In the month of June, RMG has been doing a series of radio broadcasts on Search Marketing, specifically SEO. Below is a script of my interview with Jim Poole on June 5 covering how and why you drive traffic through search marketing. This is a longer version than what you heard on WCCO as we had to cut down on the length in studio, but I thought you would want to see the whole recording.

Jim Poole: Last week we talked about creating a website and tips to think about when doing this. So, now you have a website – how do you get your audiences to visit it?
Jennifer Risdall: Great question and one I hear often. First step is to know your audiences – where they are, what they do, how they find out about you and your services. I think Ted discussed this a bit. Then you look at the tools available to you.

One of my favorites is search marketing. Comscore tells us that search is still growing as people turn to online to find what they are looking for – the number of searches grew 16% in 2009 over 2008. And according to Yahoo’s ROBO study, 89% – 89%! – of consumers research products and services online. Whew! This is where your audiences are looking for your company, your products and/or your services. With search marketing, you have the opportunity to be right in front of them by ranking well in the search engines for those terms that YOUR users are searching for.

Jim Poole: How do you drive traffic through search marketing?
Jennifer Risdall: Search marketing has two primary types: paid or sponsored search and organic search. Both target keyword terms that users type in the search box. Paid search results are listed at the top or the right of the results page and to a certain degree you are able to control what your ads say and where they are placed. Organic search results are the main results on the results page and are determined by the search engine’s algorithm.

I will say that searchers do tend to prefer the organic listings to the paid – in the book, Marketing in the Age of Google, Vanessa Fox states that 85% of searchers click on organic over paid listings. The thought process is that the organic listings are not paid advertisements and are validated by a third party, Google. Whether true or not, the listing in organic results gives the site a more expert status.

Jim Poole: Is organic the way to go?
Jennifer Risdall: Both have advantages and disadvantages. Paid search is able to be up and running right away and can target hundreds, if not thousands of terms without changing your website. However, it is for the now and does not give you any long-term results. It can also be expensive. Eight to ten years ago there weren’t as many people and businesses bidding on keyword terms. As more and more companies understand the value of paid search, competition for keyword terms has increased and so has the amount per click.

Organic search has always been seen as the free way to advertise. That is really a misnomer in that you have to put in time to be ranked well within organic search results. This can be your time, an employee’s time or a search agency’s time but the time has to be put in. Google looks at millions of factors to rank web pages in its index. Your expert has to know what the factors are and how to make changes to your website, pages and links to help your site be found for the keyword terms your audiences are searching for.

It is definitely worth it. In 1996 when I first started working in this market I was constantly trying to show companies why they wanted to be on the first page in the search engines and directories. Now I don’t have to do that. Your audiences are using the search engines to find information about products and services that you offer. It is in your best interest to be where they are looking.

Google’s Caffeine update is complete. After much anticipation and much discussion (Google has been talking about this since August 2009) Google’s new indexing infrastructure called Caffeine is now in place and is resulting in 50% fresher results for web searches than its last index, according to Google.

The great thing: more content gets indexed faster.

Does it affect the way Google ranks websites in search results? Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land reports no – “Google told me that this change doesn’t make any of the crawling, indexing, or ranking factors more or less important than before. ”

What are you seeing and what do you think about the changes to Google’s index?

Well, that was my opinion up until about a month or two ago. Prior to this epiphany, I understood how Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. could be useful on both a professional and personal level… but I really wasn’t on the blog bandwagon. Why would someone want to read about my life, and take the time to read my take on things? Don’t they have their own things to worry about? Don’t get me wrong, I have always loved the online marketing world, but I just didn’t get it.

Fast forward to the present, and here I sit at Risdall, witnessing the collaborative nature between SEO, sponsored search, social media and PR everyday. It was only after I began to see how all of these elements come together in blogs that I began to be a believer in blogs.

I came to see that blogging is so much more than just writing about oneself or “eavesdropping” in on someone else’s life. Blogging is about helping people through shared experiences and opinions. It’s about sharing advice and allowing others to learn from your mistakes and negative experiences. From an SEO perspective, it’s also about linking. The more links a site has from high trafficked blogs, the higher its organic rankings will be. As you can see, blogging has a little something for everybody.

Don’t expect me to start my own personal blog soon, I’m still not convinced I have enough things to talk about, but through the wide online marketing lens I have come to understand and respect the blogging world.

Blogs, FTW!

RMG is doing a series of marketing tips Saturdays on WCCO 830 during Today’s Business Radio. We started these on May 15 and are doing a series every Saturday. On May 22 Jim Poole and I discussed the value of a well-architected and targeted website. Please listen to our “Strong Website Marketing” spot on <a href=”http://www.todaysbusinessradio.com/contributor/display.php?id=48″>TodaysBusinessRadio.com</a>. The full transcript is below to give you the full flavor of what we were talking about:

Jim Poole: Ted, what component of the tactics that we talked about last week do you see as the center of your strategy?

TR: This is not the same for all clients. Having said that, a strong website lends lots of credibility and can help businesses achieve visibility and expertise in their space.

Jim Poole: What do you need to create a strong website?

TR: A strong website is one that carries the brand through in look, feel, and tone. It is one that has information targeted to its users and to the company’s audiences. And, with the changes we see in the online space, it is one that engages its users and prompts them to do something (whether it is call for more information, fill out a form, write a post, whatever – it connects with them and gives businesses an opportunity to reach out and touch that user). The great thing about a good website is that it can be an extension of your brand and reach out and touch users who are looking online for your business and it is all trackable! 24 hours a day everyday of the year.

Jim Poole: That brings up a good point – so you have this website, how do you get people to visit it?

TR: This is where all those tools that we talked about last time come in. Whether it’s email or search engine marketing, advertising or billboards, a business can funnel their users to its website. How do you get visitors? You meet users where they are and direct them to your website.

I know I’ve said it before but we are media agnostic. However, Jim, when you go online to find out about a company or product – what is the first thing you do?

Jim Poole: Go to a search engine and type in what I am looking for.

TR: Right! That is what most people do. And when you think about the fact that total search volume is around 13.28 billion searches per month, based on March 2010 numbers from compete.com, it makes you realize that there is so much potential there to guide users who are looking for your products or services to your website.

Beyond that, users are also looking online to people and websites for information, expertise and recommendations or product/service reviews. You need to be in all of these places to engage your audiences.

Jim Poole: Okay, so now you have engaged. How do you know you are succeeding?

TR: This can be gauged through ROI, which can be measured through analytics on your website, calls into your company or walk-ins to your store. The important idea here is to set your goals and objectives beforehand and know how you are going to measure returns. Figure out what goals you need to meet to be successful.

How are you going to measure this? By asking each caller how they heard of you? Keeping track of how many forms were filled out on your site, of what content was downloaded and who downloaded it? Any of these will work. Then track each of these back to a sale.

RMG is doing a series of marketing tips Saturdays on WCCO 830 during Today’s Business Radio. We started these on May 15 and are doing a series every Saturday. On May 29 Jim Poole and I discussed tips to consider when building a website. Please listen to our “Fundamentals of Building a Website” spot on <a href=”http://www.todaysbusinessradio.com/contributor/display.php?id=48″>TodaysBusinessRadio.com</a>. The full transcript is below to give you the full flavor of what we were talking about:

Jim Poole: Ted, last week we were talking about how many businesses should center their marketing around their websites as so many people go online to research or buy. What are the fundamentals you need to consider when building a website?

TR: Well, Jim, remember first and foremost that your website is a tool to help you achieve your business and marketing objectives by targeting your audiences and giving them what they need to take the next step. To do this, you really need to know your audience then create content that will educate, inspire, and engage them so that they will, in the end, partner with you.  And you need to be able to measure how effective each marketing tool is that is directing users to your website in driving traffic and converting users.

Jim Poole: You talk a lot about audiences and really knowing them. Can you give us some ideas on what information we need to gather to get to that point?

TR: Like anything that is organic, your audiences will grow and change. And you will need to keep evaluating your audiences on an ongoing basis. But to lay the foundation for understanding your audiences and making your website work for you, you first need to look at your audiences universe and then dissect and segment according to:

• Who are they? What are their demographics?
• What are their psychographics? What is their lifestyle or mindset? How does this affect how they buy your products/services?
• How do they look for and look at information?
• How often do they go online? What do they use the website for?
• How do they like to engage?
• What content is important to them?
• What role do they hold in the buying cycle and what stage of the buying cycle are they in?
• What is your desired outcome of their visit to your website?

Jim Poole: Okay, so you understand your audience. Now how do you focus your website on what you have learned?

TR: One word: content. Back in the 90’s the catch phrase for website development was Content is King! Well, this is as true today as it was then – if not more so. People visit your website because they believe in your expertise. Users go online to learn about the products or services they are using or want to use. You need to give them a company to believe in and one they can trust. You do this through expert content which is updated frequently.

Jim Poole: How do you create this content and keep it fresh?

TR: Many websites have content management systems that let you update content as often as you would like. We strongly recommend that clients update their sites frequently – this helps keeps users coming back for more information and helps with search rankings, too. You may want to even create a calendar of updates and establish who will be updating which sections and when so that you are consistently creating new, fresh content.

Jim Poole: How do you know if you are creating a website that works for your users?

