On the surface, it may seem like most of the content development comes in the words and key phrases the writer puts together. However, the way one formats content also plays a role, if not more important, in the whole picture. The saying “teach a man to fish, and he’ll feed himself for the rest of his life” definitely can be applied to this scenario.

1. First and foremost are header tags. Using H1, H2, H3, etc tags are huge to content management. Placing the most important page title in an H1 tag is HUGE for search engine crawlers. They will look at the H1 tags first and if that contains some of your main key words, you will notice some impact.
2. Second are your anchor links. Placing emphasis and time on giving title tags to your a links along with appropriate follow and nofollow properties can also assist search engines in how to index your site.
3. Finally, bolding, underline, and italicizing your the important parts of your content will also attract attention from a search engine.

Teaching SEO to Copywriters Proves Invaluable
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Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses. It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet.[1] Viral marketing may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or text messages.

Now the reason I bring up viral marketing is because it can provide positive internet marketing or negative internet marketing. Now you may be very aware, but the Superbowl is coming to Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Host Committee is the organization coordinating most of the marketing efforts representing the city of Indianapolis in ties to the Superbowl.

Recently, Indianapolis has pushed two marketing pieces that have had negative viral impact. First, was the “Indianapolis Superbowl Shuffle” developed and produced by Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association. “The tourism agency was forced to remove the YouTube video, which featured hotel and restaurant workers singing reworked lyrics to the Chicago Bears’ 1985 rap song.” (Check out the news article). This video immediately received thousands and thousands of views the DAY it was released. The negative response was overwhelming, so much that the video was requested to be taken down. If you happened to miss it, some sensational fans archived it here. Yeah, it was pretty bad, so bad that there were even facebook groups created!

After such a mishap, you think the city would be more aware of which art forms it was supporting. However, Wednesday December 14th, The Superbowl Host Committee (previously mentioned) released a poster to represent the superbowl for Indianapolis. This poster was a graphic design piece produced by famous and local artist Walter Knabe. Only problem is he is a professional painter, not a graphic designer. The poster received immediate negative feedback as all social media outlets blew up with updates about the “official poster”. In fact, a facebook group called Designers (and fans) Against Superbowl Indianapolis Poster was created in which many people shared their opinions and shared with friends. This goes to show how quickly users responded to the poster released on Wednesday. However, these “haters” were decieved because the real superbowl poster, sponsored by the NFL themselves, is displayed on your right. How incredible, the public was so misled by the media.

In conclusion, there are a couple things we can learn about viral marketing, especially form these events that occurred in Indianapolis. First, things that go viral can have a detrimentally negative impact on your marketing campaign. Second, viral marketing can lead the masses to believe something that is untrue or misleading. The Superbowl Shuffle was produced with the intent to “go viral” which, in fact, it did. But it only produced negative reputation toward the organizations that put it together. Often, the things that provide positive feedback and impact are  the things that go viral truly by themselves.

Viral Marketing in Indianapolis
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Something I learned about presentation was simplicity. Keeping ideas that are clean, well communicated, and succinct have the most impact. How well a startup company brands and markets itself has a direct impact on its potential success.

Clean

Design must be clean. This doesn’t necessarily mean bare, but clean. Eyes follow a layout easier when it is clean and well put together. Placing calls to action in appropriate places and content that suggests action is just as important. Matt Gordon’s presentation was extremely simple. It consisted of very small phrases and pictures that represented his ideas. One of the reasons Apple appeals to so many people is greatly due to the sleek design. Web design should be the same.

Well-Communicated

When information becomes complex, it is especially important to communicate clearly. Using appropriate phrasing and wording to explain an idea is half the battle, yet a very important aspect. Designing that content to display your communication is just as important. A very good example applies to marketing, especially Email Marketing. Something I learned very quickly the other day about sending out an email is spacing and wording. No one wants to read a bunch of text without any images. Cleaning up content, perhaps

• using
• bullet
• points

can emphasize key topics. A picture speaks a thousand words, so if introducing images is effective, then do it!

Succinct

No one likes to listen to someone talk forever about themselves. Engage the user, give them what they want, get what you want from them, and then leave them alone. This is very important if you are going to run a Search Engine Marketing campaign. When someone searches, they have a very small attention span and will continuously search until they find an answer. Applying the same concept to web design is very important. Web sites can have many uses and functions to individuals, companies, and communities. But being succinct when possible and linking to longer content can be very effective. KISS, or Keep It Simple Stupid, is a principle that is a good idea to follow.

