February 2, 2010

Energize your new campaign…without breaking the bank!

Posted by Josh Decker under Facebook, Social Networking, Twitter | Tags: , , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

I am engaged in a marketing campaign for a client that has some serious viral potential.  The two methods we’ve decided to tackle on the front end of this campaign are through Facebook and Twitter.  Now I’ve read a lot of feedback that says you shouldn’t pay for marketing in social networking, but I have to disagree.  Here’s why:

Facebook

You don’t have to pay to have a Facebook account, and you don’t have to pay to Facebook Adsadd events, groups, fan pages and other such things.  However, these are all great…if you can get people to see them.  This is where Facebook PPC comes into play.  Unlike Google and MSN, you can very specifically target your audience with Facebook.  For instance, my current client wanted to target 40-60 year old adults in 45 of the 50 states in the US, who have a college degree and speak English.  How can Facebook be that specific in its targeting effort?  Because people give that information when setting up their profile (it’s not just so people know a little about you). (more…)

 

December 22, 2009

Too many choices…which one is right?

Posted by Josh Decker under marketing | Tags: , , , |
1 Comment 

When looking at Internet Marketing for a small business, there is a lot to consider.  Do you do Search Engine Optimization, pay-per-click marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, pay-for-inclusion marketing or one of many other options available online?  It’s a lot to consider!  Most Entrepreneurs get stuck in the first 2 steps of the process:

  1. Determining which options are right for them
  2. Analyzing the response…the Return on Investment (ROI).

So how does one decide what’s best for their particular business?  One option is to hire someone you can trust to do it for you.  The trust piece is extremely important because there are so many “hidden” pieces to Internet Marketing, a “professional marketer” could make out with a lot of your money while not producing a single result for you.  However, even if you’re going to use a professional marketer or marketing firm, you should give yourself a base-level knowledge of what they’re doing.  (more…)

 

December 4, 2009

3 Tools to lower your 2010 marketing budget

Posted by Josh Decker under Social Networking, Twitter, marketing | Tags: , , , |
Leave a Comment 

As we approach the end of the year, one of the questions every marketing department will be tackling is how to lower their marketing budget and increase effectiveness.  Below are 6 tools I would recommend for anyone leveraging Internet Marketing Strategies:

  • Google Analytics – One of the better analytics programs on the market, and yes, it’s free.  With this tool, you can automate reports, have them sent to your email on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis.  The downside to this tool is the lack of real-time analysis.  Reporting can be delayed as much as several (6+) hours.  If you need real-time tracking for your site, you’ll want to investigate some of the “for fee” analytics programs. (more…)
 

December 2, 2009

Focusing on Negativity?

Posted by Josh Decker under SEO, marketing | Tags: , , |
Leave a Comment 

Normally I would say that focusing on negativity is not the way to approach business.  However, depending on your industry, you may not be able to avoid it entirely.  For instance, I work for a company whose business is highly dependent of the reputation in the marketplace.  This makes susceptibility to negativity campaigns very high.  There have been negative “PR” attacks on our company with words such as scam or fraud or other such things.

So, in this kind of business, we cannot simply avoid negativity.  It’s unfortunate, but if it’s avoided entirely, it leaves potential clients thinking what they’re reading is true.  The way to combat this, therefore, is to start optimizing toward negative keywords as well as your “sell-able” keywords.  After a little investigating, I determined one of the best ways of doing this is through a blog. (more…)

 

October 20, 2009

What Really Matters?

Posted by Josh Decker under SEO | Tags: , , , |
Leave a Comment 
2009 Google Algorithm Estimates

2009 Google Algorithm Estimates

This was released several months ago, and I tweeted about it at the time.  However, I didn’t take the time to post it here and comment on it.  SEOMoz takes the time every two years to poll SEO professionals to find out what factors they’re finding to be most important when optimizing a website.    What may be surprising to non-marketing professionals is that the “on page optimization”, or those factors you can control such as content, titles, etc, basically it’s those things you have control over, account for only about 15% of how Google determines your SERP result.

What Google really finds important are the “link building” activities.  Who’s linking to you?  What is the authority of that site?  What keywords are used in the anchor text that points to you?  How many people are linking to the particular page?   On the minimal side is how much traffic comes to the page, and your registration and hosting information. (more…)

 

September 10, 2009

Social Networking…Optimized

Posted by Josh Decker under Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Networking, Twitter | Tags: , , , |
Leave a Comment 

I have focused a lot on leveraging Social Networking and Social Media for pushing your business forward.  As I have, a lot of focus has been on the need for doing it, which is also getting a lot of attention.  But what I’ve only seen recently is the need to do it well, and to optimize your interactions in Social Networking.

The first thing to keep in mind is that things posted to a social networking site is still being posted to a webpage.  With that being said, it’s not the “build it and they will come” model.  Unfortunately a lot of people approach it that way.  Yes, you’ll get some people to come if you just build it.  However, they aren’t necessarily the people you want to have.  Rather, just like your website, you want to the right people to come to you.  How do you make that happen? (more…)

 

August 28, 2009

Do I really need Twitter?

Posted by Josh Decker under Twitter | Tags: , , , |
Leave a Comment 

If you’re a teenager, I would say, No. If you’re a serious business person, whether you’re in sales, an executive, or a marketing professional: YES, you should be tweeting! Why?

There have been a rash of recent news articles about how teenagers aren’t using twitter. With 200+ million users, than who are they? According to Forrester Research, it’s the group aged 35-50! With that said, what are we doing to embrace this explosion in the professional world to push our businesses forward? (more…)

 

August 24, 2009

Stop Interrupting Me!

Posted by Josh Decker under Social Networking, marketing | Tags: , , , , |
[2] Comments 

One of the things that drives me crazy is when companies interrupt me to try to pitch their product.  We’ve all experienced walking through the mall and one of the kiosk employees trying to get us to try their lotion, or their heating pads, or (one I actually like) their magic tricks.  I try to avoid these at all costs…their technique is known as interruption marketing; they interrupt to get you to interact with them. (more…)

 

August 11, 2009

Avoiding the Marketing Head Cold

Posted by Josh Decker under SEM, SEO | Tags: , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

I hate summer time colds, and of course I’ve gotten one.  As I was sitting here this morning nursing my achy muscles and congested sinuses, it made me start thinking about marketing.  You see, when we get a head cold, it comes on suddenly, and we wonder what happened to make us get it.  Then, we’re suffering through it, wondering how long it’s going to last.  Marketing can be very similar.

With marketing, we often do things because they “worked in the past”.  Then when things don’t work out so well, we wonder why.  As our bottom line starts to suffer (much like the achy muscles of being sick), we wonder how long it’s going to last, and what we can do to end the suffering.

Well, here’s a few tips that act like Dayquil for your marketing: (more…)

 

August 10, 2009

Customer Service and Social Networking

Posted by Josh Decker under Social Networking | Tags: , , , , |
Leave a Comment 

I just saw a video posted on YouTube back at the beginning of July. I’m sure we’ve all thought about how we could get the attention of a company that really doesn’t “get it”. This is a video of one such band that actually decided to speak up.

What does this have to do with social networking? If companies think they can get away with treating customers/clients without regard to consequences, this video shows otherwise. Likewise, if you’re really going to make an impact for your company, you must engage social networking, it’s not just an option any longer.

(more…)

 

Next Page »