Search Marketing Strategy

Are You Drawing Pictures in the Dark?

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 by Kevin Smith

While talking with a family member about things to do around town, one of them shared their experience at a “Dialogue in the Dark” exhibit. In the exhibition, blind guides lead visitors through a completely dark environment where they learn to interact by relying on other senses. The activities provide an innovative and powerful tool for reinforcing a trusting collaborative mindset and emotional intelligence. The exhibit is based upon writings from German-Jewish philosopher Martin Buber’s work The Principles of Dialogue which states: “The only way to learn is through encounter”.

Having to experience life without the sense of sight reminds me of how many customers ask for help in the building of a new website or some other piece of creative, without wanting to take the time to share anything about who their target audience is, their industry, their competitive landscape, or their vision for the future. Execution on creative for marketing campaigns without the input required to understand how to support and target the message is like drawing pictures in the dark. You have no sense of direction to guide you in the creation of the most attractive and appealing designs.

Here are several points to consider when guiding someone on a journey in an area they are unfamiliar with using their other four senses. Remember these steps are intended to build trust, confidence, and stimulate use of other senses beyond sight.

“Hearing” the Voice of your Customers

Listening to the Voice of Your Customers can at times sound like an old wives tales to many who choose to shoot first and then aim in their approach to designing great creative. The process of capturing a customer's requirements to produces a detailed set of wants and needs, and then prioritized in terms of relative importance can consist of both qualitative and quantitative research steps. It usually starts with a series of forensic questions that yields measurable results focused on awareness, credibility, loyalty, accuracy. This input is valuable in the creative process because it provides the designer with a framework for developing the creative to appeal to the most important needs of an end user.

“Smelling” the environmental ques around you

A designer can learn tremendous insight from your competitors and other industry and non-industry related sites that are generally appealing to your target audience. Most consumers look at search results and make three to six second decisions based upon how copy and the initial creative “smells”- that is the first impression of trust and care that one senses when seeing a new site. People know what authenticity really smells like.

“Touching ” your clients with the right message

We have all seen how a cute picture drawn by a small child can touch our hearts and pull us to act in a certain way. Planning is an essential key to an effective website that will earn the trust and loyalty of a dedicated customer base. If you were to walk around a well built house with your eyes closed you could use your sense of touch to know that a solid architecture was used in the construction of the home. A quality user experience has to be the centerpiece of any online strategy.

Share the “Taste” of the success of great design

Whether you are enjoying a meal at a hole in the wall beach shanty or white tablecloth restaurant, you know when you have experienced a meal well served with lots of different flavors that truly satisfies you. When you are following a process to developing quality user focused creative for a marketing campaign, you will want to experience the comfort of a site map that meets your target audience(s) prioritized information needs. You will likely have a taste for various design comps and want to add a few savory changes before the recipe is finally to your taste.

To steer clear of beauty pageants that want you to show your pretty pictures and to avoid having to draw pictures in the dark, look for every opportunity to show your prospects and clients how to use their other senses in developing great creative.

The Secrets of Online Video: REVEALED!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 by Doug Dimon

I've decided to break with the tradition of mystical subterfuge that we creative types like to use to keep our methods secret. I’m going to come clean about the three easy steps to create successful online video marketing. I know this will likely get me scratched off the list at all the best industry events, but I can no longer hold my tongue in good conscience.

Step1: come up with an engaging concept.
Step2: produce a well-made, compelling video.
Step 3: post the engaging and compelling video.

Yea, I know… not much of a secret. The truth is people seem to view online videos as some sort of crazy alternative marketing. It’s as if there is some secret ingredient that gets sprinkled over the computer while posting that makes it different than something you would see on television. The truth is that it is not the content that is different, but rather how it is consumed. Television is a fairly passive medium and people are more likely to watch something simply because it is in front of them. This is changing thanks to the DVR culture, but it is still largely true. Viewing a video online, however, is a much more deliberate act. People have to want to watch it. And, hopefully, they will pass it on to others so they can watch it. For this to happen it needs to really be engaging. Clearly the intent of all brand marketing is to engage the consumer, but online video needs to be or you won’t have an audience.

This fact makes it all the more absurd that many people believe that successful online videos can be created by anyone with a webcam. Certainly, there have been many such “successful” videos (witness the most viewed Youtube video ever), but this is the exception not the rule, and is rarely true when it comes to brand marketing. I’m not saying that you need to have a million dollar budget, or hire the top Hollywood director, but you do have to approach it with clear creative intent, even if the end result is unscripted, or “low tech”. The principles that hold true for any successful film or video still apply: good narrative (whether plot or visual) and solid construction. Brands would never air some poorly produced piece with half-baked creative on television, yet they all too often treat their online video offerings as amateur hour.

Your video has to connect with your audience on some level, through humor, compassion, awe, outrage, etc. It has to offer the viewer some intrinsic value that will create an attachment and drive them to become a brand advocate. Once again, this is not a new marketing concept. What is new, is the tremendous advantage online video offers in this endeavor. At its core, a viral video is a social media tool. People love to share things with their friends and online video gives them the tools to go beyond the water cooler chat (did you see that spot on TV last night with the blue thing… hilarious!) to actually presenting your video to a person that trusts them. This is why an online viewing number that is a fraction of the viewers of a spot during a primetime show represents a much bigger win for the brand: the online viewers are active participants. Do it right and those participants become advocates.

