Interactive Marketing Blog

The Power of Facebook

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 14:18:00 +0000

My mother-in-law recently got a new computer from Dell. Some time after it arrived, she needed to register her Microsoft Office software by entering the product key found on the CD case. That's when she discovered that Dell had not sent her the Microsoft Office CD.

Many frustrating calls with Dell followed. It had been longer than 21 days since the computer had been delivered so she was apparently out of luck. Even though it was their mistake, they refused to send out the CD.

That's when I turned to Facebook. I decided that I was going to post a complaint to the Dell Facebook page every day until Dell contacted me to rectify the situation. It only took 24 hours. The admin for the Dell Facebook page sent me a message and promised to help.

A great example of how Facebook is becoming a key player in customer service.

Is Email Antiquated?

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:30:00 +0000

Email becoming out-dated; who'd have thought it? I see it happening though. My friends and colleagues are increasingly opting to contact me through Facebook and LinkedIn rather than use email.

Indeed, social communities make socializing less awkward. You don't have to formally ask for someone's email address or phone number. It seems to be more acceptable to simply "add someone as a friend" or ask them to "join your network". And, then, the lines of communication are open.

I'm finding that email acts more as a reminder to go and check my social networks, as I receive email notifications when someone contacts me via one of my networks.

Email, formal? That's what people are saying. It makes writing a letter seem archaic. Social networking takes instant messaging to the next level.

For more on this topic, check out Erik Qualman's post: "Will Social Networks Become the Next Inbox?"

SEO: Top 4 Reasons Why Your Website Won't Rank

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:11:00 +0000

It's the question that SEOs love to answer: "why doesn't my website rank?" Ususally, the answer comes down to any number of the following four things.

Technical Issues
When you engage with an SEO company, they will perform an audit of your website to identify any technical issues that prevent search engine spiders from crawling your site and indexing your content. Some of the main offenders are flash, javascript menus, iframes, unfriendly URL structures, bad HTML, etc.

Lack of Content
More often than not, your ranking issues are less to do with technical problems than they are content. Content is the most important factor in search engine ranking. If you don't have good quality content to support your target keyword phrases, you can't expect to rank for them.

Keywords
It's important to be realistic when selecting keyword phrases. Don't expect to rank for highly competitive phrases. Instead, choose popular (but not as competitive) phrases that are appropriate for your website's content and target audience. Oftentimes, companies will choose very competitive phrases and will then wonder why they are not number 1 in Google. Performing a thorough keyword analysis prior to optimization is imperative in order to select the keyword phrases that make the most sense.

Links
As important as content, are links. In the past, optimizing your website was enough to achieve high rankings. Nowadays, without "link popularity", you're not going anywhere. The link popularity of a website is determined by the quantity and quality of inbound links. Therefore, every SEO program should have link building as an ongoing task.

Remember, even if your website has been optimized with the right keyword phrases, it takes time to achieve high search engine ranking. And, optimization alone does not guarantee results. SEO is an ongoing process that depends on both content optimization and link building. It is crucial to begin a link building program as soon as your website has been optimized.

SEO Tips from Google

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:28:00 +0000

Google held its third online Webmaster Chat on October 22, 2008. Google representatitives including Matt Cutts answered an array of questions relating to webmaster and SEO best practices.

Here are some useful nuggets:

- Dynamic URLs are no longer a problem. There is no need to re-write dynamic URLs as static URLs. The Google spiders can access most dynamic content.

- It's a common misperception that links from .gov, .edu and .info websites pass more Page Rank to your site.

- When beginning a linking program, it's a bad move to begin with article submission directories.

- Google changes its algorithm a lot. Last year, there were over 450 changes made.

- Use hypens rather than underscores in your page URLs.

- Google does not approve of ranking software such as Web CEO. Using it violates their Terms of Service and can result in Google blocking your IP address.

Finally, the best advice that Matt Cutts had for SEOs: read Google's Webmaster Guidelines.

Integrated Marketing: Customers Not Channels

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:39:00 +0000

There's a big difference between integrated campaigns and integrated marketing, and this difference is where many companies fall down. They believe they're integrated because they developed a multi-channel campaign. But did that campaign speak directly to their customers' wants and needs?

