Basic website marketing consists of three core parts: visibility, engagement, and conversion.

Today's topic is engagement. Once you get people visiting your site you need to give them a reason to stick around for a while and come back. You can accomplish this through good content and intuitive usabillity.

Content: Traditional Web Pages

Traditional web pages within your site serve several purposes. Here are a few: to deliver information, to tell a story, and to get someone to perform some sort of action (like making a purchase or downloading a white paper). The question you should ask for each page is "What is the goal of this page?" What do you want visitors to do? Do you want them to perform some sort of action? Do you want to build your brand by delivering entertaining or informative content? This is where you start. Figure out the goal of each page and you will have a strong foundation for the page content.

In Garr Reynolds' book, Presentation Zen, he suggests crafting your presentation offline - which means no computer. This gives you more freedom to craft your message and doesn't bind you to the constraints of a computer-based program. So, grab a notepad or find a white board and layout your page based on the goals you defined.

With an outline and plan in place, you can begin writing or hire someone to do the writing for you. As you write, keep your core audience in mind. Should you spend the first third of the page discussing the chemical composition of hydrochloric acid or just get to the point that it is used during the production process of your very sheik PVC furniture? The answer depends on your audience.

I would recommend reading Robert Bly's book called The Copywriter's Handbook - A Step By Step Guide To Writing Copy That Sells.  This book contains a great deal of tips and pointers on writing great copy and also includes a lot about persuasive titles and headlines.

Content: Social Media

Usability

When a visitor lands on your page, the paths they can take should be very clear and intuitive. If a visitor has to work too hard to find what they're looking for, they will most likely leave. Make it easy. People find things when a website has a familiar navigational structure broken down into sensible chunks. 

One of my favorite websites is all about bad websites - Web Pages That Suck. Here's their page on web pages with bad navigation. If you can avoid their list you might be safe.

Adam Brand, VP Creative and Client Services for Marketpath, maintains a blog called Great Website Content: Balancing Form and Function. Adam provides a lot of insight into what makes a great website. Although he doesn't post often, his entries are still worthy of a read.

The Bottom Line

Once you get visitors to your website, you need to provide engaging content that either gets them to do something or keeps them coming back. There are many different ways to do this through good copy and strong usability.

At the end of the day we want commitment and want to ask our customers and prospects "Will you marry me?" Of course, we want them to say "Yes!" So, make it worth their while and engage them.

Basic website marketing consists of three core parts: visibility, engagement, and conversion.

Today's topic is visibility.If your website cannot be found then you can't engage visitors and you certainly can't convert them. So how do you get found? The answer to this question depends on the purpose of your website. Almost every website has an intended goal that may or may not be explicitly obvious, which is to influence users into taking some sort of action. Before you can do that, though, you must first get them to your website.

I like to think of the mechanisms driving visitors to your website as chauffeurs. Chauffeurs act as motivators that direct individuals to your organization's main website, to a landing page, or a microsite. They can be online and offline. Here's a list:

Online Website Chauffeurs

• Search engines
• Email marketing (newsletters, promotions, etc)
• Social networking sites
• Blogs
• Pay-per-click advertisements
• Podcasting
• Video magazines
• Banner Ads
• Backlinks from other websites 
  
  Offline Website Chauffeurs
• Radio ads
• TV ads
• Direct mail
• Trade shows
• Speaking engagements
• Public relations
• Business networking
• Billboards
• Seminars

All of these marketing methods may still provide brand recognition and may drive business directly. But more and more often, individuals who see your ads, see you speak, or read your blogs want to learn more about your organization anonymously. That is, they want to hide behind the cloak of web anonymity to see if you can fulfill their needs or wants before they ever engage in two-way communications - all because they know that if a two-way conversation begins, the hard selling tactics will also begin.

As a web marketer, you need to figure out which chauffeurs will capture the attention of your prospects. Once you have that part figured out, you need to make sure that every single point of contact with prospects involves a link to your website (i.e. front page, landing page, or microsite).

Here are a few steps you should take to boost your visibility:

Step #1 - Initial Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Basic SEO is fairly simple with the right tools. You need to come up with search keywords that your prospects are using. Use Google AdWord's Keyword Tool to help find less competive keywords. If you mostly do business locally you should incorporate local terms. For example, we target "Indianapolis web content management." Another great tool is HubSpot's Website Grader. This will give you a website visibility grade and provide a great amount of information for improving overall ranking.

There are firms that can help you with this. Just don't get suckered into ongoing SEO fees unless there are very clear measurable results tied to your agreement (which most companies won't do). Many companies tout themselves as SEO experts and will charge the ongoing fee for "link building" or "ongoing optimization." Most are snake oil salesman. But some (actually very few) will engage with you and help you craft an SEO strategy that can work. Stay alert, though. If an SEO firm says they will boost your visibility but don't contact you for a month.... well, you should see the writing on the wall.

For most people, SEO is something that they can do with the right tool and a couple hours investment to read on up on the basics. Seriously, it's not rocket science. Type "search engine optimization" on any search engine and you'll find thousands of websites with free information on the subject.

Step #2 - Calls to Action
When you put together marketing pieces, what are your calls to action? To call a phone number? To come to your store? In most cases, you will want to have a very obvious link to your website, landing page, or microsite on all marketing pieces that prospects see. This gives them an opportunity to continue the anonymous engagement and investigate further. What do you put your website link on? Absolutely everything! If you've put out any sort of communication and haven't included a direct link to your website, you may have just lost new customers who may have had interest but aren't yet ready to talk.

Step #3 - Social Media
I'll admit, I haven't completely embraced social media as many in my industry have. The problem with social media is the amount of time it requires to successfully establish yourself and your brand. If you compare apples to apples (online social networking with offline networking) I will argue that offline networking has a more immediate and longer lasting benefit. To me, being able to shake hands with someone and look them in the eye provides a stronger connection than the virtual connections of online social sites.

That shouldn't exlude social media as a driver to your website, though. Becoming active to any extent in social media will help with SEO and brand recognition and can lead to some very interesting connections that weren't possible offline. If you are able to capture the attention of people you've made a connection with online then they are more likely to have interest in learning about you and your organization. Where do you think they go first? That's right, your website. The important thing is to make sure you provide links back to your website when you leave comments, setup profiles, etc.

I'm not going to go over these, but here are a few links to social media sites that may be of interest: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and del.icio.us.

Step #4 - Stay Active
With the three previous steps, you need to stay active. Complacency will lead to lower visibility from search engines, direct marketing, and social media sites. With SEO, put in place rules that govern keyword use in any new content put on the web. With marketing communications, establish baseline calls-to-action for everything that include links to your website, landing page, or microsite. And for social media, stay in the conversation. Your old content will stay on the site but it's like a busy email inbox - once a day goes by, it's buried.

Keep an eye out for "Website Marketing (part 2 of 3) - Engagement" about how to better engage all those new visitors coming to your site!

I just read a blog post on CMSwire that outlined a few of the trends that are going to really drive content management in 2009.  Two of these three trends were about Web 2.0 integration and e-commerce integration and how each piece will become an extremely important part of each and every website over the next year.  Almost every content management system out there today can help someone effectively manage landing pages, text, pictures, and menu structure (to name a few things), but not every one can help with the two things mentioned above. 

Having your website, blog, and shopping cart all managed by the same system helps keep things organized and streamlined.  Managing products, content, blog posts and comments all from the same interface can help you and your staff save time and money.  It is all possible with the right, easy CMS.  Be ahead of the curve in 2009, be a trend setter.  Make your website work for you.    

What have you done for your website lately?  Or perhaps I should ask a better question, what has your website done for you lately? In these times of a rough economy, hopefully the answer isn't "nothing."  An underutilized, non-producing website is simply a wasted opportunity, and the worst part is, it's a cheap and easy opportunity.  Sure, you could dump ten thousand dollars into a beautiful new website, and it might yield some quantifiable results, but what is going to keep people coming back?  A fresh message, that's what.

Without a simple and cost effective way to keep your website up to date and current, all that money that was spent on your website was, in essence, thrown away.  With the right tool, a good content management system, you can turn your website into a wealth of knowledge for your customers and potential clients.  No longer do you have to worry about being charged for each and every update.  With Marketpath CMS, you have the freedom and the ability to change your site anytime you wish from any PC with internet access.  What would you do with all of that power?  Hopefully, the answer to that question is "make my website work for me!"     

