eMedia Daily

Overcoming Web Clutter

In a clever post from Don Schindler, he compares his cluttered desk (which sounds oh-so-familiar) to the clutter of the web. If you know where what you’re looking for is, its easy to find. But if you’re just browsing, with just a general idea of what information you want, you’ll turn to a finder service, like Google.

If you’re in the business of being on the web, one strategy is to scatter your content (or at least links to your content) around the web. Build a Linked-In group; submit innovative, creative and fun stories (and press coverage) to Digg; use FaceBook and MySpace and Orkut and Squidoo. The more ways that you can disseminate your content, the better chance you have of being found.

Make sure that your content is strong - and that your base site is strong, because once they’re familiar with your company, they will gravitate toward your home site. You may also want to have different entry landing pages from each type of web 2.0-y site that you’re using to match the voice and tone that you use.

Posted in SEO, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Google Newsbar Widget

Looking to add news-oriented content to your website quickly and easily? Look no farther than the Google NewsBar Wizard. We’re testing it for the “On the News” page here on eMedia Daily, and in our sidebar. It’s easy to set up - taking less than 5 minutes, and provides your reader a way to find the news that they’re most interested in.

Also, check out more Google AJAX Search Wizards.

Posted in Just for Fun, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

B2C Lead Generation Budgets

B2C marketers are now looking more and more to online for lead generation - following a path already forged by B2B marketers in years past. How are they doing it? According to a recent article from addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emediadaily.com%2F2008%2Fb2c-lead-generation-budgets%2F'; addthis_title = 'B2C+Lead+Generation+Budgets'; addthis_pub = 'emediadaily';

Posted in Lead/Demand Generation, Marketing | No Comments »

Your Audience is Online - Are Your Writing Skills?

If you have a website, you have a web audience that you’re writing for. Like it or not, readers behave differently online than they do when holding printed material - which means that you need to write differently.

There are quite a few different resources that give you insight in how to write for the web, and how to write for search engines. A few universal tips:
- Use the words that you expect your readers to use. Even if your industry is full of acronyms and niche terms, make sure that your writing uses the terms that readers will use to search for the content that you’re providing.
- Use descriptive text when linking. Rather than “click here,” use “buy red shoes” as the words for your link. This not only help search engines understand your structure, but it also helps your readers know where you are leading them when they click.
- Don’t try to be clever in your copy. There is a good chance that your readers don’t have time for your clever quips, and the search engines won’t understand them.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Meta Keywords - Do They Matter?

Do you still use meta keyword tags on your sites and blog posts?

According to this 2007 article from Search Engine Land - most of the biggest search engines (read: google and msn live search) scan the full content of your pages to determine ranking in their results. Yahoo and Ask.com both used the keyword tag for retrevial.

So, when should you use keywords? Danny suggests that you use keywords when there is a high likelihood that searchers may misspell the search query. Spell the items correctly in your content, and then use the tags for missspellings.

Read more tips and tricks from Search Engine Land…

Posted in SEO | No Comments »

Are Best Practices “Too Hard”?

I had to laugh when I first read the headline of the eec blog “Are Best Practices Too Hard?” They’re best practices - they are there to create a baseline for the minimum you need to do in order to stay on the positive side of email marketing.

After reading the stats highlights that Stephanie Miller points out, I realize that maybe they’re not just the basics at other companies.

1. A majority (60%) of the companies in our survey did not send a welcome message. Of the 40% that did send a welcome message, only 33% sent it within 24 hours. The remaining 7% took anywhere from two days to three weeks.

2. The shock of the missing welcome messages was compounded by the astonishing number of companies—30%!—who didn’t send any email within a month of sign up. While the majority did start sending email soon after subscribe, engagement—which is key in the first 30-days—was lacking.

3. 70% of companies asked for a lot of data (name, address, birthday, and so on) at subscribe, and the bulk of them (75%) never used it. This “just in case” mentality is not a good experience for subscribers that are forced to complete long forms and preferences when the potential benefit is never realized.

4. Even across four very different industry verticals, the marketing offers (Free Shipping! Discount! Sweepstakes!) were surprisingly the same. Often these types of offer strategies are self-fulfilling and addictive. Why not use valuable content to drive readership and stand out from the crowd?

Read more from the eec’s blog.

Posted in Email | No Comments »

Retail Email Messaging Rendering Report

A recent report by the eec and SubscriberMail brings to light startling information regarding design and rendering of retail email messages.

Despite the growth of image-blocked emails, only 42% of the 104 top online retailers included in the study designed emails that were a good mix of HTML text and images, and only 63% used alt tags adequately or extensively.

What does this mean for those emailers? Most of their messages, are difficult, if not impossible to read. (23% were deemed completely unreadable when images were blocked - not exactly a comforting statistic.) If a recipient can not read your email, or have access to your offer without downloading the images, there is a very good chance that you’ll be moved directly into the trash folder.

As a customer, I’d also think less of the retailer who didn’t take the small amount of time it takes to create an email blast that could be read with images disabled. The problems grow even more if you consider email delivery to mobile devices.

Read more from the report from the eec’s Retail Email Blog (includes a link to download the full 41-page report.)

Posted in Email, eMail Marketing | 1 Comment »

Political Ad Dollars Online

According to eMarketer estimates, political campaigns are spending $50 million online this year.

The article indicates that this is less than 2% of the overall marketing budget in a highly contested election year. Television advertising still claims the highest percentage of budgets because of its ability to deliver a message to a mass audience quickly. Many political ads today (as well as other types of television ads) push to drive traffic to websites.

Online marketing reaches a broad audience, but it lends itself best as a 1-to-1 communication model.

Posted in Advertising | No Comments »

Government 2.0

Web 2.0 has been changing the way many of us work, relax, and research. In a struggle to not be left behind, the US government is also using Web 2.0 technologies for internal communications.

The federal government has launched several wikis, which permit staffers to post information and expand on it until a consensus is reached. Intellipedia lets 37,000 officials at the CIA, FBI, NSA and other U.S. intelligence agencies share information and even rate one another for accuracy in password-protected wikis, some “top secret.” Users are told, “We want your knowledge, not your agency seal”; indeed, the wiki format may be the best last hope for connecting the dots of intelligence across 16 different agencies. Diplopedia lets State Department staff share information. It’s closed to the public, rated “sensitive but unclassified.” In the virtual world Second Life, where personal avatars can communicate with one another, the State Department now has an embassy.

From WSJOnline

Does your company use Web 2.0 technologies to open lines of communication or facilitate collaboration?

Posted in The World of Work, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Convincing Management for a Website Overhaul

Overhauling a website can work wonders for a business. However, convincing upper management that a fix is worth the investment might take some persuasion.

Here’s the strategy one marketer used to convince higher-ups to fund a full overhaul. The changes resulted in a 482% lift in SEO traffic, website conversions are up 43% and their cart abandonment rate dropped 20%.

Read full article from Marketing Sherpa

My Highlights:
Step 1: Conduct a 3rd party site diagnostic.
Step 2: Identify quick fixes with big benefits.
Step 3: Monitor Results

Posted in The World of Work, Website Design | No Comments »