“We are all creatures of habit.”

It may be a well-known saying, but do we really understand how true it is? Every part of our lives is influenced by routine, repetition and familiarity in some way, right from choosing what we have for breakfast to making important decisions that will affect our businesses. Of course, some habits are better than others, and forming new habits (or addressing ones we’d rather give up) requires training. It is essential to perform our desired actions, use discipline to repeat them and consistency to keep it up. The more we do this, the more natural it becomes – and a habit is born. Online marketing habits are no different. To make your business presence felt in the digital world, you must be ready and willing to identify positive actions, create a schedule for their execution, dedicate yourself to adhering to the routine and continue to carry it on into the future.

Here’s a guide to the most essential online marketing habits to push yourself into the limelight:

Habit 1: Schedule Campaign Actions

Marketing campaigns don’t just occur at the click of a button. You must be organised and have clear stages of development in order to make the most of your potential. How you plan is, in many ways, is just as important as the execution of your campaign.

Firstly: make scheduling apps and software, such as Google Calendar and MS Outlook, your best friend. Everything should be coordinated on a central diary.

Making time to properly utilise your Google Analytics account should be a top priority. Make time to check it – and analyse the performance of your chosen approach.

In order to enable you to manage time efficiently, you should set up alerts to trigger the performance of your campaigns fall – for example: a reduction in conversions generated from an AdWords campaigns or significant drop in traffic to your website(s). This allows early intervention and avoids wasted time on ineffective strategies.

Email campaigns and press releases should be scheduled at targeted dates, but this should always be done well in advance, to allow you to integrate their launch with other actions.

Habit 2: Track all Activities

Launching materials and actions and not following performance is like setting off a wind-up toy and walking out of the room. It’s a complete waste of energy, and is annoying to anyone else who is left to watch!

Be proactive. For example, when you post a new blog, consider questions such as:
- Did it perform better when I shared it via Facebook/Twitter?
- If social networking positively helped, did one site work better?
- Is that because your connections are superior on one network over the other?
- How could performance be improved?’

Traffic to your website and conversions should always be monitored in relation to your actions, in order to identify the strongest line of attack.

Habit 3: Build Mobile Friendly Sites – they are here to stay!

You only have to look around a train carriage during rush hour to realise the importance of mobile technology.

It is expected that by the end of 2012, tablets and smart phones will account for 16 to 22% of all paid searches. Furthermore, online retailer ASOS has seen a year-on-year increase in activity of 123% from Android phone users.

If your website is not mobile friendly, you are missing out on a huge market. But if you want to target your development even further, it may be good to know that 77% of mobile traffic comes from tablets, such as the iPad.

Habit 4: Focus on Paid Search

Like many of the Internet’s best features, Google is moving towards a paid premium model to improve quality – and, of course, revenues.

For SEOs a troubling development has ensued: Since Google decided to start encrypting search queries with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) as the default settings for logged in Google accounts last November, keyword data from logged in Google searcher are no longer available in analytics apps – instead there is a {not provided} status for such searches.

Only Google AdWords traffic on Google has 100% keyword referral visibility at the moment.

In the local marketing scene, Google Places was initially introduced as a free service but with the introduction of AdWords Express, local businesses can now ‘boost’ their local listings above organic local business listings on Google by paying.

Paying for premium services, as well as planning, scheduling and executing your campaigns effectively will help you get the most out of your marketing.

Embrace the paid search marketing mode as it is here to stay – Google under a lot of shareholder/investor pressure to increase revenue and so a lot of their new developments are geared to doing just that. Be sure to measure you return on investment for all your paid search efforts.

Habit 5: Create Locally Targeted Campaigns (PPC, SEO, Social Media)

If the rise of mobile technology is one example of an ever-increasing market opportunity, the importance of being local is another.

According to data from Bing, 53% of searchers have a local focus when looking for businesses, organisations, products and services. Similarly, Google states around a fifth of all searches have local intent. This has huge implications in terms of targeting and placement.

Conversions from searcher on mobile devises tend to be very high as mobile searcher are hardly ever just browsing through the internet. An individual searching for a taxi or a local hotel from their mobile are more likely to call the taxi company or hotel than a desktop user. Research shows that 43% of local searchers contacted a business or visited a business after searching.

