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How to Improve SEM Conversion Rates 2007-10-09 07:39:00 To optimize the results of a Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing or other SEM program, start with best practices in search engine marketing. I've written previously about typical SEM click-through rates (CTR), which are important—balancing your budget against driving as much traffic as possible to your website.Ultimately, however, what's really important isn't raw traffic, but conversion of that traffic into buyers or B2B leads. Dan Briody recently wrote a helpful article for Inc. magazine, Turning Browsers into Buyers: How to Improve Conversion Rates that provides some practical guidance.From my own experience, here are a few basic practices to help maximize conversion rates (which average 3% according to Dan's article) and minimize your cost per conversion: Keep content short. Your landing page should have one-two paragraphs (a couple of sentences plus 3-5 bullet points is even better) of compelling, straightforward copy: this is what my product/service will do for you and ...

The Wrong Way to Build External Links for SEO 2007-10-05 08:39:00 Anyone who's worked on search engine optimization (SEO) for any length of time understands the importance of building relevant external links to a website. But whether you do choose to SEO internally, outsource it domestically, or offshore the effort, it's important to get this process right. If you're doing it internally, follow established best practices for this effort (including the information below). If you outsource your SEO, ask your vendor exactly how they perform their SEO work.I frequently receive reciprocal link requests for WebMarketCentral.com. Some of the requests are well-written, some inelegant, some spammy. But I recently received the following message, which was among the worst I had ever seen:Subject: Link exchangeDear Webmaster,My name is (name), and I run the web sites.:http://www.clickatest.co.uk/(PR>2)http://www.clickajob.co.uk/(PR>3)http://www.freshpromotion.com/I recently found your site and am very interested in exchanging links. You can add yours link the ...

An Online Presentation Tool for Sales Pros? 2007-10-03 07:29:00 Online presentation tools such as WebEx and LiveMeeting are helpful for collaboration, and GoToWebinar or ON24 are great for webcasting, but these services generally aren't practical for the typical road warrior, bag-carrying sales rep. Now, Alan Hill of IPresent2You.com, a 20-year sales veteran, believes he has the answer—a set of software tools that enable sales people to deliver web-based presentations, customized on the fly to address the specific needs and interests of individual prospects.The I Present to You! software provides an interesting set of capabilities that separate it from most online collaboration and webcasting tools: There is no software or plug-in for the viewer to install; it's 100% browser-based. Yet, like other online presentation tools, it enables you to demonstrate virtually any other third-party application from with the tool, as well as transfer control of the presentation to any other individual. It lets you create a personalized microsite portal for ea ...

New B2B Lead Generation Report from RainToday 2007-10-01 06:09:00 The professional services experts at RainToday have just released a free report, The One Piece of Advice You Can't Generate Leads Without—From 10 Experts on B2B Lead Generation. If your role centers around B2B lead generation, how can you resist a report with a title like that? As the introduction to the report states, "We've read a lot of advice about B2B lead generation, and there are a lot of people who claim to know it all. But when you boil it all down, people want to know, `What's really important? What do I need to know?' To answer this question, we asked 10 experts in B2B lead generation."The report is filled with great ideas from an impressive list of B2B experts. Among them:Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies: Avoid "trash talk"—over-used marketing-ese such as "unique methodologies" or "one-stop shopping"—in favor of focusing completely on your prospect's business and the impact you can have on it.Brian Carroll, head of B2B lead generation firm InTouch ...

Off Topic: Who Does MyHeritage Think You Look Like? 2007-09-28 05:58:00 After coming across Web 2.0 - Your Inner Celebrity on Harry Hoover's blog, I had to try this out the Celebrity Collage from MyHeritage.com. Amusing, but how it's possible for anyone to simultaneously resemble Usher, Helen Hunt and Johnny Damon is beyond me. I have been told before that I look a bit like Glenn Frey, but never any of these people.If you've got a few minutes to waste, try it out.*****Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom ...

WMC Interviews: Sharat Sharan 2007-09-26 07:20:00 This week, I had the opportunity to learn more about how Sharat Sharan, president and CEO of webcasting and rich media platform provider ON24, has built this company into a leader in online lead generation and communication. ON24 provides a hosted platform to help B2B marketers and other business professionals produce webcasts, podcasts and rich media presentations for prospects, customers, employees, analysts and investors.ON24 is also the company behind Insight24.com, a hosting service for thought leadership rich media B2B webcasts, podcasts, videos and demos from leading B2B vendors.WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before ON24?Sharat Sharan (SS): I was Group Vice President of Hearst New Media Group in New York. Before that, I was responsible for business development for Wireless Networks at AT&T.WMC: How and when did you get started in this business?SS: When I joined ON24, the company had a different business model. During the downturn, the business model was challenged. ...

New on WMC: Guide to Web-Based B2B Lead Generation Programs 2007-09-24 06:25:00 The web marketing plan development section on WebMarketCentral continues to expand with the recent addition of a Guide to Web-Based B2B Lead Generation Programs. An overview of online B2B lead generation tactics, this page provides an overview of the most common types of Internet advertising and online B2B lead generation programs, including: Search engine marketing Advertising on Internet ad networksWhite paper syndication Email marketing Webcasts and podcastsThe goal of all of these B2B lead generation activities is to make it easy for your prospects to find you when they are looking for a solution to a problem that your product or service provides, then guide them through the process from information-gathering to purchase. Research shows that 75-80% of B2B buyers and influencers use the Internet to find information about vendors rather than responding to outbound efforts.Web-based lead generation programs supplement and complement offline efforts such as trade shows, direct mail and ...

Google AdWords Average CTR and Best Practices 2007-09-20 06:52:00 A previous post here covered average click-through rates for email newsletter advertising, email campaigns and website banner ads. As noted, DoubleClick provides fairly reliable data across those media.It's surprisingly difficult, however, to get meaningful data on the average click-through rate (CTR) for Google AdWords ads. This discussion on Webmaster World reports various experiences: 0.6%-1.2%, 1%-2% and 3%-5%. PayPerPost puts the figure at 0.5-1.5%; and Hochman Consultants pegs the average at 0.7-1.5%. Across all of the sources I was able to find, the average fell into the range of 1.1-2.2%. That range includes both B2B and B2C ads (the latter tend to generate higher CTRs). On the B2B side, I'd place the average Google AdWords CTR in the range of 0.9-1.4%.So—how can you optimize your Google AdWords CTR to beat those averages? Recently added to WebMarketCentral is a list of 14 Best Practices in Search Engine Marketing. These best practices include: Use free online tools such as ... Google

Book Review: The New Rules of Marketing and PR 2007-09-18 06:25:00 There are two kinds of readers who won't like David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing & PR; fortunately for the author, both groups are small. The first is that small group of ahead-of-the-curve web marketers and PR professionals who have already figured out how to integrate online efforts between optimized news releases, blogs, social media sites, podcasts and all of the other content distribution and promotional tools now available online (though the ranks of this group will be swelled by the readers of David's book).The second group is the diminishing number of old-school PR and marketing practitioners, those who still believe that press releases are only for the media, that you have to interrupt people with your marketing message to get their attention, and that campaigns aren't real unless they are on TV. This book explodes their old view of the world. Scott performs two important services with this book, one tactical and one strategic. Tactically he pulls togethe ... Marketing

MarketingSherpa Releases 2008 Search Marketing Benchmark Guide 2007-09-14 06:59:00 MarketingSherpa recently published its Search Marketing Benchmark Guide for 2008, providing data on cost per click (CPC), conversion rates, SEO and other key online marketing metrics. The study is designed to help online marketers set PPC and SEO budgets, forecast results, test online marketing programs, and even (toughest of all)—explain search marketing plans to your client or CEO.Among the key findings: Search marketing continues to grow at an incredible pace, with spending up 39% globally in 2007. A third of respondents anticipate double-digit spending increases on both SEO and Google PPC programs in 2008. Marketers rate SEO second and search engine marketing (PPC) ads third in terms of ROI, behind only house-list email marketing. Online banner ads and print advertising receive the lowest grades for ROI. The return on PR spending is viewed as the most difficult to measure. Thinking of bringing SEM and SEO in-house? Nearly a third of corporate respondents said that finding talente ... Marketing

Podcast Promotion vs. Blog Promotion 2007-09-12 07:02:00 While there are several similarities between blog and podcast promotion, as an audio medium, podcasts offer several addition avenues for distribution. So, podcasts are somewhat of a different animal when it comes to promotion.Blogs use RSS feeds to get indexed by search engines, as well as promotion tools such as Technorati, TruthLaidBear, Pingoat, BeeTooBee (for marketing blogs) and social media sites like BlogMarks. RSS feeds can be distributed through numerous sites; Robin Good still has one of the best lists ever.Podcasts also use RSS feeds for distribution and are indexed by search engines based on the surrounding content—podcast files are generally placed on blogs or web pages along with text describing the subject and participants in the podcast. However, podcasts can also get added distribution through services such as iTunes, ODEO, Yahoo Podcasts, Podcast.com, Podcast Alley and Podcast Pickle. Want to really go nuts? Check out podCast411's directory of roughly 150 podcast p ...

WMC Interviews: Jonathan Treiber 2007-09-10 06:41:00 I recently had the chance to interview Jonathan Treiber, CEO and co-founder of loyalty rewards marketing provider OnCard Marketing and the man behind iBakeSale.com. iBakeSale is an innovative "painless fundraising" program that allows consumers to save money through cash-back rewards from popular merchants while supporting their favorite charities. The program has signed up hundreds of popular merchants such as Best Buy, Wal-Mart, 1-800-Flowers, Nordstrom, Lillian Vernon, Old Navy, GAP, PetCo and Linens-N-Things. Any charity can sign up and ask supporters to join.iBakeSale is a great opportunity for shoppers to do well by doing good, and has been written up in numerous blogs including The Parent Bloggers Network, midwesternmommy.com, The Mummy Chronicles, The Karianna Spectrum and Phat Mommy, as well as Jonathan's own blog. Here's our conversation:WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before OnCard Marketing?Jonathan Treiber (JT): I worked at Citigroup in New York City doing invest ...

PR Through Bloggers 2007-09-06 06:31:00 To add a few of my own thoughts to the last post by Cece Lee, "blogger relations" are becoming as important as media relations in PR strategy. Connecting your content with bloggers is increasingly important for several reasons: Bloggers have increasing influence. As previously reported, when making purchasing decisions, B2B buyers spend more time with social media than any other content except vendor materials, and trust social media more than any other source. Blogs are a key component of the social media B2B buyers are reading. Bloggers tend to be subject matter experts (although some might point to this blog as an exception to that rule). After all, it's difficult to write on a regular basis about a topic outside of one's expertise. That's why, for example, you'll find few Minnesotans who blog about surfing (okay, Graeme Thickens being an exception). Bloggers are passionate about their subjects. They have to be, to write about it week after week, when there's generally very lit ...

PR and Blogging Outreach: Practical Tips 2007-09-04 06:34:00 Note: this is the second of two guest-posts from PR guru-ess Cece Salomon-Lee on how Web 2.0 has changed the practice of PR. The first covered macro issues; this piece focuses on how PR professionals can best approach bloggers.In my first post on PR and blogging, I had discussed the macro issues impacting the quality of outreach—both traditional media and blogging. I've been thinking about this topic over the past few weeks realized that good blogger relationships is one part doing your research, one part old school PR and one part transparency.In some cases, bloggers will provide you with rules when contacting them. Some of these rules are included below, while others may be more specific to the blogger's interest, for example, CK's Rules for PR folks.Based on these three components, here are 8 Tips about Blogging Outreach:1. Bloggers are not journalists: One mistake is believing that bloggers are like journalists but they're not. Bloggers write because they are passionate about ... Blogging

Off Topic: 8 Random Things 2007-08-31 08:28:00 Since Brian Carroll at the B2B Lead Generation Blog tagged me for this, I guess I'll play. For what it's worth, here are eight random things about me:1. I think Boston is the greatest rock n' roll band ever.2. Speaking of music, my trivia expertise is one-hit wonders from the 80s.3. My mother wanted me to be a priest.4. I have four brothers. We've all owned our own businesses at one time or another (financial services, trailer manufacturing, wholesale supplies, painting, and marketing consulting in order from oldest to youngest).5. My undergraduate degree was in industrial engineering. I'm an efficient marketer.6. I graduated second in my class in MBA school at the University of Minnesota. I would have been first in my class, but I got a B in, of all things, Marketing Management.7. My wife is named Jolene. Dolly Parton released an album in 1974 titled "Jolene." The engineer on that album was...Tom Pick (no relation). How spooky is that?8. Two of my great-grandfathers fought on opp ...