The Search Artist - Joseph Franklyn McElroy » marketing

Adjustable Bed Site Launches

joseph-franklyn-mcelroy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:02:04 +0000

So, we have another client – Contour Adjustable Beds – launch a site as well. The press release just went live here. I like using the PRWeb service for press releases because they are SEO friendly – helping to make our releases both optimized and good for publicity purposes. They have strong editorial policies that prevent spammy releases from going – thus preserving the integrity of the service and keeping it useful for responsible companies to use as a marketing channel.

New Website for Structured Settlement Client RSL Funding

joseph-franklyn-mcelroy — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:03:16 +0000

Well after much good work, we are proud to announce the launch of our client’s ( structured settlement company RSL Funding) new website. See the press release here. We went through our full process for this client, with an intense discovery period where we really learned their business, then developed the funnels and architecture to help convert visitors into leads. We also started an SEO effort. It has been a great success, with the cost per lead averaging less than the CPL for their paid search programs.

Direct Response Branding

joseph-franklyn-mcelroy — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:38:07 +0000

Barney Stinson

Did anyone notice the sign held up by “How I Met Your Mother’s” Barney Stinson’s line during theSuper Bowl? It asked you to call 1-877-987-6401 to talk to him. I hear that there will be a follow upon the next episode. When you call the number you got a recording asking you to meet him at a bar on October 12, 2016.

I tried searching for “Barney Stinson Super Bowl” online and at first got nothing, then later searches found some social results showing up. I am wondering if the marketing team was totally depending upon the social response or did they just miss have a landing page for all the searches? Seems like they are missing an opportunity to capture the people who don’t call, but will go to a web page to find out more.

Transfering Blogger site to WordPress

joseph-franklyn-mcelroy — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:41:50 +0000

The world changes; technology evolves, companies providing free services go back on their promises. Yes, I know that they never really promised it – read the fine print of the terms of service. But it doesn’t make the emotional trauma and fear of uncertainty go away.

Blogger.com just sent me a nice email explaining that their FTP services was being discontinued because, gosh darn, I was part of a small 5% minority who were just not worth keeping around. This means that all my blogs, all my company’s blogs, and all our client blogs have to be reimplemented. All the posts saved and republished. And most importantly, all the URLs have to STAY THE SAME for SEO purposes.

But happily, after a little investigation I found a simple solution that only takes an hour or so of work. Turns out WordPress, the leading Open Source blogging software, has a built in blogger import tool that can be used to capture all your old data. And with a few settings, all your URLs can be saved or redirected. You are looking at the new blog now. Here are the steps I took to accomplish this:

First identify the FTP location you publish your blogger.com blog. I used to name my index file index.php for home page configuration purposes – since wordpress has an index.php, I renamed this to index.html (so my blog was still available while I was going through this process).
Goto wordpress.org and download the latest stable version of wordpress and install it per the install instructions included in the download. Configure all the major general settings as appropriate for your blog.
Install the All in one SEO plugin (goto plugins and click Add New – search for the plugin name and install)
Activate the All in one SEO plugin
Goto Settings->Permalinks and under Common Setting set Custom = /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%.html
Next, log onto your Blogger account and goto Basic Settings – change your hosting option to be blogspot.
Go back to your WP installation and goto Tools->Import and import your blogger blog.
Modify your WP template as needed (you will need to read WP documentation on modifying templates)
301 redirect old archive files in root of blog – old files are named year_month_day_username_archive.html – I edited and put this html (Example for Nov 2005) into the old archive file:

http://www.corporatepa.com/blogger/2005/11/“>

Please follow “http://www.corporatepa.com/blogger/2005/11/”>link!
delete old content directories named by year
delete atom.xml
delete rss.xml
delete the index.html file you created in first step

This is general outline, if you have problems let me know and I will see if I can help you.

Banner Ads Drive Search

joseph-franklyn-mcelroy — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:22:00 +0000

So about to be released is a research study by the Online Publishers Association that analyzed consumer behaviors of those Internet users who were exposed to display advertising on 200 of the most trafficked sites on the Internet. I am eager to see this research as one of the main headlines is that 1 in 5 viewers of the ad conducted a related search and 1 in 3 visited the site. Not only that, they found that when driven by display ads, a visitor spends 50% more time on the site.

