Marketing for Success - Mike Vilimek

Are You Using the Right Website Keywords?

Keywords are the basis for your SEO program. One of the most critical steps in optimizing your website for search engines is choosing the right keywords. They will be the basis for your website copy and any PPC campaigns you plan to run.

You may already have a good idea of the main keywords you want to use, but it’s always a good idea to research others that you may not have thought of initially. There are great tools to help with this called keyword suggestion tools. There are many of these tools available on the web, and here are some of the best.

Wordtracker: For an annual ($329) or monthly ($59) subscription, Wordtracker allows you to search for terms in the database of terms collected. It can tell you how often a keyword or phrase was searched for and how many competing sites use the keyword. It also offers a top 1,000 report that lists the most often searched for terms and a Competition Search option that helps you determine the competitiveness of each term. A less featured but free version is also available. 

Trellian Keyword Discovery Tool: For an annual ($599.40) or monthly ($69.95) subscription to their Standard version, you can see the market share value for a given search term, see how many users search for it daily, identify common spellings and misspellings, and even see how terms are affected by seasonal trends.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool: This free tool provides suggestions for additional terms that you may not have considered, including a ranking of advertiser competition, and an approximation of search volume for each. What is unique about this tool is the ability to examine your web page or entire website and make suggestions for keywords and phrases that could be useful.

Direct Marketing vs. SEO

There are countless companies that invest a significant amount of their marketing dollars in direct, outbound marketing initiatives. Direct marketers try to send their messages directly to consumers, without the use of intervening media. The most popular forms of this communication are direct mail, e-mail, and telemarketing. The main drawback of this practice? It is almost always unsolicited, resulting in a low percentage of positive responses (often 1-2%).

Compare this to SEO techniques, where the purpose is to reach customers at the exact moment they are actively seeking information about a product. If a customer is searching for a product you supply, isn’t that exactly when you want to reach them with your marketing message? For this reason, more and more companies are making SEO techniques a priority over direct marketing. That’s not to say that direct marketing vs. SEO has to be an either or, but if you’re spending a lot on direct marketing, try spending some of that on SEO. To learn more about SEO techniques, try reading SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible by Jerri L. Ledford

Click to Tip

In a recent blog post, titled Ads are the new online tip jar, Seth Godin mentioned a new trend where readers can say thanks to publishers of good content by clicking on their ads, as a form of tipping. I wouldn’t say it’s an overly popular practice, but what if this practice begins to grow? How would this affect the advertisers? They will be the ones paying for clicks from readers whose sole purpose is to provide the publisher with a tip. Sure, advertisers will be getting more exposure, but most likely not interested buyers. Will they see this as a form of click fraud?

One things is for sure, advertisers would have to start doing a better job at targeting only the most relevant sites where the readers are sure to be interested in their products/services once their ads are clicked, something they should be doing anyway.

Mission Impossible: Humanize Microsoft

Because of its size, dominance, and monopolistic control over the PC operating system market for so many years, Microsoft has been the company everyone loves to hate. Recently, Microsoft has tried to soften their image. In March of 2006, they launch Port 25, a blog aimed at developers of open-source software. Microsoft and the open-source community had been at war for years, and although the initial tone from reader’s comments ranged from negative to outright vulgar, eventually, the comments became more positive and the program was declared a success because it opened up a conversation between these warring sides.

Microsoft’s most recent attempt is on a much broader scale. They recently announced the hiring of comedian Jerry Seinfeld as their spokesperson in order to improve the image of its Vista operating system. While Seinfeld has a good track record as a spokesperson (remember his American Express ads?), Microsoft will be playing catch-up to Apples already widely successful ads where they portray Mac computers has being hip and friendly versus the dorky and cumbersome PC. Will Microsoft be able to duplicate Apple’s success? I doubt it. But it may help improve the public perception of Vista, which could certainly use the help.

Should CEOs have their own corporate blogs?

In my previous post, I discussed CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon’s new blog, and how I felt it was not being updated often enough and did not allow readers to interact and leave comments. It got me thinking. Are CEO authored corporate blogs good marketing tools?

There are certainly examples of very successful CEO blogs such as GoDaddy.com’s Bob Parsons and Sun Microsystems’ Jonathan Schwartz. I believe these are exceptions to the rule however. Most CEOs, especially those in public companies, have to be careful not to post information that could upset shareholders, media, or financial and federal regulators. These restrictions often result in boring blog posts. Also, CEOs tend to be very busy people. With many other time consuming commitments, making regular blog posts can often be neglected.

The best option for most companies is to have a blog where your employees do the talking. People tend to relate better to others who are like them and “peer advice” is one of the most trusted sources of information.

CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon’s Blog

Corporate blogs can be a valuable marketing tool for both small and large companies. The ability to position your company as a thought leader or industry expert in your market and engage in conversations with your customers can increase any company’s visibility. Audiences have begun to consume traditional advertising with skepticism, but an informative blog that encourages conversation can be a marketer’s dream.

Having played 7 seasons in the CFL, I was interested to see that Commissioner Mark Cohon recently created his own blog and vlog on the CFL.ca website. While I commend Mark for trying to connect with CFL fans on a more personal level, I feel the execution of his new blog leaves a little to be desired.

Successful blogs are updated regularly and usually give readers the opportunity to leave comments. A blog that is updated less than once a week (in a league where there are 4 weekly games) and doesn’t allow readers to comment doesn’t provide much of a draw for readers, or a very interactive experience. Right idea, but maybe a CFL commissioner’s job does not allow the time needed to operate a corporate blog.