional. The listener can text in a keyword in response to an ad. There is no linkage to digital or social networking, which are the two hottest ad platforms today. Nabbit Ads is the only service that allows advertisers to build truly integrated campaigns across all media types today.

WMC: What’s the pricing structure for Nabbit Ads?

JF: We price our products just like search engine advertising is priced today. Everything is set up on a cost-per-click basis. This creates a no-risk opportunity for advertisers. If our campaigns are not successful, advertisers will not pay for it. We have budget caps so that when the campaign response is higher than anticipated, we can alert the advertiser that they are approaching their budget, and they can decide how they want to move forward.

WMC: Anything else you’d like to add?

JF: The other key component of Nabbit Ads is the measurability of everything we do. Our customers have real-time analytics available to them to track response rates to their campaigns. They can see what media outlet works when. They can see the demographics of those responding as well as the viral impact of the campaign. These are examples of just a few of the many reports we provide. The bottom line is that we provide analytics that most advertisers have only dreamed of.

Finally, Nabbit Ads is extremely easy to implement. Advertisers can Nabbit-enable an ad with a simple 10-second tag at the end of existing creative, or a crawler on the bottom of a TV ad, or a simple texting option in an existing print ad. We get campaigns up and running within hours of notification from our clients. The process is quick and easy, and leads to terrific a terrific ROI for our customers. With our shared risk/shared reward pay-per-click pricing model, there is very little risk to an advertiser in trying Nabbit Ads.

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2009 (So Far): SEO Guidance, Part 1

2009-10-19T06:39:00.000-05:00

How do you determine who your competitors really are for top search engine position? How can you get new pages indexed by Google more quickly? What key aspects of SEO should you consider when doing a site redesign? Which SEO tactics should you avoid? What can SEO professionals learn from traditional marketers?

Find the answers to these questions and others here in the first set of the best blog posts and articles on search engine optimization (SEO) from 2009 (so far).

Rewriting the Beginner's Guide Part VIII: Search Engine Tools and Services by SEOmoz

Danny Dover updates one of the most indispensable guides to the SEO craft anywhere. Though written for beginners, even fairly experienced SEOs are likely to find at least a few new ideas, and helpful reminders, in this detailed guide to the robots.txt file, search engine tools and more.

Check Your Search Engine Rankings, Why Your Competitors in Organic Search Might Not Always Be Who You Think They Are by The Internet Marketing Driver

In this extensive post, Glenn Gabe points out that the competitors for a keyword in SEO are often quite different from a company's real world competitors; they can include reference sites, blogs, publications, review sites, directories and other websites that a business owner wouldn't normally identify as "competition." To support his point, Glenn uses example searches for flat screen TVs (only two manufacturers listed in the top 10 sites), HD video cameras (only Canon at #4), cabernet sauvignon and fuel efficient cars (no makers listed in the top search results).

Understand Google's Guidelines by Alibaba

Jon Rognerud reveals what matters to Google when indexing and ranking pages, and what doesn't. He provides tips on design (how to get Google's spider to read your text before your menu links), how to get your site indexed in 24 hours or less (though you need to be careful with this technique), and what Google ignores (e.g. the meta keywords tag, duplicate links, and graphics—except for the alt tag assigned to them).

6 SEO steps for a website redesign by eVision Online Marketing Blog

George Aspland offers an excellent primer on incorporating SEO considerations from the start when doing a website redesign, from the initial site audit and keyword research through navigation, linking and URL structure changes.

Dirty SEO tricks you should avoid by iMedia Connection

Rich Cherecwich delves into the details of two "gray hat" SEO practices that are best avoided: link buying and domain buying. He also gives advice on what to do if your site does somehow get blacklisted by the search engines.

Why do SEOs forget about REAL marketing? by HuoMah SEO Blog

In this long guest post, Ben McKay starts off with the contention that "with market research, planning, implementation, creative flare, and an ongoing feedback loop of course, you can do just that –(SEO to draw the right kind of traffic) the same way you attempt to carry-out more traditional marketing campaigns." He then goes on to discuss the art vs. science of SEO, ROI measurement, what SEO practitioners can learn from traditional marketing, before concluding "A more fulfilling and professional online presence could be found from thinking along structured lines—both in the way you operate with clients and also the way you achieve your SEO goals."

DoFollow Links vs. NoFollow Links by The Minority Report

Supporting my recent post on the insidious nofollow attribute, this post notes that "the entire Internet is built on the premise of hyperlinking and as The Pasty Muncher says it here: 'Links form the chain that holds the web together.'" The writer notes that WordPress blogs are nofollow by default, but again you can fix that with the dofollow WordPress plugin. Just say "no" to nofollow.

How Yahoo Might Automate SEO by SEO by the Sea

In this controversial post (just read the comments!), Bill Slawski reports on a patent from Yahoo! that seems to suggest the search engine can "optimize" pages automatically. Bill outlines what's in the patent, then points out a number of obvious flaws in any such approach, including "A site owner might want to target less popular search terms on pages that are a few directory levels deep in their site and have those pages rank well for searches that their audience will conduct rather than target more popular terms with those pages, and rank very poorly."

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2009 (So Far): Social Media Marketing, Part 1
Best of 2009 (S0 Far): AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 1
Best of 2009 (So Far): Blogging for Business, Part 1

*****

technorati tags: top search engine position SEO tactics search engine optimization SEOmoz Danny Dover updates robots.txt search engine tools Internet Marketing Driver Glenn Gabe Jon Rognerud eVision Online Marketing Blog George Aspland keyword research dirty SEO tricks Rich Cherecwich gray hat SEO practices HuoMah SEO Blog Ben McKay dofollow links nofollow links The Minority Report The Pasty Muncher SEO by the Sea Bill Slawski

del.icio.us tags: top search engine position SEO tactics search engine optimization SEOmoz Danny Dover updates robots.txt search engine tools Internet Marketing Driver Glenn Gabe Jon Rognerud eVision Online Marketing Blog George Aspland keyword research dirty SEO tricks Rich Cherecwich gray hat SEO practices HuoMah SEO Blog Ben McKay dofollow links nofollow links The Minority Report The Pasty Muncher SEO by the Sea Bill Slawski

icerocket tags: top search engine position SEO tactics search engine optimization SEOmoz Danny Dover updates robots.txt search engine tools Internet Marketing Driver Glenn Gabe Jon Rognerud eVision Online Marketing Blog George Aspland keyword research dirty SEO tricks Rich Cherecwich gray hat SEO practices HuoMah SEO Blog Ben McKay dofollow links nofollow links The Minority Report The Pasty Muncher SEO by the Sea Bill Slawski

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

SEO Rant: The Insidious Nofollow Tag

2009-10-15T06:53:00.000-05:00

I'm normally a positive, upbeat kind of guy, and as someone who's been writing professionally since the days of disco, rarely at a loss for words. Yet mention the "nofollow" tag, and that all changes. I, like many other many other web marketing professionals, am left sputtering with a mix of disgust and rage, fumbling for an adjective that conveys sufficient contempt: despicable, vile, loathsome, abhorrent, abominable, wretched, odious, detestable, downright evil.

