The document discusses the "Holy Trinity of Internet Marketing" which refers to Search, Social, and Direct marketing. It describes these three areas as "galaxies" where consumers spend time online through activities like searching, social interactions, and receiving direct messages. The document provides an overview of key tactics within each galaxy, including search engine optimization, social media marketing, and paid search/email marketing. It emphasizes developing an integrated strategy that brings these different areas together to help attract and engage customers online.
1. The Holy Trinity of
Internet Marketing
By Kevin Getch
white paper series
2. contents
The Universe of Internet Marketing
Search, Social and Direct Galaxies
The Holy Trinity of Internet Marketing
Your Website: The Most Valuable Asset in Your Strategy
Developing an Integrated Internet Marketing Strategy
Sources
3. THE UNIVERSE OF
INTERNET MARKETING
Google gets searched more than 5 billion times every day. There
are over 7 billion pieces of content shared on Facebook weekly
and the average number of emails sent per day is over 140
billion.
Yes, those stats are impressive. But if you’re a business owner,
the question still remains, “How can I best use these internet
marketing channels to get and keep more customers?” Well, I'm
glad you asked because that’s the question I’m going to help
answer in this white paper.
The Universe of Internet Marketing is Vast!
When people first see this Venn diagram they immediately think
Search, Social & Direct represent Search Engine Marketing,
Social Media Marketing and Direct Marketing. And while they're
4. not wrong, these "galaxies" also represent the actions or behavior of consumers online.
Search represents when a user is searching for something. It
could be a business, an answer to a question, some good
content, directions, browsing the web, reading a good blog,
researching a product/service, watching a YouTube video, etc.
Social represents when a user is interacting with other people
online, checking status updates, interacting in a group/community, playing online games, etc.
Whereas Direct represents when a user is receiving a direct
message such as an email, a text message, a push message or
app notification.
Many of the activities users take online can be categorized into
these three main behaviors (or a combination of them). And
while the platforms and tactics won’t all fall perfectly into each
galaxy (they collide and overlap in many ways), it’s still a logical
way of organizing them and it will help you better understand
the complex world of internet marketing.
Search
The Galactic Core
Social
Direct
The galactic core is where you want all customers and potential
customers to be. People in the galactic core love your company.
And the more people that join your galactic core, the more it
becomes like gravity pulling in other customers because they are
constantly singing your praises. We'll get more into the Galactic
core a little later and explain why it is so important.
The concept of developing a strategy and displaying it visually
helps most people "get it". As we discuss later, in developing a
strategy, you will see that each galaxy (circle) will expand or
contract in size based on the importance for that particular
business in their overall strategy. I believe most businesses
should have a presence in each of the three quadrants for a
comprehensive integrated marketing strategy. This is just the tip
of the iceberg though and I don't want to get ahead of myself.
Let me summarize what we're going to go over. I'm going to give
you an in depth look into each of the three galaxies. I’ll also
5. explain the best tactics to employ in that particular galaxy. Then
we're going to review "The Holy Trinity of Internet Marketing". In
this section you’ll discover how each quadrant interacts with and
benefits the other You’ll also learn the importance of your website in your strategy and how to develop an integrated internet
marketing strategy.
So if you want to find out how to best use the internet to get
and keep customers then go warm up your cup of coffee and
dig into this white paper!
To Your Success,
Kevin Getch
Next: The Search, Social & Direct Galaxies
6. THE SEARCH, SOCIAL &
DIRECT GALAXIES
Interweaving across all three galaxies you will have some
common strategies and goals that should be in sync and help
guide the individual tactics you employ. These high level strategies may include: branding, public relations, content strategy,
lead generation, thought leadership, customer service, customer
retention, and customer acquisition.
Let's look at each galaxy and the best tactics to use in each one.
SEARCH
The Search Galaxy is a complex one made of pretty much the
entire web. This is where the search engines (which are the
major platform in the Search Galaxy) crawl and index every
website (that they can reach) out there. Today, when a person
wants to get an answer to a question, find a
business or research a product they simply
“google it”. Search engines like Google, Bing
and Yahoo feature two types of results:
organic results (aka, natural results) and
paid results (where businesses bid on
placement and clicks). They have also expanded their reach by allowing other websites to
display ads from them on their website. The two
main tactics used in the Search Galaxy are Search
Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing (or
Paid Search Marketing). First, let's talk about Search
Engine Optimization.
