Skislak Digital Advertising

This topic assumes we are emerging from the recession. Truth is, jobs are still being lost in America. The cost of oil is on its way back up. Customers are not exactly flocking back to stores. And that means your clients are still nervous and hesitant to spend on marketing at the level you would like them to. What can you do to make a positive difference? There are several things you ought to start talking to your clients about, if you haven't already.

First, consider why some marketers continue to thrive in a recession while others retreat and reduce spending. Some, like Walmart and McDonald's, are uniquely well-positioned for a slow economy. Walmart was prescient when it repositioned its brand just prior to the slowdown, touting the lifestyle message, "Save money. Live better." McDonald's simply offers the right product at the right price at the right time. But there are marketers thriving without any particular value positioning. So what are they doing that your clients should take note of?

Step on the gas. History has proven that marketers who increase spending in tough times, when others retreat, gain meaningful market share. Procter & Gamble, General Mills and Hershey are giving a clinic in this right now, and reaping the rewards with increased revenues.

Go where their eyes are. Many advertisers are still reluctant to embrace new media. Yet that's where many of the eyeballs are now, on sites such as Daily Candy, Facebook and Yelp. Traditional media is still important, but integrating online vehicles is critical if you want to reach consumers where they are spending more and more time.

Be relevant. Understand the voice and mind-set of the consumer today, and you will be more successful in selling your products and services. Consumers have been roughed up: Their savings have shriveled in a volatile stock market; so-called experts like Madoff and Stanford have stolen their hard-earned money, evoking distrust and cynicism; and the unemployment rate hovers just under 10%. So you must speak to the consumer directly and in relevant ways. Hyundai has done this best, in my opinion, with its Assurance Program, which allows you to return your car if you lose your job. Hyundai was first to take this bold approach, in January, and now imitators abound. Results for the Korean auto manufacturer have been remarkable, according to a recent study by the Wharton School: "As American automakers struggle for survival, South Korea's Hyundai Motor appears to be gaining on the pack with bold marketing and broad-based initiatives to improve quality."

"There's a sense that what Hyundai is doing on many fronts is working in terms of actually gaining some advantage during the crisis," says John Paul MacDuffie, a Wharton management professor and co-director of the International Motor Vehicle Program. Hyundai's global unit sales rose 2% in 2008 -- a brutal year for the auto business -- lifting revenue 5%. In the first three months of this year, the company's global market share rose to 47%, compared with 4% a year earlier.

Join the conversation. Many companies shy away from giving their customers a voice in online forums, for fear that they will embarrass the company. But other, more enlightened companies embrace the opportunity to bring customers into the conversation. Comcast, for example, maintains a team of Twitterers to communicate about customer-service issues and answer any questions users may have. This allows customers to be heard and increases loyalty.

Don't advertise. Instead, create a platform for your client's customers to start a dialogue, learn about your client's products, share stories and -- well, just to be in your client's hosted environment. Your client's brand can take a back seat and foster a community where customers are invited to spend a lot of time on your client's site. Think of the many unique benefits that quality time with customers provides.

These are but a handful of ways to take control of your message, and emerge from the recession with the wind at your back. What survive-and-thrive tactics have you put into play?

This has been the question. What is Microsoft up to, For the past 2 weeks we have been hearing about Microsoft spending $80 million dollars in advertising to launch their new search engine, Bing.com. Ops, sorry, it's not a search engine, its a 'decision engine'. At least that is what they are calling it. Bing.com is suppose to revolutionize search by giving searchers fast and clear information on exactly what they are looking for. There position is to exploit Google, by mentioning how much of an inconvenience it is to hit the back button on Google. (Comscore says 25% of clicks on search engines are the back button) This is what Bing.com is going to change, giving searchers relevant search results, while allows them to view web pages, and important information before even entering the website.

I will admit, I hit the back button just as often as the next searcher, but I have a strong connection with Google, it is something that has been with me for a long time, and someone, yes someone, not something, I trust. All of my web browsers are set to default to Google.com, which I'm sure many of yours are as well. I don't see many people going to their tool bar and changing it to Bing.com anytime soon.

Typically, when I am sitting in a room with friends and someone asks a question that no one knows the answer to, I hear, 'Google it' I have heard this for many years, I don't see us saying, 'Bing it' for a long time.

64.2% of all searchers use Google.com, Yahoo has 20.4% and MSN has 8.2%, while I understand that Microsoft wants a piece of what Google is holding, I don't think $80 MILLION dollars is enough.

Bing.com's main focus is Travel, shopping, products, local and health, all highly commercial areas. But, I believe those are the areas that Google is the best in delivering.

