Archive for the 'Search Marketing' Category

Jeff James: New Generation, New Rules for Marketing Success

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at May 22, 2008 in Search Marketing. 0 Comments

Jeff James

And first up for the morning is Jeff James who shall be delving / diving headlong into what all this new marketing stuff is all about. Here’s the brief overview of his overview:

  • Today’s consumer conversation
  • Today’s media world and how to tap its power
  • Mapping your customer and competitive environment
  • Rules of success for Next Generation marketing

Decline of trust – 50% of consumers regard price as more important than brand. Only 7% have trust in adverts/advertising

Disintermediation of media – saturation of Internet users aged under 44barring certain demos…the majority being in WV and Kentucky no doubt.

Broken Marketing Model:
Citibank 3000 media messages / adverts a day …..darn. And we’ll only take notice of 53 per day…..Panhandle cleaning and restoration springs to mind – only 4 of those 52 are remotely remembered.

WOM – buzz marketing…how do we find out about specific products etc. Here comes the influencers. Tv still dominating but WOM is the second most important method of finding products.

Good point how the internet has become the new polyfilla in terms of mistrust in marketing.

The power of the word of mouth or in other words – what is blabbed about the most online.

The Internet is the new Mr. Rodgers neighbourhood. Tis a global neighbourhood. Find those influencers. Influence those influence. Find Old Mr Jones who knows everything there is to know about lawn mower parts. Emotins more importion than functions. Exactly! People buy from people they like. No, really they do. Tell your story. Every business has one believe it or not and therein starts your conversation. Markets as conversations and the next thing you know you’re chugging along the old cluetrain.

Questions to CEOs or questionable CEOs? Or Cfos for that matter.

Very good start off. Very good indeed.

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Repairing a Damaged Reputation

Published by
Skip Lineberg
at April 28, 2008 in Search Marketing. 0 Comments

Rehabilitating a damaged public image. This is one of the most popular topics that I am asked to address. From time to time, whenever controversy arises (and that seems to be more frequently, doesn’t it!) the question is presented: how does one rehabilitate or repair a damaged image? How can someone rebuild his or her reputation? Given such popularity, I am reposting this article from last year with the hope that you’ll again find it useful.

It takes time to rehabilitate one’s image: such a matter does not lend itself to a quick fix.

Many people hope that if they say the right thing at the critical moment all will be made good. That’s just not how the world works.

We, as human beings, form perceptions about other humans over time. This is the basis of reputation. If a person has made a major blunder, it equates to a big, negative hit against his or her reputation. This cannot be overcome with one press conference. No, the perfect statement at the perfect time will not wipe the slate clean. Instead, those in the audience will watch and observe, most likely in a cautious manner at first. Some will be inclined to forgive; others may become embittered permanently toward the person who made the major mistake. Over time, most people in the audience will adjust their assessments of the person in question.

So if the perfect words will not do the trick, what can rebuild a tarnished reputation? One word: actions.

Continue reading ‘Repairing a Damaged Reputation’

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SEM II: Join the Evolution

Published by
Justin Seibert
at December 6, 2007 in Conferences, Live Blogging, Search Marketing and Speakers. 3 Comments

Alright, I said I’d never do this, but I’m going to try and give live blogging a shot.  I’m presenting on paid search marketing in a little bit (but not live blogging that - what a trick that would be), but first up is Neal Rabogliatti from Catalyst Connection in Pittsburgh.  He’ll be talking about search engine optimization.

The conference is SEM II: Join the Evolution and is being hosted by eBizITPA.

The agenda:

* a review of his speech at SEM I back almost a year ago

* designing for success - we talked about this a little before hand and it should be really interesting for the crowd (great turnout today, btw, with a lot of walk ups in a very snowy Erie)

* social media

* helpful online tools

1st really good point: Web developers are really astute and great at their craft from a technical standpoint (mostly), but often they will benefit from working with seo or marketing folks.  Highly agree - both teams benefit from working together.