Search Engine Optimization (or as we say
Search Experience Optimization)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a tactic used to drive more
relevant traffic to your website or content through a variety of
methods. One of the most popular methods is through increasing a websites visibility in the organic section of the search
engine results across relevant keyword searches. This can be
7. done through a variety of methods including: increasing the
positioning or ranking of a website for specific high traffic
keywords, increasing the quantity of keywords a website ranks
for and also making the website stand out in search results using
rich snippets (just to name a few).
Modern day SEO teams (the ones that are walking fully erect and
no longer have the Cro-Magnon forehead) are a combination of
individuals that are both right and left brain. They can perform
technical aspects of SEO, but also write engaging content, get
you publicity through creative marketing tactics and design
beautiful websites (that make customers and Googlebots smile).
The modern SEO team is responsible for a multitude of tasks
including: content development, website optimization, keyword
research, content strategy, analytics, web design, outreach,
social media optimization, conversion optimization, reputation
management, local listing optimization and much more.
There are easily over 200 factors that search engines look at
when accessing a website to determine whether it's a worthy
result and if it would be good to show to their users, including:
Key Factors On Your Website:
Did You Know?
If someone has you in
their circles on Google+
they’re much more likely
to see content you create
in search results while
they are logged in.
This is an amazing
opportunity to connect
with people on G+ and as
they search in the future
Website Accessibility
Website/Web Page Load Time
Title Tags
URL Structure
Image File Names
Image Alt Text
Quality of Content
Depth of Topic/Content
Keyword usage in various
places in the
website/document
Internal Linking
Semantic Markup
Site Architecture
Canonicalization
Navigation
XML sitemap
KML sitemap
Robots.txt
Meta Robots
Schema Markup
Server Location
they will see you more
often - helping establish
you as a thought leader
in your industry.
Next: Key Factors Off of Your Website
8. Key Factors Off Your Website
(Endorsements & Popularity Factors):
External Links to your website (While this is only one bullet
point there could easily be 100 sub bullet points to this one
item. Just to give you an idea of how deep the rabbit hole
goes. )
Brand Mentions
I’m just giving you the
30,000 foot view today. If
you want to dive in a
little deeper you can
read my recent blog post
“Local SEO Ranking
Factors” where I go more
in depth.
Citations - Citations are your N.A.P. (Name, Address & Phone
Number) listed on multiple websites across the web. The
quality and quantity of citations for your business has a
profound effect on your appearing prominently in the Local
Search results, as does the consistency and accuracy of the
information.
Press
Social Cues
In addition to the above items when you're trying to attract more
local customers you also have to take into account the following:
Local address/Location of the business: The search engine
knows from tons of data that if a user is looking for a dry cleaner,
car wash, or connivence store they generally want one pretty
close to their location, whereas if they’re looking for a home
builder, personal injury attorney, or a new car they are okay with
traveling a little farther. The proximity of the business address to
the center of the search as well as being located in the city of
search is a key factor and Google will determine the importance
of proximity based on the category of the search.
Your Google+ Business Page: Google wants to provide the best
results to their users and the more comprehensive your Google+
Business Page is the better experience they’re going to have.
Make sure you fill out your hours of operation, upload photos,
put in a good description, choose the right category, and
connect it to your website with publisher markup.
Next: Search Engine Marketing
9. Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing which is often referred to as Paid
Search Marketing or Pay-Per-Click (PPC), is an effective marketing
option for many businesses as it allows an advertiser a lot of
granular control to target specific keywords in specific geographies, even at specific times of the day.
While getting as much traffic as possible from organic traffic is
fine (since you're not paying anything "per click"), you don’t want
to approach PPC the same way. In fact, you want to limit the
amount of traffic you get
through PPC to the most relevant and targeted keywords that
you feel will result in a conversion (whatever a “conversion”
means to you).
One way to do this is by using
Negative Keywords. For example, if you’re a plumber you may
want to add “jobs” as a Negative
Keyword. This would prevent your ad from showing on searches
like, “plumbing jobs portland”. In this case "jobs" would be the
negative keyword that would make it so your ad didn't show. This
allows you to cut down on irrelevant clicks and maximize your
ROI.
Did You Know?
Google offers the ability
to pay per call when
you’re targeting mobile
devices? This means you
can create an ad and
display your phone
number for the potential
customer to tap. When
they do, it starts ringing
Besides standard text ads you can also create graphic ads and
have them show across Google, Bing or Yahoo's Display
Networks. These are websites that receive a portion of the
advertising profits to display ads from these search engines.
These types of ads are often targeted based on relevant content
on the page and are generally considered branding or awareness
campaigns and tend to have a lower ROI than a search campaign
where people are typing in the keyword.
your phone. This is a
great strategy especially
for a Towing company.
Next: User Psychology Behind Search Marketing
10. User Psychology Behind Search Marketing
To really make your marketing effective you need to connect the
right message, with the right people, at the right time. In order to
do that you must understand the user psychology behind
search, social and direct marketing.
For example, when someone uses Google search they’re usually
in “hunt” mode. They’re looking for a specific answer, product or
service. And if you have what they’re looking for then you need
to present it clearly and then make it easy for them to get in
touch with you (or make an inquiry, depending on your business).
Another thing to remember when it comes to search marketing
is the language your customers use. You already know they’re in
hunt mode but when you drill down and find out the exact
keywords they use to get to your ads you can start to figure out
what they’re after specifically. Using this information you can
create relevant landing pages and ads based on the unique
needs of your audience.
One way to find out if search should be your major focus is to do
keyword research. You can find out how many people are
searching for your product or service (or the answer to the
problem you provide). Here’s some tools to help you:
SEM Rush ($70/month)
WordTracker ($70/month)
Google’s Keyword Planner (Free, but you will need to set up
an AdWords account)
Keyword research is an art as well as a science. If you aren’t
experienced in keyword research and doing it on your own,
just understand there is a high probability that you’re not
getting the full picture.
Next: Social
11. SOCIAL
The Social Galaxy is where people interact with other people and
brands online, check status updates, comment on posts, interact
in a group/community and engage in other various activities.
Social media is the fastest growing medium in history. Facebook
is the largest of the social networks with over one billion users.
Google+ has jettisoned into the second spot with over 500
million profiles. This means your customers and prospects are
already using social media. But the question is: can you use it to
grow or retain business?
It’s important to understand that the Search and Social Galaxies
are colliding and will continue to in the coming years. I say this
because search engines have already started using social signals
to enhance your search experience. For example, if I search for a
local business and see my friend has +1'd, liked or reviewed the
business, then it will strengthen the relevance of that search to
me. (As I mentioned previously. If you're logged into Google+
you're more likely to see search results from people in your
social circles).
Facebook also launched their search functionality called Search
Graph. As you can see the major platforms are moving closer to
the center to capture more of their users’ online behaviors.
12. It’s important to understand that the Search and Social Galaxies
are colliding and will continue to in the coming years. I say this
because search engines have already started using social signals
to enhance your search experience. For example, if I search for a
local business and see my friend has +1'd, liked or reviewed the
business, then it will strengthen the relevance of that search to
me. (As I mentioned previously. If you're logged into Google+
you're more likely to see search results from people in your
social circles).
Facebook also launched their search functionality called Search
Graph. As you can see the major platforms are moving closer to
the center to capture more of their users’ online behaviors.
The first question when it comes to social media marketing
should be: should I be doing social media? And if so, which social
networking sites should I be on?
To help you answer that question remember this general rule of
thumb:
The more social your business is,
the more social media can help you.
Some examples of “social” businesses would be: restaurants,
bars, coffee shops, athletic clubs, etc. If you’re wondering if your
business would do well on social media then ask yourself, “Would
people want their friends or family knowing they’re a customer
of mine?”
Social media is also good if you have a business where you
frequently interact with your customers (think retail). It’s important to remember that social media isn’t just for “marketing.” It
can also help greatly with customer service and retention.
If you decide social media is right then you need to decide which
platform will best help you connect with your target market.
Facebook and Google+ are generally good for both B2C and B2B
companies while LinkedIn is better suited for just B2B. Twitter is
ideal for technology, media or entertainment companies as well
13. as younger adults. Pinterest is like crack for women, but men
don't seem to be as addicted to it. While each social network
may have its strong suit they can all be utilized in creative ways
to amplify the reach of your content, reach out to influencers in
your desired niche and connect with customers and prospects.
