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Shift Happens: SEO Alone is not Enough

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

I have a high respect for the people at websitemagazine.com – they provide timely information regarding SEO and web design, and it’s how I stay current on upcoming technologies that we (as quickly as we can) implement into new projects, and do our best to educate existing clients on how new and developing methods to improve local search can help them. Below is an article that they produced in the July 2010 issue that is perfect for our target market: the medium-size business owner that knows SEO and social media are important, but isn’t sure how to make it work for them on the ever changing World Wide Web.

Shift Happens: SEO Alone is Not Enough:

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), one truth is everlasting: The landscape is continually changing. And often, when it changes, the resulting shift in rankings can be seismic. Google’s announcement of Caffeine is one example. The new partnership between Microsoft Bing and Yahoo! aims to provide a long-term competitor to Google and will impact search results across many major Web properties.

For an example of search’s ever-changing environment, look no further than a popular search on Google. Search for “Xbox 360” (click image below for larger view) and you will see more than just organic results from websites that mention those keywords. A broad range of content appears, including news, paid advertising, shopping feeds and social media results, including user updates from Twitter. This means that publishers and merchants need to concentrate on more than just increasing organic search placement for an Internet marketing plan to succeed.

Read the rest of the article…

Tags: search engine optimization, SEM, SEO, Social Media Marketing, social technology
Posted in Local Search, Online Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking | No Comments »

What a Medium Size Business Should Know about Advertising Online

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

Many small businesses do not have an advertising budget for what I believe to be a few reasons. It’s not that they don’t advertise, but they just don’t know how much they should spend on advertising and online marketing. The sad truth is that in order to go from a small business to a medium sized business, you’ve got to have some knowledge of these things. In order for you to be a successful medium size business that outperforms your competitors, you’ve got to know exactly how much you can spend, and how much you should spend.

Website Costs

On average, expect to pay between $45 – $75 an hour for web design projects. This varies depending on the market you are in. Typically, you should expect to pay anywhere from $900 on up for a newly designed custom website depending on what you need to the site to do. For example, if you need a fully customizable shopping cart with multiple products and custom shipping options, expect to pay over $2,500. Web hosting is anywhere from $85 to $200 a year. We work with and recommend Media Temple. They are used by Sony, Nike, and Starbucks, and we’ve used them since 2006, and we have been very happy.

Search Engine Optimization Costs

Absolutely do not skimp out on this area of your online budget. For this type of work, for a 10-page website, you should allow 4 – 6 hours for the initial optimization upon launch at a standard rate ranging from $45 – $75 per hour. On a monthly basis, allow for 3 – 5 hours of ongoing SEO work, depending on how often and how much your website changes.

SEO work on your website can be done in a number of ways. There are entire companies that focus only on SEO, but it’s helpful to find a web development or design firm that can do the website project along with the search engine optimization for the site, like we do at Innovated Media. In my opinion, the company that takes care of the monthly updates for the website should be the same one that does the SEO, otherwise you’ll have two companies crossing paths and making different changes to the same website thus taking longer than it should to accomplish both tasks. Search Engine Optimization companies should have a thorough working knowledge of how to build and maintain a website, since the construction of a website has quite a bit to do with optimizing a site for Google and the other major indexes.

SEO companies that only know SEO and do not stay current on software upgrades, trends of web design/development, and programming languages are going to have a hard time when development knowledge crosses hairs with actual search engine optimization work. What happens if they make changes to the site and a loss in formatting occurs? Well, the website is broken until the developer that designed the site can go back in and make the necessary repairs, and again costing the client more money than necessary.

In short, make sure that the company you choose for search engine optimization work has a decent portfolio of websites that they have built as well as ones they promote. Having everything under one roof is the ideal situation. If you don’t believe me, watch this video from Brain Fitness Strategies, one of our clients.

Internet Marketing & Paid Ad Words Campaigns for Local Search

Local Search results is what you want to drive more traffic to your site, and leads to your business. Depending on how far out your definition of “local” is, expect to pay anywhere from $299 – $599 per month on a good, solid Internet Marketing Campaign for your business. Internet or Search Engine Marketing isn’t necessarily work being done to your actual website, but instead it is work that is done to promote your website and contact information to local directories, video websites such as YouTube, and through paid Ad Words campaigns.

It is smart to use an Ad Words Certified expert to handle your Ad Words campaign. Do not assume that your web developer knows how to do this, even if he/she tells you they can get it done. This is a particular skill that requires specific training and understanding in order for your money spent on the campaign to actually drive quality traffic to your site. Paid Ad Words programs can work well with a monthly Internet marketing campaign that provides content development, directory submission(s), customer reviews, and good in-bound links to your site, which are all important Search Engine Marketing strategies.

Since this type of work does not require access to your actual website, we encourage clients to use companies that specifically specialize in this type of work known as Local Search or Search Engine Marketing. Many of our clients use BizNDex, based out of Skiatook, Oklahoma. We monitored a 4-month campaign with one of our larger clients, LawnAmerica. As you can see from the results below, From Jan 1 – May 1, the website traffic went up consistently compared to the year before. This makes sense, because the campaign that BizNDex implemented for LawnAmerica was during this range of time.

What made the difference? It wasn’t so much the content that was added to the website and optimized – it was the Internet Marketing campaign that they used with BizNDex that included paid and organic benefits for local search results. The numbers speak for themselves.

Direct Mail, Billboards, Phone Books, and Print Advertising

Why are you reading this section? Stop spending your money on these advertising mediums!!!! You don’t us a phone book anymore, and neither do your customers!! How will you ever know if money spent on these things will ever yield a return on your investment? You won’t! Put your money towards something that will show you exactly what your budgeted advertising dollars are doing. That’s why we love Internet marketing, and it should be the reason you love it

Video Production Costs

It’s not a fad or something to do that’s cool, Mr. Business Owner. Online video drives traffic to your site, and keeps them there. It’s proven that the amount of time a visitor spends on your website increases up to 7 times if there is a video on the landing page. Simply put? People want the content to come to them. If they don’t have to read, they appreciate the effort you took to accommodate their laziness to provide the information to them without them having to do anything. At least that’s my take on it. It falls right in line with creating the path of least resistance to help your visitors make a buying decision. A 60-second video spot can cost anywhere from $400 – $2,500, depending on the quality of the video you are looking for. Or you can go out and buy a Flip camera and see if you have a cousin or nephew that has figured out how to edit and upload videos to YouTube. It’s not rocket science. A last note: make sure the company you are working with knows about video production AND a little search engine marketing so they understand how the video should be promoted online in order for it to work.

Video testimonies are also a powerful way to help your visitors decide to you use instead of one of your competitors. It shows that you care about your company enough to provide testimonies of real people that have been satisfied with your product, and evidently they were satisfied enough to take time out of their busy schedule to say something about your product or service. Oh yeah, and the testimony (what they say) is important to (haha)! We’ve had scores of new clients in the last 3 weeks decide to sign with us because of a video testimony that we put out from Brain Fitness Strategies.

Bottom line: if you aren’t using online video, you are way behind and need to stop avoiding it.

In Closing

Stop advertising the way that you used to, even 6 months ago! The world, the Internet, and mobile devices are changing the way that people look for your product and service. Stop ignoring social media and thinking it’s just a way that your employees can waste time while they are on the clock. Its not a fad – it’s how people communicate now. Stop referring to Internet marketing as “spending money on our web page” or “Internet thingy.” Even though you will hire a company to do this work for you, you yourself should know at least a little about it so you can choose the right company that will fit you and your organization well. Otherwise, you could get taken by an online company that has shady business practices and only interested in your budgeted ad dollars. It’s best, in my opinion, to go with a local service provider for these services. Go buy a book about Internet marketing for medium size business owners, and look through all of the analytical data that they provide, and read the case studies that they did. Don’t be ignorant when it comes to redirecting advertising dollars that you were considering using for a half-page phone book ad to use online instead. Know what you are doing before you pull that trigger, or you’ll walk away thinking it didn’t work, when in reality you just didn’t know what you were getting yourself into, and had unrealistic expectations.

Tags: advertising, Google, Internet Marketing, Online Marketing, search engine optimization, search engine placement, SEO, Tulsa Internet Marketing
Posted in Local Search, Online Marketing, Online Video, SEM, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Video Production, Web Design, advertising, marketing | 1 Comment »

Overcoming an all too Common Content Development Block

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Why is it so hard to sit down in front of a blank screen and write an article to upload to the website? Your heart rate speeds up, your palms get sweaty, you can think of a million other things to do at that moment instead of sitting there feeling this way. Yet, we can discuss and debate the benefits of our service till the person we’re talking to has to fake a heart attack just to excuse them from the conversation.