Today I came across a blog and wanted to leave a comment for the author. I scrolled to the bottom and it contained a link that said "You must be a registered user to leave comments." So, naturally, I abandoned the site. Too much work.

If you want to allow comments on your blog make it very easy to do so. Don't require visitors to become a registered user or you will have many people like me quickly leave.

Blogs are casual devices for communication. Requiring users to register in order to leave feedback is like saying, "Yeah, I'd love to have a conversation with you but first fill out this paperwork, submit it to my secretary and they will get back to you with further instructions on how we can converse."

Yeah, right. Adios.

What tools do you use to improve website visibility, engage visitors, and increase conversions? I break successful websites into those three areas of importance: visibility, engagement, and conversion.

Let's say you do some email marketing, have a corporate blog, use search ads, and build up your backlinks in order to increase visibility (see my post about website chauffeurs).

Once visitors arrive, you use a web content management system to keep your site updated with engaging and relevant content.

Then, when converting visitors into leads (or paying customers) you might post a form that gets stored in your CRM database, added to your email marketing database, and then you might send both yourself and the lead an email response.

I calll this cloud marketing. Just like cloud computing, cloud marketing utilizes the power of disparate applications and tools connected on the Internet. This is the "all of us is more powerful than just one of us" mentality.

Cloud marketing is expensive because it still requires developers to programmatically connect all the tools so they talk nicely to each other. Over time, though, more and more tools will be connected easily because of standards. Just like RSS, I envision a day when we can point one application to another and they will auto-discover eachother's features and be able to talk without the need of a contracted programmer. This will not only lower the cost, but also give smaller businesses a better ability to compete with the big guys. Here's one Indianapolis firm that's already doing it - 5Buckets.

NOTE: Here's proof of how fast the Internet moves. I started this article in November and didn't finish it for a variety of reasons. At that time, there wasn't much on cloud marketing and there definitely wasn't a Wikipedia entry. Now, however, there is. Started on December 1st - here it is: cloud marketing.

We have integrated Google Analytics right into Marketpath CMS. You can now learn more about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site. You'll get the information you need to write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites. Learn more about the benefits directly from Google.

Google Analytics replaces the default 'Visitor Tracking' panel within Marketpath CMS and opens up in its own tab. If you're interested in knowing what your website is doing, call us today at 800-657-7786. Integration of Google Analytics is included with any Marketpath CMS account.

Both online and offline marketing (such as email, blogging, direct mail, ads, etc) should all contain some sort of action item. In most cases, the action item will direct people to a website or landing page where they can learn more about a particular product, service, or promotion. This is very common practice and many of those channels can be utilized affordably. But this is where marketers often fail (or get hosed for that matter).

Take a short time to look at the diagram below. Each spoke represents some sort of marketing channel, or in my terms, a Website Chauffeur. These mechanisms capture the attention of their viewers and then chauffeur them to the website where the next step in the selling process begins.

Online chauffeurs are shown in blue and offline chauffeurs are shown in orange.

Website Chauffeurs are great at capturing attention and bringing individuals to the next step at the center of the spokes - the website (or the hub). But the problem is Website Chauffeurs don't convert visitors into customers. That is the job of your website. Wherever visitors land within your website your message should build value before attempting to make a sale.

This is why it is so important to have a simple and powerful Web content management system to help you adjust your message. Chances are you will not get that message quite right the first time, or the second time, or the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth time. Hopefully, you get the point. Having a tool that doesn't punish you for making changes is a necessity, unless you like to send cash to a developer at $100 per hour. A Web content management system gives you the capability to adjust the message yourself and save enormous amounts of time and money.

One of the things that can help distinguish your website from your competitors is how often you update your content. We all know this, but yet some of us still find it difficult to make changes.  This might be the rationale behind Google putting stock into how recently and how frequently a site is updated.  Google prides itself on giving searchers the most relevant information available, which a lot of times will translate into the freshest information available.  Google will rank sites that administrators care enough to make changes to higher than their stale counterparts. 

Now obviously, Google isn't ranking sites soley based on frequency of updates, however it is one piece of the overall equation.  In my opinion, it is the easiest piece of the overall SEO equation to put into action.  Invest in a good content management system and swap out a picture or two every once in a while, blog about news worthy events, add a landing page that correlates to a new ad campaign.  Make your website work for you.  It's easy with the right tool.

Take a look at this URL from newegg.com - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822140118.  Do you have any idea what the product is before you click on it?  Unless you're really good at memorizing item numbers, probably not.  Not only is this URL not attractive to humans, search engines like Google place an emphasis on the URL when looking for keywords.  Walmart is guilty of the same problem.  http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10290815 is a link to buy dog food, but how would anyone know? 

Based on the URL rewriting work I did for blogging, I'm now applying it to our new e-commerce module - Marketpath StoreFront.  Like blogging, StoreFront will be an add-on for Marketpath CMS.  Our version of the same Walmart page would look like http://www.walmart.com/pets/dogs/dogfood/purina-beneful-healthy-radiance.  Much better.  This will no doubt be a future trend in online stores as it helps redefine SEO for e-commerce.

With Internet marketing, just like in your personal life, you have to focus on fundamentals. Here is a picture of my son Ethan.  This is his first fish. That day, we focused on one of life's fundamental pleasures - a boy and his dad going fishing. The excitement of catching the fish was quickly trumped by the terror of the fish flipping around on the line which almost led to Ethan falling into the pond. That was immediately followed by nearly unstoppable laughing and giggling by us both. Excitement - Fright - Laughing. What emotions!

When you put together your online marketing initiatives, what sort of fundamental emotions will your visitors experience when they see and read your material? Getting search engine visibility is a wonderful thing but always remember that search engines are not reading your content, real people are. Real people with happy memories and sad memories, stressful memories and comforting memories. Learning how to engage these visitors with stories that touch their fundamental emotions is key to winning more customers and long term relationships.

I am notoriously guilty of losing focus in my blog.  I often get so wrapped up in all the wonderful tools available (like blogging, email marketing, and social media), that I forget to cover content management.  Although Marketpath in many ways is a full-service internet marketing shop, our focus is (and should remain) product and service-driven. 

Content management is arguably the most important part of an organization's online presence.  The reason I believe this is that so many of your potential customers are not bloggers and don't participate in social media (though I do believe it is important to use your site to help expose visitors to social media).  When Joe-six-pack is Google-searching to find parts for his '86 Camaro, there is a good chance that he won't find a blog or twitter feed relevant.  The problem that's arising is that there is so much content in the Google index that comes from social media that it can be hard for a traditional website to compete.  This phenomenon increases the importance of utilizing social media, and it makes it completely necessary that the content on your site is relevant.

'But Colin, there are so many CMS options (many of them free) that allow users to update the content on their sites.'  This is true.  There might be literally hundreds of CMS tools out there on the web and they are relatively easy to find.  The problem is that many site administrators get lost along the way.  Once it becomes possible to keep a website up-to-date, many users still don't do as much as they should, because they don't know how.

This is where it is helpful to have a partner you can trust, a consultant who you can count on to point you in the right direction.  No one is born knowing how to optimize a site for search.  No one is born knowing how to create online conversions.  These things can be taught by knowledgeable professionals, and education is exactly what most organizations need to go along with their content management system.  We're here to help.  Class will be in session all week.  Feel free to attend.

This morning I discovered Kyle Lacy's video blog.  Kyle is a social media evangelist who owns an online marketing company in Carmel, IN, and he has definitely been one of the key people who have shown me the ropes with social media.  Kyle's 'Vlog' (actually I hate that term - I'll stick to calling it a video blog) is fantastic, because he seems to be differentiating it from his standard text blog.  In his traditional blog he discusses various online topics, marketing topics, interesting posts on other blogs, and really anything else that he finds interesting.  His video blog is a bit different, in that it is dedicated to helping business professionals understand how to use social media to effectively impact the bottom line.  So the question remains..... Why do I need one? (or better yet why do you need one?)

Let's look at another example.  If you were visiting the greater Indianapolis area and you were to search for a local liquor store on google, there is an excellent chance that you would find Greenfield Liquors on the first page for most keywords.  The reason they consistently score so highly is that they have invested a great deal of time and money in their online presence with Smaller Indiana and their Compendium Blog.  One of the most interesting things they do on their blog is to include drink recipes.  More interesting still is that they use video in conjunction with the recipes and actually SHOW you how to utilize the liquors they sell.  So..... Why should you be doing this?

