Internet Marketing Blog From Wolf21

The Globe and Mail recently published a compelling case study highlighting how two sophisticated Toronto entrepreneurs – both with MBAs and Bay Street experience – leveraged the online footprint of their existing small business website by bringing in outside help to optimize the site and kickstart their own search engine optimization efforts.

The two business partners – Amy Ballon and Danielle Botterell, co-founders of Admiral Road, a manufacturer of custom fleece blankets, Tee-shirts and other designer items – had gone down the road traveled by many small business owners, utilizing Google AdWords, the pay-per-click program of the market-leading search engine giant. Like many other small entrepreneurs they found their pay-per-click results “expensive in terms of bringing actual customers to [their website].”

Ms. Ballon and Ms. Botterell had already developed key components of an organic search strategy – regularly updating the content on their website, blogging and getting involved in social media sites Facebook and Twitter – however, they found they had hit a wall as neither they, nor their website designer, had the specialized expertise and “technological know-how to optimize [their] site for search engines.”

After surveying local search engine optimization firms which they found to costly for their small business budget, the two entrpeneurs found an SEO consultant online through e-lance.com – an online site matching up clients with technology contractors. The consultant they hired optimized the back end code of their website, tagged their webpages with relevant keywords and provided the know-how they lacked in terms of keyword research and search engine analytics. With the SEO consultant’s help their existing site was updated using basic – but specialized – SEO techniques and knowledge that the two entrepreneurs otherwise did not have.

The result? For the same amount and effort they had spent on their AdWords each month, they were able to boost Admiral Road’s rankings on pertinent keywords to top spots on Google’s search results page. Like many small business owners frustrated with their pay-per-click results, they found that an investment in time and money to optimize their website for organic search resulted in an increase in the online sales at the heart of their business.

We all want good SEO. We want to be ranked and seen. However, anyone who hires an SEO expert or is reading blogs and articles on SEO is looking for great SEO. SEO that drives traffic and influences search engine placement, as Debra Mastaler writes in her article “Smart Links Can Make Your SEO Sing”.

According to Mastaler, the two most important way to build links that will result in great SEO are to “use keywords as anchor text (also known as link text) and to point links to pages which have been optimized for the keyword terms you’re looking for in your anchors.” Although all working links contribute to your SEO strategy, smart linking will increase your visibility and drive your traffic even better than before.

I’ve been thinking about it this way: if you were shopping for a pair of shoes, you’d be unlikely to go into the hardware store and search for shoes there. Think about link building in the same way: your links need to be optimized to pages that have relevancy to your own products or services. Even Bing’s Webmaster Blog recognizes says, “when seeking an endorsement with an external, inbound link, the theme of the site you want to link to yours should be relevant to your site’s theme”.

One of the most powerful components of link popularity is called anchor text (the clickable links inside the text you are reading). Google and Bing both recognize anchored text and how it defines the themes of your pages and influences how your site ranks when search results are determined. So, including well-researched links that point to your sight will increase your rankings, and inevitably the number of visitors who can find you as a result of those rankings. As Mastaler summarizes, “Your keyword anchors help influence how you rank for a particular phrase. If a lot of sites are hosting your keyword rich links and the engine can determine those links were not injected to manipulate the search results, your target page is on it’s way to ranking well.”

Including keywords as anchor text and developing optimized links is not an easy task. However, it is worth the time and effort to build a website for your business that relies on first-rate content, which will result in great SEO results. Great SEO strategy will get you great rankings.

According to Sam Decker of Bazaarvoice.com, approximately 68% of adult Canadians are online and many of them use the Internet for social communications, surfing and information-seeking. A lot of the social communication and information-seeking activities are utilized when researching products and reading customer reviews. Matt McGee of Smallbusiness.com notes that although only less than 26% of retailers contain ratings and reviews on their sites, 96% of those retailers argue that whether positive or negative, reviews are highly effective and valuable features that add value to the company.

Decker argues that people should incorporate a review feature on a company website encourages loyalty among customers by building a stronger customer relationship management. David Nowell of Nowell Enterprises asserts that many people argue that they look for negative reviews to make sure they can live with some of the pitfalls of the product they are about to purchase. For example, 48% of customers read reviews before buying a product, and 91% people research projects online before making an in-store purchase, notes Decker. Reviews can communicate to your company what a manager might not be able to read or hear upfront.

