2013 Digital Road Map 

WSI Monthly Webinar Series

Our first webinar this year is a strategic review of the Digital Road Map to a Successful Journey.  Each month WSI presents a webinar for our clients and prospects that focuses on key areas of Digital Marketing and Web Presence Optimization.  January is a great time to make sure your strategies are aligned and you are poised for success.  

Husam Jandal hosted an excellent session covering "The Road Map to a Successful Digital Journey for Your Business." Husam has 12 years in the Digital industry, has a new book "Digital Gold" on the Amazon top 100 list, is certified by Google and others, is a fellow WSI Internet Consultant and is based in Tornoto, Canada.

He presents this information in an easy to understand and remember form so please take a few minutes to look at the presentation video.  My favorite part is the Royal Family of Digital.
If you don't have time to watch the entire video, then check out the executive summary.  Executive Summary The Road Map to Digital

Social Media Today has a great article on the 3 Biggest Ways  to Waste Money on Social Media

 #1 Money Waster: Squandering Your Offline Resources

This means that you are not using your promotional dollars strategically.  One of the best ways to grow a social network is to funnel people from existing sources.  Don't waste your hard earned dollars AND visitors promoting another platform like Yelp or Angie's List.  This does not mean that you don't use these services, just that your control your destiny. 

A good call to action looks like this

 #2 Money Waster: Community Management Free-For-All

According to Marketing Pilgrim most large companies in the US have 178 corporate-owned social media accounts.   Small companies are not far behind and often employees create profiles without ever telling anyone at the company.  Do you know what the message is?  Do you know who is managing these for you?

 

 #3 Money Waster: "Facebook Double Taxation"

This applies not just to Facebook but they seem to be the largest culprit at the moment as they are trying to generate income.  It works like this:  you have spent a tremendous amount of resources driving traffic to Facebook and gaining Fans and now Facebook is only showing your post to <17% of your Fans but will promote to all your Fans for a fee.  Moral of the story:  Don't throw hard earned money down the drain by investing in a closed system that you don't own or control.

This is true with other platforms such as Tumblr, Stumbleupon, Scoop.it etc.  If you don't own it, you won't control it in the long run. 

 

Keep an Eye on the Future with Digital Strategies for 2013

I was fortunate to speak at the Nashville CABLE B2B meeting last week about Digital Strategies and Trends.  My top 5 were:

Then on Tuesday this week, my friend Baltej Gill, gave a webinar about the strategies to watch in 2013.  He built his discussion on the following:

10 interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week ...

econsultancy.com11/9/12

Here's a round up of some of the most interesting digital marketing stats we've seen this week.

Silverpop Highlights Key Digital Marketing Trends for 2013 in New eBook - Sacramento Bee

Silverpop Highlights Key Digital Marketing Trends for 2013 in New eBookSacramento BeeATLANTA, Nov. 14, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- The way marketers communicate with buyers is evolving. Today's buyer is in control more than ever before, conducting the ma ...

Lyris Research Unveils How Digital Marketers Are Enhancing Customer Value ... - Equities.com

Lyris Research Unveils How Digital Marketers Are Enhancing Customer Value ...Equities.com15, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lyris, Inc. (OTCBB:LYRI), a global provider of digital marketing solutions, today announced the findings of its 2012 Digital Optimiz ...

A Guide to Google+, Today’s Hottest New Social Network

The official slogan for Google+ is “real-life sharing—rethought for the web”. Google+, is a social network operated by Google Inc, with integration across a number of Google products, including Google Local and Google Profiles. (Notice that it is called social network not social media - the difference is critical) Started in June 2011 as a test version, its popularity has grown by leaps and bounds. Google+ notices are posted inside users’ Gmail inbox, so it’s 100% real-time Gmail deliverability. 

When you write about a subject on Google+ and your circle friends 'Google' that subject, your comments and links are displayed automatically on page one of Google. For example, if I write a Google+ post about Online Reputation and my friend Sal Googles "Online Reputation" she will see my G+ post as one of her organic results.  No back-linking, no on-site optimization, just free traffic. All these factors make it a social media platform that is likely to stay on the scene and gain increased favor.  

What’s So Special About Google Plus?

One key element of Google+ is a focus on targeted sharing within subsets of your network or social group (or what Google calls ‘Circles’).

 Also within Google+ is a section specifically for multimedia. Google+ includes an image editor, privacy options and sharing features.

Business Blogs—Changing the Way the World Sees You

A business blog today is much more than an online journal for companies to share news and views. Yes, it’s true that blogs can transform your business but more than that, an effective blog can change the way your customers, employees and associates perceive your business. As thought leadership becomes the leading objective of your blog, a growing audience starts to recognize the distinctive value your company brings to the table.