Video creates a TON of value for your customers (and potential customers)!  Kyle Lacy is providing a valuable resource for business professionals who are seeking to learn more about social media.  At the same time he is establishing himself as an expert in his field (actually he probably has already accomplished that, but the vlog can only help).  The folks at Greenfield Liquors are providing an awesome service to their customers as well; they're teaching them how to better enjoy the products they buy.  The fact that they are providing this service (and the fact that it helps them rank so highly on google) means that people looking for high-end liquor will be much more likely to buy it from them. 

Basically what I'm getting at here is that video is a great differentiator for your blog and for your organization.  While I don't have a date set in stone, I have been planning on launching a video blog for a while now and it IS coming.  So kudos to Kyle and Greenfield liquors for giving me an awesome topic and doing such fine work with their online marketing.  Keep it up!

I've been actively involved in social media for about 4 months now and I'm just in a bit of conundrum.  How much is too much?  At some point I find that I've spent so much time commenting and posting comments and opinions that I just don't have anything new to say.  I don't have time to spend all day searching the internet for new things to write about, but I don't want to fall behind my social media peers.  How do they do it?

I am very happy, however, that Lorraine Ball introduced me to friendfeed a few days ago.  Friendfeed has allowed me to combine all of my social media in one place via RSS feeds.  For those who were unable to see Scott Abel's web 2.0 seminar at the blogINDIANA conference a few months ago, an RSS feed is basically a standardized format for syndicating content anywhere on the web.  It certainly makes it easier to manage blogging, microblogging, and all of the other incarnations that help me stay connected, but there is annother purpose that actually purtains to this blog.

I love feeds for SEO.  When you think about it, feeds are really the perfect no-work high-value addition to a website.  They are available on basically any topic you can think of (if it's out there, someone is willing to put their 2 cents in about it), and they provide your site with new content on a consistent basis.  My friend Aaron Douglas first taught me how to use RSS for SEO a few months ago and his advice has been invaluable to me.  Luckily, most CMS platforms like Marketpath allow for easy integration of feeds.

So, even though I sometimes feel like there's nothing left to say and my well is dry, at least there is still a format that allows me to continue the social media journey.  For more information on using RSS feeds on your site feel free to contact me on smallerindiana, facebook, myspace, friendfeed, linked in, plaxo, twitter, letsmakeitrain, mwmcmusic, or by email.

I had an awesome meeting today with Tony Scelzo, the founder of Rainmakers, in which he spoke about frequency and universe.  Basically your universe is composed of suspects, prospects, and influencers.  Frequency is the number of contacts you have with these people each week, month, year, or whatever.  This model is consistent with my current marketing philosophy.  Frequency and follow-up are extremely important along with the number of people who carry your message. 

I've seen so many models and analogies for good marketing, that it blows my mind.  Mostly they all mean the same thing.  You do research to determine a good market segment.  You hit that segment with as many different forms of contact as you can think of.  You measure what worked and what didn't.  You do more of what worked and less of what didn't.  You do this until you own your market.  It sound so simple that it's almost crazy that we still talk about it so much!

It's ideas such as this that make a web content management system make so much sense.  A CMS with the right features allows you to run several different campaigns at once.  For example, Marketpath CMS allows users to search optimize their site (and keep it optimized), create and measure landing pages, create a corporate blogging program, run a viral campaign, and coordinate their site with email marketing.  How much more power could you ask for? 

It's so beautiful when a plan comes together.  For example, I'm heading down to Terre Haute this evening for a long weekend and my buddy Weir's wedding.  There are lots of elements I've got to have in place it order to be sufficiently prepared.  I need to pack, gas up the car, coordinate with everyone else who's going, pick up my guitar amp from a friends house, and all of this has to be done in time for me to arrive in Terre Haute at a descent hour this evening.

When it comes to planning it's all about organizing a lot of little details so that they come together to form a cohesive whole picture.  Here's one example as it applies to marketing.  A new restaurant called Zing opened here in downtown Indianapolis a few weeks ago.  I first learned about it from their unusually branded sign that they posted in front of the building about a month before the opening.  A few weeks later I received an email announcing the opening.  I hadn't opted in to their mailing list so my interest was starting to grow.  Then, a few days later at a networking function my friend Brian Graham mentioned that he was doing their marketing, and that he had opted me in for the email.  Interesting, I thought.  As the weeks before the opening came to a close, I kept hearing about it more and more.  Guess what I was doing on the day they opened.  Yeah, I was there.

My point is that it takes a lot of careful planning in order to reach new customers.  It takes several 'touches'.  Your email marketing might not be enough, but your email marketing + your search engine optimization + your direct mail campaign + your outside sales + your referrals will end up paying huge dividends.  It's true that you can buy word-of-mouth, but it's worth a lot more if you earn it.  You earn it by planning smart and executing flawlessly.  Good luck.

Jeff Bowe, blogger and author of INFOCUS Selling, writes about how to captivate attention in one sentence. Jeff discusses developing an effective framing statement, the quintessential elevator pitch, and that you should develop your statement around just one burning issue. Adding any more will simply confuse your contact about what you do.

Most of us have been cornered at one time or another by someone who can offer anything and everything and will spend an hour tellling you about them all. By the end of the conversation you have no clearer idea of what they do and how they can help you. Clear as mud.

Now let's take a peek into the mind of Malcolm Gladwell from his book "Blink."  One of the experiments that Gladwell discusses was carried out by a researcher named Sheena Iyengar. Iyengar setup an experiment that involved selling jam at an upscale grocery store. Sometimes she sold six different types of jam and other times she sold twenty-four. Shoppers were allowed to sample each jam. The natural thinking behind this would lead us to believe that the more choices shoppers had, the more likely they would be to find something that closely matched their tastes. As a result of the experiment, the opposite was true.

Iyengar found that 30% of the shoppers who sampled from the six choices ended up making a purchase and only 3% of shoppers with twenty-four choices made a purchase.  This is a huge discrepancy that certainly proves, in the case of buying jam, that the more choices a shopper has, the less likely they are to buy.

Marketers have heard this type of suggestion for years - "Don't try to be everything to everyone. Focus on just one product or service." Yes, we want people to know about everything we have to offer, but telling them about all of it (especially in our first meetings) will only confuse them and lead them to checkout quickly. 

Many of the world's most successful businesses focused on one product or service, delivered it extremely well, and dominated their market. Often, once they began spinning off brand-extensions of their highly successful core product or service (variations), they experienced declines in sales and market share. Too many choices.

Lately, I've had discussions at my office that ended with looks of confusion and information overload. My first question is "Too much jam?" The world's marketing, advertising, office conversations, dinner talk, and many other forms of communication suffer from the "too many choices" or "too much information" plague.

Let's keep it simple folks.

i'd like to wholeheartedly thank Erik Deckers for hosting the bloggers roundtable yesterday at the Brugge in Broadripple.  I always get excited when a lot of individuals who I communicate with online get together to talk in person.  One of the interesting conversations we had was about the inclusion or exclusion of comments on your blog.  Kyle Lacy argued that simply by allowing comments and opening the floor for discussion the blog was a success.

What is so great about blogs?  People have been writing down their opinions for hundreds of years.  The result of this can be found in most any library.  A lot of people find it a little boring.  What separates these authors from bloggers is the communal aspect.  Comments!  How many time have you read a blog post and then scrolled through the comments to find that they were far more insightful and interesting than the original post.  That's what happens when people collaborate.  Amazing things happen!

Now, Marketpath's CMS software certainly allows for either inclusion, exclusion, or monitoring of comments.  We provide this as a choice to customers, because we realize that everyone has different needs (using the blog format for news is one example).  Some companies simply blog for SEO.  Should they allow comments?  Why is it so hard to be transparent!?

This is a corporate blog post.  Right now I am writing with the intent that our search ranking will improve and that my customers or future customers will have this content available as a valuable resource AND I DO ALLOW COMMENTS!  If I speak about my opinions on my industry they are just that; opinions.  I am opening a forum for discussion with whomever might read this.  If I'm lucky enough to have a readership, then I owe it to that readership to let its voice be heard.  FREEDOM TO THE PEOPLE!

