Marketing in a Recession: Internet Tactics

1. Marketing in a Recession: Internet Tactics Pete KeverPrincipal & Co-FounderGHI Internet Services

2. Agenda • GHIIS Overview (1 minute) • Internet Marketing Overview (2 minutes) • Search Engine Marketing Overview (5 minutes) • SEM Practical Steps to Take (5 minutes) • Social Media Marketing Overview (5 minutes) • SMM Practical Steps to Take (5 minutes)

3. GHI Internet Services (GHIIS) • GHIIS is an interactive media firm that: • Designs websites • Executes customized internet marketing campaigns • Develops SaaS solutions • Focuses on improving companies' online brands while increasing their revenues.

4. GHI Internet Services (GHIIS) • We have … • 1,000+ Clients … • Performed over 700 Internet Marketing campaigns • Domestic and International Design Teams; Global Delivery Model • 200+ Business Partners • 9 years in Business … Largest Design & IM Firm in Medina County

5. What is Internet Marketing? • Search Engine Marketing (SEM), comprisedof organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) • Email Marketing • Social Media Marketing (SMM) • Online Advertising

6. Why is Internet Marketing Important? • $204 billion: Total U.S. Internet retail sales in 2008. • 12 billion: The number of searches performed per month on the Web. • 172 Billion: The number of email messages sent per day. • 310 Million: The number of combined Facebook and MySpace users. • 184 million: The number of people who have started a blog. Source: ClickZ

7. Why is Internet Marketing Important? • E-Commerce sales were one of the few bright • spots for retailers in recent months: • In December 2008, Best Buy reported a 34% increase in web sales over December 2007, while in-store sales fell 6.8%. • In a March 2009 survey of 80 web retailers with varying levels of annual e-commerce revenue, 58% said that their year-over-year web sales rose for the first quarter. • (source: Internet Retailer)

8. Why is Internet Marketing Important? Which would you rather do? Source: 2007 New Paradigm Global Study (Q825)

9. Why is Internet Marketing Important? Internet Marketing is targetable and trackable. Targetable – reach exact markets with your message, at the point in time they are researching and making a purchase decision. Trackable – get “instant” market intelligence from your campaigns that is either impossible or too costly to obtain in other media.

10. Why is Internet Marketing Important? • Start with only a few dollars per day and grow as needed • Internet marketing is the “Rifle approach”, while traditional media is a “Shotgun approach” • Data is empirical – you can track exactly how well it’s working • Some valuable IM tactics, like Social Media, can be done in-house, part-time

11. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Overview

12. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Overview In Internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a set of marketing methods to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). SEM strategies include: • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) attempts to improve rankings for relevant keywords in search results by improving a web site's structure, content, and relevant back link count.

13. Organic Search Results

14. Organic Search Results

15. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Overview In Internet marketing, Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a set of marketing methods to increase the visibility of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). SEM strategies include: • Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising uses sponsored search engine listings to drive traffic to a web site. The advertiser bids for search terms, and the search engine ranks ads based on a competitive auction as well as other factors.

16. Organic Search Results

17. Organic Search Results

18. Why Should I Care About SEM? • The market is shifting from a Nation of Sellers to a Nation of Buyers • Significant sales channel with unmatched ROI than many traditional sales channels / methodologies • Make the fastest growing companies in the world work for you! • Inexpensive, proven ROI • It’s a 24 hour brand machine working for you all day long

19. Search Engine Facts Did you know… • The average web site gets 73% more overall traffic within six months of being optimized. • You can start getting targeted traffic for as little as $1 per day, within 24 hours. • Consumers view a search result for 1.1 second. • 100% view the organic search results. • 96% view the top (three) sponsored search results. • 35% view the sponsored search results on the right. • Buyers view more search results (10) and take more time to view the results (11.4 seconds). They also focus on familiar brand names. • Information searchers view fewer search results (8) and spend less time on a result (9.4 seconds). They pay more attention to content than to brand names.

20. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Overview The best way to find new customers… is to simply let them find you!™

21. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand • Determine your goals. • Set up web site analysis software. • Research the keywords your potential audience is using. • Write keyword-rich copy using plain page text. Update that copy often. • Make sure every page in your site is reachable from at least one static text link. • Write keyword-rich Title tags that are relevant for each page. • Write keyword-rich META Description tags that are relevant for each page. • Get links from other sites that are similar to yours.

22. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand 1. Determine your goals Some examples might include: • First page ranking in Google for keywords related to your services • Increase traffic to your site by 50% from local community • Get 10 new program registrations per month • Get 10 more contacts from the web site per month • Get 10 more newsletter signups • Track the number of people who view a certain page on the site

23. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand 2. Set up web site analysis software No web site traffic analysis software? You are flying blind! • Your host can normally install a free or low-cost system. • Google Analytics is free of charge, www.google.com/analytics - and includes many features found in higher-priced commercial systems. • Some traffic analysis software can run into tens of thousands of dollars.

24. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand 3. Research keywords Creating an effective search engine marketing campaign means attracting visitors to your site with keywords that are most likely to convert them! Never assume the keywords your potential customers will use. Invest in an SEM campaign using the wrong keywords – and all of your efforts are in vain.

25. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand 3. Research keywords Keyword research tools: • Google – use the free Keyword Tool at www.google.com/keywords and Google Trends at www.google.com/trends. • Wordtracker – subscription-based web site that contains samples of searches: www.WordTracker.com • Keyword Discovery – subscription-based web site that contains samples of searches along with geographic data: www.KeywordDiscovery.com

26. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand 4. Write keyword-rich copy using plain page text • Plain page text is the text that you can select on your web pages • It does not include images, Flash or videos. You can use these, but don’t put important keywords only within an image • Search engines are not “smart” and they are mostly “blind”

27. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand 5. Make sure every page in your site is reachable • If your host provider is unreliable, it can hurt your Google rank • Put plain text links in the footer navigation of your web pages • Make your logo a link back to your home page • Create a site map for your visitors and a site map feed for spiders

28. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand 6. Write keyword-rich Title tags

29. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand 7. Write keyword-rich META description tags Found in the <HEAD> area with the <TITLE> tag. <META name="description" content=“Marketing Verbiage Here.”>

30. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand 8. Get links from other sites that are similar to yours Good starter links are: • Chamber of commerce and other associations • Current offline partners • Sites that already mention you, but don’t link • Standard free directories, like Yahoo!

31. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand 8. Get links from other sites that are similar to yours Some advanced link-building tactics include: • Links from social media destinations, like bookmarking sites • Links from associated/partner sites • Syndicated content distributed via blogging, press releases • RSS Feeds • Paid text links

32. Search Engine Optimization: 8 TacticsTo Build Your Traffic & Brand Bottom line…. A site that is well-organized, updated with useful content and that contains the keywords that your audience uses to search for your services, will rank better and attract more of the right kind of visitors.

33. Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview

34. Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview OR…. Let’s see if Pete can cram 50 hours’ worth of information into 10 minutes!

35. Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview Social media marketing is the process of promoting a site, business or brand through social media channels by engaging and interacting with existing consumers or potential consumers.

36. Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview Search engine marketing = online sales & advertising Social media marketing = online branding and “PR”

37. Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview Social media marketing = higher search engine rankings Building a presence in the social web is all about reputation and branding. Most of the web's top ranking websites maintain strong brand recognition in their respective industries.

38. Why is Internet Marketing Important? This generation has grown up on computers and the Internet, and… • Will never read a newspaper but attracted to some magazines • Will never own a land-line phone (and maybe not a watch) • Will not watch television on someone else’s schedule much longer • Trust unknown peers more than experts • For first time willing (2005) to pay for digital content. Never before. • Little interest in the source of information and most information aggregated. • Community at the center of Internet experience • Think not interested in advertising or affected by brand, but wrong. • Everything will move to mobile • Less interested in television than any generation before • Want to move content freely from platform to platform with no restrictions • Want to be heard (user generated) • Use IM. Think e-mail is for their parents Source: Lev Gonick, Case Western Reserve University

39. Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview • YouTube = 10 percent of all internet traffic (source: Ellacoya Networks) Five of the top 10 websites are social (source: Alexa) Over 100 million blogs exist (source: Technorati) 120,000 new blogs launched every day (source: Technorati) 1.5 million posts per day (17 per second) (source: Technorati) Source: Lev Gonick, Case Western Reserve University

40. Social Media Marketing (SMM) Overview Myspace.com beat MTV.com vs. Source: Compete.com

41. Social Media Marketing: 5 TacticsTo Increase Your Brand Rule #1: Don’t Panic! It’s Still Early!

42. Social Media Marketing: 5 TacticsTo Increase Your Brand • Does social media make sense for you? • Research where your markets / audiences “hang out.” • Setup profiles. • Start writing a blog & build an online “press room”. • Start forming relationships.

43. Social Media Marketing: 5 TacticsTo Increase Your Brand • Does social media make sense for you? Ask yourself… • How would social media fit into my overall marketing strategy? Does it align? • What are the specific advantages of blogging? Social networks? Twitter? What are the drawbacks of each? • Should I consider outsourcing my social media marketing if I don't have the time? • Am I willing to be more open with my customers and give them the ability to communicate more freely with me?

44. Social Media Marketing: 5 TacticsTo Increase Your Brand • Research where your audiences “hang out.” Top social network destinations are: • Facebook (MySpace is for teens and music lovers) • Twitter • YouTube • LinkedIn • Digg • Delicious • Flickr • Blogger

45. Social Media Marketing: 5 TacticsTo Increase Your Brand • Research where your audiences “hang out.” • Do a search on Technorati (www.technorati.com) or Google blog search (http://blogsearch.google.com) for blogs that mention your services. • Do a search on Google for “[KEYWORD”] and “FORUMS”. • Search Facebook and LinkedIn Groups for keywords related to your services. • Use Tweetscan and search.twitter.com to learn what people are saying about you or services like yours, and to find like-minded people. • Search YouTube using related keywords.

46. Social Media Marketing: 5 TacticsTo Increase Your Brand • Setup profiles. • Profile setup takes minutes, and is free of charge. • Works best when done at a “personal” level rather than “corporate”. • Even if you don’t build out a profile, it’s best to grab the “address” while its available.

47. Social Media Marketing: 5 TacticsTo Increase Your Brand • Start writing a blog & build an online “press room”. • Your blog is the cornerstone of your online PR efforts, and you should have several “content experts” who write for it on a regular basis • Content can be syndicated via RSS to other social networks, “partner blogs” and other tools like Twitter • Optimize your blog’s content around keywords and then link those keywords to corresponding web pages • Your press room should contain press releases, basic company info, links to blogs, social media accounts, etc.

48. Social Media Marketing: 5 TacticsTo Increase Your Brand • Start forming relationships • You cannot “fake” good social networking • It’s just like a real world networking event • Show that you care for your audience, and they will respond positively • Monitor blogs and micro-blogging networks forfeedback • Have fun, make friends and stay involved

49. Top Social Media Sites Facebook www.facebook.com • A social networking site where people can join similar groups, share photos and connect and interact with other people. • Just reached 200 million users • Companies can set up a Facebook Page, a Group, and/or a Fan site • Groups allow you to send occasional “mass” emails • Personal, not corporate

50. Top Social Media Sites