Posted by Nick Loeser on Thu, Jan 26, 2012 @ 09:49 AM
The SEO (search engine optimization) landscape is an ever-evolving challenge for web marketers. Like most things, it was a lot simpler in the old days (1999) when all you needed to do was pack your website full of keywords and useless content. Soon after came the era of the mighty link, when the only thing search marketers were discussing was how to get more inbound links to their sites. Google’s rank algorithms have evolved significantly and have become so much more sophisticated, so now quality is the new king. Recent changes to Google’s ranking algorithm pose less of a new challenge for markets and more of a positive step forward for, marketers and consumers.
Minimize your advertisements: Google recently announced that they will begin to penalize sites that have too many advertisements “above the fold.” This is that key real estate on your website that makes up the top 500 or so pixels. Google is going after the blogs and websites that do nothing but post poor quality articles and surround them by tons of ads. Undoubtedly, it will hurt the millions of websites that regurgitate useless content in an effort to steal traffic from quality resources online.
Develop a content strategy: As I mentioned above, quality content is king. Gone are the days when auto-blog scripts that fill your website with regularly updated and recycled content will be effective content strategies. Google is looking to see that you are consistently updating your website with fresh information and useful content. The exact method Google is using to make this determination is a closely guarded secret, but that doesn’t really matter. Put together a plan for adding new and relevant content on nearly a daily basis. If you’re an insurance professional and want to rank well for highly-competitive insurance search terms, than content is the key. Perhaps you can post a daily blog with financial planning tips. Create unique content like insurance guides or calculators. Stuff that will keep people (and search bots) coming back for more.
Plan a social strategy: When you think of social networking you may have visions of useless status updates and countless “likes” or retweets. While the terminology may be a bit ridiculous, the strategy is important for search optimization. You may have noticed that when you conduct a search with Google (or other major search engines) you get a lot more than a page of links. You now see results that include videos, tweets, live news feeds, images and more. This is a trend that began when Google started offering up YouTube videos in their search results and it has only become more prominent. As you develop your content strategies, be sure to include a Facebook business page, Twitter and now, Google+.
More articles on SEO.
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 @ 02:09 PM
The beginning of a new year offers an opportunity for companies to take a fresh look at what’s working and what’s not working. Did you send anything different or new out this past year? If you have a control mailer, did that stay the same all year?
It’s easy for marketers to grow attached to what they see as “working.” Whatever is bringing in a consistent and predictable response rate often seems like the best option, especially when marketing budgets are tight. However, believing that your marketing is inviolable is what leads to stale campaigns and undoubtedly, declining response rates.
In a previous life, I was a marketing manager for a magazine publisher. We used to send out three or four different mailings per month, each with roughly 100,000 prospects. Every mailing we did included a standard letter, a buck slip, BRC and usually a plain envelope. Thought we did a lot of testing, there was this perpetual belief that our audience liked plain envelopes and long two-page letters. That belief was totally unfounded since we never actually tested packages without the letter, or in a different style envelope. As a result, during my brief tenure with the magazine, we never saw response rates climb by a difference of more than one percent.
If you haven’t already made (and perhaps broken) your new year’s resolution, try this one out. Do something different with your marketing in 2012. Challenge traditional thinking and old control packages. Challenge the notion that single-digit response rates are acceptable. Next January, when you’re reviewing what worked and what didn’t in 2012, you’ll know that you stepped outside what was familiar and comfortable, and probably got noticed.
To see something different, check these out. To hold something different in your hands, request samples. Or, to invite us in to show your whole team something new, please request an open house! I hear the cookies at those events are pretty good.
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Jan 11, 2012 @ 09:57 AM
Recently, the online magazine, Social Media Examiner put together 30 predictions for social media in 2012, provided by industry experts. There are a wide variety of predictions, but I especially like #25, "Traditional marketing interweaves social media". The expert reminds us that traditional marketing principals need to be part of the discussion when planning a social media campaign or strategy.
There are several great predictions so it's well worth scanning the list. Click here to read the article.
Other Social Media Blog Postings
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Dec 14, 2011 @ 01:01 PM
We wanted to share a study that was written about in BtoB Magazine. Epsilon Targeting, a consumer research company, conducted the study this year of 2,226 consumers. Here are the key findings.
- 36% of U.S. consumers and 40% of Canadians said direct mail is the preferred channel to receive financial services information;
- 26% of U.S. consumers and 30% of Canadians said direct mail is more trustworthy than email;
- 50% of U.S. consumers and 48% of Canadians said they pay more attention to postal mail than email;
- 60% of U.S. consumers and 64% of Canadians said they enjoy checking the mailbox for postal mail, highlighting an emotional connection;
- 30% of U.S. consumers said they're receiving more mail that interests them compared to a year ago, and just 50% (down from 63% in 2010) said more information is sent to them in the mail -- indicating marketers are improving targeting efforts;
- The perception that reading email is faster declined among U.S. email account holders to 45% in 2011 (from 47% in 2010), suggesting clogged inboxes are draining time.
