Creative Marketing Channel

SEO for Lancaster, PA and beyond.

“To stand out you need to be wherever those customers are looking and that means social, that means search, that means word of mouth.” – Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing

A few weeks ago a tweet by Bob Tripathi, founder of Instant E-Training, alerted me to a fantastic video interview with Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing. When it comes to search, social, and content, Lee Odden is the one of the best so I had to click, watch and listen.  Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from this content marketing strategy gold mine:

1. Create searcher personas
Searcher personas reflect people: They are the many faces of your customers. What are their wants, needs, and consumption habits? What are their typical online behaviors during different phases of the buying cycle? Answer these questions to determine their search behavior. Understand your personas and optimize your content uniquely for them.

2. Create relevancy
Meeting the needs of personas creates relevancy and is the first step in developing relevant content. Relevancy is the connection between what people want and what you want to sell. “Instead of optimizing for keywords ’cause they’re popular, we’re actually optimizing for keywords that we know are a reflection of where that customer is in the buying cycle, ” explains Odden.

3. Listen to customers
There are a variety of social media monitoring and data collection tools that allow you to collect information about your customers. Which social media channels they prefer, their buying habits, as well as common phrases or social keywords they like to use can be discovered with these tools. Another big benefit is this information helps you create socially interesting or relevant content.

4. Distribute and promote
Crappy content with a snappy headline will beat high quality content with a boring title every time. Package your content to purposefully inspire others to share it or link back to it. Distribute it on your platform, to social media and to other online publishing communities. An RSS feed and social sharing tools are must haves (for example Slideshare and Revver).

5. Create an engaging social community
People with common interests like to connect with each other so create a place where they can do this. If your community has the right climate your customers will happily share information and tips about your brand with one other for you. Don’t push your brand at your community; rather, encourage your community to enthusiastically share your brand.

6. Measure your results
Social monitoring AND analytics tell where engagement is happening. This information enables you to intelligently scale any approach up or down as needed. Evaluate both on a regular basis and refine your content marketing campaign as needed.

If this information piques your interest then Odden’s newly released book Optimize is a must have.  ”Optimize will provide you with the tools necessary to plan, implement, and scale an integrated content marketing strategy which will boost your relevance and increase your online visibility.”  I ordered mine and can’t wait to read it!

The Creative Marketing Channel specializes in optimized content marketing and distribution. Improve your Google rank, deepen visitor experiences, and increase brand awareness, leads, and conversions when you hire The Creative Marketing Channel to create your company’s content.  Connect with us on YouTube, Linkedin, Twitter, Google+and Facebook. Email us at cl@2designs.com.

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Content marketing for Philadelphia, PA and beyond – Part IV of a Six Part Series.

In the last five years video has transformed itself into a non-negotiable content marketing asset. Video viewing, now part of nearly everyone’s online behavior, is proven to directly influence online buying.   If you haven’t jumped into video yet, here are compelling reasons you should.

Millions watch billions of online videos every day.
101 million people in the U.S. are going to watch 1.3 billion videos TODAY.  “178 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in June (2011) for an average of 16.8 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in more than 6.2 billion viewing sessions during the course of the month … ”  Online video is a significant part of our online lives with a 706% growth in the last five years. Today,  84% of all people aged 12-65+ consume online video. Although both men and women equally likely to watch online video, men watch 1.7 times more than women. (From comScore Releases June 2011 U.S. Online Video Rankings and comScore’s Online Video by the Numbers)

Online video influences C-Suite behavior.
26% of US executives view work related videos daily, 20% view them several times a week and 20% view them several times a month. What’s most interesting is C-Suite behavior after they’ve viewed an online video.  64 – 66% of the time they visit the video vendor’s website and  53% of them conduct a search for more information. Of the executives who view videos daily, 51% of them make a business related purchase after watching a work related video. (from eStrategy after hours Executives and Online Video Charts based on Forbes Insights data.)

