Transcript Search Engine Marketing

Marketing in a Recession: Internet Tactics
Pete Kever
Principal & Co-Founder
GHI Internet Services
Agenda
1. GHIIS Overview (1 minute)
2. Internet Marketing Overview (2 minutes)
3. Search Engine Marketing Overview (5 minutes)
4. SEM Practical Steps to Take (5 minutes)
5. Social Media Marketing Overview (5 minutes)
6. SMM Practical Steps to Take (5 minutes)
GHI Internet Services (GHIIS)
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GHIIS is an interactive media firm that:
Designs websites
Executes customized internet marketing campaigns
Develops SaaS solutions
Focuses on improving companies' online brands while
increasing their revenues.
GHI Internet Services (GHIIS)
We have …
 1,000+ Clients …
 Performed over 700 Internet Marketing campaigns
 Domestic and International Design Teams; Global
Delivery Model
 200+ Business Partners
 9 years in Business … Largest Design & IM Firm in
Medina County
What is Internet Marketing?
 Search Engine Marketing (SEM), comprised
of organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
and Pay Per Click advertising (PPC)
 Email Marketing
 Social Media Marketing (SMM)
 Online Advertising
Why is Internet Marketing Important?
 $204 billion: Total U.S. Internet retail sales in 2008.
 12 billion: The number of searches performed per month
on the Web.
 172 Billion: The number of email messages sent per day.
 310 Million: The number of combined Facebook and
MySpace users.
 184 million: The number of people who have started a
blog.
Source: ClickZ
Why is Internet Marketing Important?
E-Commerce sales were one of the few bright
spots for retailers in recent months:
 In December 2008, Best Buy reported a 34%
increase in web sales over December 2007,
while in-store sales fell 6.8%.
 In a March 2009 survey of 80 web retailers with
varying levels of annual e-commerce revenue,
58% said that their year-over-year web sales
rose for the first quarter.
(source: Internet Retailer)
Why is Internet Marketing Important?
Which would you rather do?
Source: 2007 New Paradigm Global Study (Q825)
Why is Internet Marketing Important?
Internet Marketing is targetable and trackable.
Targetable – reach exact markets with your
message, at the point in time they are researching
and making a purchase decision.
Trackable – get “instant” market intelligence from
your campaigns that is either impossible or too
costly to obtain in other media.
Why is Internet Marketing Important?
 Start with only a few dollars per day and grow as
needed
 Internet marketing is the “Rifle approach”, while
traditional media is a “Shotgun approach”
 Data is empirical – you can track exactly how well it’s
working
 Some valuable IM tactics, like Social Media, can be
done in-house, part-time
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Overview
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Overview
In Internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a set of
marketing methods to increase the visibility of a website in search
engine results pages (SERPs). SEM strategies include:
 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) attempts to improve rankings for
relevant keywords in search results by improving a web site's
structure, content, and relevant back link count.
Organic Search Results
Organic Search Results
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Overview
In Internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a set of
marketing methods to increase the visibility of a website in search
engine results pages (SERPs). SEM strategies include:
 Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising uses sponsored search engine
listings to drive traffic to a web site. The advertiser bids for search
terms, and the search engine ranks ads based on a competitive
auction as well as other factors.
Organic Search Results
Organic Search Results
Why Should I Care About SEM?
 The market is shifting from a Nation of Sellers to a
Nation of Buyers
 Significant sales channel with unmatched ROI than
many traditional sales channels / methodologies
 Make the fastest growing companies in the world work
for you!
 Inexpensive, proven ROI
 It’s a 24 hour brand machine working for you all day
long
Search Engine Facts
Did you know…
 The average web site gets 73% more overall traffic within six months
of being optimized.
 You can start getting targeted traffic for as little as $1 per day, within
24 hours.
 Consumers view a search result for 1.1 second.
 100% view the organic search results.
 96% view the top (three) sponsored search results.
 35% view the sponsored search results on the right.
 Buyers view more search results (10) and take more time to view the
results (11.4 seconds). They also focus on familiar brand names.
 Information searchers view fewer search results (8) and spend less
time on a result (9.4 seconds). They pay more attention to content
than to brand names.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Overview
The best way to find new customers…
is to simply let them find you!™
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
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Determine your goals.
