In the world of Email marketing, there is always room for improvement.  Sometimes, the biggest improvement can come from the smallest of edits.

The most minor adjustments to your email template have the potential to cause click-through (the % of people who actually click on a link) and open rates (the % of people who open and view an email instead of just ignoring or deleting it) to suddenly skyrocket, and in turn, drive large amounts of sales, traffic, sign ups, or conversions. However, the only way to truly learn from your template adjustments is to implement them one at a time utilizing classic scientific procedure. By isolating your adjustments, you can learn which varying factors improve your campaigns and which hurt them.

A/B Split Testing for Email

The best approach for this experimental improvement is commonly referred to as A/B Split Testing: a function available within most email marketing services.

The actual process for Newsletter A/B Split Testing  involves splitting a small, randomally selected subset of your mailing list subscribers into two groups. Then, each groups receivs an email that is nearly identical, save a small tweak that you are testing. For example, you might test different subject lines to see how that affects open rate. Once the results are measured, you then send out the “winning” variation to the all the users who didn’t receive  one of the original test emails.

To reiterate, the only difference between the two emails going to the two small test groups should be the single factor that you are testing.

An Example

Acme, Inc. would like find out which color link attracts the most clicks. In the current version of their newsletter, link is displayed in a big red font with no special decoration.

In order to find out if this is the optimal presentation for clicks, they up an A/B test that includes two identical newsletters except for this big red link. Email #1 would include the standard big red link link with no special decoration while Email #2 would include a blue link with no special decoration.  While it may tempting to experiment with decorating the link or creating a special button, that should be saved for the next test in order to keep the currently tested color variable completely isolated.  The reason for only testing one tweak at a time is so that there is no doubt about what caused the increase.  To continue testing ways to improve click-through rates, further A/B tests could be done.

But links are not the only thing that can be tested in newsletters.  Other potential variables include:

• Subject-Line: Test subject lines to increase open rates.
• From-Line: Test which “from” address results in the highest open rate.
• Landing Page: Find out which landing page to link to by seeing which one results in a higher conversion rate
• Time of Delivery: The time of day that email is sent could have a significant impact on open rates and recipient activity across all metrics.
• Presentation of Calls to Action: Not getting enough clicks? Try testing the color of and style of buttons.
• Just About Every Aspect of A Newsletter: Almost anything in a newsletters can be tested for improvement.

Remember: scientific testing is the only true path to improvement in your campaigns.  While there are many preachers of best practices out there, what works for most may not work for your list. The only way to be sure is to test test test.

Not all email delivery methods are created equal.

Everyone with an email account knows how to send an email. Most of us send out dozens every day. When it comes to sending out bulk emails, though, you are far wiser to rely on a professional email marketing service.

Using a consumer- or business-grade email account to send out your marketing emails can lead to big problems. Systems like Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. are simply not equipped to send out bulk emails and lack the features necessary to execute a successful email marketing campaign.

Email Marketing Services

While there are many different email marketing Service Providers, they all tend to provide the same basic services:

Analytics & Statistics

When you send an email by yourself, you have no way of knowing how many people actually received your email, let alone how many actually opened it.

Email marketing services use special tools to separately track how many emails are received in inboxes and how many are actually opened. You can even see who opened and who clicked through and what was clicked. Furthermore, you’ll receive reports on unsubscribes, bounces, and formal spam complaints.

All this data will help you improve future mailings to increase response open and response rates.

A/B Testing

Most modern email marketing Services allow you to test out multiple subject lines to find the most successful one. For example, you can set two different subject lines on a randomly select sample (e.g. 10%) of your mailing list. The system will automatically compare the open rates and then send the email with the “winning” subject line to the rest of your list.

Pre-Approved To Send Bulk Email

Most email systems limit the number of emails that you can send at once. You probably won’t even know when you’ve reached the limit–your emails simply won’t go through. Furthermore, bulk emails from most normal email accounts will quickly get flagged as spam. Email marketing services have relationships and agreements with internet and email providers to send authorized bulk email through, without being flagged as spam.

(NOTE: Email marketing services still allow you to display your own email address in the “from” box–they simply change key “under-the-hood” settings that your customers won’t see.)

Professional Mailing Practices & Legal Requirements

Using your normal mailing system can result in privacy breaches, like exposing your entire list in the “To” or “CC:” line.  Separately, a failure to include unsubscribe instructions or an unsubscribe link is now against the law.

Handle Formatting

Email marketing Services verify that your email complies with standards and will display correctly across all modern computers, web browsers, and email systems. They also ensure that your email meets the size requirements enforced by many email systems without having to sacrifice the higher response rates that come with graphic-rich HTML emails.

List Management

An Email marketing service will host and manage your list. They will manage unsubscribe requests and “bounce-backs” from recipients whose email addresses are no longer active. You can even separate lists into multiple segments and groups.

While setting up and sending out mailing lists is manageable by anyone with intermediate computer and internet skills, the hard part is knowing how to structure and analyze the results of email marketing campaigns. Anyone can send out an email, but it takes experience and training to craft a headline that will get users to open your email instead of sending it straight to the trash. And once the email is open, what buttons and calls to action will convince users to click your links and convert into real sales?

