Web Marketing To Company Goals

For years now most people would agree that the Internet is here to stay. It’s not a fad. It has legitimately redefined the way people communicate and how companies advertise. Yet many small-to-medium businesses remain completely disconnected from knowing how to effectively approach the web as a marketing vehicle.

Even to this day, many businesses view the Internet like a planet in some foreign universe where the laws of physics are completely different from our own. They wrongly impose a distinction between "running their business" and "dealing with the Internet." And it is precisely this assumed separation that stymies so many companies in figuring out their approach at the most basic levels.

Almost without question all small-medium businesses now accept the Internet as a necessary challenge. Yet many companies continue to miss the forest for the trees. I’ve said it before, and it keeps ringing true the more I help clients develop their Internet strategies: The devil is most assuredly in the details. All too often, businesses inadvertently leapfrog themselves into the thick of branches, leaves, and bramble, without giving any attention to what tree they are standing under, or where on the map this forest even stands.

It’s not that the details aren’t important—we must tend them in order to grow and refine tactics. But a business must always be answering more broad questions when it decides where to forge ahead, when to cut, and what to cultivate. How does the current decision serve the ultimate strategic goal of the company? Tying Internet strategy to the foundational measures of a company itself is often missed completely when approaching the online space.

There is, however, a fundamental aspect of Internet marketing that ties the core goals of a business to its online efforts. Use it, and it can clear confusion and guide decisions:

Hold Your Internet Strategy Accountable.

It’s not enough to re-build a website on the desire to improve your company’s image. You must develop an approach which will foster the measurement of this goal as it relates to the metrics your company uses to track success overall. How will your online efforts be tied back to serving the company’s bottom line?

To figure this out, start with one question: Six to twelve months from now, how are you going to know if your Internet strategy is working? The answer to that question reveals exactly which slivers of data will be meaningful to you, and can guide your content development and user path architecture.

Manage your web strategy like you would an employee in your company. Set goals, brainstorm tactics, and don’t be afraid to change direction when needed. Business on the Internet is deeply intertwined with the business most people think stands so separately from it. It follows and responds to the same guideposts. Imposing accountability is a key step in succeeding online, and it can clear the misconception that the Internet is happening on another planet.

Facing Social Media ROI

Are you struggling to find ways to justify social media marketing? Do you dread having to find a way to respond to business leadership as they demand to see a direct correlation between all this Twitter/Facebook hocus pocus and an actual return on investment? Do you wish that they could just see the inherent value that you know is there--the power of building human relationships with your prospects, the strength in cultivating an audience around your brand, the ability to demonstrate your company's thought leadership to the world? Why don't the bean counters appreciate the wonder and opportunity that social media represents for what it is, and leave it at that? The allure alone shows enough potential in social media to justify entire rooms full of practitioners forging ahead on the frontline of the socialsphere, right?

Wrong. In fact, those bean counting business leaders have it absolutely right. That they are concentrating on the bottom line is not an indication that they don't "get" social media. On the contrary, many absolutely see the potential and the need to advance into the space. But they are also rightly looking to hold social media accountable as a sound business practice. You shouldn't need much convincing that if you want to successfully implement social media for a company, you had better get yourself firmly on the side of those business leaders who pay the bills.

Even if you do manage to razzle-dazzle them with what they perceive as smoke and mirrors enough to let you get started, you are only digging a hole for yourself when the unavoidable happens. No matter if it's a big or small company, eventually the entire social media effort is going to have to be equated as a line item on someone's P&L (Profit and Loss) sheet. You had better take steps to make sure social media is seen as a legitimate cost center. Your ability to see social media through the eyes of your boss will actually help you tremendously.

It becomes your challenge to walk the line between the difficult to measure human components of social media and the financial realities of business. On one side you have the intangible wins that slowly grow over time as you cultivate your web presence. These are the true core building blocks of social media which come from "doing it right." On the other side you have the reality that you are actually doing this entire thing for gains that help your company grow. And in business, growth is going to end up as a trend line on a spreadsheet. Get comfortable with that. It's okay.

So now the question is "How?" How can we force the square peg of social media into the very round hole of business ROI? There are countless paths to doing this, but let's look at one that is staring us in the face. Let's appreciate social media for something it undeniably is--a critical Search Engine Optimization element.