Paid Campaigns
Many of the social networks allow you to buy ads on their
networks. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn all allow this (G+
doesn't offer paid ads currently). Pinterest has recently test
launched their first testing of a paid ad service called "Promoted
Pins".
Some of the unique benefits of buying ads on a social network is
that you can often target by demographic and psychographic
factors to better reach your target market. The more defined
your target market, the better when it comes to paid campaigns
on social networks. For instance if you know your ideal customer
usually holds the title of Chief Financial Officer you can target
only people with that title on LinkedIn. If your target market is
women ages 30-55 that are married with kids, you can create an
ad to specifically connect with that demographic on Facebook.
User Psychology Behind Social Media
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make in social media
marketing is failing to understand the medium and, more importantly, the mindset of people when they’re using it. You’ll quickly
realize that traditional advertising doesn’t work on Facebook. In
order to thrive on social media you have to embrace the “social”
component of it. Hence the word, “social” media.
People are usually not looking for a product or service when
they’re on Facebook. This is their time to have fun and relax.
They want to see if anyone liked their latest status update or
what their friends are up to. They’ll click on content that’s entertaining, interesting or controversial… but not "salesey".
Another way to think about social media is that it’s a “front
porch” type of conversation. Communicate with people just like
you would if they walked up to you as you were sitting out on
your front porch sipping some lemonade.
14. DIRECT
The Direct Galaxy is where people receive messages/notifications directly (often across multiple devices). Direct marketing is
when you reach out directly to current and potential customers
via email, text messages, app notifications, etc. The major benefit
of direct marketing is that you get immediate results. For example, you email 5,000 customers. 250 people click on the link in
your email (5% click through rate). And you make 25 sales (.5%
conversion rate). Contrary to popular belief direct marketing is
not “dead.”
A common misconception about direct marketing is that it’s all
spammy and annoying. I hear customers say things like, “I never
click on email spam so why would I engage in something like
email marketing?”
But it’s important to remember that there’s a big difference
between “outbound” direct marketing and “inbound” direct
marketing. Inbound marketing, aka “permission marketing”, is
when customers ask to join your list. For example, let’s say you
offer an email newsletter on your website. If visitors want to join
they simply “opt-in” by filling out a web form.
Outbound marketing, on the other hand, is when you interrupt
people who did not ask to be contacted by you. An example of
this would be renting an email list from someone and blasting an
email ad out to them. Obviously this is not going to be as effective as the permission-based approach described above.
How Important is Direct Marketing for You?
It’s a good idea for any business to engage in some form of
direct marketing because it teaches you valuable marketing
lessons. Lessons like measuring response rates, the importance
of persuasive copy and split testing.
Direct marketing used to be very expensive and time consuming.
You had to hire a copywriter to write a sales letter, pay for the
printing and postage and then wait over a week to measure
results. The internet has changed all that. Now you can write a
personal email in 15 minutes and send it immediately. And later
that day you can review your campaign to see how many emails
15. were opened, how many people clicked on the link to your site
and how many sales you made.
User Psychology Behind Direct Marketing
The user psychology of direct marketing really depends on the
media you’re using to communicate with your customers. For
example, if you’re writing an email to prospects who have opted
in to your list you know they’re looking at their inbox, which is
probably overflowing like most peoples, so they’re probably
busy. But you do have their attention if you can get them to
open your email with a compelling subject line.
Then when they open the email they will make a quick judgment
call: Is this an ad or Is this useful information? Here’s a little hint
with email marketing: occasionally use plain text emails and
avoid the flashy HTML emails (they look like ads). Plain emails
have the look and feel of an email people would get from their
friends so people are conditioned to want to read those type of
emails.
Text messaging is another form of direct marketing. When I
mention this most business owners cringe and say something
like, “Oh, I would hate to get an ad via text message! I don’t want
to even entertain that idea. No way!”
Once again… we’re not talking about “outbound” direct marketing. We’re talking about when customers and prospects ask you
to communicate with them. Let’s say you own a restaurant. You
know that there are typical slow days and slow times. And you
would gladly offer a coupon or deal to people to come in during
those times.
So what if you told your regulars that you sometimes offer
half-price entrees via text message? You give them the option of
signing up for these announcements. Now are you telling me you
would not want to contact these customers who said they
wanted you to contact them with promotional offerings?
Now that we’ve explored the three major Galaxies of internet
marketing let’s look at a diagram so you can see how these
different strategies overlap.
