Get More from Search - Trends in Search & Social Media

How did you develop the information at your website? Did you use offline material or spin off content from press releases, news items or your internal communications? Then, did you layer on some graphics, maybe a little Flash animation to jazz it up some programming and think that your audience would get the message?

In actuality, your website may be failing to communicate the message you really intend to offer to your visitors. You need to open a dialog to effectively communicate - and you can start by thinking of your visitors as an audience that gives feedback, instead of just customers with credit cards in hand. Doing so can create a more enjoyable user experience, and will keep them at your site longer, engaged with your brand. This in turn creates the end goal you desire: more sales from a more loyal customer base.

It begs the question, “how do I go about creating an interesting website that will engage my precious site visitors, turn them into an audience and then into customers?” very successful method is to create a website that blends information, entertainment and community.

While the written word is the foundation for your website, it is also necessary for search engine optimization and it engages the reader types among your audience. Yet,  some Web 2.0 tools are within reach for most companies and offer so much benefit for the investment.

One tool that can help do that is web video. Video has a lot going for it, providing a platform to showcase your products, employees, customers or affiliated events in a rich media experience that is becoming commonplace. Video presentations need to have enough value to them that people want to share them with others and both the presentations and content must create a memorable experience that entertains the individual.

Video is not the place to lay on the sales pitch - your audience is looking to be entertained, not hit over the head with a self-serving show. Instead, create short videos that work together in creating a subtle brand campaign - engaging enough to keep their interest - and fresh enough to keep them coming back to find out what happens next. The underlying theme is your product, but the consumer is being entertained in the process. Buy-ready consumers are more likely to remember brands that entertained them.

Look to the Internet for other successful campaigns, Video sharing sites (i.e. www.youtube.com) and Web advertising awards (i.e. www.webbyawards.com) are a great place to start for what’s viral and what’s got the attention of consumers and brand marketers alike.

To improve your website, start the thought process from scratch – how can you best communicate with your online audience? Web users form an opinion about your company within seconds of reaching a website. Capture them with fresh content and keep them coming back with engagement tools like video. Stop talking (about your company). Instead, start communicating.

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How do you create ongoing buzz about your company and speak directly to your buyers? The answer is press releases. The online environment provides an ideal canvas for distributing the news that your customers and prospects need to know about you.  And you don’t necessarily need a PR agency to write or distribute them for you. Online distribution outlets such as PRWeb, allow any size business to create and maintain an active press release campaign with little cost. Online press releases can give you more exposure with little cost and can drive quality traffic to your site. As a communication strategy, it is important to distribute releases on a regular basis to help keep your company in the front view of your consumers.

Random content won’t do though: you’ll need to set down some guidelines for your campaign. These include what you are going to include in your press releases, how you are going to create brand awareness and how you are going to get and maintain quality exposure for your company. Online press releases aren’t a license to be self-serving in your message; the content needs to be news-worthy first and foremost.  Focus on the customer, write about the benefits they’ll receive because of your new product development or how your latest partnership will yield them a better/faster/cheaper experience. PRWeb’s guidelines provide an excellent mental checklist as you develop copy. David Meerman Scott’s “New Rules of PR”  ebook is a must-read for anyone delving into the online press distribution space. You’ll understand how to write to your audience, what outlets to use and how to strategize a release schedule for consistent exposure. 

Some of the items you need to include in your press releases are the same things you need to include on your website, which include links and keywords. When you are constructing your campaign your goal is to create in-bound links to your site. You manage this through creating a press release that is rich in keywords that relate to your site, but you want to be careful to not over saturate your press release. Incorporating a good balance of two to three keywords is optimal, with a primary keyword and two secondary keywords. It is essential to research your keyword selections to make sure your keywords are geared toward your target audience and subject matter.

Brand awareness is important when working on your press release. You can optimize your press releases by utilizing media portals such as PRWeb and Internet News Bureau. Both websites will help you syndicate your press release to thousands of news outlets. It is imperative to include back links to a relevant landing page as it will provide valuable traffic to your site. 

As always, when creating any type of content for your site, whether it is press releases, blogs, articles or general product information, it is important to maintain a consistent voice and strategy in order to maximize the potential for long-term exposure for your business. If you provide great content with optimization you should be able to yield good results for your press release campaign.

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Market research in regards to search is on the rise and it is more in-depth than keyword research. Companies are beginning to use market research and analytics to more thoroughly understand their customers’ search and browsing intent.  Businesses are integrating the findings into their Web design strategy to create a more focused environment for a site visitor’s behavior, often focusing on personalization to deliver a better overall experience.

Many companies focus on keyword research instead of market research. They believe the hype that has been generated by the large search engines in an effort to increase their advertising sales that all websites need to do is focus on their keyword research and they will succeed. Unfortunately, many companies do not understand that to fully understand your keyword research they need to understand market research. To be able to fully comprehend the desires of your target market and generate keywords that will spark their interest, companies need to understand their market which means they need to research not just the keywords that will work but the market as a whole. Companies need to remember that for all the advances in search, searches are conducted by humans and humans are complex individuals.

In the future, the focus will be on finding out what the consumer wants, understanding their mindset and figuring out how they will search for what they want. If sites are able to provide the content and information they are looking for, then they will be able to match their product mix to the consumer’s personal choices. This will be able to be analyzed through the use of statistics such as time-on-site, page views, repeat visits, click-through rates, etc. Companies also have the option of utilizing site search statistical software to help improve your analytical research. If the companies are able to attract their target consumer then they will also attract the attention of search engines.

Search optimization is in a state of transformation at the corporate level, which will change the way that consumers and companies view search and therefore your site. If anything has changed, it is that the bar has been set higher for Search Engine Optimization.

