What’s the big deal about online marketing?

• 90%+ of people search online before making decisions, big and small
• Search engines find content, categorize it, and connect people with what they need
• To get found, you need online content that’s relevant and fresh
• Some of the steps in building your online presence are “do-it-yourself” and some are “do-not-try-this-at-home” so don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it

Building blocks of an online marketing strategy

• Build a foundation of a robust website
• Add the three pillars of search marketing, e-mail marketing, and web analytics
• Cap it off with a social media strategy.

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Building blocks:  Your website

Top 5 reasons your website is the foundation of your plan

• 60% of prospects will visit your website
• Search engines direct visitors to your site
• First introduction might be online
• Prospects use traditional websites
• You control the information

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3 important things to consider

• Usability – architecture, navigation, and analytics
• Content – clear, simple, easy to contact you
• Design – stand out but be appropriate, use only graphics that support your messaging

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6 main sections your site should have

• Home page
• Products or Services
• About Us
• Contact Us
• Custom Information
• Dynamic Content

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Building blocks:  Search

A search strategy is the first pillar of your plan

• Create content that targets your customers’ needs
• Use words customers search for, including negatives
• Long-tail keywords improve results and target your audiences
• Update content often
• Create compelling, link-worthy content

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SEO: Getting links to your site

• Link to your site from social networks
• Comment on blogs and online communities
• Add yourself to online directories
• Use social bookmarking
• Submit online press releases
• Answer questions online
• Ask for customer reviews
• Ask for links from influencers

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SEO: Technical recommendations

• Find keywords relevant to your business, include keywords in the page content, write naturally
• Properly name pages, 
meta data, headlines, 
URLs, and links
• Make clean, organized 
coding a priority
• Give it time

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Building blocks:  E-mail

• E-mail is the second pillar of your plan
• Users overwhelmingly prefer e-mail as a contact
• E-mail keeps customers informed about new products and solutions, or industry news.
• E-mail offers a great return on your investment

E-mail best practices

• Build your list with customers, colleagues, people you meet, and online signups
• Create a master calendar and send a combination of newsletters, promotions, announcements
• Get results with well-designed, straightforward, compelling, brief e-mails
• Use analytics, testing, and segmenting to target e-mails

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Other online marketing tactics to consider

• Online ads – banner ads, PPC, sponsored content
• Video and podcasts
• Flash demos
• SMS text advertising
• Branded apps

Building blocks:  Analysis

Analysis is the third pillar of your plan

• Set up tools to get the most accurate analytics
• Web analytics
• SEO analytics
• E-mail analytics
• Monitor your online presence, mentions, links, activity, competitors, industry
• Test and refine

Use analytics to refine your site, SEO, and e-mails

• Fine tune your website and SEO
• Dashboard, Visitors Overview, Traffic Sources Overview, Keywords, Top Content
• Improve your e-mail campaigns
• How many were sent, received, and bounced
• How many people opened, clicked, forwarded, opted out, signed up
• What was clicked
• Compare to past campaigns
• Test and refine

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Monitoring your online presence for free

• Setup an RSS reader to watch keywords, companies, people, Twitter #hashtags, LinkedIn answers
• Check LinkedIn and Facebook pages and groups
• Search for terms on Addict-o-matic
• Use grader.com to rank yourself
• Use Tweetdeck for real time info
• Respond to issues before they’re problems, find new customers, build your reputation

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Building blocks:  Social Media

Social media is the capstone of your plan

• Social media enhances all of your other efforts.
• Engaged customers are more likely to buy
• Social media influences search results
• Links drive traffic to your website
• Conversations about you are already going on online

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Top social media tools

• LinkedIn – Profiles, Companies, Groups, Answers
• Facebook  Profiles, Pages, Groups
• Twitter       Profiles, Companies
• Blogs    RSS reader
• Local search – Google Places, Yahoo!, bing, getlisted. org
• Review sites – Yelp, TripAdvisor, industry sites
• Social bookmarking – StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit
• Other – forums, wikis, industry or interest group websites, local websites, local organizations

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5 Quick steps to get online

• Sign up for membership on targeted sites
• Fill out the basic information (you can add more later)
• Find groups of peers and/or customers
• Listen and get a feel for discussion etiquette
• Add value to conversations

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Maintaining your online brand

Branding 101

• Keep your design and content consistent
• Maintain a unified design on your website, e-mails, social media sites, and presentations
• Make sure you develop guidelines, image and copy assets, instructions, 
written strategy
• Provide feedback on all marketing pieces anddon’t allow anything off-brand.

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Branding and messaging across multiple media

• When you develop online sites, pages, and profiles, be sure to use consistent graphics and messaging.
• Develop a set of images you can use for each platform that are optimized for each use
• Develop a set of copy blocks you can use in a variety of lengths
• Keep a list of sites to update when you make a change in messaging or imagery, when you launch a new product, or when you have news to share.
• Keep things consistent everywhere!