It a hard thing to brainstorm ideas. To write, speak, or perform in front of a computer or camera is unproductive and time-consuming. The client or customer needs your service so why do you have to sit here and make yourself uncomfortable writing or recording content.

Here’s why. We have to sleep sometimes. We can’t be everywhere a potential client is at all times. We need help. So we go out and hire help. We train them to be a better salesperson than we are. There’s still one problem. They have to sleep as well and they can’t be everywhere at all times. So, we hire more salespeople and more salespeople until all you are doing is training salespeople. No time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. No time for family. It’s all because of a silly, blinking cursor.

I know I went to the extreme, over-embellished a little. The point is you know your business better than the web designers and content creators out there. They can muddle through and make it look and sound good. But only you can flesh it out and give it purpose.

Pretend you’re talking to someone who has no idea about what you do or who you are. Make them feel like they are talking to you directly and you’re sitting on the other side of the screen.

People usually don’t visit sites to see pretty pictures and sounds, unless they are searching for pretty pictures and sound. They want content. They want to be anonymous while they get to know you and the services you offer. They want to know that you know what you’re doing long before they contact you.

Put your knowledge and personality into your website. It’s the best salesperson a business can have. It never sleeps and is everywhere at all times.

Tags: business article creation, business promotion, marketing, Social Media Marketing, Tulsa Content Development, Tulsa Internet Marketing, writing content for the web
Posted in Blogging, Direct Mail, E-mail, E-mail Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Reviews, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Web Design, advertising, design, marketing | No Comments »

Social Media Marketing Tulsa

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

I must admit that I was slow to jump into social media. A large part of me didn’t want to reconnect with my past – I knew that if I did get into it, I would purposefully use it as a tool and not a time waster. It wasn’t long before it proved to be a very effective way for me to be in front of thousands of people that would probably never Google us or go to our website.

Social media marketing is all about finding ways to bring content directly to the end user instead of finding ways to get them to search for it or solely relying upon people that would look for you anyway. It is awesome! I know for a fact that there are companies that are not taking advantage of social media to extend the brand of their products and services or to create leads or sales. At the VERY LEAST use it as a tool to change the way that you communicate with your CURRENT CUSTOMERS! I don’t even think a smart business owner should have to waste time trying to justify the usage of social media integration for company marketing for this simple reason: your customers are using social media to communicate with everyone.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that not long from now, our mobile devices and cell phones will be used more on the social media communication tools to reach out to people instead of actually talking on it with people. And where will you be as a business owner if you didn’t take an hour or two each week (hint: this is really all it takes – 20 minutes a day, Monday – Friday is all it would take) to learn more about social media marketing and actually develop a presence online for your company on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc? You’ll be wondering why the phone isn’t ringing talking about how, “people just aren’t interested in that ‘personal touch’ anymore.” No, no they aren’t. The personal touch has been redefined. People want CONVENIENCE because they lead busy lives and have busy schedules. There’s no room for a telephone call when they are out running errands, but they do have time to respond to a comment or post on their Facebook wall while they are sitting at the stop light on their iPhone.

Stop trying to use a telegraph machine when everyone else is using a phone!

The biggest question for small to medium businesses owners remains:
1. How can it be used to generate leads and sales?
2. How can I keep my employees from wasting time on it during work hours?

Can I tell you a secret? You won’t know unless you start doing it, and they are already wasting time during work hours. Get out of the dark ages and dedicate some time to do some of these things. And, if you don’t want to do it, contact Innovated Media and we’ll bring you up to speed and past your competition.

Tags: business promotion, Innovated Media, inyernet marketing, Online Marketing, social media communication, Social Media Marketing, Tulsa Internet Marketing
Posted in Online Marketing, SEM, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, advertising, marketing | No Comments »

More Businesses Going Digital in 2010?

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

The next trend in corporate marketing is going to be relying less on traditional advertising and marketing agencies, according to the latest State of Marketing Report from the Chief Marketing Officer Council. Continuing to build online awareness and generating higher digital demand were the top initiatives reported for 2010 by the global affinity network of senior marketers.

