It’s Like Deja Vu All Over Again: 4 Tips for Improving Marketing for Small Business

Marketing Deja Vu Getting You Down?

At some time or another we have all experienced that eerie sense of familiarity where we�ve �been there� or �done that� before. �Whether it is an actual memory or simply a �brain fart�, deja vu is an interesting experience.

Let’s assume for a second that deja vu is real. �If you found yourself in a situation you knew for certain you had experienced before that had ended badly would you have the tools necessary to change your course of action? �Many organizations have faced and continue to deal with �marketing deja vu� or ending up in the same situations over and over again. �What can you do to avoid making the same marketing mistakes more than once?

*Speaking of deja vu: If you are looking for additional tips on improving your marketing strategy be sure to reference the posts from the TopRankBlog�archive�that appear in this post.

4 Tips For Avoiding Marketing Deja Vu#1 – Learn From Your Previous Marketing Mistakes

The best way to avoid repeating mistakes? �By learning from each experience. �Do not expect that you will have different set of outcomes from the same actions. �We must remember that marketing mistakes can mean a decrease in current customer base, as well as the loss of potential new customers.

3 Tips for Learning From Your Marketing Mistakes:

Mistakes happen, the worst thing you can do is avoid dealing with the problemMove on but don’t forget the lesson you learnedDon’t let frustration get the best of you

We All Make Mistakes: �20 Social Media Marketing Do’s & Dont’s

#2 – Create A Structured Marketing Process

Errors can in large part be attributed to lack of process. �A structured process provides a framework and guideline for accomplishing your marketing goals. �Marketing process improves your ability to:

Plan effectively for future marketing needsImplement & Scale your marketing planTest, implement, and refine marketing tactics

Implement A Process: Practical Tips to Make Your Blog More Useful & Interactive

#3 – Don’t Rationalize Bad Marketing Decisions

One of the biggest mistakes we can make as marketers is to rationalize bad decisions. �It is important that we accept and face the fact that we didn’t make the best choice. �Once we’ve overcome the hurdle of admitting fault it’s time to take action:

Focus on why a particular marketing tactic didn’t workDetermine how your team can improve going forwardDebrief other team members so they can avoid making the same mistakes

To Be Avoided: 4 B2B Social Media & SEO Blunders to Avoid

#4 – Ask for Help & Advice to Improve Your Marketing Plan

Pride should never get in the way of improving your marketing strategy. �Some of the best ideas come from where you least expect. Suggesting collaboration with other team members and influentials can:

Help you come to a conclusion for next steps fasterRemind you of mistakes they may have made in the past that you will want to avoidProvide a fresh set of eyes that may have a different perspective

Get the Help You Need: 4 Tips for Becoming A Better Influencer

Take Action

You may have heard some or all of the tips listed above prior to reading this post. �However, I want you to ask yourself: �How many of these tips has my team actually implemented and stuck with? �A good starting point to get on the right track to avoiding ‘marketing deja vu’ is to ask yourself and your team a few simple discovery questions:

What are 3 instances in where your marketing team has made the same mistake more than once?Did you expect different outcomes each time the mistake was made?What were those expected outcomes?What have you done to rectify these mistakes, or adapt your process to avoid them in the future?

Remember, if you can’t answer these questions on your own perhaps you should try asking other team members. �Or you may want to consider or contacting an agency like TopRank Online Marketingto learn how you can attract and engage current and prospective customers by avoiding common marketing mistakes.

Google Continues Censoring Piracy-Related Search Suggestions By Blocking Grooveshark

TorrentFreak reports Google has added another website to the piracy block list for their instant search suggestions. The site is named Grooveshark, which is a popular free music streaming service.

Google would not comment specifically about Grooveshark, but told TorrentFreak, “our algorithms prevent terms closely associated with piracy from appearing in Autocomplete.”

Back in January 2011, Google began filtering piracy related terms from their instant search suggestions. Google said then that they will “prevent terms that are closely associated with piracy from appearing in Autocomplete.” Google has, over the time, blocked dozens, if not hundreds of piracy related terms from showing in the search suggestions – including popular piracy related websites.

Of course in this case, Google blocking Grooveshark is possibly their way of calling out Grooveshark as explicitly being a piracy website. Although, Google will not issue such a statement or confirm this on the record, outside of the clear fact that Grooveshark no longer shows up in Google’s autocomplete results.

Google has also promised more recently to penalize websites that repeatedly are proven to pirate content.

It is unclear if there were too many DMCA takedowns for Grooveshark or if Google has decided to add Grooveshark to the blacklist of search suggestions because of its possible association to the piracy industry.

How Does Google Treat Hidden Text That's Only Temporarily Hidden?

Back about 10 years ago, it was so common to see websites that would have 10,000 keywords in hidden white text in the footer the homepage in order to hope to rank for every one of those hidden keywords.

Obviously, Google considered this pretty spammy and their search algorithm started dealing with this years ago. Now it's pretty rare to see websites with full-on hidden text that are actually ranking well.

Yet, many webmasters do fancy stuff with Javascript and AJAX where text would technically be hidden until a user takes action, such as clicking on a button, to actually display that text on the page. But how does Google handle this type of hidden text?

Yes, hidden text can definitely be used for the good of the user experience on a website, but is still definitely can be used for nefarious purposes. Google's new Webmaster Help Video brings up the issue of hidden text that becomes visible with the user action, and how that affects a website's ranking.

"It's pretty common on the web for people to want to be able to say, click here and show manufacture details, show specifications, show reviews, and that's a pretty normal idiom at this point," said Google's Matt Cutts in the video. "It's not deceptive, no one is trying to be manipulative, it's easy to see that this text is intended for users. And so as long as you're doing that, I wouldn't be too stressed out."

However, he brought up the potential spamminess that some webmasters inevitably try to get away with.

"Now certainly if you're using a tiny little button that users can't see, and there's like six pages of text buried in there and it's not intended for users, and is keyword stuffing, then it is something that we could possibly consider hidden text or probably would consider hidden text," Cutts said. "But in general, if you just have something with a nice AJAX-y sort of site and things get revealed, and you're trying to keep things clean, that's not the sort of thing that's going to be on the top of our list to worry about. It's pretty common on the web, a lot of people expect that."

He brought up the example of Wikipedia on a mobile phone, where you click to reveal each section, as an example that is within Google's guidelines regarding hidden text. So if you have worried that potentially a reason that affects your Google rankings, as long as you're not doing it for bots instead of for users, you have nothing to worry about.

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Google Continues Censoring Piracy-Related Search Suggestions By Blocking Grooveshark

TorrentFreak reports Google has added another website to the piracy block list for their instant search suggestions. The site is named Grooveshark, which is a popular free music streaming service.

Google would not comment specifically about Grooveshark, but told TorrentFreak, “our algorithms prevent terms closely associated with piracy from appearing in Autocomplete.”

Back in January 2011, Google began filtering piracy related terms from their instant search suggestions. Google said then that they will “prevent terms that are closely associated with piracy from appearing in Autocomplete.” Google has, over the time, blocked dozens, if not hundreds of piracy related terms from showing in the search suggestions – including popular piracy related websites.

Of course in this case, Google blocking Grooveshark is possibly their way of calling out Grooveshark as explicitly being a piracy website. Although, Google will not issue such a statement or confirm this on the record, outside of the clear fact that Grooveshark no longer shows up in Google’s autocomplete results.

Google has also promised more recently to penalize websites that repeatedly are proven to pirate content.

It is unclear if there were too many DMCA takedowns for Grooveshark or if Google has decided to add Grooveshark to the blacklist of search suggestions because of its possible association to the piracy industry.

Google Analytics Gives Advertisers Bid Adjustments Report

Google AdWords is now sending even more conversion data to Google Analytics to help advertisers optimize their bidding adjustments with the new enhanced campaigns. Analytics now shows bid adjustment reporting, enabling advertisers to run and analyze performance reports for each bid adjustment, and analyze it across devices, locations, and time of day.

Also, users that have Ecommerce tracking enabled within Google Analytics can use the new bid adjustment reporting to make adjustments to bidding based on actual revenue being generated instead of simply conversions. This allows advertisers to optimize for ROI instead of simply CPA meeting advertisers can ensure their AdWords ads are reaching the best audience for ROI purposes.

A quick example illustrates this (illustrated in the above screenshot). Imagine a hotel chain has set Time bid adjustments of +20% on Saturday and Sunday after observing a better ROI on those days. Using this new report in GA, the hotel chain now observes that their ROI on Sundays is actually higher than on other days of the week. The hotel chain's analyst finds that customers book more expensive rooms and longer stays on Sundays. Using this information, the hotel chain increases its existing Time bid adjustment for Sundays.

The new reporting is available to all Google Analytics users who have linked their account with their Google AdWords account. To find the reporting, go to Traffic Sources > Advertising >AdWords and clicking the Bid Adjustments link.

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Google Warns Against Large-Scale Guest Posting, Advertorials & “Optimized Anchor Text” In Press Releases

Google has quietly updated the link schemes document under their Webmaster guidelines to add large-scale guest posting, advertorials and optimized anchor text in articles or press releases to the list of types of links that violate their guidelines.

The new guideline examples that were added to this document include:

Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text linksAdvertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass PageRankLinks with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites.

Google also removed these guideline examples:

Linking to web spammers or unrelated sites with the intent to manipulate PageRankLinks that are inserted into articles with little coherenceLarge-Scale Guest Posts

This should come as no surprise, it is a topic we covered earlier this month. If you are guest blogging with the intent to build links, and those blog posts are done large-scale with very little quality built into them, Google may take action against the links in those articles or guest blog posts.

You can do guest blog posts but if you are doing it with the intent to gain keyword-rich anchor text, then be warned.

Advertorials

Again, this should also come as no surprise. We had a detailed video from Google’s Matt Cutts on why advertorials with links need to be nofollwed. We even had major e-commerce sites get penalized for using this technique to build links.