While I don’t know if this is an argument for putting your “drive” money into banners ads, since there might be more effective drivers like online video, but it does illustrate my main contention that search engine traffic is to be “captured” and not treated like it has been driven by your SEO campaign.

But don’t switch your budget out of Search Marketing either, as Display Advertising (or any media) goes hand-in-hand with your SEM efforts. A recent study by iProspect found that just as many people exposed to an ad did a related search as those who clicked on the ad. Moreover, over 40% eventually did a related search.

The upshot, learn your marketing drivers and optimize your digital footprint to capture the leads!

Influence Drive Optimize

joseph-franklyn-mcelroy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:08:00 +0000

Over the last year we have been working closely with Corinthian Media, a media buying firm, to develop SEO programs for some of it’s clients. Especially in the Direct Response arena. Over that time, I have come to realize how much we in the Internet space often ignore the fact that a vast amount of the traffic we see through search engines is actually driven by traditional media. I found a fairly recent research study funded by Microsoft that found over 70% of search engine traffic is navigational in nature – meaning people already knew what they were searching for when they got to the engine.

This has lead me to think about the nature of marketing with SEO. I think a lot of times we get caught up in thinking we are “driving” traffic. But that is not true, we are “capturing” traffic that has been influenced and driven by other media. While this might be a viral campaign or extensive banner networks, most of it comes from television and other media. So, we at Corporate Performance Artists have reformulated our message and mission to reflect this fact. Read this article on Influence Drive Optimize to learn more.

This blog is published on Amazon Kindle (pending approval)

joseph-franklyn-mcelroy — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:33:00 +0000

I just went through a very simple process to publish my blog to the Amazon Kindle platform! A beta program that went live Wednesday allows my RSS feed to be available in the Kindle Store. I am still pending approval, but have high hopes that I will be accepted. You have to have your Tax Id and Banking information so that you can receive payments, but it was very secure and easy to do. Read more here

Trademark Keywords can be used in Google Ad compaigns

joseph-franklyn-mcelroy — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:49:00 +0000

Just not in the copy. In order to generate more revenue, Google is kicking up a controversial strategy to allow competitors to use each others trademarks in the keywords that cause ads to surface when people search for such things as brand names. Starting June 4, 200 countries (including the USA - see list here). This opens up new strategies for combined SEO and PPC campaigns, as research shows that 20% of clicks for brand name searches will actually go to comparison sites if one is available. Read more…

Google Introduces Rich Snippets

joseph-franklyn-mcelroy — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:57:00 +0000

Google helps users find pages by showing them a small sample of content on page – this is called the “snippet.” Google uses a variety of techniques to create snippets and give users relevant information about what they’ll find when they click through to visit a site. Well, Google just recently announced Rich Snippets, a new presentation of snippets that applies Google’s algorithms to highlight structured data embedded in web pages.

Read more at Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Introducing Rich Snippets

A Different Twist on Social Networking

joseph-franklyn-mcelroy — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:29:00 +0000

In my August 23, 2007 blog on Corporate Alumni Networking, I mentioned that I had recently joined an alumni networking group that IBM created specifically for ex-employees like me. This group focuses on business networking and making potentially rewarding connections with other people who share the common experience of having worked for IBM. What a great idea for communicating business opportunities!

It also started me thinking about popular, social networking sites and the potential for business networking in those online venues. Social networkers come together to chat and share information about common interests and hobbies. Over time, it’s easy to build up comfortable relationships with fellow networkers. You get to a point where you understand their passions and pet peeves. You probably know what they do for a living and who irritates them the most at work.

I believe that social networking sites could deliver more tangible, measurable benefits to their members if they incorporated structured business networking into their services. People are already coming to their site for socializing; why not invite them to scheduled, online, networking sessions similar to Business Networking International? B.N.I. is the largest organization of it kind and has a highly successful process that could be used as a model for weekly business networking meetings on social networking sites. It’s a proven fact that people thrive on structure and tend to flounder without it.

For example, every week B.N.I. meetings are held at neighborhood hotels or restaurants before work or during the lunch hour. Meetings begin with a 60-second introduction by each member, telling the group what specific resources their company is looking for. After introductions, there is a planned, educational 10-minute talk by one member who goes into detail about their company’s services and products. Everybody learns something about the members at every meeting and actively tries to connect other members with interested prospects.

Smart social networking sites can increase their value to their members exponentially if they add organized business networking to their offerings.