Be sure to structure and locally target your email marketing, Pay Per Click, Social Media and Group Buying campaigns. AdWords now has very robust device targeting options that can target specific devices. I would advice the create of campaigns exclusively dedicated to mobile devices if your resources permit. e.g. I have started to create iPad only campaigns with very impressive conversion results. The rule of the game now is test, test, test….especially with mobile devices.

Habit 6: Think like Your Customers

Remember the old adage, “the customer is always right”? Well, it’s as true now as ever – and it means that you need to understand them and think like them in order to best serve their needs.

• What are they likely to search for?
• What do they like to talk about socially?
• What will grab and hold my attention as a customer?
• Is the blog post I have written likely to help my clients?

Whatever the answers are, that is what you need to shape your campaigns around.

Usability testing is no longer prohibitively expensive with crowdsourced user testing sites like usertesting.com.

Habit 7: Get Proactive with Your Learning & Actions

In the information age we live in, information overload is a problem we are all starting to wake up to it. We all seem to be bombarded too much information (most of which is ‘junk’ information) – information we really do not need to process from RSS feeds, email newsletters, blogs, TV, radio, etc. Extreme as it may sound; avoid ‘junk information’ the same way you would avoid junk food!
If online marketing is your sole responsibility, learn online marketing in small bits and execute actions in manageable chunks! The worst way to approach your learning and development is to bombard yourself with pointless actions and details.

You probably do not need to read through a 100 page book before you take action – online marketing moves really fast.
Execute what you learn in small chunks as taking a big bang approach on campaigns hardly ever works!
It is important to keep a focus; streamline the information we consume and act upon for our businesses.

Be smart and keep on top of your skills on step at a time. Online marketing moves fast and, if you don’t keep up, you’ll miss out.

Photo credits: Niklas via Flickr

7 Effective Online Marketing Habits That Will Boost Your Business in 2012 is a post from: Fuzz One Media

I came across this Webinar video presentation this morning when doing some research on the landing design best practises and have to say it is the best I have come across as yet. It was presented by Tim Ash, author of the book, Landing Page Optimization and the CEO of sitetuners.com for the official Google AdWords blog, Inside AdWords.

I have to say, it is a really long video, with a duration of about 1hr 15mins. For that reason, I have summarised the key salient points from his presentation. Hope you enjoy it!

• Sin #1 – Unclear Call-to-Action
• Sin #2 – Too many Choices
• Sin #3 – Asking for too much information
• Sin #4 – Too much text
• Sin #5 – Not Keeping Your Promises
• Sin #6 – Visual Distractions
• Sin #7 – Lack of Credibility & Trust

Sin #1 – Unclear Call-to-Action

Question Visitors’ Ask: What do they want me to do on this page?
Answer: Strengthening Call-to-action

Common Issues

• Spend precious time deciding what to do
• Get confused and frustrated

The Fix:

• “Call-to-action” should be clear & draw the eye
• Placement of call-to-action should be “about-the-fold”
• Competing calls-to-action should be de-emphasized

Sin #2 – Too Many Choices

Question Visitors’ Ask: What do I do next?
Answer: Get them closer to their goal

Common Issues

• Too many choices cause paralysis
• Can’t find the right link to get closer to desired goal

The Fix:

• Don’t present detail too early in the process
• Group choices into a small number of categories
• Use visual shortcuts to reduce reading

Sin #3 – Asking for Too Much Information

Question Visitors’ Ask: Is this information absolutely necessary to complete the transaction? (Form fill test)
Answer: Simplified Forms

Common Issues

• Each extra form field makes the process more imposing
• Information asked for is inappropriate or too personal
• Have you earned the right to get my email?

The Fix:

• Ask only for absolutely-required information
• Collect additional information at a later date
• Shorten label and unclutter form layout (use usability tricks)
• You can break one pages forms into multiple phases

Sin #4 – Too Much Text

Question Visitors’ Ask: Do you really expect me to read all of this?
Answer: Shorten Your Text

Common Issues

• Short attention span – people don’t read on the web
• Information overload – hit the “back” button

The Fix:

• Use clear headlines and headings
• Put important stuff first – write in “inverted pyramid” style (Jakob Nielsen)
• Do not write in complete sentences – use short bullet lists
• Ruthlessly edit and shorten your text
• Cancel all subject speak make you

Sin #5 – Not Keeping Your Promises

Question Visitors’ Ask: This page is not what I expected
Answer: Keep Your Promises

Common Issues

• Disconnect from “upstream” ad promise
• Promised information is not on the landing page
• Mismatching the searchers intent

The Fix:

