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How to Squeeze Maximum Potential out of your Pre-Launch Campaigns (Part 1)

By Craig Cannings in Marketing

I recall a couple years ago, my wife who was pregnant at the time, was in “mass project” mode and decided to convert our conventional white front door of our house to a trendy red color. While I initially had some concerns, she was 9 months pregnant at the time and I was not about to stand in her way!

She had originally envisioned that this door would be a quick and easy project. Well much to her dismay, it turned out to be mega project in which she proceeded to slap 8-10 coats of paint on this poor door until it finally transcended beyond a ghastly pink to the preferred red. So what was the missing element in this project? The Primer! She quickly learned that a primer coat would have eliminated much of the blood, sweat and tears she had invested into this endeavor!
So, what does this have to do with pre-launch campaigns for your web business? Well, it is important to view a pre-launch campaign as the primer that sets the tone, builds momentum, and creates a buzz for the upcoming launch of your new product or service. An effective pre-launch campaign will eliminate some of the legwork and expedite the “ramp up” period for your new web business endeavor.
It is evident that many web companies today do not capitalize on running effective pre-launch campaigns prior to the introduction of a new product or service. From my own experiences and research, a well executed pre-launch campaign can be a secret weapon for:

i) Building Momentum and Buzz (Good Viral Effect)

ii) Igniting Web Exposure

iii) Kick-starting the indexing process for the Search Engines

iv) Capturing targeted leads for your product or service

Based on my own previous pre-launch campaigns, I have found that the “make-it or break-it” factor comes down to the effectiveness and draw of your Squeeze Page.

Squeeze Play - What is it?

While many of you may know or regularly throw around the term Squeeze Page, for others, it is a lesser known term that may require some clarification. A Squeeze Page is a landing page (one page website) designed to peak user interest and draw them to potentially opting into a subscriber list.
For pre-launch campaigns, the Squeeze Page functions as a primer or “sneak preview” for your upcoming ebusiness endeavor. If your content, marketing message and layout are compelling then users will potentially sign-up to learn more about your products and services. The squeeze page is a non-threatening way of engaging your visitors and educating them on your new product or service without expecting a buying decision right away.

Short vs. Long Squeeze Pages

So, should your squeeze page be short or long? This is an interesting, ongoing discussion in our industry, so let me briefly weigh in on this debate. From my own experiences, I believe that shorter copy featuring a compelling headline, key features and benefits, a testimonial (where possible), an easy to access sign-up button or form and an incentive or free bonus should yield the best conversion results.
Now, there is a good argument for including enough relevant content to satisfy the palate of the Search Engine Spiders since some squeeze pages with very little copy have actually been penalized in Google and other major SEs. The other consideration involves the two types of individuals that may be visiting your site:

• The “Show Me the Goods” visitors as I like to call them do not want to be inundated with copious amounts of copy, but simply want to know: “What value does your product or service have for me?”
• The “Processor” visitors require more detailed information and prefer to be educated on the function and value of your products and services before taking the next step in the conversion process.

To accommodate both types of users, you might consider including a “More Details” link on your squeeze page to provide additional information for the processors as well as potentially satisfying Google’s requirements for relevant content. If you look at my recent squeeze page at www.esalesguru.com, you will see that I have chosen to go with just one page, but have included some additional content below the fold for the processors that would like to hear more about the benefits of our service.

One last thought… you might consider developing both a shorter and longer squeeze page and incorporate some script so you can split-test the two to compare results. This is the best and most analytical way of settling this age old debate!

10 Elements of an Effective Squeeze Page for Your Pre-Launch Campaign

Studies have shown that as many as 50% of users (originating from the search engines) will bail within 0-8 seconds after briefly glancing at a website or landing page. The site has apparently not met their initial expectations or approval and they make a quick exit! Now, given the fickleness of the Internet user at times, it is essential to incorporate some compelling components to your squeeze page in order to further entice the user to stick around and potentially convert to a lead.
Here are 10 key elements that may have a profound impact on the success or failure of your squeeze page and subsequent pre-launch campaign.

