Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are important online marketing techniques in today’s increasingly web-based world. They also come with fancy new terms that make the concepts even harder to understand when you don’t know the definitions. Hopefully we can help.

Here is a list of important SEM and SEO terms to get you started. More can be found on SearchEngineWatch.com, SEOglossary.com, and other similar sites.

Read more…

Articles, Online Marketing glossary, SEM, SEO, terms

From ArticlesBase.com

The Simon Group’s LOC-in™ philosophy advocates that unless a direct mail campaign incorporates a great List, Offer, and Creative, it can’t work. All three things need to be on target. And it turns out, we aren’t the only ones who think so!

Whether you are a seasoned email marketing veteran or brand new to the email marketing game, these three tips can help you get off to a good start.

One important thing to keep in mind about email marketing is that it is an ongoing learning process. What works right now for your target audience may not captivate them in the future. It is important that your email marketing strategy remain adaptable, so you can easily change your approach to ensure you always get the best possible results.

1. Build a High Quality Mailing List
Your mailing list or contact list is the backbone of your email marketing initiative. A good mailing list can lead to exceptional results and a bad mailing list can make you wonder if anyone is even reading your email. In an age where spam concerns are at an all-time high, it is even more important that you have a high quality opt-in (preferably double opt-in) mailing list to ensure that people do not classify your message as spam. These days most internet service providers assign the email marketer a reputation score. Even a few bad apples on your mailing list (people that call your message spam) can hurt your reputation.

A good mailing list is comprised of people who have requested to receive information from you and are eager to engage with the material you send. When you use your email marketing to send out a campaign to a high quality list, you will see your open rates soar as people are drawn to your email. This will ultimately lead to higher conversion rates and make email marketing even more effective for your company.

2. Select a Good “Email Subject” and a Well Known “From Name”
When your email marketing campaign lands in someone’s inbox, they can often only see the name of the sender and the subject. This makes those two pieces of the email marketing puzzle incredibly important. These two items can be the ‘make it or break it’ factor for whether your campaign is a success or not. An appealing subject line can pique your recipient’s interest so they open your email and read your content. A lackluster subject line can make people skim over your message or delete it without even seeing your first line of content.

It is also very important that you use a ‘from name’ that your recipients will recognize. If everyone knows your company name, but no one knows your personal name, then you should absolutely use your company name. Research consistently shows that people are far more likely to open an email from a business or organization they recognize as opposed to one they don’t.

3. Content is King: Make Your Email Worth Reading
These days, people are more pressed for time than ever before. With only 24 hours in each day, asking people to take the time to read your email in its entirety may actually be asking a lot. But, if you are going to expect that from your audience, then you better be prepared to deliver some compelling content. If your email is boring, dry, outdated or just plain useless, then your audience may not give you a second chance. Typically, emails with sub-par content see increased unsubscribe requests, while emails with compelling content experiences increased readership.

When you create your email, it is important that you think like the reader. What do they want to read? What topics are of interest to them? If you can answer those questions, then you can use your email marketing to create quality content that will keep people coming back for more.

An added benefit of email marketing is that there is no long lead time. This means your content can be very fresh. If a big story breaks in your industry in the morning, there is no reason you can’t include that in your email marketing campaign that afternoon. Timely content is often the most sought-after type of information, because it makes your email seem very cutting edge.

Overall, email marketing can be an incredible tool in your arsenal. When armed with the right email marketing, a good plan and a little creativity, you can reach out and communicate with your customers in a meaningful and effective way. As an added result, email campaigns will strengthen the bond between you and your customers.

Learn more about The Simon Group’s LOC-in™ philosophy.

Articles, Online Marketing Marketing

As the economy slows down, most companies are looking for ways to save money. The temptation to reduce marketing and advertising campaigns seems like a painless budget cut. However, businesses beware: marketing cuts can easily make your company invisible.

Today’s “Informed Consumer”
Especially in this age of the “informed consumer” where information is more readily available through multiple mediums (social networking, on Web sites, trade press, conferences), potential customers are smarter and expect more from businesses. Now is the time to flex your strategic muscles to impress customers: make them think about how they can use your products, not wonder if the products still exist.

During tough economic times, staying visible is key. While spending is down, everyone needs to work harder for dwindling sales opportunities. Cutting marketing campaigns is a sure way to advance your competitor’s sales. Instead, why not take advantage of their downturned marketing programs?

Smart, focused marketing campaigns will concentrate on cost-effective and creative methods to increase your exposure, keep you in touch with customers, and generate sales for your company, not your competitors.

History Repeats Itself
An analysis of 600 companies from 1980-1985 in a study of U.S. recessions by McGraw-Hill Research showed companies that maintained or increased their advertising during the 1981-1982 recession averaged significantly higher sales growth, both during the recession and for the following three years, than those that eliminated or decreased advertising.

If history is to repeat itself, as so often it does, it is the smart company that can take advantage of a downturn. The answer to a demanding economy should not be to hold back, but, at the every least, to maintain market presence to secure a head start on your competition when the economy strengthens.

What is Smart Marketing?
It’s important to tailor your marketing campaign for your specific strategies and objectives, especially in a down economy, to maximize your ROI. We know we can control our advertising message, but traditional space advertising can be expensive.

The good news is there are many cost-effective marcom options that do a great job of supplementing advertising.

Public relations provides the lowest cost per exposure and inquiry, and is an excellent means of getting broad exposure in several markets.<

Fractional ads and online opportunities also offer lower cost options that provide the frequency we need to be seen on a regular basis.

For a major branding campaign, bigger and brighter are always better – but in today’s world, an integrated marketing communications campaign that selects those tactics with the most cost-effective impact and that focuses on your real business needs, makes more sense than ever.