The nofollow tag was misguidedly inflicted upon the online world by Google in 2005. According to Wikipedia (among the worst nofollow offenders), "The nofollow HTML attribute was originally designed to stop comment spam on blogs. Blog readers and bloggers were well aware of the immense problem. Just like any other type of spam affects its community, comment spam affected the entire blogging community, so in early 2005 (Google and Blogger engineers) designed the attribute to address the problem and the nofollow attribute was born."

Though the originators of WordPress have developed a far more elegant and inoffensive solution to the comment spam problem with Akismet, the execrable nofollow tag remains with us, like a cancer impervious to drugs or radiation.

The justification for the continued use of this repugnant scrap of code is to prevent passing link juice from listings on directory and social bookmarking sites to spammy or other objectionable content. But, to be charitable, the nofollow tag is to the world of web links what "let's just be friends" is to romantic relationships. It's a way for site owners to say: "I'm happy to use your content to build my traffic, but not to reciprocate. I don't want anyone to think we're together."

An alarming number of once-respectable social bookmarking sites—Digg, delicious, Mister Wong, Reddit, Mixx, Bibsonomy, Jumptags, Faves, Yahoo! Buzz, Simpy—have now instituted dastardly nofollow tags. It's easy to determine if your favorite site should now become an ex-favorite, just "view source" in your browser and search for rel="nofollow." If it's there for any reason other than Pagerank sculpting (e.g. nofollowing pages like "Contact Us"), move along. If you're trying to promote your own content, it won't work. If you are trying to promote some else's, you won't help them much.

Hey, here's a novel idea: if someone is using your blog, social media site or directory to link to spam, porn, hate speech, discount online pharmaceuticals, miracle weight loss nonsense, or work-at-home scams—DELETE THE LINK. Why is okay to have such crap listed on your site, regardless of whether or not you're passing link juice?

In fairness, this pernicious string of characters once served a purpose, as a less-than-ideal solution to a serious problem. But today, Akismet solves the link spam problem on blogs. The community can be used to solve the problem on social bookmarking sites. A little bit of old-fashioned work can deal with issue on directory sites.

I'm not alone on this. It's time to demand better, to rid the world of the reprehensible, insidious nofollow tag once and for all. Ideally, Google should announce it's no longer recognizing the tag. Absent that, site owners should boycott it. And if they don't, users should walk.

*****

technorati tags: insidious nofollow tag web marketing Google Blogger Wikipedia WordPress Akismet link juice link spam SEO rant dofollow

del.icio.us tags: insidious nofollow tag web marketing Google Blogger Wikipedia WordPress Akismet link juice link spam SEO rant dofollow

icerocket tags: insidious nofollow tag web marketing Google Blogger Wikipedia WordPress Akismet link juice link spam SEO rant dofollow

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2009 (So Far): Blogging for Business, Part 1

2009-10-13T08:29:00.000-05:00

How can you attract more traffic to your blog? Generate more comments? Increase the effectiveness of guest-posting opportunities? Find free and legal images to add to your blog posts? Crank out posts more quickly? Make money from your blog?

Discover the answers to these questions and others here in the first set of the best posts about business blogging so far this year.

27 Blogging Secrets to Power Your Community by Community and Social Media

Chris Brogan shares more than two dozen tips for attracting more blog traffic, divided into three categories: Starter Moves (e.g. use an intriguing title, start with a question); Technical Stuff (e.g. clean layout, proper permalink structure); and The Bonus Round (e.g. share your posts using social media platforms, link to other blogs often).

10 ways to increase the number of blog comments by How to Make My Blog

Marko Saric offers tips for making your blog more interactive and conversational by generating more comments, such as asking questions, thanking your commenters, and commenting on other blogs.

Increase the Effectiveness of Your Next Guest Post with a Landing Page by ProBlogger

In this guest post, Jade Craven recommends using a landing page to draw traffic to your own blog through guest posts on other blogs. She identifies three types of landing pages, outlines three steps for creating a killer landing page, and shows two ways to get attention for the page. Another noteworthy post on ProBlogger is 11 Tips for Getting Your Comments Noticed on a Popular Blog, in which Darren Rowse offers tips for getting your comments noticed and driving traffic back to your blog such as being the early bird, disagreeing with the post, asking a question, or using humor.

How To Find The Best Free Image/Photo/Graphics Downloads For Your Blog Posts by Smackdown!

In this extensive post, Michael VanDeMar first explains why finding non-copyrighted images is important, then explains how to find free images through government websites or Creative Commons licenses.

Can Blogs Help Drive Purchasing Decisions? by Social Media Today

Crystal King reports that a Forrester survey from the second quarter of 2008 found that only 16% of readers of company blogs trusted them. She notes, however, that more recent research indicates that both readership of and trust in blogs is increasing. Another survey in late 2008 conducted by JupiterResearch/BuzzLogic stated that “50 percent of frequent blog readers say they have taken an action after reading a blog.” Crytal emphasizes the importance of building up trust with corporate blog readers, and concludes "Bottom line, if your company isn’t blogging, it probably needs to be."

5 Ways Your Blog Can Make Money by Conversation Marketing

The inimitable Ian Lurie details five ways—well really four, since "steal & cheat" is, as he notes, not an advisable long-term strategy—to profit from blogging. The most promising? Using it to build your business, though as Ian notes, "It's not easy. It takes a long time. But it works, beautifully. I have yet to see someone who writes insightful, thoughtful stuff 1-2 times a week fail at it."

Ten Ways to Crank Out Killer Posts in Ten Minutes or Less by Remarkablogger

Michael Martine presents tactics for quickly knocking out quality blog posts, such as answering questions from readers, reporting the results of a reader poll, or writing about the coolest person you've met recently.

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technorati tags: attract more blog traffic business blogging Chris Brogan social media platforms Marko Saric ProBlogger Jade Craven killer landing page Darren Rowse Smackdown! Michael VanDeMar Social Media Today Crystal King Forrester survey company blogs JupiterResearch/BuzzLogic Conversation Marketing Ian Lurie Remarkablogger Michael Martine

del.icio.us tags: attract more blog traffic business blogging Chris Brogan social media platforms Marko Saric ProBlogger Jade Craven killer landing page Darren Rowse Smackdown! Michael VanDeMar Social Media Today Crystal King Forrester survey company blogs JupiterResearch/BuzzLogic Conversation Marketing Ian Lurie Remarkablogger Michael Martine

icerocket tags: attract more blog traffic business blogging Chris Brogan social media platforms Marko Saric ProBlogger Jade Craven killer landing page Darren Rowse Smackdown! Michael VanDeMar Social Media Today Crystal King Forrester survey company blogs JupiterResearch/BuzzLogic Conversation Marketing Ian Lurie Remarkablogger Michael Martine

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

How to Use Social Media to Leverage the Power of Google

2009-10-12T06:31:00.001-05:00

Note: This is a guest post written by Christopher Angus, an award winning Internet Marketer.

