SES San Francisco 2012: Registration Now Open (04/29) | Link Building Advice
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Incisive Media announced today that registration is now open for SES San Francisco 2012, taking place August 13-17 at the Moscone West in downtown San Francisco. Marketers who register for SES San Francisco before April 27 will receive a savings of up to $1,257.
“Designing marketing campaigns that allow a business to remain competitive is no longer a simple, straightforward effort”
The keynote presentation will be delivered by Avinash Kaushik, Digital Evangelist at Google, who will be sharing strategies and tactics for achieving the maximum outcome when designing campaigns that employ multiple marketing channels, a common and necessary practice in today’s online marketing world.
“Designing marketing campaigns that allow a business to remain competitive is no longer a simple, straightforward effort,” said Kaushik. “Today’s ever-evolving and very complex variety of marketing channels requires almost three-dimensional strategizing. I have some insights and case studies that will hopefully smooth the way for marketers.”
“Whether you’re an in-house marketer working to get more from your online marketing campaigns or an agency trying to figure out how to put together creative, effective campaigns for your clients, SES San Francisco is guaranteed to provide tactics and tools that will take you and your team to the next level,” said Matthew McGowan, Managing Director of Americas at Incisive Media. “This is one of our biggest conferences and that gives us plenty of opportunity—through our sessions and networking—to address all levels of attendees, from the senior decision maker to the newbie.”
SES San Francisco includes two days of training, August 13 and 17; three days of main conference sessions, August 14, 15 and 16; and two days of an Exhibit Hall, August 14 and 15. In addition to the five-day learning environment, there are many opportunities for informal networking throughout the conference lunches and receptions.
To attend the conference, fill out the SES San Francisco registration form here. Register before June 16 to receive a savings of up to $500.
About SES
Incisive Media's SES is a leading global conference and training series focused on search engine marketing. Other Incisive resources for interactive marketers include ClickZ for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research and Search Engine Watch, which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.
Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person and online. The company's principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services and risk management. Incisive Media's market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, Post, Risk, and SES Conference and Expo. For more information, visit incisivemedia.com
For more news and event updates visit the SES press room.
Email Marketing and Email List Management With MailChimp (04/25) | Email Marketing Advice
The best things in life are free and so is the MailChimp. MailChimp is the easiest way to create and send professionally functional and aesthetically appealing business emails. it organizes and manages subscriptions as well as tracks and evaluates the performance of email marketing campaigns. by using latest analysis techniques like A/B split testing, segmentations and return on investment (ROI) tracking, MailChimp produces the most accurate and instant results out of business email marketing. on top of that, MailChimp is absolutely free to use which makes it a unique and mouth watering service to avail. But being free only means one thing that MailChimp offers more features and better performance for absolutely nothing compared to those expensive brands and paid marketing service providers.
The secret of MailChimp success as marketer lies in its unlimited features fully updated to be compatible with modern trends and inventions in communication technology. Such features like new subscribers' addition and tracking through mobile make MailChimp as useful on mobile devices as on PC. Similarly, the social features of MailChimp comprehensively accommodate the rapidly growing people networking sites (Facebook and Twitter) by allowing it to use the power of social networks for business success. this integration is totally inevitable for a fruitful marketing campaign as it lures heavy crowd by keeping them informed through information sharing. Another essential feature of MailChimp is the integration with third parties (Google Analytics, Eventbrite, WordPress etc) by enabling smooth data transfer.
The application of MailChimp as an email marketing tool and email list manager is not limited to any particular business or sphere of ecommerce as it has plenty to offer for everyone. this flexibility and array of expert features make MailChimp the most popular and effective email marketing campaigner. The useful tools like Inbox Inspector and Autoresponders ensure prompt access, quality feedback and constant connection with the customers at all times. For email lists organization and to send targeted promotional messages, MailChimp offers List Segmentation whereas, Dynamic Content facility allows total customization of contents based on any criteria set by the client. Other powerful functions like API, RSS to Email and Email Authentication expand the reach of MailChimp beyond the unlimited boundaries of web commerce.
Around half a million satisfied users including small outlets as well as large corporations are the real strength of MailChimp as the leading email marketing brand and also a proof of its continuous success in the ecommerce world.
How SEO & PPC Can Help Build Your Email Marketing List (04/14) | Email Marketing Advice
The biggest driver of leads for the B2B marketer? Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed by BtoB Magazine said email marketing was the online channel that contributed the most qualified leads to their businesses, according to a recent eMarketer article.