Optimized Anchor Text In Press Releases

This is one of the big changes that may have not been so clear for many webmasters. Google said, “links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites,” is an example of an unnatural link that violate their guidelines. The key are the examples given and the phrase “distributed on other sites.” If you are publishing a press release or an article on your site and distribute it through a wire or through an article site, you must make sure to nofollow the links if those links are “optimized anchor text.”

The example Google gives is:

There are many wedding rings on the market. If you want to have a wedding, you will have to pick the best ring. You will also need to buy flowers and a wedding dress.

Google Removed Some Examples Of Link Schemes:

Why did Google specifically remove those examples of link schemes? It is unclear and we hope to clarify. I do think that those examples are still covered in the overall theme of the link schemes document. In fact, I think the other examples, for the most part, cover the examples removed.

A hat tip to Menaseh for sending this tip my way.

Visual PR Secrets: Content Power Tips and Social Publishing Trends

If there was a recipe for social PR news success, it would call for a dash of authentic content, a splash of vibrant color, and a double shot of visual inspiration. Oh, and make sure it's in a mobile-friendly "to go" cup!

Editorialized, Fresh, Newsworthy

We're in the dawn of brand journalism, a time when visual storytelling is paramount for social media success and overall content marketing. The contrived billboard type Facebook posts and robotic Tweets may have been sufficient yesterday but today's top brands are acting more like publishers, staffed with social editors in a newsroom style setting and mobile photographers are bubbling up to the top of the leaderboard. Attracting brand advocates along the way, including the media!

Visual-ology

The science of visuals used effectively to tell a story and draw a reader into a fuller version of content. Adding eye candy to a brand's social PR marketing mixology is part of the success equation according to data scientists such as Dan Zarrella author of the "Science of Marketing". Statistic after statistic show that whether it's a mobile device, app, search result, press release, tweet, update, blog post or publication article, nobody clicks on boring!

Social PR secret: Visuals increase visits, pageviews, engagement, interactions, and conversions.

But when it comes down to it, visuals are just one part of the big picture called content and the drilldown looks at the type of content your followers care most about and how it is presented.

"It's all about your audience – if a visual is relevant and inspires them to take action you have a winner. There's as many ways to do this right as there are different audiences," said Megan Berry Community Manager of RebelMouse.

Will the New Brand Journalist Please Stand Up?

Hello, that means you!

Relating to your audience is key to getting the social word flowing and that means writing and communicating in a way that is appealing and passionate. The best content will only stand out when accompanied by the right visuals, or else your news and message drops from unforgettable to barely memorable.

Hearing Brand Voices

"If all of the press releases or content you produce has the same voice, then it's likely not going to be relatable to your audience. It's not just about writing for journalists anymore, it's about writing to people who have a relevant connection to your brand – the influencers are the most critical and those will include journalists," said Jason Kintzler, PitchEngine CEO and founder.

Milk and Cookies Budgets

While Oreo had a team (and budget) of designers and brand executives on call during the Super Bowl ready to pull off the landmark tweet "You Can Still Dunk in The Dark" the allure of that tactic could be fading as the #RoyalBaby news tweet seems like what was new is now a little "tired" as 13 brands newsjacked the special delivery.

But what about the brands that might not have the luxury to have a team of designers and brand executives at bay willing to make a final call on visuals during some of the hottest media centric trending events of the year? How do brands small and large compete when it comes to visuals standing out in the newsfeed in daily life and beyond?

Experts agree that in order to get noticed and win the social newsfeed war, you don't have to break the bank or fall into the cookie cutter stock photography trap. Instead of creating ads that look like editorial content, it's actually the awesome content that is a brands' most compelling and natural advertisement.

Visuals on Demand

As demonstrated in the #RoyalBaby trending news, businesses are challenged with the task of transforming a trending conversation into a brand relevant visual that resonates with an audience in hours instead of days. It might be a radical shift in marketing and communications, but the strategy is available to any size organization.

Today's brands looking to sell their product or service have a level playing field when looking to using imagery or video to convey a message or story. The key is thinking outside the stock photography image box and get creative with user-generated resources, new solutions, platforms and apps are making it easier for visuals to be accessible and creative.

Visual PR Secrets, Tips, Platforms & Trends

1. Embedding short videos and news content with Instagram, Vine, and PitchEngine

Embedding video is at new level of creativity and speed with mobile apps on hand for on the spot reporting for the fast-paced storytelling world in five seconds. That is how long you have to engage visitors on your website, blog or social media newsfeed before 30 percent of them leave and 40 percent of them never return, according to a study, "When Seconds Count" by Equation Research. PitchEngine offers embedded pitches which enables you to share more dynamic content on less sophisticated blog platforms and social streams.

2. Social publishing with visual platform RebelMouse

Creating your own social front page is automagically possible with the RebelMouse social publishing service, that helps users create a dedicated page for all of the curated content they share (or want to share) on social networks in a free version as well as a paid version called Powered Sites.

The company is headed by former Huffington Post CTO and AOL vet Paul Berry who is giving small businesses an affordable interactive alternative for a social and visual homepage design packed with curated content and providing larger with potential profit centers to sell ad space.

Besides the journalistic-style editorial features on RebelMouse that lets users bring in content from social networks and other feeds, blog directly on RebelMouse, move and edit posts, freeze content – brands can power a domain and get added bonus features such as advanced embedding controls, customized design, and MailChimp integration.

For example if you have a domain yourname.com, RebelMouse is one possible solution to power up content in a Google-friendly SEO fashion! Big brands such as GE demonstrate how they choose relevant, interesting content with visual components to put out on social.

Old School Graphics Transitioning to New Media

NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen's board on Pinterest is a perfect example of how high priced designers and production red tape can be replaced by the simplicity of a pen and paper for engaging visuals.

"Making graphics doesn't need to take money. It takes time and love to make something people care about. Writing a stat on a piece of paper costs nothing but if you snap a photo and upload it to social channels you are creating something for your fans to share. Authenticity trumps money," words of data graphic wisdom from Jesse Thomas, founder of Jess3.

"Don't forget about the pen and paper option. Draw something and film it on vine. Draw something and take a photo for Instagram. Software is not always the answer," notes Thomas.

Be Authentic and Avoid Self Serving Visuals

"I can tell more about a brand by looking at their Instagram feed than I can about any marketing message, ad or press release," Kintzler said. "Any brand that is creating content with their 'real' voice is doing it right in my book. You can't just write like a 'newsie' and think people will relate. And remember, journalists are news consumers too."

Visual light bulb! Hey, let's do an infographic!

When it comes to data visuals Thomas notes, "brands 'get' that infographics are popular but they need to make graphics that are not so self serving."

Looks like that infographic idea might require a little more effort for best results.

What's IN?Real photos of real things taken by real people "We know that a photo of a Big Mac doesn't look like what you actually get. Trends in images show that people want reality. If you look at Starbucks Facebook page for example, you see fewer pro photos and more photos that look like they were taken with an iphone," said Krista Neher author of "Visual Social Media Marketing".It has become popular to create simple square graphics with one to two data points versus the original infographic style of being tall with 10-30 data points.You will hear "content marketing" 50-million times this year. What does that mean? I think it should mean this to you: Brands as publishers. PRs as journalists. This is the future of public relations and marketing.For a visual snapshot of the social network solar system, check out the 2013 version conversation prism by Brian Solis and Jess3.

What's OUT?Tall graphics with type you can't read without zooming in.Graphics that are too brand-focused are out.Overused and generic stock photography. There is nothing wrong with starting with a stock image, but taking the extra step of adding a CTA, headline, or filter can make the difference between success and failure.Text only blog posts, social messages, press releases, and traditional press release wire services.Length. Content that's longer than two to three paragraphsAnything that feels tacked on as opposed to part of the brand's core voice and message, noted Berry.

"Can you say it in a tweet? Sure you can ¬– get creative and stop being lazy. Your value isn't your ability to write a press release – it's your ability to communicate a message and inspire people," Kintzler said.

Today's content is more visual, social, and sophisticated. As brands compete to lure in new customers with the right pictures, it's time to rethink which images are used and new ways to get visual. The inspiring, passionate, and authentic will survive.

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Getting Started With Google Places for Business

Google Places is one local listing you don't want to miss. Having a solid Google Places listing is a great way to position your company as a leader in a your business niche in a particular location.

While some industries might cater to this more than others (restaurants for example), every business can benefit from connecting with locals. The local sphere is smaller, and although you might have a lot of competition, you have a much better chance of connecting with relevant users than if you just focus on the national Google search engine.

Long story short: This should be a priority for any company looking to take advantage of the online community.

How to Submit Your Site to Google Places

Google Places makes it incredibly easy to get started. In less than 5 minutes, you can get your business listing up and running on the largest search engine out there. Follow the steps below to get started:

Step 1: Visit this link, agree to the Terms, and start adding information about your business in the blanks.

This might seem like more than one step, but it's so quick that clicking the link and agreeing to the terms doesn't need much discussion. You will be asked to type in your email address (use the one you want associated with your listing), and then you're on your way. You will be taken to a screen like the one shown below, so simply fill in your information as best you can:

Step 2: Verify your business, or continue and come back later.

At one point or another, you're going to have to verify your business by mail. This will ensure that your business really is located where you say it is. You will be taken to the screen (shown below). For now, we'll skip the verification.

Step 3: Get started filling out information regarding your listing, AdWords, and other offers from Google.

This is essentially the final section of your Google Places listing, but there are several parts that go into this section. As showns in the screenshot below, there are four options on the left sidebar (the below screenshot is the general "Places for Business" overview tab). You can click each tab to begin filling out information.

As you can see, none of the edits will show up until you have verified that you are the owner of the business (Step 2). Other tabs include listings tab, offers, and AdWords Express.

Extra Step: Get started with AdWords Express.

The AdWords Express tab will take you to a new page where you can create an ad and set your budget. This isn't necessary right away, but those companies using AdWords could really benefit from this feature.

