Congratulations to our own Cyndi Friedel, who handles the agency’s search engine Pay-Per-Click programs, for recently earning her certification as a Yahoo! Search Ambassador. Cyndi had earned her certification from Google some time ago and recently added the Yahoo! credentials to her resume of skills.
Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
Yahoo on Yahoo!
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009Working through the SEO Process – Understanding how everything works together
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009We’ve recently posted a new page to the brandcepts web site that details how your website content, architecture, social media sites, and web analytics all work together to improve your search engine rankings. While many SEO sites detail how each piece is important in their own special way, we haven’t seen it explained how collectively they fit together to help businesses improve their search engine rankings. What many people don’t understand is that SEO is a process and not a one time effort. To maintain high search engine rankings, you need to continue to work on content and drive quality traffic to your website. And while one piece of the puzzle may seem important, it’s not a complete picture without the other pieces and the end results are less than picture perfect. Feel free to check out the page and contact us if you would like more information.
Pitch the Web When You're Pitching TV
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009Next time you’re pitching a story for TV, think “web.” That’s the advice from Howard Fencl, a news producer at Cleveland TV station WKYC. News executives increasingly look for stories that not only have a visual play and make for a good story for the evening broadcast but for an angle that would play well on the station’s web site. Reporters finish their stories and then direct viewers to the site to learn more and get additional details not aired during the segment.
Analytics Marketing Corner — Does Your Web Site Have the Right "Bounce"?
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009Marketing today is as much about measurement and analytics as it is about compelling creative. Understanding the numbers and analytics behind your programs leads to greater impact, greater efficiency, and improved results and conversions. At Goldstein Group, in each issue of the newsletter, we share an interesting number that may lead to insights into your own program. This month:
- What’s your bounce rate? Every web site has a “bounce rate,” defined as the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page. The lower the bounce, the more effective your marketing and search engine programs are. So – do you know what your web site’s bounce rate is and how it compares to others? Call us, and we’ll share the details with you.
- Increasingly, GGC is migrating to a service we’re calling “Analytics Marketing.” Those of you who’ve worked with us know that we have long had a passion for measurement and accountability; Analytics Marketing is an extension of that.
- Finally, we’ve gotten to the point with marketing technology where it’s no longer a question of what’s working and why. Marketing is no longer an act of faith but a discipline as measurable and quantifiable as any other sector of the company. Using a combination of open, commonly accepted software analytics products, along with whatever tools a client currently uses, we can track the effect of marketing programs. It’s no longer about generating traffic but the RIGHT traffic. It’s no longer about generating leads but the BEST leads. And it’s no longer about mere visibility but about sales CONVERSIONS. Call us for a demonstration and to hear best practices ideas of what others are doing that can apply to you.
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Goldstein Group/Hearst Study Shows 47% Budgets of Marketing Now Spent Online
Thursday, December 18th, 2008Goldstein Group recently published results of a study of best practices in marketing spending for business-to-business companies, which showed that today nearly half of all spending (47%) is spent online. The report documents how companies allocate their marketing dollars, how much they spend on print advertising, on direct mail, even on emerging social media. The study availability was picked up by BtoB Magazine (http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081203/FREE/812039997). For a white paper describing results of the study, contact Joel Goldstein at jgoldstein@ggcomm.com.
Pay-Per-Click Call To Action Ads
Thursday, October 16th, 2008Google and Yahoo recommend writing “call to action” ads for a higher click-thru response. We tested this theory and it does seem to pull in higher click thrus. We ran the same keyword with two different ad messages. The first ad text had a general description of the product and the other ad text had an offer to a handbook. The call to action ad produced a 1% higher click-thru rate.
The New Face of Blogs
Friday, July 18th, 2008Three years ago our agency operated six different blogs for various clients in a variety of markets. Blogs were the hot ticket in marketing then, and just the announcement that the client had begun a blog generated media coverage!
It was surprising even then how little actual participation most of technology- and engineering-related blogs created. While sports, food, religion and political blogs routinely spawned lively online debates, magazine and company blogs often were outposts of silence. Even well-known authors such as Seth Godin, the pioneer of permission-based marketing, saw relatively little online discussion on his blog.
Today, though, technology blogs have evolved in fascinating ways, according to a new study just released by Reed Publishing’s EDN Magazine. I won’t try to summarize the global study here (call/email me if you’d like a copy), but there are a few items that raised eyebrows in our shop:
- Engineers spend a fair amount of time participating in online groups, and we’re not talking about personal Facebook pages here – 39% of engineers use online networks to get answers to their job-related questions. Top of the list is LinkedIn, followed by Yahoo Groups. Remember, this question specifically asked about their use of online groups for BUSINESS purposes, not leisure/social.
- The big shocker: engineers actually want manufacturers to participate and provide information in these online communities, a complete reversal from a few years ago when companies were seen as intruders to online discussion groups. Today, engineers are so time pressed and place such a priority on getting quick answers to their questions, that they welcome applications advice and product knowledge, when the participant is properly identified.
- 26% use blogs for business, most often as a way to keep up on new technology and to get how-to information.
- 74% rely on webcasts (no surprise there). Most preferred length: 28 minutes
- 59% said they watch online video for work, particularly for online demos and product tutorials. Most preferred length: 11 minutes
Integrating Online Video Into Your PR Program
Friday, July 18th, 2008Last month when we took a client out on the road on a press tour, we encountered something new – an online video created when the editors interviewed us! Magazines are turning to online video as rapidly as they can think of how to use them, and PR is fertile territory. The editors simply interview visiting companies as they give a two-minute summary of their latest product, then post it on the magazine’s site alongside the news release. Here’s a sample:
http://electronicdesign.com/shows/new_products/index.cfm
In fact, at a wireless industry trade show this month, we saw the same pattern repeated – a few publications sent their editors around with simple home video cameras to capture interviews on the latest technology introduced at the show, for broadcast on their site alongside traditional text coverage of the show.
Online video is not just for webcasts anymore. Try experimenting with how to create more video content in a PR perspective. One idea will be to embed a two-minute video pitch with comparative product benefits in our news releases, alongside still photography. Customers and prospects can get a quick snapshot of the product’s core advantages to them, with links to white papers, data sheets, and more elaborate product information as a call to action. Will it work? We’ll share the results with you in the next few weeks.