Integrated marketing is about taking a strategic approach to your marketing program as a whole and it starts with your customers. They're the ones that define what your marketing objectives should be. Too many companies make the mistake of deploying tactics that they think are right, without really understanding how their customers will respond and how success will be measured.

By putting the consumer at the center of your marketing strategy, you can create a customized program that leverages tactics most appropriate for your target audience's needs. It is this consumer-driven strategy that should dictate the messaging and voice use to communicate consistently across multiple channels.

Integrated and interactive marketing are closely linked; truly integrated marketing requires participation and conversation. That's because your entire marketing strategy is based on responding directly to consumer needs. To do this effectively, you always need an ear listening to the consumer and a quick response to your consumer's behavior.

Read more on integrated marketing in the "Five Fundamentals of Integrated Marketing" over at Clickz.

When to Optimize Your Website?

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:56:00 +0000

It is a common misunderstanding that you first build your website and then engage the SEO expert to optimize it. This may arise from people thinking that SEO is a form of magic that can be applied to any website to achieve any result desired. Alas, SEO is not magic, and the way that a website is built is going to affect its ability to be search engine optimized.

Case in point, dynamic ecommerce websites have long been a challenge for SEOs. Dynamic content is essentially invisible to search engines and if a search engine can’t read the content on your website, you are not going to rank highly for your target keyword phrases. Static, crawlable content is the most important factor in gaining high search engine rankings. If you’re building an ecommerce website though and you have hundreds and thousands of products in your database, it is not practical to create thousands of static html web pages. This is the point where it is important for your SEO expert to be involved. They can advise you on how to build a dynamic website that is search engine friendly. For more information on optimizing dynamic websites, see my earlier post: How to Optimize Dynamic Websites.

There are, of course, many factors to consider when designing a website that could raise red flags for search engines. Here's a short list of common mistakes that web designers make when an SEO is not involved from the start:

Flash
Search engines cannot read content within a flash file so this content is essentially invisible.

Frames
Designing with frames can be as bad as using Flash. None of the content within your frames is indexable by the search engines; the spiders just see an error message.

Javascript-based menus
Search engines cannot see or follow links within javascript menus and therefore cannot access the content.

Proliferation of imagery
If you're using image-based text, search engines won't read it. It's important to add alt text to all images (so that search engines can understand what the image is) and generally limit the use of image files throughout your site.

URL structure
The naming convention for each page should be search engine friendly. This means using keyword phrases (separated by a "-") in your page URLs (eg. search-engine-optimization).

So, in short, if you’re building a website and you know that you are looking for search engine optimization services, engage your SEO expert now. They can advise you as you create your website, so you design one that meets both your needs and those of the search engines.

How to Optimize Dynamic Websites

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:53:00 +0000

When an SEO sees a dynamic website, their heart drops. From a design standpoint, dynamic URLs are often the most practical way to create an ecommerce website that contains thousands of database-managed product pages. The problem with dynamic URLs is that search engines have trouble following them, which means that the content that lives at those URLs is not indexed.

You will often here dynamic content and dynamic URL used interchangeably, but don’t go mistaking them for the same thing, because they’re not. A dynamic URL is the location at which dynamic content is stored, not the dynamic content itself.

Here are some ways to optimize a dynamic website so that the search engines are able to crawl it more easily.

Use static URLs for dynamic content
Search engines follow static URLs. If you locate your dynamic content at a static URL, search engines are more likely to find it and index it. Dynamic URLs usually contain question marks and id numbers, which don’t tell search engines anything. Replace these with simple URLs that contain your product name or category. There are several URL “re-writing” tools available that work differently depending on your server.

Link to dynamic URLs from static pages
If you can’t convert your dynamic URLs into static URLs, there are other things you can do, such as linking to dynamic URLs from static pages. If you create a site map, give it a static URL and then link to dynamic URLs from that site map, the search engines will probably crawl your dynamic content. The more incoming links you have to your dynamic content (especially from other websites), the more likely the search engines will be to index it.