TR: Remember last week how we talked about ROI? Setting goals is important but measuring them is paramount. We recommend Google Analytics for most small to medium-sized business websites. With this, you can track unique visitors, keywords used to get to the website, track leads or sales, and other online media efforts.

Adjusting to life 9’000 miles from home, across the Atlantic ocean, the differences between life in Minneapolis as compared to that of my hometown of Sydney, Australia are considerable. The most amusing part of adjusting to life in Minnesota has been shooting down all of the heightened stereotypes. For example, I didn’t ride a kangaroo to school, I don’t greet all my friends with “g’day” and fosters is most definitely not “Australian for beer”!

Anyone who accuses Aussies of drinking fosters are ignorant and only assisting to perpetuate an incorrect and offensive stereotype, that we and I don’t appreciate them sitting there drinking their weak apple cider they call beer and profiling Aussies as Fosters drinkers!

Yeah…..no.

This is more like it.

Some of the differences, mostly cultural, I have found in my 3 months of living here are the multiple use of condiments on the same sandwich, it could just be a taste thing but I have never been a fan of this particular custom. Also, the only condiment that belongs on a burger is tomato sauce (also known as ketchup here)! Peanut butter does not belong with jelly, vegemite (although not sold here) does not taste like tar and the fact that Cadbury’s chocolates are not widely sold here is a crime against humanity!

RMG is doing a series of marketing tips Saturdays on WCCO 830 during Today’s Business Radio. The first one was May 15 and Jim Poole and I discussed integrated marketing in today’s marketing environment. Please listen to our “Business Marketing Integration” spot on TodaysBusinessRadio.com. The full transcript is below to give you the full flavor of what we were talking about:

Jim Poole: Ted, how do you help businesses?

TR: As one of the oldest ad agencies in Minnesota we have had the opportunity to work within many different verticals and work with some of the most successful businesses in not only the Twin Cities, but worldwide over the past almost 40 years. Our goal is to help our clients succeed. We do this through a multi-step process that looks at:

1. Where the client is today. We look at the business, the competitive landscape, the Unique Selling Proposition, the products/services offered, the pain points, the successes. Which tactics are currently being used?
2. Goals and Objectives. Where does the business want to be at the end of the year? What ROI is the client trying to achieve? What are the measurable goals?
3. Who is the target market? Who is the target audience, what are their media habits, how do they like to be communicated with, what are the demographics and psychographics?

From this, we create an integrated strategy and plan. Our expertise with online and offline (old and new) marketing tools helps us to look at the big picture and figure out how to best target our client’s audiences to help them achieve the return on investment they are looking for.

Jim Poole: How do you decide which strategies and tactics to use?

TR: Over the course of time, we have seen new tactics evolve and be embraced by marketers – for a while… Then the next “new, new” thing comes along and the old tactics are dropped and the new tool takes its place. At Risdall, we are media agnostic. We delve into our clients’ businesses and look at where they are and where they want to be. A thorough understanding of a client’s target audiences, competitive landscape, goals and objectives help us to create a framework of a marketing strategy and plan. To really create an integrated plan the client needs to know its audience — what are their media habits, how do they like to be communicated with — and build a strategy and plan based on what we’ve learned. These may be tried and true tactics or evolving media. We recommend not to jump on the hype of a new tool but to take a measured approach of first looking at goals, ROI and target markets. Then, and only then, create an integrated strategy and plan.

Jim Poole: How does integration work?

TR: At RMG, we firmly believe in making the most of what you have and becoming an expert in your space. To do this, you may take one piece of content and use it in multiple places and multiple ways. The point is you want all your tools to work together. For integration to truly work the same message and strategies have to be used in multiple places:

1. Within your content – online and offline
2. Within your website
3. Within your catalogs, brochures, sell sheets
4. Within your SEM/Social media campaigns
5. Within your Direct Mail/Email marketing
6. Within your ads, be they print, outdoor, online
7. Within press releases/media relations
8. In everything you do – internally and externally

Thursday, June 03, 2010 from 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM (CT)
at
Urban Bean Coffee
3255 Bryant Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55408

This is a #jmu612 event. You can get your tickets here

Today’s Ad Age featured an article on promoting causes via You Tube. The article has 5 examples. Maybe it’s just me, but I switched off the “Bee-Boy Dance” video after 5 seconds. Found it tedious. Never waited for the punchline. I found the “Girl Effect” video really effective. So simple. Great writing and clean graphics.
“One Day Without Shoes” is a great idea. I think the video could have been shorter. I found the video for “The Cove” very moving. I think it would have worked even without the celebs. Finally, the “How To” videos are a good idea, but I’d like to see a little more entertainment value. However, these videos are definitely in line with marketers offering their customers value beyond the product itself. Take a look at the videos and let us know what you think.

The original post on AdAge: http://adage.com/goodworks/post?article_id=144101