Download the presentation

“Building an Online Marketing Plan” is available in a variety of formats:

• PowerPoint Show (ZIP 15.6 MB)
• Keynote Presentation, with notes and links (ZIP 12.8 MB)
• PDF file, with links (ZIP 12.6 MB)
• Slideshare Presentation, with links (Slideshare)

Our client’s challenge:

Zahm Gems wanted to reach a larger audience while setting itself apart in the extremely competitive luxury jewelry industry. The company sought rebranding and marketing that would reflect its dedication to acquiring the highest-quality colored gemstones in an industry often over-focused on diamonds.

Philip Zahm had attracted considerable attention by recounting his travels around the world in pursuit of exotic gems. Our creative professionals helped Zahm Gems devise a campaign that would bring Philip Zahm’s true tales of foreign gem-buying intrigue to resellers and individual customers.

The Scott Design Solution:

Focused on portraying an adventurer who would stop at nothing to acquire the best, most exotic colored gems, Scott Design created a logo and overall advertising look highlighting Philip Zahm’s danger-tinged travels to acquire stunning gems in exotic places.

Scott Design’s solutions include an updated corporate identity system,  a series of ads, and a high-level “romance” brochure, designed to appeal to jewelry stores as well as high-end customers.

Inside Adobe InDesign featured Scott Design and our real-world example of business collateral as an example that they felt represented the epitome of our profession.

You are responsible for “the celebrity styling” of your company—whether it’s managed by one person or many. You should make sure your company has a strong, cohesive brand no matter where your company appears: your website, e-mails, landing pages, social media sites, online communities, trade show presentations, news releases, sales presentations, and corporate collateral. Every piece of your marketing must be coordinated to make sure you present your company’s best face to the world.

As a celebrity doesn’t leave the house without having that perfect look, all of your company’s marketing pieces should be on brand, presenting the same positive face to the world. Don’t allow rogue producers of off-brand materials. For example, you may have designers at an agency who want to show off their design styles, without regard for your brand. Just like a fashion designer who’s eager to get his or her latest styles on the runway, a designer might not say, “This look just might not be right for you.” Similarly, different departments in your company may create pieces that reflect someone’s personal style more than that of the company.

Celebrity stylists assemble a wardrobe of clothing and accessories for each star to wear on all occasions. That way, when stars have to get dressed without their stylists, they have everything they need to put together a great-looking outfit. You can help everyone—marketing team members, sales reps, design firms, and resellers in the channel—create marketing pieces that are great-looking while staying on brand by providing the following:
- A comprehensive set of style guidelines
- A library of imagery and approved copy assets available
- Ongoing, hands-on feedback on all marketing communications pieces created for your company.
Make sure everyone who creates marketing materials knows the e-mail address of the brand director, so if they have any style questions, they know whom to contact.

With defined style guidelines and a designated brand director, you can assure that your company will look great wherever it appears in public.

Change is something that all of us should consider for our organizations. With uncertain economic conditions ahead, it’s a good time for companies to evaluate their own strategies and policies and see if a change is in order in order to succeed, or even survive, hard times. Here are some questions that may generate discussion about whether you need to change:

Do you need to evolve the way you engage with customers?

• Do you allow two-way communication with your customer?
• Can customers easily ask you questions and post their thoughts about your solutions?
• Do you allow customers to communicate with each other?
• Are your customers receiving targeted, useful information from you?
• Do you get regular feedback from sales and channel reps about customer concerns?

Changes you can make now:

• Add Web 2.0 technologies (blogs, Wikis, RSS feeds, videos, etc.) to your websites so different types of online visitors can interact with you
• Create an online forum where customers can interact with your company, and each other.
• Evaluate how potential customers hear about your webinars, demos, and white papers. Make the lead generation path from awareness to registration clear and simple.
• Segment your e-mail lists by collecting reader preferences to ensure that customers receive targeted, useful information from you.
• Set up company pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, and other appropriate social networking sites.

Do you need to change the way you position your company?

• Have your products and solutions evolved?
• Has your target audience changed?
• Is your brand still fresh, modern, and on target?

Changes you can make now:

• Set up your website so you can update it easily and often.
• Organize your site to allow visitors to quickly and easily find the information that they need.
• Update your positioning to reflect product, solution, and target audience changes.
• Incorporate feedback from sales reps, your channel, and customers.

If everything is working right now, and you have as much business as you can handle, you might need to make only minor adjustments to your marketing to grow your company. But, during the current economic challenges, changes in your marketing may be essential to not only growth, but survival.

Some web observers have declared the traditional company website irrelevant. They contend that information-seekers are relying on other online sources such as blogs, social networking sites, webinars, RSS feeds, e-newsletters, and articles.

Indeed, in a few quick keystrokes, audiences can discover a lot about your company without ever seeing your website. But don’t believe all the hype. Customers, partners, investors, analysts, and journalists can learn a lot about your company in other places, but your website still matters. Here’s why:

Reason 1: Serious prospects will visit your website.
Whether someone has heard about your company in a blog, a review in an online publication, or a reference by someone at LinkedIn, if that person is truly interested, he or she will want to check you out more closely, and that means checking out your website.

Reason 2: A website validates your credibility.
Prospects will judge you by your company’s website. Visitors may have expectations about who you are, and the website confirms or denies those expectations — often in seconds. A well-designed site with plenty of valuable information, including awards and reviews, validates your credibility instantly.

Reason 3: Search engines direct visitors to your website.
A typical visitor follows a predictable path: learns about your company, Googles your company name, and reviews the results. If your site is built with SEO in mind, your home page will be at or near the top of the search results.

Reason 4: The website proves it’s really you.
Often, e-mail recipients will choose not to click on a link until they’ve checked you out to protect themselves against phishing, and that usually means a visit to your website. Visitors often will bypass a landing page URL you’ve provided and instead will use your home page’s URL to vet you. For many visitors, a home page URL is safe and secure — a link from an e-mail or other online source isn’t.

Reason 5: Your website is an important part of your brand.
Your brand is promoted in every piece of communication — from your business card and tradeshow booth to webinars and white papers. Visually and verbally, your brand sets the stage for how others perceive your company. Unless your company is well-established and has a large advertising budget, your website is the most important part of your brand. Is there any other physical or virtual communication that more effectively states who you are and is seen by more people? Not likely. Make sure web design and writing are given the full attention that’s needed to ensure that your brand is well-defined on your home page.

Reason 6: Your website might be your first introduction.
You have only one chance to make a good first impression. A prospect’s first interaction with your company could very well involve a visit to your company’s home page. And if that first introduction is not a positive experience, no amount of communication from your sales force will undo those initial perceptions. Make sure your home page succeeds in clearly and effectively introducing your company and its solutions.

Reason 7: An effective website answers key questions.
A website should provide answers to all the key questions that another online medium might ignore. Who and what drives this company? What business challenges does the company solve? Who are the company’s target audiences? An effective home page always answers these questions, helping interested parties understand whether they should dig for more information.

Reason 8: Most serious prospects like a traditional website.
Many visitors still use traditional online sources of information, the most important of those being the home page of a website. Some customers may never see your LinkedIn bio, your Facebook page, your Twitter profile, or read that killer blog posting, but almost all serious customers eventually will want to visit your website.

Reason 9: The website directs visitors to the information they need.
With a robust, well-designed website, your visitors can find all the information they need with only a few clicks. They understand that the place to start looking for information is the company website, so don’t let them down. Set up a site that ensures that visitors can find the information they seek on your site. That, of course, starts with a well-organized home page with plenty of clues on where to find the information visitors seek. If visitors cannot find what they’re looking for quickly and easily, they’ll give up.

Reason 10: The website is a unified, controlled presentation of your company.
You may have control over some of the online spin concerning your company — pages on social networking sites, campaign landing pages, press releases, etc. — but your website is really the only place where you have complete control of the presentation. You determine the page layout, messaging, and hierarchy of content. You should create and maintain a website with an honest, accurate, and positive view of what you deliver. And be sure to include prominent links off your home page to customer or partner communities, which can provide another level of engaged interaction with site visitors. ]]> http://blog.hotdesign.com/2008/10/top-10-reasons-your-home-page-still-matters/feed/ 3 http://blog.hotdesign.com/2008/10/marketing-now-gets-you-ready-for-the-rebound/ http://blog.hotdesign.com/2008/10/marketing-now-gets-you-ready-for-the-rebound/#comments Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:39:07 +0000 Matt Scott http://blog.hotdesign.com/?p=126 With the economy firmly in a recession, many technology companies are cutting costs across the board—and that includes marketing—in order to survive the downturn. For business survival that makes sense, but for business growth you need to be prepared for the eventual rebound. Since the sales cycle often take several months or up to a year or more, anyway, marketing now starts the process of engaging with prospective customers and getting them closer to making a purchase.

Those customers may not have the budget or inclination to purchase in the next few months due to economic uncertainty, but once they do feel more confident about the economy and their individual situations, they will be ready to move forward with purchasing your product or solution. If you have a great technology solution and you’re marketing it well, customers will eventually come around to engaging with you.

However, if you’ve shut down your marketing for several months, then the cycle that customers need to go through – become aware of your brand > discover the benefits of your product or solution > determine that what you have to offer will help them solve their business challenges > getting approvals to purchase – won’t start in full until the recession is over. Unfortunately for you, your competitors may have kept their own marketing going during the recession, and those customers have been engaging with them for several months.

Of course, belt tightening make sense, and there are ways to market smarter during lean times—make sure communications are truly targeted; tighten up your lead qualification process; actively participate in social networking and industry forums, where you may get more attention than costlier efforts, etc. However, make sure marketing has the support you need to keep your message out there with a strong positioning that successfully educates prospective customers and differentiates you from your competition. And once the economy is back on track with a more stable credit/lending situation, greater consumer confidence, and renewed interest in technology investment, your marketing efforts will pay off with more leads and sales.