Pay for search engine inclusion
This does not mean high ranking, but it at least allows you to have your dynamic content indexed. It is then important to make sure that dynamic content is properly keyword optimized to increase your rankings.

Public Relations Toolbox

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:01:00 +0000

Monitoring client coverage has become increasingly difficult with the growth of the Internet and more recently, the variety of media channels available via blogs and social media. The Internet is so huge, how can you ever keep track of all the potential client brand mentions?

Here are a few tools to get traditional PR practitioners working online:

- Set up Google Alerts for your client's company name, keywords and brand names. You can specify the frequency with which you would like the alerts to be delivered to you by email.

- Monitor what is being said about your client in the blogosphere by signing up for RSS feeds in Google Blog Search and Technorati. All you have to do is conduct a search for your client's name or keyword and then grab the RSS feed for the search results page.

- Keep up-to-date on client news coverage by setting up Google News RSS feeds.

Finding client coverage is not the only way you can use the Internet for PR purposes. You can also conduct research for pitches and keep up-to-date on ever-changing industry news and trends.

- Blogs are a great way to find information on specific topics and help you formulate an opinion. Search for keywords in Technorati to find blogs and blog posts on certain topics.

- Visit social bookmarking sites such as Reddit and Digg and view the most popular articles to see what people are currently interested in reading.

- Monitor what your client's competitors are doing by signing up for RSS feeds on their company names also.

Now that you have all this information being fed to you, how do you stop yourself from being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data? It's important to find ways to organize your data so that you can easily reference it and use it to your advantage. Most RSS feed readers allow you to set up folders for your RSS feeds. You can organize by client name or topic. Another great tool is Google Desktop, which is easily downloaded to your computer and enables you to find files by searching your hard drive.

While overwhelming, the Internet is certainly a good thing for PR. It has significantly increased the number of communication channels available, making it easier to gain media exposure and ultimately build awareness for your client's brand.

Online PR - From Pitching to Participation

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:08:00 +0000

I recently wrote a guest blog post over at MNPR Blog about the new PR landscape, where I discussed the lack of awareness and confidence that still exists regarding PR in an online context.

There's a tendency for PR practitioners to simply take traditional tactics and apply them online, such as approaching bloggers as though they were offline journalists. There's a lot more to leveraging online channels, however, than simply pitching bloggers. The key things for successful online PR are "participation" and "transparency."

Unlike with print publications, online media is not about a one-way communication, from marketer to consumer or journalist. The Internet is a forum where your audience can respond to your messaging and even find you before you've even initiated a communication. For the most part, this is a good thing! Increasing awareness about a particular brand is much easier online; the word spreads more quickly. Of course, if that word happens to be negative, it's also more difficult to contain online. And that's when we get to the importance of transparency.

Brand recognition online is essentially about building credibility and trust. Anyone can say anything about your company and if you do have skeletons in your closet, you need to think of how you're going to handle those skeletons when they come out. It's far better to address the issue head-on than to deny that it exists. Being transparent about who you are and what you stand for makes you real and credible, which is very important in becoming a trusted brand.

So, if online PR is much more than pitching, what do PR pros need to think about?

How to leverage online media channels
- Online versions of print publications
- Blogs dedicated to your company's expertise
- Social media platforms such as YouTube, Flickr, social networking sites, Twitter, forums, etc
- RSS feeds

Instead of pitching to get your content disseminated across these channels, you will have to actively create and contribute content.

Monitor brand mentions
It's a good idea to keep track of what people are saying about your company in blog posts, articles and forums and be prepared to respond to negative coverage.

Leverage PR and SEO hand-in-hand
- Online editorial coverage is great for SEO. Search engines put a lot of weight on links from editorial sites to your website. The quantity and quality of inbound links help increase your search engine ranking
- Press releases should be keyword optimized and distributed via an online newswire service to get indexed in search results and generate inbound links to your website
- Blog software is a great option for managing your online press room. Search engines love fresh content and a blog that is hosted within your domain is the perfect way to add fresh content to your site on a regular basis. Use a blog to post press releases, articles, media coverage, newsletters, key announcements, bios of spokespeople etc
- The traditional press release should also be enhanced when used online. It's not just about adding keyword phrases. You can include keyword tagged photographs and calls-to-action to social bookmark the release, read the corporate blog or find out more about your company via its dedicated social networking site

Above all, remember that you need to interact with your audience. You can post content to the Web, but you'll be the most successful at increasing awareness via active participation.