So…

The characteristics of clean, well-communicated, and succinct can apply to many areas of life. Applying them to web design and marketing for a small start up is one of the smartest directions one could take.

Importance of Web Design & Marketing for Small Startup Businesses
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The phrase “content is king” is just another set of buzzwords that online marketers and internet marketers are using to describe the importance of content. Not just any ol’e content though, but unique, genuine, updated, relevant content. When it comes to search engine marketing or seo, what I’m saying is, Content isn’t just king, it’s god.

Of course, major search engines are taking new approaches to content. You may be aware that Google, search engine giant, recently had an update titled “Freshness.” To briefly catch you up, this all has to do with Google’s most recent search engine algorithm update called “Google Panda.” (What is Google Panda?)

In essence, paid link exchanges are a thing of the past and social content is a thing of the present and future. Posting relevant and important content on your web site is one thing: a very important thing at that. But having your friends, family, strangers, coworkers, social circles, etc, like and share that content with all of their “followers” is almost more important.

Google’s purpose in life is to enhance the online user experience by helping searchers find what they are looking for–faster and more efficiently. One mathematical way to accomplish this is to reduce the ranking of low quality content in order to make higher quality content more prevalent. They say a picture says a thousand words. Well an infographic explains complex concepts with the use of many pictures and many words. Google’s algorithm is somewhat hard to understand in addition to the importance of content in search engine marketing, so here’s an outstanding info graphic to help simulate those neurotransmitters.

Source: Brafton Infographic: Why Content for SEO?

According to Brafton, the strategic place of content even increases sales! How about that! Maybe it’s time to get started in some strategic Email Marketing. *wink* Social content is the future of search engine optimization and that all begins with compelling content. That, my friends, is why content isn’t just King. Content is God!

Content isn’t king. Content is god
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Let’s get right to it: Email marketing is far from dead. If anything, it has proven more relevant and valuable to those in marketing and sales trying to establish and nurture a customer relationship. If you are in sales, you may have noticed nine out of ten calls go straight to voicemail. (I don’t have a source to back that up, just personal experience.)

Rather than just list to the arguments, I went to four expert sources: MarketingSherpa, Infusionsoft , Silverpop, and Mailchimp.

MarketingSherpa is the 800 pound gorilla and possibly the best known brand for marketing research and email is just one focus area for them. The 2011 Email Benchmark Report offers a high-level look at insights gained from the study of more than 1,100 marketers. The executive summary alone is worth the visit.

Want to read more about email marketing? Check these out:

• How To Use Gmail To Run Your Business
• Build Your Email List Value Today
• Rethink Your Email Marketing

Among the key findings from MarketingSherpa: The most significant challenge marketers face with email is not spam, or subject line length, or time of day to email, but creating highly relevant content in both the B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business) channels. The most effective content strategy is segmenting email campaigns based on behavior. Over 65% stated that highly relevant content is the key to success and it is the greatest challenge to find and create that content.

In addition, “Today, 78% rate the use of email to “increase sales revenue” very important.” However, it is important to note that revenue isn’t the only goal: 90% stated that email is effective or somewhat effective for increasing website traffic and building brand awareness.

The report is over 200 pages long, so this is the last point I’ll share: “Email isn’t limited to top line objectives. The objective rated as very important second most often is improving customer relations/retention. Email is the communications channel of choice for customers and prospects who wish to be kept informed.” Despite the growth in social media, marketers are still spending on email marketing. The two marketing approaches work well together and will become further integrated over time.

Silverpop put together a solid whitepaper entitled: Beyond Opens and Clicks: 5 Email Metrics to Boost Results and Prove Your Worth. This report is filled with stats; plus there is lots of good advice on open rates, conversion, and deliverability and unsubscribe rates.

Infusionsoft, offers email strategies and tips for its marketing automation platform for small business owners. Rather than only focus on stats around email, they share ideas and concepts for website landing pages, website forms, and ask 17 questions on conducting a website evaluation to improve your conversions.

Mailchimp publishes these great comparison and benchmark reports right on its blog and site. You can learn about rank by industry, by business size, how to segment your list, and comparing subject lines. The subject line research shows “best open rates” and “worst open rates.” Some of them are simply comical.