People’s perceptions are important to not only other customers (since it may effect their purchasing decisions), but also to the company. McGee argues that this insider information allows the retailer to either quickly remove their product from the store shelves to reduce returns, improve satisfaction and fix problems, and encourage customer loyalty and trust. Moreover, according to a study by Jupiter on ratings and reviews, 60% of online shoppers provide feedback about shopping experiences, and they are more likely to give feedback about a positive experience than a negative one. McGee confirms that this enhances authenticity and credibility.

McGee affirms that reviews can improve a company’s search engine optimization. Negative reviews offer a “peak” about how customers are talking about your product or service. There are several key words that customers use when talking about an aspect of your product/service that can improve how people search for your company on the Internet!

As editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine Chris Anderson explains, the Long Tail illustrates the current movement from small purchases of mainstream products to larger purchases of uncommon ones. The vertical axis represents sales, which the horizontal axis represents number of products. The red shading in the curve demonstrates the area in which popular products have dominated markets. The orange shading in the curve shows the less popular products within niche markets. Anderson argues that it is within this part of the curve (hence The Long Tail), where our market is heading.

How has this changed The Long Tail? Anderson argues that retailers are now able to save more money by expanding their stock and providing ability to purchase them online. Usually, retailers stock well-sought after products that cater to the mainstream markets and dismiss the niche products to save money. However, Anderson notes that the strength that the Web provides for retailers today is the ability for stores to stock any product or service on their website, which expands the magnitude of choice for consumers. A variety of interests will be satisfied at a more microscopic level, which will hopefully reach more consumers than before.

Technology Blog’s Is Bricks and Clicks the Winning Online Strategy? illustrates research from Hitwise that shows retailers with a bricks and clicks marketing strategy have more market share over the “pure play” online-only retailers. This is what we also discussed previously with regards to consumers utilizing more than one channel to purchase products. Twenty-two percent of consumers who visit a website go on to purchase the product at a physical store. As David Nowell of Nowell Enterprises asserts, 91% of consumers research products online before making an in-store purchase, and the overall shopping experience in a bricks and mortar place is even greater than the 80% satisfaction that consumers experiences online!

So how does this relate to a bricks and clicks strategy? Stores are saving both time and money with their consumers and expanding their borders to cater to those niche markets that have been neglected for so long!

One popular trend that advertisers implement into their marketing strategy during a recession period is to transfer their offline advertising to the Internet. Hoag Levins of AdAge writes,

“Many analysts now agree that when marketing budgets come under pressure in a stressed economy, those sectors that can best document their connection to ROI, such as search-engine advertising, are far more attractive to corporate chiefs than other kinds of less-trackable traditional advertising.”

Tessa Wergert of ClickZ.com observes that several businesses, including the newspaper industry, have managed to flourish in the business by prioritizing online ads through displays and classifieds. What is even more interesting is that these newspaper companies have managed to collaborate with their competitors by advertising online!

According to blogger Andrew Chen, there are several businesses that continue to thrive with online advertising:

• Search
• Ecommerce
• Classifieds
• Shopping comparison
• Remnant ad networks
• Lead generation
• Product reviews

The competition between these businesses creates pressure among the industries that will encourage search results to become stronger within search engines. Chen elaborates and asserts that they prove to be more helpful than direct mail, yellow pages and newspapers.

Video, social networks communication forums are also considered “some of the most brand-dependent companies out there,” notes Chen. Although there is some difficulty in capitalizing on these applications (since users are not in the mood to buy when using the products), these trends offer an opportunity for new companies to partner with more established media businesses to increase profit.

Just like the title reads, Hollywood is bringing Facebook to the big screen; Zuckerberg should be even more proud.

David Fincher’s “The Social Network,” opening October 1, 2010, will be giving Facebook users a telescopic view into the creation of the world’s most fascinating social media phenomena. But my question is – is it really that necessary?

From talking to several Gen Yers, the idea of creating a movie about Facebook seems, well, odd. Facebook is so embedded and entrenched in our culture that it seems a little superfluous to be making a movie about it. It also seems a little too early to be creating a movie about something no nascent and is currently exploding in the social media realm. Hopefully Justin Timberlake can add some marvel to the film.