While Google and social media are two separate entities, they are closely intertwined. Google ranks its results based on several hundred quality signals. These range from website backlinks to the actual words on a particular page and whether a website has trust and / or authority. Many a SEO Company has tried to manipulate the results to their benefit. This is largely based on the fact that Google is a “backlink-based algorithm” and people would simply buy or find other means of artificially inflating their number of links. Of course, Google combats paid links or other “unnatural” links with its algorithm or in extreme cases penalising a website.

As Google’s algorithm advances it has become far more difficult for business owners or SEO professionals to “game” the system and Google will continue to use other signals outside the normal margins to determine the quality and where a website should rank—these are starting to include the inflow of traffic to a website and possibly citations on other websites too. However, the most advantageous aspect to performing well in social media is that many people who frequent the sites are webmasters and blog owners. Should you have an interesting article, resource or any other item which may be of interest to them; they will link to your site from their own internet property. It’s these “natural” links which have a gargantuan impact on a website’s ranking on Google. This is particularly true when a popular website or blog picks up your story or other item and links to it, these top websites may include Wired.com, BBC or generally any other high end news website.

Many journalists cruise techy social media sites such as Digg and Reddit looking for interesting stories to cover and link too. Getting your story to the front page of these hugely popular sites is not hard if you have the knowledge. These top social media sites also have their own algorithms to prevent people manipulating their story to the front page. To get your story to the front page of a popular social media site you need to submit it to the site in particular and then ensure that your story gets sufficient votes to ensure it reaches the front page. To get several hundred votes you either need to have a large number of friends or get someone with an established network to submit your story for you. These Social Media Experts will usually charge a fee though for helping your story reach the front page of a particular site.

Having your story visible on the front page of a social website for a short amount of time will bring several benefits. These include: Huge amounts of traffic, brand building and of course the all precious “backlinks”. We also believe that Google looks at what’s popular on social networks and gives the popular items a temporary as well as a long-term boost in its own rankings.

To succeed on Google, webmasters and business owners now need to embrace social media and other internet communities or risk losing valuable rankings on Google.

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technorati tags: Google algorithm backlinks social media SEO natural links articles brand-building internet communities

del.icio.us tags: Google algorithm backlinks social media SEO natural links articles brand-building internet communities

icerocket tags: Google algorithm backlinks social media SEO natural links articles brand-building internet communities

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2009 (So Far): AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 1

2009-10-07T08:01:00.000-05:00

What common mistakes made by AdWords marketers should you avoid in order to optimize your results? What are some AdWords myths you shouldn't believe? How is the AdWords quality score calculated, and what can you do to improve scores in your campaigns? Which element of campaigns is often overlooked, but should be optimized and tested just like ad text or landing pages?

Discover this information and more, here in the first set of the best posts about Google AdWords from 2009 (so far).

Top 11 Money-Wasting AdWords Mistakes by Alibaba.com

The ubiquitous Jon Rognerud lists 11 common mistakes made by small companies and those new to AdWords, such as duplicating search ads on Google's content network (the ads need to be different due to the different context in which they are seen), using too many keywords, sending visitors to your home page, and not properly testing ads.

5 Common AdWords Myths Absolutely Destroyed by Search Engine Journal

Brian Carter demolishes five common misconceptions about AdWords, explaining the real story in detail. Among the myths: "AdWords is an auction"—well, sort of, but quality score, which is influenced by the click-through rate, is as big a factor as your bid, and "Google is out to get me"—a common feeling, but as Brian responds to this: "Sure, in some ways. But not so much that you can’t get incredibly good ROI from AdWords for the right offering, if you know what you’re doing" (or are willing to hire professional help from the outside).

Search Ad Quality Score 101, Part 2 by Search Engine Watch

Ron Jones explains how to increase your quality score in AdWords, which gets you a higher ad position at a lower cost. Among his recommendations: small (15-20 term), tightly-focused ad groups; including keywords in landing page copy; and experimenting with different matching options. Another interesting AdWords-related post worth checking out from the team at Search Engine Watch is Get More Attention with Legal PPC Ad Symbols. David Szetela recommends experimenting with using symbols in your ads to increase CTRs, though commenters call him out on the practice.

PPC Web Spy For Competitive Keywords Analysis by WordPress Howto Spotter

Alex Sysoef reviews and recommends PPC Web Spy, a free keyword research tool for AdWords and organic search optimization. The post is a little spammy (as is the PPC Web Spy landing page), but the tool sounds interesting. For any keyword, the tool displays statistics like the average cost per click and number of clicks per day. If you have any experience with this tool, feel free to share it in the comments.

Do more with less -- Part 2 of 3 by Inside AdWords

Amanda Kelly explains how the free AdWords Conversion Optimizer tool can improve the productivity of AdWords campaigns: "The Conversion Optimizer helps you get the most conversions for your ad spend by using your conversion tracking data to improve your advertising efficiency. It does this by optimizing the placement of your ads in each auction based on the likelihood of a conversion. This process helps to avoid unprofitable clicks and to get you conversions without requiring you to spend as much time managing your bids."

Everything You Need To Know About AdWords Display URLs by Search Engine Land

Brad Geddes recommends testing the display URL portion of your AdWords ads as thoroughly as you would any other elements, and offers several examples that fall within Google's requirements.

How Does AdWords Determine a Keyword’s Quality Score Before It’s Even Activated? Find Out! by PPC Hero

This post explains how Google determines a quality score for your keywords as soon as your campaign is launched, by using the experience of other advertisers who have used that keyword as a base. How can you use this information? As the author notes, "If you load a series of new keywords and they all have a low Quality Score, then you may want to re-think these additions. This is because other advertisers have not had success with these keywords. On the other side of the coin, if the Quality Score for a keyword is 9 or 10, this means that previous and current advertisers are having success with this keyword, and competition could be more fierce. You may want to give this keywords special attention and place them into their own ad groups."

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technorati tags: common AdWords mistakes AdWords quality score Jon Rognerud Search Engine Journal Brian Carter Search Engine Watch Ron Jones AdWords matching options David Szetela Alex Sysoef PPC Web Spy Inside AdWords Amanda Kelly AdWords Conversion Optimizer tool Search Engine Land Brad Geddes PPC Hero

del.icio.us tags: common AdWords mistakes AdWords quality score Jon Rognerud Search Engine Journal Brian Carter Search Engine Watch Ron Jones AdWords matching options David Szetela Alex Sysoef PPC Web Spy Inside AdWords Amanda Kelly AdWords Conversion Optimizer tool Search Engine Land Brad Geddes PPC Hero

icerocket tags: common AdWords mistakes AdWords quality score Jon Rognerud Search Engine Journal Brian Carter Search Engine Watch Ron Jones AdWords matching options David Szetela Alex Sysoef PPC Web Spy Inside AdWords Amanda Kelly AdWords Conversion Optimizer tool Search Engine Land Brad Geddes PPC Hero

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

7 Techniques for Advanced SEO Link Building

2009-10-06T07:05:00.000-05:00

Basic link building involves getting your website listed on partner sites, quality online directories and do-follow social bookmarking / social networking sites. Depending upon your industry and the keywords you are trying to rank for, those efforts may be enough to get you a top spot on Google and the other major search engines.