1) Compelling Headline
The headline of your squeeze page is the first and potentially only impression that will set the tone for the rest of the content. It needs to be clear, concise and possess “The Hook”. “The Hook”, that is, that draws the users into your body text and closer to a conversion. A compelling headline will sell the benefit, solve the problem and ultimately influence the split second decision the user makes to stay or bail.

2) Bulleted features and benefits
It is imperative to identify those distinguishing features and benefits that will clearly define the true value of your product or service and will answer the WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) question.

I would highly recommend listing your key features and benefits in bulleted action points that are quick and easy to read. As you will see on our ESalesGuru.com squeeze page, I incorporated a couple short paragraphs (no more than 2 or 3 sentences) to go along with my bulleted points, but I made sure to bold or highlight the parts of the copy that were critical to the conversion process. It is fine to use paragraphs in conjunction with bulleted points, but make sure to incorporate the necessary highlights and bolding for those users that are quickly scanning or skimming your copy.

3) Effective Use of Testimonies
Since we are talking about the use of Squeeze Pages in “Pre-launch” campaigns, it is quite possible that you may not have any specific testimonies at this point. However, if you already have a beta version and have tested your product or service with a focus group, then I would highly recommend using a testimony from that group. A testimony can really validate the value of your product and aid the conversion process.

I would recommend strategically placing the testimony above the fold in the visible screen (based on 1024 x 768 resolution) and potentially near the sign-up form. Our company recently designed a squeeze page for Affiliate-Software-Review.com and you will notice that we specifically placed testimonies to the left of the sign-up form as well as just above the opt in fields for maximum effect.

4) Good Incentives
It is essential to incentivize your squeeze page with a relevant giveaway or bonus such as a free ebook, report, podcast or even a demo or tour of your upcoming product or service. I am firm believer in providing an incentive that is clearly spelled out and directly relevant to your respective product or service. I get frustrated with squeeze pages that say something to this effect: “Sign-up Today and receive a bonus wealth-building tool absolutely FREE!” This incentive is not specific and comes across as yet another gimmick. Do not pull the wool over your prospective consumers eyes, but treat them with the respect they deserve.

5) Easy to Access Sign-Up Forum
Whether you choose to build a squeeze page with shorter or longer copy, I would advise you to include a sign-up button or form above the fold in the first visible screen. You do not want to miss a prime opportunity to convert those “Show me the goods” users that will quickly review the headlines and bulleted statements and want to make their decision right then and there. At ESalesGuru.com, you will see that we strategically placed the sign-up form just below the image since Marketing Sherpa’s Eye Tracking studies have revealed that “People look at People” and it is essential to include good copy and important components of your site near the image.

In the sign-up form, I would recommend including a privacy policy link just below the sign-up button with a statement that emphasizes you will never sell or rent their personal information. This will further your squeeze page’s credibility and increase user confidence.

6) Minimal Navigation and Hyperlinks
Since the primary function of the squeeze page is to build buzz and drive signups, it is important to limit any navigation or additional links that might distract the user during the conversion process. Again, as mentioned above, you may choose to include a “more details” link for those that require further information, but be sure to make your best effort to keep the user focused on the intended goal – the conversion!

7) Keyword Rich Content
This of course is a no-brainer, but it is imperative to choose 2-3 targeted keywords that you will strategically place in the Page Title, H1 Header Tag, Headline and throughout the copy. Be sure to make your Squeeze Page as search-friendly as possible.

Audio/Vido Intro
An Audio or Video Introduction on your squeeze page can be a nice way to personalize your site and build a rapport with your visitors. I think there is much power in the spoken word to further entice the user towards a conversion. I have personally used simple tools such as instantaudio.com or instantvideogenerator.com to generate audio and video content on my sites. At ESalesGuru.com, you will see that I have an audio introduction that requires you to press play in order to listen. I would recommend allowing the user to choose to listen to your audio or view your video as opposed to automatically starting it once your site loads. Again, this is personal preference – I might suggest testing this one out to see if you notice a significant difference in exit rates or time duration of page visits.

