; =09 Larry Chase's Web Digest For Marketers The 9 quick tips on optimizing online sales lead below are ones we've successfully used in this marketplace. Beyond that, you'll find my impressions of SES NYC 2008. WDFM is sponsored by... New Webinar: "The Keys to Optimal Lead Scoring" Vtrenz and Sirius Decisions invite you to attend this webinar on April 9, 2008 to learn: * Sophisticated lead-scoring models * How to align marketing and sales * Processes to drive revenue growth. Register Today! Coming Attractions: The next 3 issues of this article are: Social Media Strategies, Tactics & Resources (written by Social Media Guru Lee Odden) Secrets of an Email Article Publisher (that would be me) Top 10 Trends for Interactive Marketing for the Next 10 Years (also me) Did someone forward this email article to you? If so, welcome. I invite you to buy online yourself at no charge. You'll then get this weekly article as soon as it's released. To buy online to this article, go to wdfm.com Optimizing the Online Sales Lead Gen Channel: You know you can always improve your results. Below are 9 quickies you can do right now. "Notes from SES NYC 2008" is the title of this week's Publisher's Note. Find it waaay down at down in this article, right after the 9th quickie tip. Attention Bloggers: If you want to point to the 9 quick tips for optimizing online sales lead generation, it will live here: "Notes from SES NYC 2008" will permanently live at: The quick tips are written by Managing Editor Eileen Shulock, who is an ecommerce fashionista at her day job. She sees firsthand what works and what doesn't when selling hip threads online. Your humble publisher (that would be me) also contributed some key observations and to-do's that I've discovered from publishing Web Digest For Marketers since April 1995. Now, without further ado, here's WDFM's Digital Duchess herself, along yours truly, with our quick tips for optimizing online sales lead gen. Take it awaaaay, us... Eileen's Tips: 1. Have More Than One Lead/Offer: If you only have one promotion featured on your website or in your email, here's what happens: Your site visitor either likes the offer or he doesn't. That's a big risk to take, because if he doesn't like the offer, he leaves and is gone forevermore. If you are a B2B company, that means you should feature more than one whitepaper or other lead generator on your website. If you sell products, you should show more than one. If you offer very different leads, such as whitepapers on different subjects, you are segmenting your leads at the same time. Love those time-savers! 2. Study Your Influencers: A few key "influencers" drive the most quality leads and sales. Rather than targeting the whole world of influencers (blog editors, sites like Digg or community shopping sites, etc.), you track down the key people and woo them however you can. If you feature content, consider offering key people guest-editor spots on your site. Not only will they drive traffic/leads to your site; you will also be "top of mind" when they have new opportunities to share. Nothing works like flattery! 3. Offer Referral Fees or Gifts: An affiliate program is one well-known way to generate leads (i.e., you partner with like-minded sites to offer each other's products or services). In addition, when done legally and with tact, there is nothing wrong with wooing appropriate parties with special gifts or fees. "Fees?" you say with horror. Yes, indeed. When I am looking for leads in the fashion world, I regularly contact appropriate sites and offer referral fees or money for a sweepstakes or gratis products for promotional purposes. A gift such as a complimentary subscription to your service is an example of how this suggestion could work for you. In the offline world, this is called "nourishing the sales channel." WDFM is also sponsored by... Forrester Predicts Interactive Marketing Tools Must Merge Download this white paper of Forrester predictions that include: * Enable a single view of the customer * Make partner applications collaborative * Simplify interactive marketing Download Whitepaper Now 4. Offer "Out of Stock" or "Upcoming Notifications: Let's say you have a new whitepaper or product on your site, and you know you have more coming down the pipe. You can promote those future projects by offering to notify interested parties when said items are ready. This is an easily implemented tactic that creates a lead pipe with ease. If you offer more than one notification at the same time, do try to segment the subject matter so you have ready-to-go segmented leads. And do deliver what you promise! 5. Get Out There and Participate with Vendors: If you feature multiple vendors on your site, make it known that you are game for any promotions that they have in the pipeline. For example, I work with two fashion vendors to promote their new product lines. "What's in it for me?" you ask. Well, duh, you become the go-to source for that product or complementary service, and you piggyback on the time and money they've already spent to get the thing organized and rolling. TIP: Ask the vendor what other companies are participating in the program so that you make sure none of your competitors is involved. You don't want to fight for the leads. Larry's Tips: 6. Long Tail Landing Pages: As the publisher of Web Digest For Marketers, I've noticed that one of the biggest mistakes people make is to take their landing pages containing an offer down too soon. If it's an evergreen B2B landing page, you can keep it up without touching it for a very long time. Just be sure to harvest the leads from it, and watch how long that tail gets. I've noticed click-throughs on offers in Web Digest for over one year after the original offer ran. If yours is a time-sensitive offer, you naturally have to address this and perhaps post a consolation offer for those who missed out on your promotion. Maybe you put a coupon up that is good for a full year thereafter. Then, watch how many redemptions you get. 7. Amortize Your Whitepapers: Another pattern I see as publisher of Web Digest is that some advertisers underutilize their creative assets. Often an advertiser will think a whitepaper has reached the end of its shelf life after running just once or twice. In contrast, I've seen advertisers run the exact same whitepaper repeatedly and get impressive click-throughs two, three and four times. In the email-marketing channel, this has much to do with list vitality. TIP: While you can offer the same whitepaper, swap out ad copy, or at least the headline. But I have seen identical copy pull just as well the second time as the first time within a few weeks. 8. Make Marketers Listen to Sales People: For some stupid reason, marketers often think they know more than sales people. The opposite is often true. Why? Because sales people (be they in a trade show booth, on the phone or in a showroom) work where the rubber meets the road. These are the people who interact with your audience on a daily basis. Marketers tend to talk to other marketers and persuade each other something is true when it often isn't. If your sales people say the leads you're feeding them are awful, listen. They may be right. On the other hand the sales people might just be complaining. It's probably a little bit of both. WDFM is also sponsored by... Retailers =96 Update Your Email Marketing Game Plan Today's retailers are moving on from high-volume, low-relevance campaigns. Discover how to build value and deliver best-in-class customer experiences with this newest playbook: * How do you compare to other retail email marketers? * Top 5 plays to drive relevance and ROI * Case studies and best practices for flawless execution Download: The Retail Marketer's Playbook 9. Quick, Do a Vid: All the trends I'm seeing show that video is hot. People click on it because they can now easily play vids thanks to expanded bandwidth between server and client PCs. Maybe video is still a novelty, and it will wear off (but I don't think so). But, since video usage is increasing so rapidly, and it's so cheap to produce, why not? Yes, producing video is more laborious than a simple text or banner ad; but, come on, it's still cheap and easy. Do it while the getting is good. It won't be long before you see video PPC ads in those sponsored listings that will compete with those must-click video stills in Universal Search results. Never underestimate the magic of motion and sound. Notes from SES (Search Engine Strategies) NYC 2008 Overview: Thousands of people, dozens of sessions, workshops, keynotes, parties, and impromptu encounters are jammed into the NY Hilton from last Monday through Friday. It's an information onslaught that leaves you feeling like a fully saturated sponge. But first, before it all begins, yours truly hosted a pre-SES Guru dinner, which many of the presenters attended. There were the PPC gurus Andrew Goodman, Mona Elesseily (she works with Andrew at Page Zero Media and is author of the Yahoo! search marketing guide Mastering Panama and Jon Myers of Mediavest in the UK Andrew would later moderate an intense PPC panel that I will cover further down in this article. ClickZ VP and Executive Editor Rebecca Lieb talked with eMarketer co-founder Sam Alfstad Conversion expert Jeffrey Eisenberg held court and such phrases as "Persuasion Architecture," which he coined, were bandied about. Wordtracker's Ken McGaffin and Mike Mindel were in attendance. Ken would speak on linking matters at the conference later in the week. Also part of the British invasion was my dear friend Mike Grehan who would co-host the most spirited session I saw the following Wednesday. In that session on Universal SEO, Mike would describe how he made a video with a cheap camera about his SES London event. He posted it to YouTube and Metacafe plus other video venues. Then he linked and tagged from StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Digg, and other social-media sites. Within a few short hours, Google had found the video and featured it in search results. The lesson is this: Google and other search engines are hungry for topical video. Make your video now and link to it before everyone else gets on the video bandwagon. Dana Todd was there. She's with SiteLab and just launched NewsForce (a new tool that optimizes press releases for search engine crawlers). Larry Jaffee, managing editor of Promo found that quite intriguing. Over appetizers, Eileen Shulock (managing editor for Web Digest for Marketers) and I worked out a media extension to Twitter, called Fritter (as in how to fritter your time away). While we say snarky things about Twitter, I heard in more than one session at the show to follow how Twitter is a very fast word-of-mouth medium because it is so easy to forward comments. In many ways it's a faster propagator than blogs or Facebook and the like. While little applets like Twitter may not easily fit ads per se, it might well be a good medium for getting the word out about events, content and the like. Also present at the party was SEO and social media guru Amanda Watlington She would be a featured speaker on optimizing podcasts later in the week. Her advice: Feature at least a sample of your podcast on the landing page with an indication of how long the sample is and what is in it. Make sure that landing page is rich with the keywords mentioned in your podcast or video. Many people will just listen to the podcast right off that landing page and won't bother to download it to an MP3 player. Also, put lyrics from your songs into your tags. Makes sense because I have searched for songs using fragments of lyrics I remember without having any idea who the artist is or the name of the song itself. In that same session with Amanda, Webmaster Radio's Daron Babin would give good tips on how to optimize multi-media files. All the programs featured on Webmaster Radio have transcripts (which are not cheap to produce) but are very important to post next to the podcast or video file as it helps the crawlers. Also at my Sunday dinner party was MarketingSherpa Research Director Stefan Tornquist While talking to me about favorite authors we have in common (Patrick O'Brian, especially), he simultaneously counted the number of people who had arrived against the number of empty chairs at the long table because people were milling about and imbibing some Saint-Emilion wine. He noticed there weren't enough seats at the table for all the people standing, all while carrying on an impassioned conversation with me. What a guy! Later that evening, I noticed he was deep in conversation with software developer, raconteur and old friend Matt Lederman. These two seemed well matched to me: two brainiacs. While I didn't get a chance to talk much to Beyond Ink's Anne Kennedy she, too, showed up and would present later in the week called "The Business Case for SEO Content Development: Turning Words Into Action!" Also attending was respected high-tech journalist John Verity and Acronym Media founder and CEO Anton Konikoff. I was honored to host so many people at the top of their game at one time in one room. What I also found fascinating is how so many of them opened up and talked about things other than SEO. These are real people with real lives and altogether likable, even lovable. If you get a chance to see or meet them, I encourage you to do so. These are deep people with rich, interesting lives. WDFM is sponsored by... New Webinar: "The Keys to Optimal Lead Scoring" Vtrenz and Sirius Decisions invite you to attend this webinar on April 9, 2008 to learn: * Sophisticated lead-scoring models * How to align marketing and sales * Processes to drive revenue growth. Register Today! Show Notes Orion Panel: Universal Search Far and away, this was the most intriguing session I attended. First, what is universal search? It's important to define it because I find many in-the-know people in internet marketing but not search marketing don't know what it is. Universal search (sometimes called blended search) mixes into your results a lot more than just the usual 10 blue links with snippets of copy. You get video freezeframes you can play right on the page, pictures, audio files, news releases and more. Hosted by Kevin Ryan and Mike Grehan, it featured ComScore's James Lamberti Google's product manager for Universal Search Jack Menzel; Lyndsay Menzies, managing director of Big Mouth Media and Federated Media's John Battelle author of "The Search." ComScore came out a couple weeks ago with a study showing that while search usage was up significantly at Google, paid search click-throughs were off. Why is this? Is it a reflection of the economy? Is it because of universal search affecting click-throughs on paid listings? Or both? This was a spirited exploration of what is happening at this early stage of USEO (Universal Search Engine Optimization). Top takeaways: * When the search engine results page (SERP) begins to act as a destination page, it changes things for many people in search marketing. * With USEO, the user isn't clicking as often because much can be played or displayed right on the SERP. * Consumers' actions will dictate what they see in the future. * Kevin Ryan: Skeptical that the general public understands that the first listing shown in a search is usually a sponsored listing. * James Lamberti: His firm has research showing 80% in a survey understood that. Yours truly also remains skeptical. USEO will put more emphasis on organic search results because there will be less space and fewer pages for paid search ads. * Jack Menzel: His firm is all about the user experience. The internet has a lot more video and audio and pictures to offer. The user wants this, so it gets mixed into the search results. * Co-host Mike Grehan said it will be very interesting to watch what happens with PPC results in the coming results. * We might see more "ad wrapping" as seen on YouTube; thus, search marketing could become more of a branding medium. * Google is interested in capturing the second click. This reminds me of dictum that it's all about the second sale. Next day, over lunch with a ChannelAdvisor executive: It won't harm paid search in the long run because, as often is the case with people who click on paid listings, they seek out paid listings specifically. Ads in a Quality Score World: Hosted by Andrew Goodman panelists David Miller, product manager for Yahoo's sponsored search Joel Lapp, VP account services, Reprise Media Jon Kelly, president, SureHits and Frederick Vallaeys, with the great title of Google AdWords evangelist. I took more notes at this session than at any other, save for the USEO session mentioned above. This session was stuffed with intriguing insights and tactics for paid search. Below are my best takeaways from this session: Copy tips * "Cheap" is an enticement word, but you better pay off with something really cheap. * You can have a good ad with an irrelevant term. So, try same copy with different keywords. * Don't go crazy with eight-word keyword strings. It's not how most people search. Use 2- to 4-keyword phrases. * The more specific your ad text, the better your conversions. WDFM is also sponsored by... Forrester Predicts Interactive Marketing Tools Must Merge Download this white paper of Forrester predictions that include: * Enable a single view of the customer * Make partner applications collaborative * Simplify interactive marketing Download Whitepaper Now Landing-page tips * Make sure PPC ads match landing page for higher conversions. * The landing page is more important than ever in quality scoring. * Landing pages sometimes take a while to get included into the scoring process, which is why scores can change over long stretches of time when nothing else about your ads or those of your competitors seem to have changed. Metrics tips * Click-through rate multiplied by conversion rate is a quick and good unit of measurement. * Historical performance plays a major role in indexing, assuming it has a history. * People who have written ads in the past are apt to do so again. Ratings and scores * Big mistake: Getting a high-quality user score, then freezing and changing nothing. Keep growing and improving. This refers back to Google's USEO. * Audience question: Why did my ad show up in the North and not in the East? Panel answer: Some ads work better in different parts of the country. * Panelist comment: His ad network shows only about a 10% difference between major branded names and lesser-known names. So, there's hope for those without brand budget. * Quality index is relative to your competitors. * Low privacy standards on your landing page will hurt your scoring. * Heavy graphics or interstitials slow page speed and lower your score. User experience tips: * Google and Yahoo: Criteria are based primarily on user experience. * Example of bad user experience: Offer a free iPod, then ask "Who do you like: Obama or Hillary?," then on the landing page, ask visitors a bunch of personal questions. * Don't make users search twice. When they get to your site, don't make them search again for what they wanted to find. If they ask for roses, don't give them a page about flowers. Give them roses specifically. * Bottom line: Do the right thing for the user. That will get you a good quality score. * Ask yourself: If I had done that search, and I saw this ad, would it be relevant to me? Mobile Search: There were a couple of sessions concerning mobile search. My impression: It will hit like a house afire, but not just yet. This field is changing fast. Getting stats and trend lines for early usage is difficult. Here goes: * Statistic: Nielsen Mobile says 46 million U.S. mobile data consumers used mobile search services in the third quarter of 2007. * Mobile searchers look for fun stuff mostly: entertainment, trivia. It's very viral, very practical, very addictive. * 18-34 demographic does way more text traffic than voice traffic, like 3-1. * eMarketer says mobile might be the most important new ecommerce interface over the next few years. * It's hard for some users to enter ZIP codes because they don't know any other besides their own. * Mobile evolution phases: Evangelism first, where we are now, then then finally monetization. * The media spend on mobile search marketing is not yet huge but it has attracted the likes of Lexus, Amazon, State Farm Insurance and Edmunds. * Search box needs to be displayed more obviously on more phones to get used more. * Mobile search is all about preferences and portability. * Some students do research on the way home and send to their desktops from their mobile platforms. * Check out WDFM is also sponsored by... Retailers =96 Update Your Email Marketing Game Plan Today's retailers are moving on from high-volume, low-relevance campaigns. Discover how to build value and deliver best-in-class customer experiences with this newest playbook: * How do you compare to other retail email marketers? * Top 5 plays to drive relevance and ROI * Case studies and best practices for flawless execution Download: The Retail Marketer's Playbook Searcher Behavior Research Update/Social Media Panelist Robert Murray of iProspect: His company did a JupiterResearch survey that showed 67% of all searches were inspired by offline messaging, such as TV commercials. Also: Some competitors observe what the competition is pushing via keywords and then optimize for that to pull away some of that traffic. Other takeaways: * USC research shows social communities are at the heart of the online experience for ages 12-24. * "Go native" before marketing to online communities. Learn the mores. Find the community elders and what is acceptable behavior before plunging in. * Social media can help a marketer discern what is knowable. Gives you the ability to say, "I have 8% of smartphone conversations, of which 62% is positive." * Conversation marketing allows you to find out better what members are saying, which in turn can help you mold your messages to them. * Many social media platforms don't have room or don't tolerate marketing. Second Life Liberation Army vows to take revenge on marketing in their virtual world. Hitwise Sponsored Session: Do You Know the Breakdown of Your Competitors' Paid and Organic Traffic? Hitwise Does. Hosted by Research Director Heather Dougherty and GM for General Research Bill Tancer with Paul Hutton, Research Director, Interactive Research, Scripps Networks. Interesting factoids: * Hitwise data shows which of your competitors are paying for the greater share of their click-throughs. * For JC Penney, branded search is very important. * Retailers want to know which brands of shoes people are searching for most to help ID trends and what to stock. * You can have a search term portfolio and track how and when people search for your brand and if it trends up or down seasonally and annually. Interview with ComScore's Eli Goodman I had a 30-minute interview session with ComScore's Eli Goodman. His company has 2 million opt-in panelists, of which 1 million are US-based. Eli shared with me that his company research shows internet users typically want more media. To me this is why Google has embraced universal search; it's giving more media options return in results. On the Show Floor: At some trade shows, I find the show floor more interesting than the sessions. This show was the opposite. But the floor had its moments. I heard one paid search site say it filters out 33% of the traffic they send and charge you for because they identify it as click-fraud. Best of Show Swag: Orangesoda.com has a miniature beach chair that serves as a cell-phone cradle. Good show-floor branding. This agency for small and medium businesses also had a drawing for a spiffy 1940s one-speed bike with coaster brakes and chrome fenders, painted the company's orange color. Box Lunch with a side of URLs: I picked up three search tools that come in handy when you want to search forums to see what people are saying about your products: Boardreader: Twing: Still in beta Omgili: Very Web 2.0 Wrap-up SES NYC 2008 was an intellectually stimulating and physically exhausting experience. If you've never been to such an event, make it your biz to go, at least once. I've been going to these since 1995, and I haven't been bored once. Much thanks to Editor Janet Roberts for her help on turning this report around quickly. I'm going to bed now. Good night. LC Attention Bloggers: If you want to point to the 9 quick tips for optimizing online sales lead generation, it will live here: "Notes from SES NYC 2008" will permanently live at: WDFM is also sponsored by... Updates to Larry Chase's Internet Marketing Resource Center include: 1. Optimizing for Universal and Blended Search (from SEO Guru Mike Grehan) 2. Internet Direct Response Marketing 3. Best of Google Tools & Tips for Internet Marketing 4. Internet Marketing Consultant's Toolbox 5. RSS Marketing Toolbox 6. Advanced Email Marketing Tools & Tactics Direct Marketing Tip of the Week What is KISS? It's an old marketing dictum that has never gone out of style. It stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid." In other words, don't get too cute, especially online, where everyone is This old dictum goes on to map out the basic flow of your message: 1. Tell them what you're going to tell them. 2. Tell them crisply what your value proposition is. 3. Reiterate what you just told them so as to reinforce the primary message. This is true for TV, radio, email marketing, websites, direct mail, billboards, F2F... you name it. LC HOUSEKEEPING If you want to change the email address at which you receive WDFM, do the following: 1. Remove your email address as explained directly below. 2. Then go to and enter your new email address. If you received this issue from a colleague and you wish to have your own free subscription, you can get that by visiting and filling out the subscription form. It takes less than a minute. I encourage you to pass this issue of WDFM along, provided you do not change the copy, you keep the opening and this closing material, and you notify me: Ok, you don't have to notify me, but if you do, I will thank you personally. :) Thanks for reading all the way down to the bottom of this article! :) See you next week! Cordially, Larry Chase: Publisher Web Digest For Marketers Author: "Essential Business Tactics f/t Net" Sample chapter at Ph: (212) 619-4780 Contact Larry: Web Digest For Marketers, 79 Pine Street, #102, New York, NY 10005 =A9 1995-2008 Chase Online Marketing Strategies, All Rights Reserved. To cancel your subscription to Web Digest For Marketers and FYI From Web Digest For Marketers simply click on the link at the very bottom of this document. Cut and paste the URL into your browser to purchase. ; 7bit Larry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers h3 { font: 13px/1.2 Verdana, Arial; font-weight : bold; color: #000000; } You can view this article on the web by pasting the address below into your browser: The 9 quick tips for optimizing online sales lead gen below are ones we've successfully used in this marketplace. Beyond that, you'll find my impressions of SES NYC 2008. WDFM is sponsored by... New Webinar: "The Keys to Optimal Lead Scoring" Vtrenz and Sirius Decisions invite you to attend this webinar on April 9, 2008 to learn: Sophisticated lead-scoring models How to align marketing and sales Processes to drive revenue growth. Register Today! Coming Attractions: The next 3 issues of this article are: Social Media Strategies, Tactics & Resources (written by Social Media Guru Lee Odden) Secrets of an Email Article Publisher (that would be me) Top 10 Trends for Interactive Marketing for the Next 10 Years (also me) Did someone forward this email article to you? If so, welcome. I invite you to buy online yourself at no charge. You'll then get this weekly article as soon as it's released. To buy online to this article, go to wdfm.com Attention Bloggers: If you want to point to the 9 quick tips for optimizing online sales lead generation, it will live here: "Notes from SES NYC 2008" will permanently live at: Optimizing the Online Sales Lead Gen Channel: You know you can always improve your results. Below are 9 quickies you can do right now. The quick tips are written by Managing Editor Eileen Shulock, who is an ecommerce fashionista at her day job. She sees firsthand what works and what doesn't when selling hip threads online. Your humble publisher (that would be me) also contributed some key observations and to-do's that I've discovered from publishing Web Digest For Marketers since April 1995. Now, without further ado, here's WDFM's Digital Duchess herself, along with yours truly, with our quick tips for optimizing online sales lead gen. Take it awaaaay, us... Eileen's Tips: 1. Have More Than One Lead/Offer: If you only have one promotion featured on your website or in your email, here's what happens: Your site visitor either likes the offer or he doesn't. That's a big risk to take, because if he doesn't like the offer, he leaves and is gone forevermore. If you are a B2B company, that means you should feature more than one whitepaper or other lead generator on your website. If you sell products, you should show more than one. If you offer very different leads, such as whitepapers on different subjects, you are segmenting your leads at the same time. Love those time-savers! 2. Study Your Influencers: A few key drive the most quality leads and sales. Rather than targeting the whole world of influencers (blog editors, sites like Digg or community shopping sites, etc.), you track down the key people and woo them however you can. If you feature content, consider offering key people guest-editor spots on your site. Not only will they drive traffic/leads to your site; you will also be "top of mind" when they have new opportunities to share. Nothing works like flattery! 3. Offer Referral Fees or Gifts: An affiliate program is one well-known way to generate leads (i.e., you partner with like-minded sites to offer each other's products or services). In addition, when done legally and with tact, there is nothing wrong with wooing appropriate parties with special gifts or fees. you say with horror. Yes, indeed. When I am looking for leads in the fashion world, I regularly contact appropriate sites and offer referral fees or money for a sweepstakes or gratis products for promotional purposes. A gift such as a complimentary subscription to your service is an example of how this suggestion could work for you. In the offline world, this is called the sales channel." WDFM is sponsored by... Forrester Predicts Interactive Marketing Tools Must Merge Download this white paper of Forrester predictions that include: Enable a single view of the customer Make partner applications collaborative Simplify interactive marketing Download Whitepaper Now 4. Offer "Out of Stock" or "Upcoming Notifications: Let's say you have a new whitepaper or product on your site, and you know you have more coming down the pipe. You can promote those future projects by offering to notify interested parties when said items are ready. This is an easily implemented tactic that creates a lead pipe with ease. If you offer more than one notification at the same time, do try to segment the subject matter so you have ready-to-go segmented leads. And do deliver what you promise. 5. Get Out There and Participate with Vendors: If you feature multiple vendors on your site, make it known that you are game for any promotions that they have in the pipeline. For example, I work with two fashion vendors to promote their new product lines. "What's in it for me?" you ask. Well, duh, you become the go-to source for that product or complementary service, and you piggyback on the time and money they've already spent to get the thing organized and rolling. TIP: Ask the vendor what other companies are participating in the program so that you make sure none of your competitors is involved. You don't want to fight for the leads. Larry's Tips: 6. Long Tail Landing Pages: As the publisher of Web Digest For Marketers, I've noticed that one of the biggest mistakes people make is to take their landing pages containing an offer down too soon. If it's an evergreen B2B landing page, you can keep it up without touching it for a very long time. Just be sure to harvest the leads from it, and watch how long that tail gets. I've noticed click-throughs on offers in Web Digest for over one year after the original offer ran. If yours is a time-sensitive offer, you naturally have to address this and perhaps post a consolation offer for those who missed out on your promotion. Maybe you put a coupon up that is good for a full year thereafter. Then, watch how many redemptions you get. 7. Amortize Your Whitepapers: Another pattern I see as publisher of Web Digest is that some advertisers underutilize their creative assets. Often an advertiser will think a whitepaper has reached the end of its shelf life after running just once or twice. In contrast, I've seen advertisers run the exact same whitepaper repeatedly and get impressive click-throughs two, three and four times. In the email-marketing channel, this has much to do with list vitality. TIP: While you can offer the same whitepaper, swap out ad copy, or at least the headline. But I have seen identical copy pull just as well the second time as the first time within a few weeks. 8. Make Marketers Listen to Sales People: For some stupid reason, marketers often think they know more than sales people. The opposite is often true. Why? Because sales people (be they in a trade show booth, on the phone or in a showroom) work where the rubber meets the road. These are the people who interact with your audience on a daily basis. Marketers tend to talk to other marketers and persuade each other something is true when it often isn't. If your sales people say the leads you're feeding them are awful, listen. They may be right. On the other hand the sales people might just be complaining. It's probably a little bit of both. WDFM is sponsored by... Retailers – Update Your Email Marketing Game Plan Today's retailers are moving on from high-volume, low-relevance campaigns. Discover how to build value and deliver best-in-class customer experiences with this newest playbook: How do you compare to other retail email marketers? Top 5 plays to drive relevance and ROI Case studies and best practices for flawless execution Download: The Retail Marketer's Playbook 9. Quick, Do a Vid: All the trends I'm seeing show that video is hot. People click on it because they can now easily play vids thanks to expanded bandwidth between server and client PCs. Maybe video is still a novelty, and it will wear off (but I don't think so). But, since video usage is increasing so rapidly, and it's so cheap to produce, why not? Yes, producing video is more laborious than a simple text or banner ad; but, come on, it's still cheap and easy. Do it while the getting is good. It won't be long before you see video PPC ads in those sponsored listings that will compete with those must-click video stills in Universal Search results. Never underestimate the magic of motion and sound. Notes from SES (Search Engine Strategies) NYC 2008 Overview: Thousands of people, dozens of sessions, workshops, keynotes, parties, and impromptu encounters were jammed into the NY Hilton from last Monday through Friday. It's an information onslaught that leaves you feeling like a fully saturated sponge. But first, before it all began, yours truly hosted a pre-SES Guru dinner, which many of the presenters attended. There were the PPC gurus Andrew Goodman, Mona Elesseily (she works with Andrew at Page Zero Media and is author of the Yahoo! search marketing guide Mastering Panama) and Jon Myers of Mediavest in the UK. Andrew would later moderate an intense PPC panel that I will cover further down in this article. ClickZ VP and Executive Editor Rebecca Lieb talked with eMarketer co-founder Sam Alfstad. Conversion expert Jeffrey Eisenberg held court and such phrases as which he coined, were bandied about. Wordtracker's Ken McGaffin and Mike Mindel were in attendance. Ken would speak on linking matters at the conference later in the week. Also part of the British invasion was my dear friend Mike Grehan, who would co-host the most spirited session I would see on the following Wednesday. In that session on Universal SEO, Mike would describe how he made a video with a cheap camera about his SES London event. He posted it to YouTube and Metacafe plus other video venues. Then he linked and tagged from StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, Digg, and other social-media sites. Within a few short hours, Google had found the video and featured it in search results. The lesson is this: Google and other search engines are hungry for topical video. Make your video now and link to it before everyone else gets on the video bandwagon. Dana Todd was there. She's with SiteLab and just launched NewsForce (a new tool that optimizes press releases for search engine crawlers). Larry Jaffee, managing editor of Promo, found that quite intriguing. Over appetizers, Eileen Shulock (managing editor for Web Digest for Marketers) and I worked out a media extension to Twitter, called Fritter (as in how to fritter your time away). While we say snarky things about Twitter, I heard in more than one session at the show to follow how Twitter is a very fast word-of-mouth medium because it is so easy to forward comments. In many ways it's a faster propagator than blogs or Facebook and the like. While little applets like Twitter may not easily fit ads per se, it might well be a good medium for getting the word out about events, content and the like. Also present at the party was SEO and social media guru Amanda Watlington. She would be a featured speaker on optimizing podcasts later in the week. Her advice: Feature at least a sample of your podcast on the landing page with an indication of how long the sample is and what is in it. Make sure that landing page is rich with the keywords mentioned in your podcast or video. Many people will just listen to the podcast right off that landing page and won't bother to download it to an MP3 player. Also, put lyrics from your songs into your tags. Makes sense because I have searched for songs using fragments of lyrics I remember without having any idea who the artist is or the name of the song itself. In that same session with Amanda, Webmaster Radio's Daron Babin would give good tips on how to optimize multi-media files. All the programs featured on Webmaster Radio have transcripts (which are not cheap to produce) but are very important to post next to the podcast or video file as it helps the crawlers. Also at my Sunday dinner party was MarketingSherpa Research Director Stefan Tornquist. While talking to me about favorite authors we have in common (Patrick O'Brian, especially), he simultaneously counted the number of people who had arrived against the number of empty chairs at the long table because people were milling about and imbibing some Saint-Emilion wine. He noticed there weren't enough seats at the table for all the people standing, all while carrying on an impassioned conversation with me. What a guy. Later that evening, I noticed he was deep in conversation with software developer, raconteur and old friend Matt Lederman. These two seemed well matched to me: two brainiacs. While I didn't get a chance to talk much to Beyond Ink's Anne Kennedy, she, too, showed up and would present later in the week called "The Business Case for SEO Content Development: Turning Words Into Action!" Also attending was respected high-tech journalist John Verity and Acronym Media founder and CEO Anton Konikoff. I was honored to host so many people at the top of their game at one time in one room. What I also found fascinating is how so many of them opened up and talked about things other than SEO. These are real people with real lives and altogether likable, even lovable. If you get a chance to see or meet them, I encourage you to do so. These are deep people with rich, interesting lives. WDFM is sponsored by... New Webinar: "The Keys to Optimal Lead Scoring" Vtrenz and Sirius Decisions invite you to attend this webinar on April 9, 2008 to learn: Sophisticated lead-scoring models How to align marketing and sales Processes to drive revenue growth. Register Today! Show Notes Orion Panel: Universal Search Far and away, this was the most intriguing session I attended. First, what is universal search? It's important to define it because I find many in-the-know people in internet marketing but not search marketing don't know what it is. Universal search (sometimes called blended search) mixes into your results a lot more than just the usual 10 blue links with snippets of copy. You get video freezeframes you can play right on the search results page, pictures, audio files, news releases and more. Hosted by Kevin Ryan and Mike Grehan, it featured ComScore's James Lamberti; Google's product manager for Universal Search Jack Menzel; Lyndsay Menzies, managing director of Big Mouth Media; and Federated Media's John Battelle, author of "The Search." ComScore came out a couple weeks ago with a study showing that while search usage was up significantly at Google, paid search click-throughs were off. Why is this? Is it a reflection of the economy? Is it because of universal search affecting click-throughs on paid listings? Or both? This was a spirited exploration of what is happening at this early stage of USEO (Universal Search Engine Optimization). Top takeaways: When the search engine results page (SERP) begins to act as a destination page, it changes things for many people in search marketing. With USEO, the user isn't clicking as often because much can be played or displayed right on the SERP. Consumers' actions will dictate what they see in the future. Kevin Ryan: Skeptical that the general public understands that the first listing shown in a search is usually a sponsored listing. James Lamberti: His firm has research showing 80% in a survey understood that. Yours truly also remains skeptical. USEO will put more emphasis on organic search results because there will be less space and fewer pages for paid search ads. Jack Menzel: His firm is all about the user experience. The internet has a lot more video and audio and pictures to offer. The user wants this, so it gets mixed into the search results. Co-host Mike Grehan said it will be very interesting to watch what happens with PPC results in the near future. We might see more "ad wrapping" as seen on YouTube; thus, search marketing could become more of a branding medium. Google is interested in capturing the second click. This reminds me of dictum that it's all about the second sale. Next day, over lunch with a ChannelAdvisor executive: USEO won't harm paid search in the long run because, as often is the case with people who click on paid listings, they seek out paid listings specifically. Ads in a Quality Score World: Hosted by Andrew Goodman; panelists David Miller, product manager for Yahoo's sponsored search; Joel Lapp, VP account services, Reprise Media; Jon Kelly, president, SureHits; and Frederick Vallaeys, with the great title of Google AdWords evangelist. I took more notes at this session than at any other, save for the USEO session mentioned above. This session was stuffed with intriguing insights and tactics for paid search. Below are my best takeaways from this session: Copy tips is an enticement word, but you better pay off with something really cheap. You can have a good ad with an irrelevant term. So, try same copy with different keywords. Don't go crazy with eight-word keyword strings. It's not how most people search. Use 2- to 4-keyword phrases. The more specific your ad text, the better your conversions. WDFM is sponsored by... Forrester Predicts Interactive Marketing Tools Must Merge Download this white paper of Forrester predictions that include: Enable a single view of the customer Make partner applications collaborative Simplify interactive marketing Download Whitepaper Now Landing-page tips Make sure PPC ads match their landing page for higher conversions. The landing page is more important than ever in quality scoring. Landing pages sometimes take a while to get included into the scoring process, which is why scores can change over long stretches of time when nothing else about your ads or those of your competitors seems to have changed. Metrics tips Click-through rate multiplied by conversion rate is a quick and good unit of measurement. Historical performance plays a major role in indexing, assuming the ad has a history. People who have written ads in the past are apt to do so again. Ratings and scores Big mistake: Getting a high-quality user score, then freezing and changing nothing. Keep growing and improving. This refers back to Google's USEO. Audience question: Why did my ad show up in the North and not in the East? Panel answer: Some ads work better in different parts of the country. Panelist comment: His ad network shows only about a 10% difference between major branded names and lesser-known names. So, there's hope for those without brand budget. Quality index is relative to your competitors. Low privacy standards on your landing page will hurt your scoring. Heavy graphics or interstitials slow page speed and lower your score. User experience tips: Google and Yahoo: Criteria are based primarily on user experience. Example of bad user experience: Offer a free iPod, then ask "Who do you like: Obama or Hillary?," then on the landing page, ask visitors a bunch of personal questions. Don't make users search twice. When they get to your site, don't make them search again for what they wanted to find. If they ask for roses, don't give them a page about flowers. Give them roses specifically. Bottom line: Do the right thing for the user. That will get you a good quality score. Ask yourself: If I had done that search, and I saw this ad, would it be relevant to me? Mobile Search: There were a couple of sessions concerning mobile search. My impression: It will hit like a house afire, but not just yet. This field is changing fast. Getting stats and trend lines for early usage is difficult. Here goes: Statistic: Nielsen Mobile says 46 million U.S. mobile data consumers used mobile search services in the third quarter of 2007. Mobile searchers look for fun stuff mostly: entertainment, trivia. It's very viral, very practical, very addictive. 18-34 demographic does way more text traffic than voice traffic, like 3-1. eMarketer says mobile might be the most important new ecommerce interface over the next few years. It's hard for some users to enter ZIP codes because they don't know any other besides their own. Mobile evolution phases: Evangelism first, where we are now, then then finally monetization. The media spend on mobile search marketing is not yet huge but it has attracted the likes of Lexus, Amazon, State Farm Insurance and Edmunds. Search box needs to be displayed more obviously on more phones to get used more. Mobile search is all about preferences and portability. Some students do research on the way home and send to their desktops from their mobile platforms. Check out WDFM is sponsored by... Retailers – Update Your Email Marketing Game Plan Today's retailers are moving on from high-volume, low-relevance campaigns. Discover how to build value and deliver best-in-class customer experiences with this newest playbook: How do you compare to other retail email marketers? Top 5 plays to drive relevance and ROI Case studies and best practices for flawless execution Download: The Retail Marketer's Playbook Searcher Behavior Research Update/Social Media Panelist Robert Murray of iProspect: His company did a JupiterResearch survey that showed 67% of all searches were inspired by offline messaging, such as TV commercials. Also: Some competitors observe what the competition is pushing via keywords and then optimize for that to pull away some of that traffic. Other takeaways: USC research shows social communities are at the heart of the online experience for ages 12-24. "Go native" before marketing to online communities. Learn the mores. Find the community elders and what is acceptable behavior before plunging in. Social media can help a marketer discern what is knowable. Gives you the ability to say, "I have 8% of smartphone conversations, of which 62% is positive." Conversation marketing allows you to find out better what members are saying, which in turn can help you mold your messages to them. Many social media platforms don't have room or don't tolerate marketing. Second Life Liberation Army vows to take revenge on marketing in their virtual world. Hitwise Sponsored Session: Do You Know the Breakdown of Your Competitors' Paid and Organic Traffic? Hitwise Does. Hosted by Research Director Heather Dougherty and GM for General Research Bill Tancer with Paul Hutton, Research Director, Interactive Research, Scripps Networks. Interesting factoids: Hitwise data shows which of your competitors are paying for the greater share of their click-throughs. For JC Penney, branded search is very important. Retailers want to know which brands of shoes people are searching for most to help ID trends and what to stock. You can have a search term portfolio and track how and when people search for your brand and if it trends up or down seasonally and annually. Interview with ComScore's Eli Goodman I had a 30-minute interview session with ComScore's Eli Goodman. His company has 2 million opt-in panelists, of which 1 million are US-based. Eli shared with me that his company research shows internet users typically want more media. To me this is why Google has embraced universal search; it's giving more media options return in results. On the Show Floor: At some trade shows, I find the show floor more interesting than the sessions. This show was the opposite. But the floor had its moments. I heard one paid search site say it filters out 33% of the traffic they send and charge you for because they identify it as click-fraud. Best of Show Swag: Orangesoda.com has a miniature beach chair that serves as a cell-phone cradle. Good show-floor branding. This agency for small and medium businesses also had a drawing for a spiffy 1940s one-speed bike with coaster brakes and chrome fenders, painted the company's orange color. Box Lunch with a side of URLs: I picked up three search tools that come in handy when you want to search forums to see what people are saying about your products: Boardreader: Twing: Still in beta Omgili: Very Web 2.0 Wrap-up SES NYC 2008 was an intellectually stimulating and physically exhausting experience. If you've never been to such an event, make it your biz to go, at least once. I've been going to these since 1995, and I haven't been bored once. Much thanks to Editor Janet Roberts for her help on turning this report around quickly. I'm going to bed now. Good night. LC Attention Bloggers: If you want to point to the 9 quick tips for optimizing online sales lead generation, it will live here: "Notes from SES NYC 2008" will permanently live at: WDFM is sponsored by... 6 New Categories Just Enhanced at Larry Chase's Internet Marketing Resource Center Optimizing for Universal and Blended Search (from SEO Guru Mike Grehan) Internet Direct Response Marketing Best of Google Tools & Tips for Internet Marketing Internet Marketing Consultant's Toolbox RSS Marketing Toolbox Advanced Email Marketing Tools & Tactics Web Digest For Marketers, 79 Pine Street, #102, New York, NY 10005 © 1995-2008 Chase Online Marketing Strategies, All Rights Reserved. To cancel your subscription to Web Digest For Marketers and FYI From Web Digest For Marketers simply click on the link at the very bottom of this document. 3/24/08 IN THIS ISSUE * Long Tail Leads * Quick, Do a Vid * IDing Influencers * Piggyback Promos * "Heads Up" Sign-Ups * Internet Direct Marketing Tip of the Week * And More... Internet Direct Marketing Tip of the Week What is KISS? It's an old marketing dictum that has never gone out of style. It stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid." In other words, don't get too cute, especially online, where everyone is This old dictum goes on to map out the basic flow of your message: Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them crisply what your value proposition is. Reiterate what you just told them so as to reinforce the primary message. This is true for TV, radio, email marketing, websites, direct mail, billboards, F2F... you name it. LC Buy online to this article at no charge here. About WDFM Larry Chase's Web Digest for Marketers (WDFM) is a complimentary weekly email article featuring mercifully short reviews and links on websites. Get Larry Chase's top picks in over 40 marketing categories. Go to Larry Chase's Search Engine For Marketers. Advertising in WDFM This article reaches over 40,000 decision-making marketers. Started in April 1995, WDFM was the first email article about marketing on the Internet. Click for WDFM's latest media kit Housekeeping Want to stop receiving Web Digest For Marketers and FYI From Web Digest for Marketers? Just select the link at the very bottom of this email and you'll be removed from the list. But I'll miss you terribly. :-) If you received this issue from a colleague and you want your own subscription, you can get that by visiting and filling out the subscription form. It takes less than a minute. I encourage you to pass this issue of WDFM along, provided you do not change the copy, you keep the opening and this closing material, and you notify me. Ok, you don't have to notify me, but if you do, I will thank you personally. :) Thanks for reading all the way down to the bottom of this article. :) Cordially, Larry Chase: Publisher Web Digest For Marketers Author: "Essential Business Tactics f/t Net" Sample chapter at Ph: (212) 619-4780 Contact Larry .uns {font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px}Click here to PurchaseCut and paste the URL into your browser to

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