I suppose we will all have to wait and see what happens.

I have successfully managed to keep my SEM company running for over 1 year now. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but considering I started the company in a bad climate, and the economy has considered to get worse since I started, I am proud.

Currently I am working with 9 different clients, I haven't been able to hit the magical 10 yet, which, by the way was my original goal when I started. I have 9 clients, 9 different products, 9 different problems, and 9 different needs. I have learned so much in the past year of running this company, I wish there was a class in college, like, entrepreneurs 101, where you can run your own company for 3 months and deal with all the problems that come along. It's a great learning experience and what a blast. I must say, there is no better feeling in the world then waking up in the morning and know that you day is whatever you make it. Everything is on me, I decide what I am going to get paid, what business I am going after, and how I am going to do it.

I have succeeded thus far under one approach: I give my clients all I have. There are no secrets. They have a full understanding of what I am doing and when I am doing it. Agencies that I have worked with in the past made many of their advertising strategies a secret to their clients, fearful of losing the business, and having the company take the advertising over themselves. I have taken the complete opposite approach, I am an open book with all of my clients, not only am I advertising, but I am teaching, I try to educate my clients as best on can on what I do and how I do it. Knowledge is a powerful tool, and when I team up with a business and we work together, yes WORK TOGETHER, that is when advertising becomes great. I need a complete understanding of their products, and they need a complete understanding of marketing strategies. This is something that is getting lost between client and agency. Things are soo rough out there right now, agency's are pulling inward, instead of pushing outward. Let people in! Teach, and build a great relationship that will last through the tough times.

There's a lot of buzz right now about Twitter, which has emerged as one of the most popular social media tools. This three-part article is for those who are just getting started with Twitter or who simply want to know what it is and how it works. I'll cover everything you need to know about setting up and using a Twitter account, and share some tools and resources to help you leverage Twitter to market yourself or your company.

What Is Twitter?

Twitter is a social media tool that lets users send out short messages (or "tweets") that are picked up and read by anyone who decides to follow you. This is also referred to as micro-blogging. I like the idea of keeping your message down to 140 characters, because it forces you to be succinct and to the point.

Some have started a Twitter account, sent out a message or two, and then wondered what the big deal is. The big revelation to me came when I found all of the supporting applications and tools that were an adjunct to the Web site. Once you start using some of these tools, the light bulb will go off and you'll find many uses for Twitter. Here are a few:

Personal promotion and broadcasting
Business promotion and broadcasting
Reputation/brand monitoring
Competition monitoring
Event monitoring
Information gathering/research
Search engine
Setup

The mechanics of setting up Twitter is relatively straightforward. Just go to Twitter's site and click the Join button. But before you do, it's important that you take time to consider a few things before you send out your first "tweet."

First, think about what you want to accomplish and how you want to be perceived. What is your brand strategy, personal or business?

When picking a user name, consider using your name or your company's name instead of a nickname. This will allow people to know who you really are. This is important if you're interested in branding yourself or your company. Also, a real name or company name allows people to find you easier.

Here are some tips about setting up your Twitter account:

Personal Bio: Consider what to use as your profile description. Again, Twitter forces you to keep it short -- 160 characters, to be exact. Use a couple of professional statements (or more) followed by a personal statement. For example, my bio is: "Internet Marketing Specialist, Trainer, Speaker, Columnist and Avid Cyclist." Regardless, let people know who you are and what you do so potential followers have enough information to decide if they want to follow you.
Profile Picture: Please take the time to get a real picture of yourself or company logo. You won't be taken seriously if you use the default picture. Think of how you want to be perceived. A professionally shot photo of yourself can go a long way to promoting your personal brand. Smile and give followers some insight into your personality, be creative. Headshots stand out more when your picture has to be condensed down to fit within some applications.
Background Picture: Next is your background picture. Twitter has some template backgrounds you can use. Pick something that is contextual to your brand strategy. Create your own if you really want to stand out. If you do, remember that people use various screen resolutions, so you need to make it big enough so it doesn't tile. Also, Twitter doesn't give you much space for your bio, so you can use the left side of your custom background picture to display more information about yourself, like your blog or another related Web site.
Following and Listening

You're almost ready to start tweeting. But first, here are a couple more things to consider.

Find people who have similar interests to you and "follow" them. In the top menu, select "find people" and search for friends or companies you'd like to follow. Now look at all of those tiny picture icons representing people they're following. Click "view all" to see the entire list. Click on anyone you'd also like to follow. In short order, you'll be following 30 to 40 people.