9) Tagging Strategies
It is definitely worthwhile to include social bookmark and media tags on your site for those that may not choose to opt in for your offer at this time, but might like to sign-up later or check back after your site has officially launched. Providing such tags as Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon are excellent for bolstering traffic and generating one-way back links to your site. Good way to make your squeeze page SEO friendly or should I say SMO friendly (Social Media Optimization). I would recommend accessing a simple tool like addthis.com to incorporate tagging into your page.

10) Effective use of Auto-Responders
This final component is more related to the follow-up of your subscribers or leads, but nonetheless an integral part of the squeeze page. I would recommend purchasing a simple auto-responder service like aweber or constantcontact where you can provide relevant and worthwhile follow-ups to those users that have opted into your list.
If you are running a 30-60 day pre-launch campaign, I might suggest that you include approximately 7-8 auto-responder messages spread out over that period in order to keep your subscribers captivated and excited about your upcoming product launch. It is imperative that your follow-up messages provide useful content and information for your users that build a rapport with these prospective consumers. I would advise against including multiple 3rd party offers in your auto-responder messages during your pre-launch campaign unless there is a clear tie-in with your own products and services.

While the first 9 elements above play a role in drawing the user towards an initial sign-up, it is the auto-responder process that will be instrumental in further engaging the user and potentially leading them towards a conversion.

Finally, I would recommend including some sort of contact information on the squeeze page for those visitors that might have more questions or require further information. Great customer support is always a key ally in the conversion process.

Now, the process of building a winning squeeze page for your pre-launch campaign is only half the battle. The next part is to develop innovative strategies for driving a steady stream of traffic to your squeeze page during the pre-launch campaign. We will discuss that in Part Two.

Author:  Craig Cannings is the owner and managing director of ESalesGuru.com, an innovative outsourcing portal connecting ebusinesses with niche Internet Marketing Specialists and Firms worldwide. Visit www.esalesguru.com or contact Craig for more information at craig@esalesguru.com

How to Make Boring Businesses Exciting

By Jerry Bader in Marketing

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone got as excited about your company as you are?

Unfortunately some businesses just aren’t very sexy; in fact, some businesses are downright boring. As a consequence, companies that sell commodity products and routine services tend to rely on presentations that load-up on features, specifications, and statistics that may be relevant to anal-retentive types, but hardly compelling to the vast majority of your audience.
There is no reason why every company can’t deliver an exciting image to its audience; one that generates the kind of buzz and excitement usually associated with companies like Apple, Victoria’s Secret, Benetton, Absolut Vodka, and Sony.
It may seem impossible to produce a whole lot of steam for things like sand paper, accounting services, and facial tissue, but thanks to the Web and it’s extraordinary ability to deliver multimedia content, even the most mundane offerings can get hearts racing and the blogosphere blogging.
Emotional Experiences Connect
Let’s take facial tissue as an example; it is one of the most common, boring everyday products you can imagine. There is just not much you can do to sell this stuff other than telling people yours is softer and cheaper than the other guys, but then the other guy is saying the same thing; the result, consumers buy whatever is on sale. But wait, the clever fellows at Kimberly-Clark instituted a brilliant website campaign for their facial tissue, called “Kleenex - let it out.”
The campaign zeros in on the emotional experience associated with why people use facial tissue: to wipe away tears of joy or sadness or maybe to clean-up cute little runny noses - in each case the result of some moving event.
Tapping into this emotional association is key to the Kleenex campaign and key to your new thinking on how to make your boring stuff, exciting.
Video - The Best Way To Tell A Story
The Kleenex campaign features prominent videos of articulate people telling their personal stories, all resulting in the need to use a facial tissue.
A pregnant woman discusses the emotional impact of having a child and as her eyes begin to tear, the interviewer hands her a Kleenex. A second video features another well-spoken woman talking about her return to New Orleans after the devastation of hurricane Katrina. Again as the woman becomes emotional and begins to cry, the interviewer hands her a tissue. Nothing more needs to be said, this is very powerful story telling that connects to the audience and delivers an image of the brand as caring and sensitive; the exact kind of impression the company wants to portray.