As shown in the screenshot below, there is again a tab on the left with different options and categories. These include select your audience (screenshot shown below), create your ad, set your budget, review your ad, and checkout.

It's as simple as that! Once you're verified, all of your edits will show up and your listing will become a part of the Google Places community.

Next comes optimizing this business listing so that it shows up at the top of a SERP – the same way it works when trying to optimize a website for Google search. A few quick ways to make sure your listing is optimized:

Fill in all of the information allowed (description, contact info, hours, headline, address etc.).Add high-quality, relevant photos.Work to improve your number of reviews by making it easy to find your Google+ page.Consider using keywords throughout your listing.Put your Google Listing on your website and in your email signature.

Claiming your business isn't going to do much if your listing isn't optimized. Remember, people come to your listing in order to learn more about your company, so not only will your listing likely not show up in a Google search, but it wouldn't help customers consider your business when it comes time to make a purchasing decision.

Google+ Local versus Google Places

Now that Google+ Local has entered onto the local search scene, the distinction between the two has become confusing. Essentially, Google+ allows companies to have business pages (much the same way that Facebook allows you to have a business page).

This is where your customers and clients can go to rate and review your business. It helps bring your business into the social sphere for more visibility.

You can, however, merge all of your Google Places information onto your Google+ Local page. In short, Google Places can still be used to manage your business listing, but it is Google+ that is likely going to give you all of your engagement. Whether or not Google will completely do away with Google Places is unknown, but for now it seems that many companies can get away with just a Google+ Local account, so the choice is up to you.

Google Places Overview

So a quick recap of Google Places:

Google Places is one of the most effective ways to get your website in front of the eyes of relevant and local users.You can visit this link to get started following the steps to claim your business. It only takes a few minutes to claim your listing and fill out all of the information needed.AdWords Express makes it easy to create an ad for your audience.It's important to optimize your Google Places listing by filling out all of the information you can, including high-quality photos, utilizing keywords throughout the listing, and engaging with reviews.

Is your company using Google Places? What about Google+ Local? Have you seen any improvements in your traffic and/or sales since you started getting involved with local search? Let us know your story and your thoughts in the comments below.

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YouTube Dedicates a Week to Geek Culture

Let's be honest, who doesn't suffer from a bit of the inner geek? I know that I certainly do (sshhh)! Fear no more, YouTube is giving us the opportunity to release our beloved internal gremlin and is setting aside a week of spotlighted geek-themed programming.

Geek Week will take place from August 4-10, and will include talent from some of YouTube's popular channels such as Felicia Day's "Geek & Sundry".

"From 'Game of Thrones' and 'The Big Bang Theory' to 'Harry Potter' and 'The Avengers', geek culture is everywhere, attracting and connecting ever-expanding audiences. Today's obsession with all-things-geek has sparked a global community on YouTube, enabling fans around the world to express their love of superheroes, comics, gaming, science and sci-fi.

"With more than half of our top 20 non-music channels dedicated to geek culture, YouTube has become a top destination for fans everywhere to create, share and watch geek content." said Danielle Tiedt, chief marketing officer at YouTube.

The celebration will be broken down by themed days in an effort to cater to niche audiences. These include:

Blockbuster Sunday: A celebration of the iconic characters, movies, and shows that define geek culture – plus a spotlight on the best original YouTube sci-fi, fantasy and animation. Hosted by FreddieW.Global Geekery Monday: Anime from Tokyo, comic-book heroes from Delhi and a celebration of Doctor Who. Explore geek culture from around the world. Hosted by YOMYOMF.Brainiac Tuesday: Science, education and knowledge channels that make YouTube the world's biggest platform for learning. Hosted by Veritasium and The Spangler Effect.Super Wednesday: From hilarious parodies to real-life super-powers, explore superheroes, the supernatural and the super-weird. Plus, released exclusively for Geek Week, the trailer for "Marvel's Thor: The Dark World". Hosted by Stan Lee's World of Heroes.Gaming Thursday: A gamer's paradise, with live play-throughs, videogames in real life, game-inspired original series and much more. Hosted by Machinima and Maker Studios' Polaris.Fan Friday: Sci-fi-themed cooking, incredible cosplay and impassioned nerd debates as YouTube's biggest fans take center-stage. Hosted by Geek and Sundry.

"We have a lot of heavy YouTube viewing in August, especially amongst the 'Gen C' community so this really is an opportunity to engage with our audience," says Tiedt.

Produced in conjunction with geek powerhouse Nerdist, Geek Week will showcase more than 100 channels that fans love, unveiling new videos, series premieres and creative collaborations, as well as highlighting some of the best geek videos and shows already on YouTube.

This article was originally published on ClickZ.

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Fortune 500 Social Media: 77% Active on Twitter; 70% on Facebook

It's been no secret that some Fortune 500 companies are a little behind the times when it comes to their social media endeavors. Not to say that there aren't some fantastic cutting edge social media strategist with stellar results for Fortune 500 companies, but it's definitely not that common.

A new study has looked at how Fortune 500 companies are using (or not using) social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, as part of their overall marketing and customer service plan.

Which types of Fortune 500 companies are actively using social media the most?

Overall:

77 percent have active Twitter accounts (up from 73 percent in 2012); Facebook has the most followers.70 percent are on Facebook (up from 66 percent); Facebook has the most fans.69 percent have a YouTube channel (up from 62 percent).35 percent have Google+ pages.9 percent are using Pinterest (up from 2 percent), Instagram, and Foursquare.

When looking at Facebook, specialty retailers are not surprisingly at the top the list with 96 percent. Retailers definitely realize the importance of getting their products and brand in front of customers, especially on a platform where users can easily share with others.

But next on the list? Telecommunications ranked second with 88% having a presence on Facebook. This really isn't shocking when you consider that many people take to social media, particularly Facebook, to complain about their cell phone or Internet company.

It makes a lot of sense for these companies to be able to interact with those disgruntled customers and try to make them happy if possible – and so that friends of disgruntled customers can also see that the company is attempting to fix the issue. Many of these telecommunications companies have a great rep when it comes to dealing with social media and their interactions on it, even if they don't necessarily have a great overall rep, but are making plenty of inroads with a large and active social media presence.

When you look at Twitter, you see many of the same trends, although some are more active on Twitter than on Facebook. For example, commercial banks have the largest Fortune 500 company presence, with 94 percent of banks being on Twitter, compared to only 70 percent of banks being on Facebook. In second is food and consumer products with 93 percent, while specialty retailers come in at 91 percent.

Also worth noting is the fact that even in 2013 only 34 percent of Fortune 500 companies have corporate blogs. This is barely over double the amount of corporate blogs in 2008, were 16% had blogs. That is surprisingly slow growth for what is really the easiest medium to control when it comes to putting content out in front of customers.

You can view the infographic below or the full study here.

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LinkedIn Attracts Brands to Homepage With Sponsored Updates

LinkedIn is bringing sponsored updates to its primary news feed, calling it a core feature of the company’s content-marketing strategy as it strives to become a more prominent publishing platform.

Sponsored Updates are a new ad unit available to marketers and brand managers that run company pages on LinkedIn. Users will begin seeing the ads on desktops, smartphones and tablets alongside the organic posts from people in their network and companies they follow.

"With sponsored updates what we are doing basically is giving them a way to go beyond their followers and increase their distribution,” said Gyanda Sachdeva, product manager at LinkedIn. "We expect our members to see more content from these companies, institutions, businesses, and at the same time give our marketers and all these entities a bigger channel to distribute this content and get in front of a professional audience on a mainstream channel like the news feed.”

More than 3 million active company pages will be able to purchase the ads in either cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-mille (CPM) based pricing by the end of the month.

"In the CPC in particular, we don’t charge for social actions. So any virality that happens post that is to the advertiser’s credit," Sachdeva said.

Adobe got in on the action early, with a group of brands selected by LinkedIn for a trial phase. The company issued regular sponsored updates over a two-month stretch aimed at raising the profile of Adobe in the digital marketing space.

At the end of the initial campaign, the company learned that at least half of the marketing decisions makers who saw Adobe’s ads were more likely to agree that the company is shaping the future of digital marketing, and 79 percent were more likely to agree that Adobe can help optimize media spend.

"We like to think of ourselves as a very social forward company... We probably spend more on digital marketing strategy than most companies, so we're pretty ahead of the game there and social's a big component of that," said Matt Rozen, group manager of corporate social media at Adobe. "LinkedIn has this perfect niche for us as we try to get awareness out of a very important part of our business - our digital marketing solutions business, the Adobe Marketing Cloud. A lot of marketers don't know that we're in this business."

Marketers are already gathering on LinkedIn to talk about digital marketing, Rozen said.

“You can find a bunch of them on Twitter, we can talk news and information sharing on Twitter and that's great. Some of us are on Facebook too but we tend to want to talk about our favorite movies and our favorite foods, our kids and things like that, or politics, so Facebook isn't this super ideal place. But LinkedIn, people who want to talk about marketing are actually going there to do it,” Rozen said.

Adobe used LinkedIn’s targeting parameters to deliver its messages to professionals in digital marketing or advertising, members with specific marketing functions, chief marketing officers and creative. 

"We essentially wanted to reach and engage marketers," he said. "I think there's room for growth in terms of targeting, which LinkedIn would say as well I imagine. There's always room for growth, but it was pretty good."

Rozen said he looks forward to testing sponsored updates as a way to drive conversions or increase the amount of followers Adobe has on LinkedIn.

Sponsored updates may have launched but it is still unclear just how many users will see in their feed.

"We are testing many different configurations and it's very early days, so we don't know yet. There is no specific number that we are tied to,” Sachdeva said. LinkedIn emphasized that it and advertisers will learn more and make changes to its algorithms accordingly after the full launch.

This article was originally published on ClickZ.

