Posted on Wed, Jul 14, 2010 @ 01:50 PM
A great way to provide quality information to your readers is by creating e-books on your website. An e-book (electronic book or digital book) is an electronic version of a printed book that can be read on a computer. E-books are great because they are usually short documents that go in-depth on a particular subject that you or your company is well-versed in. An effective e-book will often be much more interactive and engaging than any document you will find on a website, one that contains links for viewers seeking additional information.
Why e-books?
- It’s easy to do- Basically all you need to create an e-book is a PowerPoint software, which is a cost-effective solution for creating a valuable source of information.
- It’s an attractive document– With e-books, it becomes much easier to get your viewers involved and interested in the document. From an e-book you could create links, offer a printable version of the text for referencing, connect your e-book to blog articles, and promote it across social media channels you have a presence on.
- Make your e-book free! – Making the document free is the key to getting your viewers attracted to the downloadable document. Your e-book will become a part of your next email marketing campaign, the document can be blogged about it in your next article and can be traced through analytics to see exactly how the e-book is performing.
- Make it a fun document – The difference with e-books is the ability to make the document much flashier than most documents. When creating your e-book always be mindful of your audience. Including videos, links, step-by-step processes, and other engaging content will further enhance your document.
Creating an e-book or a series of e-books is a great marketing tactic because it can be used in a variety of forms. Our website provides users with a form that must be filled out and then the document can be downloaded. This ensures a company that viewers are indeed interested enough to fill out a form, which is just more positive feedback for your content production. So engage in the production of e-books and keep your audience in mind.
By Cameron Moulton, Internet Marketing Associate
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Posted on Mon, Jun 21, 2010 @ 01:36 PM
Attracting and engaging people online is social media at its best. To explain how 
your company can effectively engage viewers, I looked at the company Blendtec.WillitBlend, a video series that literally throws anything into a Blendtec blender and blends it, not limited to Iphones, video games, bic lighters, marbles, etc. I was immediately drawn to a clip that puts an Ipad in a blender.
I stumbled across Blendtec while browsing YouTube for interesting clips about Apple's new Ipad when I stumbled across
The list of products destroyed by this mega-blender is endless, demonstrating that this is certainly not a machine to be reckoned with. I was in awe that a blender had such power because I had never seen any kitchen utility with the ability to do that. I then realized that not only was Blendtec engaging in communities outside of their traditional scope, their impressive videos were actually drawing in viewers that would otherwise never visit their website.
Blendtec's effective marketing campaign managed to attract several markets that prior to WillitBlend, have never been accessible. Blenders are typically used for blending fruit smoothies, vegetables, and various food related products, but never electronics. By utilizing YouTube, one of the largest social media pioneers, to stream their videos, the company is able to create a buzz around their product and attract an array of people in the technology, food, and blenders market. Blendtec is leveraging YouTube in an effective marketing tactic and according to comscore, YouTube has over 320 million searches a day. Had BlendTec simply targeted the food market, they would have greatly diminished their exposure to countless viewers searching for Ipads, video games and the like.
I typed in Ipad to Youtube and there was Blendtec with a video that generated over 7 million views. If the company was only targeting blending fruit, they would have missed out on the ability to reach all those Ipad viewers, such as myself. Not only are they branching out into unforeseen markets, but they are proving to customers that their blender has remarkable capabilities that truly deserve attention.
So what have I learned from Blendtec?
1. Their blender has some serious swag to it and can blend even the most challenging gadgets without breaking down.
2. The outreach for BlendTec goes far beyond the food market and into the technology market
3. YouTube rules all! Why not view countless videos and expose your own videos to the 320 million daily viewers on YouTube?
4. New products introduced in the technology market are YouTube hits and if you can engage in these communities then you're going to create a buzz
5. Creating a series of videos keeps your viewers engaged and awaiting the next video, best known as retaining your customers.