Good analogy for putting Web sites together: measure twice, cut once.  I remember my dad beating that into my head when I was younger.  Develop a plan.   Think about seo AND user friendly design, conversion, analytics, promoting, monitoring, managing.

Aah - a nice memory from my LA days - “ask for the order.”  It’s not just when a sales person speaks with a person - it’s important for your Web site to do the same.

Neal’s from Catalyst Connection, a great outfit for businesses that believes in lean and related management processes.  Going through the process for putting together an effective, seo friendly Web site.

Talking right now about businesses using keywords that THEY know.  Need to figure out what people are actually searching for.  Also talking about the different number of searches for singulars vs. plurals.

SEO basics - 2 steps:

1. Indexing pages; ranking is based on the content of the indexed page.
2. Ranking  = relevance; broken into 3 parts:
a. page content (keyword density)
b. organizing codes (meta)
c. link popularity

I usually break #2 into two parts when explaining to seo newbies, but this makes sense too, separating on screen page content out from meta.

Folders and root directories - how do you organize?  Name dropping with Jill Whalen, Danny Sullivan, etc. (all named are great industry sources)

Hits on one of my biggest pet peeves - frames.  Arrgh!  Going onto  div / layers instead of tables now.  He’s 100% right, but (don’t tell anyone - I still use tables for quick stuff just b/c it’s so much easier for me - don’t let me personally do any page layouts for your site).

CSS - this is all really good stuff for business execs, owners, small businesses, everyone who’s not doing this for a living.  Things that are more than they need to know from a ‘how do you do it perspective’, but can grasp fairly quickly and will help them be able to dictate how their site should be built.

Navigation - link structure - comparing it to a giant circuit board.

Social media - points out that it’s not just for kids (anymore) or goofy wedding videos.  bookmarking sites, media sharing sites, blogs, and content syndication.  Talks about a polyurethane (sp?) stamping company client of his - put the video of how it works onto youtube.  Great results.  I love examples from manufacturing companies!

On digg stuff now - touches on, but doesn’t really go into being wary of the strong backlash you should prepare for if you post the wrong type of article / press release / news story.  Some good strategy points, including the importance of participation, being real, and offering value.

Lists some helpful tools like keyword discovery and other keyword suggestion tools.  My favorite question (the one I’d ask) from the audience: “Is it free?”

Brought up another one that he said someone will kill him if they knew he brought it up.  I like Neal and don’t want to see him dead, so I’m not putting it in here.

Talking about analytics - going into Google Analytics right now.  I’m not linking to them - figure they have enough juice as is and might be able to survive without one from this blog post - maybe!

Another good one - Domain Tools.  I’m not as big a fan of alexa, but having that information along with the other info it provides doesn’t hurt.  Having a private conversation with Cathy von Birgelen about alexa right now.   Seems like a better tool for site owners to point to to try and sell ad space.

Onto site maps now - not the traditional one that you click on when you see sites, but xml ones.  VERY important.  robots.txt, too.  Neal’s saying not to list disallows anymore b/c they don’t work; instead, under disallow, use <sitemap_[url].txt>  Everything’s standardized among the major search engines.

Going into real world examples right now.  Ahh, now I know how to spell urethane.  Holy cow - I just looked up and it looks like I got it right.  He’s being very nice and trying not to offend me on behalf of tpaid search folks everywhere talking about cost reduction.  As I told him ahead of time, I’m always in for cost savings!  Be smart with budgeting, bidding, testing, keywords used and on and on.  I don’t want anyone to spend more than they have to to get great returns!

He brings up a great story about a company getting bought out.  Since their site seo ranked higher than the parent company they decided to ditch the old site.  Reminds me of one of our clients.  They do business all over the world and do stuff in Australia quite a bit.  There are some jobs that are too small for them to do the travel, so they turn it over to partners.  The CEO was grinning ear to ear in talking about how mad the other company gets that a US company gets the lead and not the company in the Aussie’s (remember, pronounce with a ‘z’, not an ’s’) on backyard.

Good speech all around, Neal.