There are specific factors that do distinguish online video from a televised spot: no length requirements, resolution and audio playback quality, trafficking to specific market, ease of deployment, etc. But do not let those differences cloud the fact that at it still needs to be approached with the same level of detail and planning as any on-air piece. Just because it is simple and inexpensive to get your video on the web, don’t treat like a second class marketing strategy. It has massive potential to influence your customers.

Integrated Marketing Strategy: Tying It All Together

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Chris Thornton

I recently had an opportunity to participate in a webinar about the current trends and thinking around integrated marketing strategy, particularly in the areas of interative marketing.

The digital evolution has completely changed the way companies interact with their customers. Companies can longer push their agenda to drive business, but must find ways to add value at every single touch point. How can companies effectively create a unified message across so many disciplines to evolve the way consumers think of their brand?

A good part of my strategic discussion revolved around reinvention of the idea of brand, and what it means to be a marketer for a company in the 21st century. Some specific takeways I think I cover in this presentation include:

How to organize and integrate your marketing operation to create a cohesive message
How to identify early in the process if you are achieving your goals
How to optimize your branding efforts and align them with your sales organization

If you're thinking about integrating your marketing programs, or just looking to improve the performance of your existing integrated marketing programs, perhaps you'll find the presentation relevant to your current discussions.

To view my presentation from the webinar, please click on the presentation below:

Integrated Marketing Strategy - Tying It All Together

View more presentations from Definition 6.

Questions or comments about the proposal? Please feel free to reach out to me through Twitter.

Choose Your Agency Wisely

Monday, January 11, 2010 by Sherman Distin

Far too often agencies lose sight of what's really important. They become entrenched in the many details of just running a successful Paid Search campaign. That usually translates into weekly meetings where metrics like Impressions, Clicks and Average Cost-per-Click are heavily discussed. Don't get me wrong, these metrics indirectly indicate how your paid search campaign is tracking against your business goals but who has time to try and put those pieces together? When you have multiple stakeholders breathing down your back for various reports and executive summaries on those reports, do you really want to be bothered with figuring out how to make a 20% increase in clicks week over week sound important to those stakeholders?

Let me offer a little story to help drive the point home -

A bright recent college grad is considering investing. He calls on three highly recommended investors to have a meeting. In the meeting he reaches into his pocket and puts the change he finds on the table. He asks the first investor, “What do you see?”

The investor replies, “I see thirty-six cents.”

“You are very good with math, thank you.” says the college grad. He turns to the second investor and asks, “What do you see?” The investor thinking he has certainly outwitted the first investor replies, “I see a 2007 Quarter with George Washington’s portrait, a 1996 Dime with a portrait of Franklin Roosevelt and a 1943 Penny with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.”

The college grad replies, “You are extremely observant and detail oriented. Thank you.” The college grad then turns to the third investor and asks the same question, “What do you see?”

The third investor replies without hesitation, “I see you paying off your college loans and buying a sports car.”
“You’re hired. Let’s meet again on Monday,” said the college grad.

After walking out of the room the two befuddled investors turn to the smiling investor and ask in unison, “What the hell was that?”

The smiling investor replied, “You see, in 1943 pennies were struck in silver. The pennies struck in copper were rare errors and are highly valuable. Being that he is a recent college graduate, he should put that money towards paying off his loans. I also noticed he was reading a sports car magazine when we entered. After a few investments, He will be able to use the left over money to invest in a little fun. That’s really the big picture.”

Most agencies are like the first investor. They get the math right. They understand tracking, reporting and all the intricacies of tactical execution but those agencies really have no clue what the larger corporate initiatives are of their client because they are too narrowly focused on making sure the campaigns they are running have excellent performance when judged by Paid Search KPI's.

Agencies that are like the second investor take pride in surface level knowledge and cool reporting gimmicks. They all too often skip over the actual math and performance. They are usually guilty of having flashy sales people in place of strategy driven Account Service team members.

The third investor is the agency you want to partner with. They won't bog you down with details of pay per click performance metrics that get in the way of you understanding what that performance means to your business objectives. They understand all of the tedious details in paid search marketing but provide summaries in a way that is meaningful to your business. Do you want to talk to your VP or CEO in terms of Click-Through-Rates or in terms of increases on efficiency in customer acquisition? The third investor also picked up on an interest the college grad did not mention. A good agency should note the goals you mention as well as ask for confirmation on the ones that may be implied.

When choosing your agency make sure they are asking the questions that show they are interested in not only displaying their paid search expertise but also helping your business grow.