I'm a big fan of search.  That may seem obvious, but when we consider how far we've come in the last few decades, it really is outstanding.  Search engine optimization is obviously good for business, but when you consider it in the context of the consumer it really is very important.  You have to look at the search market just like any other market.  It's always going to be difficult to get any group of people to do anything unless there is money in it.  It would be impossible for google to properly index the web if sites didn't take the proper SEO precautions.  With that in mind, there are literally hundreds of SEO guidelines and tools available to ensure that your site can be found.

I'm a huge fan of website grader.  My favorite part about this tool is that it takes into account lots of different types of content and then ranks your site on a scale of one to a hundred.  This is supposed to somewhat accurately decide how well you will rise through the search rankings.  I especially like this site because it takes into account how much of any given SEO strategy you are using.  For example, if you have a lot of links, but are weak in other areas you will still rank favorably, because links are important.  If you are using blogging as a tool for inreasing your search rankings, then it takes the ranking of your blog into consideration.  It's also nice, because it provides simple and measurable steps that you can take to get it right. 

I like to think of the web as a kind of 'economics of information.'  It's very similar to actual economics, except that instead of money you pay in knowledge.  Now, of course you can pay good money for SEO knowledge, but the beauty of it is that much of the good information is already available for free.  SEO can be a bit of a crap shoot, but if you are representing yourself honestly there is no reason to believe that anything is impossible.  Web 2.0 is here and there is MUCH more content than there once was.  There is really a world for everyone here, and proper SEO practices will ensure that the best content for you rises to the top.  Some terms are indeed very competitive.  This competition keeps the web healthy.  It's a big pie and there's enought to go around.

I am an avid reader.  Most recently I've been engrossed in 'A Whole New Mind' by Daniel Pink.  The premise of the book is that the importance of left-brain activities (like mathematics, data analysis, standardized tests, etc.) is lessening, while the importance of right-brain activities is increasing (art, music, empathy, feelings, etc.)  Basically, through the information age we've accumulated so much affluence through the automation of many of the critical stages of production that the consumer is now focused on the meaning and feelings they get from the products they buy.  The information is still important, but the meaning and concepts behind it is becoming paramount.

Well, Marketpath accomplishes this by skillfully hiding the technology under a shell of sophistication and design.  We hide the hosting in our server (it's safe, I assure you).  We hide the code under an intuitive user interface.   We are adept right-brain thinkers, but we also have the left-brain skills to bring it all together and make it flow effortlessly.  When a customer chooses Marketpath they are choosing a software solution that gives them a feeling of safety and familiarity, as well as a team of left and right-brain thinkers who understand their goals. We are empathizers and synthesizers.  We are creators and meaning-finders.  We might be living in a new world of concepts, but the companies that succeed will be the ones who are able to find partners who can help, and that's why we're here.

Just two days after I post about Microsoft IE8, I get an alert that Google has announced their new web browser, Google Chrome, will be available in beta for download September 2nd. If you're not familiar with the term 'beta', it is basically a testing release before the official '1.0' is added. Read the official notice from Google.

From a consumer perspective, hurray! I do like having a choice..... but not too many. Too many choices and I just get confused and easily cheated by imposters and me-toos (ok, I don't get cheated with software much because I am a developer by trade, but my Grandmother does... and my parents, and my sister, and my cousins.... I hope you get the point). So, now I can use Firefox (the champion of people who dislike Microsoft), or I can use Internet Explorer (the standard built-in browser for Microsoft Windows), or Safari (the Mac OS built-in), or Google Chome (a wonderfully simplistic, yet powerful browser - I'm sure). Of course, there are a couple others, but they barely register as a blip in the browser usage radar.

From a developer/marketer's perspective, I am a little annoyed. Building rich and dynamic cross-browser websites can be a challenge, even though development has improved a lot over the last 5 years. There are still inconsistencies, mostly with Javascript and CSS (style sheets). Developing cross-browser websites is sort of like putting up a billboard that can only be read by people in certain types of cars. If you drive a BMW it appears perfect.  If you drive an '84 Chevy Celebrity (like my first car) the billboard shows a big red X. It's challenging to get the message right for everyone.

If your website is not dynamic, i.e. contains no Javascript, then you will likely be fine. The challenge is with rich sites - those websites that have put a lot of time and effort into improving the user experience. There will most likely be compatibility issues and you will need to fix those as soon as you can.

Google has a huge following. To many people, they are still the underling that develops cutting edge software. Once Chrome is released in beta, you can count on a ton of people trying it out - if not adopting it entirely. This means you need to test your corporate websites, landing pages, micro-sites, and customer applications.

Google is pretty good at releasing quality software, but I have seen several applications in beta that were buggy. If Chrome gets adopted by a large number of consumers, I hope they have worked out most of the kinks.

I think viral mareting is pretty much the coolest thing in the world.  You do something cool, you post it online, and a few days later it has spread all over the web, you're famous, and (hopefully) the cash starts rolling in.  The problem with viral marketing is that it's so difficult to figure out what's going to be a hit.  Sure, I submitt my blog posts to digg.com and link back to my blog whenever I post anything on the web, but this is hardly viral marketing.  It takes a certain EDGE, a certain out-of-the-box thinking that makes it worth sindication.

For my buck, the two most powerful viral marketing tools on the web are youtube and digg.com.  Youtube is fantastic because it is so easy to imbed videos on other sites.  This creates a syndication engine that exposes your content to an exponentially large audience.  I post it on youtube, everyone sees it there, some of them embed it in their blogs, websites, social media, etc. and before long everyone's seen it.  The problem with youtube is that there is so much content that it takes something extremely funny, shocking, impressive, etc. to inspire sindication.  The problem with most businesses is that they are beyond reluctiant to put something edgy out there for fear that it will make them look bad.  Unfortunately you have to have the guts to reap the rewards.

I must admit that I don't know exactly why digg.com is so freakin awesome, but it totally is.  I could spend days there!  Apparently a lot of other people do to, but I don't personally know that many.  It's more of a community within a community, and it's one that I've fully embraced.  For those who are unfamiliar, digg is basically a forum for posting cool stuff that you find on the internet.  You post it and then anyone else who likes it can 'digg' it, and the more diggs a post has the better it's supposed to be.  Digg seems to work a little bit slower than youtube in a viral sense, but the content is way better.  If you've got hours to kill digg is awesome.   My favorite digg submissions are the 'top 10' lists.  You pick the top 10 best or worst or whatever of any topic you like.  In fact, I'm currently working on my own 'internet marketing' top 10 list.  Feel free to help me out with some suggestions.

Microsoft Internet Explorer is getting a face lift and tummy tuck with Internet Explorer 8 (IE8).  IE8 is currently in beta form and available to average users. A formal release date has yet to be set. One of the biggest new features receiving a lot of hoopla right now is InPrivateBlocking. 

InPrivateBlocking allows users to turn off browsing history, as well as the saving of temporary files and cookies. Browsing history and temporary files mostly affect just the user, however,not saving cookies affects the user and any company or organization tracking and recording information on their visitors. This has potentially big ramifications on organizations who rely on web-based advertising because there is a lot of tracking involved with web-based ads. It also affects companies who track and remember their visitors and display items based on their interests.

So, organizations are worried their ad revenues will dry up because of this end to tracking. I'm not worried, though. First of all, the ability to block cookies is built into the major browsers right now.  It's just a little harder to find. Second, I'm sure there are a good number of people that don't want to be tracked at all - the 'big brother is watching us' mentality. But how many people truly think that way? 

When I visit Amazon.com, I love the fact that it says 'Hello, Matt.  We have some recommendations for you.' And the recommendations are really things I'd be interested in. Or perhaps when I go to log into an email account, bank account or some other account that remembers who I am. The website doesn't store my password (unless you're silly enough to let your browser do that for you).  It just has my username - which I often forget because it varies from site to site if the traditional 'mzentz' is not available. It is really nice that these sites remember who I am and what my preferences and interests are.

My point is that I wouldn't worry too much about user's turning off their cookies because most don't do it now. What I would worry about is why people are turning off their browsing history and temporary Internet files, because if they work for you, how will you know what websites they are really viewing while on your dime.

The best thing about life is that there's all these new things to learn about and explore.  I'm fickle by nature.  I tend to not spend a whole lot of time on one subject, but instead to jump around to lots of topics.  My latest facination is analytics.  It's all I've really been talking about this week.