But what about MySpace? MySpace was around way before Facebook was even thought about. Why is Facebook dubbed “The Social Network”? Freelance blogger and writer Kathryn Vercillo notes that it is perhaps the level of professionalism of users on Facebook, as MySpace seems to be more of a place for the creatively inclined with the plethora of musicians, singers, actors, or amateurs trying to make it in the show-biz.

When Facebook was on the rise of bursting onto the online social scene, Zuckerberg stated, “We don’t know what it can be, we don’t know what it will be, but we know that it is cool.” Hopefully the movie plays up to those words too. Thoughts? Watch the trailer.

What constitutes a trusted brand? A well-presented brand maintains credibility with its customers in new and old markets and promises to deliver consistent performance to its customers. According to David Nowell of Nowell Enterprises, a trusted brand also symbolizes something that customers desire to belong to and maintain loyalty with. A trusted brand is unique and innovative and can adapt to local needs, wants and tastes in the market. In Gaining Trust Online, Jack Aaronson of ClickZ.com says brands must also speak a language that your audience understands without intimidating them.

Brands help to build loyalty by identifying their customers and building their profiles in great detail in order to cater to them better in the future. Knowing and understanding your customers will encourage visitors to register and learn more about what your brand represents and delivers, Nowell argues. The information collected on your individual customers helps to customize and personalize web pages for your individual customers to reflect their various tastes and interests. But remember – state loud and clear what your objectives to your customers. Nowell notes that we need to be explicit about how you will or will not use customer information in order to protect their privacy.

The NBC news site, for example, contains a mix of local and national news to appeal and cater to its various customers and provide up-to-date coverage based on the information that they provide on the Web site. Aaronson asserts that people are actually six times more likely to feel an ad is more relevant to them when it appears on an Internet Broadcasting Web site since the content is more relevant to them, which also makes them twice as likely to click on the ad. News organizations must be both personal and relevant while maintaining their professional status.

According to Nowell, the most important aspect of successful trusted brands is that they listen to what their customers have to save, not just focusing on the masses. Interacting with and involving your customers in your company’s projects provide great opportunities for your company to learn what is and is not working for them on your web site. It’s important to motivate customers to collaborate with you instead of simply watching on the sidelines.

Aaronson insists that instead of trying to appear as a large corporate conglomerate, companies should appeal to their customers more by being more approachable. Charles Schwab, for example, launched a “Talk to Chuck” campaign with an “Ask Carrie” column in order to appear more accessible to customers. This was created in order to start conversation with customers and engage them on a more personal level. This will help your company appear more authoritative, personally relevant and trustworthy.

The thing about Facebook is that it always seems to be doing something new. We all know about the latest updates to security, the newest features, and the deals being made with other companies to integrate Facebook into other applications. It’s like that old saying about moss not gathering on the rolling stone, except here the rolling stone is Facebook and there is no moss, dust, or complacency growing on that company.

Just this morning, I noticed three articles on Facebook’s activities: Vonage users can now call their Facebook friends for free, there has been an update to their Android app, and there is an increase in Advertiser spending on Facebook.

A friend of mine, who is a stay at home mom, will be pleased with the Vonage change. She just said to me today, “In the past, stay at home moms watched soap operas and called each other, now we text and use Facebook and message boards.” The new deal with Vonage is a step to integrating telephone usage and general internet usage. Vonage Holdings CEO Marc Lefar describes it this way: “The Vonage Mobile app for Facebook is a tangible example of our commitment to deliver extraordinary value and a better communications experience for individuals and their social networks, across broadband-enabled devices, around the world. This is just the start. In the future we will expand on this service to include a wide range of integrated voice and messaging services that change the way people communicate.” The new Facebook app is free and available for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android devices; it also works over Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networks, all of which makes Facebook and your friends list even more usable.

The Android app has also been . updated recentlyThe updates include a homescreen that allows users to post their status updates or search for friends with a single click, easier viewing of photos and videos from friends on your News Feed, and a Notifications drawer to allow users to see if a friend has posted a note on your wall, commented or liked a post, or tagged you in photos. The Android app update includes video playback, support for events, and the ability to respond to friend requests without leaving the application. A Facebook spokesperson said, “Facebook Mobile is always looking to bring new and innovative ways for people to stay up-to-date and connected with their friends and family. The latest version of the Facebook for Android application was updated to include popular features, as well as new ways to browse and explore multimedia content.”