 Your business blog can truly transform the way the world sees you—and the best part is, you are in control to shape and nurture this image for greater profitability, steady growth and dominant leadership in the competitive landscape.             

 What a Blog Can Do For Your Business

 Business blogs are an excellent corporate tool to share a company's expertise, offer a perspective on the industry, i.e. trends and developments, build additional web traffic, and connect with potential customers. Blogs are popular with online audiences because they offer fresh new voices and opinions. Business blogs can increase SEO ranking by on-page optimization, off-page optimization or link building, content creation and internal linking.

•  A blog lets you reach a bigger audience

• With a blog, you can establish yourself as an expert in your industry 
• Gives you free publicity through search engine results pages
• Can bring more traffic to your website
• It’s another way to interact with your customers
• Makes your website look more active and content rich (great for SEO)
• A blog shows the human side of your business, and that you aren’t just an anonymous Internet entity.
• Gives you a medium to promote new products and offers feedback / reactions quicker than other methods.

 Blog your way to a successful business

 How best can you use a business blog to enhance your online presence?

•  Social Media. The business blog can be used to complement media and traditional marketing by incorporating social links such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

• Promotions. If you run frequent promotions, you can use a blog to highlight them. Remember to make offers that match audience wants/needs.
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). If you get a lot of inquiries and comments via your website, you can post the most common questions on a blog.
• News. The most common use for business blogs is news, usually about topics relevant to the industry and to the company.
• Photo Blog. A daily photo and a short description can be quite compelling for your customers.
• Contests. Daily contests and games are a great promo on a blog. They are fun, and bring your customers back for more.
• ‘What's New’ Pages. If you add new articles, information, or products regularly to your website, it can be difficult for your customers to find out what's new. A quick blog entry can show them what's updated on your site.
• What's Coming? You can use a blog to pique interest in future products or projects. With a “Comments” feature on your blog, you can invite feedback and perhaps testimonials too.

 Do’s and Don’ts for business blogging

 Ultimately, even though increasing organic traffic is important, for a blog to succeed and last long, it is more important to write clear, compelling content for human readers.

 Here are some do’s and don’ts for effective business blogging:

 Do’s

• Add links within your blog posts pointing back to other important pages that will help your rankings.
•  Make sure the information you provide on your business blog is meaningful to customers and updated frequently, so they have a reason to return.
•  Engage visitors in a dialogue. Filter out spam and profanity, but encourage comments, views and opinions without moderating them too much.
•  Every blog article and post is an SEO opportunity. You can’t realistically optimize your site for every long tail search term, but you can certainly target niche keyword phrases. Each keyword or phrase should be within the first sentence or two of your blog.

 Don’ts

•  Blog posts ought to be useful to your site visitors. Don’t just talk about your products; instead offer useful, free information that people can use. Blog articles garner links because they are interesting, informative, and not overly corporate or sales-focused.
•  Don’t keep using corporate rhetoric, acronyms and jargon that only a few will comprehend. Use common terms, keep the sentences grammatically simple, short and concise.
•  Don’t put off regular posts and updates. Search engines will periodically crawl websites looking for new and updated content, so blogging consistently ensures fresh content on your site.
•  Don’t try to micro-manage your brand image or keep consumers in the dark. Be confident that transparency is the best policy, and customers will reward your candor.

 

Online and offline businesses alike can benefit from starting a blog to offer their products and services to a wider audience, increase their traffic, and generate more leads and sales. Contact Us to leverage the opportunity and start your business blog today.

Leverage Online Customer Ratings & Reviews

Buyers are calling the shots today and ‘word of mouth’ reviews matter. A negative review on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube can cost your company customers. More and more buying decisions today are based on online reviews. Your existing customers are a great marketing resource, because their words of praise about your products or services have a major psychological influence on prospective buyers.

 Reviews and Ratings Can Make the Difference

 Online shoppers say that reviews and ratings influence their purchase decisions more than any other factor. Here’s how:

 

• When people are looking to purchase a new product, visit a new restaurant, or hire someone's services, what do they do? Most people search on Google, Amazon, Yelp, or even Facebook or Twitter. However, when presented with multiple options, it is reviews that often influence the final buying decision. If product A has many positive reviews and product B has negative reviews (or few to no reviews), it's a given that most people will go with product A.

 

• Interesting reviews that go ‘viral’ are re-posted from blog to blog, site to site, and other social media platforms. This boosts your online reputation and provides more marketing exposure than any ad campaign can ever do.