With universal search now an implicit component in all the major engines, their ability to serve up a broad result set of authoritative content is greatly enhanced. Now the strides you take into the multimedia dimension of content creation (most all of which is social media driven) can increase traffic to your web presence all the more.

You probably already track the traffic coming to your site and evaluate the results of that traffic whether by cost per lead or some other conversion metric. This gives you an immediate benchmark over which social media can be layered. At the very least, without having to fashion some entirely new measurement dashboard, you can start tracking social media's impact on generating quality traffic to your site. A strong twitter account could easily increase targeted deep-linked traffic into a site by a significant percentage. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Other content types and platforms can also influence the volume of traffic you already measure. And where traffic is being tied to ROI (how can it not be?), it gives you a legitimate starting point for evaluating social media's impact on your cost of conversion.

A twelve month goal to see if social media can increase web traffic while potentially driving down the cost per conversion is a legitimate reality. In your business leader's eyes, this probably fits into a known metric and takes a bit of the mystery out of social media too.

There are numerous ways to tie social media into the established measuring sticks at play in any company. SEO is just one of them. The fact is this: there is every reason to see social media marketing from a business perspective. It doesn't change the fact that doing "good" social media marketing still requires authenticity, human dialogue, and genuine interaction. Doing those well represents a whole slew of challenges in and of themselves. The bigger challenge is in knowing how to serve both sides of the measuring stick while never letting the ball drop on either side.

Trouble Ahead With Real-Time Search

Google announced the roll out of real-time search results into its algorithm yesterday, solidifying what most anyone should understand by now—real-time content is a commodity and is here to stay. Now that Google has joined the ranks of search engines succumbing to the obvious shift in user intent, the debate is over and we can get down to planning just how we will monetize this new facet of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). How to SEO for it? How to advertise within it? And how to potentially turn everyone off on these results for good.

I'm afraid that with real-time results finally making it into the "big leagues," traditional search marketing may steamroll over this authentic user-generated content only to devalue it completely out of authenticity. Authentic user-generated content has turned the search engine world on its ear. Now the engines are combating this by layering these elements into their results. This may be a dangerous day for all parties concerned, and I feel the potential to kick the user experience in the shins is as strong as the excitement surrounding a significantly stellar transformation of the search space.

But rather than brooding over the cloudy visions within the crystal ball of search monetization and the potential to crush authenticity, something far more immediate seems to be ringing a warning bell in my ears—the complete disconnect between getting authoritative, trustworthy results from a search engine along side the newest, freshest stream of conscious flowing out of the gigantic mouth of social media.

While I am all for real-time search results and their ability to keep me up to date on current events and trends, there seems little means for a search engine to evaluate the good, bad, or indifferent when deciding which particular blip of micro-blog to serve me on its page one results. And I have little interest in simply seeing the most recent real-time "anything" being said on anything I might search. There isn't any metric available to adequately evaluate the "authority" of a micro-blogging twitter user. Don't be fooled. It isn't the number of followers. It isn't the balance of followers to follow-ees. And it isn't even the ratio of user lists you show up on. Real-time search results are pretty much just that—the latest spew out of the cloud of "current" content. I'm less interested in the "most current" stream and more in the "most valuable" current stream. Finding that subset takes some significant self-filtering in the search space.

Searchers segment themselves nicely between those doing research, those doing commercial buyer activities, and those looking for the latest news. Unfortunately, when I search "Britney Spears" it isn't really clear to the engine which of those three searchers I am. Is the solution to serve me everything? I see myself needing some massive lever I can flip before doing a search that states my intent to the engine before I hit search. That way I don't have to suffer through those pockets of content for which I have no interest.

Yes, it's cool that engines are now going to give me a slice of photos, videos, tweets, products, web pages, and blog posts whenever I go surfing, but is an all-in-one solution SERP really the best SERP I could ask for? I doubt it. I don't discount that this is a major upgrade. Ranking web pages alone is far from a complete user experience picture. The engines' evolution provides confirmation that there is value in diversifying the results page. But might it be becoming too homogenized at the same time?

