Practical Internet Marketing

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  Now it doesn't make much sense to create an identity on a postcard or letter and then send someone to an outdated website.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.      

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.