The Twitter Bug

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:28:00 +0000

The Craze
The latest craze in Social Media has to be Twitter. While I admit that I'm still working out the real purpose of the Twitter application, there is something addictive about building your network of followers and followings. There is no doubt in my mind that, used properly, Twitter is another promotional tool for businesses to leverage.

Being successful in Twitter is about combining social media with public relations best practices. For people to really take an interest in your "tweets", you need to build a reputation. To build a reputation, you need to give people a reason to be interested in you. That's why it's important to use Twitter in conjunction with all of your other social media applications and as a component of a larger online marketing strategy. If you're the author of a popular blog, you've already done a lot of the groundwork for building your reputation. Integrate your Twitter feed into your blog and start driving your blog readers to engage via Twitter also. The great thing about social media is that you don't have to start from scratch every time a new application is created.

When you first join Twitter, there's a temptation to find and follow as many people as possible to get them to follow you back. It's an ego thing; I want to be popular! A more strategic way to approach building your Twitter network is to think about who you really want to receive your tweets. If you're targeting members that are following a lot of people themselves, your tweets are likely to get lost in the crowd. If your followers are, instead, very targeted prospects with a limited number of followings, you are more likely to become known to them. Indeed, Twitter gives a whole new meaning to breaking through the clutter.

In addition to using Twitter to disseminate your messaging, there's also a lot to be learned from your followings. It's a great way to observe how others are using Twitter. Pay special attention to those that have a large number of followers; they're doing something of interest to attract that attention. Remember, there's no better way to market to people than to know your audience inside out. If you're actively marketing to your Twitter group, paying attention to their tweets will give you insight into their likes and dislikes and help you refine your messaging.

The Downside
Is Twitter growing more quickly than it can cope with? It seems like every time I go to log into Twitter, the site is down. Twitter developer, Alex Payne, says that A-list Twitter users are responsible for the performance glitches. When members that have a large number of followers or followings perform a series of actions quickly, it causes a build-up of queries in the database that cannot be processed quickly enough.

It's unbelievable to me that Twitter developers didn't foresee this problem given the nature of the application - to generate a large number of messages!

One thing's for sure, if Twitter hopes to continue its popularity, it's going to have to address poor performance issues as soon as possible.

What's Up With These "SEO Is Dead" Columns?

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:03:00 +0000

All of a sudden, I’m seeing an abundance of “SEO is dead” columns surfacing in industry media outlets. I’d like to say it once and for all: SEO is NOT dead at all. Like all marketing disciplines, search engine optimization is constantly changing and must evolve with the times to stay relevant.

Remember when PR professionals would fax or even mail their press releases to journalists? These days, press releases are being distributed across online newswires and RSS feeds and PR pros are changing their pitching practices accordingly. They wouldn’t dream of using the fax machine now!

Once upon a time, reciprocal linking was all the rage, but then link farms surfaced and reciprocal links began to lose their search engine value. Search engine marketers changed their approach to focus on one-way inbound links from good quality, relevant websites.

Perhaps search engine optimization is only a shadow of what it was five years ago, but it is alive and kicking. What I’m seeing is a shift from internal to external focus, from on-page optimization of a website (don’t get me wrong, still relevant and very important) to external promotion in the form of viral marketing and social media. SEO is becoming more of a true marketing effort than it is technical implementation. Indeed, it’s becoming more like public relations every day.

At the end of the day, SEO is about building brand visibility in the SERPs. With the increasing popularity of social media, there are now many ways to obtain online visibility for your company or product and, yes, these are all indexable by the search engines.

Employees Make Or Break Your Agency

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:47:00 +0000

You’ve built a reputation and business is booming, so much so that you now need to hire more people to take on the extra business. That’s when you face a dilemma: hire experienced professionals for a price or the more attractive option, pay less for entry level employees. This is where some companies become greedy. They think more about the extra clients and extra dollars they can generate than about the impact those employees may have on the company’s reputation.