• Email Marketing Benchmarks by Industry
• Email Marketing Benchmarks by Business Size
• Effects of List Segmentation on Email Marketing Stats
• Email Marketing Subject Line Comparison

The thing I like most about MailChimp is their candor. You’ll get good home grown advice on their blog and in their research section. “So what’s our advice for email subject lines? This is going to sound “stupid simple” to a lot of people, but here goes: Your subject line should (drum roll please): Describe the subject of your email. Yep, that’s it.”

Social media is changing the landscape, that is certain, however, building a relationship, and a potential for a sale, is still the same. You have to nurture and grow a relationship. Email is still alive and kicking. It is the gardener you bring in to keep the yard landscape looking beautiful. These reports and stats can improve your customer relationships. If you need additional resources on email, marketing automation, email campaign content, drop me an email here.

How E-Mail Marketing Helps Build Relationships And Increase Sales
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Stop looking at yourself as a designer and start thinking of yourself as a deliverer of ideas.
- Stle Melvr 

Let’s start the discussion off with the thought of ideas. When it comes to starting and running a business, visionaries are the true innovators. From the very initial concept to the final product, seeing a process take life and form can be very motivating. Just take a look at Steve Jobs. I understand that because of his death, literally everyone has been talking about him. But Jobs encompassed the very foundations of the the word innovative. He took ideas, delivered them through unprecedented design, and created a viable product to solve common problems. Now how does this apply to the web scene? The web and mobile technology is simply a transportation mechanism that delivers these ideas to the world. Web designers are really just innovators of ideas. To the businessman, their service can be of tremendous value in communicating to the ever-evolving world of technology-involved people. Of course it goes without saying that one can not indulge in enjoying web design without having the necessary technical tools to help them enjoy that luxury, ie, computer, cell phone, etc.

But if  design, as Melvr states,  is simply the projection of ideas, then how are these ideas delivered to the masses? That is where marketing comes into play; and to the common businessman, marketing is one of the most important aspects of running a business. For how will consumers consume, if they do not know what it is they can consume.

Marketing without design is lifeless, and design without marketing is mute.
-Von R. Glitschka

An analogy often paints a picture better than mere metaphors. Think about how television transformed the marketing industry. It completely changed the game for mass communication just like mobile technology did more recently. Marketing is the vehicle that carries design to its intended audience; at least that is what good marketing is supposed to do. However, without the organized creativity of design, marketing would be ineffective ‒ merely communication without direction. Ever since the invention of the Internet and the web boom, there are literally millions of web sites online. Each of them carries some sort of design whether intentional or unintentional. Whether or not that design is deemed good can be subjective matter. However, there are some characteristics that can guide all judgment of design. In fact, often the very foundational elements are often the most important.

Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.
-Brian Reed

The word “good” is often very subjective or opinionated. What may be good to one person may be sub par for another. One’s definition of good could reflect their ethical and moral code, but I digress. Now I’m sure if you got this far in the post, you’re wanting me to define what I value as good web design, but that is for you to decide. The best opinions are those backed by a good argument. Keep your eyes open for another post on my thoughts about good web design. What are three qualities you look for in a good web design? Could you defend your opinion with something substantial? Please leave it in a comment below and we’ll get the conversations started. Until next time.

What is good web design, from the perspective of a businessman?
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You may already thing Google is pretty fresh, but based on the newest update they rolled out earlier this month, they now serve you only the Freshest content!

On November 3rd, Google announced an new release that impacts roughly 35 percent of ALL searches. This new update to the infamous Google Algorithm, is targeted mainly towards news or events related sites and pages. Below is an example that Google shares on their announcement to provide some content.

If I search for [olympics], I probably want information about next summer’s upcoming Olympics, not the 1900 Summer Olympics (the only time my favorite sport, cricket, was played). Google Search uses a freshness algorithm, designed to give you the most up-to-date results, so even when I just type [olympics] without specifying 2012, I still find what I’m looking for.

So, when you now search for items such as the below list, you’ll notice the time stamps on the search results page are very recent.

