Search Engine Optimization Tips

Search Engine Optimization Tips

Copyright 2009, Vogel Marketing Solutions LLC

Search Engine Optimization is a complex science. To make the most of your Internet marketing efforts you should enlist the services of a qualified SEO professional.

However, there are many simple things you can do to help boost your online visibility. If you aren’t a “techie”, then call your web person right away to ensure these basic things are done. While these actions don’t replace the need for an SEO pro’s consultation and monitoring, they are a low-cost way to help drive traffic.

• Naming Your Files: many companies use their own internal file systems to name their web pages, such as “www.domain.com/1234X”. Instead of naming a page “1234X”, the file should be named with keywords that will drive traffic. For example, the page on my site describing my Internet Marketing services is saved as “www.vogelmarketing.net/Internet_Marketing.”
• Page Titles: the page “title” is what you see in the heading of a Google search result, as well as in the browser tab when you visit that page. Many sites will title their pages with generic words, such as “Welcome to Our Home Page,” or worse “Untitled”. The title should contain those specific keywords that will drive traffic, because it is one of the many ways search engines determine the relevancy of your site to a search. No one does a search for “Welcome to Our Home Page”! Again, using my site as an example, my home page carries the title “Vogel Marketing Solutions: Marketing Consultants in Lancaster PA”. Each page should carry a completely different title that focuses on the topic of that specific page.
• Bullet Points and Bold Type: rather than describing your services in long sentences, pull out those services and “bulletize” them, and make the bold. It’s been theorized that search engine robots may spot these keywords more easily; they figure they must be important if they are bulleted and bold. Besides, bulleted copy makes sense from a user-friendliness standpoint; people don’t read web pages … they scan them. For an example of what I mean, take a look at my “About Us” page. My five key service areas have been bulleted and bolded.
• Link Your Keywords: many sites will describe what’s on a certain page, then use the words “Click Here” as the link to that page. Since search engines give prominence to linked text, make the keyword your hotlink. Take another look at my About Us page, and you’ll see that my five key services are all linked text.
• Incoming Links: one of the most important activities you can do for your website is increase the number of incoming links from other sites. This can be from your LinkedIn page, Associations of which you’re a member, business partners, valued vendors, and more.
• Avoid Too Much Flash: while it’s been reported that Google is now beginning to index Flash sites, it’s better to maintain an HTML-only site (or at least a mirror site from your Flash version) to ensure that all search engines can access your site and its content. Besides, many visitors (like me!) find it irritating to sit through an animation of flying words and pictures. Just give me the content I’m looking for!

Dump Direct Mail? Blend It … Don’t End It.

Dump Direct Mail? Blend It … Don’t End It.

Copyright 2009, Vogel Marketing Solutions LLC

A recent report by research firm Borrell Associates projects a 39% decline for direct mail over the next five years. Its research shows, not surprisingly, that email will continue to grow for both national and local advertisers, and is now the number one interactive medium. Even with rising costs, however, you should think twice about dumping direct mail – an integrated online/offline approach is always best. Here are some tips to ensure you are achieving the right balance … along with a template for acquiring email addresses and a white paper on integrating online and offline search engine marketing.

1. Ask your recipients: depending on the demographics of your audience, each company will have varying levels of acceptance of email vs. print. If you’re currently mailing a hard-copy newsletter, for example, insert a postage-paid reply letter in the next issue. I’ve created a template for such a letter; click here to download. Use it as you see fit.
2. Append you database: that same letter can be used to obtain missing emails from your audience – also known as “email appending.” You should also make it a company-wide practice to obtain email addresses at every touch-point: customer service reps, trade show leads, sales calls, and so on. WARNING! Avoid offers for quick, cheap email address appending services! The majority of these offers are scams, and there are only a handful of reliable companies in the appending industry. The company I recommend is FreshAddress.
3. Follow-up an email with a letter or sales call: technology now allows you to carefully manage the offline communications process. After an email goes out give your database to a printer that provides “variable data printing”, and send a letter or postcard that repeats the emailed offer – in terms of both graphics and text. Printed materials can be as equally personalized and relevant to the recipient as an email.
4. Convert invoices to emails: transactional emails (invoices, statements, etc.) are among the most-opened and read emails available. Not only will you save printing and postage costs, but you have a perfect platform to cross-sell / up-sell your recipients while you have their attention. Be careful not to overdo the sales message in a transactional email – remember, you’re asking them for money already!
5. Publish your Privacy Policy: many people will not opt-in to your email communications if they don’t readily see a clear Privacy Policy. Be sure to promise them you’ll never share or rent your list – not only online but offline with your telephone personnel, trade show sign-up forms, sales calls, etc. For a sample Privacy Policy, read mine.
6. Integrate search engine marketing with offline efforts: here is an excellent study completed by noted Search Engine Marketing Specialists iProspect, and Jupiter Research in August 2008. It demonstrates the importance of integrating your search engine marketing efforts with your offline marketing. The study found that “67% of search engine users had been motivated to perform a search on a search engine in the previous six months as a direct result of exposure to some form of offline marketing. The study also revealed that of that 67%, a full 39% ultimately purchased a product or service from the company that had prompted their original search.”* Click here to read the entire report.