16. THE HOLY TRINITY OF
INTERNET MARKETING
Here is a visual to help you better understand what I'm referring
to when I talk about the Holy Trinity of Internet Marketing. Where
each of the galaxies overlap represents a huge opportunity that I
see businesses often miss out on. At the center of it all where all
three Galaxies overlap you have the Galactic Core.
Next: The Galactic Core
17. The Galactic Core
Search
Social
Direct
You’ll notice in our starchart that in the middle of everything is
what we call the “Galactic Core.” The Galactic Core is made up of
people who are, "Champions of Your Brand". These Brand Champions (not always clients) have had exceptional experiences with
your company and will repurchase from you, interact with you
and market for you. They enjoy telling others why they should
use your product or service. And the best part is they do this
without being paid to do it. A great example of this is how I am
promoting MailChimp as an email marketing service in this white
paper. I also constantly recommend them to clients even though
I don't get paid to do it.
Someone can enter the Galactic Core after a positive experience
in just one realm. But when a client or prospect engages with
you more in all three (Search, Social, Direct) realms then the
chances that they will champion your brand increase exponentially. This is another reason why embracing a cross-channel
marketing strategy is important. It will help you delight, not just
acquire, happy customers.
If you want to have a strong core client base and a strong brand,
then you must strive to exceed customer expectations. Customers don’t rave about companies who only meet their expectations. Think about it, if you go to a hotel and they have a hot
shower, clean sheets and a TV you’re not going to be impressed.
But if they offer all those things plus they remember to deliver
your favorite newspaper in the morning and they make sure
your room is on the top floor with a view (because you let them
know that in a past survey) then you may tell others about them.
As legendary ad man David Ogilvy said, “Great marketing only
makes a bad product fail faster.” So if your product or service is
crappy then you need to fix that before you even think about
which search strategy to use.
However, if you have an “insanely great” business people love
then internet marketing will be your best friend. You’ll get people
referring their friends, liking you on Facebook and writing positive reviews on Google.
18. WHEN GALAXIES COLLIDE
It’s important to remember that these realms overlap in many
areas. I want to take a minute to explain the overlapping benefits
of each marketing channel.
How Search Benefits Social
When you’re generating a lot of interest and traffic to your
website via the search channel you can leverage this to increase
your social community. One way to do this is by prominently
displaying icons/links to your social networks on your website.
You can also attach social sharing icons to content you create,
like blog posts and articles that people find via search. With the
advent of Google+ people can now "follow" your business directly from Google’s search results. If you have authorship set up,
your profile picture can appear in search results alongside
content you’ve authored increasing the likelihood that people will
click on it and add you to their circles.
How Social Benefits Search
As you grow your community through the social channel you
increase the reach of the great content you create for your
website. For example, if you write a useful post on social media
(think: Facebook status update) with a link to a recent blog post
on your site it can help drive traffic and, through social sharing,
can exponentially increase the reach of that content. Plus, this
action can help drive more social cues as well as more opportunities for people to find your content and link/mention it in
something they create. This works especially well on Google+
because when people who are in your social circles do a Google
search then your content is more likely to show up for them. Just
like Google+ benefits Google search, Facebook benefits Bing
search results.
How Search Benefits Direct
When you experience success with search you’ll start getting
more visitors to your website. And this is a great example where
search can complement your direct marketing efforts. If you can
start capturing names and emails of people who find you via
search then you’ll be able to connect with them on a regular
19. basis. You could do this by offering a call to action where people
can get your blogs emailed to them, join your newsletter, fill out a
lead form, download a white paper, etc. This will help you maintain top of mind awareness with your prospects for when they’re
ready to take action.
How Direct Benefits Search
As you build your email list your audience is growing and as your
audience grows so does the reach of your content. When you
send out emails with an engaging peace of content it can benefit
your search marketing channel by driving traffic back to your
website increasing the opportunities that people will engage with
your content, endorse it, share it, link to it, etc.
How Direct Benefits Social
This works so well it's just crazy that more businesses don't do
this. For example, when you have an established email list you
can reach out to users and ask them to follow you on other
social channels as well. You can also make it very easy to share
your content on social media. Mailchimp.com is a phenomenal
email marketing platform that provides you with an account
where you can have up to 2,000 subscribers for free. A cool
feature they offer is that you can connect your social accounts
(Facebook & Twitter) allowing you to only email the people who
are not following you with a call to action to follow you.
