Marketing Concepts
Google News
Jan 10th
Google penalizes Chrome & Google+ rapidly rises in popularity
I have written about Google in the past, but the number one search engine has been in the news again lately, for both good and bad publicity. 2012 appears to be a monster year for Google, as it continues to develop and market new products, challenging Facebook, Apple, and Internet Explorer along the way. Here are the recent transgressions and progressions that have affected the technology giant. (more…)
Twitter Claiming Title of Best Internet Marketing Tool
Jan 4th
There are many ways for your business to get publicity on the internet and to reach the customers base who would be interested in your product. There are so many, in fact, that it can be difficult to determine which ones are golden and which one are garbage.
Facebook is the current standard for social media internet marketing, with numerous users, a well-developed platform, and a history of longevity. Recently, I have discussed how to utilize YouTube to get viewers back to your website and how Google Plus is taking strides in social networking. But one other social website is becoming the most unlikely of champions: Twitter. (more…)
How YouTube Drives Traffic to Your Website
Dec 28th
Most people think that YouTube is just a place where you can find videos of people getting hurt, singing new renditions of popular songs, and performing other wacky and creative endeavors. But have you ever thought about using these videos to drive traffic to your website? (more…)
Basic SEO Marketing Explained
Dec 14th
You might have a general understanding of what SEO marketing is, but do you know why it is important, or how it benefits a business? Basic SEO marketing attempts to learn the words and phrases that internet users are searching for, in order to use this information to get their products to the people who seek them.
Some may say that this is manipulative, but wouldn’t you want the best websites that suite your need, rather than riff-raff? Even Google agrees that SEO marketing is good.
But what check are in place to prevent keyword stuffing, where website creators fluff their content up with repetitive, overuse of their keywords?
Luckily, search engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo!, have complicated algorithms that account for other factors beyond keyword usage. They actually observe keyword percentages, to ensure that the phrase is not being stuffed in places it doesn’t belong in order to gain ranking. In addition, they have a fair understanding of grammar and vocabulary, so they can judge what is well-written English and what is gibberish filled with keywords.
Another safeguard is bounce rate, which track how long a web searcher stays on a website. If a website receives too many short visits, or “bounces,” More >
The Future of Internet Marketing: Social Commerce
Nov 23rd
Let me look deep into my crystal ball and make some predictions about the future of internet marketing. I see…
Okay, so there is no crystal ball, or other form of hokum to predict the future. But through word of mouth, internet hype, and intriguing rumors, it is possible to guess how the internet marketing landscape could be changed in the coming months and years.
Web MallAs a teenager, one of my favorite hangout spots was the mall. Even if my friends and I didn’t buy anything beyond an Orange Julius or a Wetzel’s Pretzels, we still had fun kickin’ it and looking at all of the new merchandise. When we did have money, following Christmas or a birthday, we would quickly spend it on new shoes, video games, clothing, DVDs or whatever fad item was trending that week.
Today, I can do most of my shopping from home. Although it is impossible to try on shirts to make sure they fit, for the most part this is a more efficient way to purchase stuff.
Except I miss out on the camaraderie.
While I won’t deny that I’m miserable when a trip to the mall with my girlfriend for new socks turns into a five-hour affair More >
Google States Approval of SEO
Nov 2nd
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a rising facet of the marketing industry. As internet marketing increasingly overtakes television as the top means of reaching an audience to sell products, marketing companies are trying to learn how to stay ahead in the area of SEO.
What this leads to, in some situations, is the use of bad SEO, referred to as “black hat SEO“. Businesses stuff keywords into their websites in order to get higher rankings in the search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Does this mean that SEO is bad? Is it wrong to use and manipulate it?
Matt Cutts, Google’s head of fighting internet spam, recently stated that he does not believe SEO to be spam. In a short clip, provided below, he points out the positive values of SEO.
“We don’t consider SEO to be spam,” Cutts said on behalf of his company. He then proceeds to list numerous reasons why SEO is advantageous.
Amongst the points he lists advocating SEO are:
- Designing and organizing the initial website
- Increasing usability and site speed
- Providing customers with superior results that better suit their needs
- Allowing for a greater return on investments
- Helping the search engines compile more useful data
Mr. Cutts then admitted that while there are websites and More >
Google Plus Brand Pages Could Fix Problems of Facebook and Twitter
Oct 24th
Google recently announced that they were implementing brand pages for corporate advertisers on their social media site, Google Plus. As Facebook is still developing tweaks to their system in order to raise user enjoyment, Google Plus will hopefully begin with a system that does not necessitate any additional changes in the future.
Amongst the issues that Facebook and Twitter deal with is the layout of their pages, which do not allow for much adjustment. Large companies, like Coca Cola or Disney, can only do so much to organize their pages within the strict guidelines of Facebook and Twitter’s programing code.
Facebook, for example, allows for a main picture on the upper left, content scrolling down the center, and that’s about it. No designing backgrounds, no customizations, and no overriding the website’s programing.
In addition, companies cannot choose which advertisements appear on the right side of their own pages. Hypothetically, a Pepsi ad could load onto the Coke’s Facebook page, creating a conflict of interests.
But hopes are high that Google will solve these issues before the launch of their brand pages.