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Google Analytics Gives Advertisers Bid Adjustments Report

Google AdWords is now sending even more conversion data to Google Analytics to help advertisers optimize their bidding adjustments with the new enhanced campaigns. Analytics now shows bid adjustment reporting, enabling advertisers to run and analyze performance reports for each bid adjustment, and analyze it across devices, locations, and time of day.

Also, users that have Ecommerce tracking enabled within Google Analytics can use the new bid adjustment reporting to make adjustments to bidding based on actual revenue being generated instead of simply conversions. This allows advertisers to optimize for ROI instead of simply CPA meeting advertisers can ensure their AdWords ads are reaching the best audience for ROI purposes.

A quick example illustrates this (illustrated in the above screenshot). Imagine a hotel chain has set Time bid adjustments of +20% on Saturday and Sunday after observing a better ROI on those days. Using this new report in GA, the hotel chain now observes that their ROI on Sundays is actually higher than on other days of the week. The hotel chain's analyst finds that customers book more expensive rooms and longer stays on Sundays. Using this information, the hotel chain increases its existing Time bid adjustment for Sundays.

The new reporting is available to all Google Analytics users who have linked their account with their Google AdWords account. To find the reporting, go to Traffic Sources > Advertising >AdWords and clicking the Bid Adjustments link.

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LinkedIn Attracts Brands to Homepage With Sponsored Updates

LinkedIn is bringing sponsored updates to its primary news feed, calling it a core feature of the company’s content-marketing strategy as it strives to become a more prominent publishing platform.

Sponsored Updates are a new ad unit available to marketers and brand managers that run company pages on LinkedIn. Users will begin seeing the ads on desktops, smartphones and tablets alongside the organic posts from people in their network and companies they follow.

"With sponsored updates what we are doing basically is giving them a way to go beyond their followers and increase their distribution,” said Gyanda Sachdeva, product manager at LinkedIn. "We expect our members to see more content from these companies, institutions, businesses, and at the same time give our marketers and all these entities a bigger channel to distribute this content and get in front of a professional audience on a mainstream channel like the news feed.”

More than 3 million active company pages will be able to purchase the ads in either cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-mille (CPM) based pricing by the end of the month.

"In the CPC in particular, we don’t charge for social actions. So any virality that happens post that is to the advertiser’s credit," Sachdeva said.

Adobe got in on the action early, with a group of brands selected by LinkedIn for a trial phase. The company issued regular sponsored updates over a two-month stretch aimed at raising the profile of Adobe in the digital marketing space.

At the end of the initial campaign, the company learned that at least half of the marketing decisions makers who saw Adobe’s ads were more likely to agree that the company is shaping the future of digital marketing, and 79 percent were more likely to agree that Adobe can help optimize media spend.

"We like to think of ourselves as a very social forward company... We probably spend more on digital marketing strategy than most companies, so we're pretty ahead of the game there and social's a big component of that," said Matt Rozen, group manager of corporate social media at Adobe. "LinkedIn has this perfect niche for us as we try to get awareness out of a very important part of our business - our digital marketing solutions business, the Adobe Marketing Cloud. A lot of marketers don't know that we're in this business."

Marketers are already gathering on LinkedIn to talk about digital marketing, Rozen said.

“You can find a bunch of them on Twitter, we can talk news and information sharing on Twitter and that's great. Some of us are on Facebook too but we tend to want to talk about our favorite movies and our favorite foods, our kids and things like that, or politics, so Facebook isn't this super ideal place. But LinkedIn, people who want to talk about marketing are actually going there to do it,” Rozen said.

Adobe used LinkedIn’s targeting parameters to deliver its messages to professionals in digital marketing or advertising, members with specific marketing functions, chief marketing officers and creative. 

"We essentially wanted to reach and engage marketers," he said. "I think there's room for growth in terms of targeting, which LinkedIn would say as well I imagine. There's always room for growth, but it was pretty good."

Rozen said he looks forward to testing sponsored updates as a way to drive conversions or increase the amount of followers Adobe has on LinkedIn.

Sponsored updates may have launched but it is still unclear just how many users will see in their feed.

"We are testing many different configurations and it's very early days, so we don't know yet. There is no specific number that we are tied to,” Sachdeva said. LinkedIn emphasized that it and advertisers will learn more and make changes to its algorithms accordingly after the full launch.

This article was originally published on ClickZ.

Complete the survey and be entered for a chance to win a Platinum Pass to SES San Francisco!

Google Adds Enhanced Campaigns Bid Adjustment Reporting To Google Analytics

Google announced today that Bid Adjustments reports for AdWords enhanced campaigns are now included in Google Analytics.

The reporting, found in the Advertising section under Traffic Sources in Analytics, are designed to help advertisers analyze the performance of each bid adjustment within a campaign — by device, location and time of day.

You’ll notice in the Google-provided screenshot example above, there are columns for Revenue and Ecommerce Conversion Rate in the Summary view. These metrics are available when Ecommerce tracking is enabled in Google Analtyics, allowing you to analyze bid adjustment performance by ROI. However, when you look at your own reporting, you may see that the Summary view only shows goal results and that the columns for Revenue and Ecommerce Conversion Rate appear under the Ecommerce view instead.

Fortune 500 Social Media: 77% Active on Twitter; 70% on Facebook

It's been no secret that some Fortune 500 companies are a little behind the times when it comes to their social media endeavors. Not to say that there aren't some fantastic cutting edge social media strategist with stellar results for Fortune 500 companies, but it's definitely not that common.

A new study has looked at how Fortune 500 companies are using (or not using) social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, as part of their overall marketing and customer service plan.

Which types of Fortune 500 companies are actively using social media the most?

Overall:

77 percent have active Twitter accounts (up from 73 percent in 2012); Facebook has the most followers.70 percent are on Facebook (up from 66 percent); Facebook has the most fans.69 percent have a YouTube channel (up from 62 percent).35 percent have Google+ pages.9 percent are using Pinterest (up from 2 percent), Instagram, and Foursquare.

When looking at Facebook, specialty retailers are not surprisingly at the top the list with 96 percent. Retailers definitely realize the importance of getting their products and brand in front of customers, especially on a platform where users can easily share with others.

But next on the list? Telecommunications ranked second with 88% having a presence on Facebook. This really isn't shocking when you consider that many people take to social media, particularly Facebook, to complain about their cell phone or Internet company.

It makes a lot of sense for these companies to be able to interact with those disgruntled customers and try to make them happy if possible – and so that friends of disgruntled customers can also see that the company is attempting to fix the issue. Many of these telecommunications companies have a great rep when it comes to dealing with social media and their interactions on it, even if they don't necessarily have a great overall rep, but are making plenty of inroads with a large and active social media presence.

When you look at Twitter, you see many of the same trends, although some are more active on Twitter than on Facebook. For example, commercial banks have the largest Fortune 500 company presence, with 94 percent of banks being on Twitter, compared to only 70 percent of banks being on Facebook. In second is food and consumer products with 93 percent, while specialty retailers come in at 91 percent.

Also worth noting is the fact that even in 2013 only 34 percent of Fortune 500 companies have corporate blogs. This is barely over double the amount of corporate blogs in 2008, were 16% had blogs. That is surprisingly slow growth for what is really the easiest medium to control when it comes to putting content out in front of customers.

You can view the infographic below or the full study here.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $400!
*Early Bird rates expire August 15.

Google Showcases Back-to-School Shopping Trends and Ecommerce Opportunity

Google combined search trends with surveys to showcase 2013 back-to-school shopping behavior online. This year, Google said it was seeing the earliest back-to-school shopping season on record, and cited that the “ability to research online at any time, anywhere, on any device, has sped up shopping noticeably.”

Google said July is reserved for the research portion of back-to-school gear, and August will be purchase time.

Back-to-School Start Dates Vary

Keep in mind that depending on where students live in the U.S., the first day of school will vary as much as several weeks. John Gagnon shared tips on Search Engine Watch earlier this month on how to use this type of information to customize the timing of your online marketing plan.

The following map from Gagnon’s post illustrates school start dates nationwide according to geography:

This data, along with Google’s research and a recent study by the National Retail Federation (NRF) that showed 72 percent of parents shop for their children within 1 week to 1 month before school starts, shows the need for perfect timing in ecommerce marketing. Gagnon talks more about how to capitalize on that in his post.

The Majority of Shopping Starts Online

Google said the majority of these back-to-school shoppers start online. "More than 60 percent of shoppers will begin their shopping online, and most shoppers report that online research will have a notable impact on their in-store purchase decisions."

College shoppers trump other students in terms of spend, Google said. “Shoppers for high school students expect to spend $347 on average, people shopping for college expect to spend nearly double that amount at $614 on average.”

Ninety-four percent of shoppers indicated a promotion or sale would persuade them to purchase a product, Google said.

"We found that people are more sale conscious when buying consumer electronics than other school supplies. Consumer electronics shoppers were more likely to make a purchase if there was a back to school promotion, free shipping offer or one day sale."

Video also proved to be a popular form of back-to-school research with Google showing more than 205,000 haul videos (people reviewing their purchases) on clothes, supplies and dorm room décor uploaded in the past week.

With the month fast coming to a close, Google said most back-to-school research will be wrapping up while purchasing momentum will pick up.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $400!
*Early Bird rates expire August 15.

Bing Ads Says Product Ads Are Coming This Summer (U.S. Only)

Today Bing Ads announced on its Developer blog that they plan to roll out Product Ads in the U.S. sometime early this summer. The ad unit follows AdWords Product Listing Ads format with thumbnail image, merchant information, price and optional promotional text included in the ad.

Bing says they are testing the Product Ads format with a handful of advertisers.� Bing provided the screenshot below, but I haven’t been able to see the ads in the wild yet.

 

Just as AdWords pulls data from Google Merchant Center for Product Listing Ads, Bing Ads will grab product details from the Bing Merchant Center store for Product Ads.

A hard date for the rollout isn’t available yet, but Bing Ads API users are being told to have code updates ready by June 1st.

A “Managing Product Ads” section is already live on the MSDN for developers to access. Ecommerce advertisers take note, now is probably a good time to set up that Bing Merchant Center store.