While social media and PPC (SEO was conspicuously missing from the survey) were also top lead sources, this type of logic rings true for many of the B2B organizations we work with as well. Website search presence undoubtedly brings lead opportunities into the sales funnel, but email invitations for more qualified content strategies such as webinars, events, and trade shows are likely to close the deal as well.
It’s difficult to teach an old dog new tricks. the eMarketer article indicates that 59 percent of those surveyed view lead generation as their greatest online marketing challenge. with that pressure in mind, it’s also difficult to move away from the strategies that continue to work well.
Instead of bucking the trend, B2B search engine marketers should work toward aligning their goals with what has worked well for their organizations. in this case, building the email marketing database.
Here are three practical steps tying SEO and PPC initiatives to the continued development of the email marketing list.
Make Email Subscription a Conversion Benchmark
There are several potential metrics B2B marketers can use to benchmark an SEO program. while B2B organizations naturally gravitate to the desire to acquire sales ready leads, search engine marketers need to lead the effort in developing a spectrum of lead opportunities from an SEO program.
While email subscription will probably not lead to an immediately qualified sales prospect, setting goals in coordination with email acquisition sets the stage for more effective conversion attribution in SEO campaign evaluation.
Measurements to consider:
- Growth in overall email information and the quality of email address details
- Conversion rate of email acquisition at the page level and by keyword strategies
Create More Visibility to Email Subscriptions in Page Templates
Landing page optimization is a critical component of any search engine marketing initiative. Consider supporting primary conversion goals with an opportunity to acquire email subscriptions as well. Places B2B search engine marketers could consider optimizing for email as a secondary conversion include:
- Below the primary form submission
- In utility navigation
- Confirmation page messaging
Places where email subscription could be considered a primary conversion opportunity include:
- Blog and blog post navigational stream
- Social media assets
- As additional correspondence in email and traditional marketing collateral
- Mobile applications
Contact AdWords about the Communication Extensions Beta
Not widely adopted and hard to find in terms of (ironic) communication, the AdWords communications extension beta could become another way to drive email registrations for the B2B organization.
Via this support thread on Google AdWords:
“currently, the communication extentions are tested by the team on a small portion of selected accounts. however, if you’d like to participate in beta testings, you need to email/call the support team, provide details about your account and submit it. ”
There is a concern over the quality of email information users would put into such a form submission. while forum thread conversion indicated that “there has been a lot of great feedback from the advertisers who have been testing these features“, a recent interview in WebProNews from Aweber had not seen “a ton of traffic”, but they’ve learned a few things in the first month of adoption to improve usage over time.
A few basic considerations:
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket; if approved set aside a subset of keywords or separate campaigns to test
- Test ad position to determine maximum effectiveness
- Evaluate competitive ads and offerings for specific keywords selected
Final Thoughts
The eMarketer article goes on to explain that even though email marketing is the top lead generation source, B2B marketers and agencies felt that social media in particular has room to grow for their organizations. Fifty-five percent of all organizations surveyed believe that social media showed great promise but was still in too early a stage in their marketing strategy to tell for certain. Only 5 percent of respondents described their social media efforts as “well-optimized,” compared with 30 percent who felt that way about their email programs.
With the influence social media will bring to search engine marketing programs over time, these findings make it much more of an imperative for B2B SEO’s in short- and long-term scenarios. Search engine marketers should seek to take the lead in social media but must also demonstrate clear tie-in to the current B2B internet marketing programs driving leads for the organization as well.
Don’t ignore online marketing channels that work and are trusted like email marketing. Build the case for SEO and PPC to support and enhance all channels of lead opportunity, existing and in development.
SES Toronto 2012 is June 11-13. Register before may 11 and save up to $300!
7 New Ways to Think About SEO & Converged Media Metrics (04/10) | SEO Advice
The costs related to a specific actions and final acquisition has always been, and always will be, the ultimate metric and goal for any marketer. However, how we get to that final acquisition metric and how we optimize our search engine optimization (SEO) and social media efforts has changed significantly.
As we adapt to the convergence of SEO, social, content, and digital media channels there has never been a better time to think about new ways to measure paths to acquisition and utilize the vast amounts of technology, analytical tools and platforms that help us measure the value of media that is "earned from consumers."
What follows are some insights and straightforward tips from my recent visit to SES new York and some food for thought as to new ways to look at measuring, not just SEO, but converged, earned, and business related metrics.
1. Match Value to Traditional SEO Metrics
While ensuring that you measure traffic from the search engines – how many pages receive visits from these search engines, and how many keywords are sending traffic to site – also try to match value to these metrics.