Ad agencies are already starting to develop brand pages for Google Plus that work with its rigid formatting that is somewhat layered, but still More >
Internet Marketing Company Tips: Spring Cleaning your Marketing Strategy
May 2nd
Spring is here, and while we’re doing some actual office Spring cleaning inside our Internet marketing company and web design firm, we started thinking of the concept as a great marketing analogy.
As we all would agree, Spring is a great time to start fresh with a clean slate. Google recently did some Spring cleaning of their own in the form of changes to their search algorithm with the Panda Update, (or Farm Update as it’s been nicknamed) so there’s no better time then now to revisit your page ranking, evaluate your business for the remainder of 2011 and do some metaphorical Spring cleaning as well.
That said, here are a few friendly tips for Spring cleaning your business and marketing efforts:
Dust Off Your Physical Office or Storefront
We usually keep things pretty neat around our Internet marketing company offices, but when you deal with proposals, print materials, sales pamphlets and business cards daily, it’s easy for things to get cluttered quick.
Get rid of that clutter around your desk, change up the furniture setup in your office and revisit your New Years resolutions. A new setup always brings new life to your office, rearranging displays in your storefront always shifts sales a bit and More >
Planning Your Companys Internet Marketing Future: 2010 Recap and 2011 Strategy
Dec 29th
As 2010 winds down to its last week, I can’t help but go back and look at my 2009 recap and 2010 outlook. Boy did it look bleak…the economy was in a rut, clients were cutting back on everything—including their marketing budgets.
Really, marketing should be the last thing you choose to downsize—after all, isn’t Marketing helping your business stay afloat and driving more sales? (But that is a subject to be covered on another day.)
Nonetheless, since many customers were scaling back, we went into 2010 making a conscious decision to concentrate on our current customers and introduce more innovation and marketing strategies to drive more customers to their websites and businesses.
Well the strategy worked.
On average, all of our customers grew their customer base by a margin of 25% to 45%, and one of our customers grew their online visitor and reservation numbers by 100%.
Imagine doubling your call rates in a matter of 12 months—well word travels fast and Trimark was able to pull out one of its best years yet.
Now looking back on 2010, I’m thinking about how our readers, customers, friends and family take advantage of our strategy and apply it to themselves. Simplifying the concept, here are couple More >
Implementing Exclusive Content On Facebook For Fans
Nov 10th
Trying to boost the number of people that like your Facebook page? Try giving users a reason to like you by offering a special only to those that actually ‘like’ you. Facebook allows for you to deliver different content on FMBL Custom tabs between users that are already connected to your page and users that aren’t.
Facebook offers the “visible-to-connection’ tag that shows the contents within the tag to those who like a page, and can show completely different code to those who haven’t liked your page. This allows you to make your FBML Custom tab exclusive to those who are a fan and great for marketing the following:
- coupons
- trials
- samples
- exclusive events
- sneak previews
- sales
Here is a great example of how you can use the ‘visible-to-connection’ tag on your Facebook tab with a sale/coupon code offering:
Go to the actual Facebook Page to see the code in action.
Early this year, we recapped a an example of a promotion that ski shop featured the “visible-to-connection” code to leak their new skis for the 2010 season. Those users that were not fans were shown a blurred out image of the skis and those that were fans were shown a micro-site with all of the new skis for the season.
Here More >
Social Media Marketing: A Step-Ladder for SEO Services
Oct 1st
One of the latest weapons in the arsenal of online marketers is social media marketing. Many Internet marketing companies will offer social media marketing services, but as a client and business owner, what does that really mean? Most business owners and people in general know social media as just that—an avenue for interacting with friends online—so what’s the benefit for the business?
While there are a few obvious answers (and many that are not so obvious), there is one particularly useful benefit of social media marketing for businesses that have just launched their website: It serves as an excellent step-ladder to your search engine optimization services and can win you instant customers while you’re waiting out their effectiveness.
To illustrate this, let’s first sum up the basic value of a social media presence to a growing or start-up business. Having social media accounts for your business on avenues like Facebook and Twitter basically allows a free method of developing a mailing list of interested customers and also lets you communicate with them.
Plus, your profile page serves as an appealing extra web presence for your business that requires little to no graphic design efforts. It also serves as a large online business card that More >
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Winemaking
Sep 28th
Online Marketing and California Winemakers One of the pleasantries of living in coastal California includes having access to some of the finest wineries and vineyards in the world. The lush country and landscape has attracted some of the world’s best winemakers—the climate is perfect for growing different grape varietals and the beautiful landscape and greenery pairs perfectly with a relaxing day of wine-tasting.
A good friend of mine is a winemaker at a small vineyard in a town called Lompoc, just outside the city of Santa Barbara. He recently bottled a pinot noir that Wine Spectator awarded a 96 to—something only 12 other pinots have ever scored equal to or better.
As we were chatting about this delicious and magnanimous achievement, it occurred to me that online marketing—particularly web development and SEO—are a lot like making wine.
Notice I didn’t say a “fine wine;” this analogy can work both ways! There are plenty of SEO “tricks” out there—and to a certain extent, even natural circumstances—that can spoil your harvest and ultimately ruin your page ranking and the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts.
But if done properly, with continued attention, a little patience, and the right amount of aging, you could create a web presence that More >