Even companies that aren’t exactly dead-from-the-neck-up boring can benefit from this approach. The Home Depot ran a series of advertisements with a husband showing his wife a series of power tools that he wanted. Rather than try to convince his wife, and by association all the wives in the audience, that he needs another expensive toy, the husband points to each tool and states, “this is your new shelving unit” and “this one is your new kitchen” - a far more dramatic and effective way to make the case for a new purchase.
You can deliver the same kind of powerful marketing messages for your own company by presenting Web-based videos that follow a few very simple guidelines.
Six Steps To Turn Boring Into Exciting
1. Use People to Sell People
There is no substitute for people. Human beings are capable of communicating with an enormous degree of nuance and subtlety, using voice, expression, body language, and gesture; no animation, avatar, or artificial substitute can take the place of a real person for communicating meaningful, memorable marketing messages.
With relatively easy-to-use production tools anyone can create a video, but not necessarily one that delivers the message or image that your company wants to present. We have seen far too many poor quality efforts both on the Web and even on local television, where company presidents with bad haircuts and ill-fitting suits, uttering nonsense-riddled scripts in zombie-like performances expose themselves to audiences expecting more, much more.
Skilled performers communicate in very subtle ways to an audience, and only the well-practiced professional has the experience and capability to deliver the intended experience. The cost of saving monëy by doing-it-yourself or with amateurs can result in delivering an unintended message that may undermine the impression and image you are trying to create.
2. Perception Is Reality - Use Scripted Professionals
You will notice that I described the women in the facial tissue videos as articulate. Now I cannot tell you if these women were actors or not, or that their powerful presentations were scripted, but if I had to guess, I would say these very effective videos were about as carefully produced and constructed as the latest episode of ‘Survivor’ that by no means makes them any less effective.
The point here is that perception is reality, and the professional filmmaker knows how to tell a story and communicate a message; and that is not the same thing as being able to turn on a video camera.
3. Tell A Memorable Story
When we talk about companies telling their story, it is important to distinguish between the company’s history and the emotional experiences generated by the product or service.
Company histories can make for interesting videos and can produce a sense of trust associated with being in business for a considerable length of time, but that sort of presentation does not speak to the underlying emotional and psychological factors that actually trigger a sale.
It is difficult but imperative that businesses understand that marketing is not about you, or even the product or service, it’s about the audience.
Like the Kleenex videos and the Home Depot commercials, every product and service that is purchased from your company represents an experience, a story that relates to your audience’s aspirations and needs. It is the audience’s story that demonstrates credibility, clarifies purpose, penetrates memory, and makes the message compelling.
4. Create An Emotional Experience
The vast majority of decisions we make are colored by the emotional relevance associated with those decisions. No doubt rational factors figure into our decision-making process, but the pivotal factors that attract the use of one product over another are emotional.
If you’re not connecting to your audience on an emotional level, then you are left with a commodity that can only be sold on price and features, and unless you’re a monopoly, there will always be some competitor willing to offër your customers more for less.
When presenting your product or service it is important to tap into an emotional element that your audience can relate to as its key purchasing decision factor. When people purchase boring accounting services and software, what they’re really buying is an improved life style for their families. It really doesn’t matter what you sell, if you look hard enough, you can find the emotional benefit that should be the central element of your marketing message.
5. Create a Believable Relevant Personality
Part of the process of connecting with your audience is creating an appropriate personality for your company. Many corporations today believe in the cult of management personality but this is a dangerous game. Your company needs a personality of it’s own, one that is distinctive and that will stand alone and not be dependent on senior management’s ego and self-promotion.
Web-video marketing campaigns provide a vehicle that allows companies to create appropriate personalities that engage, inform and entertain your audience in ways that establish your identity and create the basis for a prosperous business relationship.
Clever marketing can create a corporate personality but it is imperative that you follow through and deliver that personality in all aspects of your relationship with your audience. Producing a campaign that promises one thing and a website, staff, and product that delivers another is one of the easiest ways to alienate customers.
6. Deliver A Critical Hot Button Moment
Web-video presentations need to focus on single issues that are driven home by the addition of a hot button moment or punch line. Remember you are telling your audience a story that needs a beginning, middle and end. That story should build to climax and deliver the point in a single memorable moment.
The era of point förm slide presentations is dead, along with the laundry líst of benefits approach.
Creativity, personality, and the ability to communication and develop an emotional connection to your audience through the use of Web-video campaigns has the potential to turn even the most lackluster company into a vibrant and exciting marketing business.
Author:  Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, www.136words.com and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

