Search Engine Optimization Tips

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Ken Murphy

SEO takes time. Let’s define time as days, weeks, months for this discussion. It’s a long-term investment in your business, like a good exercise program.

Web site content is critical. You want to lead online users down a conversation path or multiple paths that ultimately contribute to the goals of your site.

Brick Marketing’s Nick Stamoulis recommends designing your site structure to reflect your website goals. In a recent webinar hosted by Constant Contact, Brick Marketing’s Nick Stamoulis, who writes the Search Engine Optimization Journal, provided four good tips for SEO.

1. Site Structure – optimize your structure and navigation for your audience.
2. Content – content is king. Give users what they’re looking for first, and then optimize text for search engines.
3. Keyword Research – use human research tools. Target 2 to 5 keywords per page. 5 max!
4. Onsite Optimization – track results (analytics); adjust content, wording and keywords as need. Work for long-term benefits.

FIGURE OUT YOUR GOALS – what is the purpose of your site? For B2B sites it’s probably to generate business leads, make sales or provide customer fulfillment services. It can be part or all of these things or more.

If lead generation is your goal, make sure you have forms and downloading easily accessible. Contact information should be on all pages.

Each page should have its own point of entry and a call to action.
Content is for users and search engines.

WARNING – write your content for humans, blend a few key words per page into your content in a way that make sense to your users. The search engines will find it.

TOP SEARCH ENGINES: comScore’s March 2011 Core Search Share Report shows Google Sites as the top search engine (no surprise here) with 65.7% of Explicit Core Search Share; Yahoo! Sites with 15.7% and BING (Microsoft Sites) with 13.9%. BING is slowing taking search share away from Yahoo!

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Social Media Marketing & Communications: Gaining on Email and Web Sites

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Ken Murphy

Here’s why Constant Contact is working so hard to fully incorporate social media into its email marketing strategy – make sure you’re doing the same for your business. 

Interesting statistics from a Social Media webinar by Constant Contact I participated in March 16: 

  • 73.8 percent of businesses surveyed (Constant Contact’s customer base) said social media helps them close business. 
  • From Spring 2010 to Fall 2010 social media usage grew 14 percent among Constant Contact’s customer base.
  • Currently, 51.3 percent of businesses use social media for B2B (business to business) sales/marketing. 
  •  44.9 percent use social media for B2C sales/marketing
  • 78 percent of the public “trusts” recommendations from other social media sites, friends and comments

Even with double digit growth, barely 30 percent of businesses use social media. The top tools are:

 No questions that Social Media is a cost-effective and results driven medium.  It gives anyone with a smart plan and good execution the marketing and communications power of corporate giants.

Social media is still chasing web sites and email as a marketing tool, but the gap is closing fast as more businesses integrate these tools into their marketing and communications mix.

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Twitter – sign up today

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Ken Murphy

How-To Sign Up for a Twitter Account (they’re free):

Go to www.twitter.com/signup

Join the Conversation:  

  1. Fill out the information requested.  
  2. Full Name (Your full name will appear on your public profile). 
  3. Username (Your public profile: http://twitter.com/ USERNAME).   
  4. Password.  
  5. Email. 
  6. Click “Create my account” 

Enter in a CAPTCHA to confirm identity.

Browse Suggestions
To get started, select the topics you are interested in. Find a few people you want to hear from, then follow them. When you “follow”someone, each time they tweet, you’ll see their tweets on your Twitter Home page. They are notified that you are following them, and will be displayed on your public profile. You can follow or un-follow sources anytime. (You can skip this step at anytime.)

Find your friends
Scan your email address book or contacts to discover which of your friends are already using Twitter. Select an email service from the list to the left. Follow any of the friends you find to add their Tweets to your Home timeline. (You can skip this step at anytime.)

Search for anyone
This is the last step for anyone we’ve missed. Search for a username, first name, last name, or business name. Once you’re satisfied with the sources you’re following, click “Finish” below to go to your Home timeline. Find more sources to follow anytime by clicking the “Find People” link at the top of your Twitter home page. (You can skip this step at anytime.)

Tweet! Remember to keep it to 140 Characters – this includes spaces, punctuation and spelling. 

Keep it simple, informal – make your message fit.

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10 Things to Sell, What are You Marketing?

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Ken Murphy

There are only 10 main things we market. These categories often overlap or are combined. 

1) Goods – physical products e.g. food, toasters, cars, clothes.

2) Services – 70% of the U.S. economy consists of services. Products and services are delivered by some businesses.

3) Events – conferences, webinars, movie premieres, trade shows. Events are time-based e.g. 2012 Olympics; 2014 World Cup and the Super Bowl.

4) Information – Not just books, magazines or schooling. Some products are purchased for the information they provide or access to information users want e.g. heart-rate monitor, blood pressure gage, and computers to name a few.

5) Ideas – If your marketing, you’re selling an idea: be smart, look good, and improve your life. Social marketers sell too – Recycle; Save the Children; Click It or Ticket!

6) Organizations and businesses. Name recognition and reputation is critical as an identifier and market differentiation.

7) Experiences – this combines products and services e.g. luxury vacations sell location, amenities and services. Outdoor adventures and amusement parks challenge your physical and mental experiences. Restaurants create an experience with food, beverages, atmosphere and service.

8) People – Heard enough about Britney Spears or Charlie Sheen? Celebrity is one of the most marketed entities in business. They come from all walks of life: business, medicine, theatre, movies, art, music and politics. Extraordinary events also create celebrities out of everyday people.  Start branding yourself.

9) Places – Cities, countries and geographical locations are marketed throughout the world. See the Taj Mahal (India or Atlantic City); wine country (California, France, Argentina or Chile).  Places deliver goods and services. They generate billions of dollars in food, clothing, real estate, entertainment and service revenues.

10) Properties – Think ownership, not just real estate. Anything you can own, buy or sell requires marketing: stock and bonds, landing rights, mineral rights and intellectual properties scratch the surface.

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Establishing Goals

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Ken Murphy

Most businesses have multiple goals.  For each goal, it’s important to have a quantifiable objective.  Be more specific than “more sales” or “more revenue”. 

Social media can be used as a tool to reach measurable goals e.g. Goal for March 2011 – increase visits to blog site to 100.  Capture 10 percent of the visitors as followers.  Capture 5 percent a “like” responders.

As you set your goals and the proper quantifiable measurements for those goals, over time, you’ll develop critical business knowledge that will help you attain your business objectives.

Social media is just a tool for using what you may already know about marketing and communications. Plan, measure, review and adjust your social media as you would any good Marketing-Communications Strategy.

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