At this point, just take the time to "listen" to the conversation. See what's being said and how it's said. You'll probably see some strange language or symbols like RT, @ or #. Don't worry about this yet, I'll cover this in Part 2. Just get a feel for the conversation.

Building Relationships

Before you begin tweeting, think about your conversation and what you can provide your followers that will give them value. You're basically building relationships. To do so, you need to give before you receive.

People like tips, statistics, opinions, and links to relevant articles. Once you have a good handle on your messages, tweet away.

In the next two installments, we'll discuss some of the syntax, and review tips on taking Twitter to the next level. I'll share a boatload of links to tools and resources that will enhance your Twitter experience. And feel free to follow me at twitter.com/ron_jones.

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By Ron Jones, Search Engine Watch

When contemplating an online marketing campaign there are dozens of questions that will start swirling through your head. Each question, in turn, creates more questions, and those questions create others that all will need to be answered before you are able to make a smart, sound business decision.

Over the next several days I'll outline some of these questions and provide a quick analysis to help you answer them sufficiently for yourself. Hopefully this list of questions will help you develop your own questions specific to your situation. In the end, the goal is to have taken a full and complete objective look at the tasks before you in order to be able to a best determine the right course of action.

Questions I need answered if I in-source my search marketing To in-source or outsource? That's the first big question you may face. But you can't answer that until you have a good idea what it means to follow either path. If you're heading up a large company, outsourcing may be the way to go. Or do you hire your own expert? We'll look at questions for outsourcing later, but for now, if you're contemplating in-sourcing, ask yourself these questions:

Question 1: Do I do it myself? This is no small matter. Thinking through the process of whether you are able to manage the SEO for your site is an important one. While you can always "try", in some cases, failing at SEO can be worse than not having done it at all. So before you decide that you can do it yourself, answer these questions:

Question 2: Do I have the time? As a business owner your time is your most valuable asset, and the simple fact is: you can't do everything. You have to prioritize your time and think about what you can and can't do, and where productivity--and results--will be the greatest.

Question 3: What is my time worth? Take an objective look at the value of your time. Now, if you're the business owner and you crunched the numbers you'll probably find that you make somewhere close to minimum wage. But that's just because you are a hard worker determined to succeed. The value of your time can be better assessed by looking at what you charge for your product or services. If you can put a dollar amount for what your time is worth that can help you determine if you can make time for SEO.

Question 4: Is my time better spent on other things? Just because you have time to work on something doesn't mean that you should. We can all make time for the urgent/important tasks, but that isn't to say there are not more important tasks or tasks better suited for our skills. You may find that you are more adept at (and therefore your time is better spent on) customer relations. Or perhaps you're an idea person, therefore your time is better spent developing new products, services or tools. Think about what you can do that provides the greatest benefit for the company before you decide that you should allocate your valuable time to the SEO.

Question 5: Do I have the knowledge and skills to do it right? SEO, on the surface, may not be inherently difficult, but there is considerable knowledge needed in order to do it right. And some of the more technical aspects of SEO often require someone with more in-depth programming skills. Gaining the knowledge and skills necessary is no small task.

Question 6: Do I have the time to stay up to date in critical knowledge? The basic information on SEO remains pretty consistent, but there are often new developments, technologies and strategies that can become important for the long-term success of your marketing campaign. Keeping abreast of this information can consume a considerable amount of time, not to mention the time implementation and testing of these ideas can take as well.

Question 7: What if I screw up the site? There are many easy ways to screw up your optimization campaign. Sometimes it can be the wrong character in a robots.txt or .htaccess file. Other times it can be from bad advice you were told or read about online. Not all screw ups will be make or break, but there are some that can cause significant long-term and potentially permanent harm to your efforts. Sometimes the risk simply isn't worth it.

Question 8: Is this something I really want to do along with my regular work? SEO isn't your "full time" job. You've got a business to run and we shouldn't be afraid to admit that it takes the majority of our time. You need to consider if you really have time to add another time consuming task to your already full plate. Anything new you add will take away from other, possibly more important tasks. It'll do you no good if you SEO the site if you can't handle the business it brings.

Question 9: Will this take me away from my family? If adding something to your plate increases the amount of time you spend "at work," how will this affect your family life? Are you willing to add more to your plate if it means less time with your loved ones? Even if you don't have family conflicts, you also need to consider how much time this will take away from your own leisure activities. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!

Question 10: Is this worth the cost of NOT hiring or outsourcing. Overall, you need to consider if the cost of doing it yourself is worth the sacrifices you'll have to make. If you outsource, it's just money. If you in-source its your time, your skills, your knowledge and even your sanity at stake. Don't lose out on other important things just to save a few bucks.

