Search Engine Optimization Marketing

Innovation and Cost Drivers

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Jasdeep Jaitla

Intuition can guide you to the place of innovation, and analysis guides you to the method of innovation.

Driving down costs is the goal of every business in every industry. Identifying and nailing down Cost Drivers in a Interactive Media Agency is one of the most challenging aspects of Innovation due to the service model and diversity of projects. The more diverse the services and the more capabilities an organization has, the harder the cost drivers are to innovate. This is the challenge.

Create Measurability

In order to analyze data, you need to collect data. The first step is to establish a normalized set of information, and discover commonalities that you measure over time. It's difficult in service business models to identify measurable practices since commonality between projects may not exist. In contrast, it is much easier to find measurable actvities within consistent services. For example, in the realm of public service such as law enforcement, response times can be measured which can lead to innovation in terms of communication technologies, route mapping, and routine patrolling route generation to optimize the response times and measure improvements. In the same light, commonality and metrics need to be put in place so that you can innovate. Without this baseline set of metrics, most improvements are subjective and can be hit and miss.

Measurability and Interactive Marketing

Interactive marketing strategies and improved search engine optimization follow the same metaphorical principle. Because optimization is always a moving target, you have to establish a control on your marketing practices and only change a few independent variables at a time, such as keyword density, or keyword targeting in ads, in order to see their effect. In the case of organic search results, the effect of changes may take weeks or even months before they actually show results. To top it off, search algorithms and prioritization change "without notice." To discover these changes requires a scientific mindset for the search engine optimization consultants.

The cost drivers in Search Engine Marketing involve keyword market prices. Camping a commonly used keyword for PPC can cost you a fortune. Using longtail strategies and finding ways to effectively identify your product, service or company is the innovation point, and only good analysis and keyword research will get you there. Consistency is the rule of the game to establish and maintain hold of brand loyalty, market share, market segment, and also online in terms of keyword ownership, and search engine rankings.

Internet Application Development

With Internet Services, the identification of cost drivers needs to be built into the process by abstracting out parts of the process that show commonality and measurability. This should be the starting gate through which your innovation charges. Like online marketing, application development is a moving target. New technologies explode onto the marketplace on a regular basis, tempting you to change how you do business. Again by using a scientific approach, by controlling your process and making sure you change a few things at a time, you can drive changes from the right point of view rather than hype, and effectively make improvements on your cost drivers.

E-Commerce for Hispanics: Right and Wrong

Wednesday, August 12, 2009 by Lance King

I read an article on MediaPost that showed how 2 major retailers, The Home Depot and Best Buy, targeted the U.S. Hispanic community. One company failed while the other is gaining more sales. What is interesting to me is that it appears that they both took the same approach, got back the same unexpected results, and then went in two different directions.

Both companies created a "U.S. Spanish" website. Their target was U.S. Spanish speaking consumers. What they discovered was that they were getting a lot of non-U.S. Spanish speaking visitors to their websites. These visitors wanted to buy online just like U.S. consumers. In many cases, the non-U.S. consumers were either visiting relatives or friends in the U.S. or were Mexicans crossing the border to shop. The prices in the U.S. were cheaper than in their country and so they wanted to get their items in the U.S. and then bring them back home. So what is the problem with that?

For Home Depot, the problem is that they did not take the foreign credit cards on the U.S. Spanish site. Best Buy on the other hand embraced the additional and unexpected consumers and did allow the foreign credit cards. Best Buy is finding that, even though they don't ship overseas, people will order online and ship to friends or family where they will pick up the items later. They also have found that U.S. Hispanics are using the website to print out information before they go to the stores to purchase the items. In many cases it is easier for them to understand the information in Spanish.

One of the more interesting sides to this story is that The Home Depot has stores in Mexico, they have a Mexican website (in Spanish, of course), they have an English Canadian website and they have a French Canadian website. So they are marketing to everone across North America except the the growing number of Spanish speaking Hispanics in the U.S. and those Spanish speaking visitors who wish to purchase in the U.S.