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These days, when the 40 and below crowd think about newspapers, they think of an older, leisurely mentality that no longer exists.  Newspapers have been tagged with an image that is antiquated and somewhat irrelevant. Something had to be done. Rather than become handicapped by this image, newspapers across the United States have decided to improve the view that people have of them. They didn’t do anything flashy or ostentatious and they didn’t eliminate the traditional newspaper. Instead, they provided their content online for a busy community to peruse at their leisure.

Newspapers decided that instead of forcing their consumer to go to the store and buy their product that they would offer it free online. Then you have to ask yourself, how do they make their money if people aren’t buying the newspaper they can get for free? Advertising. This same philosophy works for them online. Instead of selling print ads in their newspaper, they sell online ads on their website.

And their audience is responding – both in readership and in online purchases.

Another aspect that newspapers are tapping into is the blog market. Traffic for newspaper blogs for the top 10 online newspapers grew 210% from December 2005 through December 2006. If newspapers can get consumers to visit their blogs then they are likely to view the articles provided online. With the increase in traffic, newspapers have the opportunity to increase their advertising exposure and therefore are able to improve their advertising sales.

 

 

 

 

In a recent study by the Newspapers Association of America (NAA), it found that 82% of the people who visit newspaper sites on a daily basis are more likely to make purchases online. This study will help newspapers leverage their advertising campaign to corporations and enable them to increase their advertising business. To find out more information about online newspaper growth, you can visit www.digitaledge.org, the NAA’s digital-media analysis website and www.emarketer.com, a streamlined, e-business research solution.

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Why do you read a newspaper? Read a magazine? Watch television? Listen to the radio? The answer to all of these questions is content. That’s right…content. If advertisements were the only things offered in the newspapers or magazines you read, television stations you watch and radio stations you listen to, or if the articles, programs and music were always the same, would you continue to use these media devices? The answer is no. Since this is the case, wouldn’t the same thing apply to your website? To improve the optimization of your website you need to provide fresh, new content on a consistent basis.

Content brings to a website what articles bring to a newspaper and magazine. Without it newspapers and magazines would be empty and stale. This also applies to websites. When robust content is added to your website it will help to improve your page ranking and site visitations. Another of the benefits is that you won’t get one-time only site visitors but rather, people who will come back on a consistent basis to read and interact with the new content that has been created.

It’s great that content will dramatically help your visitor acquisitions and retention rates, but what happens if you’re fresh out of ideas and resources? That’s the perfect time to identify online copywriters and content contributors with tried and tested written skills. You’ll need people with industry knowledge, a willingness to learn or some sort of following (i.e. bloggers, columnists or industry experts) because the aim is that they develop compelling content about what you do and how it makes your customers lives better.

Once you realize the benefits of improving the content on your website and are actually able to initiate it, then you can send people to your website in a few different ways. There are different services that are offered on the Internet that can assist you in getting your information out to the general public. One of the ones you can use is www.digg.com, a blog site, which allows you to post articles on their website with a link back to your site. If you really need some inbound links and inexpensive coverage, www.payperpost.com is a fee based system used to hire authors to write articles about your website. www.sitepronews.com offers a slew of actionable information on how to get more traffic to your site the right way, and for the long-term.

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Advertising, whether it is for a brick-and-mortar store or an online website, can be one of the highest expenses for a company. This is true whether the company is advertising online or in traditional media. You need to think about a couple of different factors before you decide on the path you want your company to take and determine if it will fit into your budget. You need to have a well thought out plan that has been researched and your company has determined that it is the best course of action for the company.

Let’s take a look at online advertising and review some smart steps to take before your company jumps into the vast opportunity of online advertising.

One of the factors you need to decide on is: will your company create the advertising plan in-house or are you are going to outsource it? If your company already has an advertising department in-house, then you need to determine if they will be able to fulfill your online needs, or whether a new recruit with online experience would more efficiently accomplish your goals.

You might think that advertising is advertising, and it is to some extent, but the way you advertise in traditional media does not typically translate to online. For instance, if one of your traditional methods is local newspaper advertising, and you insert a discount coupon for the first 100 customers, that will not work online because your audience is suddenly global. Even online local newspaper advertisements are going to a larger audience which should be considered when you offer limited or local discounts.

If you’re going to outsource, you’ll want to consider several aspects before you decide on the scale of your project and the size and specialty of the company you will contract with.

Do you need a full-service agency that can handle paid and natural search optimization, vertical search, rich media and viral campaigns or a specialty firm focused on one discipline?  Budget may limit your choices somewhat.

Once you’ve determined the type of firm, interview several companies and once you present your first-stage goals and ideas, ask them how they’d strategize your online advertising campaign. Ask for referrals and talk to their customers with similar budgets. Query the agencies for their perspective and you’ll likely learn a lot in the interview process.

Look for flexibility and a firm that wants their customers to learn along the way. It is also important to remember that there will always be adjustments in your advertising campaign. You’ll need to be flexible too. The online marketplace is growing and morphing rapidly and everyone has to catch up or switch gears at some point. 

When you’re ready to make your decision, keep in mind that budget and shiny new methods are very important, but it’s always wise to align yourself with an agency that captures your vision and shares similar philosophies.  Steer clear of those that operate in a vacuum, expecting you to trust the methods as long as the outcome is profitable. The Internet is one place where word of mouth – both good and bad – spread faster than any other medium.

When you start looking for an online advertising company, there are some websites you can go to that will assist you in asking the questions that will help your business succeed. Some of these are: www.marketingprofs.com (free and inexpensive articles, case studies and seminars for online marketers), www.marketingexperiments.com (for learning what really works), and www.responsys.com (full marketing and email services lifecycle marketing).

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