Drinking From The Fire Hose

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Tom Kirszenstein

I've been hearing the phrase "Drinking from the fire hose" more often than usual lately. The curious thing is that it's coming from Interactive Media Professionals (including myself), as much as from end users. With the exponential growth of the Internet and its related technologies, we now have access to more information, in more places, in more ways than ever before. Web 2.0, Social Media, Application Software Development, Mobile and related technologies are having a profound impact on Interactive Marketing Strategies. Many agencies are capable at traditional & online media marketing, or they may have strong technical capabilities--but, it is rare to find an agency that has all of these abilities and deep technical resources such as Definition 6.

To follow the fire hose analogy--anyone faced with that situation would get out of the way. The high volume and velocity of incoming data require some type of control and direction to be useful to ourselves, our clients, and our business. Developers, interactive designers, and marketers are faced with the same questions as consumers--how to manage the onslaught of incoming information. Interactive Ad Agencies are faced with the additional responsibility of creating new tools to distribute information in a clear and meaningful way. These interactive professionals are the firemen holding the hose.

At the height of the dotcom boom, an old colleague used to remind me that technology is simply a way of doing things. As the old broadcast model of advertising becomes obsolete, and user discovery & social interaction drive engagement, the function of marketing itself must now change to meet these communication challenges. This new model now poses new questions about where marketers should be, how they communicate, and when that interaction will occur. I still remember the first 7-Eleven convenience store that opened in my neighborhood, and discovering that name comes from its operating hours—--it was a big deal to be open until 11PM! Marketers didn’t create more ads to attract customers from 9-5, they simply changed to meet customers on their own terms.

Integrated interactive marketing campaigns must be open and immersed in the culture to create value and be relevant. Successful marketers are positioned alongside their target market, making use of tactics such as Branded Content and Branded Entertainment to engage the user, enabling them to discover that value on their own, and decide what truly fulfills their needs. This is not an easy task, and creating meaningful user interaction grows out of qualified analysis of users and their interactions. Those of us in Media and Advertising have been exposed to these ideas before, but never before have these been more important to interactive design. Today's consumer has become a partner in the design process, and defines how we approach our interactions with them. Social media tools such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter provide marketers with a limitless cache of information to help segment, target and engage users as never before— which only highlights the need for efficient processing of data.

Our obligation to clients is to find the relevant information, manage and organize it, and disperse it to potential customers. To do this, we interpret client requirements and translate those requirements into a meaningful Interactive Experience. We need to collect and analyze enough user data to create strong, branded messages that reach the intended target. In addition, we must combine data with the tools and applications that make it meaningful to those target consumers.

In this new age of discovery, the true Integrated Interactive Agencies are taking the time and effort to find the tools necessary to do the job, or when needed, create them. With information coming constantly from every direction, those who are efficient at organizing, managing, and presenting it will be successful. Otherwise, we're just spraying a fire hose. If we attempt to do that, consumers will just get out of the way.

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.

Successes in Social Media (or Please start using Social Media now)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 by Lance King

I've compiled a small list here of Social Media success stories. One of the interesting things that I find about most people who have already started marketing and consumer communications using Social Media is that they often say "don't be afraid to try something new" and "don't be afraid of failure". Some failures have lead to even better campaigns. If these companies (and more) can try a few ideas, so can you. Most people familiar with social media agree that if you really want to connect with your consumers and help establish or reinforce brand recognition, you need to get on Social Media outlets now. For one thing, it is often very cheap to do this while being able to reach out to thousands or even millions of potential and long-standing customers. So please review these stories to see how easy some of them got started and the great successes that they had.

1. Taco Mac on Twitter
Followers of Taco Mac can follow the individual Taco Mac location of their choice. They get updates on Taco Mac's latest specials and reminders of special events. Taco Mac gets a lot more people attending special events because many of them might have forgotten. On Pint Night they are running out of free pint glasses in 1 hour instead of 3 hours like it was before Twitter. What else could your company do if you were sending constant "reminders" to your customers?
(http://www.ajc.com/business/taco-mac-uses-twitter-102656.html)
(http://twitter.com/TMacLindbergh)

2. Masi Bicycles on Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
New Masi Brand Manager, Tim Jackson, was given a very small budget and they were already spending much of that on some magazine ads. So he had to come up with an inexpensive way to better market the Masi brand. The easy (and cheap) way for him was to create a blog that he regularly posts to. This actually helped him to establish good relationships with some of his vendors. He is also actively using Twitter and Facebook and is moving toward podcasts and video. With a new "cult" following, sales are really starting to grow. What's really interesting is that Tim had never done any of this before.
(http://mediahunter.typepad.com/media_hunter/2008/07/social-media-su.html#more)
(http://twitter.com/MasiBicycles)

3. CNN with Facebook
CNN had a huge success when they teamed up with Facebook to present the Presidential Inaugaration and Michael Jackson's funeral. 21.3 million live video streams! That's a lot of people. Oh, and guess what? CNN's first attempt failed (The Primary Debates). But they figured it out before the inaugaration. What can your company do that would attract watchers, even if you don't get 21.3 million? Maybe a live fashion show for a new line of clothing? Perhaps a live demonstration of how your product works or a new product offering? Or maybe a conversation with your CEO?
(http://vmarketingblog.com/2009/07/31/cnn-and-social-networking/)
(http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/01/21/inauguration.online.video/index.html)
(http://mashable.com/2009/01/20/cnn-facebook-inauguration-numbers/)
(http://newteevee.com/2009/01/20/facebook-cnn-is-future-of-tv/)