Not knowing the full details of the costs involved, it would be interesting to see the cost for Home Depot to maintain the U.S. Spanish site and the revenue the site could bring in (if they allowed foreign credit cards) and the revenue brought in by those in the U.S. who used the site to gain more information about products they wanted. It seems to me that 4 months of running the U.S. Spanish site is not enough time to determine its impact and that if Best Buy can make it work for them, The Home Depot should be able to make it work, too. Besides, if a French Canadian site can work for Canada, why can't a Spanish U.S. site work here? I wonder if Home Depot is looking for a way to recreate the U.S. Spanish site in a way that will embrace those consumers that liked having the site available.

Are you looking to build a website to market your products or services to the fast growing U.S. Hispanic community? Definition 6 is an Atlanta interactive marketing agency that can help you. Besides doing website development and web application development, we can manage your Search Engine Optimization, your Search Engine Marketing and your email marketing campaigns while providing web analytics that ties everything together. As we gather more and more valuable information about your consumers, we can tweak all methods of marketing to maximize your dollars. Contact us and let's get a plan in place for you.

The Top 7 Free Ways To Boost Your Organic Page Rank

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 by Matt Epstein

Business owners often times find themselves at odds with the popular proverb “the best things in life are free.” Fortunately even in business this enchanting life lesson can at times prove to be true, and it just so happens that some of the best ways to boost your organic page rank really are free. Below I’ve compiled a small list of ideas, tools, networks, and websites that every business should be utilizing whether it’s an owner of a small business undertaking these strategies personally or a major CEO using his resources to have an interactive marketing agency with more experience and manpower tackle the tasks outlined below. (If you outsource this work I would suggest using Definition 6 - an Atlanta Internet Marketing company - of which I of course recommend without bias)

The top 7 free ways to boost your organic page ranking;

1)    Link Building:

Links are to rank as to what Sunny is to Cher. Of all the ways in which marketers try to lure search engine spiders to their page, link building is perhaps the most used as well as one of the most effective in search engine optimization. In laymen terms, you want to have links on your site that link to other sites and vice versa that have relevant, useful information and resources for your visitors. If you link to irrelevant or random content, the search engines will shun you. The more relevant the content, the more likely search engines are to recommend your site to others. It’s important not to abuse this strategy as over-linking will become more harmful than helpful. You can build your link network by simply requesting your partners link to you, registering on link directories (you can add yourself to almost every link directory in one single swoop at http://www.addurl.nu/), or by consistently interacting with other websites on forums and blogs in the hopes that they link to you naturally.

2)    Online Press Releases:

If you’ve launched a new site, redesign, application, service, or online utility it’s important to get the word out through the virtual newswire. Telling news outlets relevant information about your technology or business developments is a great way to get instant linkbacks and even social bookmarks for your article. It’s important to once again not to abuse this strategy, as sending out irrelevant press releases every day will get you banned.

If you’d like a one-stop-shop for getting your releases to the major players I’d recommend using www.prweb.com and www.prleap.com .

Here’s a great example of how Definition 6 used PR to increase its organic search rank and traffic; http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-27-2009/0005066618&EDATE=

3)    Squidoo Lenses

Think of Squidoo Lenses as free micro sites that allow you to create debates and forums for topics specific to your industry or company. They are quick and easy to set up and allow you to link back to your website along with each corresponding lens you create. If you post thought provoking, controversial, or useful lenses the odds are very good you’ll not only see a big boost in ranking but a significant boost in traffic. I personally come across dozens of Squidoo lenses every day by way of Google search and end up at the lens creators’ website.

www.squidoo.com

4)    Social Media

Unfortunately I would do this topic a great injustice by pretending I could summarize each social media outlet and the use/benefit of each. Instead, I will simply say that if you’re not currently on the social media landscape your competitors are one step ahead. Statistics show time and time again a direct correlation between businesses social media activity and their websites rise in page rank and traffic. Definition 6 alone has received numerous business leads this month from its Twitter & Facebook social media marketing. Unfortunately many marketers have shyed away from these mediums mainly due to their lack of understanding, but I would highly recommend if you’re unwilling to dedicate a respectable portion of your budget to social media marketing that you attempt to read up on your own and establish your presence on the following social media sites which have been proven to significantly boost page rank;

•    www.facebook.com
•    www.myspace.com
•    www.twitter.com
•    www.flickr.com
•    www.technorati.com

Here’s a good example of how Definition 6 has leveraged Twitter; http://twitter.com/definition6

5)    Social Bookmarking/Voting Websites

Social bookmarking sites are quickly becoming one of the most powerful ways to drive traffic to your site. Many businesses abandon the use of bookmarks because they themselves fail to keep their social content (blogs, facebook, twitter, etc) updated. Moreover, many marketers fail to provide useful, relevant, engaging content for their viewers. Major businesses such as Dell & Apple have made millions of dollars just by leveraging social bookmarking sites. By providing users with contents, breaking news, or useful tools and resources one of your website landing pages can spread as virally as a yawning kitten video on youtube. Here are a list of the most important social bookmarking sites;

•    www.stumbleupon.com
•    www.reddit.com
•    www.digg.com
•    www.delicious.com

6)    Forum Signatures

It’s not enough to simply have a space in the interactive market; you need to interact with it as well. Another free (and at times laborious) link building/traffic boosting strategy is forum & blog posting. By engaging with consumers and peers on industry forums as well as blogs you accomplish a multitude of goals: you show you’re engaged in your field, you are accessible, you are knowledgeable, and most importantly you can end your posts with your website link thereby building your rank, credibility, and traffic.

7)    Blogs

Lastly, and perhaps the fastest of these growing trends, creating a blog. Just like the strategies before this, it’s important to note that creating a blog for the sake of creating a blog does nothing for your website or your brand; in fact it may negatively impact it. If you plan on creating a blog, which you should, be sure to actively post but more importantly post relevant useful information. It’s better to hold off posting for a few weeks to wait for an exciting topic or item than to boring and unhelpful articles every other day. Blogs are a great way to tie in social bookmarking, social media, and link building.

Seven Top Online Marketing Trends for 2009

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 by Michael Kogon

Business Development Exec, Rhonda Vincent, shares with us the 7 top online marketing trends for 2009…

For online marketers 2009 will be a challenging year, they’ll need to build the basis for future expansion, leveraging social media, emerging technologies and vendor partners who are thinking about their business and find ways to maximize their budgets. Here are 7 online marketing trends for 2009 that I came across on a ClickZ report:

• Increase customer retention efforts by marketing to your existing customer base – it’s cheaper and more effective because you know who they are and you understand their behavior.
• Create more attractive content – it will engage your customers and will help with your search engine optimization marketing
• Develop targeted marketing campaigns across a variety of mediums…e-mail, text messages, instant messages.
• Leverage online communities such as LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter…
• Increase your Web Analytics efforts
• Enhance search marketing advertising to expand across social media, mobile, and local search.
• Continue to integrate distribution channels despite higher cost

Interactive Ad Agencies like Definition 6 can leverage this insight to maximize your spends with the best ROI to get you through this year and still plan for 2010 initiatives.

Interactive Ad Agency SEO Meeting

Monday, March 23, 2009 by Michael Kogon

I have found that the Interactive Ad Agency community and the Online Ad Agency segment is having a good time with this economy. I say this not because they are immune to economic downturn, but because in a tough economy measuring the ROI is more important than every.

I recently was in a meeting with a client about their SEO results and the focus had come down to "what 5 words matter most?" That is pretty focused and very on point for a client. We went through with them the top 20 words in terms of search queries, traffic, conversions, and competitiveness. Ultimately we decided 7 words mattered most to their SEO performance and overall ROI for their Search Engine Optimization Marketing plans.

What was nice was that the web analytics combined with a detailed SEO approach gave us the tools to make a certain business decision in uncertain times.

Staying Competitive in a Turbulent Economy

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 by Ira Gross

There's a good, quick read from Kelly Spors I found online at the Wall Street Journal called 'Tough Times Call for New Ideas'. She explains how in the current tough business environment, firms need to develop new ideas, approaches, products and services to stay competitive and stay in business. There are a few key take-aways from the article:

search for new outlets
expand your services, offer a wide range of services
hit a wider audience

Given the current economic situation, firms need to be proactive to maintain and even grow market share. "Waiting it out" is not a strategy for success. Instead, implement new marketing tactics and promotions using rich media advertising, social media marketing and search engine optimization marketing. Read through our blogs to find out leading interactive agency Definition 6 leverages our experience and expertise to deliver digital solutions to clients in a turbulant economy.