Sharing video is a popular past time.
People not only like to watch videos, they like to share them with others. One in three online video viewers will leave a comment, two in five viewers upload videos themselves, and one in two viewers regularly shares videos with others. More than half of all viewers watch online videos with others as well. (from comScore “Online Video by the Numbers”)

Create a video marketing plan before you start.

Put together a video action plan with discrete goals (plan from comScore “Online Video by the Numbers”)

Is your goal to…
Increase website/microsite visits?
Improve brand opinion?
Introduce a brand message to a larger audience or a more niche audience?
Drive direct online or offline purchase behavior?
The technology infrastructure of the Internet affords these opportunities to you.

Determine where and how your target audience is consuming video

Keep your mind open to using the new opportunities online video affords:
Using a YouTube Partner as a brand advocate
Developing branded content that spurs conversation
Cross pollinating your social media campaigns with video
Use the many resources and measurement companies available to determine if your goals have been met
Most any goal can be easily and discretely measured

Does your business need to integrate video into a smart content marketing strategy? The Creative Marketing Channel belongs to oz 2 designs LLC, Pennsylvania and Maryland’s first choice for video animation and special effects, website design, content marketing, print design, email marketing, and all things interactive and digital.   Inquire about hiring us here. Connect with us on YouTube,  Linkedin, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. Email us at cl@oz2designs.com and stay tuned for part 5 of this 6 part content marketing series.

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Social media marketing, part of digital marketing, is a great way to build relationships and grow your business. It’s no surprise Linkedin recently ranked as the second most popular social media platform in the world. If you’re not making the most of your Linkedin account, here are 7 steps to grow your business on Linkedin.

1.  Professional profiles only
Have you ever Googled your name? Nine times out of ten the very first thing you’ll see is your Linkedin profile. Linkedin has some powerful SEO mojo so think of your profile as your resume to the world.  Be sure it touts a decent photo of you, at least 5 glowing recommendations from others, and links to your professional websites.  Use keywords in your summary, link to your Twitter account if you have one, and link your business name to your Linkedin company profile listing.

2.  Regularly Share an update
Sharing an update is one of Linkedin’s best networking features. If you’re not using it, you’re missing out.   Why? Because every time you share an update your connections are notified via email as well as on Linkedin’s home page.  My recent update states, ” Training two PA and one MD company to blog using search engine optimized content.” In just a few words I let my connections know details about several services my company provides without the hard sell.  Social media is all about pull, not push marketing.

3.  Comment on an update
Respond to updates from others and show them you’re not always thinking about yourself.   Connecting with others is why Linkedin is social media. Remember, your comments mean something to the person who posted. Everyone loves to be noticed.

4.  Use a Linkedin app or two
For profile wow effect, as well as to better explain what you do, employ one or several Linkedin apps. If you have a Powerpoint presentation, load it to Slideshare and use the Slideshare app. If you blog, use the WordPress app.  Linkedin offers a variety of useful apps to choose from -  explore them and determine which best reflect you and your business.

5.  Join groups and interact appropriately
Although it’s a business oriented platform, Linkedin groups span both personal and professional interests.  A few of my favorite groups are Linked Locals Adams York, Martial Artists Black Belts, and Digital Marketing.  How does joining groups benefit you? Each group gives you the opportunity to meet new people who share your interests.  Often, group members pose discussion questions or post articles of interest. If moved, you should comment on group discussion posts as well as create discussion posts of your own. Avoid spamming, arrogance, or the hard sell. Social media doesn’t approve of these behaviors. Special bonus: After you comment on a discussion, Linkedin allows you to invite discussion participants to connect with you.  I’ve made a lot of interesting friends this way.

6.  Share blog posts with your groups
I consider this my best kept secret (until now). If you’re a blogger, share your blog posts with some or all of your Linkedin groups.  A notable one quarter of my blog traffic comes directly from Linkedin.

