Webinar: Pinterest and SEO: Optimize Your Boards for Maximum Success
Thursday, March 29, 1 p.m. EST
Speakers:
Bill Leake, CEO, Apogee Results
Susonnah Gonzalez, SEO Technician, Apogee Results
Description:
Everyone’s jumping all over Pinterest, for work and for play. While some marketers have figured out a clear Pinterest strategy, others are still scratching their heads trying to make sense of the latest, greatest social network. Then there’s the question: How do people even find your stuff on Pinterest?
Just like with your website and other social media platforms, SEO can help. In fact, Pinterest is perfect for some good, old-fashioned SEO optimization–helping you to be found on the hottest website around.
Join us as we go over a quick overview of what Pinterest is, how it can help (or even not help) your business, and how to drive traffic that will hopefully convert to leads and/or sales.
As some of you may have noticed yesterday, Facebook Timeline for brands is now available. Brands have until March 30th to make the change; after that, brands–like regular Facebook users–will be forced into the new Timeline layout. That being said, Timeline isn’t something brands should fret over. Instead, brands should see it for what it is–an opportunity to further visually brand yourself, along with socially telling your company’s history. Brands that embrace Timeline will ultimately be more successful than those that don’t.
So what should you do to make sure your brand is getting the most out of the new Facebook layout? Here are some quick, simple suggestions: (more…)
I like taking good care of my possessions. I want to show my things how much I value them by keeping them clean, cared for and in tiptop working condition. And my inbox is no different. Anytime my inbox starts to feel overloaded with hordes of emails I don’t care to read, I cut the wheat from the chaff and go on an unsubscribing spree.
In order to understand why we, the recipients, unsubscribe from emails, it is important to first take a look at what compels us to subscribe in the first place. (more…)
Webinar: Improving Your ROI: The Fundamentals of Demand Generation and Marketing Automation
Thursday, February 23, 1 p.m. EST
Speakers:
Craig Tomlin, VP Online Marketing and User Experience, Apogee Results
Lisa DeSouza, President and CEO, RPM Demand
Description:
Join hosts Craig Tomlin, VP of Online Strategy for Apogee Results and Lisa deSouza, President and CEO of RPM Demand, as they discuss the key to creating a holistic Demand Generation Strategy as well as implementing and running a comprehensive marketing automation system. Attendees will come away with a solid knowledge of key concepts of marketing automation and demand generation, the current marketplace, a high level strategy and the pitfalls that most marketers encounter when utilizing a marketing automation system.
We’ve all heard that increasingly common search marketing mantra, “content is king.” It certainly sounds nice, and if it was true, it could really be a wonderful thing, because it suggests that all you need to have a well-performing, highly ranking and highly converting site is to treat people the way they want to be treated and give them an awesome site to experience.
Now, I am not Matt Cutts and I am not omniscient, but I do know this: Content is not king. And here’s how I know this: I can point to innumerable instances of poorly written, ugly, blatantly spammy pages ranking well for keyphrases that they did not “deserve” to rank for. And these nasty, thin, worthless pages far outnumber (even post-Panda) instances where beautiful, engaging pages that just focus on “building a community” and “great content,” but do not have strong ranking signals, rank well. (more…)
Throughout my career in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it has come to my attention that many believe SEO success begins and ends with “good SEO.” Although vague, this may have been the case in the early days of SEO. But due to Google’s algorithm evolving and advancing so quickly over past years, a successful SEO campaign not only requires white hat SEO techniques, but is also dependent upon the engagement of many other marketing teams and experts, such as the following:
Analysts
Developers
Creative
PR/Social Media
Let’s take a closer look at the roles that each of these individuals play in the execution of a successful SEO campaign, as well as the responsibilities of an SEO Expert. (more…)
Last year’s most-talked about Super Bowl ad was undeniably VW’s ad with a little boy dressed as Darth Vader. For the few of you out there who haven’t seen it, said little boy walks around dressed like Vader, “The Imperial March” playing in the background, trying to use The Force to start random household objects. He finally “succeeds” by starting his dad’s 2012 VW Passat. (more…)
Over the past few years, mobile has made quite a splash in our everyday world and the digital marketing landscape as a whole. Back in the day we saw people with maybe a mobile phone or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). We have now evolved from those devices that now seem quite primitive compared to the technology that is widely available to us today. In today’s society, the use of mobile devices has grown exponentially; we can’t go anywhere without seeing someone on Smartphone, a tablet, or even an eReader. More and more people are “plugged in,” and that number is only going to grow as people continue to integrate things like mobile apps and other capabilities into everyday life. We use apps for everything from shopping, finding jobs, and staying connected to feeding our mobile gaming addiction with apps like Angry Birds and Words with Friends. Mobile devices have absolutely become staples of everyday life. Honestly, could you go a day without your Smartphone?
With the integration of mobile into everyday life also comes a whole new world of opportunities for marketers. Mobile devices offer a platform that can be utilized to reach thousands of people daily.