 

Nearly 90% of Gas & Convenience Mobile Searches Result in Purchase [Study]

Mobile searchers need fuel to keep them on the go, and data released today from Telmetrics and xAd's Mobile Path-to-Purchase study show the gas and convenience store category dominates when it comes to mobile research leading to conversions.

Ninety percent of all searches on mobile related to gas and convenience stores resulted within a purchase. Of that, 35 percent of smartphone users intend to buy immediately; 66 percent intend to purchase within the hour.

Eighty percent of mobile searchers in this category are looking for gas and convenience within a 5-mile radius. The majority (55 percent) seeks location info and 34 percent look for directions.

Mobile apps are the preferred method of accessing info on gas and convenience; more than half prefer comparison apps and overall, 97 percent of mobile search time is spent in apps, according to the data.

Three out of four say they notice advertisements during their research time on mobile, and Bill Dinan, president of Telmetrics, said these findings present a great opportunity for advertisers and marketers in this category.

"With some of the heaviest app usage and highest conversion rates we've seen in our Mobile Path-to-Purchase research series, it is important that gas and convenience advertisers work with marketing providers that ensure their businesses can be found in apps in addition to mobile sites," Dinan said. "Advertisers have a chance to drive more purchases by ensuring their mobile presence is optimized with location and pricing info."

Image Credit: Telmetrics

 More Mobile Search InsightsGoogle: Mobile Search Helps 82% of In-Store Shoppers Make Purchase Decisions [Study]46% of Searchers Now Use Mobile Exclusively to Research [Study]Local Search via Non-PC Devices Quadrupled in 2012 [Study]Smartphone vs. Tablet Commerce: 3 Essential Behaviors You May Be Overlooking49% of Mobile Auto Searchers Buy a Car Within 24 HoursMobile Purchase Path Insights for Successful Mobile Ad Campaigns [Study]

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $400!
*Early Bird rates expire August 15.

Google AdWords Keyword Match Types and Negatives: The Ultimate Guide

On search engines, it's all about the keyword. What's in a keyword?

Keywords connect a searcher's search terms to relevant ads created in AdWords. We want to make our ads as relevant to the searcher as possible, so this involves understanding not only the keyword itself, but also the intention behind the keyword.

For example, if someone is searching for "blueberry muffins" we have to be prepared to understand if they are looking for a recipe or a local bakery that sells blueberry muffins.

Keywords and match types has become more complicated over the years, yet its mastery is also critical to PPC advertising success.

For each keyword we can assign a match type, which basically determines how broad or narrow a user's search query will match to the keyword in our AdWords account.

Ranging from broad to narrow, there are several different match types: broad match, broad match modifier, phrase match, exact match, and negative match.

The broader the keyword, the greater the reach, but unfortunately the relevancy can also slip since ads can be served on less relevant keywords. Here's how each match type can work for or against you.

Broad Match

Broad match: laptop computers

May show for: computers, desktop computers, sony computer reviews

Broad match allows your ad to show on similar phrases and close variations of the keyword. Close variations include misspellings, singular and plural forms, acronyms, stemmings, abbreviations, and accents.

This can further complicate things when your ads can also appear for "related searches" or when someone searches for synonyms of your keywords.

Sometimes close variations can be undesirable and cause problems, so broad matched keywords should be monitored carefully.

On the Google Display Network, all keywords are considered broad match only. This means we don't need to worry about other variants of the keywords.

Broad Match Modifier

Broad match modifier: +laptop +computers

May show for: laptop computer reviews, laptop computer manual

Keywords with the "+" sign must appear in the user's search exactly or as a close variant, such as misspellings, singular/plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and stemmings (like "computer" and "computing"). Additional words may also appear in the user's search.

Phrase Match

Phrase match: "laptop computers"

May show for: laptop computers for sale

Allows your ad to show for searches that include the exact phrase and possibly includes other words as well.

Exact Match

Exact match: [laptop computers]

Only show for: laptop computers

Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively in that order, no other words.

Negative Match

Negative match: -cheap

May show for: Other words similar to cheap, such as inexpensive or sale.

Ensures your ad doesn't show for any search that includes that term. For example a search query for "cheap laptops" shouldn't trigger the ad with "cheap" as a negative.

Another example of how negative keywords can improve relevancy is if we're promoting blueberry muffin recipes, we may want to use a negative to prevent us from showing up when people are looking for bakeries. We'd use keyword "-bakery" to ensure our ads are most relevant to the search.

Negative keywords can also be match-typed, except broad match modifier. There are three types of negative keyword match types:

Negative exact: Would only not show when the exact term is the entire query.Negative phrase: Would not show anytime the term showed anywhere in the query in that order.Negative (essentially negative broad): Would not show anytime the entire term showed anywhere in the search query in any order.

How broad is negative broad match? One of the strangest things about match types is that broad match keywords and negative broad match keywords don't behave the same, at least according to the many AdWords reps I have asked. Negative broad match keywords won't trigger on close variations.

Also in this case of both/all words in a negative keyword must be present in the search query to exclude the ad from showing. Note that they do not expand to synonyms, singular or plural, and other variations as in the case of expanded broad match.

For example, "-quick blue" and "-fast blue" would be needed to be added differently, as negative broad would not expand. In fact, even a negative keyword such as "-blue" would not expand to "-blues", and hence you'd have to exclude both separately.

Here's how the different versions of the negative keyword "fast blue" would affect this ad, as an example. This is the same example all of the AdWords customer service reps send out to explain how this works.

1. -fast blue (Negative)

Possible searches:

blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOWmercedes fast car - WOULD SHOWblue fast mercedes car - WOULD NOT SHOWcar blue mercedes fast - WOULD NOT SHOWfast blue - WOULD NOT SHOWblue fast - WOULD NOT SHOWfast blue mercedes car - WOULD NOT SHOW

2) -"fast blue" (Negative Phrase)

Possible searches:

blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOWblue fast mercedes car - WOULD SHOWmercedes fast car - WOULD SHOWcar blue mercedes fast - WOULD SHOWblue fast - WOULD SHOWfast blue - WOULD NOT SHOWfast blue mercedes car - WOULD NOT SHOW

3) -[fast blue] (Negative Exact)

Possible searches:

blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOWblue fast mercedes car - WOULD SHOWmercedes fast car - WOULD SHOWcar blue mercedes fast - WOULD SHOWblue fast - WOULD SHOWfast blue mercedes car - WOULD SHOWfast blue - WOULD NOT SHOW

Negative keywords work on the Google Display Network. When you add terms as negative keywords called "keyword exclusions" for Display Network targeted campaigns, ads won't show on sites that contain those keywords. Although, the negatives will only be broad match type, so think carefully through how one word keywords will work.

According to Google, an exception to this is compound keywords: For example "baby spinach." If you were to just use the negative keyword "-baby", your ad might still appear on pages that contain the term "baby spinach" because the meaning changes when "baby" and "spinach" are combined.

No Keywords

Important note: in AdWords, one type of ad, Product Listing Ads, doesn't use keywords at all. Instead of keywords, PLAs use product targets to determine when products in the Merchant Center account appear in the sponsored results.

However, also strange is that while keyword lists won't have any effect on ads, you can use negative keywords to limit the searches for which ads show. Negative keywords can be applied at the ad group or campaign level.

Review Your Search Terms

How can you tell if you're matching it all up correctly? One way is to refer to the query reports, or search terms report, to see how your ads performed when triggered by actual searches. Here you can see search term or exact word or set of words a person enters when searching on Google.

The report will contain a "matchtype" column. This is a "search term match type" and it tells you how closely the person's search term (that triggered your ads on Google) is related to the actual keyword in the account.

For example, you may find a customers search term is a close variant (misspelling) of your exact match keyword.

Use the terms in this report to learn more about how your customers search for you both in terms and intent to help craft your online marketing strategies. Then use the report to generate negative keywords lists you don't want to show on.

Some PPC managers will do this as exact search queries they find, or as themes of terms they find or both.

This video shows how to the find the report:

The Final Word on Keyword Match Types & Negatives

When it comes to keywords, finding the right match isn't always easy and as you can see, fairly complicated. However, mastering effective use of keywords is one of the simplest ways to run a highly relevant PPC program.

For more information on negatives, dig deeper on the AdWords here, here, and here.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $400!
*Early Bird rates expire August 15.

Mobile Marketing: Connecting With Your Audience on the Move

Imagine having a computing chip in your toothbrush to count the number of strokes you’ve racked up so it can alert you when you need a new toothbrush. And as a marketer, what if you can access that data so you can deliver an email to that person’s mobile phone, alerting them of a sale on toothbrushes.

This is a dream use case of digital marketers today, as their ultimate goal is – and has always been – to reach the right person with the right message at the right time. Mobile marketing is bringing consumers and marketers closer to that dream.

At SES New York, a keynote panel addressed the opportunities of mobile marketing and channels available today for brands to engage with their users as well as what challenges are appearing from this new marketing mix. In addition to mobile marketing for customer acquisition, the panel also discussed how brands are delivering additional value and fostering brand loyalty with a holistic mobile approach.

Here are the discussion highlights with leading experts in the mobile industry: Eric Litman, Chairman & CEO, Medialets; Michael Bayle, Senior VP and General Manager, ESPN Mobile; and Brendon Kraham, Head of Global Mobile Sales and Product Strategy, Google. The session was moderated by Dana Todd, SVP Global Marketing, Performics.

We all can imagine the endless opportunities of mobile marketing, what are some of the initial challenges?

The panel discussed that the integration of mobile is an opportunity to have a holistic marketing program that spans across TV broadcast, web, mobile, tablets, and more. The challenge with mobile specifically is that the metrics that you measure aren’t the same metrics as any other channels.

Brendon suggested that marketers are just not trying mobile marketing, referencing data about the number of mobile landing pages that are out there. Marketers should be embracing the opportunity even if it’s something basic as a responsive designed website.