How do you use Linkedin to grow your business?
Linkedin is not a simple platform; rather, it is complex with many options and so I ask my readers this question:  How do you use Linkedin to grow your business?  Sharing your answers here is good for everyone, including you. 

About The Creative Marketing Channel
The Creative Marketing Channel belongs to oz 2 designs LLC – a small, flexible, full service digital marketing agency.  Inquire about hiring us. Connect with us on Linkedin, Twitter, and Facebook. Email us at cl@oz2designs.com.

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Sorry bottom feeders, but Google says your time has come. An intense, new algorithmic adjustment arrived the other day and it doesn’t tolerate your kind.  Projected to influence almost 10.5 billion search results every month, this adjustment lowers the rank of scraper sites, link farms, and other useless sites while increasing the rank of quality sites.  What motivated this change? Google’s post,  Finding more high quality sites in search explains,  “Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem. Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does.”

Quality means increased visibility
If there was ever a justification for content marketing this is it.  From now on, Google rewards websites with “original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis…” with higher search rankings amplifying the strong bond between search, social, and SEO.  Want to boost your brand’s visibility on search? Fill your website and blog with compelling content.  As TopRank’s Lee Odden says, ” If Social Media and SEO fit together like peanut butter and jelly then content is the bread that holds them together.”  Add social engagement from authoritative users into the mix and I predict powerful results. Google says this recent algorithm adjustment is just a beginning and they plan to present us with more changes in the future.

They were warned.
The developers and SEO companies whose sites are being penalized for poor quality have known all along what Google considers the high road.  My guess is they ignored Google’s quality guidelines because their black hat strategies were working for them.  Doesn’t look like they’ll work anymore. Take a look at Google’s quality expectations:

Quality guidelines – basic principles

• Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as “cloaking.”




• Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”




• Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.




• Don’t use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Breaking News 2/28/11:

The data is in and the story is huge. According to search engine land, associated content is taking a big hit. Here is a brief look.  Top losers:  ezinearticles.com, associatedcontent.com, suite101.com, hubpages.com and buzzle.com.  Top winners: youtube.com, ebay.com, facebook.com, and instructables.com.   Biggest surprise to me -  slideshare.com and tehnorati.com are on the losers list.  “Number Crunchers: Who Lost in Google’s ‘Farmer’ Algorithm Change” by Danny Sullivan is a MUST READ. Take a moment and review Sullivan’s compelling data and share your thoughts here.

If you would like to hire oz 2 designs LLC to handle your digital marketing and design, email cl@oz2designs.com or call 717-586-8386.

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“Every customer represents an opportunity. That customer will be singing your praises, or doing what I’m doing. Branding You.” – Angela Russell from StateFarmSucks.homestead.com.

Welcome to the Digital Age

Not too long ago, if a customer was dissatisfied with a product or service it would take weeks, months, or years for word of her dissatisfaction to get around – if it got around at all. Today, the rules of the game are very different. Welcome to the digital age where the internet is everyone’s equal opportunity forum.  With the advent of social media, bad news spreads like wildfire and negative press pops up in real time. So, how do you effectively protect your brand online?

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According to CNN, sometime this fall your smart phone will buzz and you may read something like, “Currently aerating your favorite socks Dad!  Grrrrr! woof, woof, woof! love, Rover.”   Yes, this could happen to you thanks to the obscenely ridiculous Puppy Tweets by Mattel. Consisting of a motion and sound sensor tag you attach to your dog’s collar, Puppy Tweets lets your dog tweet on its own Twitter account. O.K. not exactly. Puppy tweets does the tweeting. Nevertheless; imagine the possibilities (for Mattel I mean) because this new “toy” has what it takes to GO VIRAL.

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Part I: Person to Person…

Small business owner, you know the routine.  Dressed professionally with business cards in hand, you enter a room full of people to network.  You only have one hour before it’s time to get home and take care of your family. How do you maximize this limited person to person networking opportunity?
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