The number of Smartphone owners has more than doubled in 2 years
In Q3 2011, 26.3 million mobile consumers viewed mobile video
Currently, 87 percent of app downloader’s have used deal-of-the-day websites like Groupon or Living Social, and 54 percent of Smartphone owners claim to use their mobile headsets frequently while shopping
The majority of 25-35 and 18-24 year olds now own Smartphone’s (64% and 53% respectively)and they have led in Smartphone penetration compared to other age groups since 2009
By 2013, more people will use mobile phones than PCs to get online
In mid-2011, we reached a point at which consumers were spending more time on their mobile devices than on their PCs
86% of web users now use a mobile device while watching TV. The number of Smartphone subscribers using the mobile internet has grown 45 percent since 2010
49 percent of mobile customer say they frequently use their Smartphone’s while shopping
The majority of Smartphone owners (62%) have downloaded apps on their devices and games are the top application category used in the past 30 days*
Search engines and social networking websites are popular among Android Smartphone and iPhone owners (see figure below)
So … What Does This Mean For Marketers?
As mobile devices become more advanced the way people interact through these devices will also evolve. Which means the way marketers can interact with potential consumers must evolve and take advantage of this opportunity. “The promise of mobile marketing is its ability to reach the right consumer, at the right time, and the right place – including the very moment and point of purchase. The term “So-Lo-Mo” (for social, local, mobile) has been coined to refer to this opportunity.” (Nielsen)
There are many creative and effective ways to interact with potential customers, but here are 6 ways marketers can utilize this quickly expanding mobile landscape:
Test the mobile waters with basic mobile advertising.
Launch text message subscription campaigns. With this option consumers can opt in and receive information about your company on their mobile device.
Use QR codes can help generate leads, completed sales, and maybe spark consumers to connect with your company through different avenues like social media.
Utilize location-based deal platforms like Groupon and Living Social
Implement Geo-fencing technology, which is a technology that is compatible with a majority of mobile phones. The location-based technology alerts consumers by SMS while in parameters of participating shopping centers on deals that are available at surrounding stores.
Develop an app for your business. For example, if your business is a restaurant, offer your nutritional information through an app. If your business is a clothing store, offer your product line through your app. Apps are a great way for you to offer valuable information to potential and existing customers.
The landscape of online marketing is changing–there’s no denying that fact. Those changes, while foreseeable, often come with their own set of questions. How do I implement that? How do we address this issue? What the heck IS that? Learn how you can embrace each of those trends in order to have a successful 2012 that’s full of great leads, improved ROI and happy clients.
Social media trends come and go, but as online marketers, it’s crucial that we stay on top of them. Like a rolling snowball, social media is only growing bigger and bigger and seems to swallow anything that crosses its path. We know it should be a critical part of our integrated marketing campaigns, but what exactly should we expect to see come 2012?
Gaining Leads from Social Media Outlets
As more information becomes available on social media sites, users will be spending the majority of their time on Facebook, Twitter and the like. Consequently, users will turn to social media to learn more about their favorite brands and what they have to offer. Marketers expect to see improved social analytics that will provide them with more detailed information about their social ROI and how social fits in the conversion funnel.
It will be imperative for marketers to not only produce more social content describing their products and services, but produce meaningful content that will create leads. Blasting a survey or a question to your fans won’t be enough. As social media grows, your fans will become overwhelmed with information being spouted by their favorite brands. Your social content must be both useful and compelling to grab and keep the attention of your fans.
Social on Other Devices
What devices? You guessed it—mobile and tablets. The word “mobile” is being passed around a lot when it comes to speculating 2012 trends, but what does it mean to you as a digital marketer? It means content will be (and should be) targeted to mobile users. And it would be wrong to ignore the renowned tablet. As the variety of tablets increase and prices decrease, more consumers will be drawn to using tablets in place of their laptops or desktops. Marketers can prepare for this by creating content that is quick and easy to access. With more users turning to mobile, start adapting your social content for smaller screens. Bloggers would be wise to shorten the length of their blog posts, and it would behoove social marketers to stay away from flash.
Frictionless Sharing
However controversial, frictionless sharing is likely to grow in 2012. It’s the automatic sharing of content from news sites and music sites such as Spotify, and word is more companies will integrate with Facebook’s Open Graph. Here’s what Facebook has to say on their developer’s page:
“We are now extending the Open Graph to include arbitrary actions and objects created by 3rd party apps and enabling these apps to integrate deeply into the Facebook experience.”
What does it mean? It means frictionless sharing is only going to grow. Users don’t have to hit a button or paste a link onto their wall anymore; it’s the easiest form of sharing that Facebook can devise (so far).
TV + Social
Turn on your TV and you won’t be able to avoid the calls to action propelled by social. At the bottom of the screen, hash tags compel viewers to tweet about the show, and already dozens of shows incorporate Twitter and Facebook into their programming. Shows such as The Voice use Twitter and Facebook to collect public opinion on an array of topics, making the audience a major factor in their planning. The use of social in TV programming will grow immensely within the next year, and social media crowdsourcing will reach a whole new level. The key to using this successfully is to listen to your audience and take what they have to say into consideration. Implement their feedback into your marketing campaigns.
What other trends do you think will arise in the next year?
