Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benmurray/4346823749/

Though NetStrategies is located in northern Virginia, in the midst of the blizzard, Internet marketing services for our customers marched forward uninterrupted. Our team members telecommuted from home, managing PPC campaigns, updating customer sites for search engine optimization, implementing Web development changes, and more.

Today’s technology is an amazing thing! It surprised a few customers to hear our voices when they telephoned that week for help. We communicated through instant messaging, telephone, and email…with no break in service…pretty cool.

If you have a D.C. Blizzard story to share, please add your comments!

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankblacknoir/

Once you determine goals for your Web site and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to drive and measure that goal’s success, the next step is to create goals and KPIs for your supporting Internet marketing efforts including content.

Content includes everything from the text on your Web site pages, to your blog, video, Tweets, white papers, case studies, calls to action, forms, AdWords campaigns, e-mail campaigns, PowerPoint presentations, news releases… Whew! It’s no wonder content is so vital to online success and precisely why you need a strategy!

A sample content goal: Company ABC is a leading online resource center for energy-saving ideas in your home.

Who are you writing for?
Company ABC must first clearly understand its target customer. What words would this customer use online to search out this kind of information? How basic or advanced is the customer’s understanding of in-home projects? What are the key demographics for your target group? Any details you include help you choose the right kinds of content and speak in the language of that customer.

What do you want them to do?
Once you understand the target customer, decide what types of content work best. You also need to decide what outcomes you desire. Do you want a visitor to simply read, listen, or watch your content? Or do you want the prospect to take additional action and pay for a service? Watch this Internet Marketing TV video for an in depth look at cross promotion ideas.

Key points to remember…
Set a goal.
Know your target audience.
Plan your strategy.
Map it out on the calendar.
Cross promote.

For an in depth look at content strategy, follow Joe Pulizzi’s blog.

If you want to read some fantastic writing advice, watch Copyblogger.

The Google Business Solution Center lists several options for getting your content out through Google.

DoshDosh wrote an article about content strategy with some great suggestions.

How do you ensure online success? You set measurable goals and key performance indicators, or KPIs, to drive those goals.


Photo Credit: Matt McGee, http://www.flickr.com/photos/pleeker/123027910/

Setting online goals can be tricky. You want them to be meaningful and measurable. Without them, you cannot determine whether your site benefits your organization. More importantly, you cannot drive progress.

Think about your business or organization and decide what success looks like. Here is an example of an online goal and two KPIs a business to business company might select.

Company ABC’s main Web site goal is to grow the business 25 percent in 2010. They determine two main KPIs to drive and measure. The first: average 50 qualified leads per week. The second: sign 50 new customers this year. They can track these KPIs through Web site analytics.

Once you have your main online goal and a few concrete, measurable KPIs, break down activities to support that goal, track them, and make adjustments each month as necessary.

Let’s look at another scenario as an example. This time we’ll use an association.

Association XYZ sets an online goal to increase membership 10 percent in 2010. XYZ’s supporting KPIs could be as follows. First: increase new visits to its site by 30 percent. Second: increase visits to their online job openings page by 25 percent.

From there, Association XYZ’s online marketing plan could include steps to create and distribute content focused on member needs. It might also choose to start a PPC campaign highlighting the online jobs section.

These are examples meant to get your brain working!

Don’t get caught up in the numbers. If you need to adjust your goal after a few months or change your KPIs, that’s OK. The important thing to remember is you must set your goals and then drive your online activities to reach them! Without measurable goals and KPIs you leave your online business to chance.

Please add your own goal and KPIs to help others brainstorm!

The winter doldrums are officially here. Momentum for New Year’s resolutions is fading fast. The trees are bare; grass is brown. It’s time for an Internet marketing pick-me up! And what better way than to reflect for a moment on things that make you smile?!?

Here are 20 things that make us smile at NetStrategies. We hope you will add your happy thoughts to the list too!

Photo Credit: peyri/www.flickr.com/462244646

1. Our great customers. You are the reason we are in business (our number one happy thought). Thank you for trusting NetStrategies to lead your Internet marketing efforts.

2. Teamwork. Each member of our team is a leader in their field and augments everything we do. Our talents span from SEO, PPC, Analytics, Development, Social Media, Content Writing, Video, Managed Web Site Hosting, editing, kayaking, ice hockey, grilling, and scone baking!

3. The Internet. Thank you Al Gore for inventing it. After all, there would be no Internet marketing without the Internet!

4. Our vendors. Great vendors like Applicure, Cisco, Dell, and Parallels allow us to better serve our customers.

5. Occoquan Harbour Marina office space. We enjoy a gorgeous view every day from our desks overlooking the Occoquan River in Northern Virginia.

6. Google Analytics. This wonderful, free Web analytics tool allows us to do what we do best, measure results.

7. Experts who share their knowledge. Books, blogs, Webinars, videos…all free resources you share online and off.

8. Twitter and all its applications. We find valuable content every day from those we follow. Twitter gives us a valuable social platform to share our content. All those wonderful free applications like HootSuite and TweetDeck make using Twitter a snap.

9. Graphic designers. You make everything look so much better!

10. Programmers. Your HTML skills make anything possible. The phrase of 2010 has got to be “There’s an app for that!”

11. Instant messaging. This handy little feature draws our remote employees just a keystroke (and an emoticon) away!

12. bing’s photo of the day. If you don’t visit bing every day to learn about a new place, you are missing out.

13. Good coffee. No one in our office could make it though the day without our java jolts from Caribou Coffee in Lorton.

14. Flavored creamers. Funny, everyone makes fun of the hazelnut and vanilla latte creamers, but they need replacing every week.

15. MacBook Pro. (Sorry fellow PC-loving NetStrategists…had to slip in the Mac.)

16. Google Alerts. This handy free program helps us with reputation management and to watch the spread of our content. (Always a reason to smile!)

17. Collaboration. Outcomes are always better when we take advantage of shared talent.

18. Interns. NetStrategies supports local intern programs like Training Futures in the DC metro area. It is exciting to share our passion for Internet marketing with a budding new professional while benefiting from their hard work.

19. TubeMogul makes our videographer smile! He uploads our videos to this one site and it is distributed to many more automatically.

20. Internet marketing the NetStrategies way. Everyone on staff smiles when we help a client succeed with measurable results. Whether we launch a new Website, improve an existing one, boost the search results, or help a pay-per-click campaign take off, it is rewarding and fun ALWAYS!

What makes you smile at work?? Please share!

Search Engine Optimization Fundamentals | Stacey Morgan Smith

Yeah, sorry to say it, but please — don’t get hung up on your rankings. Just because you are number one in Google for your search doesn’t mean you’re number one in Google for your customer’s search.

As I mentioned in my post on personalized search, Google customizes your search results based on your search history.  Test it yourself. Google something. Now find a friend and Google the same thing on her computer. Most likely your results are different… unless you’re both in the same field and mostly do the same searches.

The point is (and I do generally have one) — your site content has to sell your product, whether you show up above the fold or below in the rankings. If the 5 sites above you don’t help a searcher solve his or her problem and you DO, you get the sale…and the 5 competitors get the honor of “being ranked top 5″ Great. Let them take that to the bank while you close another sale.

Stacey Morgan Smith is the director of search engine optimization for Northern Virginia Internet Marketing Company NetStrategies. With over 14 years’ experience as an editor and proofreader, she brings a different viewpoint to SEO. Along with the rest of the NetStrategies team, she can help you increase your leads from search!