Might real-time search be truly valuable only when I can have it show me results from my circle of trusted content sources? As it stands, while exposure to the very most recent chatter about worldly subjects is useful, I'm not sure it is nearly filtered enough for my page one results on a search engine, at least not all the time. User generated content is too susceptible to being over run with unqualified rambling. It's already impossible to sift through my own twitter network stream. Imagine when search results are showing the entire world's stream on page one all the time. Ugh.

2010 is going to be a very interesting year in Search Marketing to be sure.

The ABBs of Social Media - Always Be Branding

One of the oldest acronyms in the sales industry is ABC (Always Be Closing). It's an easy mantra-like reminder that everything you do in a sales relationship comes down to closing the deal. For businesses (and individuals too) in the social media space there is a similar acronym to be followed: ABB (Always Be Branding). It's a softer version than the sales-minded mantra, but no less critical. If you forget this one, you could be risking more than losing a single deal.

Two things the Internet doesn't do: sleep or forget. If you and your company are to successfully develop a web presence, these are two factors you must contend with regularly. As you develop content, know that what you create is always going to be out there, and will forever make up the foundation of your online reputation. So it is important to always consider what you do, what you say and how you say it. Social media is continually shining something of a spotlight on your professional appearance, like the paparazzi lurking behind every parked car and tree waiting to snap a picture. Your social network is always watching.

While authenticity is a key to creating an effective social media voice, there is no denying that what you're doing every day is branding, plain and simple. Through your authenticity you are promoting yourself and your company. However, the social media "sell" is a different beast than that of the traditional sales environment. After all, your win in social media comes from being regarded as a valuable content asset—being someone that others appreciate for the added value you give.

The thing to remember is that this is happening whether you're thinking of it or not. So you'll need to take some precautionary measures to prevent missteps. The best way to accomplish this is by first establishing a content strategy. Having a plan will help you stay on course, and it need not take an inordinate amount of effort to create.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1—Adhere to a short list of goals. As you create any outbound content, make sure it is serving the grand vision of your efforts. This could be to build product awareness, to demonstrate expertise, to improve customer service relations, or any other key driver to your efforts. Before you hit the "publish" button make sure the content is serving your objectives in some way. This ought not get in the way of your producing a conversational rapport with your audience, but rather, ensure that this direct chit-chat doesn't veer off course.

2—Plan for the future. Without getting bogged down so much that it prevents creativity, take a bit of time to structure your efforts from day to day, or week to week. Based on your goals you should be able to decide on the subject matter of your next half dozen blog posts. You can also let your goals drive your decisions to participate in certain forums or groups.

3—Limit the cooks in the kitchen. As best you can, try to control your content outlets to as few people as possible. Make sure these people fully grasp the overarching strategy. It is understandably different from organization to organization, but it will be most effective if the strategists are the actual content producers. In the cases where efforts are mounted on a larger scale, it will become critical to produce comprehensive guidelines that communicate the strategy to the team that is producing content and sets measures and check points to ensure that content stays focused.

Through it all, keep the ABB mantra running in your head. It will safeguard both your reputation and the authenticity with which you build it.

Tending Your Social Media Garden

What is that deafening silence you hear? It’s probably what looks like the complete lack of results coming from the social media efforts you just launched. If you and your company have recently decided to plow into the world of Communitising you may be somewhat concerned by the complete absence of reciprocal energy flowing back your way.

There was no doubt a giant flurry of activity and excitement related to your entrance into the social media arena--studying the space, creating accounts, uploading logos, perhaps even revamping a website. Now that you are there, it may be dumbfounding how utterly under-appreciated you and your treasure trove of industry specific wisdom appears. But hang in there. The world of social media mimics the real word in ways that defy what you might commonly expect from any other sort of online media blitz. The thing to remember is that, like many things in life, developing a strong and beneficial social media presence takes time, patience, and continual attention.

Think of it like starting a garden. Everything you did up until the moment you started posting, blogging and tweeting was akin to all the prep that goes into planting a garden. You shop for seeds. You turn the soil. You add fertilizer. You plant everything. You put little markers down so you’ll know what springs up where. You water. And you wait. And you wait some more. Not to point out the obvious pun, but creating a potent web presence is very much like watching grass grow.