Read the full article. Read the Epsilon Targeting study results.
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Dec 07, 2011 @ 11:08 AM
We wanted to share a great article that was recently published in Direct Marketing magazine in Canada. It was written by our friend and business partner, Andrew MacEachern, president of Information Packaging, Inc. in Toronto. Though Information Packaging offers their own line of dimensional mail products they also offer Structural Graphics’ designs and marketing products, exclusively to the Canadian market. Andrew has been in the industry for many years and we have worked closely with him developing high-impact marketing solutions for businesses up north.
Click here to download the November issue of Direct Marketing and scroll down to page 4 to read his article. Andrew discusses how to use dimensional mail effectively and the best way to integrate digital assets like QR codes and landing pages to add impact to your campaigns. It’s well worth the quick read.
Posted by Susie Mehring on Wed, Nov 30, 2011 @ 01:42 PM
We recently came upon an article on LinkedIn written by a Financial Services Marketing Consultant regarding the importance of including direct mail in an integrated campaign. There are some great statistics within the article in particular some findings from a study conducted by the research company Millward Brown. Click here to read this article.
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Nov 16, 2011 @ 02:01 PM
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the challenging aspects of managing a website. For many businesses it’s easier to hire someone to manage SEO and not have to think about it at all. You may be surprised to know that there are plenty of no-cost, easy thing you can do to improve your search rankings, without the assistance of an expensive search agency. As major search engines consistently change and improve their ranking algorithms it is actually getting easier for your website to rank well, assuming you’re playing by the rules.
When Larry Page and Sergey Brin met at Stanford University in 1995 they developed a search site called BackRub, which was later renamed Google. Since it was launched Google has ranked websites according to their relevance to the search term. The primary method for gaining relevance in the eyes of Google has been the almighty link.
Why links don’t matter… as much
Links have long been one of the best ways to improve your search rankings. In fact, an entire line of SEO products and services have been developed to service that one need. For example, you can buy software that will automatically search for sites to link to your site; then send them an automated email asking for a link back. In other words, you’re asking the webmaster for that site to setup a link to your site. Usually, this is in exchange for a reciprocal link on your own site. Furthermore, there are countless services that will do nothing but search for sites to link back to yours. You can also buy software to spam forums and community sites with postings that contain a link. I am sure you have all seen an interesting blog post or conversation in a forum with one user that posted: “interesting blog post, buy your generic drugs from this site”.
In the past decade the search engines have started getting smart to these less-than-reputable search optimization methods (aka Blackhat SEO). No one knows for sure how important links are in the current search algorithms, but what is certain is that quantity is far less important than quality. If my site has 1,000 link-backs from random websites that have no relevance to my site, that will carry very little weight in Google’s ranking algorithm. However, if you have only a few links from very high quality sites in your industry, that will help significantly. The automated software, spambots, and overseas link building service are essentially useless for effective and reputable search optimization.
So what does work?
Update Your Site Frequently: Keeping your site updated with fresh, relevant content is a great way to keep the search engines coming back to index more of your site. The best way to do this is to include a blog on your site and/or Twitter/Facebook feeds. Updating a daily or weekly blog adds fresh, original content to your site and lends relevance in your industry. For example, if you write an interesting blog post about something in your industry, other site may link to it. These sites would likely be industry-relevant sites, hence lending more credibility to your own site. I could dedicate an entire blog posting to the benefits of blogging for your business, but you get the point.
Use Headlines and Sub Headlines: One of the first things a competent SEO agency or consultant will tell you is that they need to reorganize the content on your website. The way Google and other search engines determine the subject of the content on your site is through your headline tags. For example, if there is a paragraph about the best way to use your widgets, make sure there is a bold headline above it that says “The best way to use our widgets”. Google can actually determine the subject of your site by reading these headline tags and evaluating if the copy that follows is relevant. To learn more about formatting text check out this article.
Limit the Flash: Though Flash technology has fallen in and out of favor amongst web designers, it is still very prevalent on the web. One thing remains true; search engines hate Flash. Why? Well, they can’t read it. If you have a fancy Flash element on your website the search engine has no way to determine what the Flash is about. Surprisingly, many businesses still create their entire website in Flash. Yes, it looks pretty but it will have a difficult time ranking well in search engines. Furthermore, the hundreds of millions of iPhone users out there will not be able to see your site due to the iPhone/Flash restriction. Instead of your website, the user will see a little blue Lego-like icon with a question mark on it. Not very effective.
I hope this brief overview of good SEO practices was helpful. To read more, check out this artifcle on pleasing Google.
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Nov 09, 2011 @ 11:22 AM
Today a colleague sent me an article from the Harvard Business Review. I really couldn't believe what I was reading. It included shocking statistics about how long it takes most companies to respond to online leads. Then I thought about all of the times I was the prospect and realized it was very believable.