So we've got this website that's supposed to be part of our marketing strategy and bring in leads and money and blah blah blah.  But here's the kicker...  It's not. It's not working the way it sould at all.  No leads are coming in.  No money. No nothing.  So what do we do?  We pull up our analytics numbers.  We find that our bounce rate is, say, 50%.  That's not bad.  It's actually pretty good.  We find also that our traffic is up.  Again, that's great, but where's the cash?  My guess is that it has something to do with the content on the site.  It's just not pursuasive enough.  So I pull up the CMS and start to tinker.  I add some great new content.  Then I wait and I measure.  A wise man once said that effective leaders 'make decisions quickly and change them slowly.'

So this analytics is pretty powerful stuff.  I've got the numbers, and I've got the patience to see this thing through.  I know that marketing is not a sprint, but a series of marathons.  I'm so glad that I've got a CMS that is this flexible.  I've got real control over changes so that I can use the data I've collected in the wisest way possible.

Well is it?  At last weekend's blogINDIANA conference Chris Baggot of Compendium Blogware argued that the blog is the perfect search result.  He argued that it is in google's best interest to provide information that people want.  Now I love to blog.  I find it fun and therepudic and extremely enjoyable, but I don't necessarily believe that a blog entry the most relevant organic result on any given topic.

That's not to say that I'm angry.  I'm glad that my old friend google loves blogs so much, because it helps me rank for many of the terms that are relevent to my business, but I have to think that if I were searching for 'indianapolis corporate blog software' that I would rather be taken to a page that had definitive information on the topic, not some random blog entry written by someone like me.  I know that google's love affair with the corporate blog is good for marketers, but is it good for the consumer?

With that in mind, how long can google's blog obsession last?  How long before blogs are relegated to the types of specialty blog searches of the past and what will those who have invested heavily in the blog as a marketing tool do if it someday goes away?  I don't have the answers to these questions, but for now I'm glad that my blogs are tops for search.  I'll rest easy knowing that a full featured content management system with blog technology is doing its job by positively impacting my marketing stra 

Two of the biggest elements of marketing are focus and creativity.  Focus is important because you want to stayed focused on particular marketing tasks, but it is also important because your overall messages to prospects and customers need to stayed focused on your core product or service offering.  Creativity is important because it takes a creative mind to put out quality, relevant, and purposeful content that stays inline with your focus.

Get Sleep - Stay Focused

How do you stay focused, especially if you are a small business owner?  There are probably millions of topics related to this but I'm going mention only one.  I finished an article in Fortune Small Business Magazine titled "Make Sleep Work For You." The article talks about how important 7-8 hours of sleep each night is to everyone. Our society is based on this "burning the midnight oil" idea where we think if we put in more hours, we get more done.

Studies have proven otherwise.  When we consistently get too little sleep our bodies respond accordingly by losing our ability to focus.  This results in a subpar level of work and could even lead to fatal business decisions. The health disadvantages are also numerous. The World Health Organization has studied this so much that they have considered making sleep deprivation a carcinogen.  Studies show that a lack of sleep leads to an increased chance of diabetes and cancer and weakens your bodies immune system. Wow! 

Sleep is good. Get your rest and you'll be able to maintain a higher level of focus, make complex decisions easier, and even feel more energized throughout the day.  Some businesses actually put sleep rooms in the office so workers can take mini-naps throughout the day.

Generate Creativity

Being creative can be a huge challenge if you can't find your focus or inspiration. I don't remember where I read this but a simple trick you can use is to exercise for a short period of time just before you have to put your creative talents to work.  Exercising creates a higher level of activity in the brain and results in your ability to comprehend the bigger picture and piece together the fragments.  Sometimes I hit the stairwell and do a full flight or two to get the blood pumping. It really works so I encourage you to try it.

Being well rested and throwing in some exercise can help you produce higher quality marketing material in a shorter amount of time.  This helps me in my writing and planning activities. Now, if I can just find a better way to improve my visual creativity I'll be all set.

The Marketpath crew had a fantastic time at blogINDIANA this weekend. I particularly enjoyed the presentations by Doug Karr, Scott Abel, and Chris Baggot.  People who know me already know that I was pretty much totally addicted to blogging, but now it's even worse.  Now I have about a thousand new ways to justify my obsession.

The really interesting thing about the conference was how much I didn't know.  For example, I didn't know how secluded I've been in the blog community.  Granted, at Marketpath we mostly blog for SEO purposes, but I now have a sincere desire to increase my blog readership.  I am a content management expert and it's my job as a serious blogger to establish myself as such in the blogosphere.

The primary theme that I took away with me after the weekend was 'transparency'.  Many of the speakers spoke on the topic.  Bloggers must be real.  They must be honest and forthright, because if your credibility is damaged, there is no way to get it back.  By the way, for those of you who don't know, in the picture above I'm the tall guy with the shaved head standing in the back.  The rest are the other guys in the Marketpath crew.  Thanks so much to all who participated in the conference this weekend and God bless.

Today, I am at the blogINDIANA conference learning about different blogging topics and also promoting our product, Marketpath CMS.  It's interesting, even now, how many home-grown web content management systems there are.  We knew this when we began building our product.  We knew that home-grown CMS's would be our largest competitors. 

One benefit of the home-grown CMS is that the relationship to the developer, the company who built it, is very personal. It has tremendous value because the customer is working with a vendor they trust.

The disadvantages of the home-grown CMS are in system maturity, features and benefits. Every home-grown CMS I've seen is immature.  It lacks the full-scale development and quality assurance required to deliver a quality product from which end users derive their return on investment.  Additionally, most larger changes (like adding a new page) require intervention from the original developer. Keep your fingers crossed they are not on vacation or too busy on another large project to assist for another 6 weeks.  Believe it or not, that happens a lot.

What we are recommending is that instead of trying to build a home-grown application that is limited in functionality, become a reseller of a mature web content management system. We have a program in place that allows resellers to make a nice return on every new customer.  And the return is recurring every year. They get the benefit of a mature content management system that is always growing in features and benefits, and offers the expertise of the vendor behind it. Do it right, go with a pro.

I wanted to take a minute to discuss the various tools available.  Which tools should you have?  How should you use them?  And what do you get for your investment?  Let's start with content management (CMS).  This is not an area where you want to pinch pennies.  Your web content is the life blood of your web presence.  Your CMS should allow you to edit textual content in every area of your site.  This is important, because changing text placement and content has a dramatic effect on your search optimization and marketing effectiveness.  It should be easy to create links within the site, as well as create, delete, and modify menu items.  Finally (and this is a big one), your CMS should have powerful and versatile image tools that allow you to easily link pictures, resize, and ad alt image tags.

It's impossible for me to talk about a CMS without mentioning search engine optimization.  Google indexes all the content on your site, so every time you update content it tends to help.  But, in addition to content a CMS 'power tool' should allow you to easily customize your meta data, meta keywords, title tags, as well as the aforementioned alt image tags.  Your CMS should also allow RSS feeds, and allow you to create a 'call to action page' such as a 'request a demo' or 'quote' page.  Getting visitors to this page is the #1 reason you paid for someone to design the site for you, so it's important that it's done right.

The most powerful weapon in the savvy marketer's arsenal is their blog tool.  Again, it's important that you get this right.  Take a look on the right side of this page.  Those are categories.  Each of those categories catalogues blog entries relevant to that topic and each one is associated with its own URL which is updated dynamically each time a new post is added.  This means that by writing this post I am updating many other URL's.  This is a very very good thing for my search marketing campaign.  The point is that there are tons of web tools out there, but not many 'web power tools.'  We've all got budgets to work with, so spend your money wisely.  Make sure you're getting the most marketing bang for your marketing buck.

What would you give to be the best?  What would you do to establish your company as the premier expert in your field?  Sadly, the answer to these questions is often 'not much.'  Why is this?  Why are phrases like 'it sells itself' still in our vocabulary.  I am often baffled by stories of the pet rock and grey goose vodka (it typically scores well bellow cheaper vodkas in blind taste tests).  These companies made millions off of marketing alone. 

I'm definitely not saying that you should ignore the quality of your product offering or turn your back on innovation, but your marketing should be given just as much consideration.  Olympic athletes train with absolute conviction and total dedication.  That's what it takes to be the best.  Too many business owners are so afraid of making a bad decision that they're left with indecision and indecision is what drives people crazy!

Now my job is to consult with people about their online marketing.  I know that marketing decisions are sometimes hard to make.  How much should you spend on search marketing and SEO?  How much should I dedicate to web design?  Should I pay a consultant to monitor the content on my site and blog?  These are not easy questions to answer, but we must have the courage and conviction to face them.  The only way to truly grow your business is to pick a plan and stand by it with total conviction.  Go for the gold.