The Newbie Guide to Online Marketing Terms

By Chad Hershey in Marketing

In all forms of business, and even hobbies, the people who have been involved in a particular activity for awhile will start to use different slang terms. When someone new comes along these slang terms can be very confusing. As all businesses depend on customers, you need to be careful and educate yourself on these terms so you don’t lose any sales.

It recently came to my attention that online marketing has more than its share of slang for the newbie to learn. Since marketing is all about getting and keeping customers, I could see that seasoned online marketers may start have an image problem. Online marketing slang was pointed out to me by an associate who was interested in an Internet business I was marketing. While I was talking to him he asked for an explanation of what the heck I was talking about and said “Speak English Boy!”

That conversation allowed the light to click on for me and I decided to write this short guide to online marketing slang. This should help anyone who is new to the online marketing arena understand some basic terms.

1. Online Marketing - Is the selling of any product or service on the Internet. Marketing is just the act of promoting and selling something. Selling on the Internet costs much less than having a real world, bricks and mortar business. It’s this low cost of entry which is attractive in starting your own online business.

2. Joint Ventures - A joint venture is a partnership. Simply put 2 or more people work together to increase their sales, or to complete a product or service. Sometimes shortened to JV, joint ventures are often very profitable.

3. Subscriber List - This is sometimes known as an email list, or an ezine list (ezine is short for electronic magazine). It’s also a list of people who have given permission for the marketer to send them emails, which may contain advertising. This is also known as an opt-in list, because subscribers opt-in to receive the emails. This prevents people from complaining that an email is Spam as there will be a record of them agreeing to receive the emails. Another snippet of slang is double opt-in, which just means after filling out a form, the potential subscriber will receive an email asking them to verify that they agree to accept future emails before they are actually added to the email list to receive them.

4. Viral Marketing - This little phrase is used to describe a way of increasing your business, or website reach, by using a “viral technique.” In real life a virus spreads out by people contacting one another, and computer viruses are spread by computers contacting other computers. Some clever Internet gurus realized they could use the power of people to send each other information, and then watched that information spread in the same way as a virus. Giving away a free gift, which contains a link to your business, and allowing others to give it away too will work like a virus spreading the word to others as people send it on to their friends. This works long as your freebie was something people would give away anyway in the first place.

5. Niche Marketing - This is the act of selling to a particular group of people. There are lots of untapped niches (small groups interested in a specific subject) who are willing to pay for information. Online, it’s easy to target these small markets by monitoring search engine results and then finding a specific word or phrase which is being searched for but not near the top of the list of popular searches. An example of a niche market is poodle owners, they are dog owners, but will specifically search for information about poodles. These markets can be profitable because they are not targeted directly by many people, so if you have a product tailored to a niche market you may have little or no competition.

6. EBook - Although getting more popular this term still causes some confusion. An ebook is an electronic book, it can be a .pdf file, plain text file or an executable file (one which is actually a self contained program to run on your computer). Ebooks sell well online, as there is no shipping, and delivery is instant.

7. MLM - These are the initials of one of the least understood, and most maligned of business models, Multi Level Marketing. Sometimes known as network marketing or referral marketing, MLM is an ideal business model for online marketers because of the ease of getting out the message about a new business and the low cost of advertising online. The problem with MLM is that it is also easy to mistake MLM for a pyramid scheme (also called a Ponzi). Many unscrupulous people will sell pyramid schemes as an MLM opportunity. What they are selling is basically just a money game. The big difference is that a genuine Multi-Level Marketing program has a worthwhile product that you are selling and money is made by referring other members to sell the same product. Pyramid schemes will usually have a worthless product or no product at all, and pays current members from new members joining. There are many legit MLM companies out there where millions have been made.

