STEVEN PR BLOG

One-time visitors are a chronic problem for web marketers. You spend time, money and focus to get a visitor to your site. They click through a few pages, then they click away to another search result, never to return again. There are a number of strategies to keep visitors returning to your site. One of the most prevalent public relations strategies is to make your site interactive. Here are some ideas on how to get started.

1. Host a Blog
   The easiest way to keep your site from becoming static is to host a blog. A blog, like the one you are currently reading, gives real-time updates on what you are doing and how you can help clients. We have discussed a lot about the benefits of a blog for SEO purposes, but blogs also offer your potential clients and existing clients a chance to get more information from you without a detailed phone call.
2. Ask for Discussion Topics
   Making blogs interactive means soliciting advice, complaints and commentary from your readers. Try implementing a dialogue box where your readers can submit topics for you. Aside from being very interactive, this feature will give you insight into those issues that matter most to your clients.
3. Offer Webinars
   Webinars do not have to be fancy; they can be a few, quick slides on a relevant topic and a link to more information. Many of us think of webinars as formal, appointment necessary PowerPoint presentations. You can post webinars with or without PowerPoint, with or without narration, and with or without reservations.
4. Ask for Questions
   Many potential clients will not have all of their questions answered with an initial visit. Invite them to submit questions anonymously by email. To encourage questions, you may post previous questions and their answers.
5. Provide Tools
   Loan sites have mortgage calculators. Restaurants have calorie counters. What can you offer? If you give a client an opportunity to use a tool to determine cost, time, etc., before calling you, you will increase both your interactive features and your credibility with that client.
6. Host a Discussion
   Why not take a time-out from being the boss of your blog for a week and ask for discussion. Act as a moderator to allow your readers to become contributors and increase your public awareness.
7. Provide Valuable Links
   Linking to other sources is scary for most business owners who do not want to open the door to competition. With information as accessible as a Google search today, it is impossible to keep your clients from finding your competitors. Do not be afraid to steer them away from your site for a day, and
8.  Be an Authority
   Provide real, authoritative information about what you know. As a public relations firm, we aim to give you the best information we have available about proven PR strategies. Share your knowledge and watch your credibility expand.
9. Integrate Social Media
   Social media sites like Digg, Twitter and Facebook allow your readers to share your information with their friends and associates. This immediately increases your readership and expands your base of potential clients.
10. Respond Immediately
    Finally, when you get inquires based on your many new interactive tools, respond! Show your user this is not just a façade, there is really someone on the other end, ready to interact with you on a personal level beyond the website.

Website Design Blogs, Inexpensive marketing, Internet marketing, Keywords, Linkedin, Marketing ROI, Online Marketing, Organic traffic, Passing traffic

If you are a Google AdWords user, you have seen your marketing reports list two separate categories: Search and Content. Google AdWords is the most used PPC tool on the Internet, providing 99% of all of Google’s yearly profits. Understanding AdWords is complicated, and it is often best to work with public relations professionals to ensure you are getting a high ROI. When you read your marketing reports, which you should do even if you hire an outside team, take the following tips about Search vs. Content to determine where you should spend your budget.

 Benefits of Search Only

Opening your ads only to “Search” means only those users who input your targeted keywords will see the ads. Because these viewers will enter your exact search term before seeing your add, meaning you will typically have a higher click through rate on these adds. Remember: you are paying per click. You are not charged for the hundreds or thousands of people who see your ad daily, only those who click on it. These higher click through rates are a natural result to your targeted ad placements. More of your budget should naturally go to your Search network because these viewers are telling you and Google they want to see your ad and your website. Additionally, opening to search only means those individuals who do contact you through these ads will have a definite desire to hear about your services.

 Benefits of Content Added

Opening only to the Search network will provide more focused results, but sometimes it is better to advertise to the masses. However, consider which masses you are targeting. The Content Network provided through Google includes everything from high-end professional sites to personal blogs and social networking sites. This means you are spending money advertising to people who may not be in your targeted demographic. To address this problem, Google allows you to select the websites you would like your ads to appear on. You can search based on the topic to locate websites where you may want to show your ad. However, with the high amount of websites out there, it is hard to make these selections without a fairly large budget. Placing your ads on the highly-trafficked sites may require 50% more spending than on the lower sites. This means your ability to truly reach the masses is limited without a big budget.

