Surprise! SEO is changing!
All. Of. The. Time. Some trends won’t surprise you — social media, mobile. But there just may be one or two that will. That’s why we like to talk about Visibility Optimization, not just SEO. Search engines aren’t the only ones who see you — people do.
1. Social Media. Huge, huge huge. Did I mention huge? Everyone talks about the conversation, but so few are good at having one. You can’t just post a video and expect people to beat a path to your door. You have to find ways to get other people to get other people to you. Choosing the right options for doing that for your business is like putting puzzle pieces together. You may need some help.
2. Mobile. As thousands of people daily discover the convenience of accessing the web via mobile devices, optimization has to adapt. Keywords need to be shorter, mobile SEM can’t just be a clone of your online SEM, apps like QR readers must be taken into account — all are going to have an impact on how well your business does.
3. Branding. Didn’t expect that to show up, did you? Branding will be more important to getting your business found, not less. It works like this: Google has made personalized search the default option. So unless a HUGE portion of the population opts out, which they won’t, sites that are more well known and visited most often will enjoy better rankings. In fact, because search history is also taken into account, the same sites will keep popping up for people, search after search. Without a strong brand presence, you could get lost.
4. SEM. We all know that online marketing can help build your visibility. But the more relevant it is will influence just how much it helps. Is it showing up on the right content? Do the keywords match the content? What are the trends on sponsored vs. organic listing? While SEM helps optimization is just common sense, because trends change all the time, your marketing optimization strategy has to change, too.
5. The site itself. No-brainer! Just make sure you load it with keywords, write lots of blog posts and update your news section and you’re fine, right? Not entirely. You will also be judged by how quickly your site loads, whether it’s engaging once someone gets there, how long people spend. If your site is ugly, confusing, boring, slow or poorly constructed, no magical keywords or blog posts can save it. According to a study by Canadian researchers, people will form an opinion of your site in less than 1/20th of a second. If engines see that people click off in a second, you’re not so relevant.
All of this just means that unless you’re willing to spend a whole lot of time keeping up with the trends, you’re going to need someone to help out. If you want to talk, call us.
Posted in
advertising,
branding,
communication,
interactive,
new media Tags:
new media,
optimization,
SEO,
strategy,
visibility
It seems like every day something new and exciting is coming out. A lot of companies are are trying to always stay up with the new “it thing”. But jumping on the newest thing is sometimes not the best thing.
Before you decide to dive into a social media venture make sure it is the right thing for you and your business. Find out as much as you can about the medium or approach. Most importantly, find out if it’s the right thing for your customers.
For example, facebook tends to skew female, under 34, and slightly affluent. YouTube reaches more teenage guys than anyone else. Twitter tends toward the female, college grad types. And LinkedIn’s biggest users are middle-aged men with graduate degrees. There are many tools online to help you decide which new media are right to reach the people you want to reach – use them.
Once you’ve decided to use a new medium make sure you do it well. Participate and become an active member in the community and have a consistent presence. If you decide to join Twitter, tweet a couple times a day. If you create a blog, post something new at least once a week. In the end, how well you do on the web is up to you.
Posted in
general Tags:
media planning,
new media,
online,
social media
According to Wikipedia, integrated marketing is “a planning process designed to assure that all contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time. Integrated Marketing Communications is a term used to describe a holistic approach to marketing…Integrated Marketing Communications is more than just an advertising campaign, its a whole marketing policy.”
Well, duh. At re:group, we’ve been talking about how important managing every point on the customer journey is for years. Whether it’s on or off line, guerilla or traditional, whether it’s on social media outlets or on a bus card, messaging must be relevant and consistent. Some have called it 360 marketing, others call it unbiased, people-centric, holistic, etc.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many doing it very well. The companies who started in the digital arena say they’re integrated, and their executions may be flashy, but their messaging and creative is usually, frankly, pretty crappy. The big agencies integrate by buying or hiring littler companies to implement their strategies online – not necessarily through collaborative partnership. What good integration boils down to is – get ready for it – having a great idea and getting in the right places for the people you want to talk to, and who you want to talk back. It’s now WHETHER you’re taking advantage of new media and social marketing, it’s HOW.
Keep that in mind when you’re looking for a partner to integrate your marketing. It’s not who has the most fancy tools, it’s who knows how to use them.
Posted in
general,
new media Tags:
integrated marketing,
integration,
new media,
SEO
Having just returned from vacation, I’ve been thinking about a question I was presented with a few times when meeting new people while away. It’s a common question; “So, what do you do?” When answering from a career perspective, I typically respond, “I’m the Media Director at re:group, a branding and marketing agency in Ann Arbor, Michigan.” Sometimes the follow up question is “What is Media?”
When I started in the advertising industry (yes, it was a while ago now), a typical response may have been, “well, you know…like TV, Radio, Outdoor, Newspaper, Magazines. I figure out the best medium to reach the right people and then negotiate the purchase of that time or space.” It was all pretty simple.
Our world has changed.
Here’s the new answer: “Well, media includes ANY channel or system of communication, information or entertainment that allows you to cultivate a relationship with your customer or prospect.” Yup, that’s a lot of words. But it boils down to the fact that no longer is it just one-way communication. It is now expected that our “media” is a two-way conversation connecting with our prospects, engaging with them and creating advocates. In fact our advocates become a form of media in them self: probably one of the most powerful.
So, we’ve updated the definition of media. Maybe I need to update my title! Connections Director? (No. Too Julie McCoy of the The Love Boat) Maybe, “Matchmaker” (No. Too Fiddler on the Roof)
Got any suggestions?
Posted in
general Tags:
media,
new media,
social media