For example, what is the size of the actual SEO opportunity and how much traffic and conversion comes from specific landing pages? How many keywords are under management and what is the specific value, cost and return, of specific keywords?
2. Distinguish between Reactive vs. Proactive Metrics
Sometimes it's too easy to get caught in a battle or debate with client about metrics. We all know this happens far too much, right? the reality as to why this happens it due to that fact that people often report binary metrics based on reaction to:
- A loss of rankings.
- Reduction in traffic levels.
- Reductions in actions.
- Loss of business, lower conversions, and so forth.
Now these are all essential metrics to the success of any online campaign. However, simply reporting these metrics can put you in a constant cycle of debate.
Looking and reporting proactive metrics actual helps you in this case by providing the clients with something new and also putting any reactive metrics into perspective. such metrics to focus on are:
- Rankings in relation to competition.
- Rankings in relation to content and news and external/industry statistics.
- Influencer based metrics and future value.
- Social value and engagement.
- Attribution based metrics (more on this later).
- Action based metrics that over time influence rankings.
You can do this by utilizing a combination of:
- Advanced analytics (Google and Bing Webmaster Tools and analytics).
- SEO tools (Majestic, Moz, Screaming Frog).
- Enterprise SEO and social media technologies (later in this post).
3. Place a Value & Forecast SEO Metrics – think beyond Just Ranking Position
SEO is finally becoming more measurable, and by tracking the whole picture and integrating with site analytics measuring ROI has become a whole lot easier. Quantifying the value of an SEO (just like you would with PPC) project prior to its start allows clients to invest more based on these forecasts.
Always remember the following:
- Rankings mean nothing unless you put a value to them.
- To place a value on SEO use organic traffic data and PPC keyword data to project spend – just like you would PPC.
- Make sure you use this data to benchmark where you or your client are is in relation to the competition.
Being able to see where you're winning and losing becomes a whole new SEO metric in itself
4. Embrace Social Media Metrics & Objectives
Eight-four percent of companies surveyed in a recent Facebook survey believe that social signals will be more important to SEO in 2012. the convergence of SEO and social media tactics has meant that social media metrics are becoming just as important as traditional SEO metrics.
It is now vital to measure "beyond the Like" and understand the true value of social media interactions.
The increased importance of social signals (e.g., Google Search plus your World) means it is now essential to look at how, when, and why social signals (tweets, likes, +1’s, and Pins) influence rankings and position. Creating a Google+ page, adding social plugins (maximize engagement), interlinking deep pages with social media properties, and SEO’ing your social pages are all vital steps in optimizing for the social web and graph.
Lee Odden, Author & CEO of TopRank, makes a great point on matching KPI’s to business values.
"One important distinction to make with measuring the integrated SEO and social media efforts is the difference between KPIs and business outcomes," Odden said. "I talk about this in Optimize where KPIs are defined as the behaviors that often lead to revenue oriented outcomes. KPIS like links, rankings and search traffic as well as likes, fans, friends, followers, network size, rate of growth and such are all useful measures of progress that can lead to business outcomes."
Odden also makes an interesting point on the differences between sales and social impact.
“Obviously sales and new customers are the most often sought after outcomes but so are the social impact on increased orders, order volume and frequency,” Odden said.
Image credit: Econsultancy
"Whatever brands can do facilitate productive connections between prospects or consumers and useful brand content, the more meaningful the engagement," Odden said. "And in my experience, an engaged community is more likely to be a profitable community."
5. Utilize the right Tools & Technologies that get you the right Metrics
From measuring site stats, links, value, and social media influence the development many tools and technology platforms are allowing us to segment different types of metrics and build insights and value from a numerous of different sources.
Utilizing these types of seo and social media technologies – see this article on 45 SEO and Social Media Tools for examples – helps you collaborate much more closely with clients and agencies and…
6. Report the right Metrics to the right Person
Metrics are pretty useless you are reporting the right metrics to the relevant people, in the relevant format and at the relevant time. there is no set formula as to how you report metrics to an agency or a client as every company has a different organization structure, political structure, and level of knowledge.
Beyond marketing and sales objectives, search and social media marketing programs can affect increases in media coverage, attracting new employees and serving as a facilitator for better online customer service. that means more than links and likes.
For Odden, this means "performance based measurements in alignment with objectives like monitoring social conversations for customer service opportunities and overlaying those trends on social / search referrals to company knowledgebase and FAQ content. is social engagement and optimized customer service content attracting more visits to FAQ and knowledge-base pages for example? what impact does such optimized content have on brand sentiment within social channels over time?”
Depending upon your objective you can start to build and utilize dashboards and widgets to begin to segment how and to whom you report certain metrics through an organizational structure. once you have done this you can gain ‘buy-in’ from individuals in specific roles whilst then collaborating and sharing metrics easily across various business functions.
The end result is a client that fully understands the metrics relevant to them and their role.
Ciaran Norris, director of Emerging Media, Mindshare Global, makes a great point to help keep us in check.
“What’s changed in the market is that clients and agencies were use to the simple, precise nature of search (CPC etc) but have now had to adapt to the sometimes less definitive world of social,” Norris said. “there should be different metrics used to measure the effects of different platforms. the ultimate metric should be sales”.
7. Attribute Credit and Admit that You’re a Marketer
Someone once said “It’s not SEO, it’s Marketing”. the scope of SEO has changed dramatically over recent months due to its convergence with social and content-based media.
It's only natural (pardon the pun) that now we have more effective ways of measuring success that we should think like a holistic marketer. SEO has long had an issue with its PPC peer about attribution and credit. Advancements in analytics, tools, and technology highlighted above now pave way for SEO to monetize its value while also showing how its assists in the conversion process.
Kevin Gibbons wrote a great post showing how you can treat SEO forecasting like PPC and help to attribute accordingly.
Yes, there are always going to be challenges to this such as local search (Panda) and softer metrics that muddy the waters and are hard to measure (brand metrics) but the development and rise of API’s can help you work your way to building metrics to get you nearer your goals and show how you add value in the conversion chain.
Conclusion
As we move to a converged media world we are now presented with a number of ways to attract new connections between brand and consumer. This is turn creates a number of different ways to measure interactions and value by looking at metrics in a new light.
Utilizing the right technology and reporting the relevant metric from the relevant channel to the relevant person at the relevant time is the best way to show value and get the increase in spend that you deserve.
"The only metrics that really matter are sales (or the equivalent) and the cost of driving those," Norris said. "Anything else is just dressing."
Well, what we have today is a whole new way of dressing, measuring and tracking how SEO and it’s converged media partners can become more accountable in that sales process.
SES Toronto 2012 is June 11-13. Register before May 11 and save up to $300!
Harnessing The Power Of Email: 3 Strategies For Financial Marketers (04/3) | Email Marketing Advice
[Editor's Note: this is the second installment in a series from the financial industry's leading e-marketing experts on how banks and credit unions can maximize the email channel. you can read the first article, "Why I never Got Your Email," here.]
While financial intuitions have rushed into the digital world building new apps and launching mobile websites, many have overlooked a fundamental tool in their marketing mix: email. if your financial institution still promises “we will never send you email,” it’s time to stop. All the familiar concerns — spam filters, privacy laws, phishing scams, etc. — can be tackled. Email is simply too powerful and too effective to ignore.
Email has emerged as one of the most powerful tools in the financial marketer’s arsenal, a vital component of any cross-channel marketing strategy. Here are three strategies to help you find success and confidence with email marketing.
1. create a Solid Plan
Start every campaign with a good understanding of the offer, the target market, and the mix of channels to be used. Define how hot, warm, and cold leads will be addressed. And don’t forget to Involve client services early to avoid confusion once the promotion is launched.
Studies have shown a consumer must be exposed to a relevant message at least three times over a seven-day period in order for the message to stick. Email is one of the most cost-efficient ways to increase message frequency and reach.
Use MCIF or similar data information systems to target your message. choose data points that identify consumers most likely to respond to targeted and timely offers. Depending on the campaign’s goals, filter your email list according to credit scores, customers with/without a particular product, those nearing the end of their term, age, marital status, or those who’ve never tried a similar service at your financial institution.
Data allows you to tailor the message and make it more personal. Here are a few examples illustrating how to personalize your emails, depending on the campaign:
- Use the recipient’s first name in the salutation, and whenever you can in the body copy wherever it makes sense.
- Present pre-qualified or pre-approved offers stating the amount or rate they’re personally being offered based on their credit score.
- Show a payment example based on their actual, unique offer.
- Provide a personalized URL (PURL) to accept the offer immediately.
- Include a real employee’s contact name, direct-dial phone number, and branch location.
- Use images that speak uniquely to the targeted market segment and product being promoted.
- Tailor the copy to appeal to a particular lifestyle or circumstance. Just be cautious with this. you don’t want to overdo it, or come off as a phony.
Irritating customers with unwanted email is always a potential concern. However, as long as the bank or credit union exercises good judgment about frequency and relevance of emails, consumers’ underlying concerns should be eliminated.