The most trying time comes immediately after you finish all the heavy lifting of starting the garden. You can’t see the seeds under the dirt germinating. You can’t see the little tendrils and sprouts. There is no window into the magic happening within each seed. You stare at the dirt and wonder if it just needs more water. It does. In fact, it needs a lot of water. So you have to keep at it. It will take days (weeks, really), but eventually many of the seeds will produce shoots emerging from the soil and you will gain confirmation that your garden has actually been growing this whole time.

There will be plenty to deal with as your social media plants start to mature. Plenty to measure, prune, and harvest. This garden can easily take a year or more to fully appreciate and quantify back into other parts of your business. For now, know that your instincts were dead on when you decided to plant in the first place.

Even if you feel like you are socializing in a vacuum, keep at it. Continue producing content related to your passion. Eventually it is this passionate content which will lead the community to you. The first days are the hardest days.

Trusting PageRank

Earlier this week Google removed PageRank from its Webmaster Tools. That’s the 0 to 10 scale you can also see in your Google Toolbar that reflects a page’s “link popularity,” or authority--an indicator Google believes is overvalued by practitioners of optimization.

This turn of events has caused a mighty stir in the SEO community and PageRank has received quite a bashing through it all. “Who needs it?” “Only losers rely on it.” “PageRank is for grandmas.” And, all the while folks continue to admit that PageRank is a critical measure in optimization just the same.

There’s no denying that PageRank is one of the quintessential book covers by which everyone judges a site. It’s not likely to disappear from the collective conscious any time soon. Why?

Whether we call it a critical line in every rank report or reduce it to a kindergarten toy, the PageRank stat is the quickest path of insight into the way Google tries to reflect the real world around us. It attempts to provide an algorithmic representation of how much we can trust the content we encounter on a given web page. It’s the Google algorithm’s goal to be a searcher’s valued guide to the online world. If Google thinks you’re the bees knees, them maybe I’m safe to think so too. The entire concept of Google’s search engine is to play this real life concierge. It has been a key component to the engine’s success in becoming the dominant engine of choice.

So, Google can say what they will, and call it PageRank today or something else tomorrow, the concept of ranking pages based on contextual trust and authority will never lose its resonance with the end user, be they regular searchers or SEO gurus. We like it because the concept fits our “real world” view and helps us make sense of what we find online. That successful merging of the online and real world demonstrates how important it is for businesses to succeed in communicating their own physical reputations into an accurate web presence. When the two are in sync, they begin to serve each other and benefit any marketing objective.

Social Media & Small Business - Game Over?

I caught this study in Reuters this week stating “Small Business, social media not mixing.” A telephone poll was conducted for Citibank Small Business by GFK Roper from August 20-27 of a sample of 500 small businesses which concluded that social media was not catching on, nor being found all that useful in the small business sector.

Maria Veltre, executive vice president of Citi's Small Business segment was quoted in the piece:

"What this survey indicates to us is small businesses are very, very focused on running their business and on generating sales and managing their cash flow and doing the things that are really important, especially in these economic times," Veltre said. "I don't think quite yet the social media piece of it has proven to be as significant."

Beyond the fact that we could venture to say that these “really important” things are always the drivers for small businesses, I think the sentiment of the article is entirely off the mark. What the low numbers really highlight is nothing more than the natural evolution of small business on its way into another “new” internet marketing arena. Some small businesses *are* currently using social media to profitable ends. However, when it comes to online marketing adoption, the small business segment at large has always ridden the back end of the curve.

While spending my own time stoking the fires of Local Internet Marketing between 2003 and 2006 – which was heavily focused on helping small business owners buy into the benefits of smartly executed paid search marketing and local business data optimization – I found that small businesses were not able to “buy in” until a clear and easy path was laid before them – two things which don’t currently exist in the social media landscape at all (we’re not talking about how simple it is to create an account on Twitter here). Small business owners don’t often want to be guinea pigs. With small exception, they don’t have the bandwidth, or the disposable budget to be marketing trail blazers.

The industry has a long way to go when it comes to solving the equation of mass small business adoption into social media, and until it gets there we are likely to see a skewed opinion coming out of polls and research. We haven’t even figured out universally consistent tools, measures, ROI, or margins when it comes to all this stuff; this to say nothing of the need to develop a tangible message which resonates with small businesses across the board. All of these things were of critical importance as solution providers stepped in to successfully bring Search Engine Marketing to small businesses in scalable mass.

All of this is coming, but it could well be a year or two off before the communal mind of small business appreciates social media as a tangible and fundamental portion of their advertising efforts.

What's Old Is New Again

Over the last two months I’ve had the extreme pleasure of consulting with a leading marketing firm based in the Chicago area, helping them craft, launch, and incorporate a full web strategy layer into their existing business model. The 15-year-old firm is meeting client demand to figure out everything web2.0 and help them take advantage where it can best serve marketing goals. In so doing, they are also taking a “practice what you preach” attitude which includes a full website redesign and social media rollout. Busy days, indeed.

Here on the pages of WebNewPoint0 I often make the point that dealing with the “new age” of Internet marketing need not be as overwhelming as it appears. Beyond the undeniable hurdles of being able to create content (gobs and gobs of it), much of doing good social media comes down to understanding where it is and isn’t a challenge. Failing to evaluate the nature of the challenge can leave folks paralyzed in the starting blocks. The more I help people wade in the water, the more I see this element playing a role.

Here’s what I find most intriguing through it all: Social media is far less a new thing than anyone might imagine. In the formative days of this medium everyone seems caught in the glow of “shiny object syndrome.” We gotta have it, and all at once we worry about how the heck we’re gonna use it. But beneath all the glow we are apt to soon discover social media’s “something new” impediments aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. There’s less standing in your way than you might think.

In reviewing and preparing a host of case studies for this new site it has become clear that the marketing tactics which have historically solved client challenges are the same core tactics everyone is touting as all the rage in social media. As it turns out, social media might not be so revolutionary. Oh, it’s a fabulous new playing field for marketers, to be sure. But the game hasn’t changed all that much.

Leveraging a company’s internal wisdom to generate a monthly publication that goes out to a client base hungry to understand the value of complex tools and services? Sounds like the same tactic you’d use to produce a blog today. Re-branding and developing a communication strategy aimed at gaining prominence in a competitive trade show environment? Sounds a lot like the process needed to develop a compelling and consistent web presence across multiple online portals in today’s ever-shifting landscape. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

People tend to look at social media and immediately feel left behind – like they have to go back to school and learn things all over again. But my guess is some of the best tacticians in social media have yet to recognize they are already far ahead of the curve, while they are mistakenly worried they will never be able to catch up.

The Eternal Web Page Question: Why?

When it comes to websites and their pages, nothing saddens me more than to see a well designed web page that completely fails to divulge why it’s there. It could be a sparse yet highly compelling branding message. It could be a robust informative rundown of product features. It could be a pinpointed display of expertise within a niche industry. While handy for a viewer, none of it will matter to the site owner if the page doesn’t drive a desired action.

When I look at a web page the first question I am asking is “Why?” No doubt this comes from the fact that I find it difficult to take off my marketing hat when I’m surfing the net. But more often than not, I am asking this question when reviewing a client’s website in an effort to improve content strategy and marketing effectiveness. If I can’t quickly see why a page is up on the web at all, it’s a pretty fair assumption that the visitors to that page are not easily being driven to an action that means something tangible to the website’s business.

If you are going to produce a web page, you owe it to yourself to think beyond the page itself and consider what comes next. Why do you want people viewing this page in the first place?

While things can quickly become complex, there is much to be learned from even the most basic answers. In all cases, you want to make it easy for people to take the action you desire. Forcing a page to demonstrate why it is there will keep the overall site goals sharply in focus.

Some examples:

1 – The Phone Call: “I want visitors to my site to call me for more information or an appointment.”
Great. Is your phone number everywhere? In a prominent spot? Worked into the logo that runs atop ever page? Is it listed at the end of every page’s content a la “Call 800-555-5555 for more information.”? If getting your phone to ring is important, your web pages should make this fact abundantly clear by showing the phone number and never forcing anyone to hunt for that next step. It sounds simple, yet you'd be surprised by how many websites fail to connect this goal to the site's content strategy.