Learn more about The Simon Group’s PR strategies.

Learn more about The Simon Group’s advertising strategies.

Articles, Online Marketing Advertising, Marketing, PR

What Is RSS?
RSS (Rich Site Summary, initially Really Simple Syndication) is a relatively new technological advancement used by creative marketers as a format for syndicating news and the content of news-like sites. E-mail spam has ignited RSS adoption because RSS is 100% opt-in. With the use of RSS, marketers are feeding readers everything from special offers to product promotions without risking a trip to the junk-mail folder.

What Does an RSS Feed Contain?
RSS feeds are not only for disseminating news, but anything that can be broken down into separate items can be syndicated through RSS. This information may include:

• Recently changed pages of your website
• Technical support updates
• Product news
• Company announcements

An RSS feed contains a list of items identified by a link. When the user clicks on the link, the data associated with it will appear, conveying your company’s message to the viewer. RSS feeds typically include a title for the link as well as a description of the content. When compiling your RSS feed, it is important to use an eye-catching and interesting description of the full content. This will gain greater attention and will encourage your readers to click through to view the full article and subscribe to your feed.

How Do People Read RSS?
Essentially, RSS users download a program that accepts information from web sites that provide a “feed.” The feed is displayed as a headline along with a short summary and a link to the web page where the content is located. Feeds can be displayed in web browsers or, similar to some e-mail programs, in a small box on the corner of the user’s desktop. Since RSS is opt-in only, those who subscribe to your RSS feed are interested in what your company has to offer; therefore, it is a great marketing tool to inform prospects of the latest technologies and newest products or services you have to offer.

How Can My Company Develop an RSS Feed?

• First, decide what information to syndicate as an RSS feed; company news,
      product announcements and articles make compelling RSS content.
• Next, you need to prepare an XML file. For a sample, go to www.usatoday.com,
      click on “Add USAToday.com RSS feeds” at the bottom of the page and then click on
      one of the topic links.
• To get RSS aggregators to pick up your feeds you must submit your site to
      search engines such as Google or Yahoo.
• For a detailed overview on creating an RSS feed and an XML file visit:
      searchenginewatch.com
• Or call us and we’ll do it for you!

Why Should My Company Use RSS?
RSS feeds keep your audience constantly updated and allow users to view your content without having to go to your website. This may sound like a bad idea. However, in today’s fast paced world, anything that saves people time and frustration is much appreciated. There are many websites to which people intend to return, but often forget about, even those that are bookmarked. With an RSS feed, the content comes directly to them, meaning that your company can be more confident about successfully getting its message to its intended receiver. RSS is not only used as an information tool, but a way to reach prospective customers as well.

Many sophisticated content providers are already utilizing RSS feeds to promote their products or services to the public. RSS should be adopted by companies not only to increase the flow of information to their customers, but to reach potential customers. Companies wishing to be remembered as developers of advanced technology should make use of RSS. Adapting to the most advanced, yet simple way of receiving news and announcements, allows potential customers to see that your company is on the cutting edge of technology.

Articles, Online Marketing Marketing

From searchenginewatch.com

Many search engine optimization (SEO) clients are focused on receiving ranking reports for their keywords as a major deliverable associated with a properly managed SEO campaign. However, ranking reports do not mean nearly as much as they once did. Search engine rankings change regularly, are different on various data centers, and will not generate traffic to a website, much less generate leads and sales, especially is a site ranks well for keywords that are not often searched.

A better approach to SEO is focusing on analytics and measurement of SEO much like they would try to measure any form of marketing effort. Is the SEO program generating qualified traffic to the site? Is the SEO effort generating phone calls? Is the SEO effort delivering a solid ROI (for what is being spent on these efforts, either in internal resources or outsourcing)?

Try to concentrate on solid keyword research, a competitive analysis, a site structure analysis, and analytics reports that are tracking what actually matters. The competitive analysis is one of the most overlooked aspects of a successful SEO effort. Here are some basic steps to better use your competitive analysis:

Determine Who Your Competitors Are

Many CMOs are quick to list off a number of competitors. In the SEO landscape, competitors are “keyword competitors”– websites that are ranking for keywords your company wants to be found for. A company that makes “signs” (banners, billboards, etc.) could be competing with the movie “Signs” starring Mel Gibson. The movie and the manufacturer are not traditional competitors, but rather they are now competing for the same keyword.

How to Compete for Various Keywords

After determining keyword competitors, the next step is to determine the factors that help the other websites to rank over your company’s website. While there may be numerous factors, some consistent factors to look for are:

Age of Domain:
Many people getting into business on the web for the first time do not know this simple rule. Buying an aged domain saves a great deal of time, especially if the domain also already has links pointing to it in your industry. A typical trend on the first page of results of a keyword search is a page of older domains. Regardless of why it happens (if it just took that long to generate enough quality links/content or otherwise), an aged domain boosts rank.

Page Indexed:
A website deep with quality content. If all of your individual pages linked to your homepage are indexed, more links will match your keyword search for one website, boosting your rank.

Linking:
Through an easy “site: www.sitename.com” search on Yahoo, the indexed paged and links indexed for any website being analyzed are easily viewed. By clicking on the “Inlinks” link and using the drop-down menu to select “except from this domain,” the internal links of a website can be discounted in your analysis to find the number of separate sites you are competing against.

By following these three simple steps, you can gain a greater insight into what it takes to rank for the keywords your company is interested in ranking for, plus help you better understand the tactics that you will need to employ to compete with those that are showing up in the search engine results page (SERP).

Articles, Online Marketing Marketing, SEO