I thought of several titles for today's post.  "All my eggs in one SEO basket"  "Count your search chickens before they hatch" even "Humpty Dumpty had a great SEO fall"  Why? Because I got complacent.  I never considered that I was vulnerable.  I never considered that the world was plotting against me.  Let's face it, I just wasn't smart enough to see what I was up against.

I know that the content in my blog gets indexed by Google.  As most people can tell you I'm totally obsessed with my blog right now, so naturally I've been blogging about the importance of corporate blogging and neglecting other keywords like SEO.  Consequentially, we no longer rank as high as we used to for SEO.  I'm upset.  In fact I'm down right mad.  I want my ranking.  I had it.  I worked for it.  Now I've lost it.  Let me set one thing straight Mr. Google;  we are search engine optimizers.  We are SEO experts.  We have something to say about search marketing.  Is that enough key words for you?  Can I have my 1st page ranking, please?

Let this be a lesson to all you corporate bloggers out there.  Don't put all your eggs in one basket.  Spread your topics out over all aspects of your business, or your competitors will gain ground.  You will sacrifice all that you've worked for.  You'll be forced to whine and cry like I am.  You'll end up down on your knees begging for Google's forgiveness.  Heed my warning.

It is with great excitement and enthusiasm that I  hereby declare that my softball team, the Bourbon Street PoBoys, extended its undefeated record to 6 and 0 last night by defeating the CSO Architects 14 to 1.  Although myself and Marketpath's own TJ Furman both played admirably, there was another unsung hero on the field last night... the magic bat.

You see, ever since the PoBoys first took the field six weeks ago, we've been using the same bat.  It was a $15 bat that was purchased at Meijer.  Though the Meijer bat served us well for five undefeated games, there was clearly room for a better bat.  Last night our salvation came in the form of a beat up and very old bat that was probably produced circa 1987.  Unbelievably the PoBoys hit the ball better than they ever have before with all ten players getting on base.

I know what you're thinking.  How the heck is he going to relate this to marketing or content management or SEO or any of the other topics he usually rants about?  Well the lesson here is that sometimes a small change can yield unbelievable results.  The bat the PoBoys used last night was only marginally better than the Meijer bat, but it was just enough to make a huge difference in their performance. So I implore you; be bold in your marketing strategies.  Try new things.  Add new content.  Your next home run may be just around the corner.

Blog Indiana 2008 is a 2-day conference for both experienced and new bloggers alike. Sessions will include topics such as blogging for beginners, using blogs in your business, monetizing your blog, political blogging and more advanced topics. In the past, most blogging and technology-related conferences have either been too expensive or too far out-of-state. Blog Indiana 2008 seeks to bring a low-cost, high-value conference to Hoosier bloggers.

Blogging regularly is a great way to increase search engine visibility and engage website visitors.  Blogging should be easy and yield positive results.  This is why we built a blogging component right into our content management system, Markeptath CMS.

Sign up for the conference now to better leverage blogging and improve you website ROI. 

I just wanted to take a minute to discuss the upcoming Blog Indiana Conference on August 16 and 17 at the IUPUI Campus center in downtown Indianapolis.  Check out the website.  I'm super excited for the event.  I think it's 50 bucks to attend and will feature awesome speakers and discussions about the state of the blog union.

One of the reasons I'm so excited is that as most people know I'm relatively new to the blogosphere, and I'm extremely interested in what the leaders in the blog world have been doing all this time.  I've been amazed at how our SEO marketing has been affected by our blog strategy.  It's also a lot of fun.

The other reason I'm so excited is that Marketpath CMS will be one of the sponsors of the event.  I'm thrilled to be attending and to see how the future will unfold for this fantastic social media.

Hi, my name is Colin and I'm addicted to blogging. (Hi Colin)  I started out like a lot of people writing in my blog intermittently and occasionally reading the blogs of others.  Once in a while I would even post a comment or two if I had something to say, but now it's out of control.  I'm writing in my blog once or twice a day.  I'm subscribing to other people's blogs and I can't even keep it straight.  I'm leaving like ten to twenty comments per week and some of them have no relevance to anything.  I'm just looking for a way to promote my blog.

I've realized that this problem is out of my control and I must cede control to a higher power.  Through the twelve steps I might learn to someday control my blogging, but chances are I'll never be able to blog like a normal person.  Take right now for example.  I posted my last blog only 54 minutes ago and I'm already writing another post!

This is beyond marketing, beyond CMS, and definitely beyond seeking search engine visibility.  This is madness, pure madness and I've got to stop, so for now I'm off the junk.  For now I'll stay clean for a day, maybe two.  But, after that who knows.  There may be no hope for a blog addict like me.

I am headed to Yankee Stadium this weekend for the first time ever.  It is now or never for me.  Even if you don't follow baseball, you probably know what Yankee Stadium is, but you might not know why it has become a now or never scenario.  After this season, Yankee Stadium will be torn down.  The Yanks are moving across the street to 'New Yankee Stadium.'  All of the history and prestige will be gone.  The Yankees are updating one of the biggest things they are known for. 

This brings me to one question.  If the Yankees can part ways with their stadium and the lore that is associated with it, why can't people part ways with their old marketing strategies?  Today, people find their information through the web.  Even if a piece of mail reaches a potential customer, the piece of mail usually pushes the reader to find our more information about the company on the web.  Now it doesn't make much sense to create an identity on a postcard or letter and then send someone to an outdated website.  By using a content management system, you can change your website as your marketing changes.  Creating an overall brand is the goal isn't it? 

Last night I joined thousands of other parrotheads to witness the Indianapolis performance of Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefer Band, and I came to an interesting epiphany; as much as I've always enjoyed his music, Jimmy Buffet is not a musical genius.  He is, however, a certified marketing genius.  What is the key to his success?  I argue that all of the success that Jimmy Buffet has ever had can be directly attributed to FRESH CONTENT!

Think about it.  The great thing about Jimmy Buffet is that he's always doing something new.  For example, at last night's show his big new push was for Landshark Lager, a new beer he released this year which is very similar to Corona.  You can bet that there were hundreds of signs, t-shirts, banners, hats, etc. plastered all over everything and everyone in the arena.

Imagine if the promotional memorabilia wasn't at the venue.  Imagine if JB wasn't promoting the new product on his website.  Do you think there would have been anywhere near that amount of hype?  Absolutely not!  Every business changes.  It's the only way to stay relevant in the market.  Your website marketing must reflect your most recent activity.  Your search engine optimization should be kept as up-to-date as possible to make absolutely sure that people looking for your company find it, even if you're not quite as famous as Jimmy Buffet.

As I was sifting through all of the usual news stories on CNN this morning, I came across one that piqued my interest (thanks, Dave).  There is a new search engine in town.  Started by a couple of ex-Googlers, 'Cuil' has launched in the recent days and has a new, and perhaps better, method for indexing and ranking websites.  Cuil's idea is that popularity of a website shouldn't be the dominant factor to whether a site can be found or not.  Their philosophy is this:  relevant content matters. 

They aren't tracking users, counting links, or being picky about who gets indexed and who doesn't.  They have indexed over 120 billion pages so far, and you can expect that number to grow pretty quickly.  Cuil has the idea that the internet has grown, search should too. 

If content is in fact becoming king, then it has become very apparent that having a way to manage that content is extremely important.  An easy-to-use content management system can take away any frustration that updating a website can cause.  No longer does it need to take an hour to make a change, with the right system (Marketpath CMS, hint hint) it can take only a few seconds.  If I have said it once, I'll say it again, providing relevant and up to date content can be the difference in driving traffic to your website.      

I had an interesting conversation with a designer friend of mine this weekend.  I started the talk with a few comments about Marketpath's shiny new website.  I was promoting all the interesting content and features the site had to offer as well as the sleek new Web 2.0 design.  'Web 2.0 design?' he said.  'Web 2.0 doesn't refer to a design style!'

I was shocked!  Not a design style?  Are you kidding me?  I'm supposed to be telling people about all the new and amazing ways that the web can enhance their lives, but I'm supposed to deny that the way the web 'looks' won't be affected?  I can't do it.  I won't do it!  The web is changing.  The look is changing.  Barriers are being broken down on a daily basis. 

