BroadVision Marketing Blog

Email was something I thought would not stand the test of time as social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogs bloomed. Little did I know that I would use my smart phone as much to keep up with my email and other social media as much as I use it as a phone. Email comes in several varieties: personal which is much like rapid firing snail mail and marketing email which has taken the place of home delivered ads. Email marketing is still the only medium to move prospects through what John Jantsch, in his book “Duct Tape Marketing,” called “the know, like, and trust funnel.” As I was preparing for this article, reading about email title “Do’s and Don’ts”, I looked at my email and was struck by the number of “Don’ts” in my Inbox. So I decided to talk about a few email internet marketing tips.

Do you know everything there is to know about YouTube? How many videos have you put out on your very own YouTube channel? Are they SEO optimized, using great tags, SEO in your title, professional grade? Did you go the expensive route or the do-it-yourself route? How has this worked out for you? Yes, well when it comes to the strengths of YouTube, I was struck by three major contradictions, or myths, if you will. I found these myths in my research and read a different angle in a SEOmoz article by Phil Nottingham, The Marketing Value of YouTube.

Myth 1:

YouTube belongs to Google, so they’re going to favor your site and the front page of Google will always look for a video regarding any subject of any keywords search for.

Myth 1 variation: YouTube can be a shortcut for those who want to get high rankings for free. Google owns YouTube and often automatically gives relevant YouTube videos first page ranking. If you have added your website URL in the video description section, chances are that YouTube can boost your site’s rankings dramatically and help you generate a lot of site traffic.

As you can see this myth and variation have to do with the fact that Google purchased YouTube. People have assumed that since that is true, Google will give a higher rank to a YouTube video. Therefore, if you have a YouTube video in your blog article, the Google will rank the article higher than if you did not have the video. Likewise if you have your URL link in your video, that fact will help your video pull more site traffic.

You know how I love shocking headlines. I couldn’t beat the one written by Nichole Kelly, The Death of the Sales Funnel in Social Media Explorer in February 2013. For one thing I have long thought that no matter which way you draw the thing, the sales funnel didn’t make sense, perhaps because it is such a hackneyed, as in overused, term. Perhaps I lost sight of the meaning since in the past two decades the internet has become one of the primary ways people research and then shop, whether online or off. The problem with using the internet as a sales funnel is that people bounce all over the place, staying longer in some areas and gone in a breath in another. Microwave popcorn has nothing on the way or reason why people go where they go, no matter how advanced our analytics and Google rankings are.

So you believe if you blog it, they will come? You need to wake up from that field of dreams. In reality even the best blog in the world won’t bring readers lining the highway to your site. All the experts that say write the best content to get recognized on Google are pulling the wool over your eyes. If you don’t get your work out where it can be found, it won’t be. How do you do that? I’m glad you asked.

I have a one-word internet marketing tip for all you business people, bloggers and website owners—syndication. While it means sharing your content with more people, the whole point of syndication is to move clients to your site by moving your site closer to Page 1 of Google.

An architect doesn't just throw together a building--he uses a floor plan. What does he do before he draws the floor plan? He and the client discuss designs. Just so before you are ready to create your Web Marketing Campaign, you want to put together a Creative Brief that will guide your Web Marketing Campaign. What is a Creative Brief? It’s a preplan, the idea behind how you will create your Web Marketing Plan. Many times you have a vague idea of what you want in your Web Marketing Campaign, but you aren’t clear about what you want from it. A Creative Brief helps you focus on what you do want. Here are 9 Web Marketing Tips to get you going.

Your landing pages are the places where a search engine decides to send your potential client to. How do you create landing pages that will get people to stick? How do you draw them into your sales funnel? You need to use the right SEO keywords, learn what works, and be willing to change what doesn't. I found these sights when I looked for a few thought leaders' articles on the web that might help you improve all your pages. Amazingly enough the first one I found was repeated on several blogs, but I think I found the original.

Do you feel like you want to scream when you think about another article on how to create a social media strategy? Sarah Mitchell says she does in her article Why Creating A Content Marketing Strategy Is A Big Waste Of Time. Sarah says that social media isn’t worth anything without content unless you like to shoot the breeze. If you feel like screaming at yet another social media strategy blog, you are not alone. I don’t see how anyone can separate social media and create a strategy for it without connecting it to the other arms of the triumvirate--content and Search Optimatization (SEO), which all go everywhere or should. All three need to be interconnected to come up with a social media strategy that’s worth anything. Then you need to consider that social media has become a sales tool and a search tool in your social media strategy.

Updated Jan. 2023
How many of you, business people out there, are confused about the difference between lead generation and demand generation? Raise your hands; don’t be shy. There is a distinct difference between these marketing strategies even though some marketing agencies use them both interchangeably or use the wrong one. Here’s a clue: one is focused on changing your clients’ perspective and the one wants to capture their information for you to follow up with.

Definitions

Let’s start with some marketing strategies definitions I found helpful from an article by Eric Wittlakes, Lead Generation is Crippling Demand Generation:

• Lead generation: collecting registration information, often in exchange for content, in order to build a marketing database for email or telemarketing follow-up. The direct outcome of lead generation is new contacts available for sales or marketing.
• Demand generation: the practice of creating demand for an organization’s products or services through marketing. The direct outcome is your audience is more likely to purchase your products or services.

Another marketing strategy definition of demand generation comes from Eloqua.com. “Demand generation is the art and science of creating, nurturing, and managing buying interest in your products and services through campaign management, lead management, marketing analysis, and data management.”

These make the most sense of everything I read. Getting leads is growing your lists, which is the way we tend to view general marketing practices, and is a part of demand generation marketing. On the other hand, demand generation means creating interest in your product so that people want it. Think in terms of the different ways diet drinks work to sell their products to all sorts of demographics. When I wonder who an ad is aimed at, I have not been considering that the intention behind the ad may be to create demand for the product.

I seriously thought that there was a formula for knowing the better if not best days and times to post a blog. Wrong. I have to admit I looked at infographics and charts without taking the time to read the articles I found on the subject.  OK, I did look at the bullet points to get reinforcement for the graphics I was looking at so thoroughly. Two of the most arresting items I saw were KISSmetrics’ The Science of Social Timing Part 3, which was introduced in 2011and shared repeatedly ever since. The other were Sharaholic's charts, used by Jason Keath on Jan.18.2012 in When Is The Best Time Of The Day To Blog?

These two sources actually contradict each other in some odd ways on blog post ideas.

KISSmetrics’ take-away includes these key points that the infographic throws light on revealing interesting trends. (This information is presented in Eastern Time (EST).)

• Average blogs see most traffic at around 11 AM.
• Average blogs are most likely to get maximum comments around 9AM, including Saturdays.
• Average blogs get the maximum inbound links at around 7AM, including Mondays as well as Thursday.