Nearly half of the members surveyed (46%) reported that their companies are presently undergoing a “digital marketing makeover” or will be sometime in 2010. Fifty-eight percent said they were going to train and develop existing staff specifically in this area, and 36 percent expect to hire new talent with digital marketing skills. Forty percent of corporate marketers will be adding or expanding their support from agencies that specialize in digital marketing while an all-time low eight percent plan to conduct advertising agency reviews.

In reviewing where the digital marketing dollars are likely to be directed, 65 percent of respondents said they were evaluating investments in new social media and online communities, 43 percent in Internet media channels, 32 percent in mobile messaging and 31 percent in new methods of online content delivery. In contrast to 2009, most marketers are seeing their media budgets stay the same or increase slightly, with the biggest increases reported in interactive/Web marketing, social media, search marketing, SEO, and mobile communications areas.

I forsee many of these companies using old phone book money to put to better use online. A great first step is to revisit the design and setup of the current website that promotes the organization. Right now, a good rule of thumb is: if you haven’t made significant changes to your website in the last 24 months, go ahead and redesign it and have it redone in WordPress.

Tags: digital marketing, Tulsa business owners, Tulsa web design, website redesign, WordPress
Posted in E-mail Marketing, Online Marketing, SEM, SEO, Social Media, Social Networking, Web Design, advertising | No Comments »

Smart Business Owners are Marketing Online

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

I’m currently reading a book entitled The New Rules of Marketing and PR that my friend and local business owner Brad Johnson of Lawn America loaned to me. It’s quite good! I came across a story about a company that we all know and can identify with, and I found it relevant to many of the business owners that I speak to every week. So, I thought I’d share…

Century 21 Real Estate LLC is the franchisor of the world’s largest residential real estate sales organization, an industry giant comprising approx. 8,000 offices in 45 countries. You’ve seen Century 21’s TV ads before, but you haven’t seen them lately. In 2009, the company pulled its national TV advertising and invested those resources into online marketing. That’s a huge move considering the amount of TV they were doing.

Bev Thorne, chief marketing officer at Century 21, stated, “we are moving our advertising investments to the mediums that have the greatest relevance to our target buyers and sellers, and to where the return on our investment is most significant. In 2008, we found that our online investments provided a return that was substantively higher than our more traditional TV media investments.” They turned to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube, to name a few. Actually, YouTube is a large component of their activities, and they are putting a lot of their attention into developing that medium to promote their brand.

It’s easy to see the logic behind that. As a business owner, you should always go with the mathematical explanation to support why you make decisions like this. What you think may happen and can’t be tracked or proven. There is a lot of calculated data to support investing online and doing some Internet marketing. However, business owners are afraid to make even partial moves away from their comfort zones and into online marketing and social media. But the evidence describing how people actually research products overwhelmingly suggests that companies must tell their stories and spread their ideas online, taking the content to the people. It’s easier to do than ever before. Ridiculously simple, in fact…it just takes some leg work.

I gotta be honest: it is exciting being a marketer right now. There is so much un-chartered territory for small to medium sized businesses! The little guy can make a huge mark in a very short period of time with some professional help! But, sadly, the world of the unknown and unfamiliar will stop many business owners from making these investments online, and quite possibly miss the gold rush because of it.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is the newest fad. No, this is how the world communicates now. Bring your business up to speed and do it quickly before your competitors do. It’s easier to get ahead now then play catch-up later.

Contact Innovated Media today – don’t wait!

Tags: advertising, Innovated Media, Internet Marketing, Internet marketing tulsa, marketing, ROI, Web Design
Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, advertising, marketing | No Comments »

Social Media Replacing E-Mail?

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

Social media has its place, but does that place include replacing our most beloved forms of digital communication: e-mail?

1. Never underestimate the power of the hand-written note or letter. Test this in your work place. Put up a memo in your office, and write something in your own handwriting in red that says, “the power of the hand-written note reaches more people than a typed letter with the most impressive grammar.” I promise they will glance down at the bottom to read the handwriting before the read the first word of the memo. They’ll get the point.

2. Nearly all sites on the web that require registration require an email address. Some are starting to integrate social media into this process (such as Facebook Connect), but that is still a very small fraction, and they typically still allow for email information as well.

