Archive for the 'Marketing' Category

What is a Squeeze Page?

Published by
Don
1 year, 1 month ago in Marketing. Closed

squeezedIf you’re new to the world of Internet Marketing then you might be wondering what a squeeze page is exactly and if you need one. A squeeze page is a web page that could exist on your website or under a separate domain name. It serves to attract your target market to opt-in or subscribe to your contact list in exchange for a free offer. In other words it’s an opt-in list building tool.

Your free offer can be an ebook, special report, audio/video download, daily lessons, a newsletter, etc. and should be something that your market is in need of. Normally, they are digitally downloadable.

What does opt-in list mean? Very simply put it means that someone has voluntarily provided you with their contact information, (generally, their name and email address), and is giving you permission to use this info to contact them now and in the future. Of course, it’s always best to communicate your intentions of future contact and remind them when you do that they signed up to receive this information to avoid confusion and avoid the possibility of the removing themselves from your list. With any opt-in list you should always give your list members the availability to ‘opt-out’ whenever they so choose. In fact, if you sign up with a service like MyEmma or Constant Contact to house this list, it’s automatically included on all outgoing messages sent from within your account.

With a permission based list you can market your products or services to a willing, qualified audience.

Build a relationship via email with your list members that will help them get to know you and learn that you offer high quality, high value information so that by the time you do make a sales offer they know if your information is a good fit for them and will have established a level of trust in you.

Here’s a bit of bonus information for you…

Don’t confuse a squeeze page with a landing page. Some people will tell you that they are the same but that’s simply not true. I’ll be explaining the difference in my next installment.

Typos may earn Google $500m a year

Published by
Don
1 year, 11 months ago in Advertising, Google, Internet and Marketing. Closed

Google may be earning an alleged $500 million a year via companies and individuals who register deceptive website addresses.

google campus signThe claim centers on a controversial scheme known as “typosquatting“, the practice of registering a misspelled variant of a popular web domain. For example, a typosquatter might register “evolvefuels.com” in the hope of getting visits from people who meant to type “evolvefuel.com”.

If that mistake is made frequently enough, the owner of evolvefuels.com can profit by placing ads on their page. They could, in particular, use Google’s advertising network which automatically assigns ads to a page based on its content, or using keywords provided by the page’s owner.

In that case, Google could get a cut too, and Tyler Moore and Benjamin Edelman at Harvard University have now estimated how much money this could bring in for Google.

Spelling slips
Moore and Edelman started by using common spelling mistakes to create a list of possible typo domains for the 3264 most popular .com websites, as determined by Alexa.com rankings. They estimate that each of the 3264 top sites is targeted by around 280 typo domains.

They then used software to crawl 285,000 of these 900,000-odd sites to determine what revenue the typo domains might be generating.

If the top 100,000 websites suffer the same typosquatting rate as the sites Moore and Edelman studied, up to 68 million people a day could visit a typo site, they say. They estimate that almost 60 per cent of typo sites could have adverts supplied by Google.

If the company earns as much per visitor from ads on typo sites as it reportedly does from ads alongside search results, it could potentially earn $497 million a year in revenue from typo domains, they conclude.

Google’s total 2009 revenues were $23 billion, 97 per cent of which came from advertising.

Removing ads
A Google spokesperson pointed out that the company will remove ads from typo domains if the owner of a site with a trademarked name makes a complaint, but declined to discuss the research in more detail.

Typo domains confuse consumers and can generate unnecessary costs for the owners of the targeted web domain, say Moore and Edelman. Companies can feel compelled to advertise on typo domains targeting their own websites because they fear they might lose business to competitors if they do not.

Edelman has criticized Google’s adverts appearing on typo domains in the past. He is currently co-counsel on a lawsuit from a firm seeking damages from Google after its adverts appeared on a typo domain targeting the claimant’s website. He says that his involvement in the suit did not influence the results of his research.

Court action
“I’m not doing it for the money,” Edelman says of the court action. “I’m doing it because it’s important.”