 Which is Best?

Each company must make a determination about advertising on the Content network or not. Public relations professionals often recommend trying a tactic and determining how it works through detailed analytics. In any trial, you should allow your settings to go untouched for at least two weeks. It can take up to a month to truly see trends. When it comes to analyzing, determining your exact ROI means more than seeing your total number of clicks. Look at how many dollars are actually coming in your door based on clicks from the Search network and the Content network. Google will not track this for you; it’s up to you to create these reports. If this is not something you have experience with, a public relations team can help.

Web Traffic Google adwords, Inexpensive marketing, Internet marketing, Keywords, Marketing ROI, Online Marketing

Who is the Internet marketing “expert” at your company? You likely have someone who manages your Google AdWords account or other advertising. Is it an administrative assistant? An intern? You? Whoever these people are, they are likely filled with little snippets of information to prove just how much expertise they have. Their information may be correct, it may even work temporarily, but does this really make them an expert?

Internet Marketing Relies on Web Programming Skills

To truly understand search engine queries and how they relate to Internet public relations campaigns, you must have at least a basic knowledge of programming languages. Search engines rely on HTML, CSS or a hybrid of the two. Java and Flash languages are not typically read by search engines. Is this already over your head? That’s okay; not everyone needs to know programming. If your Internet marketing expert does not, though, you should begin to wonder how deep the expertise truly goes.

Internet Marketing is a Mix of Strategies

Besides paid ad campaigns, what else do you do? Do you optimize your website for search engine crawls? Do you distribute press releases through primary Internet channels? Internet marketing is more than AdWords. It is a whole mix of dozens of strategies aimed at one goal. Your company may only choose 3 or 4 of these strategies, but Internet marketing is never a one-stop shop. Your expert should be constantly staying abreast of new tactics, strategies, websites and technology to mix into your public relations plan.

Internet Marketing is an Industry to Itself

With the vast amount of information that goes into Internet marketing, it is not a hobby. There is no person at your firm who can devote an hour a day to your campaigns and effectively market your business. This has developed into an entire industry to itself, and there are classes, certifications and advanced knowledge to further your marketing aims. You are only getting a part of the picture if you are not utilizing the depth of the industry. You may see some results from these efforts, but they will likely come at a high cost. Reducing this cost and turning the dollars into real revenue takes a dedicated effort.

What it Takes to be an Expert

Okay, so you are not an expert. How do you become one? There are classes and books which can be very useful in learning basic Internet marketing strategies. Google, Yahoo! and Ask.com all offer some type of training and certification program for Internet marketing professionals. Online tutorials and post-graduate schools may offer web programming classes to get the basics. Once you know the basics, you need to stay on top of the industry. This means reading industry knowledge and developments each day. In short, it takes a lot to be an industry expert. That’s why a public relations firm is essential in your Internet marketing aims – these professionals are already experts and work to develop that expertise daily.

Online Marketing Internet marketing, Marketing ROI, Online Marketing, Organic SEO, Organic traffic, PPC, PPI, SEO

It’s easy to write off the rules of grammar, syntax, usage, sentence structure and punctuation as the stuff of an eighth grade English class. Today, we use improper English in text messages, instant messages and most emails. Most of the time, it doesn’t matter. This is no reason to throw out all you learned. There are some applications you should never neglect, and there are good reasons to hold them of high importance.

“Its” or “It’s” and Other Apostrophe Mistakes

“Its versus it’s” is one of the most common mistakes we see in blog posts and email blasts. The frustrating thing is: a standard grammar check with Microsoft Word will alert you of this error. Seeing the error is a signal that the person who created the content did not bother to spell check or grammar check. If your assistant did not bother to do this, would you reprimand him? Probably. Messing up apostrophes is the fastest way to appear uneducated, lazy or both.

“Your” versus “You’re” and Other Usage Mistakes

Wow does this one stand out like a sore thumb. Misusing homophones in your writing typically occurs when you write hastily. The errors run rampant through instant message conversations, where we often see people correcting typos and misusage every other line. In thoughtful communication, such as a blog or email blast, you do not want to convey haste in your writing. Of course, the writing does not need to be formal; however, it still should demonstrate thought and consideration. If you don’t put time into writing a blog, how can you expect your followers to put time into reading it?

Overuse and Misuse of Commas

Do you place commas in a sentence randomly based on where you think you should pause? Your school teachers would turn over in their graves. There are rules for using commas, and its time you learn them. Learning comma rules is like learning to ride a bike: once you get it, it comes natural every time. You can stop and ask, “is that comma placed appropriately?” Sure, most people will not deduct 10% from your final grade for comma splice errors like your teachers did. People will notice, though, if you have randomly placed commas without much thought. It will interrupt the way they naturally read your work. Do everyone a favor, and learn one comma rule a day over the next 2 weeks. The same goes for colons, semicolons, and other punctuation.

Why this Really Matters

Aside from the obvious negative image you portray to customers, there is a scientific reason your web public relations will suffer from poor writing. Search engine spiders, the little math functions that crawl your website and drive search engine optimization, are getting more sophisticated. They check for authority of websites and blogs not just through keywords but through the sophistication of content. Content in all caps, miss-punctuated, misspelled and otherwise faulty is a red flag to search engines.

Public Relations Blogs, Email marketing, Internet marketing, Online Marketing, Website copy

By now, most business owners recognize the importance of using blogging and social media to connect with customers. If you are a business owner who doesn’t recognize this, contact a public relations firm immediately, you may need some help! The problem most business owners run into, though, is a fear of taking risks with content. Remember: with Web 2.0, anyone can publish content about the same subject as you. There are thousands of blogs and email lists sharing your topic. Playing it safe is a sure way to blend in. Here are a few simple tips of how to take risks to make your content more engaging.

Assert an Attitude

There is a real person behind every blog … even this one. That’s right, I am here writing to you today. I have opinions, a tone and certainly an attitude. Do you have the same? If so, I want to know about it. Web 2.0 means we are all “people” engaged in a “community;” we are no longer just corporate websites. If you are funny, show it. If you are sassy, show it. Censorship is important to a degree. These are not your friends at a barbeque; these are your future clients. But if you would show a little bit of yourself at a business dinner, then you can show that same little bit of yourself on your blog. People will start reading for more than your content: they will want to connect with you.

Promote Controversial Material

Are there controversial issues in your industry? For example, if you are in the education industry, you may be involved in debates over budgets or private versus public schooling. The healthcare industry is among the most controversial topics right now. Reading a healthcare blog, you probably want to know about different sources of opinions on the current crisis. A healthcare company can increase public relations interest by linking to articles and websites that share opinions on the matter. As a blogger, you don’t have to agree with the opinions you link to. You just have to feel they are well thought out and worthy of discussion or consideration. If you feel this way, your potential customers will too.

Link to a “Competitor”

This is a step many business owners will be reluctant to take. Should you really link to a website or blog of a competitor? Why not? These days, your customers are likely able to access all your competitors with a simple Google search. You can no longer pretend there are not other options or other prices. Part of your public relations plan, in fact, should be to acknowledge these other options and show why you are a better choice. Instead of bashing them, consider linking to a blog post or article you felt they did a good job with. You will instantly build trust with your clients who recognize you have nothing to fear from your competitors.

Turn Down Business

Wow – now that is scary! One of the privileges of owning a business, though, is you can choose who to work with. There are two main reasons you will turn down business: first, because you do not want to associate with this client; second, because you feel you cannot provide the client what they need. The first case is easier to stomach. If a prospect is rude or unethical, you may feel it is easier to walk away. The second case is more difficult. You may question whether you can provide enough of what they need to justify signing them. In the end, giving them this choice will pay off. Let them know your limitations, that you may not be the best resource, and see what they come back with. Public relations advisors often say turning away business is the best way to generate more in the future. Try this technique, but only if you are ready to work hard to build relationships with the best possible customers you can find.

Public Relations Blogs, Facebook, Internet marketing, Linkedin

Bad news: a recent study shows that 20% of all permission-based email marketing is turned away at the door. This occurs because filters such as Google, MSN and AOL decide it looks like something the reader doesn’t want. Even if a reader has signed up for your email list, these filters can elect to send your emails to an alternate channel. That means you have to work harder than ever to make your emails count.

Mix Informational and Promotional

If every email you send promotes your product directly, people will stop paying attention. Public relations firms recommend providing quality copy of interest to your community.

Consider this example: A t-shirt store sends 2 emails a month. They are both about sales on t-shirts. The next time an email comes with the line “T-Shirt Sale,” the reader thinks, “I am not looking for t-shirts right now, I will delete this.” And so on and so on. Eventually, all of your emails are deleted because people are not ready to buy right that second.

Now consider a second example: A t-shirt store sends 2 emails a month. The first is about “Summer T-Shirt Trends” and the second is about “Summer T-Shirt Sale.” This continues as a constant mix of informative and promotional pieces. Even if a reader is not looking for a t-shirt right that moment, he or she feels there is something to gain by opening the email.

Provide Options

Most purchases based on email marketing are not of the exact product being promoted. Rather, most people click through the various pages on the email or the company website looking for the product they need. For example, if a doctor’s office sends you a medical marketing email about “Back to School Physicals,” you may not be ready for a physical. However, you may see a highlighted article later about flu shots available. These options give you the ability to choose the service you are in need of. Providing a number of options on your emails makes them more engaging to the reader and allows that reader to elect what to focus on.

Encourage a Community

Instead of just linking to an article about cheap dental insurance, a dental marketing email can highlight the article and provide a prompt for discussion on a company blog or community forum. This allows readers to form a community of visitors. Patients may have questions, opinions or experiences to share. These conversations increase the impact of a blog post exponentially. Sending an email blast about this post encourages a higher response than just trusting an RSS feed. In fact, the Direct Marketing Association reported email’s ROI in 2008 was $45.06 for every dollar spent. This is more than 2007, and is the largest ROI of all Internet efforts. There are many services available to make email marketing easy and stress-free, even without an in-house marketing person. An inexpensive $30 per month is typically all you need for the service. Your public relations team can compose and send your emails effectively.

Direct Marketing Blogs, Dental marketing, Email marketing, Marketing ROI, Medical marketing, Online Marketing

Getting your website seen on the Internet today relies on actively promoting it through search engines. Most businesses in our current environment, large and small, use at least one paid online advertisement service to direct inquiries to their website, whether it is Yahoo!®, MSN® or Google™. Arguably the most popular Internet advertising service is Google’s AdWords. This program allows marketers to bid on common search terms in their industry to place ads on the search engine. The marketers are charged on a pay per click basis. While almost any AdWords campaign will see moderate results immediately, few campaigns utilize the true potential of the complicated service.

Problems with AdWords

The biggest problem with AdWords is most users do not understand it. AdWords uses complicated algorithms to determine the relevancy of a site and advanced features such as the “dampening” factor to determine whether to show an ad to a given searcher. Sound complicated? That’s because it is. In fact, there is a whole discipline behind the nuances of search engine marketing which includes both the hard science of computer tech and the soft science of copywriting. Because very few business owners without an Internet marketing background understand these factors, most pay far too much for advertising. They quickly blow through a budget while receiving inquiries from misguided customers who do not have a relevant interest in their service or product.

There is a Solution

Okay, so we have established AdWords is not a guessing game. What does that mean for business owners who have been guessing at it? For example, are you attempting dental marketing efforts by using keywords like “dentist,” “white teeth,” or “braces?” That’s not the best way to go about things, but don’t worry, its easy to fix. There are two options to increase your ROI through AdWords. The first is to spend the time learning HTML, read up on SEO best-practices, take a Google Analytics course and devote a few hours a week to your AdWords campaign. The second option is to hire someone who is already an expert in each of these areas to spend an hour a week adding your campaign to their discipline. When news breaks about new tools or best-practices in online marketing, you can ignore it, because your public relations team is already on top of it.

Benefits of Using a Firm

Aside from the ease that comes with allowing someone else to stress about the hard stuff, you will save money by using a dedicated AdWords expert to take on your campaign. Chances are you are spending too much for each click or impression you generate by not catering your advertisements and website to search engines. A public relations firm can put that money right back in your pocket. In most cases, your savings will outweigh the cost of hiring the firm in the first place. When you combine those savings with the new traffic and inquiries a better campaign will generate, you end up in the black. 

Public Relations, Web Traffic Google adwords, MSN adwords, PPC, PPI, Yahho adwords

Pay per impression (PPI) advertising is a form of Internet marketing where you are charged for each person who sees you ad, regardless of whether or not they click on it. This type of payment structure is usually employed with online magazines, specific websites and other placements. It is not usually used by search engine marketing sites; these are typically pay per click (PPC). With PPC, you are charged only when someone enters your site through the advertisement. PPI has many advantages when employed correctly. When used without a cohesive strategy, however, PPI can run up a huge tab with very little to show for the expense.

Focus on Branding

Because you are paying for each impression, you will need to create different ads than those you are using to entice people to click on your site. The ads used for PPI need to be written with the goal of introducing your brand to the market. For example, a law firm PPC ad may use the enticement, “Free Consultation – Click Here.” Law firm marketing through PPI, though, may read more like, “Top Law Firm in LA, Leaders in Personal Injury.” The difference is subtle but essential. The first option gives away very little in the initial ad, requiring viewers to click for more. The second gives away key information up front, allowing even casual viewers to get the message.

Analyze Results

There is more to performance analysis than simply seeing how many impressions you are getting for each dollar spent. Nuances within performance analysis can show you exactly where your performance can be stepped up. In fact, Google™ offers a training course for advertising professionals that spends whole classes on running effective PPI reports. This is an area where it will pay off to call in the professionals. In as little as an hour a week, a professional marketing analyst can assess your results and recommend targeted changes to improve your PPI campaign. It doesn’t pay off to blindly try new tactics, public relations firms are armed with the best insider knowledge to get the job done.

Omit Sites with Low ROI

Your analytics will tell you which sites are generating not just traffic but buzz. You will not likely get a high increase in inquiries immediately with PPI campaigns. You will, however, start generating buzz around your blog our website. More people should start bookmarking your site, returning to the site regularly, or commenting on your blog. A targeted public relations campaign will continually analyze which sites are simply not generating this type of buzz. Especially if you are using a blanket PPI campaign that lists on 5-10 websites in a given topic, omitting key sites will have you money.

Target a Specific Demographic

Using PPI effectively is not just about eliminating the low ROI pages, you also must increase your presence on the pages with high ROI. Many people think they should randomly pick bids for these spots, hoping that increasing a max PPI by $.25 will all of a sudden generate big numbers for you. There are methods behind this madness though. PR firms will be able to tell you what the going bids are in your area for a placement within the pages you want to hit the most. They will also be able to recommend other sites similar to your top performers to add to your PPI line up.

Web Traffic Branding, Marketing ROI, PPC, PPI, Web analytics

The old adage that “sales is a numbers game” used to refer to the number of cold calls made each day. Thankfully for salespeople and consumers alike, the cold calling practice has been all but eliminated. Today, sales is still about numbers, but these are a different set. These numbers are determined by industry best practices. They are studied by public relations firms and Internet marketing guru’s who know just what makes search engines and readers “click.” Below is just a sampling.

Email Title: 5 words or less
Want someone to open your email? Want to make sure it doesn’t get hit by the SPAM filter? Keep the title short. You would not spend more than 30 seconds trying to figure out what an email is for. Neither will your customers. Give them a heading that is short, to the point, and lets them know one thing: it will not take long to read this. If you have a minute right now, open this up, you’ll be done with it before your next meeting. When your title is too long, your potential customers start worrying the email will be too.

Keywords: 10 or less

Whether you are putting keywords on your pay per click campaign or choosing them for your onsite SEO, more is not better. You need to tell search engines and customers what, really, in 10 words or less, your site is about. When you consider that at least 3 of these keywords will probably be variations of your business name, you really only have 7 or 8. For example, if you are involved in medical marketing for your local practice, you may choose:” Dr. Kelly Shum,” “Kelly Shum, MD,” “Doctor Kelly Shum,” “doctors in Whittier,” “Whittier doctors,” “family practice doctors in Whittier,” etc. You will not likely choose the keyword, “doctors,” right? Many people make this mistake. Your site is not about doctors. It is about your medical practice. Do not waste money going after the pricey bid; a public relations firm can show you which terms are expensive and which are within your budget.

Page Description:  160 Characters or Less

A critical part of your on-site SEO is your page description. This tells search engines and your customers who you are in a paragraph of less. Again, less is more here. Too much information can scramble your message and confuse the search engines. Keep it short; make the message clear. Most business owners need help figuring out on-page SEO and meta deta. If you are considering asking your receptionist to take on the task, she may not be aware of these little nuances. A public relations firm can give you these tips to guide you toward the best results.

Headings in a Blog: 3 or more

Okay, we admit it: we are using our own advice here. This blog has an intro paragraph and 4 headings. Didn’t that help you understand what the article was about? Let your reader glance over headings to know what you are discussing. They will appreciate the break-up visually, as well. Reading on a computer screen can be difficult for the eyes. A little more white space gives the eyes a place to rest as they comb your content. And, yes, the space should be white!

Direct Marketing Blogs, Email marketing, Keywords, Page description

Let’s face it: most people don’t get Google™. The reason we don’t get it is because it is a complicated mathematical algorithm written by some of the best engineering and computer science minds in the world. That’s right: Google™ is a giant equation. In fact, all search engines are just equations. There is no one sitting behind the scenes coordinating when your page will be shown in a search. And Page Rank, also a trade mark of Google™, is just an equation, too. The common advertiser will never be able to understand the actual figures used. We can, though, understand the concepts behind the program.

Basics of Page Rank

Page Rank is a 0-10 website grade. If you want to know where you sit, you can use any of the many website graders available online and plug in your URL. This is not like golf, low scores are not better. You want to be as close to 10 as possible. If you focusing on law firm marketing in your region, you will not likely ever reach a 10. This rank is reserved for mega-sites like CNN. You can still aim for just a few notches higher, though.

Damping Factor

One of the more complicated parts of the Page Rank algorithm, which interestingly gets its name from its developer Larry Page, is the damping factor. This factor accounts for a commonly accepted belief: the more pages a person clicks on for any search term, the less likely he is to click on the next page. This factor is used to show your importance relevant to other sites on your exact topic. If someone is typing in “Los Angeles Dentist” for the first time, your site may come up in the top ten if you have a good dental marketing plan. But the person clicks on 4 other sites before yours, you will be considered less-relevant by the computer. This means your site will appear lower in the rank the next time. These programmers are good, huh?

All About the Links

So you may never understand the equation behind the force of “lift” that allows a plane to fly, that doesn’t mean you cannot understand what creates lift in theory. The same is true of Page Rank. Even though you may never understand the algorithm, a good public relations plan can help you apply the theory to raise your presence on the Internet. The key is simple: its all about the links. Page Rank takes into account how many other websites on the Internet are linking to your site. This includes blogs, stores that are selling your product, articles about you and even associations that post your link. Each of these links is a vote of confidence for your site. Other people are saying, “go here, this is meaningful.” So can you go around posting your links on blogs and drive up your Page Rank? Not exactly. The system is meant to stop you from manipulating it this way. The only real way to get links is to provide relevant content and publicize that content every chance you get. Sound like a lot? Hire the help of a good public relations firm, they will do it for you.

Online Marketing Blogs, Online Marketing, Page rank, Relevant links