If you are new to the world of online marketing, I hope these short explanations will help you understand some of the terms the seasoned online marketer says or writes. If you’re a seasoned marketer, maybe you will try to introduce your business to the newbie with less of the jargon we seasoned marketers take for granted.

Author:  Chad William Hershey of ManifestYourFortune is founder of his own home based business, The Pinnacle Group. He is a student and mentor of the Universal Law of Attraction, as seen in The Secret, and believes fully in The Master Key System. Chad shares his passion and knowledge of being in the home based business arena for the last 15 years and enjoys helping others succeed with Internet marketing. Chad’s Blog

The Central Problem in Web Marketing… and Its Solution

By Michael Linehan in Marketing

The Web is supposed to be a wonderful, powerful, exciting new marketing medium. But many businesses simply do not get the return from their websites that they want. What’s going on?

From every size of company, from downtown corporations to home-based businesses, we hear the questions, “Why don’t we get more visitors to our site?” and “Why don’t more of them buy?” There are many problems, challenges and concerns in web marketing, but there is ONE thread that runs through them all — not enough sales.
A signpost to the cause, and, therefore, to the solution, is indicated by what people say to each other about their websites; “Who designed your site?”, “Do you know a good web designer?”, “I like this design.” and (maybe), “Do you use an open-source CMS?” In other words, most companies, most of the time, are focusing on design and technology.
You rarely hear people say, “Who wrote your site copy?”, “Who helped you decide what information to include?”, or “Who helped you market your site?”
Attractive, professional design and appropriate technology are certainly critical for a successful business site. But not to the extent of investing 95-100 percent of the thought, time and money in only these two aspects of the website’s construction and use!
The potential of a well-developed website is enormous. Indeed, building an effective website may be regarded as much more than simply important; it may very well be essential to the future viability of your business. At the very least, it can be a major marketing channel, bringing you new clients and reinforcing your relationships with current clients.
So what can you do to make your site more effective? The fix is not in design. Nor does it lie in technology. Doing more of the same is not the answer.
To find a more useful direction, consider the critical tasks your site needs to accomplish — bring people to the site, make the sale, and develop relationships with prospective and current clients. When thought of in these terms, it is clear that design and technology do not actually do any of these things. Yes, absolutely they can enhance, but they don’t actually DO.
The solution to lower-than-desired sales is to remember what a business website actually is — a marketing tool. What needs to be improved is marketing. A business website must, therefore, be based upon, permeated by and used according to the most profound and powerful marketing principles. Does that sound like your current site? For the business strength and profitability you want, you may need to improve three areas:

1. Strategic Planning to make every component of the site, and tactic for its use, as powerful as possible, and to integrate the use of the site most effectively within your current business and marketing plan.

2. Content development: Crafting the site as a marketing and service/product delivery tool.

3. Effective promotion to bring high-quality prospects.
So in summary, we have FIVE key components for an effective website: Strategic Planning, Content Development, Design, Technology, and Promotion. Strategic planning is arguably the most “supercharging” component, and is frequently the most neglected. But “strategic” is a word often misused. It is not just a big tactic, or a collection of tactics, or the latest “cool and sexy” tactic. Truly strategic planning can make a difference to the power of everything you do that is like the difference between a handful of flashlights and a laser.
Something I like to remind clients of: You are not WEB marketing; you are MARKETING on the Web. In other words, the key word is not “web”, it’s “marketing”. The effectiveness of almost ANY website will be enormously improved by the inclusion and ongoing implementation of proven, powerful marketing principles. The potential return, in terms of business building and profitability, is staggering.

Author:  Michael Linehan is the founder of Marketing Alchemy. Based in Sooke BC, Marketing Alchemy brings together strategic marketing principles and the power of the Web.

An Interview with Jason Dowdell of MarketingShift

By Richard Zwicky in Marketing

Jason Dowdell has been a participant in Internet Marketing for many years. Today he is best known as the principal behind Marketing Shift an entertaining and informative Internet Marketing blog. I’ve known him for a few years, first encountering him just after a Kelsey Group conference, and were introduced by Greg Sterling
How long have you been working with SEO / SEM ?

Since July of 1997

What’s been your favorite technique that you can no longer use due to algorithmic changes at Google?

I’ve never had a technique deprecated due to algorithm shifts. I’ve build my career on a very simple model, helping the search engines find good content. The biggest changes have come in the area of dynamic web site development and poor development practices in that area account for more seo issues than any single algorithm shift.

What percentage of your SEO / SEM work uses tools vs. manual work?

If only it were that simple. In the beginning of a project I place heavy demands on automation (probably 80%), but most of that is in setting baseline metrics for the client and their industry. Once a baseline has been set and the major changes have been implemented automation is only used for Quality Assurance and competitive research. That’s when things get fun because you can focus more on improving the client’s business rather than just their seo. The best seo clients are the ones that focus on conversion ratios rather than dissecting seo penalties.

Has Google (or any other engine) ever made an algorithm change which made you very happy?

Every algorithm change makes me happy. Algorithm shifts are one of the best ways to measure what’s happening offline. Take for instance the last Google update in late February. The overwhelming sentiment among seo experts is that Google is favoring the little guy more in serps. That can be tied directly to the social networking movement (Think MySpace, YouTube and blogs) and the fact that Time Magazine’s person of the year for 2006 was “Bloggers”. Google and the others aren’t trying to reinvent search, they’re just trying to give people what they want and you better believe offline behavior effects those algorithm shifts.

If you could get an engineer at Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask to each answer just one question about their algorithms, what would it be?

Does it bother you that algorithm is spelled with an “i” rather than a “y”?

Why analytics are important to you?

Because I don’t have to rely on what other people tell me is important, I can see what’s important to my users and make my own decisions. I often tell my clients that I’ll never know their business as intimately as them, nor will I have as much of a vested interest in it’s success as they do and that’s why I help them fall in love with their data.

How often do you look at them?

Hourly.

How do you suggest your clients use them?

As gospel.

What do none of the analytics tools do that you would want them to for you? (yes, this question is self-serving)

None of the current analytics solutions are custom tailored at a particular market. I think MyBlogLog is close because they focused on what’s important to bloggers and Enquisite has made a good stab at a horizontal… But none of the stats apps out there are dedicated to a single niche or vertical. They give you all the customization options you want but you have to “customize” them to the nth degree and when you’re done customizing, you forgot why you were doing it in the first place.

What’s one tip you give all your clients about Internet Marketing – SEM / SEO / Email / links, etc…?

Bake best internet marketing practices into your applications and development processes so you can focus on making your clients happy, you’ll sleep better, guaranteed.

Thanks Jason 

Auhtor:  Richard Zwicky is the CEO of Enquisite Search Metrics, a state of the art system that offers detailed search engine traffic and search engine positioning reports, for free. He is also a founder of Metamend Search Engine Marketing.

Adobe’s Apollo Offers Intriguing Marketing Capabilities

By Ross Dunn in Marketing

Today Adobe unveiled the alpha release of Apollo which Adobe’s Mike Downey describes as a “cross operating system runtime that allows users to install desktop applications built using web technologies such as HTML, JavaScript and Flash.” In layman’s terms, Apollo enables web developers to create applications for your computer using the web technology they already know and work in.

Mike Downey provided a glimpse of what the Apollo system could do using a demo created for/by eBay. The eBay demo provided an impressive glimpse of a desktop application simply installed from eBay and then operated in a slick interface on the desktop; just like any other program installed on a computer. What I was most impressed with was the offline capabilities built into the program; the runtime works autonomously from the Internet if you happen to be without an Internet connection. Obviously there are limitations without a connection but you can setup new products to sell, totally configure them, and even take photos of the products directly from within the program with a webcam. When the computer reconnects, the system automatically synchronizes with eBay and voila, your new products for sale are online.

So what are the implications of such a system? Well the fact that applications can be developed from HTML, JavaScript and Flash is extremely alluring. After all, as an amateur web designer I know I would rather not learn yet another web programming language. That said, I am mostly curious how Apollo would offer any benefit to someone designing a website using less complex technologies (Adobe Flex is no walk in the park). If Apollo can promise ease of creation, implementation and maintenance I think it will be a rocket ship. It is extra impressive to me that it maintains the general integrity of the Internet by being cross platform.

What Impact Might Apollo Have on Online Marketing?
This is my loaded question of the day because Apollo will conceivably extend interactive marketing Internet to both the online and offline desktop which opens a variety of doors. Here are a couple of off-the-cuff concepts:

1) Offline Advertising?
What if Google could now provide advertising to offline desktops? Obviously users would not be able to visit websites due to their offline status but perhaps clicking on Adsense/Adwords advertisements would then make the clicked ads appear again (in click order) in a bolder fashion once the user when online. To mitigate fraud the advertiser that ultimately had a clickthrough would be the only one to pay for the extra offline visibility; perhaps via an additional percentage of their click fee. I am not sure how feasible this strategy would be, but I am sure better minds than mine are seriously thinking this one through.

2) Say Hello to Ad-Supported Everyday Computer Applications
Apollo opens the door to a simpler environment for providing everyday office and personal computer applications. First of all consider that it is cross-platform, enabling the creation of a single easy-to-install application for Mac and PC. Using a single application, a developer could offer a free, powerful toolset such as an image editing/management program supported by the subtle use of text ads, recommended for-fee plugins, in-window image editing tutorials supported by commercials… etc.

3) Knowledge Bases
You know when you get a new computer product that comes with one flimsy manual that essentially tells you to go online and use the manufacturer’s troubleshooting site? That can be annoying but the capabilities of Apollo would render this need obsolete. You may still have to visit a website but only once to download a troubleshooting application. The application could download all of the latest information on your product and store it on your computer for future need OR just keep the help files that seem to respond closely to the issue you are currently having. In each case the tool would allow you to access troubleshooting information in an offline environment; after all, in my experience device issues often occur at the most inopportune times. So what is the marketing angle? The manufacturer could easily post the latest news on next generation products or even allow partners to pitch compatible wares.

Until Later…
I guess you can tell I am impressed. Yes, my mind is afire with ideas; something that usually happens when there is a new technology on the block. Especially a technology that appears to leverage existing technologies versus requiring a massive new learning curve. I don’t know how Apollo will be received over the next few months but I expect many online giants will be jumping on this bandwagon soon once they realize the potential it offers. That is unless a competitor is set to launch a competing product any day now (Microsoft… are you listening?).

Some Notable Benefits of Apollo in Short Form

• Apollo provides developers with an immense amount of control over their applications since they control the content on the machine of every user.
• Content is updated/update-able on every reconnection to the Internet.
• Online advertisers now have an open door to the offline computer user.
• Installation is simple - at least according to the one demo seen so far
• Apollo applications are cross-platform.
• Applications offer instant updates and notifications: I expect news agencies will be all over this.

Questions I Have About Apollo
I wonder if…

• there are any requirements for cross-platform compliance?
• Adobe can publicly state that any search engines have taken an interest in this software yet. Better yet, have any search engines begun creating an application?
• there are any impressive web applications Adobe can demo that utilizes simple JavaScript and HTML? Or is Apollo really only worthwhile for the programming minded?
• has advertising been incorporated yet in any Apollo application? I would love to see the first introduction of ads in this product. Let us just hope it is more creative than a banner.

Author:  Ross Dunn is the CEO of StepForth Placement Inc., a search engine marketing company founded in 1997 and based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. StepForth provides cutting-edge search engine optimization services that provide highly successful, targeted results for its clientele. Ross Dunn is a Certified Internet Marketing and Business Strategist (CIMBS) with a background in web design and online marketing. His broad Internet experience in combination with a talented staff has made StepForth a name synonymous with top results.