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Search Engine Fatigue

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at October 23, 2007 in Search Marketing. 0 Comments

An interesting little snippet at search engine land about search engine fatigue:

–72.3 percent of Americans experience “search engine fatigue” (either “always,” “usually,” or “sometimes”) when researching a topic on the Internet.

–65.4 percent of Americans say they’ve spent two or more hours in a single sitting searching for specific information on search engines.

–More than three out of four (75.1 percent) of those who experience search engine fatigue report getting up and physically leaving their computer without the information they were seeking – either “always,” “usually” or “sometimes.”

The report discusses user frustration with clutter and the content of search results:

When asked to name their #1 complaint about the process, 25 percent cited a deluge of results, 24 percent cited a predominance of commercial (paid) listings, 18.8 percent blamed the search engine’s inability to understand their keywords (forcing them to try again), and 18.6 percent were most frustrated by disorganized/random results.

There was also a desire among many users that search engines be able to “read their minds”:

Kelton asked survey respondents whether they wished that search engines like Google could, in effect, read their minds, delivering the results they were actually looking for. . . That capability is something that 78 percent of all survey-takers “wished” for, including 86.2 percent of 18-34 year-olds and 85 percent of those under 18.

I have to confess, that if I can’t find something then generally it isn’t out there on the Web - I’m a pretty good searcher. There are certain mind-melding techniques to become one with Google, but if I shared them I’d have to kill you.

Kinda reminds me of this:

Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can’t Index

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Video Presentations Now Available

Published by
Paul Woodhouse
at September 14, 2007 in Conference News, Event Details, Search Marketing and Speakers. 0 Comments

Following on from the conference last month, we finally have the videos of the presentations in their entirety for you to take a look at. If you attended the conference then you should have been sent your own login which allows you to access each presentation in video format and the accompanying powerpoint presentation. If you haven’t received any login information, please get in touch with us and we’ll get it sorted for you.

The videos were shot, edited and uploaded by the Network Learning Alliance:

The Network Learning Alliance is a virtual training environment designed to support the West Virginia Information Technology labor market which targets federal contracting opportunities. As an initiative of the West Virginia High Technology Consortium (WVHTC) Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Fairmont, W.Va., Network Learning Alliance is facilitating the education of the IT industry workforce through its partners; the Workforce Investment Board (WIB) One-Stop Centers, West Virginia University, Fairmont State University, West Virginia University Institute of Technology, and select private training providers.

This project is building the regional workforce development system’s capacity to meet the needs of a growing federal IT marketplace in north-central West Virginia. It focuses on the development of specific educational programming aligned to meet the needs of the region’s high-technology business sector.

Network Learning Alliance, through the assistance of its parent organization and partnerships, has identified a gap between the current workforce development system and the needs of the companies in the regional IT Industry. Economic analysts project that within the next 12 months an estimated 350 to 400 new technology-related jobs and support positions will be added to the regional economy. To ensure the long-term stability and growth of the region, these companies must consistently recruit and retain highly qualified employees, upgrade existing employee skills, and stay at the leading edge of technology.

To accomplish this goal, Network Learning Alliance is creating educational programming that aligns with the identified needs of the IT employers. By focusing on the latest instructional technologies, Network Learning Alliance is creating a unique educational model that will facilitate content and educational services to regional government contractors.

Hopefully, we’ll have a few clips to be able to show you before long that may entice a few of you who didn’t attend the conference to view proceedings from the comfort of your own computer chair. If you feel so inclined.

It’s a shame I can’t make an excuse to kick back myself and watch the whole thing in glorious technicolor as you don’t need to watch them all at once. You can take your time and view each presentation as and when you feel like it in chunks that are palatable to you or suit your particular schedule.

And whilst we’re on the subject of e-learning and West Virginia, Justin Seibert of Direct Online Marketing™, who gave a great presentation on New and Proven Uses for Search Marketing, has been published in the latest edition of the West Virginia Executive. I’d love to be able to point you in the right direction via a link, but it hasn’t been put up on the Web as of yet.

You’ll just have to go out and purchase a copy. (Or wait until I put the link up!)

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