All Things Social

Monday, February 16, 2009 by Michael Kogon

Definition 6 Business Development Exec, Ken Brantley, points out what search engine marketers should know about sorting through social media strategy fads and laying the groundwork for leveraging media and advertisting in the interactive space...

Jennifer Winners, Chief Operating Officer and Social Media Specialist of DISC, Inc., sums it up well in a recent article on VisibilityMagazine.com. She explains that, up until the era of Social Media,” the internet was largely impersonal, random, and largely intimidating. It was difficult to know which businesses were legitimate, which sources of information were accurate, and generally who could be trusted.”

There were some key points that I took from the article:
1. Social Media offers tools for people to behave online much as they do offline
2. It’s important to understand which social media tools are the best fit for communicating with your customers
3. Social Media is a loose term for all things “social” on the internet for example: blogs, wikis, video sharing, podcasts, social networking sites, picture sharing, social bookmarking. Social refers to the ability to interact, and Media refers to the tools.
4. Behave with your customers online as you would offline

At Definition 6 we certainly understand that in today’s world, marketing and technology strategies are interconnected. We leverage expertise in all interactive areas including social media marketing and strategy. Contact us today or check out some of our additional blog posts on social media to find out how we can help implement and manage your next digital business solution.

Going Viral

Friday, January 23, 2009 by Michael Kogon

Project Manager, Lisa Seals on viral marketing...

Search Engine Watch recently ran an article on best practices and strategies for creating successful viral marketing campaigns. If you’re an interactive media agency, interactive ad agency or SEO firm with limited knowledge on your client’s industry, there are helpful sites to help you compile data and uncover information about which sites have influence over your target audience. For example, this illustration from Quantcast shows monthly traffic for a popular virtual world site.

Successful viral marketing campaigns lead to better branding, exposure, and links. The trick is creating the awareness. Read through our blogs and find out how Definition 6 can help increase the likelihood of success for your next marketing campaign. Or for more information on Definition 6's services, contact us today.

The Power of Blogs

Monday, November 24, 2008 by Asa Sherrill

Steve West, a Definition 6 Senior Graphic Designer shared this on blogs...
In 1929 Franklin Roosevelt began delivering his now famous fireside chats while he was governor of New York. After becoming president in 1933, he delivered his first presidential fireside chat on March 12 to talk to the American people about the bank crisis. After that, he delivered 29 more fireside chats until 1944. On November 15, President-elect released his first radio address and posted the same address in video on YouTube talking about the economy.

The Obama campaign brought his presidential campaign to the web in a way like never before. It involved a website that solicited $5 donations, a blog that talked about the campaign as well as an in-depth resource about their stand on current issues. This unprecedented approach brought in more support than any campaign before and brought people closer to the candidate. Now that the election is over, President-elect Obama has taken this same initiative and created a new website, www.change.gov. On there you can read news posts, follow blog posts about the transition, learn about the agenda and look at the nominees.

This new spirit of bringing the oval office to the people is an example that companies can follow. A blog is one way to way to connect to your audience and put a face on your company. In this arena, you can easily discuss what you believe and what your goals are. Subsequently, if you are using search engine optimization marketing as a tactic to drive customer acquisition, having a blog will increase your chances of being ranked with the search engines. Or if you haven’t updated your news section lately maybe a blog would be a better way to show what you’re doing. Just because you haven’t been in the news doesn’t mean you don’t have anything to say or should be saying.

Let’s bypass Facebook for your business and get LinkedIn

Friday, November 21, 2008 by Asa Sherrill

Social networking is all the rage these days and it seems like the way to take your company. But where do you want to be seen? Myspace has attracted so many teenagers, it’s considered to be like hanging out at the mall and Facebook attracts an older demographic. LinkedIn.com is the social network for professionals.

Since 2003, LinkedIn has grown to 30 million users in 150 industries. This is a free social networking site that lets users register and network with other business contacts. Within this network, users can search for jobs, business opportunities and other people. Businesses can join and post information about their company as well as recruit users for open positions.