But if you've taken care of the "low hanging fruit" with regard to links and your site still isn't ranking well, you may need to try some more advanced link building techniques. Here are a half-dozen+1 more tactics to generate high-quality external links to your site.

1. Link bait. Produce "linkable" content that others will be happy to link to. A page that's little more than an online marketing brochure is unlikely to attract many links independently. However, bloggers and other site owners will happily link to quality content such as helpful how-to articles, original research, resources such as useful lists, and cool online tools.

2. Interactive PR. Write compelling news releases with key terms linked back to corresponding pages on your site. Create a social media release through PitchEngine. Distribute your releases through online press release services to increase your exposure. Consider both free press release services and fee-based PR distribution sites.

3. Articles. Create your own external links to your site by writing helpful industry-related articles and linking these back to your site. Submit your articles to high-quality article directories.

The next four tactics involve generating links through blogs, in order from the easiest but lowest value to the most challenging but rewarding techniques.

4. Blog comments. Post comments on industry-related blogs. Make sure you comments are relevant to the post, add value (i.e. they aren't just about your company), and include no more than two links back to your site. One is better.

5. Blogger outreach. Take the direct route—send notes to carefully selected bloggers pointing them to original research, compelling content, a useful tool or (truly) interesting news. Use proper blogger relations techniques, and avoid these worst practices in blogger outreach.

6. Blogger relationships. Since bloggers who know you are more likely to link to you, try to establish relationships with some key bloggers in your industry space. Subscribe to their RSS feeds, follow them on Twitter, tweet their posts on occasion, write comments (see above), ask for advice, and, if possible, try to connect live at conferences where they are presenting or attending.

7. Guest posts. Most powerful of all, once you've established a relationship with an influential blogger, offer to write a guest post. Make sure it offers valuable information; is not self-promotional; and appeals to the blog's readers. It's generally acceptable to include 2-3 links back to your own site between the post and the "about the author," but don't overdo it, and ideally the post should link to other information sources as well.

They aren't quick or easy, but with patience and persistence, these techniques can create not only high-quality links for SEO purposes, but also new professional connections and even long-term friendships. Those personal connections are the most rewarding links of all.

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2009 (So Far): Social Media Marketing, Part 1

2009-10-01T08:25:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the first best-of-2009 (so far) compilation. This year will feature expanded, finer-grain categories (such as separate best-ofs for Twitter- and Facebook-related posts) and some renamed categories ("social media marketing" will replace "social media optimization" which in turn replaced a varied basket of terms before it).

In the posts and articles below, discover how to map your social media communities, how to monitor your company's social media buzz on a budget, a dozen common social media mistakes to avoid, the essential elements of a social media strategy and more.

As always, if one of these posts happens to be yours, feel free to grab the graphic above for your site and link back.

7 Social Media Predictions for 2009 by Search Engine Watch

Erik Qualman produced this list of predictions in January. Granted, perhaps none were particularly daring, but his clairvoyance has proven remarkably accurate to this point. "Social media continues its rapid growth"—check. "Marketing budgets will continue shrinking"—yup. "Many free services will become defunct"—hmm, not yet, but there are still three months of 2009 to to.

Social Media and the Enterprise Customer – Wired PR by uber.la

John McElhenney lays out a process for mapping your social media communities, then capitalizing on their structures by letting your customers and partners tell your story for you.

What The F**K is Social Media?

Marta Kagan has put together possibly the best single presentation on social media ever. Not sure how to explain the potential and elements of social media marketing to your boss or client? Borrow some wisdom from Marta's slide deck:

What The F**K is Social Media?

View more documents from Marta Kagan.

20 Totally Free Buzz Pocket Mining Tools by aimClear

Want to know what's being said in social media circles about your company, competitors and industry but don't have the budget for a tool like Techrigy SM2 or Radian 6? The inscrutable Marty Weintraub reviews 20 free tools for monitoring social media buzz, including StumbleUpon Recently & All Time Most Popular Hot Tags, Facebook Lexicon. Twitter search engines, Google Advanced Blog Search and a few you've probably never heard of.

7 Reasons Your Social Media Marketing Failed (and how to fix it!) by Stuntdubl

Todd Malicoat advises marketers on how to avoid social media marketing failure by outlining seven reasons results may fall short of expectations, including "you chose the wrong channels" and "your content sucked."

5 Social Media Mistakes To Avoid by ZoopMedia

In another post on the theme of social media mistakes to avoid, Justin Wright offers up five surefire ways to fail, such as spamming the networks with only your own content and not taking full advantage of the messaging and SEO potential of social media profiles.

The Six Fears of Facebook and Other Social Media Channels by Internet Marketing Strategies and Secrets

Bob Cargill analyzes the fears that keep some people out of the social media realm. These are individual fears (e.g., fear of rejection, loss of privacy, time commitment) rather than the social media ostrich type fears that prevent businesses from taking advantage of it.

How to Make Money Off Social Media (originally titled: Selling Social Media to Your Clients) by Webdesigner Depot

Despite the spammy title, this is a very worthwhile piece for corporate b2b marketers or those who work with them. Most helpfully, for those just getting started with social media (or not sure if they've started correctly), this post provides a "Suggested Social Media Package" with a list of must-haves (e.g., a WordPress blog, Twitter account, Facebook page) and nice-to-haves (e.g., a YouTube channel and Live Help component on your website). One caveat to the advice given in this post: for businesses, a Facebook page is generally a better option than a Facebook group.

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technorati tags: social media marketing social media optimization free social media buzz monitoring tools Erik Qualman uber.la John McElhenney Marta Kagan aimClear Techrigy SM2 Radian 6 Marty Weintraub StumbleUpon Recently Facebook Lexicon Stuntdubl Todd Malicoat ZoopMedia social media mistakes Justin Wright Bob Cargill Webdesigner Depot suggested social media package Facebook pages vs groups

del.icio.us tags: social media marketing social media optimization free social media buzz monitoring tools Erik Qualman uber.la John McElhenney Marta Kagan aimClear Techrigy SM2 Radian 6 Marty Weintraub StumbleUpon Recently Facebook Lexicon Stuntdubl Todd Malicoat ZoopMedia social media mistakes Justin Wright Bob Cargill Webdesigner Depot suggested social media package Facebook pages vs groups

icerocket tags: social media marketing social media optimization free social media buzz monitoring tools Erik Qualman uber.la John McElhenney Marta Kagan aimClear Techrigy SM2 Radian 6 Marty Weintraub StumbleUpon Recently Facebook Lexicon Stuntdubl Todd Malicoat ZoopMedia social media mistakes Justin Wright Bob Cargill Webdesigner Depot suggested social media package Facebook pages vs groups

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Marketing Automation: Bringing a Gun to a Knife Fight

2009-09-29T07:23:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest challenges b2b marketers face is what to do with all of those "names" that come into your system that aren't really "leads" yet; contacts collected from white paper downloads, webinar registrations, trade shows and other activities. How do you separate hot leads from long-term leads from tire-kickers? How can you efficiently nurture those long-term prospects, learning more about their interests in the process, until they are really ready to engage with sales?

