One thing that I’m constantly asked about by traditional marketers is the value of social media marketing. They have by now all heard of social media and the corresponding big names Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Myspace, Linked In, etc. What is less clear is how to leverage them effectively to meet their marketing goals. Definition of marketing goals followed by business analysis of who your target customer is, where they are, and how they interact online are some of the fundamental aspects that will help drive your strategy.

All to frequently I’ve seen marketers jump into the social media space without understanding the media and just wanting to be on facebook for example. Starting a group without a strategy with a few posts here and there doesn’t add value to your company or your brand. Knowing that a large potential customer base is active on a social media site is a start for you to establish a dialogue with them and find an ‘in’ for yourself and your products. Another mistake that marketers make is coming off as too corporate. A large majority of users are on social media sites to interact with friends, family, former classmates, etc. They are not actively engaged in searching for your product for the most part. This is not search engine marketing where a customer is typing in a contextualized search term in which you offer a corresponding product. You need to establish a value add for them in this medium.Don’t just build a corporate widget or application, toss it up online and expect the masses to come flocking to you.

Perhaps you sponsor a message board or online forum. Maybe you have a member of your staff answering questions with a signature in your post pointing back to your site from groups on Facebook, Linked In, etc. Large brands have been utilizing social media to offer customer service based activities in a new format different than traditional phone and email. Developing a strategy based upon your customer base and then a short term and long term road map for social media marketing will better serve your goals and objectives. After all you want to enhance not tarnish your brand. Anyone have specific examples that they would like to share about the value that they’re currently seeing when it comes to social media marketing? Please feel free to use the contact form to share.

Google Logo

I often times get asked from friends and clients how they can run Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns without having large enough marketing budgets to hire a consultant or agency. Although it is not publicly advertised both Google and Yahoo do offer account managers that can set up and manage basic campaigns for you. Google continues to control at least 70% of all market share and I highly recommend utilizing Adwords for online advertising via SEM. Google has a program called Jumpstart in which they will setup an account, do some basic keyword research, write some ad copy, launch and monitor your campaign for approximately 90 days. I asked one of my Google account managers why they don’t have anything publicly available on the web describing the program and was told:

Sorry, but there isn’t a site or information about Jumpstart on the web since it’s a special service we offer to high-value agencies. Thanks for asking!

So not terribly helpful, but I would recommend Jumpstart as a better than nothing approach when it comes to handling SEM. Keep in mind that Google’s objective is for you to spend money through Adword and to ensure that your goal is achieved so that you can spend more money with them. They are helpful though in setting up text ads, local business ads, etc. I’ve also found them to be very knowledgeable on their product which you would expect, but never the less it was reassuring that they were well informed. If you are interested in seeing if Jumpstart may be a viable option to start advertising with Google give them a call or contact me and I’ll try to put you in touch with some contacts.

This is first and foremost a site dedicated to Online Marketing but one thing that I would like to mention is Stanford’s Folding@Home program. Similar to what you may have read or head about SETI and using clusters of computers to distribute work Folding@Home works by spreading work onto hundreds of thousands of computers to help in part find a cure for some of the world’s worst diseases. Officially Stanford has a stated goal “to understand protein folding, misfolding, and related diseases”.  A better definition is available on their science page but to quote from it:

What happens if proteins don’t fold correctly? Diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, cystic fibrosis, BSE (Mad Cow disease), an inherited form of emphysema, and even many cancers are believed to result from protein misfolding. When proteins misfold, they can clump together (“aggregate”). These clumps can often gather in the brain, where they are believed to cause the symptoms of Mad Cow or Alzheimer’s disease.

How can you help? Essentially you download a small program and while your computer is idle Folding@Home uses it to process work units that are then uploaded back to Stanford. It works for PS3, Mac OS X, Windows, and even high end graphics cards. I have a small army of machines folding 24/7 from my graphics card in my PC to my netbook to my PS3 to my laptop. Where this is applicable is that as Online Marketers we use SEM, Social Media, SEO, etc. to promote products or services, and anything I can do to create some buzz for a very worthy program I will. Folding@Home allows you to either start folding on your own, you can join an existing team or create your own. If there is enough interest in starting an Online Marketing team I’d be happy to set one up. If there are other programs that you would like to see promoted please feel free to contact me.

• Search Engine Marketing
• Web Analytics
• A/B and MVT Experimentation
• Landing Page Optimization
• Online Marketing

Web Analytics

Search Engine Marketing blogs, articles, and books have primarily focused on Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter when it comes to tips, tricks, and suggestions. All of this coverage is well deserved, but that only covers 50% of the equation. In a future post I’ll detail landing page optimization, but for now I would like to cover web analytics. Web Analytics has taken off in recent years with Google Analytics offering near enterprise level features for free as well as with bloggers such as Occam’s Razor providing insight into analysis and interpretation of the data. In choosing a SEM vendor or consultant you need to ensure that they are fully utilizing a web analytics application to gain insight onto what visitors are doing once they get to your site. They can control the equation before in doing keyword research, writing ad copy, geotargeting, dayparting, destination URLs, etc. What they don’t know beyond what basic conversion tracking tells them is what happens on the landing page without the use of web analytics. Some of the questions that web analytics can answer include:

• Are visitors bouncing at a high rate?
• What specific keywords are driving traffic if you have keywords in broad match?
• What is the average amount of page views and time on site per keyword?
• What keyword position results in the highest conversion rate?
• What is the average revenue per keyword?

Web Analytics is essentially the other 50% of the equation in determining the success or failure of a SEM campaign. Without it you are flying blind. My recommendation is to ensure that your SEM vendor either has access to your existing web analytics or implements a web analytics application along with the launch of any SEM campaign. Quiz them on their knowledge of web analytics, and how they use it in conjunction with SEM. This also provides additional transparency for you the client as you can gauge the impact that SEM is having on your business compared to other Online Marketing efforts that you may be engaged in such as SEO, Email, Display, Affiliate, etc. If setup correctly you should be able to see ROI calculated automatically along with any sales data provided that you have an e-commerce or lead generation based site. The great thing about a tool such as Google Analytics or any other JavaScript based application is that once the data is collected you have historical data that can be used in the future. You may not need it now but you’ll have it should you do need it at some point. While Web Analytics is not the primary reason to select a SEM vendor it is a critical component. If you have any questions about this post or any other blog posts please feel free to contact me.

To target ads for G1 and iPhone, go to your campaign settings tab in your AdWords account. Then for the “Device Platform” option under “Networks and Bidding,” select “iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers.” As additional devices that use full browsers enter the market, your ads will show on those phones, too. You can visit the AdWords Help Center for more detailed instructions and watch my video below for a quick demo. If you currently have an AdWords campaign running, by default your campaign will show ads on desktop and laptop computers, as well as iPhone and G1.

I have an iPhone, use it everyday and love it. I’m also an active Adwords advertiser and love the functionality that this offers, but don’t like the fact that I was automatically opted in with no notification of it occurring. Had I not been a blog reader this could have gone unnoticed until I looked at campaign settings. Here is a screenshot of what you’ll receive upon logging into your account:

Notice that the iPhone is automatically checked upon login. This is great if you have a particular client/site that it would work for. You do need to keep in mind that if you have flash on your landing page that the iPhone won’t render it properly and that e-commerce or lead generation may be difficult on such a small device. In that case those sites may want to create iPhone sites such as Walmart which automatically detects your browser and serves up a user experience unique to that phone. I see this as a great tool for local business ads, movies, or other brand awareness type of campaigns. My recommendation would be to create a separate campaign for the iPhone and see how it performs to be able to accurately measure the effectiveness of this form of advertising.

• Search Engine Marketing
• Web Analytics
• A/B and MVT Testing
• Landing Page Optimization
• Online Marketing

Search Engine Marketing

Today Google owns roughly 70% market share, Yahoo 20%, Microsoft 5% and Ask 5%. These numbers constantly change, but your agency should know that a comprehensive strategy encompasses more than just Google. Different search engines produce different conversion rates across different verticals. Your product could work better in Yahoo than Google, so ensure that your agency tests them out to see which performs better.

You also want to see what services are included in your contract. Services vary greatly by agency or consultant. Some are bundled as packages, others claim to do ‘everything’. What you need to ensure is that everything is spelled out ahead of time so that nothing is left to chance. Some basic services include:

• Keyword Research
• Account Setup
• Geotargeting
• Dayparting
• Negative Keywords
• Ad Creation
• Content Network Research
• Conversion Tracking Implementation
• Account Management
• Reporting

Other services may be more complex, depending on if your agency or consultant needs include integrating with existing APIs, database or inventory management, web analytics tracking, etc. This will need to be discussed with the agency or consultant as to the extent of this involvement.

Paying for an agency or consultant to manage your SEM is still not yet standardized across the industry. Some work on a fixed monthly cost, others on an hourly or retainer basis. The most popular method though is working off a percentage of ad spend. The percentage varies from 8% to 25% depending upon the agency or consultant and the task involved. If your goal is to simply drive the cheapest traffic possible then it obviously requires substantially less time than if you had a product that has a finite quantity and constantly needs to be adjusted. Adding in performance based incentives, setup fees, or working for a mandatory minimum amount of ad spend is another way that some agencies and consultants operate.

Contract length is another topic that deserves some attention. A highly skilled agency or consultant has substantial front loaded time dedicated to properly setting up a segmented account, implementing web analytics, conversion tracking, keyword research, etc. To be fair I would recommend a six month contract. The first 90 days are filled with experimentation. As a client do you want to try bidding on competitor keywords (as long as they are not trademarked)? Do your organic keywords convert better or worse as paid keywords? These are all questions that time needs to resolve. Days 91 – 180 are when you truly get a firm understanding of what your ‘money’ keywords are, and has started to optimize your account.

Certification is something that I have been asked about quite frequently. Do you need to hire someone who is an Google Adwords Certified Professional or a Platinum Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador? The answer in my opinion is that these certificates are similar to what the IT industry has with certificates. Nice to put in a PowerPoint presentation, but not incredibly indicative of ability or skill. I have these certificates and would say that anyone who reads the Adwords Documentation for eight hours could pass this test. Do you really want to ensure your campaign to someone with eight hours of on paper experience? I once had someone who worked for me fail the test the first try, but who I considered my best SEM analyst.