3. Email notifies you of updates from all social networks you are a part of. Some people turn this feature off, but I particularly like it. I believe one of the forces of social media is that it is uniquely designed to come to you, the user. If I didn’t get a notification from Facebook in my e-mail, I wouldn’t get on Facebook on my iPhone at the stoplight. Facebook is an excellent tool to network with other professionals and friends, but it can eat up time in a busy schedule. I don’t see the merit in spending time on it unless I am directly connecting with someone in my network. But that’s just me. I like it to come to me (via email).

4. What about e-mail marketing? Hey, if I’m gonna get mail from someone I have no interest in, I’d rather get it digitally so I can just delete it. Better for the environment! Plus, we’ve achieved pretty good results with e-mail marketing. It is a very viable way to communicate to a busy audience, and it does generate leads and sales. People gotta have e-mail for this!

5. Email is universal, and social networks are not. Nearly everybody on the web (while there are no doubt some exceptions) has an email address. Many places of employment give employees email addresses when they begin working there. Meanwhile, a great deal of these companies are banning workers from even accessing social networks.

6. There are plenty of people who have no interest in joining social networks. Frequent news stories about security, privacy, and reputation issues do not help convince them.

7. Email is still improving. It hasn’t screeched to a halt with the rise of social media. There is still innovation going on, and integration with social media. Look at how Google is constantly adding new features to Gmail. Look at the new Yahoo Mail.

8. Even social networks themselves recognize the importance of email. Never mind that they update users about community-driven happenings via email. MySpace (still one of the biggest social networks) even launched its own email service recently.

9. More social media use means more email use. Look at these recent findings from Nielsen. The people consuming the largest amount of social media are also the people consuming the largest amount of email.

10. As far as marketing is concerned, email is doing pretty well, as many companies continue to struggle to find the right social media strategy to suit their needs.

You’ll have to decide for yourself, but in the world that we live in, a short pencil is better than a long memory. There are so many moving parts to how we communicate and perform our duties behind our desks, etc., that having a record of the conversations that you have with clients, coworkers, and friends is invaluable – especially when it can fit in your pocket on your mobile device. Which I hope is an iPhone or I honestly don’t see how you sleep at night.

Tags: E-mail Marketing, Innovated Media, Internet Marketing, marketing, Social Media, social technology, technology
Posted in E-mail, E-mail Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, marketing | No Comments »

Web Developers Stand Up

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

While eating some chocolate donuts this morning with my son, it dawned on me that each miniature donut was identical. All the same size, shape, taste, etc. I thought to myself, “what if all web content developers put ample, and equal time on each web project dedicated to search engine optimization for the site?” Well, it would definitely make the fight to get on Google’s first page much more difficult. The content online everywhere would be so relevant and the searches would be so close together in similarity that one listing would not stand head and shoulders above the other searched results, as it does now.

Well, the truth is, most web designers do just that – they design websites. Developing a website entails much more than just throwing some files on the server and invoicing the client. Proper SEO practices are not followed by all. One firm that we took over a website at the request of the client put together a really nice site, but even after it was launched for over a month, there were no title tags, no descriptions or key words; just nothing but some text and some graphics. When I asked him why they didn’t do any of it, his reply was, “We kinda ran out of time.” 2 weeks after we optimized the site, it was all over the first page of Google and the other major indexes. That company is no longer in business.

Ask yourself, as a content developer, do you skip necessary steps to ensure that your site will be successful and generate leads and sales for a client? Is it laziness or lack of knowledge? Well, we can’t fix your laziness, but below is a list of things that should happen on each web project or online endeavor that will assuredly saturate your presence on the first page of Google’s search.

Frequently post new and current content on your website, blog(s), social media sites, and forums. Especially the home page of your website.
Use different formats to deliver your content to stay fresh and keep audience interest levels high. i.e. blog, whitepapers, newsletters, webinars, podcasting, video etc.
Test and track everything you do. Google Analytics is free and more than powerful enough to provide the metrics you need to track your efforts online.

It will take some extra time to either do this work or teach a client to do it, but in the end will make all the difference.

Tags: advertising, Google, marketing, search engine placement, SEO, Web Design
Posted in Online Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Networking, Web Design | Comments Off

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