How Social Benefits Direct
Many businesses have massive social media followings but
relatively small email lists. This is one way social media can
benefit direct. For example, you could promote your email
newsletter on social (maybe offer special content for newsletter
subscribers only) therefore growing your email list. It’s important
to connect with customers on multiple channels because this
increases the chances they will become Brand Champions,
therefore strengthening your Core.
Next: The Most valuable Asset in Your Strategy
20. YOUR WEBSITE
THE MOST VALUABLE ASSET IN YOUR STRATEGY
There is a high probability that your website is or should be the
hub of all of your online marketing. For most businesses your
website is a piece of virtual real estate that you have 100%
control over (unlike your social accounts). If you don't own your
website that means you don't have 100% control of your website
and you should fix that right away.
It's extremely important you leverage your website. Leveraging
web technology can allow you to engage, communicate with and
sell to hundreds or even thousands of people simultaneously.
Your website can be your best salesperson ever. It never complains, works 24 hours a day 7 days a week, can work with
1,000's of different people at the same time without getting tired
(assuming your server has the bandwidth : ). This makes your
website one of your most valuable marketing assets. The investment you put into your website will pay dividends for many years
to come (if you do it right!).
7 MAIN CONSIDERATIONS FOR
MAKING SURE YOU "DO IT RIGHT".
1
Intelligent Design
One of the first things users notice about your website is your
design. They immediately get a feeling about your business
based on the colors of your site, the images, the layout, font,
your logo and branding. A well-designed website can make your
visitors feel that your company is an authority in your industry.
Design can make the difference between a visitor contacting you
or not.
2
User Experience
If you're not providing a great user experience you're actually
making it harder for your customers to buy from you. A good
user experience involves having a website that loads quickly,
having an intuitively laid out navigation, understanding what the
client might be looking for and making sure you make it easy to
21. find. You should start with the goals that you want the visitor to
take whether that's calling you, filling out a lead/contact form or
making an online purchase and make those as easy as possible
to do.
3
Search Engine Optimized
It doesn't matter if you have the most beautiful website with an
amazing user experience if people can't find it. It's like putting
your best salesperson ever out in the middle of the desert with
no one around.
4
Content
The content on your website is one of the key elements to not
only assuring your users get the right message, but also that
search engines get the right message. It's important your website is easy to update with new content. You should have blogging capabilities so your team can easily update and add engaging and useful content.
5
Mobile and Tablet Devices
If you're not building your website to be mobile and tablet friendly you're saying you don't care about 1 in 5 customers that
comes to your site. For some businesses it's even higher. Traffic
from mobile devices is expected to surpass standard computer
traffic in 2014.
Responsive website design is something you hear a lot about
these days and there's good reason for it. Responsive design
besides being recommended by Google allows your website to
provide a consistent user experience across multiple devices. It
also has very little negative downside from an SEO standpoint
unlike some of the other mobile solutions.
6
Optimizing Your Site for Social Media
It's important to display social icons that link to your social
profiles on your website as well as social sharing icons on your
blog content. Open graph is a type of markup that goes into an
unseen part of your website, but allows you to control how your
content is shared on social networks like Facebook. Twitter,
Pinterest and Google+ also have similar markup that can be
22. used to control how content is shared on their networks.
7
Conversion Optimization (Trust factors, persuasive content, etc.)
Conversion optimization involves improving your website design,
messaging and functionality to improve the number of desired
actions you want the user to take (calling, filling out a form,
signing up for a newsletter, purchasing a product, etc. ). For
example, you could split test different images, , headlines, length
of contact forms, etc. Continually test different elements to
improve your conversion rate.
Tip: Providing "trust/confidence factors" like a Better Business
Bureau logo, Industry logos, Popular Websites that you've been
featured on, etc can help establish credibility in the eyes of your
potential client.
1
One thing to note is that conversion optimization tactics become
more valuable the more traffic you receive (or the higher your
average sale is). Changing a conversion rate from 5% to 6 % may
not seem like a lot when you get a few hundred visits to your
website and your average sale is small, but when you have
1,000's of visitors coming to your website or you're average sale
is a large amount it can mean the difference of 10,'s of 1,000's of
dollars.