2. Craft a High-Quality Message
If the email campaign is part of a wider marketing initiative, it should always match the look, feel and tone of your other materials, and reflect your financial institution’s branding guidelines. Repetition in execution aids consumer recall.
As a stand-alone communication, keep the message short and clear. Provide enough information to get the job done, and resist the desire to throw in anything that might steer the reader away from your desired response.
Above all, don’t forget the call to action. one of the biggest advantages of email marketing is having consumers affixed to either a computer or smartphone where they can take immediate action.
Whenever possible, use hyperlinks to a personalized URL (PURL) for customer responses.
How does a PURL help? A PURL is a landing page personalized with the recipient’s name and relevant information (a “Personalized URL,” or PURL). The goal of a PURL is to make it easy and seamless for recipients to say “yes” to whatever offer is being extended. The landing page seals the deal, moving warm leads (those who simply visited a web page) to hot leads (those who click the Submit/Apply button). with your online forms, keep the amount of new information you ask for to an absolute minimum. otherwise, respondents will roll their eyes while wondering why they need to repeat things you already know (e.g., their name).
Once the Submit/Apply button is pressed, a respondent should immediately be queued with a loan officer, call center, or other service representative for follow-up.
The financial institution can access real-time reports on the number of reads on the email, submissions on the PURL, and who visited the PURL but didn’t submit. Think of these people as online shoppers who had items in their cart (they took the time to visit the PURL) but for whatever reason, didn’t press submit (buy). Deciding in advance how best to handle these warm leads can make a huge impact on converting some of them to hot leads. Prep the customer service staff with adequate information about the campaign, and instructions on how to handle every lead.
3. Master the Mechanics
If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve done most of the heavy lifting, and you only have a few more hurdles left to clear.
Avoiding Spam Traps. now you have to scan your entire email to make sure you’re not using spammy language. look at the everything including the subject line to spot words, phrases, and characters that can cause problems. “Free,” “cheap,” “pre-approved,” “sale,” “apply now,” “apply online,” and “cash” are common triggers for spam filters.
The subject line should include the bank or credit union’s name and salient topic cues. State your business. Don’t be cute. And don’t try disguising troublesome words with funky symbols or intentional misspellings — like “ca$h.” those are big red flags for spam filters.
Over time, as your financial institution’s email IP address becomes more and more trustworthy, you’ll have to worry less and less about how potentially spammy words are used in your emails.
Images. make the headline visible as text so the offer can be read whether graphics are downloaded or not. Unless a customer adds your financial institution’s email address to their safe sender list, images aren’t going to automatically load.
Timing. When to send the emails should be based on the offer and the target audience’s profile. consider what time of day they’re likely to be able to respond, and give them adequate time to take action. Track and monitor response rates over time to identify day/time patterns and sleuth out what works.
Punctuation. Remember that many punctuation symbols may not be readable by all email programs. Here’s a good list from SalesNexus and another one from WordPress you can use to check your subject lines and body copy. if you want to be ultra-cautious, just stick with the basics: periods, commas, colons, quotes and apostrophes — the kind of punctuation seen in regular correspondence between two people.
Volume. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will choke your emails off if you try sending a bunch of bulk messages from a new IP address, or one that hasn’t been used often. if the recipient’s ISP doesn’t recognize your sending IP as trustworthy, a lot of the email campaign is likely to end up snagged as spam.
To address this issue, you need to break large lists into smaller batches. this will help “warm up” recipients’ ISPs to your bulk sender IP address. Email campaigns are more likely to fly under an ISP’s radar if batches are limited to under 10,000 addresses each. you can send a batch every hour or so until the list is complete. A good rule of thumb is to practice a lower send rate for at least 30 days, and then ramp up. Doing this gives receiving ISPs ample time to determine how a sending IP address is behaving.
Vendor vs. In-house. most financial institutions choose between a full-service bulk email service provider and purchasing their own in-house platform. those new to email marketing should definitely look for a service provider that can help in the areas specifically outlined in this article. before contracting a service provider, be certain they’re on the recommended lists (often called white listed) for the top email providers, such as Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, etc.
Pinpoint Direct Marketing creates data-driven, electronic and print marketing campaigns for the financial industry. Its customized campaigns achieve excellent results without premium costs. Learn more about Pinpoint Direct Marketing at PDMKT.com.
this article © 2012 by The Financial Brand and may not be reproduced. Related Articles from The Financial Brand:
- Why I never Got Your Email
- Kaching!
- Antes vs. Drivers: 3 Steps to find Relevant Differentiation
- 12 best Practices in Online Newsrooms for Financial Institutions
More stories about: Featured, Online, email, Pinpoint Direct Marketing, PURLs
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