Your employees are the face of your company. If they come across as unskilled and unprofessional, so will your company as a whole. You, as the head of the company, may be very talented and respected in the industry, but if your employees do not support and build on the good reputation you have worked so hard to create, you’re heading for disaster.

I’m not saying hiring entry level people is a bad idea; not at all. Everyone has to start somewhere and the right employee, no matter how junior, can be trained for the job. However, you have to be willing to invest in those employees and not expose them to your precious clients until they are ready. The employees that interact with clientele should be experienced, polished and professional. They should be the epitome of what your company stands for and well equipped to answer the toughest of questions. If your Account Managers come across as not knowing what they’re talking about, that is the impression that your clients and prospects will receive of your company.

Oftentimes, companies will hire agencies because of their reputation and because they are run by key industry professionals. These companies therefore have high expectations and with every reason. You have to make sure that the employees you choose to represent you are able to meet the expectations of your clients and deliver a good quality service. Remember, happy clients are the best kind of promotion.

Why Use Paid Search?

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:04:00 +0000

As organic search pundits boast, why shell out thousands of $ on a PPC program when you can get organic search engine rankings for free? Oftentimes, a blend of organic and paid search reaps the greatest rewards.

Organic SEO takes time and a lot of hard work
Yes, it’s much cheaper than PPC, but achieving significant organic rankings is not instantaneous; it takes months of hard work in terms of keyword research, content optimization and ongoing link building. A PPC program offers the immediate gratification that organic search cannot. If you have the budget, why not use PPC while your SEO program is getting off the ground and then turn it off once you start to gain high organic rankings for your target keyword phrases?

Don’t let you competitors leave you behind
If your competitors are not implementing any kind of search marketing, you’re already ahead by beginning an SEO program. But, if your major competitors are visible in both paid and organic listings, you probably want to consider a mix yourself in order to keep up. At the end of the day though, surpassing your competitors in the organic listings should be your number one goal. This is where you will gain the most ground, as many consumers have become desensitized to paid listings.

Some keyword phrases are just too competitive
If you are pursuing some extremely competitive keyword phrases, depending on your website’s content, it might not be realistic to expect top organic rankings. Yes, you will pay more for these competitive keywords in a PPC program, but it may be your only option if you want to gain visibility for these phrases.

Use PPC as testing ground
You have far more flexibility with PPC ad copy than you do with meta data. If a certain kind of messaging is not working in your PPC ad copy, you can quickly switch it out and see the benefits of your change immediately. Making changes to your meta data (titles and descriptions that appear in search results) is not as easy. It takes time for search engines to re-crawl your website and re-index your updated meta data. Again, SEO is the snail that makes progress slowly and over time. Why not use PPC as a precursor to SEO? Take the time to test out keywords and messaging in your ad copy and then leverage your learnings for the organic optimization of your website content?

Top 5 Email Marketing Best Practices

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:58:00 +0000

If you are implementing email campaigns in your organization, there are 5 best practices to keep in mind:

#1 Facilitate Sign-Up
It might sound obvious, but make it as easy as possible for your user to sign-up to receive your email communications. Only use as many fields as necessary in your registration form. While it is useful to gather as much information as possible, remember that asking people to fill in too many fields can act as a serious barrier. What’s the minimum you need? Email address.

#2 Create an Email Strategy
Any email distribution you perform should be a part of a larger email marketing strategy. What’s the purpose of your email campaign? What are you hoping to achieve? And how does the campaign integrate into all of your other marketing activity? Integration of messaging across marketing channels is always the best approach to get the biggest bang for your buck. An email campaign should not act in isolation and you should always consider the reaction that your prospects are having to each email you distribute. Don’t send an email for the sake of it. If you want a response from your distribution list, don’t spam them, make sure you’re sending good quality communications that offer value.