Question 11: Will this diminish my capabilities at being effective that my primary job? Finally, you need to consider if doing SEO yourself means you become less effective in other important areas. The worst thing you can do is skimp on quality--whether its quality of customer service, quality of products, or quality of results. SEO is important, but not if it causes you to lose value in other areas. Getting people to the site does you no good if you can't properly engage with them and meet their needs.

In Part II I'll look at questions you need to ask if you choose to in-source your SEO hiring someone to do it rather than doing it yourself. You'll find there are a number of questions that need to be asked and answered to determine this is the right course of action for you.
by:
Stoney deGeyter, Search Engine Guide

This is a great article provided by Nick Landers, a search and web development strategist located in Kentucky,  He has a great mind for the Internet and I wanted to share this:
When the Marketing Budget Tightens, Be Creative with Search Engine Marketing
Find Real, Measurable Marketing Results
Freddie, Fannie, Merrill, Lehman, AIG, the “Bailout”! Good reasons to be a bit cautious, right?
When fear and doubt enter a market, the effects of that fear ripple from the lack of consumer confidence
all the way to your organizational and marketing strategies.
In difficult economic times, companies must use creative marketing strategies that are measurable and
responsive. Search Engine Marketing provides both.
For the period ending second-quarter 2008, Search Marketing has increased by 23.6%, compared to the
previous year (emarketer.com).
So why is Search Engine Marketing on the rise?
SEM provides companies the ability to measure results. Using various search strategies, including organic
and paid methods, analytical tools allow companies to track direct traffic, traffic from referring sites, and
traffic from search engines. You will know exactly which traffic generation methods are successful and
which ones are failing.
Search also provides responsive results. Using strategic techniques, you are able to use specific calls to
action to get specific results. Whether it is to sell a product or service, to build a newsletter list, or to
strengthen awareness, you can track the actions that your visitors take while on your site, to ensure that
they are following the calls to action that you desired.
Having this type of control over your marketing methods is an extremely valuable advantage to have
when your marketing budget is limited and will continue to be important as the market rebounds and
your budget grows.

Creating a brand doesn’t happen over night.  It takes years for products to be able to position themselves, the way they want, in the mind of consumers. Millions of dollars are spent on creating a ‘brand’.  That is, when we speak about big business, but what about small business, like the local florist, or the hometown car dealership.  Obviously these types of businesses don’t have the budget or the need to run national campaigns and spend millions of dollars just to plant a seed in the mind of consumers, but  we can’t forget that the art of ‘branding’ whether you are big or small, is one of the most important elements in running a success business.  Now, many small business owners would beg to differ with me on this point.  Most business owners that I speak with are more concerned about making the phones ring and the doors swing.  Making consumers feel or think a certain way about their ‘brand’ isn’t necessarily on the top of their list, especially now a days when advertising budgets are shrinking and the economy is in…. well… turmoil.  The point I want to make here is that ‘branding is the element that will make consumers buy.  Planting that seed, establishing yourself in the market place is the key.  And, yes, there are ways you can do this at a reasonable price. 

 

Turn on the television, open a newspaper (If you ever do actually open a newspaper) or turn on the radio.  All advertising that we hear is directing their audience to go to the web, visit their website and give up your e-mail address. Why? Well, this is where companies have an opportunity to hear what the consumers want. For years, all businesses had only one option when it came to advertising…. Get a strong effective message, and put it together in the form of print & broadcast and wait to see what happens.  Now, things are much different.  There is no more guessing, atleast, not at the level that it once was.  Websites now give the upper hand to the consumers, not the company.  Now consumers have the power to share their opinion with companies and other consumers like them.  That is what the web is all about, getting people together that are alike.  I know when I go out and have fun, I usually do it with people that are like me, share my interests, and for the most part, people that I get along with.  This is the step that most small business owners aren’t seeing yet.  They look at their website efforts as something that they should do simply because they are suppose to.  I strongly believe, and many people in the advertising industry would disagree with me, that if you have a website, and it isn’t one of the top websites in your industry then you simply shouldn’t have it.  Your website is no different than your actual store, yes JUST AS IMPORTANT.  Think about this for a moment, people enter your site, just like your store, they get a feeling when they arrive they shop around and they exit. Surfing the web for a product is no different than going to the mall and going into 20 different stores.  I suppose the only difference is that online you can visit 20 different stores in your underware.  Anyway, this is what I am seeing across the board with small business, not enough effort on their web inititives.  The web should be the start.  About 10 years ago ad budgets where set like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Advertising Efforts       Old Advertising Efforts

Internet                              Television

Television                                              Radio

Radio                                                     Direct Mail

Direct Mail                                              Internet



Let’s look at the “Old Advertising” first.  Typically budgets would work bottom up.  First get all the television set for the year, then all our radio ads, and if there was any budget left over maybe they could throw some money at direct mail or newspaper, and if they really played things right they could sprinkle the Interenet with a fancy new site, or run some display ads.