Marketers that dive in and do it early to develop a strategy for mobile are more likely to be the businesses that are going to win. Think about the early days of search engine marketing, when businesses went in early and built their brand online, it gave them a strategic advantage. A good experience for a consumer can change brand preference.

Eric added that the number of channels available to a marketer is expanding. Which can be a concern for marketing because the attention from consumers is shrinking. Measuring the impact of your investment is also difficult because the return comes in small increments along the adoption curve until it really hits and takes off.

There’s a limitation of measuring a buyer’s journey cross screens and determining the level of impact. What are best practices for tracking that?

For mobile there are means where you can measure, says Michael. Look up stream to determine the impact as you would with other media channels. The difference is in interactivity. The planning and purchase is all the same.

Since tracking is a difficult problem to solve do you have any creative workarounds? What are some operational issues you need to solve?

Eric first talks about the operational issues with mobile. Right now, reach and frequency are the fundamentals in mobile marketing. And unfortunately that’s not even being done well by vendors. This leads to frustrated execution teams who cant report their success well.

That’s a huge fundamental issue because we all know that we interact with our devices all the time, but marketers are having problems attributing their mobile efforts because there is no standard…yet. Dana noted that 25 percent of all social media users have interaction with their phone within 5 minutes of waking up.

Brendon offered three measurement approaches:

Upper funnel brand work: Measure top of the funnel metrics as you would with other branding campaignsApplication download: This measurement is unique to mobile and marketers are starting to capture these types of metrics to optimize their campaigns. Cost per install, lifetime value and in-app purchase are examples of app metrics.‘Other’ conversions: Instead of direct response metrics, on mobile there are other ways to ‘convert’ such as buy on device, call, download app, sequential usage and in store purchase.

Brendon mentioned that Google launched a new product “How to GoMo” to help marketers understand and track full value attribution.

What are some creative examples for thinking through convergence events?

Mobile commerce is the biggest opportunity, said Michael. Marketers should try to remove friction and bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds. For example, online marketing drives traffic to store then the store manager’s job is to remove friction for a seamless buying experience.

If consumers are using on average four screens, the simple response is to have responsive design, said Brendon. It’s lowest common denominator, the low hanging fruit. One of the most interesting points he mentioned is to align your campaigns differently if it’s simultaneous usage or sequential usage of these screens. The entire experience needs to be stitched together. One example is how Chevy integrated a game time app during the Superbowl to captured interactivity simultaneously with TV and app.

When watching TV on multiple screens, are you watching TV or a mobile device? Eric also suggests that marketers start thinking about channels as the output of the reporting instead of an input of your marketing strategy. Focus on finding audience in the right moment rather than by spending money on a channel.

So, responsive design or mobile apps?

The panel all agreed that you need both. Michael said that for ESPN users, it’s about 50/50 usage for web vs. mobile app. Also, 30 percent of people who visit ESPN via mobile web will also use ESPN for apps. However, only 16 percent who use them for apps, never go to website. So build both because they each have their strengths and you have opportunity to reach your audience differently with each channel.

Brendon also said both but for a different reason. Responsive design is primarily for customer acquisition. The purpose is to make it easy for a user to convert. An app is to create brand loyalists and upsell opportunities. Apps on your phone are bookmarks to your life.

What about intra-app advertising?

Eric mentioned that for upper funnel campaigns, which are generally use richer ads, mobile is included with media buys. He has seen engagement rates in tablets more engagements then display ads.

To wrap it up, what’s next for mobile?

Michael: “Wearable computing. Interactivity with your home.”

Brendon: “Everything will have an operating system.”

Eric: “We’ll be able to do real things. Reach real campaign goals. Find people in the moment. Cross channel marketing.”

It was a great discussion to hear the different perspectives on the current state and future of mobile marketing. If you missed the keynote I recommend you watch it online to learn ideas on how to integrate mobile into your overall marketing strategy to significantly boost your reach and revenue.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $400!
*Early Bird rates expire August 15.

Google Quick View Badge Field Trial

Google announced a new Google field trial experiment for a feature they’ve been quietly testing named Quick View.

The Google Quick View badge is found on a select number of sites when a searcher uses Google Mobile search from their smartphone. The feature is currently working for Wikipedia on searches done in English on Google.com. It basically will give you an almost instant view of the Wikipedia page when clicked on.

Google says the Quick View will show you the Wikipedia page “immediately.”

Here is a picture:

To see this yourself, you need to sign up for the field trial over here.

Use AdWords Scripts to Streamline Your PPC Optimization Efforts

There is only so much time in each day. Spending half your day in AdWords and the other half in Excel is the first step in going crazy.

AdWords scripts allows users to work directly with Google AdWords API and pull data in Google Spreadsheets or other data housing software.

Here are a couple of easy ways AdWords scripts can be utilized to streamline your optimization process.

Advanced Reporting

One of the most time consuming aspects of client reporting is the effort it takes to download and sort through ridiculous amounts of data. From a time management perspective, more than 50 percent of your time can be dedicated to finding the right data, cleaning it up, and getting it to a point where it can be client facing.

By using AdWords scripts, you can create a reporting template once, and refresh the data whenever your report is due. Combining the use of the API with a few pivot tables and v-look ups, you can completely automate your reporting process.

Account Alerts

Whether it’s because you manage too many clients, or because you accounts contain too many keywords and ad text variation, you may not be able to keep a watchful eye on everything that goes on in your accounts. AdWords scripts can actually help you understand the areas of your account that need immediate attention.

Email alerts can be set up if certain metrics rise above or below a set threshold. For example, you can set up an email alert to let you know if your average click-through rate (CTR) for an ad group or campaign falls below the industry standard of 2 percent. You could also set it to alert you if your daily budget is reached early in the day.

Ad Params

A small change in ad text often causes your ad to trigger a review process and lose all previous performance data. When Ad Params are utilized, numerical values can be changed without triggering the review process. This process can be used to countdown the number of hours left in a sale or a decreasing percentage off of a sale.

Duplication of Ad Groups

Through AdWords scripts, ad groups can be easily copied and duplicated. This is extremely helpful if you happen to separate your ad groups by match type. Instead of recreating an ad group three times, simply copy and edit the match types.

How to Get Started

In the left navigation menu in AdWords, select bulk operations. Under this category you simply click on scripts. When the interface loads, select Create A script.

You’ll then be promoted with an area to input a piece of Javascript. An example of a simple script to run would be the following:

function main() {
var keywords = AdWordsApp.keywords()
 .orderBy("clicks DESC")
 .forDateRange("YESTERDAY")
 .withLimit(25)
 .get();

Logger.log("25 keywords with most impressions yesterday");
while (keywords.hasNext()) {
 var keyword = keywords.next();
 Logger.log(keyword.getText() + ": " +
 keyword.getStatsFor("YESTERDAY").getImpressions());
 }
}

What Does it Output?

This script will output exactly what you expected. The top 25 keywords by clicks, in descending order for yesterday. If you're interested in getting started, you can play around by changing such variables as orderBy, forDataRange, and withLimit.

Now there are definitely more complex and actionable options. But this is a great way to get started and to begin harnessing the power of Google scripts. Google has quite a few tutorials available here that can help you get started.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $400!
*Early Bird rates expire August 15.

Use AdWords Scripts to Streamline Your PPC Optimization Efforts

There is only so much time in each day. Spending half your day in AdWords and the other half in Excel is the first step in going crazy.

AdWords scripts allows users to work directly with Google AdWords API and pull data in Google Spreadsheets or other data housing software.

Here are a couple of easy ways AdWords scripts can be utilized to streamline your optimization process.

Advanced Reporting

One of the most time consuming aspects of client reporting is the effort it takes to download and sort through ridiculous amounts of data. From a time management perspective, more than 50 percent of your time can be dedicated to finding the right data, cleaning it up, and getting it to a point where it can be client facing.

By using AdWords scripts, you can create a reporting template once, and refresh the data whenever your report is due. Combining the use of the API with a few pivot tables and v-look ups, you can completely automate your reporting process.

Account Alerts

Whether it’s because you manage too many clients, or because you accounts contain too many keywords and ad text variation, you may not be able to keep a watchful eye on everything that goes on in your accounts. AdWords scripts can actually help you understand the areas of your account that need immediate attention.

Email alerts can be set up if certain metrics rise above or below a set threshold. For example, you can set up an email alert to let you know if your average click-through rate (CTR) for an ad group or campaign falls below the industry standard of 2 percent. You could also set it to alert you if your daily budget is reached early in the day.

Ad Params

A small change in ad text often causes your ad to trigger a review process and lose all previous performance data. When Ad Params are utilized, numerical values can be changed without triggering the review process. This process can be used to countdown the number of hours left in a sale or a decreasing percentage off of a sale.

Duplication of Ad Groups

Through AdWords scripts, ad groups can be easily copied and duplicated. This is extremely helpful if you happen to separate your ad groups by match type. Instead of recreating an ad group three times, simply copy and edit the match types.

How to Get Started

In the left navigation menu in AdWords, select bulk operations. Under this category you simply click on scripts. When the interface loads, select Create A script.

You’ll then be promoted with an area to input a piece of Javascript. An example of a simple script to run would be the following:

function main() {
var keywords = AdWordsApp.keywords()
 .orderBy("clicks DESC")
 .forDateRange("YESTERDAY")
 .withLimit(25)
 .get();

Logger.log("25 keywords with most impressions yesterday");
while (keywords.hasNext()) {
 var keyword = keywords.next();
 Logger.log(keyword.getText() + ": " +
 keyword.getStatsFor("YESTERDAY").getImpressions());
 }
}

What Does it Output?

This script will output exactly what you expected. The top 25 keywords by clicks, in descending order for yesterday. If you're interested in getting started, you can play around by changing such variables as orderBy, forDataRange, and withLimit.

Now there are definitely more complex and actionable options. But this is a great way to get started and to begin harnessing the power of Google scripts. Google has quite a few tutorials available here that can help you get started.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $400!
*Early Bird rates expire August 15.