If you would like assistance in integrating your online and offline activities, call me at 717-368-5143 or email me at VogelMarketing@verizon.net. For more information on Vogel Marketing Solutions, visit www.Vogelmarketing.net.

6 Tips to Help Your Company Emerge Stronger from Recession

Copyright 2009, Vogel Marketing Solutions LLC

Let’s face it: flat is the new up. There is business out there, but you must now compete twice as hard for a smaller pool of prospects. If you maintain top-of-mind awareness with your target audiences today, you’ll emerge stronger in the coming months and years. Things will get better, but not everyone will survive.

History has taught us that companies who market aggressively during recession often emerge stronger than their competitors who don’t. However, this is a much different world than the 1930s.

I see two ways companies are managing their marketing in these times:

• Those who pull back, cut budgets, and retreat to the safety of past experience. They tell themselves “it’s worked for us for XX years, so now is not the time to change behaviors.” They tell their people to work twice as hard with fewer resources, without changing old habits.
• Those who embrace new techniques and technology, and aggressively pursue every drop of new business that’s out there. They’re nimble and flexible—regardless of their size—and believe that sales and marketing is part of EVERYONE’s job description.

Here are six suggestions to help you remain strong today, and prosper tomorrow.

• Database Marketing: I’ve repeated this over-and-over, and will continue to harp on it. If you’re not making full use of your existing assets, you’re missing the best opportunities and the highest ROIs. The list of ways to use a database is infinite. Build one single, master, up-to-date, in-house database: every customer (past and present), every prospect, every suspect, and every business associate who might help you. Give each one a code to define them, and send them relevant messages—frequently. Learn more about Database Marketing.
• Benefit-Focused Messaging: your customers’ attention span is growing shorter as we speak. Eliminate puffery, and reduce the paragraphs of feel-good branding copy. Tell them what you’ll do for them—quickly.
• Social Media: you’ve heard it all before, but you must participate in Social Media such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and the thousands of industry-specific blog spots. It’s the future, and businesses of all types are becoming deeply engaged.
• Email Marketing: a rapidly-growing medium with the highest ROI (according to the Direct Marketing Association.) This isn’t “spamming”—it’s involves carefully-crafted messages to your audiences that are highly-relevant, frequent and measurable. Learn more about Email Marketing.
• Google Analytics and AdWords: is your company making the most of these free tools? If not, you won’t believe the volumes of actionable marketing data you can glean from them. And since they’re free (other than the optional costs for AdWords bids), why would you NOT use Analytics and AdWords?
• Everyone’s a Marketer: break down silos between departments, divisions, and—most importantly—between sales and marketing. Make marketing activities part of everyone’s continued employment. I have one client who—rather than lay off field service reps—put them on the phones with sales scripts. They hate it, but they are still employed. And the client’s business is growing.

I can help you analyze and implement any of these marketing tools. Call me at 717-368-5143 or email me now.

Is Your Marketing Relevant?

One thing has become clear in the past several years with regards to marketing communications:

You must be relevant to your customers.

This is true for all media, but especially for email marketing. Technology gives you the power to engage in a one-on-one conversation with your audiences—and they’ve come to expect it. Gone are the days of the one-size-fits-all blast emails. Study after study has shown the importance of sending personalized messages that serves up ONLY what that one specific individual wants.  The challenge lies in developing a highly-segmented, rigorously-managed database.