Repeat the ad-text or keywords on your page

Provide clear access to information from the ad

Sin #6 – Visual Distractions

Question Visitors’ Ask: Where am I supposed to look on this page?
Answer: Make it More Boring

Common Issues:

• Visual assault is extremely annoying
• “Gratuitous graphics” unrelated to product/service
• No clear separation of content and navigation
• Time wasted on looking at the wrong stuff

The Fix:

• Don’t compete with the call-to-action
• Remove colourful page elements and animation/motion
• Replace generic photos with specific relevant images
• Don’t use image unless they are directly relevant to your product

Sin #7 – Lack of Credibility & Trust

Question Visitors’ Ask: Why should I trust & buy from you?

Common issues:

• Lack of endorsements
• No “social proof” (testimonials)
• Trust symbols are not prominent
• Assurances are presented too late in the process

The Fix – Borrow & Solidify Trust:

• Feature well-known symbols/logos/brands prominently
• Use client logos/brands/media coverage as “badges”
• Remove anxiety with generous policies & guarantees

Recommended Reading

• Permission Marketing – Seth Godin
• Don’t Make Me Think – Steve Krug
• 24 Immutable Laws of Marketing – Al & Laura Ries
• Landing Page Optimization – Tim Ash

Remember multi-variant testing i.e. A/B testing to test your landing pages. You can use Google’s Website Optimizer for free.

Dos & Don’ts of Landing Page Design – 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design is a post from: Fuzz One Media

Basically if you search for a single term related to a product or service offer like a jeweller, letting agents, a dentist or taxi, Google now displays 3 organic search results and then a set of a maximum of 10 localised search results. After which, the remaining 7 organic search results are displayed.

Some variants of Google news snippets above the organic search results or sometimes above the local Google maps search results are displayed and in some rare cases Google video results are squeezed in between the organic and local search results.

If you wondered how Google is doing this, they say that they are guessing the searcher’s location, ‘in most cases’ by using the not so accurate IP address of the searcher. But Google say that they would eventually replace IP-targeting with an improved triangulation/GPS right in the searchers web browser or device they’d be using.

My observations on my iPhone is that they are also relying on cookies and historic search because when I searched using the query ‘dentist’ the local results returned were for dentists in Cambridge – which I visited a few weeks back and have not made any searches since.

The Implications on Your Rankings?

Well, they are obvious – if you rank anything from No.4 – 10 you would be harder to find as at least 14 search results would be stacked up above you. But in reality, how many SEO campaigns focus on single word search terms? Some SEO campaigns have achieved or are maintaining their rankings for highly relevant 2-3 phrase search terms and might be up for the challenge for generic single term key phrases. For those of you at this advance stage, guess what…the bar has been raised a bit higher.

The Introduction of Google New Local Search Algorithmic Change Gives You More Reason to Rank No.1 to 3 is a post from: Fuzz One Media

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO),
2. Social Media Marketing and
3. Online communications

I think these three aspects are the pillars of marketing a blog online. Remember that editorial aspects of blogging were covered in the first part of this series. The Golden Rule – To keep content flowing and consistent, always have a well thought & planned editorial schedule for you blog.

The key question I attempt to answer in this post is  -

If I just started a blog for my business, what should be the first line of action for creating awareness & marketing it?

Announce It

From a non-technical viewpoint, start with publicising your blog both through online & offline communications. Launching a Press Release (PR) would be the obvious starting point. If you have a PR agency handling your PR, be sure to let them know about the launch of your new blog and include Online PR as part of the release channels. If you however handle you PR internally, then there are a plethora of Online PR websites that your announcement can be published to; top on my list would be

1. PRLog (which is free),
2. PR Web (a paid service with very decent coverage) &
3. PR Newswire ( a paid service and one of the most expensive but highly extensive coverage)

Here is an extensive list of free PR websites – my advice would be to submit your release to no more than two good online PR sites.

Getting to announce your new blog is important for generating an audience at the early stages of publishing. It is indeed quite a refreshing feeling having a readership at the early stages of publishing; especially when you have a well planned schedule in place.

Other means of announcing your blog online are:

• Emailing your subscribers or customers
• Featuring your blog on your main website (be sure to make it prominent on your main site – I would advice including is as part of your website’s navigational structure) and
• Add your blog to your email signature and all marketing communication media you use both off and online

There might be other methods you can employ – think out of the box. Even employ some Guerrilla Marketing to reach your target market cheaply.