Those are the types of questions marketing automation / demand generation software vendors seek to address with their offerings. They apply technology to a difficult process. For b2b companies who are able to use such software effectively, the competitive advantage is akin to Indiana Jones taking on his would-be assassin in Raiders of the Lost Ark:

The challenge for b2b marketers in adopting marketing automation / demand gen systems isn't with the technology, which is stable and reasonably easy to use. It's with internal processes, office politics and other issues. In the scene above, although Indy clearly had the technology advantage, if he'd been a lousy shot, or didn't have his gun loaded properly, he'd have ended up as shredded professor in a hurry.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Steve Woods, CTO and co-founder at marketing automation provider Eloqua, for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of marketing and the challenges faced by those adopting marketing automation / demand generation systems. Here are six key points that surfaced from our conversation.

1. "Marketing automation" is a misleading term. You can't really automate marketing, of course, any more than you can automate gourmet cooking or great painting. "Demand generation" is a better term, though still not precise. "Software-that-helps-turn-raw-names-into-qualified-leads-by-delivering-the-right-content-at-the-right-time-and-monitoring-response" would be most accurate, but kind of a mouthful.

2. The buying process has fundamentally changed. Many marketers are starting to get this. Most sales people still don't. Buyers no longer rely on sales people for basic information or exploratory "consultation." They get 95% of the information they need from the Internet—online publications, analyst reports, vendor websites, blogs and other social media—before they have any contact with sales. They expect sales and marketing pros to be using the web as well to understand their problems before the sales conversation even starts. The key role of sales is to provide that last 5% needed to reach a buying decision: the company's differentiating value, or what pain the prospect will experience if they don't buy the right product or service.

3. Customers are those who've advanced from email service providers (ESPs). Small b2b companies often manage their email campaigns through hosted email services like Constant Contact, VerticalResponse or ExactTarget; when they've outgrown those and need more sophisticated segmentation, response tracking and automated response features, plus the ability to create and manage targeted microsites, they graduate to marketing automation / demand generation systems.

4. Building the logic behind the nurturing process is the hard part. Marketers who can do this effectively will command (or should be able to command) a premium. The technology is relatively easy. The hard part is mapping out the information delivery process. If we know that John Doe is the CIO at a medical manufacturing company with $100 million in revenue, what information should we deliver first? And we offer him two paths in that message, what should we provide if he chooses path A? What should we do differently if he chooses path B?

5. It won't work if the processes and incentives between sales and marketing aren't aligned. If, for example, marketers are focused on delivering leads who meet a defined threshold of interest as soon as they cross a certain point, but sales reps are comped on the number of calls they make, there is a fundamental disconnect. Calling even the right prospect at the wrong time, or trying to sell them the wrong product, can destroy the value of the marketing investment made to that point.

6. There is a crying need for this. It aligns vendor messages with buyer needs, saving money and corporate reputations. Prospective buyers are overloaded with information. Sending them more junk—information they can't use or that isn't relevant to them—makes your company look out of touch and reduces your ability to get the sale. Quick example: I used to have high-speed Internet service through AT&T. They would actually send me promotional mail for the dial-up service. Why on earth would they waste my time and their money trying to get me to downgrade my service with them? On the other hand, providing compelling information at the right time can reduce the sales effort required, shorten sales cycles, and make you look smarter than your competition as well.

The "science" of marketing automation / demand generation is well-established and readily available. The winning users will be those who manage to get the "art" part right.

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

5 Painfully Common SEO Mistakes to Avoid

2009-09-28T07:09:00.000-05:00

Every company wants their website to show up well in search engines, and their marketing teams understand the importance of search engine optimization. And after the thousands of articles and blog posts written about search engine optimization, SEO is no longer the black art it once was. It's still a blend of art and science, but the basics should be well understood at this point by web marketers and designers. To their credit, many have integrated this basic knowledge.

Yet there are still a surprising number of sites that violate some of the most basic principles of SEO, and pay a penalty in poor search position. Here are a few still-common mistakes that are easy to avoid.

Header Tag Abuse: Although header tags have declined somewhat in SEO importance, they still have somewhat of an impact on rankings—and they are an easy thing to get right. Sites that use words and phrases like "Overview," "About Us" and "Our Services" in their h1, h2 and h3 headers are wasting an opportunity. If you have a page describing your screaming blue thingamabobs, then "About Our Screaming Blue Thingamabobs" is a better header tag for SEO purposes.

Graphic Design > SEO: For the sake of design, many sites still use bland, generic labels for site navigation buttons (e.g., "Products," "Services," "Technology" etc.). One-word terms may let your designer create cute little buttons, but they don't tell you site visitors much and don't tell search engine bots anything. If your product is precision machining doohickies, then that's what your "Products" button should say. After all, your navigation buttons are internal links, and descriptive text labels for internal links are still important for SEO.

"Company" Words vs. "Customer" Words: This is particularly an issue in technology companies, but can happen in any situation where proper keyword research is skipped. Someone will say, "Our product isn't technically a thingamajib, it's actually a whatchamacall it." That may be true, but if the product competes in the thingamajib category, performs the same functions as a thingamajib, and most importantly, if prospective customers will search for it using thingamajib, then that's the term that had better be used on the website.

Sloppy Code: Search engine bots are lazy, so the best practice is to produce clean, minimalist code, for example by relying more on CSS and less on HTML tables. Another common error is to load pages up with lots of Javascript. Ugh! Javascript certainly has it's place, such as in creating drop-down menus, but the code should be stored in separate files and called as needed, minimizing the code on searchable pages.

Ugly URLs: A URL like company.com/screaming-blue-thingamabobs.html is much more meaningful to both search engines and humans than company.com/products, or even worse, something like company.com/default.asp?pageid=126.

Bonus sixth mistake to avoid: build links to your site carefully, using a mix of directory submission, social media, direct outreach, PR and link bait. Avoid link spamming (or hiring a "bargain" SEO firm that engages in this practice); having a bunch of irrelevant, spammy links somewhere on your site is great way to get ignored by the search engines.

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Looking Back at 400: Top 10 Posts

2009-09-24T08:15:00.001-05:00

As I recently passed 400 posts on this blog, here is a look back at the 10 most popular items here of all time. The list has changed considerably since the last look back after 300 posts.

#10: Best of 2007: Website Design, February 4, 2008

Reviews of articles and tools on website design, including a couple of pieces from the brilliant and frequently cited Stoney deGeyter. Not sure exactly why this one remain so popular, but here it is at #10.

#9: How to Create a Social Media Marketing Strategy, March 4, 2009

A summary of research from MarketingSherpa, Eloqua's Steve Woods, and green marketer Lorna Li on how marketers should approach social media strategically. As the old saying from the financial world goes, no one plans to fail—but many people fail to plan.

#8: Web 2.0 Social Tagging Sites, Part 4: B2B Traffic Building, May 15, 2007

Original research on the quantitative impact of social bookmarking on b2b site traffic. Much has changed since then, and social media is now an integral part of SEO efforts. But this post was one of the first to provide hard data on the benefits.