By Cameron Moulton, Internet Marketing Associate
Posted on Tue, Jun 08, 2010 @ 08:14 AM
"Content is king." In order for any website to have a strong search engine optomization presence, unique and relevant content is needed. New content enables link-building and sharing programs that leverage new pages off-site. There are three types of pages for construction: static pages, landing pages and blog pages.• Static pages are pages constructed with either corporate or product tonality and will serve to provide info-seekers more details about the company or your solutions. These pages are more formal in structure.
• Landing Pages are specifically built for promotional offers or lead captures. They are typically constructed around a form and provide heavy bias towards action.
• Blog pages are more informal and serve as a way to 1) create more unique pages for your website to get found by more people, and 2) provide a means of engaging info-seekers, prospects and customers beyond an initial or intermittent visit to the website. Blogs offer a subscription, where new blog articles are promoted via email or RSS feed.
Page production methods
All methods of page production have a cost, whether monetary or use of time and resources. Page production plans should be discussed in the framework of company time and resources available to the program, or alternatively budget for outside content sourcing. Page production methods include:
• Company thought leadership - The intellectual property that is locked in a company often resides in its human capital. Key employees often hold expert information, experience and opinions that are prime content for SEO because it will drive info-seekers who become prospects at some point. This is the preferred method of page production, but also the most problematic for companies to manufacture.
• Re-purposing - Most companies have great content that has already been created in the form of white papers, proposals, presentations, and brochures. This information can be re-purposed for the website with some re-construction and SEO.
• Outsourced content - For some companies, the paid content option makes sense and can be budgeted for. It's a solution for companies that can't commit to the obligation of thought leadership page production, but realize they still need a content plan to succeed.
Posted on Wed, Apr 07, 2010 @ 02:17 PM
In 2004, Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson wrote an article exploring the booming success of online retail sites like Amazon, NetFlix and eBay. It focused on these companies’ ability to cater to the smallest niches of fans looking for the most obscure titles and items that traditional retail stores could not carry. If you liked the best-selling and widely known Freakeconomics, you just might be interested in the 1986 paperback Fatal Equalibrium. That recommendation is something you would never experience at your local book store (the man or woman at the register probably can't name more than a pair of economic books from the past 30 years) but it happens every day on Amazon. In all probability, those traditional stores probably don't even carry Fatal Equilibrium.
Anderson opened the eyes of many and kick started the reshaping of business models. He shed light on a new movement that consumers are currently consuming in the 21st century. Subsequently after the piece, Wired went so far as to purchase the LongTail.com URL and brand it as Anderson’s blog. How ingenious.
"The Long Tail" is a marketing term that refers to the population or demographic that seeks the lesser known, more obscure products, but when aggregated together can often generate more revenue than a few of the most popular products.
On the graph to the right, the long tail is the low-sloping green tail moving left to right. More specifically, it shows how long tail marketing can be applied to Internet marketing and SEO. If you’re a small to mid-sized shoe company looking to attract buyers via organic search traffic, “shoes” is a search term that’s going to make you look like that tennis player in the fantastic Ladders.com TV advertisment. You’re competing with hundreds– maybe even thousands– of companies of all sizes. You’ll be rendered irrelevant from the start. But, small-to-mid-sized shoe company, if you can focus on optimizing your content to focus on those fresh, new small-size high-heel open-toe suede shoes you just put on your shelves, you have a much better chance to corner that market and generate sales.
Because it’s a collection of the less popular, or less relevant search terms, the long tail is a cheaper and lower-risk investment. It also, as the graph notes, has proven to show a much higher rate of conversion. Someone perusing the web for small-size high-heel open-toe suede shoes clearly has a motive to buy just that. And you should be out there waiting for her... or him buying for her. Or just him.
Identifying and capturing the long tail should be a primary focus for any Internet marketing company and any company looking to effectively market and get found on the Internet. There's always an opportunity to distinguish yourself from from the competition. Understand your audience and spend some time to rank high on specific search queries related to your business.