 

• Search engines reward websites that continually provide fresh, useful content with a higher ranking. Consequently, the more reviews you post to your website or on social media pages, the higher your page ranking, and the better your brand’s online reputation. Even negative reviews can add to that count! Include some negative reviews to foster authenticity, since online shoppers tend to distrust content that features only positive reviews.

 

Optimize your Google Places page to Increase Business

 Google Places pages are available through Google Maps and Google Earth, and show a location, address, maps and directions, along with potentially-accurate information like business hours and categorization.

 No More Third Party Reviews

 Recently, Google Places has removed third party review snippets. The new layout emphasizes reviews only from Google users and no longer shows review content from third party sites like Yelp, Menupages or Booking.com. Removing these from the Places pages has had a big impact on local SEO.

 To encourage users to share their feedback and improve Places pages, Google has added a button for uploading photos and made the button for writing reviews more prominent. Rating and review counts reflect only those that have been written by fellow Google users.

 Use these new features of Google Places pages to build your reputation, improve visibility and direct potential customers to your website, landing page or e-commerce portal.

 Connect Your Business with Local Clients—Optimize Your Google Places Page

 Google Places is the most cost-effective way to market your local business. Here are some tips:

•  Google Places only lists seven businesses per search with its red place markers marked A through G. One way to get into the top seven is to encourage customer reviews because the more reviews you get, the more likely you’ll land in the top seven.

• Optimize your page for keywords that could show your page higher in the rankings. Your Google Places page should include as many search terms as possible.
• Google needs data. Add pictures, videos and more details to your Google Places page.
• Make updates to your Places page. Google loves fresh content, so just by changing the main areas of your Google Places page, you can improve rankings.

Solicit and Respond to Reviews

 Encouraging Reviews

 Good reviews can be difficult to come by since usually the only people motivated to write a review are the ones with a negative experience. While you can’t incentivize reviews (Google calls this a conflict of interest), you might try some of the following:

•  Mention that you appreciate getting reviews. Request them in email newsletters, blog posts, and posts on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

• Incorporate a call to action to review your business when you send out email reminders or updates.
• Reward frequent and serious reviewers with ‘star’ status, discounts or run a ‘best review’ contest.
• Put a call to action (and link) asking for a review on your website.
• When customers make an online purchase, ask them if they’d like to post a review.
• Place links to all the major review sites on your company website, preferably with a graphical link that includes the logo of the review/directory site.
• Make the process as easy as possible, provide a link to your Places page and give detailed instructions on what they need to do to leave a review.

 Manage negative reviews and ratings to your advantage

 There is always the odd customer who will never be happy. Accept criticism and manage it effectively. Doing nothing is not an option. You should respond online, join the conversation, and manage negative feedback. This will show prospects that you care about your customers.

•  Take the issue seriously. Your prospects will be reading your reply, and realize that when someone has a problem, your business will hear them. 

• Respond with an apology if your business was indeed at fault and communicate your resolution to the situation.
• Describe how future customers will not have this issue. This is a golden opportunity to market your business.
• Although you can’t always fix every issue (sometimes you don’t want to), your offer to fix a reviewer’s problem is a great marketing investment. In the response, suggest that they contact you directly so you can try to help them.

 Responding to negative reviews provides a brilliant opportunity to immediately and effectively douse a potential fire and also provide customer service that may turn a disgruntled complainer into your biggest fan.

 Contact us to leverage customer reviews and ratings to boost your online marketing strategy.

I have fallen in Love again for the first time in too many years to count. 

Pinterest is the object of my affection and you can see why on this webinar that I did for my friends and colleagues.  Kind of a slow start but then it kicks up some fun.  Let me know if you have any questions.

We knew it would happen and now Google will begin integrating your world into your search options. With a Google+ profile you will be able to see what the people and places in your world think and do.  Google calls this access to “your web.” So instead of all the public information that is already available to everyone searching via Google,  you will see information that you or your circle of friends posted into Google’s new social network.

Let's see how it works... 

 

 

So Google is bringing your larger world to your search results. For example, iIf I am looking for a restaurant in Atlanta, GA my search results will now show me that my friend Jazmine wrote a review for Pasta Vino Atlanta and I might like to go there.  And it will show the images that Will Miller posted for the same restaurant.  It might also show that Sarah has checked in here often. Is this useful? I think so for some searches and not for others.  This is where you have a toggle option to change from social search to total search.  Genius?

Google’s new search tools will only pull you further in, ensuring that their social engine is top of mind for your searches. As Google sees it, you’re getting more relevant results, because this is the information and the people you choose to connect with in the first place. 

Google+ also gives you many opportunities to expand your network and explore beyond your friends and family.  I personally can go into Google+ and be lost for days!  Check it out and add me to your circles (Please!) and on a good day, we could hang out.