Companies often lack the time and talent to effectively create such a database. This expertise can be easily out-sourced. The average email recipient will hit “delete” within seconds if they don’t see something that is relevant to their needs, wants and desires. A print ad or direct mail piece always has a chance to be re-read. But a deleted email is essentially gone forever. Here are some tips to help you stay relevant:

• Frequency choices: allow your recipients to choose how frequently they receive your emails. Everyone appreciates being given a choice.
• Click behavior: look at the pages each recipient clicked to, and tailor your future messages to them based on the interest they demonstrated by their behavior.
• Geography: tailor your message based on where they live. Listrak, for example, provides a geo-tracking feature if you don’t already have the recipient’s hometown location.
• Dropdown or radio button selections: on your email sign-up page, make it easy for them to provide details on their preferences. This includes frequency of emails, HTML vs. text, length of time before buying decision, current use of a competitor’s product, and more. The less they must key in, the more willing they will be to surrender information about their preferences.
• “Welcome” emails: if they take the time to subscribe, surely you can take the time to say “thanks!” This can be easily automated. Make the thank you relevant with content that aligns with their profile.
• Two-way personalization: even if you successfully personalize your email (“Dear Ms. Smith”) you should also sign the email from a real person, including the “from” address. Keep the tone conversational, and include contact information for the individual (avoid “info@”). This is especially important if the recipient deals with a specific sales rep or CSR. The email must be from THEM.
• Surveys: these can not only provide valuable market data, but allows you to ask for additional information from your audiences. Even if someone has been on your list for some time, they may have changed positions at their company, and can provide additional contact info for other decision-makers and influencers.
• Readability: many B2B recipients now use handheld devices such as Blackberrys to check email. If you are sending HTML-only emails, much of the content will be lost. Be sure to send both text and HTML versions of the same email. Keep you key offer “above the fold”, and place descriptive “ALT Text” in your images. Most email programs block images, so be certain the text that is displayed says who it’s from and what it is.
• Relevant graphics: most email service providers offer dynamic profiling tools to build a relevant email design based on the recipient’s profile data. For example, if a recipient’s zip code indicates they live in an urban area, drop in images that reflect that environment.
• Keep it simple: don’t try to overload your email with too many offers or too many links. If your message appears confusing or too time consuming, they’ll hit delete. Bite-sized pieces are easier to swallow than serving up a big buffet. Provide a clear call-to-action.

Mark Vogel
President, Vogel Marketing Solutions LLC
www.VogelMarketing.net

Ping your prospects

Top-of-mind awareness is critical in a highly-competitive business environment. When a suspect becomes a prospect by showing interest—whether by responding to a direct mail piece, a salesperson’s call, or speaking to you at a trade show—you need to build a well-defined process to nurture that relationship through to closure. Here are some tips to “ping” your prospects to help ensure they don’t forget you:

                                  

• Google Alerts: Go to http://www.google.com/alerts, and fill in your client’s company name under “Search Terms”. You can also use keywords that are highly relevant to your client’s industry. You’ll receive regular emails from Google with links to content that is directly related to your search terms. Although most of the Alerts will yield junk, you’ll come across items that will be of interest to your client: industry studies, competitors’ actions, white papers, blogs, columns, and so on. Forward a copy of the information to them. Even if they’ve already seen it, this action demonstrates you’re on top of their industry, and are still thinking about them. Which keeps them thinking about you!
• E-Newsletters: create a newsletter that contains useful information for your clients. Of course, the caveat is that you must provide USEFUL information—not an ad about yourself—and you must commit the resources necessary to keep up with it. If you promised a monthly newsletter, you must deliver it monthly for the foreseeable future. Be certain you use a proven HTML email program (I personally use Listrak) to ensure you can manage your lists, segment and personalize your messages, measure the results, and stay compliant with anti-spam regulations.
• Holiday cards: in this Web 2.0 world, companies often forget down-to-earth, old fashioned, non-glitzy niceties. A simple personalized card at the Holidays costs almost nothing, but keeps you in front of your prospects.
• Trade shows: industry events can be expensive for your prospects to attend—not only in travel and lodging, but shows sometimes charge hundreds of dollars just to attend. If you’re exhibiting at an important show, ask the show management for free show passes. This is increasingly common, since they want to keep their exhibitors happy (a large source of revenue for them). Call prospects who might have an interest in that show and offer the tickets to the event. Costs you nothing, but could be worth hundreds. If your products’ selling price warrants it, invest in a hospitality suite and invite everyone.
• Case studies: if you have a satisfied customer, capture their positive comments and send them along to your prospects. Whether it’s a single sentence of praise, or a full-blown case study/white paper demonstrating how a customer benefited from your product or service, prepare a mailing to your database of prospects. These comments are far more believable coming from a colleague as opposed to you making the same statement.

