• Inbound Industry Report: Jan. 30, 2012

    By Laura Pinter | Posted Jan 30, 2012 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing

    Top marketing news, articles and tips from the fourth week of January 2012.

    Marketing Industry Transformation

    Last week, the CMO Council released a new report on “client/agency effectiveness,” summarized by Scott Brinker (@chiefmartec) in CMOs to Agencies: Adapt or Die. The stat that most stood out to Brinker: “only 9% of senior marketers believe that agencies are evolving to extend services and capabilities in the digital age.”

    Brinker outlines the actions marketers will take to alleviate this concern; however, many appear to be in the early planning phases. More rapid innovation may be necessary to stay relevant in the coming months and years.

    Download a summary of the report (requires registration) or find further insight about the importance of traditional agencies to adapt in Paul Roetzer’s (@paulroetzer) 5 Ways Hybrid Marketing Agencies Will Transform the Industry.

    PR

    Howell Marketing Strategies (@howellmarketing) reiterates this notion of evolving traditional PR and marketing skills in Think You Can Work in PR? What Newbies Need to Know. Coming from a non-PR background, I can attest to these quite well. Here are a few that are worth keeping top-of-mind:

    • Constantly educate yourself, whether it’s about industry news and trends, your clients or world events.
    • Whatever your current involvement is, get more involved with social media, and keep up with new technology.
    • Be a great, proactive communicator. Maintaining relationships is a core aspect of PR and marketing, and also determinant of your success.

    Analytics & Measurement

    In Metric-ocracy: Less Data, More Insight, John Quartro-vonTivadar (@qgroks) outlines a New Year’s resolution plan for marketers, focusing on improving success through smart analytics and key performance indicator (KPI) measurement. Here’s a quick recap of his five steps:

    1. Identify the Real Goal—Take a step back from the analytics you currently look at, define an end goal, and realign metrics.
    2. Lay It All Out—Literally. Write down each metric affecting your goal on a notecard, and describe how it should change en route to that goal.
    3. Pick Your Favorite Date for Saturday Night—Ask yourself, “Which metrics can I not live without?” and prioritize accordingly.
    4. Insist on Delivery—For the next 90 days, track, analyze and hold those metrics accountable for results.
    5. Vote Someone Off the Island—Keep the ones that most impacted your goal, and switch out those that didn’t, creating a “metricocracy” of proven KPIs.

    Content Marketing

    Stephanie Tilton (@StephanieTilton) shows how savvy marketers can boost B2B efforts with best-in-class content with this simple plan:

    • Invest in content. Shift marketing budgets to support targeted, high-quality content development, distribution and follow-up.
    • Understand your buyer personas, and prioritize content based on their needs at various stages of the buying cycle.
    • Gain content-marketing support from company leaders by providing case studies, clearly explaining what you plan to achieve, and assessing the content-marketing efforts of competitors.

    In the News

    What articles made your top list last week? We’d like to hear your opinions.

    Laura Pinter is an associate consultant at PR 20/20. Follow Laura on Twitter @lipinter.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

  • Inbound Industry Report: Jan. 23, 2012

    By Laura Pinter | Posted Jan 23, 2012 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing

    Top marketing news, articles and tips from the third week of January 2012. 

    Blogging for Business

    Rand Fishkin (@randfish) shares 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic, an updated version of a post that gained popularity back in 2007. Many of the specific tips offered are relative to one another, and fall into categories such as the following:

    • Visual—Add graphics, photos and illustrations; incorporate great design into your site.
    • Social—Use Twitter, Facebook and Google+ to share your posts, and find new connections; participate in social media sharing communities like Reddit and StumbleUpon.
    • Analytical—Install analytics, and pay attention to the results; conduct keyword research while writing your posts.
    • Relational—Participate where your audience gathers; guest blog, and accept the guest posts of others; interact on other blogs’ comments.

    Switching to the blog reader’s point of view, Neil Patel (@neilpatel) answers, “What do you need to keep blog readers loyal?” in his post, 8 Things Your Blog Readers Want More Than Good Content. Following are a few of Patel’s tips.

    • Show personality + passion—Be yourself, show enthusiasm, and give opinions.
    • Establish authority—Be an expert on your topic, and put that expertise on display.
    • Consider design and format—Make everything easy to read, sharp and professional.
    • Be trustworthy—Be open and honest in your delivery, keep promises and provide credible information. If you make a mistake, admit it and apologize.

    For more information on blogging success, check out Men with Pens’ (@MenwithPens) How to Stop Writing Boring Blog Posts.

    Social Media for Business 

    In Can B2Bs Use Social Media to Improve Marketing Effectiveness?, Maria Pergolino (@inboundmarketer) offers a few intriguing stats on the state of social media adoption in B2B marketing.

    • In a recent Accenture study of B2B marketing executives, nearly two-thirds of respondents believe social media is important for reaching customers and other key audiences.
    • Per a Worldcom study of B2B company leaders, B2Bs are extending their social media reach, with Twitter and Facebook ranking as top channels (85% and 74%, respectively). 90% of execs surveyed believe social media is increasingly valuable to their companies.
    • While B2Cs look to social media increase sales, B2Bs tend to focus on lead generation. At PR 20/20, we believe this can and should be taken a step further, to lead nurturing.

    Media Relations

    Inc. columnist Jeff Haden (@jeff_haden) helps PR professionals pack a punch with their pitches in How to Pitch: 6 Things You Must Know.

    In short, the don’ts overpower the dos:

    • Don’t say your story is unique—If it is, you won’t have to state it.
    • Don’t beg for publicity—everybody needs it.
    • Don’t blindly pitch anyone—know his or her interests and recently published work. 

    In the News

    What stories landed in your top list for the week? Please share your opinions with us.

    Laura Pinter is an associate consultant at PR 20/20. Follow Laura on Twitter @lipinter.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

  • Inbound Industry Report: Jan. 10, 2012

    By Laurel Miltner | Posted Jan 10, 2012 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing

    Top marketing news, articles and tips from the first week of 2012.

    Blogging Tips: How to Grow Your Reach 

    Neil Patel (@neilpatel) shared tips to grow your blog's reach, using Seth Godin's (@sethgodin) Rule of 10 (that if you find and nurture 10 people who love what you have to offer, they'll tell 10 friends, and so on). Some of my favorite suggestions from Patel include: 

    • Go beyond your blog—expand your reach through guest blog posts and comments on other blogs, and social media engagement.
    • Build relationships with your "10"—thank them for their comments/retweets, comment on their stuff, and keep your posts consistent and relevant.
    • As traffic comes in, keep it coming—make it easy for people to subscribe to updates, and quickly release follow-up content to popular resources.
    • Never forget about your "10."

    2012: The Year of Coding?

    Code Year, an initiative from Codecademy, launched on Jan. 1 with a simple mission: help people learn to code in 2012 through simple, weekly lessons. At time of writing, 304,470 people had signed up. 

    Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) shared some thoughts on its success, including: It's a great idea, well-timed, and registrants are encouraged to spread the word through social networks. (I did.) In a comment on Wilson's post, Codecademy co-founder Zach Sims (@zsims) said "programming is finally being seen as it should be - as the literacy of the 21st century." 

    Wilson also credited the simple, user-friendly design of the Code Year landing page as an element of its success. Interestingly enough, the design was completely overhauled in one hour during its "final review," just over a day before launch. Money quote from the dedicated Code Year employee, Sacha Greif (@sachagreif), who spent her New Year's Eve Eve making CodeYear.com perfect: "You don’t always need weeks –or even hours– to create something. Sometimes you just need to stop over-thinking things and trust your creative impulses."

    For more on coding's role in professional development, see Boomsri Dickinson's (@boonspoon) Someday, Writing Code Could be as Common as Farming of Factory Work.

    Google Chrome Paid Link Scandal 

    Google Chrome was caught in a link-purchasing scheme, after SEObook's Aaron Wall (@aaronwall) found more than 400 results for the keyword search "this post is sponsored by Google." Why the fuss? Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) cites two reasons in his first overview of the situation: 

    1. Purchasing links for the manipulation of search results goes against Google guidelines. 
    2. Overall, the linking articles were of poor quality—disturbing because this is the type of content Google aims to fight. 

    Within 24 hours, Google acknowledged that "Yes, it was a Google campaign. No, it’s not what Google signed-up for." (Source) The search engine had contracted digital media agency Essence Digital for a video ad campaign, but had not OKed paid links. Essence Digital passed the blame torch on to Unruly, a video promotion company it had enlisted to run the campaign. Unruly then claimed it never required links to the Chrome site from participating bloggers, and that it encouraged nofollow links for any used to adhere to Google's paid-link guidelines.

    Sidenote: The cooking/baking nerd in me can't help but hope that the video linked in all these posts did good things for King Arthur Flour. Its products are awesome. 

    In response to the ordeal, Google docked Chrome's ability to rank in search engine result pages for at least 60 days. After that time, a Chrome representative can submit a request for reconsideration, along with documentation that it has cleaned up the issues, according to Matt Cutts (@mattcutts). 

    Key Takeaway: If Google can find itself in a less-than-ethical SEO scheme, no one is impervious. When working with external partners/providers, discuss specific tactics in detail, ask questions, and if something doesn't sound right, seek additional guidance. 

    In the News... 

    What were your top marketing stories of the week? Comments are open for your opinions.

    Laurel Miltner is the assistant vice president at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter: @laurelmackenzie.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

  • PR 20/20 Rewind: The Best of 2011

    By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Dec 29, 2011 | 2 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing

    Carson DalyDear Reader: Thank you for reading and participating on our blog! We hope that among your slew of RSS feeds, we're able to provide you with helpful information, valuable insight, or at least some things that make you go hmmm. 

    Wondering what topics and articles sparked the most interest in the past year? Here, we’ve compiled the 10 most popular PR 20/20 posts from 2011, in order of page views.

    Marketing sidenote: We use analytics like this to help us determine what type of content and topics to focus on in the future. 

    In true Carson Daly/TRL-style (yes, I’m a 90's kid), let’s get this countdown started with number 10 …

    10.  5 Lessons Learned from a Day with Seth Godin

    An overview of content-marketing lessons learned at an event for authors and book publishers, led by Seth Godin (@sethgodin). Paul’s favorite line of the day came when someone asked Godin how he so consistently innovates and creates remarkable content. To summarize his reply: “I practice staring into the abyss.” Little did Paul know that less than 12 months later, he’d be a published author himself.

    • Published: Jan. 12, 2011
    • Author: Paul Roetzer (@PaulRoetzer)

    9.  How to Create a LinkedIn Group

    A LinkedIn group can be an effective outlet to establish expertise and leadership, and engage in more meaningful dialogue with your peers, customers and other audiences. Check out this post to see a few pointers for setting up a LinkedIn group on a specific topic related to your industry.

    8.  SWOT Analysis Revisited

    Though the SWOT Analysis technique has been an industry standard for more than 50 years, Laurel recommends a slight tweak to its process and presentation: move opportunities to the end.

    7.  Would You Follow Yourself on Twitter?

    People often create a strategy when they get started with social networking. But it’s just as important to revisit your activity on a regular basis to make sure that you're sticking to what you set out to achieve. This post provides a quick quality check on your Twitter performance.

    • Published: Aug. 12, 2011
    • Author: Laurel Miltner 

    6.  How to Manage a LinkedIn Group

    This Q&A with Matt Bertuzzi (@mattbertuzzi), marketing manager for The Bridge Group, Inc., an inside sales consulting and implementation firm, provides advice and guidance on LinkedIn group management. Matt is the manager of the 12,500+ member Inside Sales Experts group on LinkedIn.

    • Published: Jan. 5, 2011
    • Author: Laurel Miltner

    5.  Lessons from Content Marketing World 2011

    The inaugural Content Marketing World event was held in Cleveland this past September. If you missed it, the PR 20/20 team compiled key takeaways in this recap post, featuring insight from speakers including Kevin Smith (@ThatKevinSmith), Ardath Albee (@ardath421), David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) and Regina Brett (@ReginaBrett).

    • Published: Sept. 16, 2011
    • Author: Tracy DiMarino

    4.  Healthcare Social Media: Opportunities and Risks

    This post highlights the opportunities and risks associated with healthcare social media participation, and tips for creating a social media policy. It includes insight from medical practitioners, marketers and legal counsel.

    • Published: March 30, 2011
    • Author: Tracy DiMarino 

    3.  What is “Not Provided” in Google Analytics?

    In October, Google announced that it would “make search more secure” by encrypting the search queries of signed-in users. What does this means for marketers? Logged-in Google searchers that come to your site register as an organic visitor, but you won’t see what keywords got them there. Instead, these visits are indexed under the keyword “(not provided)” in Google Analytics reports.

    • Published: Oct. 26, 2011
    • Author: Laurel Miltner

    2.  Key Takeaways from SEOmoz 2011 Search Ranking Factors Report

    Curious what goes into search engines’ ranking algorithms? Check out this summary post of SEOmoz’ 2011 Search Ranking Factors Report. The original report was based on insight from top SEO experts on the different elements that influence search engine results.

    1.  2011 Digital Marketing Conferences

    To help marketers evaluate and prioritize 2011 conferences, this post includes a downloadable conference calendar database that highlights 29 digital marketing events. Conferences were selected based on their relevance to online marketing, speaker base, opportunities for networking, and industry excitement. Stay tuned for the 2012 version coming soon.  

    • Published: Jan. 18, 2011
    • Author: Tracy DiMarino

    What Would You Like to See in 2012?

    Here are some of the topics we plan to cover in the first quarter of next year:

    • Claiming your online content
    • Content: quality versus quantity
    • Brands as content publishers: What does Google think?
    • Social networking time commitments, prioritization and division of labor
    • Sales vs. marketing throwdown
    • How to change your name online
    • A peek at Pinterest
    • Brand gaffes and apologies
    • Google bombs, consumer voices and owning your online brand
    • Author voices in corporate content

    What do you want to see on the PR 20/20 blog in 2012? Share your ideas and topic requests below.

    Photo Credit: JD Lasica/Socialmedia.biz

    Tracy DiMarino is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyDiMarino.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

  • Inbound Industry Report: December 27, 2011

    By Laurel Miltner | Posted Dec 27, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing

    Top marketing news, articles and tips from the second and third weeks of December, 2011. Or, cool stuff you may have missed in the holiday frenzy. 

    Content Marketing  

    Pamela Vaughan (@pamelump) pairs new research (the Presenter’s Paradox) with Google’s Panda updates to answer one of the most popular questions in content marketing: What’s more important, quality or quantity? The answer: Content Quantity Diminishes Quality.

    Vaughan offers the following tips to help you ensure a focus on quality content:

    • Analyze content performance, using metrics like views, leads and social shares, to determine what resonates best with your audience.
    • Set benchmark goals for future content based on your analysis (e.g. each blog post should receive X views and Y shares).
    • Develop editorial guidelines, and talk to your entire team of content contributors about quality expectations, revisions and processes to ensure adherence.
    • Be willing to “sacrifice quantity for quality.”
    • Think like your audience, and ask yourself if you’d find the content valuable as a reader/viewer/consumer. See the “5-minute guide” article below for more on this.

    For tips on how content freshness can impact its quality—at least as far as Google sees things these days—see Freshness Factor: 10 Illustrations on How Fresh Content Can Influence Rankings by Cyrus Shepard (@CyrusShepard).

    Furthering the discussion on content quality, A 5-Minute Guide to More Persuasive Copywriting by James Chartrand (@MenwithPens) offers a simple but powerful article on how to write compelling copy. In short: don’t write for a demographic; write for a person. Chartrand makes the case perfectly by comparing “a 60-year-old female retiree who’s confused about her insurance options” and “Dorothea.”

    In addition to the benefits of better reaching your target reader, this approach can help drive a strong content-driven SEO strategy.

    Social Media

    In Six Social Media Trends for 2012, David Armano (@armano) shares his thoughts on where social will take business (or vice versa) next year. And if you're still thinking about social media in terms of simply having a Facebook page and Twitter account, Armano’s predictions may surprise you. Among them:

    • Convergence across channels, with social media as a single element of a more integrated strategy.
    • Gamification, or adding “game-like qualities” to websites, apps, devices and more. When integrated strategically, these elements can attract, entice and engage audiences.
    • Emergence of the micro economy, driven by companies like Kiva, Kickstarter and Air BnB. See more on this in the story on Louis C.K. below. 

    Innovation

    Louis C.K. (@louisck) seemed to all but take over the Interwebs recently when the comedian released his latest special as a download available only from his website, at $5 a pop.

    As of December 21, the show had generated revenue of more than one million dollars, to be split in four pieces: pay back production costs, give bonuses to staff and others involved with the special, donate among five charities, and direct to Louis C.K.

    See Some Thoughts on the Louis CK “Experiment” by Fred Wilson (@fredwilson) for interesting perspective on this business model, and how it may pave the way for success for others. As Armano mentioned in the social trends article referenced above, Wilson also gives a nod to Kickstarter, and discusses the potential power of “the business model of going direct to fans.”

    And if that’s not enough validation for you…

    Productivity

    At PR 20/20, productivity is critical. Without a keen focus on efficient use of time, our profits—as well as our personal and professional lives—suffer. For a few tips on becoming more productive in your workday, see 7 Things Highly Productive People Do by Ilya Pozin (@ilyaneversleeps). Some of my favorite tips:

    • Break large projects into smaller chunks.
    • Don't multitask.
    • Schedule your email (we actually set ours to refresh only every 30-60 minutes to keep pop-ups from breaking our focus).
    • Make, and work from, your own agenda.

    In the News …

    In our last Inbound Industry Report, we mentioned that Facebook Timeline would soon be rolling out to U.S. users. It has. If you haven’t enabled Timeline yet, see this post from Mashable for tips and instructions on how to get started with Timeline.

    Money tip: After you set up your Timeline, review it carefully. Use the dates to scroll down through each year to see the featured stories, and delete, promote or shrink posts and updates as you see fit. Note: After you enable Timeline, Facebook gives you a 7-day grace period before it automatically goes live, or you can publish it after you’re done reviewing.

    Facebook also announced that beginning next month, it will start showing sponsored stories—AKA ads—in users' news feeds. In an interesting move, to make this more palatable to Facebook users the network released this informational microsite.

    Google announced several enhancements to Google+ profiles and brand pages including:

    • Ability to prioritize your circles, so updates from those most important to you are shown more frequently.
    • Improved photo navigation.
    • Support for multiple managers/admins for Pages.

    Just for fun …

    In case you missed it, Google Zeitgeist 2011 is out, showcasing the year’s top search terms from around the world, in multiple categories.

    What were your top marketing stories of the week? Comments are open for your opinions.

    Laurel Miltner is the assistant vice president at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter: @laurelmackenzie.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

  • Inbound Industry Report: December 11, 2011

    By Laurel Miltner | Posted Dec 11, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing

    Top marketing news, articles and tips from the first week of December 2011.

    Search Engine Marketing

    In An SEO Playbook for 2012,Tom Schmitz (@tomschmitz) shares some practical tactics to improve search engine rankings, each falling into one of the following three categories:

    • Use straightforward, easy-to-follow code.
    • Simplify navigation to provide a logical, linear path for visitors.
    • Increase your online engagement, focusing on peers (read: competitors) rather than buyers.

    For more on search from this week, check out:

    Social Media ROI

    Explaining Social Media ROI Again. And Again. And… Again is Olivier Blanchard’s (@thebrandbuilder) response to those who say the bottom-line business value of investments in social media is irrelevant, or impossible to track.

    Blanchard is obviously passionate about the topic (he wrote a book called Social Media ROI), and this comes across in his somewhat heated article. But, he offers some excellent guidance on how to understand, explain and measure the ROI of social media activity for business.

    Key takeaway: It’s not wrong or impractical to ask about the ROI of social media. Business leaders need to know why they should invest in this area over another, and what benefits they can expect. The problem is that the question is too broad. To properly address it, you need to ask the right question: “What is the ROI of [insert activity here] in social media?” For example: “What was the ROI of shifting 40% of our digital budget from traditional web to social media in 2011?” In other words, “don’t think of ROI as being medium-specific. Think of it as activity-specific."

    For more on the topic, check out (and bookmark!) this excellent 2009 presentation from Blanchard, The Basics of Social Media ROI.

    Social Media Platform Updates

    Twitter, Facebook and Google+ all announced or launched some fairly major platform updates and enhancements. 

    Twitter rolled out a complete site redesign aimed to make it more user friendly for new tweeters, and to offer better functionality and organization for all. It added a way for users to grab the code from individual tweets and embed them on any webpage. And, Twitter launched new brand pages that provide additional customization, extended taglines and tweet promotion to highlight a company’s most popular, relevant or important content. (See a list of sample brand pages in a post from Twitter.) 

    For a complete overview of all new Twitter updates, see The New Twitter: Everything You Need to Know by Peter Pachal (@petepachal).

    Facebook will launch subscribe buttons for websites, which will allow visitors to subscribe to individuals' public profile updates direct from his or her website, offering similar functionality to Twitter follow buttons. 

    In addition, the long-awaited Facebook Timeline has started to roll out to the public. For details on this complete profile revamp, including a step-by-step slideshow that explains the information included in Timeline, how to fill it out, and how to set privacy restrictions, see Facebook Timeline: The Complete Guide by Christine Erickson (@christerickson).

    Google+ added Gmail integration features, making it easier for users to find, connect and organize contacts across Google, and to share photos directly from Gmail. The platform also announced plans to roll out facial recognition features for enhanced photo tagging. 

    What were your top marketing stories of the week? Comments are open for your opinions.

    Laurel Miltner is the assistant vice president at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter: @laurelmackenzie.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

  • Inbound Industry Report: November 29, 2011

    By Laurel Miltner | Posted Nov 29, 2011 | 3 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing

    Top marketing news, articles and tips from the fourth week of November 2011. Or, some great stuff you may have missed while stuffing the turkey and/or your tummy.

    Content Marketing

    In Content Marketing Hubs Deliver ROI, Ardath Albee (@ardath421) discusses how marketers can solve two major pain points—creating relevant content, and creating enough of it—using Content Hubs.

    "A Content Hub is a content marketing program that takes full advantage of a bigger content asset to combine lead generation with lead nurturing and gain optimal value from your investment in content development," says Albee.

    Using a webinar as an example, she first covers a standard marketing campaign, from sending email invitations to following up with registrants after the event with a link to archived video. Albee then expands upon the typical program with suggestions for additional content creation and outreach—using multiple formats, media and locations—to better reach and engage target audiences. Some examples: 

    • Publish a series of related blog posts prior to the webinar to spur interest and registrations.
    • Discuss relevant topics in LinkedIn Groups, and invite fellow members that join discussions to attend the webinar.
    • Spruce up the slides after the webinar, and post the presentation on Slideshare.
    • Transcribe the audio recording and turn it into a whitepaper or ebook.

    Key takeaway: Expand your content's reach and impact exponentially—and get more for your time and monetary investments—by thinking more strategically about how to remix and repurpose the information over time and across the web.

    Search Marketing

    Rand Fishkin (@randfish) discusses how email marketing can be used to drive inbound links in this installment of Whiteboard Friday, Using Emails to Build Links. 

    After covering a few best practices for gathering email subscribers, improving list quality and keeping recipients happy, Fishkin dives into specific link-building tips driven by your list. A few favorites:

    • Review domain names of email recipients—for example: the "pr2020.com" part of "laurel(at)pr2020(dot)com"—and prioritize the list based on site authority, relevance, etc. Then, see if there are opportunities to reach out to your contacts and request links to your content.
    • Consider sending individual emails to notify users activity related to their engagement on your site (ex: "someone responded to your blog comment").
    • Geotag your list, and segment it for localized outreach. This is particularly useful to promote events, speaking engagements, etc. 
    • Find the people on your email list on social networks, and start building more meaningful, one-to-one relationships with them. This will likely encourage more shares your content.

    The full video clocks in at about 13 minutes, but cleverly combines creative strategy and practical tactics. It's well worth the time.

    Analytics

    Avinash Kaushik (@avinash) literally wrote the book—a couple of them, in fact—on web analytics. His article, Smarter Data Analysis of Google's Https (Not Provided) Change: 5 Steps, is an excellent resource to help you more deeply assess the impact of Google's recent data encryption upate on your site analytics intelligence.

    Kaushik offers step-by-step guides for creating custom reports in Google Analytics to dig into your (not provided) traffic, and find some otherwise "hidden" information about these visitors. He then shares how to analyze the information found in these reports, so you can understand the kind of traffic you're losing insight on, and in the least make some inferences that can improve marketing efforts. 

    Bonus: Kaushik's reports all reflect the updated Google Analytics interface, so if you haven't had enough time to play around with that, following his tips can serve dual purposes. 

    Marketing Strategy

    In Quick Thought for a Short Week [the Jobs Book], Matt Bertuzzi (@mattbertuzzi) offers an idea so simple it's facepalm-inducing: 

    1. Find out what books your buyers are reading.
    2. Read them. 
    3. Use the information you learn, and the topics that you know are relevant and familiar to your buyers, to develop related content, share your own opinions, and engage candid, high-level conversations. 
    Note: This is particularly useful for leads who are early on in the decision-making process (AKA, those at the top of the funnel). 

    PR Industry 

    Deirdre Breakenridge (@dbreakenridge) shares predictions for the future of the industry in What Will PR Look Like as we Approach 2015? A few of her thoughts include: 
       
    • There will be further integration between PR, marketing, advertising and customer service.
    • PR professionals will be expected to deliver more measurable outcomes with business impact—continuing the move from clipbooks to ROI.
    • As technology and communication continue to fuse, PR pros will seamlessly understand and integrate the two in their daily activities. 
    • There will be little if any differentiation between bloggers, journalists and other influencers; it will all just be "media."

    What were your top marketing stories of the week? Comments are open for your opinions.

    Laurel Miltner is the assistant vice president at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter: @laurelmackenzie.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

  • Cleveland Indians Snow Days: Opportunity Meets Brand Promise

    By Jessica Donlon | Posted Nov 28, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing

    Paul and Jess at Snow DaysOn Friday, the Cleveland Indians celebrated something that no other Major League Baseball team could: "Snopening Day" at Progressive Field.  

    For the Tribe, Snow Days is a fun way to bring families downtown to the ballpark and make money during the offseason, as the park is transformed into a winter playground complete with a hockey rink, ice skating, tubing and more.

    Last year, Snow Days' inaugural season brought about 50,000 fans to the ballpark, as well as other MLB teams scouting the concept for their own organizations.

    Paul (@paulroetzer) and I were lucky enough to grab a sneak peek of Snow Days last week at media day. Following are key business and marketing takeaways.

    Opportunity in the Offseason

    “Do not look for the next opportunity. The one you have in your hand is the opportunity.” 

    —Paul Arden, It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be

    Cleveland winters don’t necessarily excite many people … Imagine the offseason for baseball fans, who are coming down from post-season and World Series excitement (or heartache), gearing up for spring training in Florida, and not expecting much from the team over the holidays. 

    Transforming your ballpark into a winter wonderland isn’t an idea sports strategists have rested their laurels on to date, but the Indians have used Snow Days to engage their fan base and generate revenue in the offseason.

    At this year’s Midwest Social Media Summit, Curtis Danburg of the Indians spoke about the organization’s environment of continual innovation. “It’s not always what’s best, but what’s next,” he said. In other words, continual innovation is critical to the organization’s success.

    For marketers and business-minded folk, continual innovation can be daunting. However, bold, unconventional ideas are necessary for success. See Paul’s post on the topic, Disrupt or Die: 6 Tips on Disruptive Innovation.

    How exactly do you come up with the next big idea? The Tribe was one of the first teams to connect with its fan base using Twitter, will likely roll out more mobile technologies in the upcoming seasons, and was the first team to make a splash in the offseason with Snow Days.

    How do the new ideas keep coming? I believe it’s because the organization is able to realize and take full advantage of the opportunities at hand. These opportunities resonate because they’re implemented with the organization’s brand values at the forefront.

    Stay True to Your Brand’s Promise

    It’s great to be innovative. However, it works for some organizations better than others because of alignment with overall brand values. 

    The Indians speak about a commitment to provide fans with fun, family-friendly experiences each time they come to the ballpark. Snow Days is another avenue for doing just that.

    Here are a few of the lessons you can learn from the Tribe, which helped bring Snow Days to the forefront:

    • Listen to your fans — whether they're your customers, Facebook community, a group of thought leaders committed to your cause or anyone else your organization cares about. Updates made to the Snow Days program were in direct response to fan feedback. For example, last year’s visitors wanted more warm-up areas; this year’s Snow Days has more warm-up areas.
    • Deliver on promises through action. The Indians are committed to providing a fun, family-friendly experience. What is the overarching message you want to communicate to the people you care about most? Is there a way to let them experience it, rather than telling them about it?
    • Think outside your organization; consider your industry and community. One of the notes Indians' president Mark Shapiro (@MarkShapiro) made in his address at Snow Days’ media day was that he hoped Snow Days would bring families downtown. Not only does this position the Indians as part of the community, but it promotes the city, builds partnerships and gives the fan base a greater cause to support.

    Thanks to our friends across the street for welcoming the community into the ballpark this offseason, and for showing us true innovation in practice.  

    Jessica Donlon is a consultant at PR 20/20. Connect with Jessica on Twitter @JessicaDonlon.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

    Image: Paul and I standing in front of Indian's mascot, Slider, as we check out the 2011 Indians Snow Days' media day. Image taken by Mark Szczepanik.

  • Inbound Industry Report: November 20, 2011

    By Laurel Miltner | Posted Nov 20, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing

    Top marketing news, articles and tips from the third week of November 2011. 

    SEO

    Duplicate Content in a Post-Panda World is Dr. Peter J. Meyers’ (@dr_pete) attempt to offer “a complete discussion of what duplicate content is, how it happens, how to diagnose it, and how to fix it”—particularly with Google’s Panda algorithm updates in mind. In the article, Dr. Pete explains: 

    • Why you may have duplicate content on your site without knowing it.
    • Common instances of duplicate content.
    • How to find duplicate content on your site.
    • How duplicate content impacts a site’s ability to rank in search engines.
    • Different types of duplicate content—true duplicates, near duplicates and cross-domain duplicates.
    • How to fix duplicate content issues using redirects, coding, Google Webmaster Tools, Bing Webmaster Central and smart linking practices.

    SEO & Content

    In Mapping Keywords to Content for Maximum Impact, a Whiteboard Friday video, Rand Fishkin (@randfish) explains why keyword analyses, on-page SEO and content strategy must go hand-in-hand. He offers a step-by-step guide to get your team and keyword strategy in line.

    • Start with a complete list of target keywords.
    • Map keywords to existing content, considering: relevance, user intent and conversion goals.
    • Determine when multiple keywords can effectively be targeted on a single page, versus needing multiple pages.
    • Finally, use your map to go off and create the content that will be valuable to users, and findable through search.

    Media & Business Strategy 

    Newspapers’ Digital Apostle is a New York Times feature on John Paton, chief executive officer of MediaNews Group (by circulation, the second-largest newspaper chain in the United States). In this look at the business of news, reporter David Carr (@carr2n) explores how Paton intends to turn his collection of papers into viable, profitable publications once again.

    Driven by a belief that “if newspapers are to survive, they will all but have to set themselves on fire, eventually forsaking print and becoming digital news operations,” Paton is focused on profitability, efficiency in operations and quality content development. Following are some of the changes Paton has implemented to help move MediaNews properties from print to digital. 

    • Digital advertising is offered without a required investment in print.
    • Centralized production of  “common content”­—such as that from wire services and national reports—rather than having editors at each individual publication dedicated to the task.
    • Community members, bloggers, etc. are invited to contribute content to their local papers.
    • Reporters have been given Flip cameras, and traditional publishing software has been switched out for web-based publishing tools, to streamline digital content production.

    What’s fascinating about this article is that even though it’s specific to the publishing industry, I believe that this kind of overhaul is needed for nearly any business to thrive in our digitally driven business world. 

    In the News… 

    Google revealed a new version of Analytics, complete with a new interface and easy access to additional reports. One thing that stuck out to me was its heavy focus on social engagement, bringing this aspect of visitor behavior to the forefront. For tips on integrating the on-site tracking you’ll need to take advantage of this insight, see Google Analytics Gets Social Engagement Reporting by Daniel Waisberg (@danielwaisberg).

    What were your top marketing stories of the week? Comments are open for your opinions.

    Laurel Miltner is the assistant vice president at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter: @laurelmackenzie.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.


  • Inbound Industry Report: November 13, 2011

    By Laurel Miltner | Posted Nov 13, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing

    Top marketing news, articles and tips from the second week of November 2011.

    Content Marketing

    m is for marketing

    Marty Weintraub(@aimclear) shares 26 awesome tips for content marketers in Content Marketing Essentials: Tactical Advice from A to Z. Here are a few of my favorites:

    • “A - Bring A-list writers. You get what you pay for so using $14 a page writers or automated software won't yield the level of content that will matter.” Quality always mattered to your readers and credibility, but after Google’s Panda algorithm update(s), it matters to the search engines, too. 
    • “J - Just remember that 25 visitors a day is over 9,000 a year.” I love this. It can be so easy to think that your content isn’t useful if you don’t see huge audience numbers, but taking a step back to see the impact of smaller numbers over time—especially if you’re in a niche industry with a small audience to begin with—is truly powerful and inspiring.
    • “P - Think of your feeds as a publication, not a website.” What blogs, magazines, columns or papers do you have to read regularly? Think about what makes them so valuable, and how you can make your company content that useful to your audience.
    •  “T - Allocate enough time.” Good writing, particularly when research is involved, takes time. So does reacting to pieces that spur conversation; joining networks of interest to share your work, and debate and discuss ideas; and other activities that help to share and spread your content.  

    Chris Penn (@cspenn) offers A Simple Content Value Test in an effort to help raise the bar on content quality. Before publishing a new piece, Penn recommends that you ask yourself if in its creation you learned or laughed, and if you love the end result. If it doesn’t hit the mark in at least one of these areas, your content is likely in need of some additional work.

    Social Media Policy

    Can A Twitter Account be a Company Trade Secret? Jeff Roberts (@jeffjohnroberts) reports about a San Francisco court case that is exploring this very question. Background: former PhoneDog employee Noah Kravitz used a Twitter account, @PhoneDog_Noah that reached about 17,000 followers. After leaving the company, Kravitz kept the account and changed the account handle (AKA the account name) and PhoneDog sued, claiming ownership of the account.

    Lawyer Venkat Balasubramani examines the legalities for Ars Technica. In, Who Gets Custody of a Twitter Account When an Employee Quits? he explains the court’s stances on key claims of the lawsuit, ranging from economics to data ownership to the economic advantage of the Twitter account’s contact list.

    Money quote from Balasubramani: “The takeaway is that there needs to be a written agreement that governs this issue.” In other words, if your company doesn’t have a social media policy that addresses this issue, it should—especially if you have any “high value” social media employees.

    In, Are Twitter Followers a Company Asset? Cynthia Boris offers some practical examples and advice, both from the company and employee points of view. These are worth a look, and might offer a good starting point for that policy if you need it.

    SEO 

    Rand Fishkin (@randfish) shares easy-to-digest advice in 4 Graphics to Help Illustrate On-Page Optimization. He covers:

    • Keyword use and density on page
    • Use of the keyword outside of page copy
    • How search engines determine page quality 
    • Strategy in targeting multiple, related keywords on one page or more

    In the News

    LinkedIn

    LinkedIn launched a new Group Statistics dashboard, which provides details on the demographics, growth and activity of a given LinkedIn group. The information can be found by clicking the “Group Statistics” link in the right-hand column of any group’s main page, or through a bar graph icon underneath the group in the “Your Groups” list.

    Use Group Statistics to help you identify which groups are most worth your time commitment, particularly if you’re considering several for the same interest. Or, if you manage a LinkedIn Group, start checking the statistics to monitor group activity levels, spur conversation when there are lulls, and track and report group success over time. 

    Google

    Google opened Google+ Pages for business. Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) wrote a great overview, which includes details on setting up a page and their functionality. Note to brand owners and marketers: at this time, the verification process to set up a branded page is limited, if not non-existent, so if you haven't secured your page yet, go here now and follow the setup instructions.

    The Think With Google team launched Think Insights, a website that houses information on consumer trends, industry research and marketing insights. There are multiple categories and search options, providing marketers—or anyone with a paper to write or presentation to create—with the tools to identify trends, dig into mobile usage data, view real-time information on what people are publishing and consuming, and more. (Source: The Next Web)

    I admit that in my first few searches I was a little disappointed with the results, or lack thereof, that the site provided. But, after playing around and understanding its organization and navigation, I see its promise. One thing I noticed: If you’re searching for data on a specific topic (e.g. social media adoption in business), it helps to make your search more broad and sift through results (e.g. “social media business”) rather than using a highly specific search as you might use in standard Google searches (e.g. “twitter adoption rate among executives”). 

    What were your top marketing stories of the week? Comments are open for your opinions.

    Laurel Miltner is the assistant vice president at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter: @laurelmackenzie.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

    Image updated from takomabibelot

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