Now that you have some of the basics use the following checklist if you’re looking for an agency to simply handle SEM. Future posts will outline a more comprehensive strategy which I highly recommend. The basic checklist should look like:

• Setup a meeting with several vendors
• Come prepared to explain your product, target cost per acquisition, etc.
• Request an RFP complete with costs, services, and forecasting
• Negotiate terms, reporting, consultation, etc.
• Account should be able to start within one to two weeks of contract signing off
• After 30 days meetings should be setup to assess progress
• Continue to actively monitor your progress on a weekly basis

I’ve tried to cover most of the basics, but for the sake of sanity I haven’t went so deep as to be highly confusing for a novice who is just starting out. For further explanation please feel free to comment or contact us.

One of the great benefits of running WordPress is the ability to add in plugins. For those of you unfamiliar to the concept of plugins, they are essentially applications that run in conjunction with WordPress to perform some kind of function. I currently utilize a wide variety of plugins, but some of my favorite plugins are:

1. Akismet – Great built in plugin that controls all of your comment spam.
2. All in One Adsense and YPN – Plugin that automatically inserts Adsense and YPN ads into your posts.
3. All in One SEO Pack – Automatically creates meta description, meta keywords, etc.
4. Contact Form II – Easily allows you to create contact forms to add to your pages and posts.
5. FeedBurner FeedSmith – Automatically redirects WordPress feeds to Feedburner feeds for tracking.
6. Google Analyticator – Adds your Google Analytics account to all posts. Also tracks outgoing links, etc.
7. Google XML Sitemaps – Creates an XML sitemap that alerts Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.
8. WordPress Automatic Upgrade – Update your WordPress to the newest version automatically.
9. WordPress Database Backup – Emails you a backup of your WordPress database whenever you prefer.
10. WP Super Cache – Fast caching module for WordPress. Make your blog Digg proof.

What additional plug in make your top 10 list?

On Friday a Metrolink train crashed in Los Angeles killing 25 people. This was the deadliest train crash in over 25 years. Almost immediately after this occurred lawyers started buying up keywords such as ‘metrolink crash’ advertising their services. While the practice is fairly common to take advantage of breaking news to buy traffic this seems a little shady. The lawyers who we saw engaging in this include:

• Larry H Parker
• Seeg Miller Johnson
• Get a Referral
• Eisenburg

I completely understand that everyone needs to make a living, but I can’t believe that this is great for your brand as a lawyer to be seen as an ambulence chaser, and possibly the companies or agencies running SEM for these lawyers are simply looking for leads. Has anyone else seen this kind of activity taking place?

Headline

• Create a sense of urgency
• Play on curiosity
• Add in controversial headline
• Should be 35 characters or less
• Personalize the subject line

From Address

• Try changing the from name
• Try changing the from email address

Testing

• Create email accounts at all major email providers (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.)
• Test to see if any of our email is going into spam
• If so we’ll need to get on a clean domain to send them out
• Test with and without images as some email software is blocking based upon images

Day of the Week Average Open Rate

• Sunday 41.1%
• Saturday 36.7%
• Wednesday 34.0%
• Friday 32.8%
• Tuesday 29.6%
• Thursday 24.6%
• Monday 23.2%

Time of Day and Format

• 8:00AM EST had the highest open rate
• 66% send as plain text (0.46% undeliverable rate)
• 24% send mime format/HTML (0.56% undeliverable rate)
• 10% send HTML only (1.09% undeliverable rate)

• He isn’t dead
• Apple iTunes 8 is coming out with minimal new features
• iPhone/iPod Touch 2.1 software update will be available Friday
• New iPod Nanos are soon available with three new colors

As a 3G iPhone user I’m looking forward to 2.1 just with the hope that it will fix my iPhone so that I can finally use apps that I’ve downloaded and paid for. Beyond that, and for my own selfish need of wanting my iPhone to work the announcements made today were minimal at best. You wouldn’t get that impression though if you looked at Techmeme, Digg, and other sites. I took a few screenshots of sites to see the press that Apple is getting. Here is techmeme.com:

Sorry, it wouldn’t fit on one page. Even on my 1650×1080 20″ Mac monitor Apple dominated all stories above the fold, and even stretched below it. In the end Apple stories related to todays ‘announcement’ accounted for approximately 60% or more of techmeme’s entire homepage. The second image shows everything below the fold:

When I went over to Digg the homepage had at least three Apple stories. While Kevin Rose had accurately predicted most of today’s proceedings, and while not all of the stories were positive towards Apple they once again dominated the homepage of Digg.

Now I’m not anti-Apple, but has anyone seen a company dominate the news as much as Apple does? Whatever they announce is immediately picked up by CNN, MSNBC, etc. I get it, they dominate the MP3 market, and have cool ads, along with a phone that everyone wants. Does that mean Apple deserves all of this essentially free press? Ohh well, I guess it lets them concentrate on paying for those nifty takeover ads on cnn.com and others:

What does everyone else think? Please feel free to share your comments.