• Recent events or hot topics
• Regularly recurring events
• Frequent updates

Google’s “Freshness” Update
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I recently read a post on Chief Marketer titled “Design Your Site to Meet Customers’ Needs”. It’s a quick read and I suggest you read the full blog, but below are the main points. I agree with most of the rules but also feel it fails to identify what we at Springboard Marketing think is the most import rule: Define the Business Objectives of your Website. Without first defining how your website is going to support your business in some capacity, you are operating in the dark. I appreciate the importance of marketing you site, but without setting a stake in the ground you really have no direction. So we feel you first have to start with the defining the business objectives of your website and then define how you are going to market it.

The other point we would suggest different is to define the Key Performance Indicators of your site. What equals success? It has to be more than simply how many visitors, length of stay or pages per visit. Some would argue that this is part of defining the business objectives. I agree with that to some extent but feel it is important enough to be a rule of its own. Perhaps it would replace Denise B. Hearden’s rule #4 as I hope it goes without saying – you need someone qualified to define and design your website.

Kudos to Denise though as this is a good list of 8 Simple Rules…

1. Develop a marketing plan for your Web site.

2. While developing your Web site marketing plan, ask yourself “What is the purpose of my Web site?”

3. Understand the users of your site.

4. Make sure the strategy behind your Web site design comes from someone qualified.

5. Don’t try something new because it looks “cool.”

6. Drive traffic to your site!

7. Is your content fresh, or is it the same material you put up there when your site was first created?

8. Monitor and measure your site.

Denise B. Hearden (denise.hearden@johnsondirect.com) is the e-marketing director of Johnson Direct.

8 Simple Rules of Web Design
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Be current

Create a contest that that is relevant to the current events. For example you could create a holiday contest with a virtual Easter Egg hunt. Hide Easter eggs on your website each day, for a period of time and invite your Facebook followers to join the contest. The first player to find an egg and click on it wins a prize. Perhaps it could be gift cards to the surrounding businesses within your community or your own products. All of the clues and hints to find the eggs could be posted on Facebook to drive people to your site!

People love photos

Run a contest using photos of your products, or business. Ask Fans to snap a picture of your products / business (or better yet, of them using your products!) and post the photos on your wall. As a reward give those that have posted the photo a gift card as a thank you.

Another option is to have Fans post a photo of themselves, could be seasonal such as Halloween or of them using your product. Then ask FANs to vote on the best photo and give a reward for those voting and a reward for the best photo.

Make them guess

Run a guessing game contest the same day of every week. The guessing game could be a word jumble of local businesses or landmarks, a picture of a local place where people guess where it’s taken, or old standby of how many items are in the container.

Ask for insight

Ask Fans to share tips on how they do things. The tip with the most unique comments or likes could win a prize. An example could be “what are your tips to growing a great vegetable garden”. Keep it light and fun, not to technical.

Favorite quotes

Ask fans to submit their favorite quotes. This is simple and can be applied to just about any business. The person who got the most likes or comments on their quote wins the prize.

Thank them for “likes”

Run a weekly contest where you’re giving away a prize for those Fans that have Liked something on your wall. Each week, put all the names of the “likers” in a list and do a random drawing to pull names.

Facebook offers a lot of ways to connect with customers, Friends and fans. Please share your Facebook contest success stories in the comments.

Facebook Contest Ideas
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Gmail has a feature called Priority Inbox, which automatically sorts your “important” emails to the top. The basic idea is that Gmail will prioritize email from senders that you interact with the most.

In order to predict which messages are important to you, Gmail uses some of the same technology that it uses to weed spam out of your Inbox. To predict which of your incoming messages are important, Gmail automatically takes into account a number of signals, including:

* Who sent the email (For example, if you email Bob a lot, it’s likely that messages from Bob are important.)
* What terms it includes (If you always read messages about soccer, a new message that contains those same soccer words is more likely to be important.)
* The actions that help us determine which people/terms are important to you include: replying, using stars, archiving, deleting (Messages you star are probably more important than messages you archive without opening.)

This is all done automatically, and no humans ever read your mail.

The takeaway for email marketers? Well, it’s kind of the same old story. Send awesome emails. If your recipients are more engaged and interact with your emails more often, you get priority. Here are some tips for sending more engaging emails…

• Get to know your engaged subscribers – segment, segment, segment
• Be more human, get more replies – be personal, not to “corporate”
• Write effective subjects lines – They won’t engage, if they don’t open it
• Test, test, test – if you email isn’t tested against the SPAM filters, it may not even get delivered

Gmail’s Priority Inbox
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