#3 Emphasize Calls-to-Action
Believe it or not, many companies are still sending emails without a clear call-to-action. Emails are sent for a reason, you want the user to respond to your content. If you don’t include very clear calls-to-action within the email, you are seriously impacting the performance of the campaign. Calls-to-action can vary in their level of intended impact; I like to call them passive and active. Passive calls-to-action are subtle text links that drive the user to your website, for example. Active calls-to-action are more overt and use bold messaging that asks the user to take a specific action such as filling out a form or calling a number.

#4 Offer Opt-Out Alternatives
So, you have to give your user the option of opting-out, but you can also reduce your opt-out rate by providing other alternatives to the full opt-out. For example, perhaps the user would respond better to less frequent communications or emails only relating to a specific topic. Remember, the best way to prevent your users from opting out is to provide relevant valuable content.

#5 Leverage Targeted Communications
Effective email marketing is not about spamming your distribution lists as often as possible. It’s about reaching the user at the optimal point of relevancy. Understanding who your prospects are, what they’re looking for and when they have specific needs will take you a long way in delivering targeted emails that provide true value.

Don't Underestimate the Value of Competitor Analysis

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:52:00 +0000

Any marketing program should start with a thorough analysis of what your competitors are doing. If you don't have insight into your competitors, it's impossible to know how you're different and how to position your true value. Your key selling points are often those that set you apart from everyone else. Taking a look at competitors also gives you a starting point to work from and can help you formulate and develop your own ideas.

With Search Engine Marketing, competitive analysis is crucial. Understanding where your competitors rank in the search engines and for which keyword phrases is vital for benchmarking. How can you measure success if you don't understand how you're ranking in comparison to competitors in the first place? You can learn a lot from competitor websites. For which keyword phrases are they optimizing and ranking well? These are probably keyword phrases for which you too need to optimize in order to reach your target audience. Don't forget to take a look at inbound links to competing websites. Who is linking to them? Are they good quality links from authoritative sites where you too could solicit links? If you know and understand your competitors, you have a great starting block for your SEO program.

The same principles can be applied to all facets of marketing. With Public Relations for example, investigate which publications your competitors are appearing in. For what kind of stories are they acting as sources ? What kind of messaging are they using? Do you see any gaps where your company could add value? One approach is to take recent articles that a competitor has contributed to and then approach the publication/writer with an angle that continues to build on that story. Journalists do not like to use the same sources over and over again, so make sure you get in front of those publications that are covering your competitors and provide them with an alternative resource and a fresh perspective.

Competitive analysis is the foundation of your marketing program, no matter what the focus. You can obtain valuable learnings that give you a great launching pad from which to grow.

Google Snubs Paid Links

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:09:00 +0000

With Google's recent retaliation against purchased backlinks, link builders need to be more creative than ever with their linking strategies.

It makes complete sense that Google would eventually take this approach to paid links. Link juice is so valuable and so crucial to search engine ranking, why give credit to those that have paid their way to the top?

Google's recommendation for link builders that rely heavily on paid links goes back to a marketplace mentality; don't pay for links, barter for them. It's all about hunting out relevant link opportunities, doing some networking and negotiating: "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine."

Linking is a perfect example of interactive marketing. You can't get good link juice without the participation of others and, in order to do so, you need either a really cool idea to make it viral, or you need to turn to good old traditional networking.

Chasing links by hunting out relevant opportunities, submitting to directories and distributing optimized press releases, for example, is very time and labor-intensive, and sometimes with minimal reward. For good quality link volume, you can't beat viral marketing as a tactic, what link builders have dubbed "link baiting".

To be successful with link baiting, you need to be creative. Try funny videos, useful content in the form of a list, online tools or widgets, for example. While the campaign is critical, so is the way in which it is deployed and it's important to identify link bait influencers. Who are the people that will pick up on your concept and start the viral string? Social networking sites are a good way of getting your viral content out there (Digg, Sphinn, StumbleUpon, etc), and don't under-estimate the power of key bloggers.

With search engines tightening the ropes on linking practices, like we have seen with Google, it has never been more important to flex your viral marketing muscles.