Last month, I launched an A/B test of our Request a Quote form page to see if a new design would impact the percentage of form fills. I planned the design of a new version of the page to see if the some of the basic “best practices” really had an impact. The result was a 37% increase in form fills.

Here is what the current form looks like:

Here are the changes I made:

Fewer visual distractions. I got rid of the main navigation and all other content on the page. The only action to take was to fill out the form. I did leave a “Back” button, which currently points back to our home page. (I plan to change this to a simple “Back” button that takes the user one page back, like a browser button would.)

Form validation. I added form validation cues such as a green check mark or a red “X” that confirmed, in real-time, whether the form was being filled out correctly. For the “Phone” and “Company” name fields, I wasn’t too picky, in fact allowing those to remain blank, if need be.

Supporting content. I knew that there were questions that users were asking before requesting a quote. I wanted to answer those and add some value, as well as reassure that we do not use their data in any dubious ways. Most of the on-going testing will revolve around trying different things of this type: showing our list of clients again to re-enforce our credibility, including trust badges and certificates such as our AdWords Partner Status, BBB accreditation, and a Verisign-type security badge.

The new request a quote form

The new form is stripped of superfluous content and makes the form almost fun to fill out with immediate validation of input data. Another small, but nice feature is the default placement of the cursor within the first field to fill out.

The new form increased chances that a visitor to the form page would fill out the form by 37%.  Below are the Google Website Optimizer results:

This test came on the heels of a previous landing page test,which increased our overall conversion rate (all traffic) from 1.12% to 2.42% (a 217% increase). The increase in the form fill rate led to another increase in our overall conversion rate, this time to 3.36% (a 301% increase from our original 1.12%).

I will test out adding the following in the coming months:

• Trust symbols
• Testimonials
• Client list
• Value proposition

Changing the name of the form is also something I have considered, perhaps a “quote” is not what our best clients are looking for. To test this, I will create 3 identical forms with different names and different calls to action on the page going to them. I will try:

• “Request a Quote”
• “Request a Consultation”
• “Contact Us”

If you have any suggestions on what the test out in the future, please leave a comment below!

NEW POST (September 29, 2011): How an Owl Increased Our Retargeting CTRs by 430%

A few weeks ago in this space we talked about organizing content for mobile to better optimize website conversions. As everyone already knows, it’s all about the conversions. The post generated a lot of interest from readers and a few suggested a follow about how to go about maximizing overall conversation rates on mobile devices.

Why is this important? Because mobile web content consumption continues to increase as double-digit growth was seen across all major categories in the U.S. in 2011, according to comScore.  In the U.S., 82 million consumers have already adopted smartphones. And from a marketing perspective, while only about  6 percent of ad budgets are currently reserved for mobile, marketers will increase their mobile spend to 35 percent of the total over the next year.

If you’re designing websites, you better do it with mobile in mind.

So it makes sense to start building out sites that make it easier to convert visitors on a mobile device. Keep this in mind: to convert users on mobile you MUST play to the strengths of mobile devices.  We’ve long moved passed the days when replicating the desktop experience was good enough.

Here are five of my top 10 steps to help make mobile conversions easier (come back next week the the next five!):

What are you writing, a book?

Very few people these days even like to read books, let alone want to write one. So why are you annoying them with a tome worth of compulsory fields asking for a glut of semi-useless information on your contact form. Keep it short!

Helpful hint: Use of radio buttons and check boxes. This will reduce time spent users and encourage them to continue toward your goal: completing the form. This way you make sure to secure that conversion before bogging visitors down with irrelevant questions.

Eliminate extra steps, save the searches.

The easier you make things for visitors the likelihood of converting them increases. The ability to save searches should be alluring for just about anyone with a website that asks for information, especially in places where users are likely to search for the same things repeatedly. Allowing visitors to save their searches makes completing regular purchases that much easier. Amazon does this very well on numerous levels (see below).

Helpful hint: Visitor doesn’t have an account, no problem. Include an email option that allows them to save their searches. You can go the cookies rout to remember and remind of previous searches.

Efficiency with HTML5 form fields.

Keep them coming back for more with a simplified form set up. HTML5 simplifies many common tasks when building a Web page including multimedia content, validating forms, caching information and capturing data such as date and time. By Simply the users experience using HTML5 to create auto-complete form fields.

Helpful hint: By using HTML5 in form fields, it is possible to help users to complete those fields more efficiently.

Keep it real… real consistent.

Creating a uniformed experience across multiple platforms means mobile users will have the same experience as laptop users, tablet users, desktop users and just about another other kind of user connecting to your website. When a customer starts the conversion process on an iPad, it can be completed on an iPhone. For example, if I’m shopping at TommyHilfiger.com on my desktop and need to abandon my shopping cart to go to a party, I can login to their account on my mobile device and complete the transactions while on the go. (Do I really need a striped shirt that bad? Some people do and will.)

Helpful hint: Keeping style and layout consistent will help users navigate your site easily from one device to another.

Take action here!

Everyone knows the importance of having call-to-action buttons, but somehow many still manage to muff the implementation, and this can turn a conversation into a bounce faster than a 404 error message. Usually the biggest mistake occurs in providing too many conversion options, or worse not clearly identifying these options to the visitor.

Helpful hint: Avoid using multiple conversion options and use button color and size to clearly indicate to a visitor what you want them to do next.

Next week I’ll round out the top 10 ways to whip your website into mobile shape.

As mobile continues to dominate tech talk in 2011, a  wave of of ancillary issues – from location-based technologies to hyper-local marketing trends – are reverberating through businesses across the country.

Last month we presented Part 1 of  Making Conversions Easier for Mobile Users. If you hadn’t noticed there’s been a lot of chatter about mobile optimization in this space and prior to that post we talked about organizing content for mobile to better optimize website conversions. As everyone already knows, it’s all about the conversions.

Before we move forward let’s briefly look back on highlights of five issues to consider from the last post:

• What are you writing a book?

Use of radio buttons and check boxes. This will reduce time spent users and encourage them to continue toward your goal: completing the form.

• Eliminate extra steps, save the searches.

The easier you make things for visitors the likelihood of converting them increases.

• Efficiency with HTML5 form fields.

Keep them coming back for more with a simplified form set up.

• Keep it real… real consistent.

Creating a uniformed experience across multiple platforms means mobile users will have the same experience as laptop users, tablet users, desktop users and just about another other kind of user connecting to your website.

• Take action here!

Avoid using multiple conversion options and use button color and size to clearly indicate to a visitor what you want them to do next.

These five are also important to keep in mind when designing websites for mobile:

Check, please.

Not matter how great mobile technology increases in the coming years (even with the iPhone’s voice recognition, Siri); there is one problem that is likely insurmountable in the current format: Finger size to keyboard button ratio.  The essence of any mobile device is that it can fit in the palm of your hand. That’s not conducive to typing. In that respect, requesting a minimum amount of data entry from users is paramount. When building out a site for mobile consider using check boxes, lists and scroll menus. As always, making it easier will help guide visitors through the conversion process.

Side note: Too many options is not a good thing. Don’t  give a visitor too many options  when creating lists or they may become even less decisive. Remember to ‘guide’ them along toward your conversion goal.

It’s easy to call.

Click-to-Call. Listen up, they’ve already got a phone in there hand! If you offer call options make it the easiest call options available. Tag phone numbers on your website for click-to-call and turn those links into buttons.

Side note: When visiting a website mobile users are twice as likely to call then desktop users.

Mobile vs. Desktop.

Location based technologies aren’t really that big in the desktop space at the moment, nor do we anticipate a great deal of movement there. Generally speaking desktops have one location and rarely (finding locations/directions) are used to orient the user. If conversions are going to take place offline (ie. your store), it’s important to use geo-location technologies to get visitors from point A to point B (through your door). Maps, directions and a little discount savings incentive often do the trick.

Side note: A discount is a powerful motivator. Consider adding a discount code for mobile shoppers who come to the shop and convert quick.

From top down.

Your desktop screen is a rectangle from left to right (more or less). Most mobile devices are narrow and vertically orientated.

For mobile forms, horizontal labels (left- and right- aligned) should be avoided. When users click on an input field, the page is often automatically zoomed in to focus on the field. If horizontal labels are used, it is almost impossible to view both label and input field in one screen. In addition, due to small screens, it could be tricky to show long labels if horizontal labeling is used on mobile devices.

Side note: Top aligned labels also allow users to move down the form in one visual direction, instead of two visual directions with left and right aligned labels.

Save the Baskets

In the same manner that saved searches are alluring for just about anyone with a website that asks for information, providing the ability to save baskets is a key component to racking up those conversions. If you’re asking for pre-check out info on your website it’d be smart to include visitors can save their baskets for their return or even for them to access the basket again from another platform.

This is going to encourage cross-platform purchases.

If you have an email address, you’ve seen plenty of examples of email marketing. A clothing store might tell you about some new styles, a car dealership might let you know about a special financing deal, a local restaurant might let you know about new menu items.

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which allows anyone to send messages directly to a pre-determined list of users. These messages can be anything from simple, plain text to rich, graphic-laden pages (similar to normal websites). Email marketing messages are delivered right to the recipient’s inbox, just like normal email.

Email marketing differs from other online marketing in that it is inexpensive, easy to send, highly measureable, and goes straight to a target’s inbox. It’s another tool in your online marketing toolbox.

Now, let’s take a look at what makes email marketing so useful.

The Advantages of Email Marketing

1. Low Cost

Email-based marketing costs can be as low as $0.005 per email. This compares favorably to other online marketing methods like pay-per-click or cost-per-impression advertising. Compared to the expense of traditional mail marketing, the savings are even greater (think about all the printing and postage costs!).

2. Measurable Results

Using innovative tracking systems, email marketing allows you to know exactly how many people receive your message, how many open it, and how many actually click on the links and calls to action contained within your message. Armed with this knowledge, you can make adjustments and improvements to subsequent emails.

3. Precision Targeting

Send emails exactly where you want them to go. You can easily create segmented lists and direct different messages to designated customer groups. You can collect email addresses from a number of sources, including your existing customer database. Adding a “mailing list” box to your website is a great way to build a list of users who are interesting in to hearing from you.

4. Interactive

Email newsletters don’t limit you to simple, static content. You can include video, music, polls and more. These tools provide multiple ways to engage your customers.

5. Strong Calls to Action

Clicking on a link or button is very easy, which means that recipients have to take very little effort to follow through on a call to action. Compare this with traditional newsletters where recipients have to dial a phone number or type a website address into their computer.

6. Highly Personalized

Use your database to easily greet recipients by name. Make them feel that they aren’t receiving a generic mass email.

7. Time and Venue Shifting

Recipients can read your message on their own time and on the device of their choosing, whether that means in a traditional email inbox or on an iPhone. This freedom increases open rates and engagement rates.

8. Opt-In & Unsubscribe Options

Because email lists are easy to opt-in and opt-out of, you don’t have to worry about customers receiving unsolicited and unwanted advertising.

9. Instant Response

Most recipients will read your message within minutes or hours. You can know the success of your campaign the same day you send it instead of weeks down the line.

10. Simple

No need to coordinate design, printing, and mailing as is necessary with physical mail-shots. And unlike other forms of online marketing, you don’t have vague targets and results. Email marketing is straightforward: send a message to a targeted list of recipients. Write the message and press send.

11. Easy To Get Started

Getting started with your mailing list is simple. You probably even have a huge database of email addresses already. Think about all the email addresses you have in your current email system, Rolodex, Blackberry, or other device. And surely you have at least a handful of company news, special offers, or other piece of information you want to share with your contacts.

Last week we attended Search Engine Strategies New York, the online marketing conference and expo, and one theme that kept coming up in various contexts was the concept of real value. Different industries talk about it different way: in economics it’s “utility”, in customer relations it’s “satisfaction”, but the idea is the same: businesses and consumers alike are paying more attention to each dollar that they spend and how it benefits them.

Among consumers, that means brand loyalty is waning as people search for better deals, perhaps reevaluating and switching brands, or even going with generics. Among businesses, it means focusing more on ROI, and making sure your service providers are getting the right kind of results and giving you the metrics to back them up.

It’s a familiar concept at Blue Fountain Media; we’ve always held ourselves accountable for the success of our clients, focusing on your goals, and only recommending solutions that will yield a return on investment. We enjoy working with clients who feel the same way about their own customers. It was nice to have our strategy validated by others, like keynote speaker John Gerzema, who spoke about the erosion of trust, about the lack of permanence of institutions that used to appear untouchable, but ultimately about the opportunity that the crisis has created for smart companies. It’s a win for the consumer, and a win for businesses willing to take a step back, and make sure that they’re adding value that’s worth paying for.

In this example, Google includes a plus-box below a Newegg.com ad, with product images and information pulled from microformatted tables on their product pages:

Much like the Google Checkout badge and the maps plus box, this isn’t something you can just turn on via AdWords; it’s a result of having your ad campaigns set up correctly, and Google crawling your website and determining that they’ll be providing users with a better experience by displaying additional content from your website (either letting users know that you support Google Checkout, or giving a preview of products related to your search).

This is yet another example of the importance of a holistic approach to online marketing; advertising should integrate not only searchability and online reputation, but site architecture as well. (For a more in-depth explanation of how Google uses information like microformats in the SERPS, check out their recent entry on the Google Webmaster Central Blog.)

1. Unclear call to action.

Focus your visitors on one thing. What it is that you want people to do on each of your pages? 1-800 Flowers is one of the big companies that was messing this up (on their product detail page).

Use Attention Wizard heatmap to find where people are looking on your page.

2. Too many options – steps.

Reduce the friction between the user and the product they are seeking. Show main categories that are most popular on your page – not every subcategory and product on each page.

3. Asking for too much information.

Require less information in your forms to increase conversions. Do not ask questions that are not absolutely unnecessary, or inappropriate. Read Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing.

4. Too much text.

Do not make your visitors to suffer. Do not write in paragraph form. Instead use headlines and bullet points.

5. Not keeping your promises.

Intent is the number one factor in conversion. If a user clicks on a pay-per-click ad that says “Best Digital Camera” then they expect to come across the best digital camera. If they land on a page that does not match that query and the promise of seeing reviews of the best digital cameras, then they will promptly leave.

6. Too many visual distractions.

Use visual hierarchy to organize information, just like in an outline. Only important things should be bright and bold. Use other colors/sizes to organize information. Do not make everything equally important or unimportant.

7. Lack of trust.

Provide trust symbols in visible places (top 2/3 of the area visible through a monitor). This can be a “McCaffee Secure” symbol, brands that you work with, mentions in the press – whatever will increase trust by association.

• Keywords: do keyword research, and use keyword groups to segment your audiences. Also use different match types to make sure you’re targeting the right users at the right times in their buying cycle, but not overpaying for lower-performance phrases.
• Ad copy: Use keywords in your ad copy, and prioritize the relevance of what you’re advertising (in relation to the search terms) over branding or your company name.
• Landing page: Make sure your landing page is relevant to your keywords, and ads.
• Performance Tracking: Know what metrics are important to your business; monitor and improve your campaigns over time through controlled testing.

But what if you’re already doing all that? Here are the next 8 steps:

1. Use negatives on your broad match keywords.

   If you don’t want to limit your options to specific phrases by using only exact match, because some of your keywords might be combined with an unpredictably long list of other keywords, most of which are relevant combinations, but a handful of which are irrelevant, set the main keyword to broad match, and enter the handful of irrelevant modifiers as negative matches, at the keyword level.

2. Use dynamic keyword insertion.

   If you’re targeting a lot of similar products, or one product that comes in a lot of different colors (e.g. blue plaid shorts, red plaid shorts, etc.), you can improve the relevance of your ad copy quickly by using DKI to insert the user’s search terms into your copy (space permitting).

3. Brand vs. Non-brand keywords and ads

   If you get traffic from people searching your brand name and also bid on brand-name keywords for SERP domination purposes (assuming you rank organically for your brand name), this is when you should test the inclusion of the brand in your ad copy. Similarly, if you sell another company’s brands on your website and it’s popular enough to get branded search traffic, monitor the performance of branded vs. non-branded keywords, as well as brand names in ad copy. (Note: Google has relaxed its restrictions on using brand names in ad copy in the US at least; if you are advertising in another country, please learn about local copyright law and Google’s country-specific policies.)

4. Discounts and other selling points

   If you offer free shipping, online discount codes, guarantees or other differentiating points, test them against eachother in each keyword group. They might perform differently at different stages of the buying process. However, monitor the performance of discount codes carefully: they will most likely increase sales or orders, but they also erode margins, so make sure that you’re not increasing volume at the expense of profits. In other words, make sure your discount volume isn’t cannibalizing visitors who would be willing to pay full price anyway.

5. Link AdWords with Analytics

   Even if you’re using the same Google Account login for both AdWords and Analytics, they might not be linked by default: check in the “Reports” tab or AdWords. Linking these two services allows Analytics to incorporate cost-per-click data, and allows AdWords to incorporate Analytics Goal data into keyword and ad performance reports. (Note: if you’ve just linked the two services, it might take a week or two for the latter option to become available.)

6. Bid based on time of day

   Most search advertising programs now offer the option to schedule your ads for certain times of the day, and even increase or decrease bids. Monitor performance by time of day, and increase your budget at peak-converting times, not necessarily peak traffic times.

7. Create separate campaigns for the content network

   There is too much variance in costs-per-click, ad performance, and keyword relevance between the Search network and the Content network to use the same campaigns across the two. If you’re currently advertising everywhere, stop. Disable content partners in your current campaigns. If you have gotten ROI out of the content network, duplicate these campaigns, and have these new copies target only the content network, and optimize your two sets of campaigns separately.

8. Prioritize & Find New Opportunities

   There is a wealth of data about searcher behavior available, much of it for free if you know where to look. Two good places to start are Google Trends, and eBay Pulse. Google Trends provides great historical data on popular keywords, so you can identify seasonal keywords, outdated terms that aren’t worth pursuing anymore, or up-and-coming buzz words that should be on your radar. eBay Pulse is great for growing your keyword list, as it can help you identify the language that shopping searchers specifically are using.

This article was updated on 10/12/2012.

The basketball loving world has gone crazy over Jeremy Lin, an Asian American, Harvard-educated and undrafted point guard, who has sparked a mini-winning streak for the previously hapless New York Knicks.

In China this week, Lin’s name was among the top 10 search terms on Sina Weibo, that nation’s equivalent to Twitter. And here in the United States’ Lin’s seemingly mundane exploits (he’s only started in four games!)  gave us ‘Linsanity’ – the top global trending topic on Twitter.

The kid is blowing up and his spin move from benchwarmer to phenom could only have happened in 2012 and beyond, where social media is more and more intertwined with everyday life.

Below are some social media lessons to be learned from all this Linsanity

1. Powerful forces are at work (old school media takes their cues from social media).

This Linsanity is not a new phenomena but rather a continuation of social media, digital publishing tools and smartphone forces continuing to converge, creating a tidal wave of instant information anywhere, anytime. Consider the similarity of these recent events:

• The social storm stirred up online over the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Foundation flap.
• Financial activists blow up Bank of America’s plan to charge a $5 fee for debit card use.
• Organized through social media, the Occupy Wall Street movement gets its legs on Facebook and Twitter.
• Imagine Tebow Tebowing pre-social media – nobody would notice.

What each has in common is an over-amplification cause by social media. This amplification strikes a  point where the mainstream media  adapts its coverage of events just because  it’s abuzz on social media.

– “Just want everyone to know that I wrote about #linsanity this morning long before it became “hip” this afternoon”: bit.ly/Apjdq4

Lin has only played in four games but in a world with 24-hour social networking accessed by just about everybody on the planet instantly, his exploits have been bounced about in realtime among people not even watching the game.

Lesson: If you do something good, share it. Your base will do the  marketing for you.  Also, make sure the message finds its way across numerous  platforms. The more locations it is seen in, the more likely it will spread. Maybe someone will make a video about your awesomeness.

2. Stick to your game plan.

When Jeremy Lin joined the Knicks a few short weeks ago, he’d already been cut by two different NBA teams. However, the 23-year-old remained true to his game and didn’t try to become anyone else. Once he was given an opportunity to play (because of several injuries to key players) he stuck with what he knew best – an unselfish style of play that included dishing the ball to teammates more often than heaving up poor percentage shots (Yes, I mean you Carmelo!) himself. Once this proved successful it opened up other, more dynamic aspects of his game. This sparked a solid, all-around team game the Knicks sorely lacked and a winning streak that led to all this Linsanity.

Lesson: Sure, you’ve got some wild ideas about how to make your brand go viral across the net, but chances are if you stick with what you know best and continue to execute your game plan, success will follow.

3. The Bounce effect (in this case the dribble effect).

In one 12 hour period, Lin’s on court heroics spawned more than 3,000 tweets, according to social media analytics tool Topsy.

However, not every tweet was centered around his basketball prowess. Naturally, considering the Twitter community’s varied interests, the topics veered away from the Knicks toward Ivy League basketball, Harvard, stereotypes of Asian  males in American  society, and even Tawianese nationalism. In other words: the subject bounced around to almost every and any topic Jeremy Lin can be identified with.

Lesson: Just because it starts out as one thing doesn’t mean its going to end there. Sure, you may want to let the world know about your widgets, but there is a wide range of ancillary subjects that may also resonate within your organization and social media followers. Nurture this ‘bounce’ and help expand the dialogue about your company whether it is talking  up corporate culture, employee benefits or how your new environmental initiatives are helping your community. Your product or service isn’t the only story you have to tell.

4. Share the wealth.
Sure, Jeremy Lin was the one making all those buckets and fancy passes, but he understands that without teammates he’s not going to accomplish very much. Seemingly at every opportunity he takes time to  acknowledge their efforts and considerable skills.

Lesson: Let your partners and customers know how much they mean to your success. Share their stories with others and they in turn will pass your message along to another crowd you may not have known existed. That is practically is the definition of social media marketing.

5. Avoid the personal fouls.

Jeremy’s Twitter stats are impressive. A few weeks ago he was hovering around 4,000 followers and today’ he’s at 191,000 and counting.

However, he didn’t set out to conquer the social media universe for the sake of conquering it. He began by broadcasting small accomplishments – “Thankful to God for the opportunity to be a New York Knick!! Time to find my winter coats from college lol” –  that snowballed into bigger ones and ultimately lead to this huge following.

Lesson: Share your success stories with followers, but remember these netizines are a savvy bunch. They know when you are snowing them. Don’t start conversations for the sake of talking. Make sure you have something to say, and then share those thoughts, accomplishments and conversations with the world.

It’s not often 111 million people turn their attention to the same thing at once, but come Sunday a good chunk of America will tune in and watch the New York Giants smack down the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl for the second time in four years.

Of course, many will be more interested in the commercials than the actual game, and with 30 second slots costing an exorbitant $3.5 million, advertisers will be looking to make the most of their spend. And as any savvy marketing pro on Madison Avenue knows this means spreading the messages socially long after their the TV spot concludes.

This year the method will be particularly effective because 60 percent of viewers are expected to be connected to a “second screen,” a smartphone or tablet, where they’ll text or interact with friends on Twitter or Facebook.

More than 70 commercials will air during the Super Bowl making competition fierce, so many have already released their ads on YouTube sparking viral reactions. For the first time ever USA Today’s Ad Meter will allow viewers to vote for their favorite commercial via Facebook. As fans anxiously await the rematch between the Giants and Patriots, one thing that is certain – it’s expected to be a “second-screen” Super Bowl.

Coca-Cola 

This year Coca-Cola plans to introduce the world to their new brand ambassadors, computer animated polar bears. Following their ad, the bears will come to life on Twitter, Facebook and Coke’s own dedicated bear site CokePolarBowl.com. They’ll watch the game in real-time, comment on the half time show and even respond to fans via their Twitter hashtag #GameDayPolarBears. They’re also expected to remark on other advertisements it’ll be interesting to hear their responses to competitor’s commercials.

Pepsi

Not to be outdone by their polar bear counterparts, Pepsi has plans to prompt viewers to interact with their advertisements. The company’s commercials will feature a performance by “X Factor USA” winner Melanie Amaro. During it, viewers will be prompted to “Shazam” (capture audio from the commercial) her song for an opportunity to download the video for free.

Audi 

Perhaps feeling the pressure to answer Volkswagen’s celebrated Darth Vader themed spot from last year, Audi’s commercial for Super Bowl XLVI is Twilight inspired. The company will highlight the force of Audi’s LED headlight technology which has dire consequences on a pack of young partying vampires. The company hopes to keep the buzz alive through the unveiling of its Twitter hashtag #SoLongVampires.

Chevy

The release of Chevy’s smartphone Game Time app is already causing a social stir. Individuals can play on their phones, tablets or even through their site: chevy.com/gametime for a chance to win prizes courtesy of Chevy, Bridgestone and Motorola. Those who download and register before February 6 will receive a code; if it matches one of the license plates in Chevy’s ads during the game, they’ll win one of 20 vehicles being given away.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a trend as a line of general direction or movement; and as marketers, we are comfortable connecting ourselves to data, numbers and other mathematically related phenomena. When taking both of these facts into consideration, we know very well how important identifying trends is to success in any industry, so when we have an opportunity to get some “insider information,” we are truly pleased. Social Media Week  gave us our latest opportunity to spot online trends to which we should take heed when looking to communicate through what may very well be today’s most popular online channel.

1. FOMO: the Fear Of Missing Out

Born out of the old trend of Radical Transparency – the show all, tell all way of living life in the total open and subsequent one-upmanship – the fear of not remaining up-to-date on all that is new keeps people connected to their networks by using social media channels.

2. Life in Real-Time

 

The proliferation of smartphones has created a society where the stream of information is continually following us. As we create this stream of information, we are becoming hyper-documentarians—not only are we documenting the events, we’re helping drive them.

3. Social Good

Recent history has shown us that social protest, social causes and social activism have all found a communication channel in social media and there’s no sign in this trend stopping.

4. Collaborative Consumption

Social media’s culture of sharing has helped push this trend into the mainstream. Technology has made it where we now live in a Global Village where it’s easier and more acceptable to swap, borrow and share thoughts, goods and services.

5. Data in Droves

We have now reached a point where social media channels are looking to redefine how to use all of the data that they collect. The age of Big Data, Big Impact in social media has finally arrived.

6. Hyper-Personalization

Now that social media’s collected data is perceived by most as valuable and because these channels continue to collect more data, these channels should become more and more personal. Additionally, as the social graph is applied over this data the creation of the Curated Web, a web that provides people with the ideas and information they are looking for before they even know they are looking for it, is imminent.

7. Social Commerce

There are 845 million people now on Facebook. Forty-seven percent of Facebook users would like more shopping opportunities on Facebook. That’s approximately 397 million people. F-Commerce has been introduced for a reason.

8. Socializing Brick & Mortar

In a step before the proliferation of full Near Field Communications (NFC) adoption, physical stores such as Diesel have started to bring the “Like Button” into their stores.

9. Screened Interactions

If you’ve seen The Kinect Effect commercial you have seen an example of screened interactions—the opportunities to engage and entertain around goods and services. Because of social media’s natural need to engage and entertain, it was only a matter of time before this type of contact took place.

10. Radical Transparency Remorse

Somehow, even with documented cases and over exaggerated urban legends, some people still divulge entirely too much information without thought. Opening social media channels to more opportunity does also give people more opportunities to do things they shouldn’t.

11. Facebook Fatigue

Facebook’s going public can cause an issue because their greatest asset is the information gathered on its 845 million users. The potential problem arises if the shareholder demands do not match the company and, more importantly, the users’ desires—especially since the online culture has become opt-out instead of opt-in.

12. Reengineering Randomness

Although hyper-personalization helps organize the content consumed on social media channels, people are beginning to long for randomness. As with everything in life, people eventually want balance.

13. Serendipitous Socializing

This is the trend that has helped online entities such as Pinterest, Turntable.FM and Meetup succeed. By adding good fortune to the social media mix, people are bound to return to the channels that take advantage of this trend.

14. De-Teching

In the vein of balance in life, people looking to re-connect with real people again. Studies show that 66 percent of people wish they could spend more time face-to-face rather than “Facebook-to-Facebook.” This does not mean people are looking to leave the social media channels they constantly use; it simply means they need to see people in real life again.

The significance of recognizing these trends fully supports the necessity of something we marketers know must precede any campaign, but at times is overlooked—a strategy. By taking each applicable trend into account, it is easier to pinpoint which steps to take in your online communications.

Large-scale events like Super Bowl XLVI –  where the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots – and the 54th Annual GRAMMYs always bring people together, and the popular social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter only serve to magnify this certainty.

Beverly Jackson, director of marketing/social media for The GRAMMYs, stopped by Social Media Week to give all who would listen the lowdown on how they received 13 million tweets on GRAMMY night.

I hope you’re listening too.

They Are Music

The GRAMMYs made sure to begin with a comprehensive plan of attack built around this year’s theme, We Are Music, and their first point of identification was based on this belief: when thinking of how viewers will be watching The GRAMMYs, remember that they are always viewing at least two screens. By realizing that their audience will have  eyes on at least the television and a computer, the ability increases to forge and organize a social media plan that would be sure to engage and communicate with the millions of viewers.

By understanding how the audience would view their program, they concluded  it was important to have multiple channels on which  people could consume the product online. The GRAMMY plan consisted of five hashtags and pages across the social Web. All instances were branded in some way to add consistency and clarity. Additionally, they sent the details of their plan to record labels and other music companies and organizations linked to the recording artists as possible. Knowing the artists would tweet during the GRAMMYs, they wanted to make sure that those artists were on board and in concert (no pun intended) with The GRAMMY plan.

The connection did not end there. While the well-known, popular social media campaigns took place, GRAMMY Live –  designed for those who chose or had to watch the program on mobile devices –  was taking place. These correspondents covered the event in real time and also had open lines of communications with those viewers through Twitter and Facebook. GRAMMY Live was accompanied by other mobile apps containing segment countdowns as well as other engagement points.

Tweesults

We are now in a time where measuring many social media results is a matter of Twittermetrics, and although I don’t believe they will replace the Nielsen numbers anytime soon, these metrics represent the lion’s share of the measurement of success.

• 3.9 Million explicit mentions of  The GRAMMYs. This does not include artist or presenter mentions.
• According to Social People, Twitter traffic peaked at an incredible 65,000 tweets per second (TPS) during the live broadcast completely obliterating the 12,233 TPS peak at Super Bowl XLVI; and
• 2.5 Million Twitter mentions of Adele – she won a lot of awards, quite possibly all of them.

The most overwhelming results may have come around the tragedy that took place the night before the live show.

The social media world arrived to all of the popular channels in droves after the announcement of Whitney Houston’s passing. Once people were able to see through their initial grief, Twitter’s hot button topic in particular was how would the GRAMMYs remember Whitney? Even though we do not have the official number of social media mentions regarding this question, we do have an idea of what people felt afterwards:

• Buzz around the tribute to Whitney Houston, while diverse, was mostly favorable with 81 percent of people offering positive sentiment; and in what many found to be the absolutely most stunning statistic in the presentation;
• When Jennifer Hudson hit the stage for her tribute performance, Twitter traffic around the GRAMMYs stopped. I’m not talking about a failwhale moment, I’m talking about a social media moment of silence.

What Have We Learned?

The GRAMMYs have shown us how a carefully laid out plan can drive content, conversation and, in terms of what they were searching for in their social media campaign, conversion. They’ve also shown us that it is indeed possible for people to eschew their computers and mobile devices, even if only for a minute or two, for a moment in real life. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?

With today’s digital marketing landscape in a constant state of flux, businesses are tasked with finding newer, smarter ways of fostering and maintaining a strong online presence. Google’s most recent algorithm updates have shown that in order to succeed in today’s digital marketplace, websites need to shift their focus towards producing high quality content. This is exactly where the value of a skilled Public Relations team comes into play.

In the traditional sense of the phrase, “Public Relations” is a strategic communication process that sets out to build a mutually beneficial relationship between a brand, organization, or person, and an audience. In terms of digital marketing, PR professionals have a massive skillset that aligns perfectly with smart SEO tactics. From story creation to audience targeting and relationship building, PR is the next step for brands that want to increase organic traffic.

Crafting Relevant Content

In a world where content is rapidly becoming the go-to for SEO, PR professionals are perfect brand advocates and story tellers, capable of enhancing a site’s ranking by getting stellar, keyword-rich content the attention it deserves. Savvy PR professionals work with reporters, bloggers, and industry influencers on a daily basis, and know how to create unique stories for any audience.

Google’s more recent algorithm updates have brought PR practices to the forefront of SEO by emphasizing the meaning of quality onsite content. On the heels of these updates, pure link building is growing less and less viable and businesses need to shift their strategies from old link building tactics like submitting to directories to getting their brand mentioned in articles on highly authoritative sites.From a PR standpoint, the most effective content includes pieces that are timely, easily digestible, visually enticing, and available for consumption on multiple devices for the modern, on-the-go reader. Content with clear messaging and a strong call to action will convert audiences from a passive viewer to an engaged brand advocate.

Identifying Your Audience

A good PR team already knows the secret to effective content is creating what your audience is searching for. On top of spinning relevant stories, PR pros possess an additional advantage when it comes to successful content creation: knowing what audiences to target, and how.

Strategic research identifies new opportunities to target the various demographics of a brand’s audience, enabling a business to better determine what needs of their audience are not being met. Creating tailored content for these audiences will satisfy loyal brand ambassadors, while forging new relationships and creating new customers through viral content sharing.

Additionally, where a piece of content will see the most success needs to be considered before relevant outreach can begin. Understanding whether or not the content will be best consumed on Twitter, small but targeted blogs, or information-rich slide decks is an important first step to creating content that people will actually read and link to from their own sites. A good PR team knows that even if you have the most relevant piece of content for your target audience, if it’s not presented in the right medium it will go unnoticed.Social media, and Twitter in particular, is all about sustaining a relevant conversation with users and has become a key avenue for PR professionals to curate brand stories with bloggers, journalists, and everyone in-between, on a daily basis. Maintaining well-established relationships with key influencers enhances brand credibility with targeted audiences, and brings new viewers and potential clients to your website.

Building Strategic Relationships

PR professionals, similar to SEO experts, recognize the importance of building key relationships with relevant industry authorities. Such relationships, whether with reporters and bloggers, industry experts and tastemakers, or other businesses in the same field, help establish a brand as an authoritative source online. Once established as a credible source, links, whether permanent or temporary, are obtained with greater ease.

Earning high-quality links and placements for relevant content helps your site gain link equity and increase keyword rankings while staying within SEO best practices. Implied links, otherwise known as brand mentions, are an equally important PR tactic in which a high authority domain links to your site without providing a link. Google’s so-called Panda Patent, filed in early 2014, assures that branded mentions are now being taken into account when Google determines how authoritative a website is on a certain topic. While they lack the same SEO value as an actual link to a site, they can help your business rank for keywords that are relevant and drive qualified traffic to your website from search engines. This is what PR professionals have been doing for decades in print, and it’s quickly gaining prominence in the digital world.By building links and placing stories with a diverse set of relevant and authoritative sites, a good PR team will help position a brand as an authority in its field. With the proper PR outreach, your site will experience measurable traffic and sales increases while gaining a new level of brand loyalty from audiences.

In Summary

Search engines are evolving away from old school SEO tactics like blog comment spam and directory submissions, and as a result the value that PR brings to increasing organic traffic is steadily growing. With focus shifting from haphazard link building to quality content creation, brands now have the potential to build authority in their fields, engage in meaningful conversations with their target audiences, and encourage content sharing through social media and more traditional PR tactics.

From knowing what audiences to target with the proper content, to effective link building and story placing, a seasoned PR team will enhance the quality of your website’s SEO, build your brand as an authority, and create awareness that generates new clients.

How does PR contribute to your SEO efforts? Let us know in the comments section below.