Yes, it is time you were part of it.

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The Changing Media

Traditional media in the U.S. are going through substantial changes.
Consider these affects:

• Media deregulation has turned journalism from a small, local business into conglomerates that are less community based. The media are now beholden to stock holders and regulators more than the community.
• Labor costs and logistics are killing newspapers. They can no longer compete with the real time publishing of the web. City traffic makes the deadline requirements of an afternoon paper unreasonable.
• Everything has become an ad medium. Urinals, grocery carts, retail floors, sides of trucks. Any space seems to be available for advertising. The clutter of promotional messages has gotten, well...strange.
• Broadcast commercial minutes have more than doubled to 18 minutes per hour. Almost 43% of a prime time show is commercial. This commercial load has affected the storytelling capability of the medium by violating the viewers willing suspension of disbelief.
• Add to that clutter the distraction of ever present logos and screen crawlers during the show and the entertainment medium has begun to self destruct.
• The lower production costs of Reality TV Series has reduced the commitment to longer dramas requiring higher production values.
• Syndicated radio programming has broken the local connection stations use to have with their audience by using a single DJ to cover multiple cities.
• Packaged pseudo-talent marketed for mass distribution has hurt the ability of radio to attract listeners seeking more creative and less connected talent.
• Postal delivery has turned into a promotional direct mail and billing service. Little personal communication or contact comes through that medium.
• Movie theaters costs have risen dramatically while the theaters have become another venue for advertising to the captive audience.
• Mass Media use to cater to a large and diverse audience. The only way news and programming could serve such a large group, was to find a common denominator. That denominator was "truth" as best as the stations could discern it. With today’s niche programming (brought about by the scalability of cable TV plethora of channels) the audiences are no longer as large but are more homogenous. Truth is less important than perspective. The audience expects to hear support for their agenda.

The Changing Media Habit
All of these changes have affected how we as a culture consume media. Media is a habit. Advertisers select the media they buy based on the media habits of their customers. Our habits are changing.

• Radio use and loyalty are down.
• Television is fighting amongst itself with cable versus network programs, while reducing production expense.
• Commercial clutter has reduced our general tolerance of the medium.
• We know newspapers are failing.
• Magazines are having trouble maintaining readership.
  So where are we spending the extensive hours we use to spend with TV and radio and newspaper? That’s where we have found the hours to be online.

Changes in Expectations and Acceptance
As the media has changed the way they present content, alternatives have changed how the public consumes media.

Too much advertising can negate the entertainment gained from a station. So we quit watching. We buy TIVO. We turn skeptical of the messages. We walk away and forget to return.

The Power of Inbound Marketing
48.4 million people read a daily newspaper.
285 million people watch TV during a month.
In that same month, there are 14 billion searches online.

Inbound Marketing isn’t a communication tool. It is its own sales channel.

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Key Considerations in Harness the Web

#1. The Web is a consumer medium.
Use it for its mass audience. Yes it can reach your Business-2-Business prospects. But the value is that it provides a venue to talk to your end users...the people that make your products successful. Start with the end user and the affect will work up the supply chain to your distributors. It is a reach medium. Use it to its maximum effect by interacting with your end customer.

#2. The Online consumer is empowered.
There is no media gatekeeper online.  There are no boundaries to access.
Companies are evaluated by their content, not their size.
No one owns the truth online. It is a collection of opinions and perspectives the consumer can read and choose. All this access to information has changed your relationship with your customers. They don’t have to drive all over town looking for another vendor. Google will find them instantly. Compare their content and prices. Shopping is fast and easy.

#3. How to use the web
It is a diverse tool capable of providing value in a number of ways:
A. It is an easy and powerful source of word-of-mouth advertising.
B . It is a way to provide pro-active customer service
C. Find new distributors and referrals
D. Direct sales

#4. It is not about your dealer base.
It is not about product.  It is about the community.
The web is your chance to engage customers and users directly.

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Interacting with the Inbound Customer

Remember:

• They are informed. They’ve been online to learn about products and solutions. They will make an informed buying decision
• They are Media Literate. They’ve grown up under siege by incredible advertising clutter. They have very good commercial filtering.
• They’ve watched politicians lie. They’ve watched religious leaders lie. They’ve seen the compassionate lack compassion. They’ve seen major infrastructure support systems malfunction. They are skeptical not by nature, but by exposure. They are pragmatic.
• They are technologically savvy. They enjoy using technology as entertainment, communication and productivity.
• They know how to find and validate information very quickly.

The Role of Inbound Marketing

• Engage your customers. Don’t sell them. Talk to them. Equip them to buy. Give them the information they seek to make the right purchase decision.  Build your brand with trust. 

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Search Engine Marketing Made Easy

Harnessing the web requires a clear plan, with simple steps that require continuous improvement. If you follow these steps, the results will come. But they are dynamic and require attention to both maintain momentum and improve performance.

Search Engine Marketing has been evolving rapidly.
It is based on very specific algorithms, disciplines and best practices – some of which are known and others of which are proprietary to the search companies.

Also, search is young.
So there are more myths and misinformation circulating the business community than can easily be addressed. The basics however, are simple. If you understand the basics and keep focused on the goal, an Inbound Marketing Program will present results and opportunities like no other medium.

Here are the key basics.

#1: Inbound Marketing belongs in marketing. IT may manage the development, but it is a marketing discipline and budget focused on customer acquisition.

#2. SEO starts before the site launches. SEM touches the entire web presence. Decisions will be made on everything from selecting the URL to how tools like Flash, blogs and videos will be used and hosted. Involve your SEM and marketing professionals from the beginning for a comprehensive plan. Don’t start building the house until you have the blueprint.

#3. An Inbound Marketing professional will first spend time understanding your customers and their customers. We will create ‘personas’ which are deep profiles of purchasers, decision makers and influencers. To really establish relationships with folks, you first must understand their situations, how they talk about their challenges and the terms they use when solving problems. This simply requires interface time both live and online. It begins by identifying networks and forums where prospects gather. This is why SEM requires a marketing professional, not a developer/designer.

#4. Understand the buying cycle. Not all leads are equal. Ask the sales representative who has to evaluate the lead to decide if he’ll invest time on it. SEM can nurture leads from early stage awareness to pipeline report inclusion. But this nurturing must be understood if it is going to be addressed in the plan.

#5. Keywords show intent. It is how prospects express their need.
Keywords are not products. They are not categories. They are not industry technical jargon and names. It is real world terminology used by honest-to- goodness prospects trying to figure things out. Get this right – and you are in the game.

#6. Don’t sweat the Home Page. No one cares. Landing pages are where the action centers. This is where we deliver people seeking solutions we resolve.

So – what are our solutions? (Not products…solutions.) The only goal of the page is conversion.  The landing page leads the visitor to an action we have planned based on where they sit in the buying cycle.
- Read something (minimal commitment)
- Click on something – go to another page for more info. (growing interest)
- Sign up for something – webinar, download, e-book
- Email us (permission to engage)

The landing page will close for action.
We have a formula for Landing Page Design that incorporates the necessary incentives and addresses  traditional obstacles.

#7. Web sites are not electronic brochures. Content must equip people to understand the product and what it contributes. Research shows that what matters to visitors is the authority of the domain. Content is our way of establishing that authority and building trust.

#8. The technical underpinning of the web site.
Title tags, headings, paragraph titles, image alt text, meta-description tags are all part of competent site design. Marketing owns the 'what.'  The web developer will implement.  This is the area of major myths. Just remember, search engines have gotten very sophisticated. You won’t trick them. Just do the work and give them what they have clearly and publicly outlined. No secrets. No mumbo-jumbo.

#9. The way to improve search rankings is to prove our ‘authority.’
Search engines, above all else, use links to identify strong, authoritative content. If people link to your site, they must value what you offer. Optimization has a number of techniques, but number one are strategies to encourage links. Much of the content we develop is built around this objective.  Establishing links must have its own strategy and action plan.

#10. The Social Networks are simply gathering places for discussions. It is our chance to talk to prospects. This is the new marketing paradigm. Our prospects are gathered and seeking our participation. They’d like to know what we know. Through conversation. Through question and answer. They don’t want a sales pitch. They don’t want a product presentation. They don’t want a sales sheet. They want to talk. Invest the time to do that and you’ll win visitors, links and customers.

#11. Getting found by viewers requires that we be visible. Our blogs discuss the things our prospects care about (which probably isn’t product – its process). Our videos show people things they haven’t seen…introduce people they couldn’t otherwise meet. Links present new information that we endorse.
Pay-per-click allows us to be contenders for competitive keywords. E-books provide free information, demonstrating our expertise of the greater category.  And everything focuses on conversion – building the relationship that moves the prospect to our landing page, email acceptance and ongoing interaction.

#12. Everything is measurable. Build the template, analyze it continually and improve week by week, month by month. Start measuring day one. How many visitors come to our site? The bounce rate on our landing pages tells us if we are compelling. What sites do they come from? What words do they search? The fact that ever individuals movements are completely traceable makes inbound marketing the most manageable promotional medium in existence. Designing the metrics to follow the site objectives sets the stage for continuous improvement.

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How Stratcom Can Help

We love the web.
We’re certified Inbound Marketers. We understand the nuances of web site marketing. We keep up with the evolving changes this young medium is going through.

Put us on your team and let us do the strategic plan, validation and implementation. We’ll make the web less esoteric for you and lucrative for your company.

Here’s a sampling of the work we’ll do.

1) Landing Page for each Brand
The landing page is where the consumer looking for you wants to go.  Not the home page. But the exact page that has the information or products they're looking for. The landing page is part of your brand strategy. Each separate brand or division should have its own landing page to make it easy for your customer.

2) Optimization plan for each Landing Page
This is critical to make sure our brands are easily found through search.
There are some important techniques to maximize this, including:

A. Find the Correct Key Words
It isn’t the words you use in the industry.
It probably isn’t your brand name.
Think like a consumer.
Companies think in terms of products, services and categories they want viewers to search. Think in terms of how consumers will search. What will the consumer type in Google to find your company?

Key Word Hints
- Listen to the forums.
- Categories get searched more than brands;
- Technical words don’t get searched
- Be as specific as your product requires;
- Be as general as success allows
- Words that are too broad attract non-prospects
- Analyze your competitors Talk to your customers.

B. Find the forums where people talk about your product category.
There are hundreds of them. Go visit some. Listen. See how your consumers talk. What do THEY call the product and category? This is the place to validate your key word.

The next step is to visit those forums and listen to our prospects. They will be full of insights and surprises – and affect our key word choices.

Remember, we optimize the Landing Pages individually.
The home page we optimize for retailers.
The Landing pages for consumers.

We only need 1-2 key words per page. Make them important.

3) Google algorithm insights for optimization of each landing page.

Key word placement affects rankings

Title Tag
Use the keyword as the first word in the Title Tag if possible, but at least within the first 65 characters. Place it to the left.

Subdomain
Brands should be optimized with their name or key word as the subdomain.

H1 Tag (first headline)
Search engines recommend using key words here as a best practice.

Body Copy
Obviously, the key word should show up here.

Alt Text
This is the crawler’s caption for any photos or graphics. Crawlers can’t see the photo, so they need this alt text definition – it should be a key word.

Meta Description
20 – 25 word description of the content on the page. This isn’t for ranking but for helping the engine to put the consumer in the right content.

4) Content
We can help craft the content and tools that attract viewers and keep them on the site. We write for the web.

5) Conversions
The purpose of your site is to drive sales. Sales require conversions.
Moving prospects through your site with an increasing commitment to buy.
We have a formula proven to generate conversions. It is the interrelationship of the viewers motivation, the clarity of value, an incentive to take action as we control friction (a cumbersome process) and anxiety to online purchasing.
We will improve your conversions.

5) Links
Links are how rankings are established. Attracting links suggests credibility and powerful content. We can help establish the links you need to rise in the rankings.

6) Migration Plan
Because we are rebuilding the site, make sure there is a migration plan with permanent redirects. Before closing your old site, we'll run inbound analytics for the sources of any links from the old site. We want to know them so we can re-establish them.

7) Metrics
The beauty of web based marketing is that everything is accurately measurable.
We know exactly what people do online. So we can compare month by month to see how our chosen metrics improve. Then we’ll tweak the site to make them better next month. Metrics may include:

• Visitors by source
• Bounce Rate (how many visitors immediately leave)
• Conversion Rate
• Engagement duration (how long they stay on the site).
• Key word Search Rank
• Time spent per page

If you would like help improving the performance of your site, drop us an email and we’ll take a look!

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