Are You Fully Aware of Your B2B Customers’ Buying Habits?

When viewing B2B websites, I wonder whether companies are fully aware of where their prospects are going to source for products and services. I also wonder if they are providing the online information that their prospective customers want—information such as product specifications, pricing and terms, tech support, delivery and other important details. It may be because of a long history of their business processes. “We always done things this way, and it’s always worked.” 

 

An Industrial Marketing Survey*, conducted by ThomasNet and Google in 3^rd quarter 2006, shows that industrial marketers must more effectively place themselves where industrial buyers are looking: on the Internet. Here are some facts from that survey:

 

• 96% of all industrial buyers use the Internet at some point in the process of researching, comparing, and/or purchasing various products and services.
• More than half these buyers begin the buying process online, when they are researching various products that might meet their needs (54%).
• Almost half as many buyers access search engines such as Google or Yahoo first to see what is available that might serve them best (23%).
• Nearly as many buyers turn to industrial destination sites like ThomasNet.com before any other resource (17%).
• Many buyers learn enough in the initial research phase of the buying process to draw some conclusions or take some kind of action. Nearly all continue gathering more information on a product, brand or supplier (94%), even after calling or meeting with a distributor or supplier.
• About half actually issue purchase orders (51%) following Internet research, while three in four make a recommendation for a new product, service or supplier. The rest continue to gather information on specific products, brands or suppliers.

Clearly, the Internet is the information resource of choice for industrial buyers.          

  

So, based on my own experience, and supported by the findings in this survey, here are some recommendations, and questions to ask yourself:

 

1. Compare your website to your competition: print out a color copy of your home page, as well as the home page of each company that you have identified as your key competitors. (You might want to enlist a knowledgeable third party—no one’s going admit they have an ugly baby!) If you were looking for these products or services, which company would YOU prefer to do business with?
2. Does your site speak your customers’ language? You need to do more than talk about your features. What are the benefits of choosing your company over another, and how will you solve their pain? Do you take advantage of testimonial marketing, and provide ample quotes and references from satisfied customers?
3. Can your prospects find your site? Are you regularly analyzing your placement on the major search engines? Have you engaged in appropriate search engine optimization? (Warning: avoid those offers of “We’ll place you in hundreds of search engines!!!” Nearly all searches are done through a few websites: Google, Yahoo!, MSN. If you cover those, you’ve covered nearly 100% of all searches.) Are you listed in all the right directories, like ThomasNet or The Blue Book Directory? Is your site populated with the right keywords—and are you sure you know what keywords your prospects are using? How many links are pointing back to your site?
4. Are you providing enough information for buyers to move you to the top of the list? Whenever possible, list specs, case studies, prices, terms, delivery information, warranties, tech support, CAD drawings, and so on. Remember, this site is for the benefit of your prospects, not a feel-good online “brochure” for you. Buyers want to shorten their buying cycle and spend less time with a “salesman”. (Sorry.) Although you can’t divulge too much vital information for your competitors to see, I believe that many companies may be overly concerned about that. Your competition may already know more than you think!
5. Capture leads on your site: many times the “Contact Us” page is buried deep within a site. I recommend that you put that link clearly on every page, and drive visitors there.
6. Respond immediately: nothing says “I don’t care for your business” more than a slow reply to a website request for info. Who is responsible for checking email, and do they reply within 30 minutes or less? Who will cover this duty when that person’s at lunch or out of the office?
7. Nurture that lead: even if they are gathering information for a future purchase, find appropriate ways to stay in front of them all through their buying cycle. E-newsletters, follow-up phone calls, thank you letters, testimonials, meet-ups at trade shows, or white papers are all good tools to use to maintain top-of-mind awareness.

Be aware of your prospects’ behavior patterns. It’s not enough to simply have a web presence. Take the steps necessary to drive greater volumes of qualified traffic to a well-designed site and give them the information they want when they are ready to buy. You’ll dramatically increase your chances for success.

 

* “Industrial Marketing Online: Getting Industrial Buyers and Sellers on the Same Page”, www.ThomasNet.com/goodcustomers