Social Media At Work

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 18:51:00 +0000

The recent Eliot Spitzer scandal has surfaced an interesting use of Social Media. The Press is now using social networks such as MySpace and Facebook to find out background information about the protagonists of their news stories. Social networks provide a convenient rolodex for journalists seeking connections who are willing to "dish the dirt." They also provide easy access to comments made online that journalists can re-use as quotes in their stories.

Take Ashley Dupre for example, Spitzer's now infamous call girl. Her MySpace page has been repeatedly listed in news stories including the New York Times. Dupre has reacted to the influx of traffic to her profile page by deleting her contacts and making considerable edits to the content to limit what the public can find out about her.

When it comes to the Internet, there are no laws to protect your privacy. If you post comments and photographs, you have to be prepared for them becoming publicly available. Lesson learned, don't post anything you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the New York Times.

Use Web Analytics to Track Online and Offline Campaigns

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:26:00 +0000

Not only has the Internet brought a new channel for marketers to use in communicating with consumers, but it has also introduced a whole new realm of measurement to a previously untrackable discipline via Web Analytics.

Before the creation of the Internet, it was difficult for marketers to tie results back to specific marketing programs. Unable to track what exactly was working in the marketing mix, it was impossible to optimize and build upon those programs that were most effective in achieving business objectives.

Web Analytics provides what's been missing: exact metrics. You can now track how many people visit your website, which pages they visit and where they come from. You can find out which keyword phrases they are entering in the search engines to find your website and what they do once they get there. What some people mistakenly assume is that Web Analytics is just for tracking user behavior on your website. Used correctly, Web Analytics can help you track and optimize your offline campaigns too.

For example, brand awareness programs leveraging advertising and public relations have always been pretty hard to track in terms of tying specific results back to specific placements. Using a Web Analytics package, even print ad campaigns are measurable. Using a unique URL in your print ad allows you to track all Web traffic originating from that particular ad campaign. Similarly, press releases, traditionally a purely offline tactic, are now distributed via online wire services and are optimized with keyword phrases to increase search engine ranking. Creating unique landing pages for these press releases enables you to directly measure the impact of a release in driving traffic to your website. Reporting success has never been easier!

In addition to measuring campaign performance, Web Analytics also provides the opportunity for testing and optimization. If you know that one campaign performed better than another, you can leverage these learnings to create new campaigns based on previous successes.

Web Analytics has indeed enabled businesses to become more strategic in their marketing. Why pursue ad hoc campaigns when you can use actual data to make business decisions?

If you don't already have a Web Analytics package, I recommend signing up for a free Google Analytics account. All you have to do is include a small piece of code on each of your web pages and you can start tracking immediately.

What Does "Interactive Marketing" Mean Anyway?

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:57:00 +0000

More than being the trendy term for online marketing, the name "interactive marketing" actually depicts the latest phase in the evolution of Internet marketing.

For a long time, marketing has been considered as a one-way communication with consumer reactions following a very linear path. With the introduction of blogs and social networks, the communication has all of a sudden become a two way dialogue. Consumers can react to marketing in many different ways; instead of receiving the communication, consumers are now, in many ways, in the driving seat.

The Internet is no longer just another channel for reaching consumers. It's a place where marketers and consumers can interact. Marketers should recognize the emerging participatory nature of the Internet and use it to their advantage when pursuing an online marketing program.

What’s happening in Search?

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 02:07:00 +0000

Marketing Sherpa just released their Search Marketing Benchmark Survey that asked 2,475 search marketers about their search results, budgets, tests and goals.

The survey revealed the following:

The search marketing industry is still expanding rapidly; 31% in the United States and 39% globally for 2007.
More and more companies are interested in bringing SEM in-house, although outsourcing has increased over the last 12 months.
While a quarter of respondents are dissatisfied with their agencies, many express the difficulty of finding qualified SEM specialists to bring in-house.
Responding marketers plan to increase their PPC budget by at least 11% in 2008. Increases in budget are being attributed to expected inflation.
House email marketing is still ahead of search in terms of best ROI, but search engine optimization and paid search are placed far ahead of public relations, direct mail and any form of advertising.