4. Zappos on Twitter, Blogs
Customer satisfaction and relationships. That is what Zappos is all about. QUALITY interactions. Not only do the CEO and COO get online, but many of their other employees do too. It is like they are your friends. What would it be like for your company if people considered your brand as their friend? Zappos has come to the realization that your brand isn't what you say it is, it is what the consumers say it is. They proudly look for and respond to negative comments about them. They are all about "making things right". They want people to be comfortable not just with Zappos' products, but with Zappos' employees. How would people respond to your employees if they were responding to and interacting with consumers online? To quote from the article below "we may not always remember what someone tells us, but we generally remember how we felt when we were interacting with the person. And when people feel respected and engaged, whether it is in-person with a co-worker or online on a social network, they have a natural desire to tell other people about the experience."
(http://mashable.com/2009/04/26/zappos/)
(http://twitter.com/zappos)

5. Common Wealth Credit Union (CWCU) on YouTube
CWCU wanted to target a specific demographic. People between the ages of 17 and 25. They wanted a way to keep the buzz going while acquiring new customers for life. They created a microsite for this campaign that is managed by someone who is 17 - 25 years old and use YouTube to upload videos that will appeal to people their age, usually videos of themselves. People can interact with the website by answering poll questions, watching videos, sharing pictures, submitting job postings, adding information about free stuff in their communities, and of course, applying for a chequing account. The site "spokester" also blogs about money with fun little YouTube videos. They opened up 2400 new accounts in the first 8 months after the campaign started (Note, the article does not say how that compares to previous months, but it must be good because they are still going and have a new "spokester" with lots of new material).
(http://mediahunter.typepad.com/media_hunter/2008/08/social-media--1.html#more)
(http://www.youngfreealberta.com/)

So those are just a few examples of companies making the most with Social Media. In many cases it involved very little cost. In other cases there was quite a bit of time, effort and money put into it, but the results were out of this world. Given that there are several very active social media sites, it would be a smart move to get your company out there and in touch with your current and potential customers.

If you are looking for great ideas, let Definition 6 help you. We are an online interactive marketing agency with experience in Social Media efforts. There are so many good online marketing techniques and we can help you find the one (or more) that are right for you. If you go to www.definition6.com, you can check out our new game that interacts directly with Twitter called TwitterINGO. Or you can check out how we integrated AutoExtra's campaign with MySpace. We can also help you with mobile marketing strategies.

If any of the above stories don't convince you to get on the Social Media bandwagon, then check out Mashable.com's "10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media".

Top 10 Free Sales Force Applications for Your Business

Thursday, August 6, 2009 by Matt Epstein

Recently I visited the doctor for a single respiratory CT scan in which AFTER insurance I ended up paying close to $1,500. Upon seeing the exorbitant bill I headed straight to the nearest Mc Donald in an attempt to convince myself that ordering from the “Dollar Menu” could be a long term strategy to help me subsidize the 10 costly X-Rays (I think it’d have been cheaper for them to simply open my chest and take a look rather than spend 30 seconds photographing my lungs).

During the car ride home, in which I ate all of my fries before reaching the front doorstep, something dawned on me. As I attempted in vain to wipe the french-fry grease from my hands I came to the realization that when you combine something that’s good AND cheap it can make anyone’s day better. Granted my cholesterol/MSG high only lasted for but a moment, I decided in the spirit of giving I’d share the same free and good satisfaction with those of you in the blogosphere.

As every aspect of business slowly moves into the clouds, businesses have been turning to website integration platforms such as SalesForce.com. Many businesses are unaware of the Sales Force app exchange, and those who are often times don’t realize there are a plethora (I’ve been dying to use that word) of extremely useful and FREE applications that help to make Sales Force a complete online marketing and sales tool.

So on behalf of myself and Definition 6, an interactive media agency in Atlanta, I present you with the top 10 FREE Sales Force applications that every business can benefit from. In no particular order;

SalesView:

Of all the free Apps on the exchange list, Sales View may be perhaps the most valuable for your sales team. This App which was built specifically for Sales Force allows your sales team to instantly tap into a plethora (that’s twice now if I use the word one more time I own it) of sales resources such as Hoover's, D&B, Reuters, Jigsaw, NetProspex, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to get all they’d ever need to know about a potential client.

2. Contact Capture:

Losing hours of time inputting contacts from e-mails and web-leads? With Contact Capture simply highlight the contacts information in an e-mail or on a website and Contact Capture automatically inputs the necessary contact information in Sales Force.

3. Google Web Analytics:

Currently using google analytics to analyze your website? This free App allows you to track web page visits, browser capability, average visit time, and much more right from your dashboard. This is the perfect tool for any SalesForce user who also does work with their businesses search engine optimization and websight design.