Set up web site analysis software.
Research the keywords your potential audience is using.
Write keyword-rich copy using plain page text. Update that copy often.
Make sure every page in your site is reachable from at least one static
text link.
6. Write keyword-rich Title tags that are relevant for each page.
7. Write keyword-rich META Description tags that are relevant for each
page.
8. Get links from other sites that are similar to yours.
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
1. Determine your goals
Some examples might include:
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First page ranking in Google for keywords related to your services
Increase traffic to your site by 50% from local community
Get 10 new program registrations per month
Get 10 more contacts from the web site per month
Get 10 more newsletter signups
Track the number of people who view a certain page on the site
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
2. Set up web site analysis software
No web site traffic analysis software? You are flying blind!
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Your host can normally install a free or low-cost system.
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Google Analytics is free of charge, www.google.com/analytics and includes many features found in higher-priced commercial
systems.
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Some traffic analysis software can run into tens of thousands of
dollars.
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
3. Research keywords
Creating an effective search engine marketing campaign means
attracting visitors to your site with keywords that are most likely to
convert them!
Never assume the keywords your potential customers will use.
Invest in an SEM campaign using the wrong keywords – and all of
your efforts are in vain.
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
3. Research keywords
Keyword research tools:
 Google – use the free Keyword Tool at www.google.com/keywords and
Google Trends at www.google.com/trends.
 Wordtracker – subscription-based web site that contains samples of
searches: www.WordTracker.com
 Keyword Discovery – subscription-based web site that contains samples of
searches along with geographic data: www.KeywordDiscovery.com
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
4. Write keyword-rich copy using plain page text
 Plain page text is the text that you can select on your web pages
 It does not include images, Flash or videos. You can use these,
but don’t put important keywords only within an image
 Search engines are not “smart” and they are mostly “blind”
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
5. Make sure every page in your site is reachable
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If your host provider is unreliable, it can hurt your Google rank
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Put plain text links in the footer navigation of your web pages
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Make your logo a link back to your home page
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Create a site map for your visitors and a site map feed for spiders
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
6. Write keyword-rich Title tags
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
7. Write keyword-rich META description tags
Found in the <HEAD> area with the <TITLE> tag.
<META name="description" content=“Marketing Verbiage Here.”>
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
8. Get links from other sites that are similar to yours
Good starter links are:
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Chamber of commerce and other associations
Current offline partners
Sites that already mention you, but don’t link
Standard free directories, like Yahoo!
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
8. Get links from other sites that are similar to yours
Some advanced link-building tactics include:
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Links from social media destinations, like bookmarking sites
Links from associated/partner sites
Syndicated content distributed via blogging, press releases
RSS Feeds
Paid text links
Search Engine Optimization: 8 Tactics
To Build Your Traffic & Brand
Bottom line….
A site that is well-organized, updated with useful content
and that contains the keywords that your audience uses to
search for your services, will rank better and attract more
of the right kind of visitors.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview
Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview
OR….
Let’s see if Pete can cram 50 hours’
worth of information into 10 minutes!
Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview
Social media marketing is the process of promoting a
site, business or brand through social media channels by
engaging and interacting with existing consumers or
potential consumers.
Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview
Search engine marketing = online sales & advertising
Social media marketing = online branding and “PR”
Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview
Social media marketing = higher search engine
rankings
Building a presence in the social web is all about
reputation and branding. Most of the web's top ranking
websites maintain strong brand recognition in their
respective industries.
Why is Internet Marketing Important?
This generation has grown up on computers and the Internet, and…
 Will never read a newspaper but attracted to some magazines
 Will never own a land-line phone (and maybe not a watch)
 Will not watch television on someone else’s schedule much longer
 Trust unknown peers more than experts
 For first time willing (2005) to pay for digital content. Never before.
 Little interest in the source of information and most information aggregated.
 Community at the center of Internet experience
 Think not interested in advertising or affected by brand, but wrong.