Ironically, just this morning I submitted an information request for a service we are researching. I immediately got contacted by an account manager (5 minutes). They asked to setup a call. I replied that I was in my office all morning and to give me a call. That was four hours ago. Perhaps it was an automated email. A bit disappointing considering their initial contact was so timely.
Since a large part of our business deals with digital assets, it's important that our clients have an organized and reliable lead response plan in place. We have discussed this before in our blog. See below for related articles.
Check out the article. Do the results surprise you? Sound off below in our comments section!
Other articles: The 15 Minute Rule of Lead Follow Up : Does Sales Know What Marketing is Doing?
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Oct 26, 2011 @ 12:12 PM
When I searched the term “list exhaustion” I got some amusing results. Assuming everyone in the world searches for marketing-related terms, I was actually surprised to see that the general public takes that term to mean “exhaustion due to a large to-do list”. Seems like a reasonable interpretation; hopefully they’ll come out with a pill for that condition. Ah, but I digress. That’s not what this article is about.
For the past five or so years, a local insurance agent has sent me a letter every couple of weeks. I suppose the strategy is to catch me when I’m actually shopping for insurance, but instead, he has wasted untold amounts of paper, postage and effort. He has likely exhausted me (and many others) as a lead because his letters are predictable in timing and design, so they go straight to the shredder with little thought. I wonder if he would have more success sending me a higher-impact piece every six months or annually.
There is a really popular gift basket service online that spends millions of dollars on marketing each year. One year I was feeling a bit lazy so I ordered a basket for someone. I don’t mean to insult all you gift-basket loving folks out there, but you have to admit, it is a slightly lazy gift. That being said, I do like ordering them from time-to-time. Anyway, once I placed the order I started receiving a daily (yes, I said daily) email with various promotional offerings. I also get a mailing about once a month. It didn’t take too long to realize they weren’t going away so I opted out. I have to assume they have tested this strategy, and maybe it works for them, but that was clearly overkill.
List exhaustion can occur in both email and direct mail lists. So, besides avoiding the two aforementioned strategies, how do you prevent list exhaustion?
Smart Opt-Out pages: Besides being the law, it is considered best practices to offer a very simple opt-out option for email lists. Of course, you can offer the same opt-out option for your direct mail lists. Instead of just having someone click “unsubscribe”, why not take the opportunity to ask a couple of brief questions? For example, ask them if they would like to receive less mailings/emails. Maybe they like your materials but just don’t want them as often. Also, ask them why they are opting out. Maybe you’re not delivering relevant content to this particular prospect. Lastly, if they are on a mailing list, ask them if they would prefer to receive emails. Likewise, if they are on your email list, ask them if they would like to just receive mailings. Use this very last point of contact as an opportunity for engagement.
Simple contact update form: Offering an easy way for people to update their contact information will ensure that more of your mailings/emails are going to the right place. Traditionally, industries like advertising and technology have fairly high turnover rates (within the same industry). This doesn’t mean your prospects don’t want to hear from you anymore. Give them an opportunity to login to a page and update their information.
Don’t speak unless you have something to say: If I had a dollar for every time I was told this by my parents or a teacher I wouldn’t be writing this blog post. Or, maybe I would, but it would be from a beach somewhere in the islands. Anyhow, businesses can fall into the trap of feeling obligated to say something when they don’t have anything interesting or new to talk about. Admittedly, when we first began using Twitter and Facebook for business, it was out of a sense that we had to be doing it. We didn’t know what we were going to talk about; we just knew we had to say something. This was a poorly executed strategy. Perhaps we lost some early followers or “fans” because we were delivering half-hearted content.
You can avoid this by planning your content and promotional materials before committing to a schedule. If you have something new and interesting to talk about every week, then do a weekly newsletter or mailing. If you don’t, that’s okay, do a monthly or even quarterly newsletter. Your prospects will appreciate your mailings/emails more if they come packed with useful information, regardless of the frequency.
Are you telling me something relevant: Surprisingly, many B-to-B marketers do not segment their lists by industry. Even the most basic CRM programs have an industry selection, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t be splitting up your mailings/emails by industry. For some business services industry may not be relevant, but it’s still a good idea to feature news, case studies or projects that have to do with your prospect’s industry.
By using these tips you may find your marketing lists become a little stronger. You should see less drop-off and increased response rates. Though the term appears not to be widely used in the industry, list exhaustion is real and should be a concern to marketers.
Posted by Nick Loeser on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 @ 08:07 AM
We have been using QR Codes in our client’s integrated campaigns for quite some time. It’s always a challenge to use them in a creative enough way to get people to scan them, and then, of course, have a solid payoff for the user when they do scan them.
This is the challenge that all marketers face when they consider using QR Codes. In a recent article by iMedia Connection, contributor Sean X Cummings writes about the creative use of QR Codes and why they are failing for some marketers.
"From the relative lack of public understanding of what they even are, to the dearth of creativity in their usage, the QR code is destined to become just the little box that geek built. But if it does go the way of CueCat, only we are to blame." (read more)
For more information about QR Codes, check out these articles.