4.Lead Look-A-Like Finder:

I think every sales person and executive has been frustrated at one point or another in their sales force experience by running into the issue of duplicate leads. End the frustration with this nifty App that scans your entire SalesForce database and removes duplicate leads.

5. Skype For Sales Force:

This free Skype application provides seamless Skype integration into Salesforce application.

6. SalesForce for iPhone:

Personally, I’ve never been cool enough to own an I-Phone, but for those of you that are this is a great App that allows you to instantly pull up SalesForce.com and log in to your account on your iPhone. Currently the I-Phone is the only smart phone with free SalesForce access (Blackberry charges). This one will most likely be a big hit in interactive agencies.

7.Form Factory Quotes & Invoices:

A great application software development, I’ll use the Apps own description “FormFactory generates business forms including quotes, proposals, invoices, and packing slips. Documents can be delivered as live web forms, PDF or HTML files, and Microsoft Word. Create professional quality forms for free without leaving salesforce!”

8.Auto Complete Lookup:

Granted this App will not triple your revenue, however it will make it much easier for your employees to instantly find the information they are looking for. This quick script creates a Google-type search interface in which typing a few letters into the search box provides you with options of the closest matches.

9. E-Mail Auto Complete:

This nifty light-weight App provides you with access to all your contacts directly from the Salesforce Email page. Provides you with similar functionality to that of the auto complete search.

10. Mass Transfer Contacts:

If only someone had written this top 10 list before me I would have not had to spend 8 hours moving one of my sales reps contacts to another sales reps contact after the previous one left. This app allows you to instantly shift all contact ownership from one sales person to another, a great tool for anyone using sales force for email marketing.

Plan now for a successful holiday season at your website

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 by Lynn Moss

MarketingSherpa released its 2009 eCommerce Benchmark Survey and reminds us that we should be gearing up for what is projected to be an improved holiday season: up 9% over 2008. Nearly 1,500 eCommerce marketers rated tactics for improving website conversions.

1.  Perpetual shopping carts

These take many different forms:  from a simple note that there’s a product sitting in the cart to dynamic overlays showing images of the product, price, and estimated shipping costs.  The perpetual shopping cart keeps the purchase in the mind of the customer; that psychological anchor helps guide them back to the purchase.

2. Website search

Consumer research suggests that almost 50% of shoppers prefer internal search over traditional menu options. This number naturally rises when they have a specific product or brand in mind.

The first priority is to test your internal search regularly to ensure that it works effectively. Second, examine the different business factors that can be used to optimize internal search results.  Some marketers use a ‘last in-first out’ method to move inventory, while others use their analytics and database systems to sort products by profit margin. The choices are as broad as your technology and creativity.

3.  Enhanced display

Consumers are enthusiastic about getting multiple, varied photos of a product.   People want to know as much as they can about a product, and even static images can help. Showing videos how to use products or explaining complex features can bring products to life for the user.

Definition 6 is an Atlanta ad agency and has extensive experience in building and designing eCommerce websites.  We can improve your Search Engine Optimization. We are experts in Google Search technology and can implement search at your site. We can also help you with your interactive advertising campaigns and targeted email marketing. Do you need a mobile advertising strategy? We can help!

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.

Believe The Hype: Open Source Web CMS

Friday, July 10, 2009 by Mike Reese

If you were involved in a CMS (or WCM - Web Content Management) purchase decision 5 years ago, you likely heard about the "open source" phenomenon. And, you probably cringed at the thought of supporting your revenue-producing, lead-generation website with low cost alternative to the Interwoven and Vignette giants. Cringe no more, open source solutions not only provide very similar features, the good ones are now fully supported as well.

Here's a recent article written by JT Smith on Website Magazine. (Choosing An Open Source Web Content Management System) He successfully details the differences between closed and open source systems (without bashing the Big Guys). Ultimately, every company has their own decision to make, their own contstraints, processes and budget concerns. A WCMS solution has to adhere to these points, so open source may not be for everyone. But it's certainly worth taking a look at some of JT's points:

As your business grows, your needs will change. The open source model provides a mechanism for adapting to that change without relying on proprietary software to catch up to evolving trends and new technologies.

Budget...Budget. If budget is a concern, and likely it is these days, open source makes sense. Period. Save the budget for your other interactive marketing strategies.

Fully supported. Lack of support used to be a pitfall of open source solutions. That has changed. You'll find that well established, reputable solutions offer not only support, but also a vast community of developers and end users.

Somewhere in between. Open source CMS does not necesitate custom application development. Nor does it necesitate costly professional services contracts. It really falls in the middle. The benefit of open source becomes the ability to lean in either direction.

I love JT's quote: "Using closed source CMS can be likened to buying a new car with the hood welded shut, the wheels permanently attached, and your only maintenance option is a visit to the dealership."

Give open source a look. At Definition 6, we utilize one of the "good ones", Umbraco. We've been through several (> 20), successful implementations for a variety of clients. Including websites in the travel, telecommunications and online retail industries. I'm proud to say that we're also the first certified solutions developer in North America.