Social Media Marketing

Most blogs (if not all blogs) are setup to reflect the views of the author or a business. A blog steps out of the formal confines of a corporate website tends to emit; it is a more conversational  platform on the web. Social Media Marketing is therefore a perfect fit with blogging.

I would strongly advice you have a Social Media Marketing Strategy in place before the launch of your site.

You need to plan out how you intend to promote your blog online through socialising and interacting with other people, networks and blogs online. The primary idea behind behind Social media is building a followership by adding value across the web.

Blogging is actually a channel of Social Media Marketing. A single post would not be enough to cover all aspects of Social Media Marketing. But as a summary here is a checklist to get you started:

Interview

Reach out to other bloggers in the blogosphere – don’t email them asking for link swaps as they would tend to ignore such requests. Rather, email or contact major blog personalities in the your industry requesting for an interview (either email interview or podcast interview). This is a gesture of goodwill that would add value to their online personality and could also lead to a mention of their interview on your blog to their already established audience.

Remember to collaborate in any way possible so as to reach out – look at it this way; most organisations have interns who eventually turn out to be full staff after paying their dues. In the same vain, starting out blogging in a new industry requires you in a way to pay your dues in order to be picked up.

Networking

Depending on the type of blog you are building choose some social media sites you would like to promote some (not all) of your blog posts to. If you do not have the time, I would suggest you hire a Social Media Marketing consultant to guide and help you with marketing on Social media sites as it is quite a time consuming exercise. Here are a list of sites you should consider:

• Join MyBlogLog
• Add your blog to your LinkedIn profile (if you have one),
• Create a Facebook or LinkedIn group
• Start a Twitter account and communicate with personalities in your industry
• Submit your site to social bookmarking sites like Delicious, Digg, Reddit & Stumbleupon.

For any of the above to work, you have to dedicate some time an effort towards adding value to the platforms you choose. When you join the above networks, do not just submit and leave their sites as this never works. You would actually need to contribute to each of the virtual social communities, build relationships and leverage your relationships to help your site or blog – which to me is pure social media networking and marketing.

Bear in mind that social networks can generate enormous amounts of traffic to your blog and in many cases kick start readership and followership at its early stages. Your social media efforts would most often not generate direct business but would help increase the profile and search engine visibility of your blog.

Search Engine Optimisation  (SEO)

SEO is probably the most overrated buzzword on the web at the moment – it is yet crucial to the survival of several businesses in today’s world. Some businesses would not survive yet alone exist without Google rankings. It is important not only to build a following from humans but also one from all major search engines (especially the almighty Google).

Depending on what blog platform you would be using, it is essential that the following steps are taken for basic level search engine optimisation. Also download the the Google SEO Starter Guide (PDF):

Embark on some keyword research using Google Insights to determine ‘what the world actually searches for’ – one of my clients started off her blog optimising for a totally unpopular keyword.

• Ensure that every page and post on your blog has unique value on the following HTML tags: TITLE, META DESCRIPTION & KEYWORDS & H1-6 tags
• If your blogging software permits, ensure you utilise search engine readable URLs
• Set up an XML sitemap
• Interlink between articles
• Tag images with proper descriptions
• Update your blog regularly with fresh content
• List your blog on blog directories (most of which are free but might require a reciprocal link)

Once you ensure all of the above actions have been taken; my golden rule for SEO on your blog is unique quality content. After posting an article, always ask yourself if the article quality was good enough to get picked up by other bloggers, websites or even the press in a bid to link back to you. Do not remanufacture the news – at the information age we currently are in, news gets syndicated across hundreds and thousands of sites. Rather put a spin on the news – be controversial; you can write guides or HOWTOs; don’t be afraid to give you expertise in your area of knowledge in form a guides. They at the end add value and would ensure people link back to you, which raises the profile of your blog and forms the real online marketing of your blog.

Further reading

• 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog
• How to Promote Your Offline Business using LinkedIn

Marketing Your Business Blog is a post from: Fuzz One Media

The effects of web marketing would be largely dependent on the web marketing channels you utilise as well as type of business and sector your company belongs to.

The following categories have been created to give an idea of topics we would be covering:

• Increasing Search Engine Rankings
• Advertising on Search Engines (Pay Per Click)
• Email Marketing
• Lead Generation
• Business Blogging
• Social Media
• Media Buying
• Guerilla Marketing (Back to the Basics)

Web Marketing 101 is a post from: Fuzz One Media