Archive for the ‘Marketing Trends’ Category

Social Search and Sharing affects SEO:

Posted on: December 21st, 2010 by Purple Rock Scissors 1 Comment

Bad news for spammers and link farmers.

It’s our job as marketers to monitor the changing search engine optimization trends so we can apply them for our clients to keep them front and center. One development that is gaining momentum is the importance of social links when it comes to search engine rankings.

Bruce Clay, renowned search engine optimization pundit, recently said at this year’s PubCon conference, “Likes are the new links.” Just what does this mean, and more importantly, how does it affect business’s search engine ranking?

Internet search engines began with good intentions and methodology. The more links you have, indicating that your website’s content was relevant, the better your rankings in organic results. Over time, people have gradually been abusing this algorithm, striving for quantity of links and letting quality suffer. There became many roads and doorways to websites that simply did not deserve the attention of users.

Links bias search results, and the trust score of links are dropping. Link farmers and brokers will gladly sell you links, but doing that can hurt your ranking because they are not trusted, not organic and most likely not relevant.

Well the tides are turning, as netizens catch on to these spammy tactics. Social sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been in cahoots with search engines Bing, Google and Yahoo in order to improve the search experience for web-goers. These social media outlets have fostered the growth and importance of site “likes”, recommendations and referrals. This form of sharing is far more valuable than unknown sources linking to you, and the community (along with search engines) is likely to trust and reward these links over any other.

It’s said that within the next 6 months to a year, the “like” information and tweets will be heavily integrated into search engine algorithms. This will guarantee sites with the most social interaction, a higher position on the search results page. Ultimately, this means that SEO will no longer be about who can buy the most links but rather who can earn them. The way nature intended it to be.

Google Analytics – Measure, Analyze, Grow

Posted on: December 16th, 2010 by Purple Rock Scissors

Ever wonder who is visiting your website, how long they browse, where they linger, how they got there? These questions and others can all be answered by incorporating Google Analytics into your digital strategy.

Learning about your online traffic patterns lends itself to higher conversions, higher search engine rankings, increased ROI as well as an overall better experience for visitors on your site.

Highlighted are a few key items offered with this helpful tool. Learning the whole system requires much dedication and exploration, so we will convince you here in a nutshell of its utility.

Advertising ROI

Google Analytics allows for integration with Google’s PPC search platform AdWords and Microsoft’s AdCenter, complete with an array of other tracking capabilities. Track sales, conversions and visitors, as well as trace transactions back to ad campaigns, as specific as particular banner ads or keywords. This allows us to identify the best sources of revenue and capitalize on those elements.

Mobile tracking

Search and website activity are increasingly stemming from mobile devices, and this trend will only continue to rocket. Google Analytics offers tracking not only to these devices, but also specifically shows traffic patterns from individual devices, like iPhones, Androids, iPads, Blackberrys and more. You will realize the how important mobile websites and mobile application development are to your marketing strategy.

Customized reporting

With all the collected data, our marketing team compiles it into decipherable reports, customized with the information that our clients care about. These reports aid in the investigation, diagnosis and cure of any web issues, all with numbers to support it.

Visualize data

With easy-to-read graphs and the new In-page Analytics, you are able to visualize reports and numbers in the context of a webpage. This means you can view your website within the window of Analytics and get an interactive, illustrated representation of the click statistics and more.

Considering all of these benefits, there is no reason not to utilize this exceptional tool. Here at Purple, Rock, Scissors – we live and breath numbers for our clients. It’s how we are able to keep our clients happy and truly prove the value of our marketing services.

Pay with your phone

Posted on: October 29th, 2010 by Erin Butler 2 Comments

I don’t know about you, but my chunky wallet contains 22 debit, credit, gift cards and reward cards. That’s right— A smorgasbord of plastic. Something must be done. Oh, what do you know…

Last year, Starbucks rolled out a new smartphone app allowing customers to pay for their coffee with a digital barcode. This movement began on the west coast in select cities, and then moved into the Starbucks locations inside Target stores.

Courtesy of gumption, Flickr

The application is brilliant marketing in a nutshell. With store location, hours, directions and direct calling, as well as nutritional info, customized drinks, “Invite a Friend” and of course, the Starbucks Card bar code, this digital purse of information and convenience has become a new interactive standard. Not to mention, it is free.

The most forward-thinking aspect is the payment option. With the app, customers can register Starbucks cards, check balances, and reload with a credit card. Blackberry and iPhone users scan a 2-D barcode on a countertop device, making transactions quick and easy. This saves time for the avid coffee drinkers and pastry munchers and saves money for Starbucks in the long run.

Customers responded favorably to this mobile paying option. Brady Brewer (how perfect a name), a vice president at Starbucks, made the following comment in a news release:

“Mobile technology is part of our customers’ daily routine and with the expansion of mobile payment in our test cities, we’re seeing more and more customers using their smartphones as their mobile wallets,” said Brewer. “We’ve heard from our customers on My Starbucks Idea that they want a faster, more convenient way to pay.”

This week, the coffee company expanded the mobile app use to about 300 locations in New York City and Long Island. It may not seem very meaningful or large-scale, but it does mark the progression of a new era: The digital wallet.

While some smartphone users may already be experiencing app overload, I think the market will only grow with this new scanning technology. People will just have to stop downloading so many useless Paper Toss games and make room to utilize this undeniable technology.

I hope that more store chains and companies adopt the mobile bar code. Those New Yorkers must feel like special high-tech guinea pigs. In the mean time, I’ll sit here in Florida with my 10-pound wallet.

Image from gumption on Flickr.

Google TV is Coolgle TV

Posted on: October 7th, 2010 by Erin Butler 4 Comments

It’s a TV, it’s a computer, and it’s so close I can smell it.

Google TV has been in the works for a while now, and the month of October marks the launch of the official product. Together with Logitech and Sony, the Internet giant will combine the entertainment of television with the limitless scope of the Web. You will soon be able to experience the techie-offspring in a mere couple of weeks.

Chock-full of apps, shows, music, websites, games, and anything else that you can see on a screen, the “computv” (yep, I said it) is a one-stop shop for eyes and ears alike. Some are saying that the $300 Logitech and the $1,300 to $1,900 Sony price tags have quite a few prospective consumers tripped up, but think about it: it’s a computer and a big screen TV conveniently combined. It may be a lot of money, but not completely unreasonable.

One thing I’m sure many will regret paying for, however, is the Sony remote. You’d expect such a high-tech gadget to be accompanied by a lightweight wand or voice command, but no. You evidently get something that looks like a Super Nintendo graphing calculator.

Thankfully, there is word of applications for touch screens, like the Android, that will allow the remote control function as well. The future is under our noses.

So welcome, media convergence. I think this television-Internet combo is the direction we’re heading, so best get on board! After Apple and Google, the remaining morsel of the market will have no choice. And neither will we.

Introducing Google TV

Keyword Research 1 Oh 1

Posted on: September 8th, 2010 by EJ

Only using automated tools to generate keyword lists? If so, you are missing a lot.

Don’t trust the tools. The fact is: searchers are human, keyword tools (and search engines) are computer programs.

Good keyword research combines the logic and vocabulary of the human mind, with the semantic structure and order of a computer program.

Unfortunately keyword research tools, including Google Adwords KW tool, only report high volume “broad match” keywords and ignore punctuation, plurals, and grammar. The keywords returned by these tools are high volume and are usually obvious suggestions related to your search topic. But do they directly related to your product? service offering? or place of business? (most likely not)

If you only copy and paste what comes out of any one single keyword research tool your search strategy will be filled with holes.

Humans search as they think, and Geo-targeted, action based, and proximity modifiers are all a part of the common searcher’s vocabulary. Pin-point your audience by optimizing your search campaign for the variations of your core-keyword, which are most directly related to your business, not just the most searched variation of the keyword.

Build comprehensive keyword list(s) by combining your list of broad core-keyword list(s) with modifier tokens such as

Examples:
Proximity modifiers
“near the”
“around the”
“by the”
“near a”

Action Modifiers
“make a”
“build a”
“get a”
“buy a”
“find a”

Location Modifiers
in Orlando
in Florida
in Tampa

How do you find out which modifiers are used more often than others? Stayed tuned to keyword research 1 oh 1 to learn more.

This post is part of a series related to keyword research and advanced keyword research.

Experience Toggles (aka Just Another Crazy Idea)

Posted on: April 16th, 2010 by Justin

Recently while browsing some of my favorite news sites I came across the redesigned Reuters.com and noticed an interesting feature: the “Now View”. It allows the user to toggle how the news is presented based on preset options. For example, if the site visitor is interested in viewing headlines based on location, there’s the “Newsmap View”. If he is more interested in photography he can choose to view the same headlines, but with photography serving as the lead content. Same concept can be applied to the “Video View” and “Headline View”. This isn’t revolutionary functionality by any means, but the underlying concept — presenting a website differently based upon a user’s mindset and preference — can be extended further and offers several intriguing possibilities.

Imagine visiting ESPN.com and being able to choose a “Team View” from a header-based toggle, where you’ve already set your favorite teams in your account profile. Suddenly, the entire website shifts to be about your teams. The site structure remains the same in this instance, but the content, and maybe even navigation, changes to only cover topics and teams you wish to read about. Or if you visit a news website and you’re really only interested in the Middle East at that very moment, you could choose “Middle East” as an “experience toggle” which would shift the content of the entire site to meet that mindset and content need. The site visitor in turn feels engaged and fully in control of the experience, leading to increased overall satisfaction (in theory). In a way, the site visitor is creating a customized magazine just for himself.

“Uh, why not just click on ‘Middle East’ in the navigation in that last example?”, you ask. I’m not a fan of your tone, but excellent question. The value here, at least in my view, is that this would eliminate a lot of informational and visual noise. The website becomes laser-focused, completely subservient to the user’s mindset and goals, and hides any content not related to the user’s current aim. It’s not dissimilar to a news website’s mobile experience versus its desktop counterpart — you get just the facts on the mobile platform, clear of distraction. With the desktop version you get the facts, but you also get a ton of other content that you may or may not find interesting. The content switch could be handled dynamically, and switching back to a standard view for passive exploration would be as simple as a click.

There are obviously a lot of holes in this idea, and it’s not something I’ve put a ton of thought into just yet, but any way to provide the site visitor more control over the on-site experience and increase engagement is worth further discussion. Would love to hear your thoughts!

E-Commerce Trends for the last 150 days

Posted on: August 12th, 2009 by EJ

In preparation for the Digital Dumbo event hosted by Space150, Aaron, our COO, asked me about some trends that we’ve seen emerge in the last 150 days.  I wanted to highlight some of the changes I’ve seen on the E-Commerce side and how that has impacted our clients.

1. Consumer are not as trigger happy as they once were.  We’ve noticed slight falls in conversion rates, and a significant increase in average time on site, return visits, and average visits to purchase in our converting customers.  Simply: users are spending an increasing amount of time researching to make sure they get the best deal.

2. Comparison Shopping Engines and Affiliate sites are starting to drive an increase share of traffic.  Comparison Shopping Engines, such as Google Product Search, Shopping.com, Shopzilla, to name a few, allow consumer to compare prices and make sure you are getting the best deal possible. Coupon/Discount Affiliates, such as Ebates, Coupon Cabin, and Bing’s Cashback are starting to have a huge impact on traffic patterns and our clients bottom lines.

3. Reinforcements such as Free Shipping, Easy Returns, and Product Reviews are key to increasing conversions. These reinforcements "hold more influence over purchasing decisions than they did in 2008" according to a recent CA survey.

caimage

4. Most product research begins with Google and Yahoo, while Bing is catching up.  SEO should still be top of mind for all clients as they evaluate their marketing mix.  Search continues to dominate in the beginning of the research cycle and again towards the end as a buyer makes sure they are getting the best deal possible.  It is now more important then ever to reevaluate your entry level/generic keywords and make sure you are providing your visitors the content they crave as they begin their research.