With 30 million users and no cost, it’s a great place to put your company. Not to mention, it's yet another vehicle for a search engine optimization marketing.

Strategies for Interactive Marketing in a Recession

Thursday, November 13, 2008 by Michael Kogon

Jeremy Bromwell, a Definition 6 Account Coordinator, reported on a Forrester research article...

Because many interactive marketing programs are fueled by measureable results, interactive marketing will survive and even thrive during a recession.

Jeremy covered a few points that have held extremely relevant:

1. Many interactive marketing formats target the decision to buy, rather than just boosting awareness. When people are worried about spending, increasing engagement is more likely to generate sales than shouting about a brand.
2. Predictions are that online display ads won't be hit too hard, money will flow towards search engine optimization solutions and email marketing will increase and social applications will strive in the soft economy.
3. Make sure results-based interactive gets its share of the mix. Your CEO is warning your VP of advertising to prepare to cut spending. You should be whispering in his/her other ear with stats about how your targeted email marketing, search engine optimization marketing, or online advertising programs are paying off. If the dollars get cut, this will keep interactive in the mix or even increase your share of the remaining marketing dollars.

Jeremy's final thought to the group was that interactive marketing initiaves should be top-of-mind during a recession as their measurable results can be used as leverage to hold on to or even expand interactive marketing programs. The ability to tie ROI and ROAS to an interactive campaign is one of the many advantages of the channel. Also, time to market and refinement cycles are much quicker with interactive and the cost is often lower too! The full article can be viewed at: http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,45128,00.html

Recession? Really......

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 by Michael Kogon

I just had to post some pictures from this weekend with my daughter. And as a regular consumer of all things American Girl doll, I expected to see something amazing -- meaning "it shocked me". As in Interactive Advertising Agency CEO, I spend my days developing marketing and ecommerce solutions to drive store traffic. I must admit, that I don't think anyone would have believed me if I had said "we can get parents to pay $20+ to have their child's dolls hair styled" - that will drive traffic. However look at this:

I think that this is a great example of customer insight and if I were their online Ad Agency I would make sure that they search engine optimized for this unique service and offered a discount on purchase with a hair styling appointment. They do a good job doing search engine optimization marketing, but they need to tie it to some offers. I know my house will use them!

Local Search

Friday, October 24, 2008 by Michael Kogon

James MacAvoy, a Definition 6 Project Coordinator, conveyed his thoughts on an article about search engine marketing he recently read on ClickZ...

As opposed to just bidding on and optimizing for keyword pharases that get the largest number of searches, local companies can bid on highly specific phrases. This is not only cheaper when it comes to PPC bids but also allows for a higher conversion rate because users who search with these more specialized terms will help find content the user is seeking.

James brought up three key points from the article:

1. Most companies go for keyword phrases that get the largest number of hits, however this can be expensive and have a great amount of competition.
2. Long-tail terms do not get as many searches but since the searches are so specialized their conversion rate is generally higher.
3. Its all about keyword research. Think of specific terms your customer will be looking for, then specific locations and specific products or services you offer.

James's closing point to the group was that with overall industry declines in traffic it is now important to research alternatives to keep the traffic rising. Since budget has been a constant concern and many common keyword phrases are taken by portal sites, this may be a cost effective way to integrate keyword phrases that get a better return on investment. The full article about web search engine optimization can be viewed at: http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3630757

SEO Myths

Wednesday, October 8, 2008 by Michael Kogon

When it comes to a search engine optimization strategy, many of our clients are either puzzled by the ever changing algorithms or mislead by the differences between paid and organic search. Undoubtedly, there is a great deal of misinformation out there when it comes to search engine optimization marketing.

Lance King, a Definition 6 Technical Project Manager, researched the topic and came across an article written by Michael Estrin who addresses some of the most common misperceptions about search engine optimization marketing. A common thread that Lance sees when talking to his clients about search engine marketing is that they think that if it’s not paid search, that it’s free. Depending on the website and the campaign objectives, you will want to budget properly for an SEO program. Just as important, you need a seasoned SEO consultant on hand who not only understands the strategy behind internet search engine marketing but who also knows how to benchmark and measure your SEO successes. To read the article in its entirety, go to:
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19803.asp