Robert Pontello's Blog-A Digital Marketing Professional

SEO 101: Practical Applications.

robertpontello — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:45:22 +0000

We all hear a great deal of buzz words and jargon within the internet advertising community; but what really is the meat behind internet marketing. Simply put there are two strategies to approach for a given campaign, the paid (SEM) and the organic/free (SEO) methods. I personally belive that social networking is a component of SEO and not a stand along strategy. In this post I will address the SEO strategy.

The most critical aspect of an effective SEO plan is to focus your message and or products and services into compartmentalized sections. Organizing your web pages into very targeted data clusters; along with keeping correlated links and menus throughout the site. In other words, define your web menus by utilizing organized data elements to be consistent with page listings and data includes. Your overall web mappings should follow a logical pattern for users to navigate from any page or section they may land on from a given search engine. With this being stated, the naming convention for your page headers, meta tags, images, videos and other media should also be concise, self descriptive titles. Allowing images and other media files to have random or purely numerical titles is detrimental to your web site’s search ability characteristics.

Example, if you’re promoting a commercial real estate brokerage company, you might have a page dedicated to property management that is separated from your for sale and leasing service pages. Your main navigation menu would have a separated link for property management with possible sub menus with related services like tenant evictions. It would be ideal to have a separate page for each sub menu link. The page titles and meta tags should also be inclusive of not only the exact link name but also relevent keywords; like rent-roll management, property investments, and vacancy management. Keeping a consistent and targeted campaign will result in a dynamic theme-logic strategy that is elemental in submitting successful algorithmic wording to the top search engine web crawlers.

Now you can employ your web 2.0 tools to specifically promote individual sections within your web solution. Broadcast specific messages (tweets) relating to the overall web campaign or to specific promotions active withing the corporate web architecture. Please read my other post on social networking 101-301 for more details on implementing social networking tools.

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Social Networking 301 for Corporations.

robertpontello — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:48:05 +0000

Now that we have established a strategic ideology and action plan (101, 201 post), we can begin to build our web 2.0 quiver. In this example we will continue with the “price conscious” consumer who’s purchasing desires are triggered by the “coupon” driven mentality. For this campaign we will construct a landing page where all our viral and tweet type messaging directs the subscriber to. In this model our Facebook and Twitter tweets will directly link to the landing page with possible anchors if more than one product or service is featured on the landing page. I recommend having the landing page incorporated as a unique page within your standard website or ERP solution. Updating and tracking impressions on your landing page will be more easily managed without having it deeply embedded within shared content pages. After all, we want to track our campaign utilizing web traffic indicators along with various subscriber/customer response data mining forms. Ideally, once you have drawn a prospect into your page, you not only want to excite their buying impulse but also gather as much information possible for further marketing avenues and research. I also recommend starting a “blog” that is specifically geared around the product or service you wish to promote. Do not hard-sell your product within your blog; but rather discuss issues and topics that are relative to your industry. Example, if your in the pet industry start discussing healthy exercises for your dog rather than just jabbering away on the benefits of your dog food brand. Get potential customers/subscribers by first converting them into loyal readers of your social networking tools.

Nuts and bolts:

Get signed up on Twitter and or Facebook. Use relative corporate names and images to properly represent your company and or products/services.
Get a “blog” started for that specific product or service your wish to promote.
Place your Facebook, Twitter, and your main corporate links on the bottom of your blog. (Do not add a link to the landing page on your blog, we want to drive traffic in and around your landing page via your social networking sites that are setup for a more push then pull ideology.)
Brainstorm for keywords and other phrases that potential consumers would use to “google” your products or services.
Develop a landing page that highlights your product or services utilizing traditional advertising verbage and imagery.
Optimize your landing page utilizing SEO strategies that are built upon your keywords and phrases.
Incorporate a data mining web form to gather at minimal email addresses of landing page visitors.
Implement web-traffic monitoring software like google analytics to track web visitors.
In both Facebook and Twitter, search and find as many targeted “friends”/Twitterers, groups, and organizations as possible.
In the settings of your web 2.0 tools, (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) have the default url link to your landing page.(Except for your blog as mention above.)
Start tweeting and or “status updating” with concise messages that excite prospects with crucial product information or exceptional discounts.
Don’t repeat messages in a “blitz style” manner; but rather send a new version of your original message adopting an overall soft-push philosophy.
After an inital test launching of your campaign, stop messaging and evaluate traffic generated and potential subscriber feedback.

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Social Networking 201 for Corporations.

robertpontello — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:25:44 +0000

With the basic guidelines outlined in the previous post “101″, we can begin to formulate a specific social marketing campaign. Early on I suggest picking a particular customer desire like “saving conscious” instead of trying a blanket neural approach that might lose focus and confuse your customer base. Stick with a particular corporate objective and launch your social marketing tools accordingly. Lets stick with the approach of dealing in a price sensitive environment where your customer bases is cost driven into purchasing desires.

In this model, “tweeting” discounts on popular items would be an acceptable approach, but to instead “tweet” discount codes only known to your web 2.0 subscribers would really be an effective and informative selling push. The recent emergence of “smart phones” can further this strategy by providing actual barcoded coupons that your subscribers download and display on the phone where the retailer can actually scan the image and read it. This would truly provide the sophisticated ”social network participant” to take an active role in your digital marketing campaign; plus you would be giving them a reward for doing such. Posting deals and specials on Facebook fan pages is another way to allow your subscribers to periodically check in on your product specials without bombarding them with constant updates.

It is important to keep a focused approach to social networking that doesn’t engulf the subscriber with a “spam” type flavor, otherwise you run the risk of leaving a bad impression with your targeted social participants.

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Social Networking 101 for Corporations.

robertpontello — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:56:51 +0000

As Facebook and Twitter feed the social hunger for individual expressionism, corporations have discovered a new path to reach their prospective customer base. Social networking tools allow individuals, groups, and corporate entities to provide real time physical and ideological statuses. Keeping up with your friend’s gossip and personal thoughts have taken the internet to yet another evolution of awareness. But most individuals, and especially corporations, are not conveying interesting enough “tweets” that capture an audience. This self-serving expressionism style is adding more clutter than provocative “tid-bits” of info that it could be providing.

Corporations especially need to have a very targeted social campaign that doesn’t offend and bombard the recipients. The internet was born out of ”shareware” and free resource indexing that still resonates in all of us using the net for our entertainment and social communication. This places a bias against corporations using the net to hard sell to perspective customers that normally is overlooked in other media channels like TV or radio. Therefore, special attention and planning are crucial to launching a useful and informative “tweet” campaign. This concept of meaningful and targeted “tweeting” is a basic requirement for any successful corporate social networking strategy. Simply “tweeting” away to obtain valuable exposure may actually turn off subscribers to your message and perhaps your entire corporation. Providing critical information on store inventories during a “Thanksgiving” sale or special discounts is a good starting point, but innovation within corporate “tweeting” needs to be constantly evolving to keep the interest of an A.D.D. , yet savey internet socializer.

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