So, what is a web 2.0 design?  It's new, fresh, and draws the user in.  It's not rocket science.  If it looks good and is user friendly it's web 2.0.  If it's got a blog and an RSS feed it's web 2.0.  Okay maybe I'm not the top expert in this field, but you've got to admit that the sites that are popping up out there today are way more bitchin than the ones from even a few years back.

Legs are important to most people, animals, and tables.  Legs are not important to the Higgly Town Heroes.  I have asked my four year old son repeatedly, 'How do they get places?'  He doesn't understand the question.  He says they just do.  Good enough, I suppose, for an animation and a four year old. 

But what about your wine?  Does your wine have good legs?  Many people think legs are a great indicator of a great wine.

What about your Internet marketing initiatives.  Do they have good legs?  Here's another way to ask the same question.  Does your Internet marketing program have a solid foundation with which you can measure, analyze, and make adjustments as necessary?  Can you measure website ROI?  If you said 'no,' then you are like most businesses that are trying to leverage the web as a marketing tool. 

A good place to start is with a marketing firm that will help you plan and establish baseline goals.  Most website development or design firms are not marketing firms.  Sure, they can build a killer website, but when it comes to getting a true return on investment, you need to have a strategy, a game plan, or..... good legs.  Be sure to select a partner that can help you build a strong foundation so you can measure true ROI. 

Who doesn't love Fridays!?  Any stress or negativity that hung over my head all week seems to be miraculously erased by the promise of the rapidly approaching weekend.  Yes sir my friends it's time to sprawl out on the porch, pop the top on a frosty beverage and just enjoy the night. 

Unfortunately, I've got some serious marketing to consider before 'porch time' is even an issue.  I've got customer reports to run, SEO keywords to research, and a pile of potential customers to contact.  It can often be difficult to get in touch with the right people on a lazy Friday afternoon.  It always seems like 50% of the workforce knocks off early to get a head start on the weekend.

It's times like these that I'm glad my website is here to pick up some of the slack.  I know that if any potential customers feel the need to announce themselves over the weekend, they can simply tune out, log on, and opt in to whichever of my offerings that might spark their interest.  I can rest easy knowing that my web content is relevent, I've done my SEO homework, and the marketing that I've been slaving over all week will see me through.  Finally...It's Friday.

Lately, when I have been asking people 'what does your company's website do for you?', I have been getting the same response.  'Well, it doesn't really do much of anything.  It is mostly informational and that information never changes.'  I dread this response.  I wonder to myself, why even have a website?  If the information hasn't changed since the site was launched circa 1998, then why people keep paying for hosting? 

Exisitng customers aren't using it, because they know what is there...the content hasn't been updated in years.  New, potential customers (if they can find your site) see an outdated website and wonder if the company still exists.  This isn't the best first impression that a company could be making.  It really takes a paradigm shift to realize what you could be missing out on.

Everyone knows that when people want information nowadays they turn to the internet.  Everything that you need an answer or a service for is right at your fingertips.  Potential buyers are looking for sites that make sense, are usable, and the content is up to date.  A content management system and a fresh web design are two of the most cost effective ways to spend marketing dollars.  Your site is available 24 hours a day to people that are looking for the information you provide.  What could be better than that?  Its targeted marketing at its finest.  When used effectively, web content management can be what seperates you from your competitors.    

Marketing proffesionals all over the world are scrambling to beat their competition at the web race.  Who will finish first?  Who's marketing is the best marketing?  What techniques will put your company at the top. 

Search Engine Optimization is a buzzword that is currently circulating around the marketing world.  There are companies that charge tens of thousands of dollars, and still can't guarantee that your name will rank on the first page of the Google organic search. 

The truth is that there is no guarantee when it comes to SEO.  It is easy to rank for certain terms, because very few people are searching for them.  Other terms are nearly impossible to rank for. 

A good CMS is an integral part of attaining high organic search rankings.  If content has been posted recently, search engines look at it more seriously (would you rather read yesterday's newspaper or today's newspaper?).  Another powerful tool is the corporate blog.  I have a business associate who was able to significantly increase his search rankings simply by writing in his blog regularly.  We the people want new content!

In today's world we have phones that double as computers, cars that double as satelite receivers, and a new culture of users, young and old, who are becoming increasingly reliant on the web for their information.  The question for the marketing saavy becomes; how do I optimize my marketing plan to pursuade people to hear my message?  How do I set myself apart from the great abyss of multimedia content available? 

The answer is relevance.  If you provide relevant content on your site, people will come.  People will most definitely come.  This leads to the inevitable question;  what is relevent content?  For me relevent content is content that describes the current state of your business or organization.  There are sites on the internet that I go to several times a day.  I might visit others only once in my lifetime. 

The sites that keep me coming back are ones with a wealth of interesting and useful information that is updated regularly.  I am interested in returning to the site, because I know that I will consistently find new things that weren't there before.  I will obtain new answers to old questions.  The most heavily visited sites on the web have one thing in common.  They change constantly!

In my last post I wrote about the downfalls of flash, search engine optimization, and direct linking.  Now it's time to talk about AJAX and web 2.0 and how search engines perceive the two.  First of alll, let's define AJAX and web 2.0.

AJAX is an achronym for Asynchronous Javascript And XML.  It provides web clients (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari) a mechanism for delivering rich experiences for its users.  Google Suggest  is an example of an application that uses AJAX.  As you type, suggestions appear that you can click on to quickly select your topic.  Notice that the entire screen doesn't refresh.  Instead of the browser making a call back to the original web server for a whole new page (including suggestions) it only updates the list of suggestions by passing the typed characters to the server - using AJAX.  The amount of data is very small and the data returned is also very small.... thus very fast.

AJAX enables the concept of web 2.0 - the rich user experience.  It is a great idea to build in a rich experience that makes it easier and more inuitive for users to interact.  Our web content management system has an enormous amount of AJAX programming.  But the problem is with search engines.

AJAX is based on Javascript and Javascript is based on user events (e.g. mouse-up, mouse-down, click, etc).  Search engines don't have the capability to launch javascript events which means if your website's navigation is based on AJAX (which, again, uses Javascript) then search engines will not be able to index it.  This means the website pages you want people to find will not be found because they were never indexed. 

The moral of the story is to use AJAX sparingly if you want your website to be indexed by search engines and definitely do not setup your navigation with AJAX or Javascript.  Check with a knowledgeable software developer and SEO firm and ask them if your site is SEO friendly.

Using Adobe Flash within a website at one time was the bane of search engine visibility.  Although Flash sites were often dazzling, highly interactive, and dynamic, they were not adequately being indexed (if at all) by the big search engines.  Here's a flashback article from 2003 on this topic. 

Adobe has just announced a plug-in available to Google and Yahoo that allows their search engines to act like a user clicking thorugh a flash website.  This seems to be the latest effort at indexing Flash sites but some say that obtaining a high search position willl still be difficult because of the inability to provide direct links within the flash site. 

For example, if a blogger finds a page in a flash site that is several clicks deep she will not be able to link directly to that page in her blog.  Instead, she would have to link to the front page (the page that loads initially) and instruct the user how to get to the deeper level page.  Yuck!

So, if you want to build a highly interactive website, use AJAX and Web 2.0 technologies instead of Flash.  You can still use Flash movies embedded within your site but don't let the Flash handle your website navigation.  I'd like to caution, though, that AJAX and Web 2.0 have their own issues which I'll tackle in my next post.

We tell clients all the time that we will help initiate a program to improve search results and help find the right keywords to use throughout their website.  We also say that the rest is basically up to them.  And because they are using a web content management solution (Marketpath CMS... of course) ongoing SEO is about producing lots of relevant content that engages website visitors. 

In his blog entry Three SEO Myths Debunked, Mike Volpe wrote 'If I had $100,000 to invest in SEO, I would hire a journalist to create lots of articles and videos, not an SEO consultant.'

There is only so much code tweaking you can do to optimize a website for search.  Hiring a firm on retainer to provide SEO consulting is like hiring GM on retainer to fill your gas tank once a week.  You definitely need GM to build the car but it is cost prohibitive to have them filling your gas tank. 

Ajax in many ways is the basis for Web 2.0.  The funny thing is that Ajax has been around long before the word web 2.0 was coined.  Microsoft developed a Javascript function for Internet Explore 5 called XmlHttpRequest.  This is the essence of Ajax.  One single function which seems to have caused an overnight explosion of rich web-based applications.

