After my post last week, a few observations jump out that I feel are worth consideration before investing in Facebook Page development. Jay Baer mentioned that after mining their client Facebook API data, Brand Glue have found that 99.5% of all comments (those crucial interactions) on their client"€™s status updates come from within the News Feed, not on the Wall of the pages themselves. Facebook expert Mari Smith estimates that fewer than 0.5% of all status updates are shown in members"€™ "Top News feed" (the default Wall setting used by ~95% of…

Content Marketing for Natural Search

You will have no doubt read many times that 'Content is King'. Few blog posts however do a good job at explaining why, especially from an SEO perspective. I love the potential of content marketing, the key reason for me is its ability to help link build in a creative, engaging and fun way. Using content in this way obviously has a lot of compounded benefits such as creating new referring domains and increasing brand awareness to name but two. From an SEO purist mindset it is all about generating inbound links. Key benefits to using content to help link build: You have something to talk about on forums / blog comments - it's therefore more natural You have something to gift to people / businesses - so they want you to participate You have something to bookmark (and for others to do the same) - you further increase reach Unlike media…

Here's a useful post from Josh Peters on Mashable. Referencing the old and still highly relevant "AIDA" funnel - it may appeal as a starting point to those of you more familiar with that framework. It works because each section of AIDA represents a section of your sales and marketing process and can help you set your KPI's, decide what to monitor, and visualize the relationships between each part. Also -…

Google Algorithm Update?

Value: [rating=4] Our commentary: A vicious rumour or is Google preparing to launch an algorithm update during the festive season? It wouldn't be the first time Google has launched an update during one of the busiest times of the year. Reading between the lines of various search engine marketing forums and viewing clients analytics data something is definitely happening with the largest search engine in the world. Usually the type of fluctuations in traffic people have been seeing only occurs before large updates are rolled out. Google had until last year quite consistently launched algorithm update every Xmas the most famous update being the Florida update which caused widespread issues with lots of businesses online. We have obviously already had a large update this year when Google rolled out Caffeine which according to "experts" at the time was going to cause problems to lots of sites…

Two months ago correction fluid/tape brand Tippex launched their hit YouTube campaign, "NSFW. A hunter shoots a bear!," featuring a reluctant hunter faced with shooting a bear wandering up to his tent. [caption id="attachment_3589" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Don't shoot the bear!"][/caption] The hunter decides he cannot shoot the bear - instead reaching outside the frame of the video - a cool rich-media tactic - and using the big Tippex dispenser in the ad alongside him to erase "shoots" from the video's YouTube title. As with the Burger King's classic Subservient Chicken campaign it's up to…

The overhaul required to add a few percent to your results can easily leave you wide-eyed and intimidated. And casting worried glances at your budget. Fortunately, there is such a thing as a quick fix in email marketing. Sort of. Quick in the sense that very simple changes to words or design elements can have a huge impact. Not so quick in that you'll need to tweak, test, explore and experiment to find the right change that brings the dramatic improvement. Here are three areas where minor modifications can bring a quick result boost, each backed with real world examples illustrating the potential.

1. Sign-up, subscribe or join?

There it sits on your sign-up form, waiting to accept the click after someone filled out their email address. But does the wording on the button affect whether people choose to press it? Of course it does. The "wrong" wording drove down sign-up conversions by 22.9% for one newsletter publisher. The…

Don't be the disaster client, agency or freelancer!

Value: [rating=3] Our commentary: Mashable have interviewed several designers regarding what makes an effective and productive client relationship, I felt their post was interesting because it has echoed some of my own experience of working with many clients of lots of different sectors in an agency>client relationship. Having also spent 4 years 'client side' I have also seen an alternative perspective! As Mashable note, nobody really wants to be 'that guy' whether you're the supplier or the buyer of products or services. The consequences of poor relationships are obvious, from delayed timings and ultimately impact the bottom line for both parties. Marketing implications: So, what's the key to nurturing good relations - here is my take on Mashable's 5 lessons: Honour your commitments: this is the worst. How frustrating is it for anyone to be told one thing and then another thing happens. The basis of…

A simple introduction to display advertising optimization through Google

Value: [rating=4] Our commentary: Since the acquisition of DoubleClick Google has worked at integrating it with its other services such as Google Analytics etc. A more recent integration is into Google's Website Optimizer which allows you to run A/B split tests and easily report on the results. Following a similar theme, this tool from Google allows you to effectively manage your display advertising on the Google Display Network based on goals you dictate which means it can include on site activity such as sales or sign ups. Checkout the video below for more information about the concept and announcement. Recommended link: Annoucement of Display Campaign Optimiser…

Alerting you to 3 new tools: link profiles, query parameters and search CTR changes

Value: [rating=5] Our commentary: As a Digital Marketer, it's great to see companies like Google offering free well featured tools to allow you to manage your web presence through them. Google Webmaster tools while still basic is constantly evolving and this month is no different. Over the last week Google has announced several improvements to existing features, the first being the "links to your site" area, the second is an improvement to identifying / managing query parameters on your website & last but not least updates to the search queries report.

1 Links to your website:

While it is still a very basic feature (when compared to Open Site Explorer & Majestic SEO for example) this upgrade does offer great insights to your back links, from volume of links to specific pages through to anchor text analysis. See the full…

The Power of Customised Facebook Landing Tabs

Value: [rating=4] Our commentary: This is a useful post by Jay Baer on the Social Media Examiner site. His point is that though getting someone to click your "Like" button is paramount to success, once they have you need to work them since 99.5% of user interactions come from the user's wall or newsfeeds, naturally. This data (from Facebook consultancy BrandGlue), makes getting "liked" your major objective, otherwise your simply not in the game. So how can you get more likes? BrandGlue suggest that using a custom landing tab on their clients Welcome page increases their conversion rates by 100% or more in almost every case. [caption id="attachment_3574" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Red Bull using Pagelever to drive "Likes""][/caption] Marketing implications: The great news is that custom landing tabs are easy and inexpensive to create. Here are three options for…