23. DEVELOPING YOUR
INTEGRATED INTERNET
MARKETING STRATEGY
Developing a comprehensive digital strategy that delivers the
right message at the right time to the right person will not only
help increase your company’s profit it will increase your company’s standing as a thought leader in your industry.
Start with Your Customer
The key to developing an effective strategy is understanding who
you're trying to reach with your marketing. So who is your target
market? Who is it you want to reach and market to? If you’re a
dentist which type of patients do you want to reach? Where do
they live? How old are they? Which type of insurance do they
have? Which TV shows do they watch? What blogs do they read?
What’s their income? What are their problems?
Or let’s say you’re a B2B software company. Who is it you’re
trying to market to? Is it the CEO, CMO or the CFO? What size of
company is it? Are they a $1 million+ revenue company or a $50
million+ company? When do they shop for your solution? What
are their fears, frustrations and desires? Do you know?
You see, all these questions are important. Because the answers
will help guide your internet marketing strategy and tactics. If
you’re a restaurant you may benefit heavily from all three galaxies: search, social and direct. However, if your business is selling
hemorrhoid cream then social media is probably not where you
want to focus most your efforts (can’t imagine your photos
getting many likes!).
Figuring out who your customer is and how they think is critical
to your marketing success. Remember this: your goal is to join
the conversation taking place in their mind. When you can do
that you start marketing on a whole new level.
So now let’s talk about how you can go about answering some of
these customer questions by using an Ideal Customer profile.
24. Create an Ideal Customer Profile
One of the easiest ways to do this is to analyze your best
customers. You know as well as I do that not all customers are
“created equal”. According to the “80/20 Rule” 20% of your
customers are responsible for 80% of your revenue. (And I would
guess 20% of your customers are responsible for 80% of your
headaches too. But that’s a conversation for another time)
So nailing down your Ideal Customer will not only help you focus
your marketing efforts but it will also make your life easier in the
long run. Once you have your “best clients” list in hand the next
step is to create an Ideal Customer profile (you can start with
one and then create more if you choose).
While reviewing a list of your best customers, here are
some questions to ask yourself:
Where do they live?
Are they homeowners or renters?
What’s their average income?
How did they find you (lead source)?
How old are they?
Are they male or female?
What’s their religion (if they have one)?
What are their political beliefs?
What groups are they part of (LinkedIn is good way to find out)?
What are their personality types?
Which social media sites do they use?
Which search engines do they use?
If you’re doing B2B then what’s the average business size?
Are there any common industries??
Are they tech-savvy or not?
You get the idea. This exercise will help you focus who you want
to reach. I encourage you to write down your Ideal Customer
profile so as you market you keep this person in mind (could be a
fictitious person or an actual client).
After you’ve clarified who you’re marketing to then the next step
25. is to clarify what your message is. Before you dive into the deep
end of the pool you need to know who you are as a company
and what your story is. This is the core of everything.
Remember, people are attracted to stories. Stories sell. And
while we don’t have time to get into the details of “messaging”
and story here it’s important you go through this process before
engaging in internet marketing. Know who you are.
If you need help developing an ideal customer profile Neilsen
has a great tool to help you get started. I recommend you
click on "Explore all Segments" to see all 66 consumer profiles
they've created as well as visit "Search by Zip Code" to see what
profiles reside in your local zip code. There is also a wealth of
information available from the government census that can be
accessed here.
Next: Strategy
26. Strategy
Now that you know who your target market is and how they
make buying decisions we can use that information to better
design our strategy to reach them.
If your business has a high demand meaning people are searching for your products or services then it's probably a good idea
to put a good amount of focus on "Search". If on the other hand
you have a brand new product or service and you need to create
awareness then "Social" may be where you put your biggest
focus.
Below is an example of how a strategy might look visually for an
eCommerce business that has a high demand for their product
in Search, but the product or service is one that people are not
likely to share a lot about on social media. If you're selling a
product online, then Direct is probably going to be important for
you.
Search
Social
Direct
Some businesses should have a strong presence in all three
quadrants. A good example of a business that could be structured like the example below is a restaurant.
Search
Social
Direct
27. 15 Minute Strategy Exercise
Quick, grab a piece of paper. Don’t ask why… just do it. Oh, and
yes a pencil too.