If you want more information on how Google+ is integrating into Google search, please check out the article on Mashable.

 

Mobile internet usage is set to overtake desktop Internet usage by 2014, but more importantly, the way people use their mobile devices is very different. This represents both a huge threat and huge opportunity for Internet marketers and companies willing to be forward thinking.  It is only those that can truly appreciate how the Internet will be consumed via these various new mobile devices that will prosper. Here are just some of the ways Internet (and search) usage is likely to change.

• Searching by typing. Using a traditional keyboard to enter a search query into Google is usually easier and quicker than doing the same on a mobile device. It is highly likely therefore that users will search for shorter keyword strings on mobile devices, or rely more heavily on tools such as auto correct. This will influence the way sites optimize their content and carry out their link building.
• Voice search. In contrast to searching by typing, there has been a rise in popularity of using voice search on mobile devices such as Google or Yahoo search apps, or Apple iPhone’s Siri for example. Not only can this make searching quicker and easier, but it also changes what is searched for.  Because people tend to search differently when speaking than typing.  For example, you may type-search “best netbooks”, but voice-search “what are the best netbooks available.” This is likely to influence a site’s keyword targeting.
• Search by image. Tools such as Google Goggles allow users to very quickly search the Web using images on their phone or photos. Applications of this technology include taking a picture of a book in a store to find the best price, or using the picture of a restaurant front to find customer reviews. Ensuring your content and imagery are optimized for this form of search is likely to become increasingly important.
• Industry trends. As mobile Internet data shows, usage levels are not necessarily equal across all industries. Travel, for example, is one area where growth in mobile Internet (and search) is increasing at pace, and is therefore likely to be a strong focus for this market moving forwards.
• Social usage.  91% of mobile Internet access is to socialize, compared to 79% on desktops. If Internet marketers haven’t been listening to the “search turning social” talk of recent years, then they certainly should be now. If they still cannot engage with individuals and groups on a social level they will be missing out on a massive proportion of mobile Internet usage.
• Location based or Geo-targeting. Not only do a number of apps utilize a geo-location to enhance their functionality, so do search engines to show localized search results. If you hadn’t noticed, mobile devices tend to be used in multiple locations, therefore search results are highly likely to fluctuate more on mobile devices. Making sure your website’s “local” offering is up to scratch should be towards the top of your priority list.
• Immediacy. At the recent World Travel Market in London, a Google spokesperson revealed stats from ebooker.com saying that 70% of mobile hotel bookings were same-day check in. They also showed stats from easyJet stating 38% of mobile bookings were for flights departing within 10 days, compared to only 13% from desktops. This clearly shows a more immediate-requirement trend in mobile usage, for travel market at least, and this certainly might influence the kinds of content/offers that sites show to their mobile visitors.

While it is true that QR codes are not always used properly, like when you scan one and are redirected to a non-mobile-formatted web page, and there are many that are used inappropriately. This is a missed opportunity not a condemnation of the capabilities.

Mobile Marketing Isn’t a Just a QR Code

As developers and users expand their use of mobile we will all learn just how powerful mobile marketing can be.  There is so much more that could be done for your business when it comes to how people interact with you via their mobile devices. The nuances and opportunities are vast, and the ability to drive off the path and crash your would-be customer off the path to your door are almost equally big.

First, if you have a QR code pointing to a non-mobile-friendly URL, what’s your hope? If you deliver someone to a page that requires they squint, scroll, and otherwise manipulate content in an uncomfortable way, that’s the first experience that person will have with your company. Second, if you are simply using QR codes to redirect people to a URL, you’re missing a lot of opportunities for prospecting, for data delivery, for better service of the customer.

How cool would it be to have a QR code that delivers different recipes or food suggestions to go with a certain wine, broken down by region, such that folks in Boston might see a New England Clam Chowder recommendation and people in San Antonio might see a Firehouse Chili recipe. Depending on the systems you have in place, you can do a lot of really interesting work for your prospect that goes well beyond sending someone to your site.  QR codes offer a quick and targeted way of delivering to us the information we want without the headaches of fat finger searching.  Who doesn't want that?

And That’s Just the Beginning?

How much of your website traffic is coming from mobile browsers. (If you can’t answer that question, reconsider your web management technology, and/or the person in charge of telling you that answer). If you’re like most companies, that number is up significantly and climbing. What are the top holiday gifts this year? Smart phones, tablet computers, and thinner laptops. Where do you want them to point those devices? Towards your business.

If you’ve not built out your mobile marketing, that’s something to consider budgeting for in 2012, and now would be the time to start working on it. We would be happy to talk with you about that, to see what you could be doing to convert more sales via your mobile channel.

 

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