With new updates to the main site, updates to mobile interaction with Facebook, and partnerships with other large communications groups, it is no wonder that Facebook finds itself with a lot of advertising money. As Doug Caverly reports, “COO Sheryl Sandberg indicated in an interview that some large organizations have increased their spending ten- or twentyfold in the last year.” Advertising money is a good indication that Facebook is doing something right.

One of the things that appeals to me about Twitter is that they seem to be regularly changing and making upgrades to appeal to their users. And their users have been incredibly creative too. When I originally heard the concept, I was a little puzzled and thought “140 characters?”. I mean, really, what can you do with 140 characters. (I never did do well with the short answer questions in school, if you are wondering.) However, time, patience, and watching have proven that you can do a fair bit with that many characters: conversations, customer service, and business promotion are all happening at top speed on Twitter.

Let’s just say that I can admit that I was a little narrow-sighted on the matter.

Last Tuesday, Chris Crum let us know about another new feature Twitter is playing with in his article, “Twitter Tests In-Stream Photos and Videos”. Twitter has introduced to a few people a feature that gives users the ability to post videos and photos. Twitter made the following statement about it: “We’re constantly exploring features and settings. What you saw was a small test of a potential consumption setting for inline media. We show inline media on our own iPhone and Android (Android) apps.”

Now, not all of us who tweet snippets of our lives and businesses have had the opportunity to explore this new feature, but for the accounts that had photo and video capabilities for this test, Twitter gave a descriptions that said, “By default, you’ll only see images and videos shared by people you’re following, and reveal those by people you’re not. Check this box to see media from everyone on Twitter.” I didn’t have it myself, but I have similar features on other social media sites and they are fun.

In the end, we don’t know if Twitter is going to make this a permanent feature or whether they are testing it out just for now and will end up deciding to shelve it. But my personal bet is that this isn’t the last we hear of this particular feature. It expands the capabilities of this particular platform, allows users to expand their creative expressions, and, like I said before, it’s just fun to use photos and videos.

This time, instead of scratching my head I am eying up the possibilities. If I’m already thinking about the possibilities, you can bet that businesses are already beginning to ponder great new ways to use this feature to appeal to their customers.

Search Engine Marketing, according to Didit cofounder and executive chairman Kevin Lee, is dead. The point is, consumers who are driven by desire are seeking out and browsing for information. Lee argues that consumers are not using just search engines (i.e. Google, YouTube, Yahoo!, etc.) as their main source for seeking information; consumers are searching for specific and highly-targeted consumer-oriented information in other search functions, including Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook.

The best way to capture a desired target audience, Lee suggests, is through keywords, as they describe both consumer and content interest. As consumers spend less time on search engines and more time on social networking sites, marketers are beginning to grasp a better understanding of their audience and the types of words their consumers like to search for in order to have their brands situated in the appropriate online environment.

Another reason marketers may be thinking about ‘find’ and ‘influence’ marketing is that massive search engines cannot find up to 30% of the sites consumers are searching for. Lee asserts that this is one of the main causes of consumer frustration when they retrieve an irrelevant website. Lee illustrates that this is where the Long Tail enters in, where websites reveal words that people actually search for and use, rather than the industry jargon marketers think they are looking for. The most commonly used search terms will direct customers to their desired web page.

So, what is the benefit to all of this? The idea is to encourage positive information (and word of mouth!) about your website, company and brand. According to Rob Fugetta of social media marketing company, Zuberance, 30% of frequent social networkers trust their peers’ opinions when making a major purchase decision. On the contrary, David Nowell of Nowell Enterprises argues that a mere 10% trust advertisers. Fugetta argues that consumers that are communicating through these social networks act as brand advocates that can positively influence their friends and family about your company. As consumers become informed and trust your company, consumers will positively influence others to seek out information on your website as well.

Sources

Fugetta, Rob. (2010). “Zuberance Data Sheet.”

Lee, Kevin. (May 28, 2010). “SEM is Dead – Long Live ‘Find’ and ‘Influence’ Marketing.”

Nowell, David. (2008). “Marketing on the Web.” Nowell Enterprises.