2 – The “Contact Us” Form: “I need leads. I want visitors to fill out my form.”
Gone are the days of the contact us page, my friends. Sure it still exists, but if you want your visitors to fill out your lead form at whatever instance the urge strikes them while surfing your site, don’t make them hunt down a contact us page. Consider putting a simple form on every page. Make it easy to find (upper right?). Ask for as little information as possible (name, e-mail address) realizing that the more info you require, the less likely someone is to fill out your form. People are both lazy and unwilling to give away more info than they have to. Play to those tendencies.

3 – Branding: “I want people to stay on my site and soak it all in.”
This is key to any blog or site that values the need to make it easy for visitors to stick around. Your navigation elements are critical. Be sure to link within your content to other pages of relevance. Create an easy to follow navigation bar, tag cloud, or drop down menu so people don’t have to hunt and peck for more content that interests them. The easier you make it for people to realize you have more interesting content beyond the page they are viewing, the more likely they will be to stay on your site and absorb the experience of everything you have to offer. Never leave someone dangling. If you have tons of information, you never want to let someone leave thinking, “I wish there was some more info here.”

These are just three examples. There are countless others, and they almost always play together in some fashion. Whether you are about to launch an entirely new site, or are scratching your head as to why people aren’t doing what you wish they would when you get them to your pages, make sure you always answer the question of why each page exists in the first place – to drive measurable action that helps you build business.

Tips To Avoid Wasting Time In Social Media

Any time spent forging into the world of social media is best served by following a path. While tramping blindly through the social media forest might at least qualify you as a member of the community, your chances of reaching any sort of qualitative destination are slim. Without a clear plan, or map to refer back to, you run the risk of wasting a lot of effort.

Knowing how precious time is for any professional, the thought of squandering any of it makes that potential loss even more painful. In fact, knowing how much time to devote, and how best to spend that time, are primary concerns on the minds of business people I speak with in my consulting practice. No one wants to waste effort on something clearly so important.

There is no set prescription regarding a number of minutes per day or week you should spend in the social media space. But, as you do create time for this adventure, here are a few cornerstones on which to build the foundation of your experience.

One Step At A Time – Don’t try to do everything all at once. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogging, video – all of these can be worthwhile endeavors. But it is a sure-fire path to system overload if you attempt to push yourself into everything all at once. Consider your immediate marketing goals (and perhaps your mid- and long-term goals as well), and choose as few roads in as possible. Even if you decide only to do one thing for now, that’s better than attempting to make a splash into everything.

Leverage Content – Directly behind finding time to venture into social media, the creation of content (so much content!) is the next burning concern as one makes their way into the web 2.0 world. Consider that you might already have volumes of inspirational and repurpose-able content right at your feet. White papers? Case Studies? Presentation decks? Marketing research? Product and service descriptions? All of these can become the seeds of future blog posts and conversation points in micro-blogging and discussions online.

Plus, there’s no foul in referencing (linking back to) something you’ve read online while offering your informed opinion on the subject. Not every scrap of content you produce needs to be the game-changing, paradigm shift-inspiring Holy Grail of information that’s going to change your industry forever. Leveraging the content available to you can ease the pressure of having to fill a lot of empty white virtual paper.

Be Present Where Your Audience Gets Its Information – “If a tree falls in a forest…” Don’t make the mistake of delivering compelling and useful content in a venue where your audience hasn’t shown up. Blasting your messages across Facebook when your professional client base might be hanging out over on LinkIn is a wasteful mistake. Invest a bit of front end time to explore where your audience is before you pick the platforms you are going to exploit.

Control Message – In that moment of breath before you plow ahead with your social media “voice,” give some consideration to your messaging strategy. Is it your goal to be informational, instructive, promotional? Without considering the overarching plan to your message, it could become a bit fractured and disjointed. You’ll also find that planning a messaging strategy can help identify the sort of content you will come to produce. It will act as a guiding light.

Stay Open To Dialogue – At the end of the day, everything you do in social media is about facilitating an interaction with your audience. For business, social media is a two-way street of Communitising – marketing through communication. Be ready for people to interact with the content you produce (it’s a great measure of your success in the space), and be sure to respond back.

These are a few beacons that can help pave your way into successful social media marketing. Remember some of the core reasons you should be using social media in the first place: to listen, learn, respond, influence, and collaborate. Using these principles to evaluate your next step can insure that you are heading in the right direction.