8 aspects of your search engine optimization you should consider on a keyword-by-keyword basis
by Corey Morris, emfluence Search Engine Marketing Strategist
8 aspects of your search engine optimization you should consider on a keyword-by-keyword basis
by Corey Morris, emfluence Search Engine Marketing Strategist
One thing we hear often at emfluence is how unavailable digital marketing education seems to be. Sure, you can take another 1-hour webinar on LinkedIn, but where can you find a seminar on strategizing and intgetrating every aspect of your digital marketing?
The answer is in Kansas City, November 9th.
Announcing emfl-U: Digital Bootcamp
Whether you attended or if you didn’t get the chance, the notes will be worth gold. Take a peek at the top takeaways from the three keynote presentations at the 2011 emfluence Marketing Platform User Conference.
Helzberg Diamonds offered a deal last week that seemed too good to be true… and turned out it was. Their online system had a glitch and their advertised “surprise savings” were a surprise even to them! These are the moments that define a company’s reputation. There are a lot of lessons to be taken from how Helzberg handled the potential catastrophe.
What counts as oversharing information in a world where people tweet their breakfast? What is TMI (too much info) about a person or company you follow? Some might argue that it would depend on if it’s content from a personal account or on behalf of a brand (comma?) but I have a rule of thumb that I think you can apply to either situation: Act as if the online world were one big cocktail party.
Email frequency – how often should you send your subscribers email – is a hot topic among email marketers. Just about everyone has a different opinion and usually everyone fiercely believes they’re right. Some will answer “It depends.” In this case, try this on for size: Ask.
My first South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) experience definitely lived up to the affectionate moniker “geek spring break” From social media to widgets to guerrilla marketing, I had plenty to learn from. But as a marketer, my heart was captured by some of the best non-traditional promotions I’ve seen by an industry bursting with new ideas every day. Here’s my “Top 8” list of the best promos at SXSWi 2011 (and the brands behind them):
A scary fact: in 2010, only 33% of email users have images turned on by default in their email client, down even further from the 2006 number of just over 50% (Source: Marketing Sherpa, 2010). Yikes! When you’re designing beautiful emails, does your email still fly without images turned on? Check these 5 ways that you should design without images in mind.
A few notes about things in the search engine optimization (SEO) world that you may or may not have heard about, including changes to Google’s algorithm thanks to JCPenney’s recent press and social media’s impact on how we search.
What email marketing’s popular younger brother, social media marketing, can learn from its elder.
Ok, so the time to get local was last year, or the year before. But if you haven’t taken the time, or are new to the search marketing arena, here’s some insight that you want to take note of: local search is changing. Components are merging and the lines are blurring in the search world and businesses that aren’t paying attention are falling behind. The good news is, this is a good — no, a great opportunity to get on board. And when better than at the start of a new year?
But where to start?
A rule of thumb in the age of the Internet is that if you blink, you probably missed 28 updates to the various sites you use on a regular basis. Sometimes the changes are minor, but even those minor changes can be game changers for marketers and advertisers. So, it’s always good to take a second to consider any kind of changes on the sites you frequent, put your business hat on, and think about how it might affect you or your client.
In the spirit of giving this season, we thought we’d share a few bonus How-To Holiday tips:
Last week, I got a great question from one of our savviest email marketing clients: “How are you advising your clients to prepare for the changes with Hotmail? Should we be versioning or quarantining our Hotmail lists and watching them more closely?”
Not that you’ve ever done this, but sometimes people type their email address wrong. When was the last time you checked out your own opt-in process? Do you know if your form will accept these common input mistakes as valid entries?
How do you measure the success of your email marketing campaigns? When our clients ask us our thoughts, we encourage them to measure email marketing like you do any other kind of marketing: by calculating your Return On Investment (ROI). Sure, we know that you know that email marketing still has the highest ROI of any marketing channel. But are you actually measuring your success?
At the emfluence User Conference last month, our CEO and Head Email Brainiac, Dave Cacioppo, gave a rockin’ keynote: “Email ROI: Let It Rock!” Our users voted it the best takeaway content of the day, so we thought we’d share the good info. So, Dave, how do you rock your email ROI?
Social Fresh’s fifth social media conference was hosted April 19th just across the state in St. Louis. We sent Jessica Best to soak up some knowledge about emerging media from some heavy hitters. Here’s what she gleaned:
We got the call last week from the Kansas City chapter of the Direct Marketing Association that three of our AMBITS submissions have won an award! We’re pleased as punch to be winning more AMBITS this year. We believe in judging our campaigns based not just on cool-factor and smooth style (which our clients can also boast), but on performance and return on investment. Kudos to the entire emfluence team and our winning clients on great work with great results!
No matter what media you’re using, the more eyeballs, the better. And in today’s highly targeted world, getting in front of more relevant eyeballs is key. So, it’s not surprising that we hear from our clients all the time, “Can you help us grow our email list?” There are lots of great ways to grow email marketing list size, from search engine marketing to online promotions to banner ad campaigns. But, inevitably, the most popular follow up question is “Can we buy an email list?”
So, how do you leverage relevant marketing lists outside of your own subscriber list?
The swirling world of social media produces new platforms every day. Even “old” standards – facebook, twitter – are getting facelifts and making changes in user experience that effect the way marketers use social media to connect with interested prospects. On one hand, that means no matter when you decide to take the plunge into social marketing, you’re not that far behind: it all changes so fast, we’re all running just to keep up.
On the other hand, it makes social media look like a marathon you’re not sure how to jump in on. How do you start in something you don’t even understand? We’ve all heard a friend or colleague say “I just don’t get the point of Twitter.”
When you’re not sure where to start in a new platform, lurk to learn…
Let’s take Twitter as an example.
Check out the emfluence Flickr account for pics from yesterday’s MK12 presentation on the work they did for the movie Stranger Than Fiction and for a commercial for Swiss International Airlines.
Ok, so after reviewing some basic AdWords reports, you’ve managed to identify some pain points, make some bid changes, maybe even add and remove some keywords. All these changes are made and should help you on the way to having an effective paid search campaign that will deliver the results you’re looking for.
What else can you do?
Google makes a lot of data available to you within the AdWords interface that can give you additional insight into the true performance of your campaign.
The Search Marketing Expo in New York City (SMX – East) has invited emfluence VP of Digital Strategy, Todd Sandoval, to speak on a panel about Mobile Search Advertising in October.
According to a 2008 ReturnPath study, more than 75% of marketers who use email marketing aren’t taking advantage of personalization at all. Surprising, given that there’s solid evidence that even limited personalization boosts email response rates. And, with technology provided by virtually every Email Service Provider, it’s very easy to implement.
So what’s preventing marketing experts from using personalization in their email marketing campaigns?
What else can be said but "80s Night at the K"? The emfluence team headed out to watch the Royals battle it out with the…
emfluence sponsored the Putting Contest at the Kansas City Direct Marketing Association’s 12th Annual Golf Tournament. The tournament is a fundraiser for KCDMA’s Educational Foundation and emfluence’s sponsorship was part of the contribution. The best part is, Dave not only got to give, he got to golf! Check out all the pics from the green, including the one qualifier for the big bucks, at our flickr account.