Web 2.0 is based on this because Web 2.0 is highly interactive - similar to what you would find in a desktop application.  Web 2.0 is about the rich user experience.  No slow page loads or postbacks.  Almost instant data and responses because most of the processing is performed on the client machine as opposed to the server (where most processing took place 5 years ago). 

Google maps and Microsoft's LiveSearch both use a great deal of Ajax and web 2.0 methodologies.  Another site with Ajax examples (the first one that showed up in search results) is http://www.ajaxdaddy.com/.

Marketpath CMS uses Ajax throughout the entire application on every page and every dialog.  We could probably stretch all of our Ajax code from coast to coast in 12pt font. 

Developing web-based applications with Ajax and web 2.0 methodologies is no longer cutting edge.  It is a requirement for intutive, easy-to-use, and responsive user interaction.

Have you ever seen a faux balcony on a house?  Or perhaps some other fake feature that had no functional use whatsoever?  This really bugs me.  Being a programmer, I am all about functionality.  Luckily, our product interface isn't developed by me.  If it was, it would likely resemble an emacs editor. 

This picture causes strife in my life because I would insist on putting in real doors, not the appearance of doors.  I like real.  I like functional.

This goes for websites as well.  I often come across sites that have a list of services or products that don't link to further information.  I also see sites that have images that look like buttons but aren't linked to more information.  And of course, the worst is when sites have broken forms, broken links, or broken images. 

Now, I understand broken elements aren't planned like the ugly faux door above, but they are a product of the tools used, the individuals level of training using them, and the organizations commitment to the website.  These small faux issues cause immediate headaches and frustration with visitors and will likely turn them away.

So be sure to check your website for broken elements and don't try to trick your visitors with the appearance of something that should truly be functional.  Your website is not a Hollywood set.  It is a direct extension of your voice and your message to potentital and existing customers.

And just for the record, my #1 pet peeve is double doors where one door seems to always be locked.  Some even have a sign that says "Please use other door".  Can't the people who unlock the doors turn the little key for the second door too?  I don't get it.... but of course, I don't unlock doors for a living.

Probably not. So why would do so many marketers and business owners let their website visitors enjoy stale page content?  Visitors come for a reason.  They're evaluating whether or not there is something they want.  They arrive with questions or curiousity.  How well are their questions or curiosities answered?

If you look at a stale piece of bread from far off it is likely to appear normal.  But if you inspect it closely, or worse take a bite, you will certainly notice it is stale.

Website content is no different.  Visitors may, at first glance, think the content is fresh and updated, but with a closer look they will quickly get a sense that it is stagnant.  Everything from the design of the site to the copy contained within, a website needs to convey relevant, convincing, and updated information.

With stale bread you can always cut it up and make crostini.  But slicing stale website pages into little toasts isn't exactly an option.

Marketpath CMS is also software-as-a-service.  More often than not, people ask about the difference between our content management solution and installed CMS software like Adobe Contribute or Ektron.  

• It's incredibly easy! Requires no knowledge of HTML
• Fast setup and implementation
• 100% browser based so it is accessible from anywhere
• No upgrades to install because software updates are applied automatically
• No IT staff required
• Unlimited, easily accessible support

• Usually requires some HTML coding
• Can only be used on the PC it is installed on
• Requires IT staff to install, implement, train, support, and install upates.
• Per seat license fees
• Limited support options from vendor

In the end, serious Internet marketers will choose a solution that frees them up for valuable Internet marketing and not software configuration. 

In our office we have a game of football that involves a cup at each end of the office sitting on a table.  The object of the game is to knock the cup off the table with the football.  Whoever knocks the cup off 5 times first, wins.
 
The fun part of this game is that we have a few rules that make it more challenging.  For example, the football has to hit the cup and knock it off to count as a point.  Therefore, you cannot hit the table really hard jarring the cup from its perch. 
 
Another rule is that if the football lands on top of the table and stays their at rest, it is an automatic win.  Or if the football lands in the space between the table-top and the lower shelf, it is also an automatic win.
 
Here's TJ, one of our account execs, with his second auto win.  TJ pretty much dominates the game and has the longest cumulative record holding the title belt.  He is the only one to have an auto win.

There is a point to this blog entry.... auto wins.  How can I get more auto wins with my Internet marketing strategy?  How can I setup an Internet marketing process that automatically performs certain tasks for me and produces measurable results? 
 
It all starts with your message.  What do you want your clients and prospects to know?  How do you want to communicate with them?  How often?  What will you say?  How will you segment your audience?  What activity do you want to track?  How do you want to respond to that activity?  What sort of results do you expect?
 
Once you know answers to those questions, you can choose the delivery and tracking methods.  The tools are not nearly as important as setting your goals and defining realistic expectations.  Although, with a solid strategy and a strong, reliable toolset, you are setting yourself up for a few auto wins.

Have you evear heard of people who paint their front door red when they pay off their mortgage?  Do you think this guy just paid off his car loan?

This may be fine for your house.  You are proclaiming to the neighborhood your independence from the bank.  But don't catch yourself making the same proclamations for your business in your Internet marketing conversations. 
 
I'm sure you're proud that you own your office building or have stayed debt-free for decades.  That can generate a wonderful sense of pride with you and your staff.  But keep it at that, inside company walls.  Don't waste your time telling prospects how well you've succeeded.  Instead, spend that precious energy engaging with their needs and showing the benefits and results of your product or service. 
 
It's not about you.  It's all about them.

Recently one of our prospects chose another firm to handle their website redesign.  Not only was our offer less expensive, we also included our content management solution so they could easily update their site and add new pages as needed.  Knowing we were up against a friend of the owner we offered to work together with them.  They would do the redesign and we would provide the CMS.  They decided to just redesign their site.
 
Their response for not choosing CMS was:  "If we didn't update our site before then I doubt we'll update it in the future". 
 
This was one of my "I don't get it" moments.  The company chose to pay a lot more for only a redesign and no means to keep the website fresh, updated and inline with their other marketing initiatives.  To me, this is the equivalent of having your company truck painted with your logo and website address then keeping it parked in a garage so no one can drive it or see it.  Why waste your money?

Using a content management solution would have given them the tools to edit site content, measure its effect, adjust as necessary, measure again, adjust..... and on and on.  They could have created landing pages for offline marketing initiatives and measured the direct impact those initiatives had.  They could have created microsites to target a particular niche.  The benefits are virtually endless.  Instead, they chose a road that leads to stagnation.
 
I guess the good news is that now we have a little more time to help another company that understands the bigger picture.
 
 
 

4/24/2008 - Harding Poorman Group, an Indianapolis printing company that specializes in offset printing, printing on plastics, wide-format printing, one-to-one marketing, cd/dvd duplication and mailing/fulfilment services, has chosen Marketpath for website design, search engine optimization and web content management for its seven websites.

The new Harding Poorman Group websites will be completed and live in early June.

11/1/2007 - SYSCO Food Services of Indianapolis, LLC (http://www.syscoindy.com) launched a new website designed by Marketpath.  The website provides a new marketing channel to regional clients and prospects and offers a central location for finding event information, market news, employment and great recipes.

SYSCO is using Marketpath CMS to manage website content, documents and images.  This allows them to maintain fresh content and an updated location for company events and news.

Marketpath also built a custom event management application so SYSCO can provide online registration to their clients.

We are proud to have SYSCO as a new customer and look forward to a strong, enduring partnership.

4/30/2007 - Indianapolis, IN - Marketpath, Inc., an Indianapolis-based software development firm, has implemented Indy's first full-featured content management solution that offers an easier way to manage websites.

Outdated and stagnant websites are a major ailment for the Internet's business community and Marketpath has the remedy.  With sophisticated tools for editing and publishing website content, Marketpath CMS can lower website maintenance costs and the time to publish by virtually eliminating programmers.

Most website pages are 80% to 90% static information.  Companies can spend $100 per hour or more to keep those pages updated.  The money used for updates could be better spent on custom software development that connects and enhances relationships with customers.  Simple website updates should be left to capable marketing staff using a full-featured content management solution like Marketpath CMS.

Marketpath CMS allows users to manage everything from website pages, headers and footers to documents, images and navigational menus.  Marketpath CMS also provides visitor statistics so users can see what pages are receiving the most visits, where those visitors are originating and where visitors typically abandon the site.

Marketpath CMS not only makes website updates easier and more convenient through its browser based toolset, it also lowers website maintenance costs and decreases the time it takes to deploy those updates.

Click here for more information.....