 Everything will move to mobile
 Less interested in television than any generation before
 Want to move content freely from platform to platform with no restrictions
 Want to be heard (user generated)
 Use IM. Think e-mail is for their parents
Source: Lev Gonick, Case Western Reserve
University
Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview
YouTube = 10 percent of all internet traffic
(source: Ellacoya Networks)
Five of the top 10 websites are social
(source: Alexa)
Over 100 million blogs exist
(source: Technorati)
120,000 new blogs launched every day
(source: Technorati)
1.5 million posts per day (17 per second)
(source: Technorati)
Source: Lev Gonick, Case Western Reserve
University
Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview
Myspace.com beat MTV.com
vs.
Source: Compete.com
Social Media Marketing: 5 Tactics
To Increase Your Brand
Rule #1:
Don’t Panic! It’s Still Early!
Social Media Marketing: 5 Tactics
To Increase Your Brand
1.
Does social media make sense for you?
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Research where your markets / audiences “hang out.”
3.
Setup profiles.
4.
Start writing a blog & build an online “press room”.
5.
Start forming relationships.
Social Media Marketing: 5 Tactics
To Increase Your Brand
1.
Does social media make sense for you?
Ask yourself…
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How would social media fit into my overall marketing strategy? Does
it align?
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What are the specific advantages of blogging? Social networks?
Twitter? What are the drawbacks of each?
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Should I consider outsourcing my social media marketing if I don't
have the time?
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Am I willing to be more open with my customers and give them the
ability to communicate more freely with me?
Social Media Marketing: 5 Tactics
To Increase Your Brand
2.
Research where your audiences “hang out.”
Top social network destinations are:
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Facebook (MySpace is for teens and music lovers)
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
Digg
Delicious
Flickr
Blogger
Social Media Marketing: 5 Tactics
To Increase Your Brand
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Research where your audiences “hang out.”
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Do a search on Technorati (www.technorati.com) or Google blog search
(http://blogsearch.google.com) for blogs that mention your services.
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Do a search on Google for “[KEYWORD”] and “FORUMS”.
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Search Facebook and LinkedIn Groups for keywords related to your
services.
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Use Tweetscan and search.twitter.com to learn what people are saying about
you or services like yours, and to find like-minded people.
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Search YouTube using related keywords.
Social Media Marketing: 5 Tactics
To Increase Your Brand
3.
Setup profiles.
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Profile setup takes minutes, and is free of charge.
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Works best when done at a “personal” level rather than “corporate”.
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Even if you don’t build out a profile, it’s best to grab the “address”
while its available.
Social Media Marketing: 5 Tactics
To Increase Your Brand
4.
Start writing a blog & build an online “press room”.
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Your blog is the cornerstone of your online PR efforts, and you should have
several “content experts” who write for it on a regular basis
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Content can be syndicated via RSS to other social networks, “partner blogs”
and other tools like Twitter
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Optimize your blog’s content around keywords and then link those keywords
to corresponding web pages
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Your press room should contain press releases, basic company info, links to
blogs, social media accounts, etc.
Social Media Marketing: 5 Tactics
To Increase Your Brand
5.
Start forming relationships
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You cannot “fake” good social networking
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It’s just like a real world networking event
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Show that you care for your audience, and they
will respond positively
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Monitor blogs and micro-blogging networks for
feedback
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Have fun, make friends and stay involved
Top Social Media Sites
Facebook
www.facebook.com
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A social networking site where people can join similar
groups, share photos and connect and interact with other
people.
Just reached 200 million users
Companies can set up a Facebook Page, a Group, and/or
a Fan site
Groups allow you to send occasional “mass” emails
Personal, not corporate
Top Social Media Sites
Top Social Media Sites
Twitter
www.twitter.com
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“Micro-Blogging” site, where members post “what they are doing” in
140 characters or less.
Traffic has gone from 1 million monthly visitors in March 2008 to 14
million visitors in March 2009.
Secure your name & brand…Twitter.com/YourName
http://Search.Twitter.com is a real-time search engine – up to the
second “buzz”.
Post quick press releases, updates, and helpful info.
Top Social Media Sites
Top Social Media Sites
YouTube
www.youtube.com
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Free searchable video sharing site
Now the world’s second largest search engine
72 million monthly visitors
Create your own channel
Showcase products, testimonials, how-to videos
Top Social Media Sites
Conclusion
Download this Powerpoint:
http://www.ghiis.com/brunswickcoc
Twitter: http://twitter.com/PeteBKay