4 SEO Tips for Launching a New Website and New Brand

Launching a new website is hard. Launching a new brand with that new website can be downright madness.

Just ask Moz. Or iAcquire. Apparently, 2013 is the year of the marketing agency rebrand, and I'm happy to announce we're part of that list, too: Last week, 352 Media Group became 352.

Those 2½ months spent building our new website and our new brand were the hardest I've ever worked in my life. They were also the most rewarding, and despite my incessant cursing, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Why? Because look at the old site:

Versus the new website:

Holy wow.

Whenever you launch a site, everyone just sees the design change, but rarely do you see the behind the scenes – and I'm not just talking about design iterations, although there were probably 13 of those – work that goes into a new website. We're assuming you've already redid your keyword and market research.

That's A Lot of Redirects

Thankfully, the domain didn't change, but the URL structure did change to directory style. I used Ruth Burr's template for domain migrations, but made some tweaks.

First, pull every single URL that's on your root domain. I used both Screaming Frog and our database to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Drop into Excel and start analyzing what's going where on your new site.

We work in agile web development, which accounts for short sprints of work (in our case, two weeks at a time) when at the end we'd be able to launch full functionally pieces of our website. Think of it like building a house one room completely at a time.

Because this bad boy needed to be up before mid-July, the planned to launch with the Slim Fast version of our sitemap: A lot of pages weren't going to exist yet, but they would soon. That meant a lot of pages of our existing site weren't going to move yet, but they would.

So, in addition to the 301s and 404s, I added a section of what was going to be in Phase II to make our support departments' lives a little easier. I think it worked.

Analytics

I admit it: I didn't remember to install the analytics code on our new site until 24 hours before the site launched. *Facepalm*.

Seriously: Don't forget it, but also, don't settle for the basic version. There is so much more that you can see with a little customization, and you need to think about what makes most sense for you. For us, there were three big ones:

Enhanced in-page to see where people were clicking.Page scrolling to see how far down people were going on our pages.Event tracking to see how people interacted with our video.Event tracking to see how often people clicked on our contact information.Sitemaps

If your URLs are changing, so will your sitemaps. Don't forget to generate a new XML sitemap and resubmit me that GWT to speed up indexation of your new site. We went the multiple XML sitemap approach, one of our main site and one for our blog.

Holy Crap: We Aren't No. 1 For Our Name

That's every SEO professional's nightmare. We're living that right now. We decided to change our name in January. In May, we took a match to our old site and started over from scratch. Around June, someone finally said "Hey, I wonder where we'll be ranked with our new brand name."

Page 3. PAGE 3?!

Logically, it makes sense. 352 is the area code of Gainesville, Florida, our headquarters and our namesake. Sure, we've been known simply as 352 (tree-five-two) for 15+ years both by clients and internally, search engines weren't making that connection.

Why would they? All of our brand links are 352 Media Group, and all of our content was 352 Media Group. We also don't have nearly the social community that Moz does to blog, link and tweet the name change that would clued Google in sooner.

While our new brand does come with a whole new keyword targeting – Pro tip: Start your new keyword research very early – I couldn't care less about our exact-match anchor text until we're showing up No. 1 for "352." How do you do it? Pull your backlink using your favorite tool, go down and find all of the links with your brand name, and start contacting.

Trust me: Start this process very early if you're changing name, as in way before you officially launch. Start by reaching out to people who you know can queue up their change to go live on your exact launch date, for example, your author bio for any places you're a contributor. Don't forget to make sure your internal team changes any links they have on personal websites.

I'm in the thick of this now, and you never really realize how many brand links you have until you're staring at a 4-digit long Excel spreadsheet.

Keeping Momentum Post Launch

Last year, I went skydiving. There's a moment about 30 seconds into your free fall where you convince yourself that the shoot should have opened by now, and this was going to be it. Then, the chord pulls, you shoot up vertically, and you feel the biggest rush of relief because you are, in fact, going to make it through.

At 3:52 p.m. – see what we did there? – on July 16, 2013, I got that same rush from the launch of our site.

And while the honeymoon of the new brand only lasted about 24 hours until my inbox was flooded with feedback, I needed that kick to keep up the momentum our team had with post-launch iterations.

There will be things you don't think of. There will be bugs you missed. There will be internal feedback that makes more sense. There will definitelybe user feedback you didn't even know existed. You need an organized way to keep track of all of this.

My agency used TFS and work through a backlog of items based off client priority and effort to complete the task. This helps us better see the cool things we want to do and where it lies based on priority.

It's not the most intuitive, and we're searching for some something a little more user friendly, but it works well enough for now.

If you're going through a new site launch, I feel you, buddy. It's long. It's a pain in the ass. Sometimes, you just want to quit. It's extremely difficult not to get discouraged, but the end result will be worth it.

Don't get disappointed if you forget something. There's a lot to do, and we missed a few "Well, duh" things post launch, but it's OK. That's the beauty of constant iterations.

Bringing Together Paid, Owned and Earned Media
Sept. 10-13, 2013: With a newly announced, completely renovated agenda,
SES San Francisco could be the most valuable online marketing conference you attend this year. Register today and save up to $400!
*Early Bird rates expire August 15.

Bing Webmaster Tools Integrates Yahoo Traffic Data

Bing Webmaster Tools now has fully integrated in Yahoo’s traffic numbers as well.

So if you have seen a spike in your Bing Webmaster Tools traffic charts, this is the reason why. You should see your impressions and clicks data spike up, while the click through rate numbers may fluctuate from the norm as well. Since Bing now fully powering Yahoo search’s organic results, virtually in most geographic locations now, Bing has decided to integrate their data in the tool.

There are many webmasters who would love an option to filter this data by search provider, i.e. see Bing vs Yahoo data but currently it does not seem possible.

Related Stories:Yahoo UK & Others Switching To Bing Organic Results August 3rdYahoo-Microsoft Organic Transition Happening, Site Explorer, Search Monkey Holding For NowAll New Microsoft Bing Webmaster ToolsBing Webmaster Tools Enables HTML5 InterfaceYahoo-Microsoft Organic Transition Happening, Site Explorer, Search Monkey Holding For NowBing�s “Honey Badger” � An Upgrade To Webmaster Tools

Online Marketing News: New LinkedIn & Instagram Features, Brands Missing the Boat on Pinterest

LinkedIn Adds Rich Media Capability to Profiles

LinkedIn users can now add rich media content objects to their profiles, allowing designers, analysts, authors and others to share their best works in a visually interesting format. Users can now use videos, images and presentations to demonstrate their experience. Danielle Restivo, Head of Global Programs, Corporate Communications at LinkedIn, reminds us that brands have had rich media access on their pages for some time. “The ability to share rich media through company pages is already available for admins of the Company Page. So an employee of a company who has admin rights to update the Company Page can do this, but employees without admin rights could not,” she told TopRank.

There are 15 accepted file formats for rich media on Company Pages including images, video and presentation on company pages. Restivo recommends that brands use rich media within status updates and post images and video on their Products or Careers page. Administrators can add rich media content from the “Share an update” box on their brand page by clicking the paper clip icon and adding their file. See LinkedIn’s rich media for company pages resource for a complete list of accepted file types.

Instagram Adds Tagging with Privacy Controls

Brands have a new Instagram feature to get excited about: users can now tag accounts in their image uploads, including business accounts.

In an announcement this week, Instagram explained the new privacy controls that come with this feature: “Only you can add people to your photos, so you have control over the images you share…�When someone adds you to a photo, you�ll receive a notification and the photo will appear in your Photos of You. Want to make sure you like the photo first? No problem: you can easily adjust your settings so nothing appears on your profile until you approve it.” Users have until May 16th to experiment with photo tagging before their Photos of You section will be visible to other users.

Automotive, Fashion Retail and Other Brands Missing Out on the Pinterest Opportunity

Fashion retail and automotive are falling down when it comes to Pinterest; according to a recent Digitas/Curalate study, 70% of engagement on brand content is generated by users rather than the brands themselves. �This is especially prevalent in the fashion retail industry, where brands pin just 18% of content. The remaining 82% comes from their community repinning content.

In the automotive industry,�75% of the conversation and engagement is driven by the community, with just 25% of content originating from brands. “It’s unfortunate to see the auto industry stuck in first gear. The industry needs to leverage the heritage of their brands to tell compelling visual stories that create emotional connections with consumers,” says Apu Gupta, CEO of Curalate. He added, “While automotive websites may not discard Flash anytime soon, some straightforward changes make these sites shareable, now.�

�Brands need to go forth and pin,� says Jordan Bitterman, Senior Vice President, Social, Mobile and Content Lead, Digitas. �This study reveals the opportunity for brands to drive the conversation on visual platforms like Pinterest. By leveraging rich consumer insight, brands can take the guess-work out of their visual content strategy, and share the types of images their audience wants to see.�

Google Adds Real-Time Conversion Reporting

With the latest Google Analytics update, marketers can now see how many of their site visitors are converting and against which goals. Clicking on a specific goal will automatically segment that report, allowing marketers to track the performance of new campaigns in email, PPC, or TV, for example. An important caveat from Google: “…with this first launch we�re introducing URL based goals only. So�computed goals�such as Time on Site or Pages/Visit are not included yet.”

Oxygen and Tumblr Move to Further Integrate Television and Social Media

Beginning May 8th, TV network Oxygen will begin airing the best animated GIFs from Tumblr, in an effort to further integrate the television and social experience for audiences. �”When it comes to reality TV, it’s really astounding to see just how much people like making animated GIFs for our programming,” senior vice president of digital at Oxygen Media Harleen Kahlon told ClickZ.