We’re going to get you one step closer to developing an integrated marketing strategy that will make your business more profitable. Disclaimer: Of course if we were going to create an in-depth
marketing strategy it would take A LOT longer than 15 minutes,
but this exercise will help get you started.
I’m assuming you already have a good idea of your target market,
ideal customer profile and have a handle on the goals you want
to accomplish (Branding, lead generation, customer acquisition,
customer retention, customer service, etc.).
Now that you know who you want to reach, let’s talk about how
you’re going to reach them.
Determining Your Tactics
Below is data from a 2013 survey done by Econsultancy that
asked individuals from a mixture of agencies and in house
marketing teams to rate the return on investment from different
marketing tactics as either excellent, good, average or poor.
While these will vary significantly for different industries it at
least gives you some insight into the potential return on investment from different marketing tactics.
28. So, first let’s determine which individual marketing tactics you’re
going to utilize as well as which platforms to focus on by analyzing your target demographic and researching how they make
buying decisions. Write them down on a piece of paper.
Next you’re going to draw 3 circles labeled, Search, Social and
Direct creating a Venn diagram and adjusting the sizes of each of
the circles to visually represent each quadrants importance to
your business based on what you’ve learned.
Finally add each of the specific tactics and platforms you plan to
use in your strategy to their corresponding circle. Then draw a
line to each platform or tactic and write a short benefit statement as to why or how you’re going to utilize that tactic/platform.
I would also recommend drawing a line to where each quadrant
overlaps and writing 6 short explanations of how they will be
utilized to benefit each other.
Of course we can go much deeper down the rabbit hole, but this
will at least get your wheels turning.
Measuring Metrics Makes Me Money
Say it with me, "Measuring Metrics Makes Me Money". It's
important to inspect what you expect when it comes to your
marketing and the results that it's producing. As Peter Drucker
said, “What gets measured gets managed.” How are you going to
decide if the strategy is successful or not? It's important as you
design your strategy to determine how you're going to measure
its success. What are your main KPI's (Key Performance Indicators)? Is it the number of leads you receive, the type of leads,
increase in unique visitors to your site, conversions, engagement
metrics, new followers, number of shares, organic traffic growth,
gross revenue growth, etc.
Understanding what the most desired actions are that you want
your users to take and measuring the metrics for these actions
will help paint a clearer picture of the success or failure of your
campaign.
29. I hope you've enjoyed our trip through the
Universe of Internet Marketing
You should now have a clearer understanding of the three
Galaxies (Search, Social and Direct) and their importance to your
business. We reviewed the Holy Trinity of Internet Marketing,
how each Galaxy benefits the others and especially the importance of attracting consumers into your Galactic Core.
We also discussed why your website is your most valuable asset
in your strategy and seven important elements to making sure
your website is successful. Finally we discussed how to develop
an ideal customer profile and leverage it to develop your integrated internet marketing strategy.
Now that you have this information. What are you going to do
with it?
How about you accept my challenge?
Did you like the The
Holy Trinity of Internet
Marketing?
If you put together your own integrated internet marketing
strategy for your business and send it to me I will review it (at no
charge) and provide you feedback on it. Remember, start with
your customer first! Define your target market and create an
ideal customer profile. Then determine your marketing mix and
how much focus you are going to put in each area of online
marketing. Then remove or add platforms and tactics as appropriate.
Remember that while each individual tactic is powerful on its
own, when you incorporate a comprehensive strategy that
integrates other complementary tactics under a cohesive strategy you can greatly increase your relationship with your audience, have less people fall out of the buying process along the
way and enhance the effectiveness of your current campaigns.
Next: Sources
30. APPENDIX: SOURCES
Sources:
Average Searches Per Day on Google
http://www.statisticbrain.com/google-searches/
Email statistics
http://www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Email-Statistics-Report-2013-2017-Executive-Summary.pdf
http://mashable.com/2012/11/27/email-stats-infographic/
Social Networking Statistics
http://www.statisticbrain.com/social-networking-statistics/
Local SEO Ranking Factors
http://webfor.com/local-seo-ranking-factors/
Neilsen Customer Profiles
http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp
US Census Explorer
http://www.census.gov/censusexplorer/censusexplorer.html
31. Thank you for taking the time to read my white paper.
Let's connect.
32. A Reputation for Results.
+Webfor
/webfor
@webfor
/company/webfor
webfor.com
(360) 747-7794
(503) 512-0770
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