By Nick Fasulo, Internet Marketing Manager
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Posted on Mon, Mar 08, 2010 @ 02:46 PM
As an Internet Marketing Consulting Firm, one of the most fundamental elements of our work deals with search engine optimization. We've all heard of it, and at some point we have probably all wished we could just wave a magic wand across all our web pages to ensure they are, indeed, optimally optimized. Sadly, no such tool exists, but having a good understanding of keywords will put you on the right path to proper SEO.
The idea is to establish keywords pertaining to each page's topic, and effectively place them in the copy and metadata. Seems simple enough, but how much is too much? Have you ever felt like you're getting carried away inserting "dog-grooming services" as you build your new site to increase sales leads? You should be made aware that while the Internet does not have a judicial system, it is still policed to prevent people called "Black Hatters."
Black Hatters are dubbed the villains of the Internet;webmasters who, in the short-term, can get their sites ranked higher than it should be through tricks rather than Internet Marketing best practices. This can be achieved a number of ways: embedding paragraphs of hidden text that only a Google Spider can see, made up strictly with keywords. Black Hatters have also been accused of duplicating content from other web pagesas part of a content buildout plan, or even stealing content from other web sites. Essentially, these "criminals" are purposely flooding a site as a way to improve their Alexa ranking or Google SERP.
So what is the optimum density for which your keywords should appear? There's no concrete answer. A few weeks ago, a marketing director in Tampa Bay relayed that he believes it's between 3-4 percent. Last summer, a webdesigner and copywriter said 5 percent of your copy should be your keyword. Others, however, have rendered keyword density as "irrevelant." Tomorrow morning, maybe the answer will lie in my bowl of cereal.
What's my opinion? Don't stress about optimum density. Instead, focus on ensuring your keywords are placed in your headlines, metatags, page titles and page URLs. You prevent the risk of sacrificing good, readable copy for choppy sentences loaded with keywords. If you feel like you're going out of your way to insert your keywords, consider pumping the brakes or rethinking the phrases you're using to reach potential customers.
By Nick Fasulo, Internet Marketing Manager
Posted on Wed, Feb 24, 2010 @ 10:38 AM
By Nick Fasulo
Because it's so cost-effective, inbound marketing is growing in popularity and budget size with companies of every size across the country. A few weeks ago HubSpot released a report entitled "The State of Inbound Marketing," providing a peek into how business professionals involved in the strategy and/or budget of their company's marketing efforts are using inbound marketing for 2010. In short, "social media and blogs are becoming marketing powerhouses," with 85 percent of respondents labeling the use of blogs as "useful," and more than half that figure calling them "critical," according to the report.
As an internet marketing company, KeChange places a strong emphasis on page buildout and crafting a client's website and overall marketing strategy to evoke a sense of authority in the line of work that they're in. Having an engaged client who consistently files relevant blog articles helps accomplish both those ideas efficiently and inexpensively compared to traditional marketing tactics; all with the intent of reaching your target audience.
Say, for example, you're a personal injury law firm that is looking to draw traffic and, in turn, new clients who may be looking for legal consultation after hearing about a
recently recalled product. This is a fantastic opportunity to morph your blog into a news source. Provide frequent updates on the recall, what it means for those affected, how to proceed with legal action and, finally, how you can help! You can apply this method to a number of industries. The key is to inform, then convert visitors of your site by showing them you're the service they're browsing for.
Just two blog posts a week means 104 new pages for your site... 104 new pages that are engaging and speak to a relevant topic, meaning you're preventing your website from going stale. New content peppered with keywords also helps dramatically with SEO optimization, just be sure to integrate your well-oiled blog directly on to your website to ensure it's helping you rise in the all-important search result category.
Blogging is not just for the aspiring sports writer, or a new mom seeking an outlet to broadcast her triumphs and tragedies as a parent. This social media tool is also a professional tool, which can greatly enhance your website as a go-to source for commentary and information on pertinent industry topics.
Learn more about how this valuable social media medium can help heighten your online visibility, and also download a great
social media demographics chart to see how your target audiences utilizes blogs.