Combine Social Media with Traditional Tactics: Real Campaign Example

Thursday, July 9, 2009 by Cecilia Barella

As social media channels become more and more powerful they also seem to become more and more varied, it feels like every day we learn about a new cool tool, as an interactive marketer, it can be challenging to figure out which one is the best fit for which marketing strategy. I read an article in Marketing Sherpa on how to use social media in a more effective way. The article gives specific examples from IBM on how they have combined social media strategy with traditional tactics for application development, event promotion and demand generation. I have highlighted here one of them, where social media was used to promote SOA’s events and tools.

Social Media Marketing for Event Promotion and Lead Generation

IBM wanted to bring together the SOA community and generate leads for its SOA tools and solutions. So the Marketing team organized a road show that included 100 cities. To complement the traditional marketing methods of promotion for the event which included direct mail and one-to-one invitations, IBM used an animated 3D person on the SOA website, a Twitter campaign, blogs and a widget.

- 3D Animated Character

The animated 3D character was added to the SOA website, it walked with an invitation in its’ hand, when users clicked on the character or on the invitation they were taken to a registration page. Visits to the registration page increased by 600%.

- Twitter

Messages were sent on Twitter with a promo code, users that signed up with that promo code were allowed to talk directly with one of IBM’s CTO for 30minutes. Within 3 days, over 40 people registered in Amsterdam alone.

- Blogs

The marketing team blogged about the conference on multiple development oriented blogs. The buzz created around the event caused many developers to mention the conference in their own blogs, feeds, profiles… Customers even created Facebook and LinkedIn groups supporting the event. The buzz caused by the social media ‘add-ons’ increased their event registration by 10% at no cost to the company.

- Online Community

For connecting customers after the event the team used a third-party company to build an online community website called SOAsocial. They let the third-party host the community as the goal was to make it less company/IBM focused and let it grow on its own.

- Consumer generated content

They encouraged customers to take pictures at the events and post them on Flickr afterwards. This not only increased engagement through user-generated content, but it also helped the company save thousands of dollars on hiring a photographer.

- Widget

Since the attendees of the events were potential customers for the SOA tools. The marketing team built a widget that supplied the events’ presentations. The widget could be added to a blog, website or downloaded to a computer. The widget was driven by RSS feeds, so the company could push news and products demos to potential and existing customers. 67% of the conferences’ attendees downloaded the widget.

One of the “key lesson learned” for Interactive Ad Agencies is that social media is a channel and not a strategy in itself, it is most effective when used to complement other marketing initiatives, including offline and traditional marketing.

SEO Friendly Tweets?

Friday, June 26, 2009 by Jeremy Bromwell

Recent rumors suggest that Google is moving towards real-time search which would include indexing Tweets. That means that NOW is the time to look at your Twitter presence.

Google is already indexing tweets just not in real-time, but pages and individual tweets are appearing in search results.

Here's an example:

Here are a few tips to improve search engine optimization with your twitter posts:

Choose a good handle
Select an account name wisely
Make your bio count
Spread the word
Remember your URL
Select the initial characters of each tweet carefully (the first 42 or so become your title tag)
Create keyword-rich tweets when possible
Optimize for RT (aka retweetability)
Shorten those links (and track them)
Cut the fat - take the reader to the information they want, don't make them search for it after clicking your link

At Definition 6 we work with businesses and companies to help develop social media strategy and improve social media marketing for our client. If you are looking for interactive solutions that deliver let us know and we'll be happy to help you take your business to the next level.

Portions of this post have been adapted from an article by Mike Dobbs, read the original post that inspired me here.

Dell generated $3M on Twitter, but more importantly, they are interacting with customers.

Thursday, June 25, 2009 by Lance King

I have seen several articles recently about how Dell made $3 million using Twitter (How Dell Generated $3 million in Sales Using Twitter, Social Media ROI: Dell's $3m on Twitter and Four Better Examples). Interestingly enough, the articles stress that having the $3 million in sales is not the most important thing that Dell is doing, but rather a good result to a much bigger strategy. The important thing Dell is doing is customer communications. They are actually listening to their customers. They listen for their complaints and listen for their ideas and then they interact with their customers by replying to them. Customers love it when a company responds to them. By building a constantly growing base of customers, Dell is earning more respect. So it is no wonder that when they started posting promotions on Twitter they generated a lot of sales.

It is important to note that even though Dell was able measure a hard ROI of sales that came directly from Twitter, there is a more difficult measure called "soft" ROI that no doubt led to the hard ROI. The soft ROI is measured in things like fewer support personel required to take phone calls, the value of an online community that openly discusses a company's products or services, and the value of forums where people can search for answers rather than waiting on hold for a customer rep on the phone. I think if you can build the soft ROI's, then the hard ROI's will be easy to create.

Definition 6 is an interactive marketing agency that can help companies start with the basics to build up a strong and powerful customer base using social media and then help to start generating hard ROI's. We can help you with your long term strategy rather than just focusing on getting a company Twitter account up and running. Just having the account is not going to help you generate revenue or customer loyalty. It is how you use that account that will accomplish those.

