SEO Tactics Used by SEO Maturity Phase
by Kaci Bower, Senior Research Analyst - MarketingSherpa.com
SUMMARY: We learned that 29% of organizations claim to have adopted a systematic and strategic approach to planning, executing and measuring SEO efforts and programs. But how does this translate to a tactical level? Do these organizations use SEO tactics to a greater degree than organizations without a process in place for SEO? In a word, yes.
In this week’s chart, we illustrate these gaps, featuring survey results from more than 1,500 search marketers.
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Effectiveness of Website Design, Management and Optimization Tactics
by Jen Doyle, MarketingSherpa.com Senior Research Analyst
MarketingSherpa.com asked nearly 1,000 B2B marketers to identify which website design, management and optimization tactics were very effective, somewhat effective or not effective. Find out which tactics topped the list as the most effective in this week’s chart - view detailed results.
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2011 Marketing Budget Landscape
As marketing strategies evolve from outbound to inbound tactics, there is also a shift in the ways in which money and resources are spent.
MarketingSherpa asked more than 1,100 marketers how they foresaw budgets changing in 2011 for the following marketing tactics.
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Social Media Tactics for B2B
The rapidly growing popularity of social media has many B2B marketers changing their marketing mix to include it. What are the most commonly used B2B social marketing tactics according to a recent poll conducted by MarketingSherpa?
Side Note: Keep in mind, social media may not be right for your company. Are there other things you could be working on that directly benefit your organization?
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Marketing Wisdom for 2011
The MarketingSherpa "Marketing Wisdom for 2011" special report is now available as a complimentary PDF and features a wealth of real-life stories of success and lessons learned from the MarketingSherpa community.
- Nathan
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Which Email Test Won?
We had a great time working with the people at WhichTestWon.com on an email test.
In November prior to the Thanksgiving Holiday, we sent an A/B test of two identical email campaigns - the only difference is that one email had an image, the other was text content.
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Environmentally Conscious Managed Hosting with Greenhouse Data Featuring IDES
IDES president Mike Kmetz shares our experience as a colocation client of Green House Data.
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Webinar Promotion that Delivers Case Study with MarketingSherpa.com
A few weeks ago, Josh and I were interviewed by Sean Donahue, Editor for MarketingSherpa.com. Today the case study was published and includes information about the educational webinars we produce in conjunction with several top plastics industry experts.
Summary:
The right webinar promotion strategy can be the difference between a lackluster event and a lead generation bonanza.
We spoke with a team that's covering all the bases with a templated webinar communication plan that's driving live-event attendance and contributing to long-term lead generation. See how they combine outbound and automated email, a clever "refer-a-friend" campaign and an on-demand viewing option that's capturing contact info from 55% of viewers.
For the full case study including screenshots, visit MarketingSherpa.com.
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Google's New Look
You may have noticed that something feels slightly different with Google's search results — the look and feel has changed!
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Google Makes “Similar” Results More Visible in SERPs
Google has raised the visibility of its “pages similar” to feature in its Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Organic results returned for a given search query – particular brands or specific websites – may now feature a list of results that are deemed “similar”.
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How Fast is Your Plastics Website?
On April 9, 2010, Matt Cutts an Engineer for Google reported that Google has incorporated site speed in search rankings.
Try a speed test of your website and compare it against some of your competitors with this tool recommended by Google.
Here's one we just ran - because getting an answer fast makes our customers happy, making our website fast makes us happy too!
Speed test conducted on December 3, 2010
Speed test conducted on April 23, 2010
Speed test conducted on November 11, 20 (11/11/11)!
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Landing Page Bloopers: Blog Postings by ion interactive
I ran across a post by ion interactive starting a series of blog posts titled Landing Page Bloopers.
In this particular post, they discuss how more than one call to action on your landing page will lead to inaction. It's important to have one thing you want your website visitor to do - make it bold, make it loud, make it obvious. (If you're not familiar with what a landing page is, click here - but I hope you already know what they are).
