Social media is a broad phrase that refers to a variety of user generated content on the web. You may think of it as the online equivalent of traditional word of mouth. Social media has proven its value over the past few years, even playing a role in both the Obama and McCain campaigns during the 2008 presidential race. Social networking platforms like MySpace and Twitter as well as forums and blogs make communicating with wide audiences easier than ever, and as a natural result, online discussion about companies and products are taking place constantly all over the Web.

Interacting and shopping on the web have evolved into an integrated set of behaviors that influence the way consumers research products and make purchase decisions. Honest consumer reviews and comments about products are powerful examples of social media influence at work. A recent survey by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Volusion revealed that 27% of respondents would be encouraged to shop on social networks based on the presence of comments about products. The survey also found that 30% would be encouraged to shop based on the availability of special deals and exclusive products. The takeaway from these findings is that consumers are paying attention, and they are open to what businesses and consumers have to say through social media. Online businesses that choose to get involved have much to gain from developing relationships and communicating their messages in the online spaces where potential customers are actively socializing and learning about products they are interested in purchasing.

As an online store owner, social networking can give you the opportunity to interact directly with those in your target market and build relationships and loyal customers. Relationships have long been a core component of business, and social media provides a contemporary means of developing and fostering them.

-Pam Westbrook, Ecommerce Marketing/Copywriting

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Instead of challenging antitrust concerns posed by the U.S. Department of Justice, Google recently pulled out of the deal it made with Yahoo! in June to feature Google advertisements on its web pages. In an email sent to Yahoo! advertisers, the Executive Vice President of Yahoo! U.S., Hilary Schneider, expressed disapointment in the decision and then concluded the email with reassurance that Yahoo! will continue to improve the quality of its search engine and online advertising services:

“We wanted to reach out to you directly regarding Google’s decision, announced earlier today, to terminate the advertising services agreement that the companies announced in June. Yahoo! continues to believe in the benefits of the agreement, and is disappointed that Google has elected to withdraw from the agreement rather than defend it in court. Google notified Yahoo! of its refusal to move forward with implementation of the agreement following indication from the Department of Justice that it would seek to block it, despite Yahoo!’s proposed revisions to address the DOJ’s and advertisers’ concerns. While disappointed by this turn of events, we are writing to you to reaffirm our commitment to working together to drive your advertising results, and to provide the continued leadership you expect…”

Does this mean a Microsoft+Yahoo deal may be back on the table? In February, Microsoft expressed interest in purchasing Yahoo! and in a comment made on Wednesday, Yahoo CEO Jerry Jang said “I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo.”

Read more:
Without Google’s help, Yahoo’s options limited
Google-Yahoo: Unintended Consequences
Microsoft and Yahoo! Partnership Possibility (May, 2008)

-Stacie Leonard, Ecommerce Marketing/Copywriting

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Brainstorming is an essential phase of keyword research for both paid search campaigns and search engine optimization. The goal of brainstorming keywords for a site is to generate a large, diverse pool of potential phrases without regard to search volume, cost or competitiveness just yet. Brainstorming keyword phrases is not a task that should be rushed. Taking the time to thoroughly think through variations that may be used to search for sites like yours can help you uncover potentially lucrative keywords you may otherwise neglect. While the final keyword list for a site is chosen based on research and focuses on quality, brainstorming is all about quantity and allowing your ideas to expand upon one another.

Remember that each page of your site you want to optimize or promote through PPC needs its own set of keywords. Usually you will find the best keywords for the most important pages of your site, but sometimes keyword research may uncover a targeted, untapped key phrase worth building a landing page around. The brainstorming pointers below can help you generate keyword phrases fitting for either situation.

• Consider the level of expertise in your target market.
  One common problem with brainstorming keywords is that we become constrained by the vocabulary and industry jargon familiar to us, when in fact consumers are using totally different phrases to search for products. Let’s assume we are brainstorming keyword phrases for a website selling a highly technical product, LED signs. Some search phrases obvious to those in the industry are:
  • LED signs
  • LED display
  • scrolling LED sign
  • outdoor LED sign
  • programmable LED sign

  While the above phrases are common to those in the industry, consumers often search for LED signs using their own vocabulary, such as:

  • LED moving message sign
  • electronic LED sign
  • scrolling sign
  • moving message display

  Sometimes, layman descriptions that would make industry insiders cringe may be exactly what users are typing in. Even better, your competitors may be focused on the obvious keywords, giving you the opportunity to capitalize on less competitive but frequently searched terms with minimal investment.

• Include phrases used in the research phase, before the purchase process.
  Let’s say we are brainstorming keywords for a website with the primary purpose of selling supplies for making paper. Our initial brainstorming session may generate something like:
  • papermaking supplies
  • paper making supplies
  • paper making equipment
  • paper making kit

  Once we have a few phrases on the list, mental block often kicks in and tempts us to move to the next step armed with only the most obvious key phrases.
  Instead of quitting there, we decide to brainstorm phrases we can target on our informational pages to attract consumers who are researching papermaking. Including original, informative content on your site adds tremendous value for both users and search engines, and can boost your conversion rate since consumers are more likely to purchase from a company they perceive as an authority on the subject.
  We add “how to make paper” to the list. Now for demonstration, let’s take a look at the approximate monthly search volume for each phrase on the list, based on data from Google’s keyword tool:

  • papermaking supplies 390
  • paper making supplies 720
  • paper making equipment 210
  • paper making kit 590
  • how to make paper 201,000

  Wow, one informational keyword accounts for a big difference in potential targeted visitors to the site. While search numbers from any tool should not be taken literally, they can give us helpful clues about the search volume for certain keyword phrases relative to others. In this case, “how to make paper” appears to get thousands more searches than any of our other phrases so far, and is definitely worth keeping on our brainstorming list.

• Think about keywords that describe alternatives to your products.Maybe you sell bamboo floring but you also want to get your brand in front of consumers in the market for wood floors. Or perhaps you want consumers searching for dog training services to find your new book on the subject. Marketing for alternative or competing products is usually more efficiently accomplished through paid ad campaigns, but can be an effective SEO strategy under the right circumstances. If you are publicizing a new-to-market item for which no one searches, for instance, you may build awareness by writing about products your innovation replaces or supplements so that people searching for existing products may find your site.
• Target specific uses or desirable features of your products.When searching for products, people often have in mind specific uses or features they want. Include in your brainstorming list adjectives or descriptive phrases that point out specific selling points for your products. Here are a few examples:
  • Storage chest vs. Waterproof storage chest
  • Cell phone vs. cell phone with GPS
  • Coffee table vs. wooden coffee table
  • Toaster vs. Mickey Mouse head toaster (seriously)
• Develop seasonal or current event specific keywords. Depending on your product offering, promoting seasonal keyword phrases or those related to current events or trends can bring an influx of qualified traffic. Here are a few examples:
  • Father’s day gifts (or other gift-giving holidays)
  • Superbowl party ideas (or other sporting/special events)
  • Back to school clothes
  • Snow shovels
  • Thanksgiving tablecloths

  If your products fill a need for a specific season or event, brainstorm how you can work that angle into your PPC campaign (or SEO campaign if the return is worth the effort).

Some other considerations to point you in the right direction when brainstorming key phrases are:

• Language differences among geographic regions (think soda vs. pop vs. coke)
• Commonly used slang expressions
• Differences in jargon used by people in different age groups
• Acronyms and abbreviations for phrases
• Common misspellings (generally for PPC)
• New words or phrases that emerge with new technology (like “webinar” or “ringtone”)
• Targeted long tail phrases for which there may be little competition
• Alternate ways your products may be used (“tennis balls for walkers”)

One final tip: Ask your customers, friends, family, colleagues and anyone who may fall into your target market what keywords they might use to find a business like yours, which can give you valuable insight into the language that is commonly used by those inside and outside your industry. Only when you have an exhaustive list of brainstormed keyword phrases should you move into the next phase of researching which of these phrases will attract the highest volume of qualified traffic to your site. Starting with a well thought out list of brainstormed keyword phrases will provide a solid foundation for the rest of your search marketing efforts.

-Pam Westbrook, Ecommerce Marketing/Copywriting

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The search marketing industry is abuzz on the heels of Google’s announcement that Google Suggest, previously available through Google Labs, is now a default feature on the Google home page.

Google Suggest offers search term suggestions in real-time as you type a query, and ranks these suggestions based on the most commonly searched phrases. So if you intend to search for the phrase “Dallas Cowboys,” you may only get as far as “Dal…” before Google steps in and offers to complete your query for you.

From a user standpoint, Google Suggest is a welcome addition to the already incredible functionality of the most utilized search engine in the world. Gone are the days when we had to (gasp!) type in a complete search term before getting instant access to an incomprehensible heap of information related to the topic, much less know how to spell it. If searchers embrace the Google Suggest tool and essentially reduce a majority of searches to the few most popular queries, what implications would this have for search marketers? I would venture to guess that:

• The highest volume search terms (which are the ones being suggested by the tool) will become even more popular.

• Users’ intended search queries may be frequently abandoned in favor of suggested queries, reducing the volume of searches for long tail and misspelled search terms that once served a valuable purpose to search marketers.

• Competition for the most searched terms will intensify on the natural and paid search ends of the spectrum, resulting in higher cost per click rates as well as intensified competition among online businesses for popular phrases in the natural search results.

Again, this is merely my speculation; perhaps searchers will continue to search by their own rules and the impact of Google Suggest on the search marketing industry will be minimal. Only time will tell how this new feature will impact search behavior and the search marketing industry as a whole. The rollout of Google Suggest is not the first move Google has made that affects the way marketers approach search, and it certainly will not be the last. At minimum, it underscores the need for search marketers to stay informed and involved with the industry as it evolves. Check out Jennifer Liu’s At a Loss for Words? article on the Google blog for more information.

-Pam Westbrook, Ecommerce Marketing/Copywriting

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If you don’t know what you are doing, setting up Google AdWords can feel a lot like playing a slot machine in Vegas. You keep paying and paying, and nothing happens. Meanwhile, the experienced retired grandmother in the Wayne Newton t-shirt finds the right machine, slaps in a dollar token, and wins $5000.

Several key steps to improving your PPC performance include finding the right keywords, setting up negative keywords, and writing compelling copy. But the ad itself is just half the equation. Another key element is the page the customer lands on after clicking the ad. When considering landing pages, Offermatica CEO Jamie Roche classifies them in three categories:

• Home page-like landing pages:
  Sometimes, your best bet is to frame the landing page with the standard home page components. This doesn’t mean that you don’t target the product or offer, or limit options in order to be relevant, but you would want to be heavy on branding, trust statements and imagery that reflect a visitor’s desire to talk to you as a company. Your goal is to get people to self-identify as quickly as possible. On comparison shopping sites, for example, you might try to discover if the visitor is interested in news, reviews, or price comparisons. Visitors arriving from the keywords you designated as “brand” words or relatively broad categories like “loans” could be sent to this type of landing page.
• Offer-based landing pages:
  These pages are very offer-specific with a goal of convincing visitors to act on the interest they’ve already expressed by clicking on the original ad. These pages have more limited navigation or off-linking. For a retailer, there is the classic product page, with a product shot, pricing, features, and other elements. For lead generation and direct marketing, this type of page will usually hit the major selling points and get you started on the order form or application. For publishers, this could be an article that has advertising or other links to content. In all cases, reinforce the source of traffic and experiment with the balance between focus on the offer and availability of off-links and branding elements.
• Category landing pages:
  When somebody has clearly shown an interest, but the interest is in a relatively unstructured area, such as “loans” or “jeans” or “concerts,” your goal is to funnel them more deeply into your content or offering. You might do this by grouping information in a way that allows them to make choices based on their own preferences for searching — for example, by price, theme, editor’s recommendations, most popular, etc. Visitors from the terms you designated as “category” words would be sent to this type of page.

When looking at your ads and keywords, try to classify each one in one of these categories. This will make it much easier to create effective landing pages.

Michelle Greer
michelle_greer(at)volusion.com
http://www.volusion.com

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