 

“New Advertising is completely different, now we are going top down, Starting with the Internet, making sure that we have everything in place on the web first, reason being is that people can spend all day on your website and it isn’t going to cost any more money, your website is never closed, the lights are on 24/7, where the :30 second TV spot is going to cost the same no matter what.  Now, we have to start with the website, just like you would look at your store. When you start a business, one of the first things you need, if you are in retail anyway, is a store.  You wouldn’t want people coming to your store and have empty shelves, dirty floors and no signs telling people where to go.  The same goes for your website. 

 

Then, keeping on track with the “New Advertising”, once we have implemented a great web presence we continue down to Television, Radio, Newspaper, directing all of our efforts to having people visit your site.  The website is the foundation of your advertising efforts.  It is important to realize that these mediums can not work independantly, everything must stay consistent.  Remember “branding”.  We still need to maintain the same feel to effectively target our audience.

 Even though we are in some of the toughest economic times in my life, (I am 25 years old) and web traffic is the most cost effective advertising, the Super Bowl still reins to be well worth the $3 milllion dollar price tag for a :30 second spot. Advertising Age recently put out an article that showed what the actual return on investment was for certain companies, Super Bowl ad efforts, last year. Here is what they found:

Anheuser-Busch:

Online ad views, week after the Super Bowl: 21 Million.
**Really quick, here is the math; Assuming they spent about $9 million, after running about 3 spots, and including production, they received 21 million web views. This equates to about .42 cents per visitor, Now that is a great cost per click, no matter what market you are in.


Audi:

Increase in web traffic one month after Super Bowl: Up 200%

CareerBuilder:

Increase in job applications: 68%

Now to be fair, this may be due to the current economic conditions as well... just a hunch.

Go Daddy:

Estimated value of publicity from 2008 campaign: 11.7 million

Everyone remembers the godaddy.com publicity, we heard about it for weeks, and EVERY mans between the age of 16-45 got on the computer and check out the ad that was too, shall we say, sexy, to be put on tv.

Hyundai:

Drew 300,000 site visitors who stayed 5.5 minutes and generated $25,000 worth of sales leads.

So, I just wanted to point out a few facts on the impact that these ads have on brands. So many people think about the Super Bowl ads and can't believe the price tag, well I am here to tell you that if executed properly, these ads are well worth the money spent. I hope everyone enjoys the game.

How long are businesses going to hear about how important it is to have Search Engine Marketing and Social Media as part of their Advertising efforts, before they act?  As the old saying goes, you can take a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.  Well, DRINK ALREADY!  Time and time again Search Marketing has proven to be one of the most important marketing mediums known to man... YES, marketing mediums, not advertising mediums.  One of the biggest problems business owners are facing is not knowing the difference between marketing and advertising.  So, briefly explained.  Advertising is the process of making a brand, increasing awareness, or giving customers a certain feeling when they see your logo or hear your jingle.  Marketing is efforts made that directly effect your sales.  When marketing, companies can put a dollar amount to their efforts.  So, at the end they have a set cost, and a set revenue.  There is less guessing marketing because at the end of the marketing campaign your accountant can look and see what the project cost and how much was earned from those efforts, simple revenue and expense.  When advertising, we put out a message and hope to plant a seed with our customers, so when they do need our services they think of us first.  


Now that we cleared that up..... Search Marketing is the most cost effective marketing online, and since online marketing is the most cost effective medium out there, why arn't business throwing their efforts towards learning more about how to do, or have someone do it for them. I am currently working with clients in the Metro-Detroit area, one of the worst markets in the United States, and Search Engine Marketing has been their golden nugget.   Week after week I am reading articals about newspaper circulations being cut, advertising dollars being reduced, and companies looking for an answer on where they should spend the little money they have.  A bit of free advise, you need to put your money online. .....  Not just Search Engine Marketing, but Search Engine Optimization, display advertising, and social media......


I have seen this work many times for many types of large and small business.  But, the only way it is going to work for your business is if you commit.  You have to be willing to go against what you have been doing for 30 years and jump ahead of the times.  If you make an effort to online, online will pay you back 10 fold.  I've seen it happen.