Moore and Edelman say their analysis found that some website owners operate thousands of different typo domains. They claim that this means Google and other ad networks would also be able to identify operators of such sites.

A paper on More and Edelman’s findings was presented last month at the Financial Cryptography and Data Security conference in Tenerife, Spain. An online appendix provides more information about the analysis.

10 Things Changing Marketing In 2010

Published by
Don
2 years, 1 month ago in Advertising, Internet, Marketing and Social Networking. Closed

With 2009 coming to a close, and this being my last post of the year, I figured a list of the hot issues facing online marketing in 2010 would make sense.

1. Rise of Mobile - Mobile is going to be huge in 2010, especially if marketers can build digital campaigns with mobile extensions. Digital provides reach, and mobile can provide increased depth of interaction.

2. Facebook Connect - It’s hard to overstate the implications of Facebook Connect for marketers. The ability to create more rewarding experiences for consumers, and simply be more creative, by using Facebook Connect will change all digital marketing efforts — and, I believe, take “social media” out of its silo.

3. Cause Marketing – I don’t know what digital rock you’ve been under if you haven’t heard that Pepsi has pulled out of the Super Bowl to focus more on marketing for the social good. The key will be, can Pepsi activate people to spread its message because of the social good they are doing? Social media makes this a very possible outcome with the right programs put in place. Put simply, Pepsi is hoping that “Corporate Social Responsibility = Profitability.”

4. Engagement Pricing – Digital media — heck, all media — needs new metrics that do a better job at measuring the value publishers deliver to marketers. These metrics should be harder to “fake” – and should be able to be standardized across media outlets for media buyers and planners. No, engagement won’t be the only metric, but I’d put my money on it being one that stands out in 2010.

5. Social Media Agencies – The skills that make a marketing firm good at executing “social media campaigns” from concept, to execution, to management, will be the skill set required by ALL digital agencies. Most likely, we will see something like what the marketing industry saw with the growth of search engine marketing: a rise of specialty agencies in the social media space, and the subsequent acquisitions of said agencies by holding companies and larger digital shops to help provide scale.

6. Local – See mobile. If you’re working on a national brand, what’s your local mobile and digital strategy extension?

7. Brand Dollars Go Digital – It can be argued very easily that we are witnessing a “direct response bubble” in digital marketing. This is because of a near obsession in closing the loop on ROI measurement. More and more marketers are expanding their definitions of digital ROI outside of direct response and looking at how digital can help achieve brand objectives. It’s just a question of scale and efficacy before digital media can be compared to more traditional forms of marketing initiatives.

8. Social Media Campaigns Grow Up – Will we stop hearing the word “viral” in 2010? I doubt it, but we can hope to hear it a whole lot less. I think the social media landscape is littered with enough failed viral efforts that most sane marketers and agencies will stop thinking that social media as “free.” There is a formula and a science to making social media efforts work. Dedicated resources, measurement of the right things, and adapting to what is learned will make social efforts more stable.

9. Real-Time Search – This is perhaps the most “bleeding edge” of any of the trends/issues facing marketers in 2010, but I do believe it is one that can have a major impact — and very quickly. The simple fact is that as real-time search improves, so does people’s ability to get real-time, unfiltered feedback from peers on products and services. It will be much harder for brands to control or manage their reputation, as with review sites. Instead, brands will need to turn to strategies that encourage positive conversations to balance out the inevitable bad.

10. Whatcha Got? I figured I’d leave the 10th open and hear what you all think. Drop me a line on Twitter at www.twitter.com/evolvemedia and/or add your thoughts to the comments and leave a reply below.

Have a great New Year’s, everyone! Thanks for checking us out in 2009, and here’s to an exciting 2010!