Ideas to Add Text Messaging to Your Business

Friday, June 19, 2009 by Jeremy Bromwell

After the recent L.G. National Texting Championship this week text messaging has been on my mind. I came across a great article on ClickZ recently about how to begin integrating text messages with your business and mobile advertising strategy.

The author, Jack Aaronson, listed 7 ways to get started:

Order Status
Product Availability and Purchasing
Ratings and Reviews
Similar Items
Multimedia Messages
Policies and Store Hours/Locations
In-store Customer Service

There are many other uses for text messaging outside of the retail environment but these are just a few suggestions to help you generate ideas to help your business. A mobile strategy, when well planned and thoughtfully implemented, can provide additional lift to other forms of media and advertising.

View the full article here or call me at Definition 6 to talk about how we can help develop your mobile marketing strategies.

Benchmark For Success

Friday, June 19, 2009 by Mike Reese

In my previous post regarding the need to include auto-generated emails within a email marketing strategy, I reflected on the lack of love given to emails automatically generated through end-user website activity. It's time to give benchmarking some love too!

The promise of a new web project or marketing initiative leaves stakeholders dreaming of online success, higher conversion rates, higher traffic volumes and positive bottom line results. Quite often, the strategy for measuring success gets lost in the shuffle.

Some of you reading this might be thinking, "Why waste the time? Higher conversion equals success." In some cases you may be right on track with that thought, but most of you probably know it's more than that. Success can be measured in many ways, I'll get into that in second. But understand that it's worth a deeper dive into the metrics that are important to you, your company or your industry, before you start on a new initiative. Ask yourself what data you'll be reviewing a week after a website launch to determine if you're on your way towards a positive ROI. It might be PPC reporting, website analytics, email marketing, CRM comparison or another set of metrics that is specific to your industry. I've seen it before, 2 months after redesign and stakeholders are trying to figure out what to measure. By that point, you're probably not going to have the baseline data needed to show a comparison. Solution? Benchmark. And do it early. The strategy and planning phase of any project is the perfect time to start thinking about it.

So what metrics should you benchmark? There is no perfect answer. Sally, who manages an online retail business will have different success factors than Frank, the owner of a property management services company. Sally cares about online sales and revenue generation, but Frank wants to see an increase in online lead generation. It can be a daunting task, so here are a few good places to start:

Website analytics - If your initiative includes the enhancement or redesign of a website, start the project with an examination of your existing analytics data. If you don't have any, stop reading this and go get it. Figure out what will be important to you later. It may be as simple as traffic volume, visit duration, cost per ad spend or conversion rates. But you may find a need to collect custom data as well. Almost every analytics package out there has that capability.
External data - In this context, external data is performance data obtained through your CRM package or 3rd party sources. Call center volumes or in-store data would fall into this category. You need an adequate way to access it and you need historical references.
Email marketing - If your initiative includes modifications to email marketing programs, make sure your provider is collecting meaningful data on open and click-through rates. And make sure you'll have access to historical data to create a trending analysis.

There are plenty of other data sources to benchmark against to determine success. The main goal is to ensure you have the data you'll need to measure success after you've spent time and money to get there. And do it early. Your ROI calculation will depend on it.

Keys to targeting the growing Hispanic community

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 by Lance King

In my continuing research into marketing to the Hispanic consumer, I'm finding great articles from MediaPost that provide good information on why and how to reach this particular audience. So here is an article by Joseph Kutchera (Why Does Google Send U.S. Hispanics To Foreign Web Sites?) that talks about what Google is doing with search results for the Spanish speaking community and how you can apply similar ideas to your marketing campaigns.

The first thing he points out is that if you search in Google using Spanish words, 50% or more of your responses are going to be for sites outside of the U.S. borders. So why does this happen and why do marketers miss this target audience? Kutchera provides the answer. "Google and other search engines index sites globally while we marketers, agencies and media sellers work within the economic and political borders of the U.S." When people search using Spanish words and terms, Google is going to return sites that have Spanish content on them. Does your website have Spanish content? If you do, you may still be missing out on this audience for a few different reasons. Kutchera points out the following. 1) Your Spanish site may not be optimized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) like your English site. 2) Many Spanish speaking Hispanics like to go to sites of their country of origin. 3) Spanish language markets are more likely to spend time on their content, making it more relevant than someone from an English language market who is updating a Spanish language website. 4) U.S. advertisers have been slow to move budgets toward online marketing and therefore not providing the resources necessary to provide the content that is necessary.

So what can you do to reach the Hispanic population:

- Purchase non-U.S. targeted inventory on your search buys along with your U.S. targeted inventory.
- Reach out to Hispanic country-of-origin web sites through ad networks.
- Apply behavioral, contextual, and language targeting to further segment and understand your Hispanic audience.

As a Senior Consultant at Definition 6, an interactive marketing agency with expertise in Web Search Engine Optimization and Search Marketing Consulting, I'm seeing lots of evidence for companies to shift some marketing dollars to specifically target Hispanics in the U.S. This growing population is getting online at a very fast pace. There are millions and millions of them out there that could be buying your products or services if they could find you. Are you willing to let them go to your competitors? We can help you target them. We can help you get ahead of the curve.