Twitter Opens the Door to All US Advertisers

Over a year after launching their self-serve ad platform, Twitter announced this week they’ve ended the invite-only period and opened the door to all advertisers in the United States. “Over the past year we�ve listened carefully to feedback from the thousands of businesses and individuals who�ve had access to the self-serve tool, and made�enhancements�based on their suggestions, including more�targeting and reporting�in the UI,” wrote Ravi Narasimhan, Product Manager in Revenue at Twitter. Marketers interested in using Twitter for social advertising can get started immediately at business.twitter.com.

This Week in the @TopRank Community

This week, Online Marketing Blog welcomed the 25,000th member of our Facebook community into the fray!

Community members across all of our networks got access to the full video from Lee Odden’s Future of Content presentation at MIMA this past week. Odden explored the true meaning of content and how content teams are structured (and should be structured) in organizations, then shared upcoming trends marketers need to watch for. See the full presentation:

Next week, join us on the @TopRank Twitter channel May 7th, as Lee Odden presents Optimize 360: An Integrated Approach to Digital Marketing and PR in a PRSA webinar. On May 8th, tune in for live tweets at 12:15pm from Communicator’s Conference, where Odden will share his keynote address,�Digital Convergence � The Integration of Marketing & PR.

29 Content Marketing Tactics to Attract, Engage & Persuade Customers

Content Marketing is a near and dear online marketing tactic and there’s been an explosion of attention and advice over the past year. SEOs and PR professionals are “seeing the light” if you will, of the value in creating and curating content that delivers value as part of their online marketing and public relations strategies. In an online marketing model with a defined strategy, goals and understanding of the target audience, what mix of tactics makes the most sense?

Many marketers limit themselves to a handful of content types and formats leaving substantial business to the competition. To be competitive, it’s essential to be open to a mix of content marketing tactics in order to provide relevant information discovery, consumption and sharing experiences for customers. This matters at the top of the funnel as much as it does after the transaction and into engagement and evangelism.

Here is a virtual�smorgasbord�of content marketing tactics for you to consider. Watch for our upcoming series that will drill down into each one of these tactics with an explanation, examples and creative ideas for implementation.

Article MarketingAdvertorialBloggingCase StudiesCrowdsourceCurateDigital NewsletterseBooksEmailImages & InfographicsInteractive ToolsMicrositesMobile ApplicationsMobile ContentNews ReleaseOnline ConferencesOnline MagazinesPodcastsPrint MagazinesPrint NewslettersReal-World EventsResearch & SurveysSocial ContentTeleclass & TelecastsTraditional MediaVideosWebinarsWhite PapersWikis

What did I miss?

Of course, the idea is not to use as many content marketing tactics as possible, but to use the appropriate tactic on a matrix of persona, stage in the buying cycle, Social & SEO considerations as well as position in the customer lifecycle.

What content marketing tactics have you focused on this year? What will you change for your 2012 planning?

Google News Showing Old Stories As New: A Google Bug Or Publisher Hack?

Last week, I reported on the Search Engine Roundtable, a huge array of complaints from Google News publishers and searchers that some news outlets are showing old stories in Google News, but they are appearing as breaking new stories.

The example I gave was a story from USA Today showing as being 14 minutes old but in reality being over 24 hours old. Here are screen shots from then, but I have confirmed this is still happening today.

Here is the Google News page showing the story was 14 minutes old:

Here was the article timestamp, which actually was over 24 hours old at the time of these screen shots:

I asked Google if this was a Google News bug or something being done specifically by the news outlet. Google told me, “we are aware of this issue and working quickly to improve the experience for users.” As you can see, Google is not admitting it was a bug.

From what I can tell, it seems as if USA Today was specifically sending newer dates to Google News. Meaning, Google News was being fed by USA Today artificial date information, and Google was using that information. Like I said, this is still happening now. On the front page of the Google News Sports section, I see a story that says 10 minutes old, but when I click through to the story, the story shows it was published last night — well over 9 hours ago.

A thread in the Google News publisher forum has publishers calling USA Today and some other large news outlets “cheaters.” People close to the situation told me that USA Today is not doing this to be malicious, and they are not gaming the system. But no one can argue that they are, indeed, benefiting from the situation. The publishers are saying USA Today is specifically refreshing the time of the article, as Google News sees it.

In a different complaint thread, Google News representative, Jack, told searchers to filter out the site using the “Rarely” slider. The truth is, publishers are not interested in that, they want Google News ranking to be an even playing field.

If you have more information about what these news outlets are doing and if it is or is not malicious, let us know in the comments.

Are Bad Directions Leaving Web Visitors Stranded? Optimize For Outcomes to Improve Experience & Conversions

At some point, most of us have been lost. We know our ultimate destination, but either through a wrong turn or poor directions we find ourselves in the wrong place and likely very frustrated.

Without landing page optimization, your visitors may have this same lost feeling when they arrive on your website. Whether the content was written 10 days or 10 months ago, it�s easy to make assumptions about your website visitors and assume the directions (read: content and calls to action) you are providing make sense.

If anyone has ever given you directions based on landmarks (turn right at the gas station) you can understand this feeling. And ultimately you are unsure and have questions such as: what gas station, what if there is more than 1 and good grief why didn�t you just give me the street name?

As the Membership Director of MnSearch, I had the chance to attend a “Search Snippets” event on the importance of creating better directions for web visitors in search of solutions.

During that presentation we heard from 3 different speakers, each covering a different perspective on optimizing for the customer journey starting with an overview of Conversion Rate Optimization from Aaron Weiche (@AaronWeiche).

4 Steps To Get Started

Step 1 �- Know Where You Are
Just like when you are lost, it�s best to pull over and figure out where you are. This is the wrong time to make assumptions, as you may end up further off course.

Before you implement any edits or changes, measure your current results from the page in question. Maybe the situation isn�t as bad as you perceive it to be.

Step 2 � Optimize The Funnel
Existing funnels can be optimized at every step. Start first by identifying which areas of the funnel are least effective.

As you look at optimizing your funnel, follow a structured approach. The approach Aaron recommended to the audience was READY:

RelevantEngagingAuthoritativeDirectionalYield Optimal Results

Step 3 � Know Your Recipe
Any good chef knows that you only change one ingredient at time, otherwise you don�t know what element made the dish more (or less) tasty.

It can be tempting to change multiple elements on a landing page, especially if you are misguided by assumptions about the page (see step 1).

To truly be effective, you have to remain disciplined and only test one page element at a time.

Step 4 �- Matrix Your Factors����

Map out the types of factors you may want to adjust and what they accomplish.�Start with the following, and make sure you have items in each category:

BenefitsFeaturesEmotionValue

�Step 5 � Test & Maximize
Starting with a clear hypotheses, then you can A/B test for a champion.

To wrap up, Aaron overviewed the need to use Cohort Charts so you can start to see how data is related and what optimizations are having impact and pursue those items that are making a positive impact.

The Past, Present & Future of SEO Landing Pages

Next in the series of presenters was James Svoboda (@Realicity).�He took the audience through the past, present and future of SEO landing pages. �What lessons were learned in the past?

Past Lesson #1 -�Learn that every page is a landing page, it�s not just about the home page.

Since every page is an entry point to the site, it�s also important to understand that every page will have an entry point (such as search or social) and an exit point (to another page or leaving the site).

Past Lesson #2�- Analyze data to be informed and make�recommendations.

Recommendations have been largely based on how visitors are behaving on the site. There was also a rise in the use of tools as more became available to track a variety of data. Think heatmaps, for example.

Past Lesson#3 – Continually seek information.

You�re reading this blog, so you�ve got this one covered.

Present Lessons Learned

Lessons we are learning in the present include identifying main conversion points on your site such as:

HeaderSide bar (adjacent to content)In-content conversions (within the content � suggestion to the reader)Footer � (your last resort!)

As you outline the conversion points on the page, be sure to find the fold. Or the point where most visitors will have to scroll to see more information. �Once you understand the elements you have on the page, the next step is to build trust through content and visuals.

Some ways to build trust include associations, BBB logos, customer testimonials etc. The kind you use will depend on the type of business (B2B vs B2C), but don�t shy away from simple statements of credibility. Something like a 25th, 50th or 100th anniversary can instill confidence for the visitor.

The next consideration CROs are currently integrating are social elements. If search is going to be social, then landing pages need social elements both for the visitor and the search engine to recognize the authority of the page. �Finally, current landing page optimization efforts are focused on tracking, testing and analyzing to spot patterns.

Test and analyze SEO results by segmenting analytics data.�If you need to get started, here are ways to do so� by analyzing organic traffic:

keywordslocationsdevicesbouncessteps in visitor flow chartsconversion type (leads, sales)

Future Lessons

James wrapped up by challenging the user to think of what the future holds for landing pages. One prediction he shared was to think of one url as your ultimate landing page going forward. As social signals influence search, imagine if all of the collective search and social equity was captured among a handful of pages where you invest the most time (vs 100�s of pages with less equity and therefore little to no visibility).

Use Psychology to Boost CRO Results

The final presenter was Josh Braaten (@JLBraaten) of Rasmussen College. He gave the audience a primer on using Psychology to boost CRO results.

Josh started by reminding the audience that when it comes to make decisions emotion beats logic. And the best website visits are emotional experiences, not rational encounters.

As noted in the book Brainfluence by Roger Dooley, campaigns with purely emotional content performed about twice as well (31 vs 16%) as those that were rationale. �Additionally, campaigns that were purely emotional still did better than those that mixed emotional and rationale (31% vs 26%)

In order to achieve higher conversion levels we need to create hypotheses using psychological factors, then develop testing plans.

When considering conversion rate psychology, there are two factors:

Can do � factors that influences a visitors’ ability to complete a taskWill do � factors that influence a visitor�s willingness to complete a task

To get started, ask yourself what is preventing the visitor from taking action and what will make them want to take action?

What I find most interesting about this topic is the reminder that regardless of the company, product or service; at the end of the day we are still people communicating to people � if even through mechanisms that oftentimes remove the face-to-face interaction.

If we were to think about customer needs first and aligned our copy and calls to action to their need to learn and accomplish a goal, would our landing pages be different? I think the answer is Yes. �:)