#7: How to Write a Strategic Marketing Plan, December 6, 2007

A guide to crafting a strategic marketing plan, starting with target markets and working through high-level strategies, specific tactics, and the tools needed to implement planned actions.

#6: How to Use Twitter for Business, May 6, 2009

Detailed summary of an outstanding presentation (includes video) delivered by Chris Abraham of social PR firm Abraham Harrison and Anamitra Banerji, product manager at Twitter, on how to develop a targeted Twitter following, develop a strategy, improve productivity with Twitter tools, and other Twitter best practices for business.

#5: The 8 Layers of a B2B Web Marketing Plan, October 8, 2008

Another strategy piece, this one on working outward from a solid website design, SEO and SEM through broader marketing tactics and media.

#4: The Social Media Email Signature, Septenber 18, 2008

Thanks to some Twitter luv from Guy Kawasaki, this post produced the largest single-day traffic spike ever on the WebMarketCentral blog. It shows creative examples of Web 2.0 / social media email signatures from early adopters of the now increasingly common practice. A more recent post here explained how to create a cool graphic social media email signature.

#3: Google AdWords Average CTR and Best Practices, September 20, 2007

Hard numbers to help benchmark the performance of Google AdWords campaigns is hard to come by, which explains the popularity of this post. Based on recent data, the average CTR for b2b AdWords programs remains in the 1.1%-1.3% range, with a typical conversion rate of around 2.8%.

#2: Average CTR for Banner Ads - New Data, September 16, 2008

As with AdWords, benchmarking data for banner ad performance is also difficult to find. This review of MarketingSherpa data holds up well against more recent figures. Typical CTRs for banner ads remain in the 0.15% to 0.3% range, with any performance above 0.5% qualifying as outstanding. The conclusion presented here holds true: banner ads are primarily valuable for branding, not direct response.

#1: Email Campaign, Newsletter and Banner Ad Click-Through Rates (CTR), August 14, 2007

The all-time most popular post thus far on the WebMarketCentral blog remains this piece providing industry data to help set goals and benchmark the performance of email marketing, newsletter sponsorship and banner advertising programs. Clearly, marketers love benchmark data.

*****

technorati tags: website design Stoney deGeyter social media marketing strategy MarketingSherpa Steve Woods Eloqua Lorna Lu b2b SEO strategic marketing plan Twitter Chris Abraham Anamitra Banerji social media email signature Guy Kawasaki AdWords CTR conversion rate banner ad CTR benchmarking

del.icio.us tags: website design Stoney deGeyter social media marketing strategy MarketingSherpa Steve Woods Eloqua Lorna Lu b2b SEO strategic marketing plan Twitter Chris Abraham Anamitra Banerji social media email signature Guy Kawasaki AdWords CTR conversion rate banner ad CTR benchmarking

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

A Better Way to Launch New Products - Rolling Thunder

2009-09-23T09:37:00.001-05:00

According to research by Schneider Associates, only 38% of b2b product launches are rated "successful" by the companies introducing the new products. After decades of new product launch experience, why such a dismal rate? Why does the following still sound familiar?

"Traditional launches act as big corporate Lighting Bolts, the big Ta Da. We plan big events, create loads of new sales tools and collateral, place those all important ad campaigns. All the while keeping everything in hush, hush secrecy ‘til we near the big day. Then comes the big ‘Ta Da’. Our press release hits the wire, we hold some big chest-thumping event and then start selling our hearts out, having trained the sales force the day or week before. The next day (or week) we go back to business as usual. Exhausted, but assured that we’ve done our jobs. Just look at all the attendees at the launch, that great PR coverage, the acclaims from near and far. Then reality strikes. Revenues are slower ramping than we expected, the sales force cries for qualified leads – and the excitement of the launch day fades to a distant memory. We shake our heads and wonder why we aren’t successful."

Those are the questions asked, and answered, by marketing strategist Rebel Brown in her new eBook, Rolling Thunder: Powering Momentous Market Launches. She contrasts the traditional "lightning bolt" launch process with a more gradual, momentum-building approach she calls Rolling Thunder.

Lightning-bolt launches simply no longer work as well as they did in the days of information scarcity. Information overload makes it more likely that even big announcements will be missed. The Rolling Thunder approach addresses this by building credibility over time, creating anticipation, and leveraging social media to feed the momentum.

As Rebel puts it, "Successful launches leverage a series of interactions, laying the foundations for market success before the ‘announcement’ ever happens. Great launches build momentum over time to propel a product or company into the market, far above the noise and with sustainable credibility. Rolling Thunder launches increase in power over time, just as a single raindrop becomes a downpour."

A key requirement of the Rolling Thunder approach is flexibility—the ability and willingness to change messages and tactics based on early market feedback. With the lightning bolt approach, you have one shot at getting your message right, and if it falls flat, the launch is a disappointment. With Rolling Thunder, if the message isn't quite right at the outset, there is time to make adjustments before your mainstream market is exposed to it.

In addition to laying out an effective launch strategy, Rebel includes some important "don'ts" for a successful launch:

Don't make claims about yourself. Let your customers and other key influencers speak for you.
Don't rely excessively on advertising. It may be part of the mix, but focus on leveraging PR and social media.
Don't bash competitors. Don't even mention them.
Don't rely on press releases to drive leads. They are part of mix. Used properly, they help build credibility. But relationships, not announcements, ultimately lead to sales.

Want to make your next launch more successful? The Rolling Thunder eBook provides a compelling new framework.

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 6

2009-09-22T07:43:00.000-05:00

How can online video help with SEO and online reputation management? Which social bookmarking sites have the most clout? Can social media really increase revenue? What common mistakes should you avoid in social media marketing?

Get the answers to these questions and others here in the final set of the best posts on social media marketing from last year.

Take Advantage of .TV Domains for SEO and Reputation Management by Search Engine Journal

Loren Baker describes how to use a .tv domain to enhance your company's web presence. While his focus is on television commercials (b2c), the tactics he outlines work equally well for video content produced by b2b enterprises. As Loren explains, "The simplest (way to create a video domain) is launching a Wordpress Blog and then embedding your YouTube, Google Video or other video sharing service commercials on the blog, one for each post, with a unique title tag and description for each post. A more effective way to launch your branded video site is to use a service like ClipShare (paid) or PHPmotion (free). These services let you launch a 'YouTube clone' and offer various templates and plugins, similar to the strategy behind Wordpress."

Top 30 Largest Social Bookmarking Sites by Anything Goes Blog

A great list of the top social bookmarking sites, with visitor statistics, as of late last year. If you are planning to use these for SEO, check for do-follow status first. Unfortunately, several of the largest sites including Digg, delicious, Reddit, Mixx and Mister Wong now partially or completely use insidious no follow links.