Seth Godin wrote a great little book about web design years ago called "The Big Red Fez." In the beginning of the book, Godin compares web surfers to the monkeys in scientific experiments who need to go through certain steps to get a banana. If it isn't clear where the banana is (the site's main benefit), the monkey (consumers) won't bother to go looking for it.
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What’s Working Overall in Search?
In a recent study by MarketingSherpa.com, they asked search engine marketers to what degree various search capabilities positively affected their PPC or SEO efforts, including local and mobile search.
Here is a list of resources as they pertain to the plastics industry that you can focus your search engine marketing efforts:
Vertical Search Engines: The Plastics Web® by IDES, Globalspec, Thomas Register, Business.com
Blog Services: Typepad, Wordpress
Press Release Services: Polysort, PitchEngine, PR Newswire, Marketwire
Social Search: LinkedIn, Twitter (Although the plastics industry hasn't adopted Facebook , it's an opportunity to watch for the future - secure your company's page now though)
Local Search: Google Local Business Center
- Nathan
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Tactics for Keyword Research
A great chart was published today by MarketingSherpa.com about Tactics for Keyword Research that includes some great tips you may have not thought about... (click image for larger version of this chart)
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Google Adwords Bid Simulator
Definitely a handy tool for those of you using Google Adwords. You can learn about Google Adwords Bid Simulator here.
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Google Local Search Opportunity
Company's Google Local Business Center listings appear in regular Google search results, and you may be missing out on an opportunity!
This is known as 'blended search' where you see other things appearing and not just search results. They can include products, news, videos and business listings as shown in this example below for the search term 'plastics.' (click the image to see a larger version)
Notice how Google through IP (internet protocol), is able to know that I'm searching within geographic proximity to Colorado, and they have shown local business listings from company's in Colorado that provide plastics-related services. It's easy to create your Company's business listing with Google.
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A Blog About a Blog
I religiously follow Seth Godin and his Blog ever since I had the rare opportunity to visit his office in New York with 19 others for a day of amazing marketing insight years ago.
Today, he published a snippet titled 'The reason social media is so difficult for most organizations.' It's the most succinct, and perhaps most spot-on posting he's ever done (well maybe not quite):
"It's a process, not an event.
Dating is a process. So is losing weight, being a public company and building a brand.
On the other hand, putting up a trade show booth is an event. So are going public and having surgery.
Events are easier to manage, pay for and get excited about. Processes build results for the long haul."
- Nathan
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Google's Real-Time Web
At IDES, we've been twittering @idesinc for a year now and it's nice to see that it's starting to catch on (slowly) for the plastics industry.
On Monday, Google's Marissa Mayer and others from the search giant gave a fantastic presentation on The Future of Search.
One particular announcement was about the real-time web. Moments ago I tested it out by tweeting on my personal Twitter Page @pottern about Google Goggles & Google Chrome for Mac. Within a few seconds, my tweet appeared in Google's search results for these terms.
More plastics professionals are turning to the web for their information and for answers. The question is, will you be there when they need you? Search technology is improving and advancing at a rapid rate every day - and there are so many affordable opportunities for you to gain exposure to people who could end up becoming your loyal customers.
But how do you stay abreast of all the new changes?
Here are 3 easy ways:
1. Get a Twitter account and follow influential people & their postings on Twitter - here are 3 I recommend:- @mattcutts - Head of webspam team at Google.
- @marissamayer - Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google
- @annatalerico - EVP - ion interactive
3. Do searches on Google to seek out trending topics
- Nathan
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A Date with Ducati?
I love the way Ducati is adopting Social Media Marketing (SMM)!
Take a look at their promotion launching this week titled A Date with Ducati.
Although Social Media Marketing is very new to the plastics industry, start thinking how you can use this 'new' (even though it's been around a few years) media to help market your company.
For ideas, I invite you to subscribe to this blog and follow IDES on Twitter.
- Nathan
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