Posted on Tue, Dec 22, 2009 @ 06:03 AM
Three disciplines from 3 different eras in marketing history.
Public Relations (PR); the established cornerstone
of the brick and mortar marketing services industry trying to extend its
practice online, Search Engine Optimization
(SEO) – the practice of getting found online with 1.0 roots and 2.0’s new kid
on the block, Social Media, touting “engagement” as the future of the Internet.
Let the turf war
begin
The Internet Marketing pie can only be split so many ways as
PR firms, SEO gurus and Social Media pros are going to constantly be infringing
on each other’s turf as they compete for client marketing dollars. Here’s the problem: all three will claim,
with their services, they can increase traffic for your website by getting clients
found by more people online. The proposals
will look a little different, but will generally shoot for the same results.
This goes for employees too.
I was recently in a meeting and when a social media specialist was asked
what his job responsibility was he replied “anything to do with prospect and client
engagement online”. A red flag went up immediately. Isn’t everything we do in Internet Marketing ultimately
about engaging prospects and customers online?
The answer is yes; everyone practicing Internet Marketing from website management
to e-mail marketing to link exchanging is going to claim some form of online
engagement and interaction. I have to
agree; then social media may be “everything” as almost every online marketing discipline
touches it.
After identifying a blog that talked badly about a company,
a PR professional suggested a social media professional handles the blog response.
Who will win the turf
war?
There isn’t room anymore for specialists in Internet
Marketing. The practice is rapidly
becoming generalized and service providers should be expected to handle a
number of disciplines today claimed in pieces by SEO, Social Media and PR. The real proposition clients are looking for
are typically sales leads and clearly, a generalized Internet Marketing practitioner
will have to deliver it. I believe clients will demand it soon enough.
Posted on Sun, Dec 13, 2009 @ 05:36 PM
A new wave affordable and feature-rich CMS
(Content Management Systems) Solutions are rapidly minimizing the competitive advantages
that larger, more well-funded companies had over the small to mid-sized
business market (SMB), when it comes to website features and price.
Some Open Source CMS solutions, like WordPress are free and
offer great features for building out a website that looks every bit as
professional as what a $100,000 CMS solution can offer, but may be limited their Internet
Marketing features.
The CMS solutions to watch are those catering to
the SMB market. Affordable CMS
solutions are gaining ground on larger, more expensive CMS providers by
offering many robust features at reasonable prices. For instance, take Hubspot’s SMB solution.
For $250 per month a customer gets a CMS package that includes a number of website
templates to choose from, a host of integrated analytical reporting tools, a
blog module and management tools for social-media and e-mail automation. Companies like Hubspot are providing
mini-Internet Marketing machines that enable the SMB market to shift their focus
from website development and database automation to getting found online and
converting sales leads.
Here are some basic Internet Marketing features your business should
evaluate when looking at a CMS solution.
·
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Analytics – How good is the SEO of each web page on your
site and what are the recommendations to improve them to get found by more
visitors
·
Blog Module – You can always add a 3rd party blog module to your
site, but many CMS solutions have one built-in.
·
Social Media Monitoring and Automation – This is important to save you time and energy,
as a good social media monitoring tool will be able to tell you where on the
Internet relevant conversations are occurring.
Buttons to send out blog newly-published blog articles to social media
outlets can save lots of time.
·
E-Mail Automation – Enables the user to build and execute a lead nurturing
campaign to engage prospects and customers after their first website visit.
·
Follow me IP – After a site visitor’s first visit, this CMS feature
will lay down a cookie and track the visitor on-site based on their IP address. This enables the business to do some targeting
online marketing by showing specific content based on visitor habits and
history.
There are some great, affordable CMS solutions available
in the market-place right now and the better ones should start to increase in price over
the next 18 months as CMS providers stop chasing market-share and focus on
profits. So, if you are a small to
mid-sized business, take advantage of it, while you can.