I recently attended PRWeb's Rand Fishkin webinar about SEO. As usual, Fishkin, CEO & co-founder of SEOmoz, brought his "A" game and got me thinking. Here is my reaction to his presentation:
SEO vs. traditional marketing
I approach this comparison not as a shill for my company, but as an observer in the field. All of Fishkin's points supported this central idea: that organic search marketing tends to have the highest return of all forms of marketing. Most other forms of (interruption-based) traditional marketing are expensive and hard to track. And not only are they expensive, but they also lack cost-efficiency.
ROI of SEO
Consider that among Fathom's clients, the average return-on-investment for SEO is 1:15. In other words, for every dollar a client invests in SEO, that client gets $15 back. This figure is based on years of hard data spanning hundreds of samples.
Think about that. I'm not in the C-suite—heck, I'm not even a salesperson—but I get those numbers. If I owned my own business, I would definitely be paying attention to SEO based on those numbers alone. What's more, though, is that with SEO you can typically know those numbers, as Fishkin also stated. The key is that it's measurable. And the fact that it is so much more quantifiable than a host of traditional marketing methods makes it that much more desirable an investment.
"Good, unique content is not enough ... it's a starting point"
This line from Fishkin conveys how the concept of good content is easily misunderstood. Many think that if they put out some good, unique content, then they are set for life: "Content is king, the rest follows." Not exactly. You need to be making the kind of good content that's right for your customers. Furthermore, you need to be putting that content in places where they can find it—organic-search results, Google Places, Twitter, Facebook et al. So, always ask yourself when creating new content, "Is this something my audience will value?" If the answer is "no," then you should probably be doing something else.
Sustainability and the long haul
Fishkin's "day-to-day" prescription for time-strapped businesses amounted to the following process:
- Discover
- Test
- Measure
- Repeat
An added injunction to throw out low-ROI projects and repeat high-ROI ones rounds out the approach. Essentially, it's good to repeat what works well (and is highly profitable) and to discard or amend what doesn't (and isn't highly profitable). This common-sense Fishkin approach could be applied to any online marketing initiative, whether blasting email newsletters, shelling out for Google PPC, or canvassing the social Web. In fact, we here at Fathom follow our own version of this method when creating the most profitable sources of revenue for our clients, whether they're engaged in just one service, e.g. Web video production or multi-channel campaigns.
Go organic
In case you missed the main point, I'll sum it up again: Traditional marketing is expensive! It also can be difficult, if not impossible, to track its returns. Go online, get the most bang for your buck, and measure everything. As social-media scientist Dan Zarella likes to say:
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »"If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense."
Social Media Club - Cleveland (SMC-CLE) will be holding this month's event at Fathom (October 19, 6:30–8:00 p.m.). Featured among panel speakers on "The Confluence of SEO and Social" is Fathom's own Kurt Krejny. He will be speaking on a panel moderated by Dominic J. Litten, founder of SMC-CLE, that features Mary Lee Sutter of Intrapromote and Chris Boggs, Rosetta's Director of Search & Media Thought Leadership.
The 1,500-member club meets monthly to discuss a wide range of social media issues, including ethics, standards and media literacy. You can RSVP for the free event on the dedicated SMC-CLE event page.
What: Social Media Club - Cleveland, hosted by Fathom
When: Wednesday, October 19, 2011. 6:30–8:00 p.m.
Topic: The Confluence of SEO and Social
Cost: Free! RSVP (attendees are encouraged to bring snacks and beverages)
And as the official event email noted, "As always, beer and cupcakes are welcome."
Hope to see you there!
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »Back in July of this year, Google’s Merchant blog announced they are requiring merchants to include more attributes and keep their products updated or their accounts will be disallowed. Both large and small businesses have had mixed reviews about it, but if you think about it from the consumer perspective then Google is only ensuring that the end user sees the most relevant products as well as current information.
So make sure to check out your feed (even Google Commerce blog has posted a reminder) and correct any warnings or errors. In Google Merchant center, check under Data Quality. If you see this, your feed is okay:
If you see this, then you need to work on fixing the feed file:
Thankfully, Google lists out what item and/or attribute is missing or has an error. Just click on the plus mark for the items to display. However, if the feed is not updated then Google may suspend the account if it has critical errors that are not fixed.
Depending on if you hand-created the feed or if you have a CMS system that creates your initial feed, Google’s Merchant Help Center will guide you on where to update the changes. Preferably, if you have a CMS system, then correct the missing information in your CMS system. This way it keeps your database updated with accurate information needed to create the feeds. If you had to hand-create the feed then look for the line item with the error. (Quickest is CTRL +F)
Lastly, might as well update all the comparison shopping engine feeds with the newest feed file, because if Google had errors then the other feed properties had some errors as well. Ensure that your prospective customers have a chance at seeing your products and that what they see doesn’t have errors.
If you need assistance with this, Fathom’s experts in E-commerce marketing can get your company’s feed compliant. We offer feed creation, maintenance and optimization, along with many other online services geared toward improving your E-commerce revenue.
*** Stay tuned for my next post on Various Ways to Optimize CSE’s Feeds next month ***
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »
How good is your technology company at online marketing? If you’re not sure if you’re doing it right, or you’re looking for proven successful strategies to implement, Fathom’s newest white paper can help. “Online Marketing, Demystified: What Your Technology Company Can Learn,” will help you understand how your competitors are approaching online marketing today, and the successful strategies you can apply now.
Through case studies and examples, you’ll learn more about:
- How to improve conversion rates
- Proven effective strategies for measuring ROI
- How holistic online marketing can take you to the next level
- Things you can start doing today to improve online marketing success
Download your free copy of “Online Marketing, Demystified: What Your Technology Company Can Learn.”
To learn even more about online marketing for the technology industry, attend our Oct. 20th webinar, “Navigating Online Marketing for the Tech Industry.” Register for the webinar today!
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »It’s never too early to start planning for the holidays.
Today we are continuing our e-commerce mini-series with Matt Messenger, Fathom’s e-commerce guru. In this episode, Matt brings on live chat specialist Jenni Ramminger.
Learn about what live chat can do for you company, the types of live chat services and a few things to consider when choosing a service.
Stay tuned next week when Matt will bring a social media expert on to talk about Facebook commerce.
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »
