The Client Can Be the Best at Marketing

Increasingly, the expertise and input of the client is becoming more and more important in digital marketing (in particular, in content marketing, search marketing, social media, user experience, online PR and online customer service).
In the early days of digital marketing, technical knowledge, in particular, SEO, was really key.
SEO. SEO is still important, but increasingly, it is the quality of digital content that is attracting and keeping customers (for various reasons, for example, search engines are getting better at finding and ranking quality content; technology is making it easier and cheaper for people to publish quality content on the web; with experience, people are just getting better at it). It is companies who know their market the best, and so in the best position to create content that is interesting and useful to their audience.
Social Media. Companies hire social media “experts”. But social media is, at the end of the day, about communication, and it is the companies who know , best, their audiences.
Creative. Using creative agencies is still important (there are some great creative agencies out there, no argument). But creative advertising can still be done in-house and relatively cheaply (i.e. home-made videos that go viral).
Technical. Perhaps the area of digital marketing in which companies will continue to depend on digital agencies the most is digital marketing that requires technical skills: website and interactive website features, mobile apps, and so on.

Save Money on Doing Digital Marketing Yourself

So often, traditional marketing has to be done by an agency. But with digital marketing, companies are able to do a lot more marketing work on their own (for various reasons: more accessible, user-friendly and cheaper technology to use), saving money. Training in digital marketing can really help companies to best use the tools and technologies at their disposal, in particular, how to create the an effective digital marketing strategy. But this is even more the case during challenging economic times (with training, also, being useful to help select the best value tools and technologies during these particular challenging economic challenging times).

Develop Your Digital Business

For many companies now, the digital side of their business is a crucial side of their business and brand overall. In fact an effective digital model can often be – in the digital age we live in with so many customers and potential customers to be found in the digital environment, whether at work or during their free time – the difference between companies doing well and badly.
Digital marketing (which, also, involves branding and digital business models) can be invaluable in helping not just develop and fine-tune digital strategy, but, also in developing and fine-tuning the digital side of the business in general. It’s not so much that the trainer will necessarily come up with concrete suggestions for you to carry out (but this could happen – why not?) but that your increased knowledge of the digital world in environment, including digital marketing, could help spark ideas in the people in the company in general – people including the managing director, finance director, branding/marketing manager, and so on (as well as employees in non-management positions, too).

Everyone Plays a Part in Enhancing the Digital Reputation of  the Company

That everyone in the company has an idea about what the digital marketing strategy / digital branding strategy of the company is, and how they can contribute to it in whichever part of the business they’re involved in.

What is SEO?

• Definition in one line: Search Engine Optimization is about tweaking your site so that its content ranks higher in organic search.
• Development of Search Engine Optimization.
  Search engines came into being after algorithms were developed in order to organize search results. One of the first key algorithmic developments was the introduction of ”key words” (adding “key words” to your site’s content – with “key words” being associated with what you want to be found in search-engine results for). This was a useful way of identifying content. But if you want to be a quality search engine you have to be able to rank the quality of content and offer something more than search based on keywords (in the early days, people often just “stuffed” key words into their content in order to manipulate search engine results). A second key algorithmic development was links (where search engines would rank a site’s key content based on the amount of links a website received from others. Useful as links were, they could be manipulated and abused. In order to get the best search results (with “best” equalling both relevancy of that content as well as the usefulness or interest of that content to users), search engines have now developed many other algorithmic criteria, i.e. not just the number of links but the quality of those links, the length of time a user spends on a site, the number of times a user goes from one page to another on a site, having your site blocked from someone’s search results, even social media engagement (and much more).
• Definition of SEO, now
  With  developments in search engine algorithms, the meaning and nature of search engine optimization changes (and not everyone’s idea of SEO is the same as others – and that includes professionals within the industry). For most people, now, SEO is about “tweaking sites” (more on that below), user experience (look / feel / functionality of site), it’s about using social media, optimizing sites for mobile search, and so on, above all, however, above all, it’s about the way content is put-together, and using relevant, quality content to rank sites higher in search engines.

White Hat / Black hat SEO

One of the first things to be clear about in SEO are the boundaries that you have to work within. White hat SEO is ethical optimization. Black hat, “unethical”. With black hat you can be penalized, even banned from search engines.
As long as you focus on creating relevant, quality content, and thinking about SEO as justa way to tweak your content, then generally, you should be fine.  In some cases, people’s optimization efforts might be considered grey hat by search engines (although they might not necessarily use this term) and in some cases penalize a website accordingly (but with the opportunity to rectify from grey to white hat). Black hat is far more serious. There will be serious penalties and in some cases, banning (and in some cases permanent banning).
Treat search engines with respect. They’ve been doing this for a long time and have got their algorithms down to a fine art (and in particular, Google). Don’t take any shorts (and if going down the line of hiring SEO professionals, be wary about who you use). At the same time, don’t panic or be overly anxious, rather focus on content (relevant, quality) as being the most important thing you need to spend time and money on – and with SEO “tweaking” being just something to help bring that content to audiences.

Tweaking Site:

(Do not get obsessed – even anxious – by the following list. It can help but that’s as far as it goes. First, and most importantly, focus on producing great content!)

• Page titles (choosing the right one)
• meta tags (making good use of description)
• Site navigation (good implementation of)
• Url Structures (improving)
• Sitemaps (use of)
• 404 pages (that they are helpful)
• Anchor text (good use of)
• Heading tags (using these correctly)
• robots.txt (making good use of)
• rel=”nofollow (beware of)
• Images (optimizing)

Google and SEO

Learn what Google thinks regarding search engine optimiation (best practises). It won’t take long. Here are two good links. Firstly, look at “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)” from Google Webmaster Tools. And / or (preferably both), look at Google’s “Search Engine Optimization – Starter Guide.”
Since Google play such a key role in search marketing in countries in general, and in particular in the UK, so it’s worth spending time understanding how they index and rank sites (and the relationship between this and search engine optimization).

• Getting Quality links – Quality Content
  A key way search engines rank content is the amount of quality links a web page or website receive. Search engines want quality content (quality content = both more users and loyal users). The higher the quality, the higher that content is ranked. As with SEO in general, be careful with the subject of links. As long as your main focus is on producing quality content (focusing on cliche “Content is King”)
  . 
• What is Quality Content?
  Original. That the content is original / different. Content that is different to what is already out there. Introducing new content based on surveys and market research findings, interviews, content that you come across offline, and so on.
  Interesting / Useful / Interactive. Depending on the nature of your business and audience that the content is interesting / useful / interactive: an interesting article, for example, making people see things in a different way for people in marketing, for example, a useful service such as mortgage calculator if you’re in property, for example, an interactive site with games and downloadable features, for example, if it’s a website for young people, for example.
  Relevant.That the content is what your audience is looking for when they do a search in a search engine. Of course, you can’t always get this right. But it’s possible to review your content in general, including key words, to maximize relevancy.Perhaps it’s wrong to separate content and search engine optimization into two separate groups or activities. “Content is King” should be at the forefront of your approach when thinking about SEO. Get content right, and this will take care of so much of your digital marketing efforts (including search engine optimization). But get it wrong, and it could really backfire (and for relatively little gain, compared to the potential gain of producing quality content).
  If you’re in any doubt about SEO and whether you’re wasting your time on a particular SEO activity or whether such an activity could get you into trouble, then don’t do it. Don’t take a risk on that particular activity (and instead of the time and energy spent on this particular activity, you could, instead, be spending it on producing quality content!).
  ..
• Keyword Strategy
  Keyword strategy is about researching which keywords you most want to be found in search engines for and using these keywords in your content. It’s very easy to over-use keywords. The important thing is to write for your audience first. If they really like it, then search engines will, too.
  . 
• Google Analytics – the basics
  Google Analytics is an invaluable, free tool from Google for SEO and organic search. It provides data about audience’s experiences of websites in general, including particular pages. This impacts on how search engines gauge the quality of the site. The data can be used to improve the content of the site, layout of the site, and more (and so impacting on organic search results).
  Absolute Unique Visitors, Visits & Visitors (want to know the difference between these different terms, go to this Google Analytics information page)
  Bounce rate. Percentage of single page visits or visits in which the visitor left the site from the entrance landing page
  Average time on site and length of visit (with length of visit giving you an idea of loyalty)
  Content Overview: top content, content by title, content drilldown, top landing pages, top exit pages.
  Content Details (including comparison between one point in time and another): pageviews, unique views, time on page, bounce rate, navigation summary, landing page optimization ..
  Where visitors come from (includes country and country region)
  Loyalty (recency, length, depth)
  Traffic sources: direct, refering, search engines, Adwords (PPC), Keywords (particularly important for organic search)
  Google Analytic’s offers “My Customizations” for more indepth analytics. These are the categories / sub-categories I focus on the most (there are others).  For a more-indepth look at Google Analytics (including looking at more categories and sub categories) would be well worth visiting Introduction to Google Analytics – Google, and  Google Analytics Channel on Youtube.

What is Content Marketing?

The best marketers do research (best practises, data research, and so on), and learn from others. But at a certain point, they will go off and do something different/original/unique in approach. For this reason, the best marketers will, to a certain degree, have a different (and at the same time, similar) concept to marketing to others. Same for content marketing and content marketers (and instead of “content marketing”, some marketers prefer to use phrases such as: custom media, customer publishing, branded content, branded media, and so on).

Content marketing has three main concepts behind it.

• Creating great content
  Its about creating great content – educational / advisory / useful content. But, also, content that is entertaining (depending on which industry you’re in). And content that is relevant (i.e. you know exactly who your audience is). It’s, also, about sharing content. Although the concept of “free” is really important, in some cases, not all content needs to be free (for example, your free content might be so good that it is enough to attract audiences to your paid content – and they won’t mind paying for it).
• Thought leader
  It’s about appearing as a thought leader. Providing information about your industry in general that your audience will find useful. Perhaps there is a gap of knowledge in the market in general. Or, perhaps, you’re able to provide this information better than others. “Thought leader” goes against the idea of sales / self-promotion. You want to provide education / advice. Not appear as if you’re selling / promoting something. But, of course, you’re providing content that is related to what you do (something marginally, sometimes, directly, and everything inbetween).
• Loyalty
  It’s about building up loyalty with customers. However, it can, also, be about acquiring new customers. And how better you’ll start a connection with customers when they feel they’ve bought into your services / product / brand based on content marketing as opposed to something more salsey/self-promotional. So overall, it’s about creating a sense of brand loyalty (whether brand loyalthy with existing customers, or acquiring new customers and at the same time kicking off their brand experience in a positive way).

Do you need content marketing?

Generally, yes (from one degree to another). Although a few products/services/brands can sell themselves relatively straight-forwardly (i.e. many Apple products, Nike, Bloomsbury Publishing – publishers of Harry Poter, and so on) most products/services/brands, can’t – they’re part of a highly competitive market-place. Content marketing is able to give your business and marketing efforts real kudos in this environment.

Content Marketing Tactics 

• Blog posts. Informal / sketchy / thought-provoking blog posts or well thought-out, informed, blog articles or both).
• Articles. Well-thought out, informed blog articles or articles that appear in non-blog format on the company website.
• Presentations (slideshare / Powerpoint presentations).
• Industry reports
• White papers
• Ebooks (if you have time ..).
• Blog comments. Commenting on other people’s blogs – not commenting for the sake of, but offering real analysis, facts and figures where appropriate, and so on.
• Case studies. Although a case study is very much what you’ve done (might seem self-promotional), there is the real opportunity to demonstrate how to overcome a particular challenge in the industry or just come up with some new idea no-one else had thought about (but demonstrating all of this from personal experience – something you’ve done and were successful in).
• Webcasts. Online broadcasts
• Webinars. Web-based seminars.
• Video tutorials / presentations
• Podcasts. video/audio files that can be downloaded and viewed/listened to.
• Microsites. Single page or cluster of pages as part of an overall website with some special focus of interest, often with enhanced use of graphics).
• Interactive online features. For example, allows user to: download free screensavers and games, download bookmark to browse online galleries, maps, features that help a customer create their own marketing campaign, and so on).
• FAQ
• Membership website. Normally requiring user ID and password for access to special, membership content.
• Website – general (and just the opportunity in general to use your website as a platform for content marketing).
• Newsletters. Email and print format.
• Email courses. Getting people to sign into a course covered over a certain amount of period using numerous emails.
• Custom magazines. A brand sponsored magazine – in the following formats: print, digital and email.
• Apps. Mobile / iPad Apps. Interactive features (similar online features).
• Events. As in event marketing.
• Roadshows. Similar to events but typically shorter and more focused on a particular subject/subjects.
• Roundtables. Meetings between professionals to exchange and develop ideas.

Content Marketing Strategy

• Do it well or not at all. A key part of content marketing is to be a thought leader. Doing content marketing for the sake of appearing that you’re doing it, will backfire.
• Research / relevancy. Work out who your content-marketing audience is; what others are saying (and what is not being said, and how you can say better what others are saying). Make your content marketing relevant.
• What sort of content would be appropriate (i.e. white papers, in particular, if you’re a business that produces medical equipment; fun interactive content if you’re a children’s publisher, for example)?
• Creative / Unique. Follow content marketing best practises. Get ideas from others. But be creative, too. Come up with your own ideas. That your content-marketing approach is different to others. Has its own unique flavour.
• Harmonizing tactics. Try and use as many different content-marketing tactics (or types) as you can (although not at the cost of what you’re best at). But try and create brand consistency/story between the different tactics.
• Update content. You’ve put together a lot of great content. Sometimes just a few small out-of-date facts and figures can put people off. Maintain the value of your content by updates (not just of facts and figures but of ideas and analysis, too). Little work compared to all the initial work you did for that particular content.
• Content Marketing as part of an overall holistic, digital marketing approach. See below for more details.

Content Marketing closely connected to other areas of marketing / spin-offs for other areas of marketing.

It’s impossible to separate content marketing from others areas of marketing. For example:

• Social Media: you can use social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinedIn, Instagram, and so on to place different types of content). Also, wherever you place content, you want to ensure that there are social media buttons easily available so that this content can be passed on to others.
• Organic search / SEO. Inevitably, what you create is going to effect your organic search strategy (you can create new domains where search engines see this new doman as a separate website, but even if you do this, you have to be careful that your content doesn’t appear as if it has been copied from your other website).
• Copywriting. Without general good copywriting skills (able to tell a good story, able to outline things clearly and succinctly), then content marketing is really going to suffer.
• Consumer generated media. You can use user-generated content effectively such as in the case of product reviews. However, be careful about using consumer generated media in general, at least in terms of content marketing. For a strong element of content marketing is about what you think as an industry leader, and the kudos this brings to your business. Consumer generated media is about what consumers or the audience think and produce (and although this can be useful in other areas of marketing, there has to be an element of caution with consumer generated media in the context of content marketing).

Coming up with a great online business idea!

• Research the Market
  Gap in the market for something you want to do?
  No gap but there is an opportunity to do something much better than others?
• Does the idea translate from offline to online?
  You may be thinking of selling a product or service that, in reality, people prefer to experience in an offline environment, perhaps?
• Creative Approach
  Think out of the box. Brainstorm. And be critical of ideas, yes, but only after giving them some free reign, first.

Business Plan

You’ve come up with your business idea. Now it’s time to put it into a business plan. The same applies whether you’re a business on a shoe-string and part-time, only, or a business with time and money.
The business plan has many purposes. The most important being: to reveal holes in the business (and how best to resolve them), provide structure, purpose and impetus, as well as develop new ideas (this isn’t a business-plan goal but is usually a by-product of the process),

• Business plan for those on a shoestring / working part-time on the business. You don’t need to do a proper business plan (and too much planning can lead to prevaricating and putting-off ..) but should, however, do a sketch of the most important points covered in a proper business plan.
• Proper business plan. Business plan should cover: Summary, Business Overview, Business Strategy, Marketing, Team and Management Structure, Financial Budgets and Forecasts.

Finance

• On a shoestring. Bottom line costs to set up an online business: 1) the domain name, 2) a very basic website, from a hosting company, that you put together yourself 3) website hosting. Great deals around. Try “web hosting” in Google. And you can work as a sole trader.
• Raising money from a bank. By getting a bank loan, you avoid having to give away equity. However, the price you pay for this is that you have to cover the costs if anything goes wrong.
• Business Angels. Business angels are individuals who invest their own money, typically (but not necessarily), in start-ups and fledging businesses. They won’t invest unless they’re offered an attractive equity deal and an expectation that they will receive a generous return on investment. On the other hand, they take the risk with their own money if things go wrong in your business and, often, give invaluable advice.

Naming the Website

• “But all the good names have gone”. Yes, in a sense. But it’s still possible to come up with good names by being creative. For example “Digg”, “Tumblr”, “Reddit”, “Mashable”, “Foursquare”, and more (all popular online brands).
• General, basic advice for finding a good name. Consider names that are as simple as possible (but there are exceptions i.e. “Stumbleupon”, matches in some sense the nature of your business (i.e. “Flickr” and photos), and that is appealing / memorable (i.e. “Techcrunch”).
• Don’t get obsessed by the website name. It’s important to get as good a name as possible. But don’t get obsessed by it. You can always create an interesting logo out of the name, helping to provide interest to the name and make the name more memorable. Don’t forget, most people don’t enter domain names into search bars anymore (takes off the pressure from having to have a really short, or even, memorable name). If they like your site, they’ll bookmark it. Or Google search it. Or recommend it to others (in Twitter, for example) with short urls.

Website – Planning and User Experience

Plan the website as if you were experiencing it through the eyes of one of your customers.
What sort of impression does your website create? Not just whether it is professional-looking, but does it fit in with the type of product/service you’re offering and/or the type of brand you want to create? Does it stand out from the crowd? Is it easy to navigate?
Create various plans (basic layouts if you don’t have graphic design skills) with different layouts, fonts, colours and so on.
If you get a professional web designer, they can, also, advise you on industry standards regarding what works / doesn’t in work in terms of general user experience. But take responsibility for user experience yourself since user experience is key to the business model and branding. Don’t just depend on a web designer for this (but – and if you have a good web designer – listen to the web designer, as well!)

Choosing the right web designer / design agency

Choosing the right web designer can be crucial, especially in the case of a start-up where everything needs to be right as possible in order to get the business off the ground.
Firstly, research the web design industry in general and consult with a friend/colleague who has knowledge of web design to help you make a decision over the more technical/industry-specific points you need to probe.
Find as many potential web designers as possible before making your final selection. From research and questioning, find out as much as you can about them regarding the following:

• Qualifications / general experience
• Languages. Their knowledge of languages such as HTML, CSS, javascript, PHP, Ruby on Rails etc .. – some projects don’t require much knowledge, others do)
• Case studies (demonstrating proven results)?
• The web designer’s client sites. Examine the web designer’s clients sites in the following areas:
  1) Do they load quickly?
  2) How do they look in different browsers.
  3) Does the website require special software (i.e. Flash) to be viewed (this might, potentially, put some customers off)
  4) Does their work all look the same (as opposed to proper, custom-made sites – unless you’re going for a basic site)?
• Web designer, web developer or both? Ideally / in general, you want a web designer who is both strong at graphic design and web development. Does past and current work reflect this (although some projects/businesses require stronger graphic design and others, web development). Or, perhaps, you decide to go to a design/digital agency where a web designer and web developer work together as a team.
• Good listener / takes an interest? Is the web designer a good listener and take an interest in your business and ideas?
• Website planning guide? Do they have a website planning guide for you both to work on, together.
• Industry focused? Do they focus on a particular industry / market (i.e. yours)?
• Start-ups, established businesses or both? Are they more focused on established businesses than start-ups – or both? Often the requirements and knowledge of those involved in start-ups are different to those in established businesses. Who you are in terms of knowledge of business, marketing and design in general, and the stage and size of your business, might be an issue – at least worth thinking about.
• Mobile-friendly. Having mobile-friendly sites is become more-and-more important (and more so on the nature of your business – if your business is dependent on a mobile-friendly site, then something to be aware of.
• Finance. Costs for now but, also, future costs for general tweaks and improvements?
• Time. How long project will take? How long they take to do tweaks in general?
• Too many clients? You like the client: they’re enthusiastic about your work, would like to work for you, and offer you a fare price. But, as is often the case, is the web designer really to busy to take on your work. This can affect quality of work. But even if you’re convinced your project will get the attention you would like, how long is it really going to take to complete? Even if this convinced your project will be completed within a reasonable time-frame, be sure to get a date for completion of work.
• Value add? Do they offer any value-add, i.e. general digital marketing assistance, in particular, SEO? (but not value add at the cost of the bottom line ..)
• Bottom line. After research and questioning, choose the website designer you’re most confident will provide you with a website that
  1) looks nice and stands out from the competition
  2) is easy to navigate and functions well
  3) loads quickly 
  4) Matches the particular marketplace you’re in / the type of brand you want to create

Everyone likes to win a prize. Whether it’s attempting to hook a duck at the fairground, entering your name into a raffle or clicking ‘like’ on a Facebook page, there’s always the thrill that you could be the winner. It is this sense of excitement and anticipation that marketers hope to stir in customers when incorporating prizes into their campaigns. Put simply, they attract people to buy into a product or service, which is prize marketing’s primary objective.
Not that it’s a new tactic; ever since the 19th century consumers’ loyalties have been rewarded with cigarette cards, toys, stickers, buttons and even tattoos.

Tourism Queensland’s “Best Job in the World”
Comparatively speaking, today’s prize marketing is big business with highly attractive and lucrative incentives being offered. Who can forget Tourism Queensland’s ‘Best Job in the World’ competition where applicants were required to submit a 60 second video in order to secure a six-month long ‘dream’ job promoting the Great Barrier Reef? The winner was Brit Ben Southall but the true beneficiary was clearly Tourism Queensland itself which amassed $100 million worth of publicity on the back of it.
Other recent large-scale promotions include Peugeot’s ‘Once in a Lifetime Space Ticket’, MTV and Corona’s Facebook-facilitated ‘Experience the Extraordinary’ DJ contest, and Tyrrells Crisps’ ‘Win a Tractor’

Prizes don’t need to be huge, just need to be memorable
Not that the prizes need to be huge in order to imprint a brand on a consumer’s consciousness, they just need to be memorable. Take for example ‘Win a Donkey or Inflatable Office Assistant’ courtesy of Ribena, or Britvic’s ‘Help give 1m birds a home’ – neither required a large budget but each generated enough interest, positive dialogue with customers, and of course sales, for the campaigns to be considered a success.
What is common across all successful prize marketing campaigns, though, is efficient execution and management. A poorly-run initiative can quickly undo any positive brand association earned and have a damaging and lasting impact, particularly in an age where news spreads fast via social media.

Faux pas of Hoover offering free flights
One of the biggest prize marketing faux pas occurred in 1992 when Hoover offered free flights with the purchase of end-of-line vacuum cleaners and washing machines, initially to Europe and then to the USA. The offer was so generous that the company simply couldn’t handle the level of interest and ultimately had to pay £48m in court costs after an army of disgruntled customers took action.

Prizes need to sit well with the brand
Prizes also need to sit well with the brand giveawayand be consistent with their brand identity; which one could argue was a key issue with the ‘buy a washing machine, fly to America’ offer.
To work effectively, prizes need to be closely aligned with either the company or the audience who buys the product. For instance, buying a pair of football boots to win a two-week holiday in Hawaii would have nowhere near the same long-term impact as if the prize was to win a ‘season ticket with a Premiership team of your choice’.

Prize marketing can be used to achieve numerous other goals
In addition to raising brand awareness, prize marketing can be used to achieve a number of other company goals 1) Customer feedback: receive valuable customer feedback on a service or product as part of entry into a prize draw 2).SEO: drive traffic towards a website as part of SEO objectives 3) Mailing List: quickly compile a mailing list by asking for customer details when entering a competition 4) PR: gain widespread PR as part of a competition with high or topical interest

All in all, prize marketing is an often overlooked and misunderstood practice; however there really are great opportunities in what it can achieve.

By NDL
About NDL: NDL is a leader in promotional marketing (including prize management ) with clients including: Sky Atlantic, Smirnoff, Kinder, BMW and Guinness