9 Reasons You Need Social Media Marketing in 2009 by Stuntdubl

This compelling and straightforward post tells you how to pitch the value of social media within your company, then provides nine (plus a bonus tenth) reasons why social media marketing can't be ignored, including: your competition is doing it; you can't buy links anymore (so you'll need to earn them; and this simple formulation—"More Social = more Search. More Search = More Customers. More customers = More business." Builds on the arguments made in Social Media ROI vs. RONI (risk of not investing).

Companies Believe Social Media Can Increase Revenue! by Social Media Today

Jacob Morgan reviews a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit which concludes that 80% of companies believe social media can increase company revenue. As Jacob writes, "Shocker huh? I mean who would have thought that building relationships and interacting with your customers could possibly increase sales? You know what else is funny? Apparently company CEO’s are the folks who are the most excited about social media!" CFOs are the most skeptical (yeah, another shock).

10 Simple Steps To Increase Blog Traffic Via StumbleUpon by How To Make My Blog

Marko Saric outlines a process for generating more traffic through StumbleUpon, walking through the steps of sharing great content, making friends in the network, and analyzing results.

Superlist of What NOT To Do In Social Media by Interactive Insights Group

Knowing what not to do in the social media realm is every bit as important as knowing what to do, and in this post Robin Broitman shines the light on social media missteps and gaffes from Target, Motrin, Starbucks, Whole Foods, FedEx and more.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2008: Interactive PR, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008: Search Engine Marketing
Best of 2008: Web Analytics
Best of 2008: Email Marketing Tips
Best of 2008: SEO Keyword Tips & Tools
Best of 2008: Sales & Marketing Copywriting
Best of 2008: SEO Link Building
Best of 2008: Website Design
Best of 2008: WordPress Tools and Tips
Best of 2008: Web & SEO Copywriting
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 2
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 1
Best of 2008: AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Tools, Part 2
Best of 2008: SEM Landing Pages
Best of 2008: Blogging for Business, Part 1
Best of 2008: Interactive PR, Part 2
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 3
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 2
Best of 2008: AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 2
Best of 2008: Strategy and Branding, Part 1
Best of 2008: Cool Web Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008: Blogging for Business, Part 2
Best of 2008: Random but Interesting, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 4
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 3
Best of 2008: Strategy and Branding, Part 2
Best of 2008: Cool Web Tools, Part 2
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 4
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 5
Best of 2008: Amusing, Creative and Just Plain Odd, Part 1
Best of 2008: Random but Interesting, Part 2
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 5
Best of 2008: Blogging for Business, Part 3
Best of 2008: Cool Web Tools, Part 3
Best of 2008: Amusing, Creative and Just Plain Odd, Part 2

*****

technorati tags: online video SEO reputation management social bookmarking social media marketing SEO and reputation management Search Engine Journal Loren Baker Google Video ClipShare PHPmotion 30 largest social bookmarking sites Anything Goes Blog Stuntdubl social media can increase revenue Social Media Today Jacob Morgan increase blog traffic How To Make My Blog Marko Saric what not to do in social media Interactive Insights Group Robin Broitman social media gaffes Target Motrin Starbucks Whole Foods FedEx

del.icio.us tags: online video SEO reputation management social bookmarking social media marketing SEO and reputation management Search Engine Journal Loren Baker Google Video ClipShare PHPmotion 30 largest social bookmarking sites Anything Goes Blog Stuntdubl social media can increase revenue Social Media Today Jacob Morgan increase blog traffic How To Make My Blog Marko Saric what not to do in social media Interactive Insights Group Robin Broitman social media gaffes Target Motrin Starbucks Whole Foods FedEx

icerocket tags: online video SEO reputation management social bookmarking social media marketing SEO and reputation management Search Engine Journal Loren Baker Google Video ClipShare PHPmotion 30 largest social bookmarking sites Anything Goes Blog Stuntdubl social media can increase revenue Social Media Today Jacob Morgan increase blog traffic How To Make My Blog Marko Saric what not to do in social media Interactive Insights Group Robin Broitman social media gaffes Target Motrin Starbucks Whole Foods FedEx

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Genoo Aims to Shake Up Marketing Automation Space

2009-09-21T08:37:00.000-05:00

Marketing automation / demand generation software enables marketers to build microsites and use content marketing to capture leads and nurture them through the buying process. Companies evaluating established providers such as Marketo, Eloqua, Silverpop's B2B Engage and HubSpot would be well-advised to check out a relatively new contender as well—Genoo Marketing Automation.

The company's new marketing automation platform enables users to create complete websites as well as microsites and landing pages, automatically send emails triggered by specific actions, configure lead scoring, and integrate with Salesforce.com. Because Genoo is a SaaS offering and includes a flexible and powerful (Genoo's own website runs on their platform) yet easy-to-use content management system (CMS) that allows non-technical users to create websites and pages, marketing departments can implement and use the product with little or no IT involvement.

Features include:

Point-and-click stylesheet editing, enabling users to create a custom look and feel without any knowledge of HTML or CSS;
Javascript headers and footers, making it easy to add web analytics tracking code such as for Google Analytics;
Ability to add Flash files anywhere on a page;
Auto-generated email messages to marketing or sales personnel based on action taken, which can even place the lead's email address in the "From" field for easy reply;
Flexible options for Salesforce.com integration, such as the ability to push lead information into specific campaigns;
Ability to set up an automated sequence of activities based on user actions (e.g. downloading a file, clicking a link in an email) to provide relevant content;
No limit on the size or number of visits permitted to microsites.

Pricing starts at $199 per month for a single user and microsite, with no limit on the number of leads in the account, plus $8.50 per 1,000 emails sent. Additional marketing users (with full editing privileges) are $49 per month, while sales users (access to leads only, with ability to update information about a lead, synchronize with their Salesforce.com account, view lead interest profile or push leads back to nurturing from within their Salesforce.com account) are $9.95 per month. Large companies can opt to pay a one-time fee of $2,500 for unlimited sales users.

For a truly custom design, the company will convert a layered PhotoShop file into a Genoo template for $500.

With a boatload of advanced features and an affordable price point, Genoo hopes to earn a spot on the shortlist for any marketing automation / lead gen purchase.

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2008: Amusing, Creative and Just Plain Odd, Part 2

2009-09-16T08:33:00.000-05:00

Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang running an ad agency. How Internet marketing is like a ruptured disc. Bizarre yet real images on the web. Ads that never should have seen the light of an LCD screen.

What do all of these things have in common? They're all here in the final best of funny, creative and just plain strange blog posts from the past year. So put on your headphones, make sure the boss isn't nearby, and check these out.

A Charlie Brown Ad Agency

The Peanuts gang strives dysfunctionally to design an agency holiday greeting card in this clever and outrageous spoof. Contains some off-color language and sexual references, so be careful watching this at work, but it's very funny.

10 Ways Internet Marketing Is Like a Ruptured Disc by Conversation Marketing

Serial best-of contributor Ian Lurie explains, in his imitable fashion, the similarities between Internet marketing and his own unfortunate back injury, such as "if you ignore it, you'll pee your pants in public, or something equally embarrassing" and "everyone thinks they have the solution, but very few do." In another noteworthy post, Ian presciently warns readers about 11 Internet Marketing Trends To Ignore in 2009, such as "Vertical Search. I hate to kick that dead dog again, but it sucked in 2007, it sucked in 2008, and it'll continue to suck wind in 2009."