Why target Hispanics with mobile ads?

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 by Lance King

Here is an article I found about targeting Hispanics with mobile ads and apps. Why you should target them specifically? Well, it turns out that many younger generation Hispanics in the US will get their first internet experience on their cell phone, not on a computer. And some recent surveys have shown that Hispanics are more likely to view mobile advertisements and respond to them than other groups. One company mentioned in the article is targeting Hispanics by offering English training on their cell phones in exchange for them watching a short 2 - 3 second advertisement. With the responses offered up by Hispanics, it can become quite easy to figure out what different demographics are doing and what they respond best to. Given that Hispanics will be in a better spending position once the recession settles, it seems like a great opportunity now to start planning your mobile campaigns that are directed toward Hispanics.

Definition 6 is an Interactive Marketing company in Atlanta that can help you with your mobile marketing strategies and help you tie them in with application development consulting, web 2.0 applications, email marketing and search engine optimization. Contact us and let us help you market to this growing community of consumers.

Social Media Marketing

Thursday, April 30, 2009 by Michael Kogon

Social Media Strategy is one of the most interesting things we do here at Definition 6, Atlanta Interactive Agency. The rise of Web 2.0 Applications as commonplace within our daily lives has made Socail Media mainstream. Sometimes we are asked how can we use social medai to improve search engine optimization and other times we are asked how can make social media fit into an integrated online marketing plan. But it is a daily topic of conversation and I've found a really good report from destinationCRM.com that talks about a 5 year forecast for social media. The key points from the author, Jessica Tsai citing Jeremiah Owyang, are:

The report breaks down the past, present, and future state of the social Web into five overlapping eras:

1. The era of social relationships: Beginning in the mid-1990s, people signed up for online profiles and connected with their friends to share information.
2. The era of social functionality: As it exists today, social networking is more than just a platform for "friending," but one that can support a broader array of what Owyang calls "social interactive applications." However, identities are essentially disconnected silos within individual sites.
3. The era of social colonization: By late 2009, technologies such as OpenID and Facebook Connect will begin to break down the barriers of social networks and allow individuals to integrate their social connections as part of their online experience, blurring the lines between networks and traditional sites.
4. The era of social context: In 2010, sites will begin to recognize personal identities and social relationships to deliver customized online experiences. Social networks will become the "base of operation for everyone's online experiences."
5. The era of social commerce: In approximately two years, social networks will be more powerful than corporate Web sites and CRM systems, as individual identities and relationships are built on this platform. Brands will serve community interests and grow based on community advocacy as users continue to drive innovation in this direction.

So if we are doing a good job of being Interactive Marketing Strategists to help prepare our clients for the "era of social context" and upgrading our customer's sites to incorporate OpenID and Facebook Connect today. This will help them meet their customers where they are and with what they are doing online today. I'll talk more about being ready for your customer in some future posts.

Not sure why people think that advertising alone should support a website

Friday, April 3, 2009 by Lynn Moss

A client sent me two articles to react to about online advertising. The title that I chose for this posting states my position: I'm not sure why people think that advertising alone should support a website.

The first article is from The Economist and is entitled The demise of a popular but unsustainable business model for the Internet now seems inevitable. This is one of the best articles I've read that explains the reality of Internet business models, whether realistic or not. Read the entire article at www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13326158.

Great explanation of the dotcom crash…
Firms sprang up to offer content and services online, in the hope that they would eventually be able to “monetise” the resulting millions of “eyeballs” by selling advertising. Things did not work out that way, though, and the result was the dotcom crash.

…and of the Web 2.0 bubble…
Google’s ability to place small, targeted text advertisements next to Internet-search results, and on other websites, meant that many of the business models thought to have been killed by the dotcom bust now rose from the grave.

….and economical realities.
The idea that you can give things away online, and hope that advertising revenue will somehow materialize later on, undoubtedly appeals to users, who enjoy free services as a result. Ultimately, though, every business needs revenues—and advertising is not going to provide enough.

The second article is a provocative one entitled Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet and states that advertising cannot fully support the Internet. Read it at www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/.

Websites need to sell real products, services, information or 'access' to information like TripAdvisor.com.  Or, offer an 'experience' like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, or World of Warcraft.

It's true that most people don't trust ads, online or offline. They don't 'want' them or 'need' them. The Internet allows users to get information from a variety of sources and from sources they trust.

But, no company expecting to maintain market share in today's economic environment is going to say "Stop telling potential customers about us."

Organic search, paid search and display banners can increase awareness and conversions even in today's climate. Display banner advertising works because it reaches users where they are on the Internet.  You don't advertise just with your name on the building.  You advertise in high traffic areas, too.

How does Definition 6 ensure that online advertising succeeds for our clients?   First, we're big into collaborative strategy. How can you differentiate yourself?  How can we build synergy with your other initiatives? Who should you target with banners? What should the messaging be?

Bottom line:  Appropriate targeting and messaging still works online.  We go beyond traditional banners; we use rich media to make the experience engaging and interactive.

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