Six inconvenient truths about SEO

Published by
Don
2 years, 3 months ago in Marketing. Closed

You’ve probably seen them: programs claiming to teach you how you can use SEO to boost your Google rankings and in turn build a successful internet business that runs on cruise control. All for the low price of $49.95.

an_inconvenient_truth_by_al_goreWhile such programs almost always fall into the ’scam’ category, there is truth to the notion that SEO can be a pathway to success. If you run any sort of website, chances are you need traffic, and SEO can deliver it. But there are some inconvenient truths about SEO that often get ignored, especially in ‘newbie’ circles. Here are six of them.

SEO takes time. Everyone loves the idea of instant rewards. Unfortunately, it’s hard to find instant rewards in the world of SEO. In my opinion, any commitment of less than six months isn’t a commitment at all because in competitive markets it’s my experience that you shouldn’t expect to see results that drive meaningful returns before then.

SEO is not fair. Paid links work and your competitors might be winning by using them in flagrant disregard of Google’s ‘rules’. But that’s life in the world of SEO. Just as in life generally, some people break the rules, get away with it and prosper as a result. You can fret about this or focus on your own efforts.

Top SERPs, (search engine results page), aren’t always possible. Hard work and patience can go a long way, but let’s be honest: everybody in your market wants top SERPs for the valuable keywords. You all can’t have them. Bottom line: there’s only one top spot and only one person can get it.

SEO is not all about process. The mechanics of kicking a soccer ball are easy enough to understand. But chances are you’re not Ronaldo. The same is sort of true of SEO. While you can learn the mechanics, from page structure to link building, there’s something beyond the mechanics. The truth is that there are naturals who just have a natural talent for putting it all together and getting to the top of the SERPs.

SEO isn’t a standalone marketing strategy. I cringe whenever somebody tells me that his marketing strategy is “viral marketing”. Yet “SEO” isn’t much better. Sure there are some people who use nothing more than SEO and whose websites bring in big bucks, but for the average person just starting out, SEO should be looked at as a potentially valuable part of a more comprehensive marketing strategy. That doesn’t mean that, in the end, SEO can’t represent more than 50% of where you spend your time and money, but depending on the nature of your business, paid search, display, email and offline techniques can all play a big role too and are worthy of consideration.

The last mile counts more than the first 99. The process of getting great SERPs can be a long, strenuous journey. But getting great SERPs isn’t the end of this hundred miler. Success is based on what you do with those SERPs. So if you’re in the business of generating leads, for instance, all the organic search traffic in the world won’t do you an ounce of good if you’re not converting, or converting but still leaving lots of money on the table. Bottom line: SEO done right delivers intent; the job of your website is to convince the user to take action.

Think people don’t notice how your brand is presented? Just ask IKEA

Published by
Don
2 years, 4 months ago in Design and Marketing. Closed

Design-geek issues such as font usage rarely see the light of day in mainstream media, but a recent Time Magazine post is a good reinforcement of how important even the smallest of details can be to your customers.

The piece linked here detailed a backlash against retail giant IKEA for having the gall to change…its primary font. That’s right — after decades of catalogs filled with unpronounceable names in a customized version of the typeface Futura, IKEA is switching to the more internet-friendly Verdana.

Now, perhaps the backlash will be somewhat confined to the design community — “Verdana, which was invented by Microsoft, was intended to be used on a screen, not on paper,” Time tells us — but regardless, the article proves a point that many companies just don’t get when it comes to marketing and brand identity.

People notice small details about a company or organization, and when presented with those details consistently, form impressions in their mind based upon them. Consistency helps define the communication, and when that consistency is removed, it makes people question what’s going on with the brand. The switch to Verdana may not result in lower sales of such products as the Aspelund (it’s a bed), but it certainly caught the attention of more than a few people.

So what’s the best policy? Build a brand identity, maintain it, and even guard it with your life. And if you make a change, it should be for a good reason. Maybe the brand has grown stale and needs a refresher; maybe the target audience has changed over time. IKEA apparently is making the change to save money, which every now and then is a good one too.

But if you think the little details aren’t important, think again. Somebody is always going to notice.

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