SEO Best Practices and All That

2009-09-15T08:23:00.000-05:00

In SEO `Best Practices' Are Bunk, Adam Audette rants about the supposed uselessness of these tactics, and by extension the concept of best practices in any realm. Audette writes that "`Best practice' is a stale buzzphrase that offers zero competitive advantage...best practice in the enterprise? To me, that is nothing but useless marketing-speak. It doesn’t say anything about creating a competitive advantage."

The larger point of this article is spot on, namely that adherence to any set of static practices will, over time, erode the competitiveness of any enterprise. But, with no disrespect to Mr. Audette, who is a very smart guy, he sets up somewhat of a strawman definition of best practices when he writes:

By definition, a best practice:

is a static ruleset
is a standard to be followed
has worked in the past (read: is old)
has been popularized (read: is average)
limits judgement, evaluation, and strategy (cornerstones of quality search marketing)

That is, at best, a partial definition. First, once any practice is adopted by most of the firms in an industry, it is no longer a "best practice." Someone has already moved the needle. Second, mindful of this, great companies (and consultants) make constant tweaking and rethinking of current processes a part of their best practices.

In SEO, best practices would include but not be limited to:

Conducting keyword research to identify high-volume, low-competition search terms.
Producing clean code (e.g. CSS and HTML, minimal Flash, Javascript in separate files, descriptive navigation, minimal use of tables).
Optimizing title tags.
Crafting URLs with keywords included.
Including (but not over-doing) keywords in content and heading tags.
Incorporating keyword links in page text.
Basic link-building—social media sites, directories, business partners etc.
Advanced link-building—blogging, commenting, content marketing, guest posting, blogger outreach, interactive PR, etc.

Using all of those practices won't guarantee you a #1 rank for any term, but ignoring any of them will make achieving high rankings unnecessarily difficult. That's why virtually all successful SEO professionals use those practices, but don't constrain their activities to a static process. Search is constantly changing, and so are the techniques used to gain high ranking and organic search traffic.

In short, best practices are dynamic rather than static. In 1908, Henry Ford's assembly line (an idea inspired by the meat packing industry) established a new best practice in automotive manufacturing, but from work cells to TQM to lean manufacturing, production processes have continually evolved since then.

For the best companies, and SEO consultants, continuous innovation is the best best practice of all.

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Best of 2008: Cool Web Tools, Part 3

2009-09-14T07:15:00.000-05:00

Need a tool to help you collaborate with colleagues online? How about one to automatically create animated GIFs? Or one to help you find just the right word, or submit content to all of your favorite social networking sites at once, or grab screen images, or test landing pages, or instantly perform special searches on Google?

You'll find all of these and others in this final set of cool web tools and resources from last year.

DeskAway

Somewhat similar to tools like Basecamp and Projjex, DeskAway is an online collaboration tool that supports ad hoc work teams by enabling them to manage and track projects, share large files, send secure messages and report on activities. Pricing ranges from free (up to five users and three active projects at a time) to $99 per month for unlimited projects and users.

Gickr

Gickr is a slick free tool for creating animated GIFs from any collection of photos. It can be used to create banner ads, slide shows or Flash-like animations.

Lexical FreeNet

This is a "connected thesaurus" that belongs in every writer's toolbox. For any word or pair of words, it shows related words, connections between the words, rhyming words and more. For famous names, it can help find information such as occupation, birth and death years, nationality, and "trigger links" (e.g. "Clinton" and "Whitewater").

OnlyWire

OnlyWire lets you automatically submit content to all of your favorite social networking sites with a single button, and makes it easy for your blog readers to bookmark and share your content. If you don't want to see their ads, a fee-based version is available for a reasonable $25 per year.

16 Essential PC Applications for Bloggers by Problogger

Frequent Best-of contributor Darren Rowse reviews essential blogging tools including SnagIt for capturing screen images, Digsby for consolidating social networking chat with a single tool, Camtasia Studio for screen recording, PeaZip for file archiving and unzipping, and a dozen others.

64 B2B Marketing Tools and Resources by Modern B2B Marketing

In one of the most underrated posts of last year, Jon Miller provides links to more than 60 tools and information resources including blog posts, white papers, analyst reports, webcasts, podcasts, ebooks and articles on topics ranging from lead scoring and nurturing to marketing ROI and social media tools. Examples include David Raab's Guide to Demand Generation Systems, Marketo's Landing Page Test Calculator and this podcast from Laura Ramos on using Web 2.0 tactics to boost b2b marketing results.

9 Google Bookmarklets for SEOs by Search Engine Journal

The indispensable Ann Smarty reviews nine helpful bookmarlets (small tools activated from a button in your browser), such as Search selected text on Google and tools for Google Trends, Google Insights, and Google Blog Search.

Previous posts in this series:

Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 1
Best of 2008: Interactive PR, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008: Search Engine Marketing
Best of 2008: Web Analytics
Best of 2008: Email Marketing Tips
Best of 2008: SEO Keyword Tips & Tools
Best of 2008: Sales & Marketing Copywriting
Best of 2008: SEO Link Building
Best of 2008: Website Design
Best of 2008: WordPress Tools and Tips
Best of 2008: Web & SEO Copywriting
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 2
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 1
Best of 2008: AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Tools, Part 2
Best of 2008: SEM Landing Pages
Best of 2008: Blogging for Business, Part 1
Best of 2008: Interactive PR, Part 2
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 3
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 2
Best of 2008: AdWords Tips and Tactics, Part 2
Best of 2008: Strategy and Branding, Part 1
Best of 2008: Cool Web Tools, Part 1
Best of 2008: Blogging for Business, Part 2
Best of 2008: Random but Interesting, Part 1
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 4
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 3
Best of 2008: Strategy and Branding, Part 2
Best of 2008: Cool Web Tools, Part 2
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 4
Best of 2008: SEO Guidance, Part 5
Best of 2008: Amusing, Creative and Just Plain Odd, Part 1
Best of 2008: Random but Interesting, Part 2
Best of 2008: Social Media Optimization, Part 5
Best of 2008: Blogging for Business, Part 3

*****

Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

3 Reasons to Love PitchEngine for Social Media Releases

2009-09-10T11:43:00.001-05:00

For anyone doing interactive PR, PitchEngine has become a vital tool for creating, distributing and promoting social media releases. It's simple, fast, powerful and gets results. Here are three more specific reasons to love it:

Features—it's all there, the ability to easily add social networking links; links to other resources such as white papers, product sheets and webinars; branding elements; keywords; images; and online video.

Exposure—even for clients in very niche b2b markets (e.g. high-volume automated web publishing), these social media releases often get 100+ views in just the first few hours.

Search—based on experience, it can take weeks for Google to pick up a press release posted on a client website. PitchEngine releases are typically picked up with half an hour of posting.

PitchEngine is the most no-brainer, must-have PR investment my clients make. (And no, Jason Kintzler didn't pay me to write that! But I will let him quote me.)

*****

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom