Ari Strauch Five Blocks Inc. • Five Blocks is a technology and digital consulting company focused on digital reputation management. Ari Strauch Senior Client Manager Five Blocks Inc. Tel: 646.201.9877 Cell: +972.54.632.6896 ari@fiveblocks.com
Thriving Online with just Email and Analytics Turn any business into the industry leader using only Internet basics
Why Online Marketing? • Online marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) have proven to be some of the most efficient marketing tactics that exist today and, in fact, ever. It used to be that you marketed your message and hoped that, at best, a very small percentage of viewers would care what that message was. Today - with the Internet in general and SEO in specific – the message is going to people who are actually asking (search query) for it. This is truly revolutionary…and can be tracked!
Build or Improve your Online Store • From the outset of your campaign, a well built and optimized site that answers all of your potential customers’ questions already puts you way ahead of the game – and, online, we will be able to track step by step if we are satisfying their needs. This flexibility, as opposed to brick and mortar stores, makes the efficiency of the online world even more pronounced. So how do we build that perfect site?
Keywords • Keyword research gives us an overview of what the world wants/is talking about and the specific language they’re using so we build our content based around this for maximum return (Google AdWords info, Webmaster Tools info, internal site search info and other avenues can be utilized to strengthen this research).
Competitive Research • Know the competition both in regards to what terms they are ranking for, who is ranking for our targeted terms and what techniques they are using. Note that correctly identifying the competition is crucial. Our every day competitors are not necessarily our competitors in the search engine result pages. Go through the successful sites and mimic the process that is working for them regarding keyword focus, site structure, technical specs, customer service options, etc.
Develop Personas • Picture you ideal customer and make your site for them (e.g. What is there typical age? What is their typical sex? What are their typical interests? Etc.). Know what it is that those people want to see when they reach your store and ask yourself if you’re providing it.
Analysis & Success • Analytics is crucial; with it, we can review what’s been happening until now, what’s been successful, what hasn’t, what content people are engaging with, where they are leaving the site, where they are and aren’t converting, our CPA, etc. The onus is then on the company to analyze these findings, interpret them and execute all changes accordingly. Analytics also allows us to continuously test these changes until coming to proven conclusions that will produce improvement.
What now? • We now have our site set up which will answer all of our users questions and have analytics properly implemented. Where do we go from here? What is our fastest and most efficient way to success? • The online world provides us with the answer (and a way to obtain it that is just not practical in the real world):
Industry Leaders and Influencers • They know your target market and cater to them • They are a destination for your target market • They are a trusted voice to your target market and are listened to • A mention from them is more likely to provide a mention/link from a laser targeted industry – great for rankings and receiving relevant/profitable traffic • They are more likely to get you additional great links and referrals • They are in the places you want to be • Etc.
How do we find them? • Google, search engines • Social Networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) • Industry forums • Industry directories • Industry literature and magazines • Industry events • Competitive analysis • Link analysis (http://opensiteexplorer.org, www.majesticseo.com, etc.) • Etc.
How do we use them? • Establish a relationship with them • Comment on their posts • Blog about their opinions • Get them to become evangelists for you • Get them to refer you to other targeted users • Get them to link to you • Get them to “vouch” for you • Etc.
How do we contact them? • Email!!! • Research who you are contacting • Be personable (“Dear Joe” versus “To whom it may concern”) • Learn about them both personally and professionally • Know their sites and web properties • Provide suggestions to improve/fix their properties • Offer something of use that will benefit them • Anticipate possible objectives they will have and address them • Show an eagerness to learn and don’t be afraid to say that you’re a novice • Flattery (but genuine) • Be natural and yourself – picture going over to someone in real life to pitch the same thing; speak as you would there • Demonstrate how you can benefit each other • Be strict with follow ups with at least one about 7 – 10 days later; even just one follow up has an historically high conversion rate • Be strict with administrative details (e.g. when the email was sent, when the follow up, was sent, what was the outcome, etc.) • Etc.
Maintaining Success • Once a relationship is established it needs to be maintained and nurtured • Continue to initiate regular communication • Continue to follow them via the industry and give feedback • Make a regular practice of sending them targeted referrals • Make sure your content is kept up to date so that you never make them look bad for referring you • Make sure to maintain yourself as an industry resource so they will want to keep referring you and linking to you • Be nice
Measuring Success: Google Analytics is a Miracle • Online world provides measuring tactics whose efficiency is truly extraordinary • Google Analytics (and it’s free!!!!!) • See where your visitors are coming from • See if your new contacts are sending you traffic and/or conversions either directly or via assistance • See if your new contacts are providing additional referrals (via improved rankings, second hand referrals, new listings, etc.) • See if these referrals are higher quality visitors and, if so, how does their engagement change? • Use internal tool for A/B testing (very powerful!!!). • Have these new contacts provided you with other networking possibilities? • See all occurrences in real time • See if your rankings are going up in correlation to the outreach work done • Use your administrative records to calculate your outreach response success • Etc.
More Crucial Online Marketing Pieces: Link Building • Link building is a key piece of the online marketing puzzle and is still the number one way which Google uses to rank sites; however, the types of links obtained have become extremely important to the point that the wrong links can have a devastating impact on a site/business.
Social Media • Social media is crucial for most industries; however, research is required to know which (if any) of these communities are the ones your target market is spending time in.
The Interactive Web • Online forums, industry blogs and niche directories (among many other things) are other areas that should be identified and, if possible, joined.
Content Creation and Marketing • Fresh and constant content creation has become more and more important for search engines; regular articles, industry thought pieces, guest blogs at relevant places, press releases and more are all content creation possibilities that should be explored; the key is to know the demands of your audience and be aware of what content they tend to consume.
Reputation Management • Today, reputation management has become more important than ever; our brand online must be monitored and protected; there will often be negative pieces out there (especially when a brand gets big and successful) but with due diligence the negative impact of these can be greatly minimized if not eliminated.
Summary and Conclusion • Online marketing and search engine optimization have evolved into some of the most efficient, cost-effective and profitable marketing strategies ever known to man while the ability to use the Internet to identify and contact industry leaders to laser target your potential customers while they are actively searching for the solutions in the very places that your audience has proven to frequent – and combined with the ability to track all of this activity – has evolved the landscape even further to provide incredibly efficient promotional opportunities preceding generations of businesses could only have fantasized about. With some simple (and free) tools the road to starting a successful online business has never been more attainable. It is now up to us to fully maximize the historic opportunities being presented to us.
Ari Strauch Five Blocks Inc. • Five Blocks is a technology and digital consulting company focused on digital reputation management. Ari Strauch Senior Client Manager Five Blocks Inc. Tel: 646.201.9877 Cell: +972.54.632.6896 ari@fiveblocks.com
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