Interestingly, SEO is called out as one of the hardest tactics to measure. One fifth of respondents state that they can’t gauge the effectiveness of SEO. This is hard to believe with so many web analytics tools readily available. It just goes to show that web analytics as a discipline is still relatively lacking in awareness and many companies are missing out on a data driven approach to online marketing in general.

MIMA Board of Directors

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 01:49:00 +0000

I was recently asked to join the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association's (MIMA) Board of Directors and am thrilled at the opportunity. Over the past 10 years, MIMA has really been successful in establishing Interactive Marketing as a key discipline in the Twin Cities area. Proof in point, this year's annual MIMA Summit in Minneapolis received over 650 attendees and attracted high profile speakers from around the country.

As a MIMA Board member, I am looking forward to being part of such an enterprising and smart group of individuals who are all committed to raising awareness about Interactive Marketing and the huge impact it can have on a company's bottom line.

For more information on Interactive Marketing, check out the MIMA Blog (where I'm also a blogger).

MIMA Board of Directors

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 01:49:00 +0000

Don't Rush to Use Print Online

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:22:00 +0000

"If it exists, it has to exist online."

This is a wrong assumption often made by marketers looking to leverage every piece of print collateral possible for their web marketing. While it is a good idea to leverage existing materials, collateral designed for print cannot be transferred directly onto the Web.

Here are some vital elements that are often overlooked when leveraging print materials online.

Ultimate Objective
You can often lose sight of your true goal amidst the enthusiasm and excitement over a particular campaign or piece of content. When updating your website, no-matter how large or small the edit, always think about your end objective and ensure that your update is moving you closer to it.

Print and Web marketing may share the same objective - drive client acquisition - but the ways in which they reach that goal are completely different. Print has an audience; the Web has a user.

Print advertisements and PR are mainly brand awareness builders; the brand has to make an impression for an action to take place. The Web encourages prospects to interact with the brand, to embark on a journey that ultimately ends with the user engaging with the brand and making contact. Content placed on the Web should therefore act as a guide, driving the user to a specific point of contact.

Prospect Experience
Does adding a PDF of content to your website enhance user experience or does it prevent them from moving to the next level? Are users looking for bullets and summaries or do they want lengthy white papers? You need to be in-tune with your prospects' needs and expectations and make sure that all content on the website responds to those needs.

Consistency
Off-line content must be adapted to be consistent with the tone and style of the rest of the website. Think about your audience and how you want them to respond. There is often a discrepancy between off-line calls-to-action and those on a website.

Vendor Overload? When to Engage an Agency's Services

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:55:00 +0000

Are you having trouble keeping track of which agency is engaged for what? Do your projects have three or more outside vendors providing input? There is such a thing as relying too heavily on outside help.

Companies usually engage third-party agencies due to a lack of internal bandwidth and resources and because they are subject matter experts in what they do. An agency is often a cheaper way of attaining specific skill sets without hiring dedicated personnel who require high salaries and compensation.

However, beware relying on an external vendor for strategic direction. At the end of the day, you know your company's goals and messaging better than anyone. Vendor relationships work best when objectives, strategy and requirements are communicated clearly and the vendor can provide subject matter expertise in alignment with your corporate strategy. This is especially true when more than one agency is engaged for a particular project. If strategy and objectives are not clear, the separate pieces of the puzzle (each vendor) will not fit together into the desired end result. Worse still, you end up allocating a large percentage of your budget to an array of agencies that are unable to deliver due to a lack of direction.

Thumbs up to Contribute Nvu

karensams@gmail.com (Karen Sams) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 02:21:00 +0000

When my Dad asked me to build him a simple web site for a couple of his rental properties, I graciously agreed, thinking there couldn't be much to it. After half heartedly reading through my enormous edition of "Building Web Sites for Dummies", I became disheartened by the seemingly high cost of purchasing web design and photo editing software. And that's when I turned to my good friend, Google.

It's amazing how many great free tools and applications are out there for novice web site builders like myself.

Contribute Nvu is the poor man's Dreamweaver. Not only can you download the application for free, but there is a very useful "Learn how to build your website using Nvu" user guide to accompany it. If you've used web design/web editing applications before, Nvu is pretty intuitive and more than adequate for a simple project like my current undertaking.