A great article here on the OPEN American Express Blog by Duct Tape Marketing. Make a checklist for your Ad generation…When wou are in the mix of it, sometimes we forget all the ingredients that go into making a good ad. After you’ve done it over and over again, you’ll remember all of the pieces but you wouldn’t start making a special family dish for the first time without a recipe would you? To get good results, follow the steps – over and over again.

The Never-Fail Recipe for Ads That Work Like Crazy >

Every small business has questions on how to market their business online as well as how much to spend and best practices on measuring ROI. MSNBC had a great clip on this very topic:

So, I had a meeting with a business partner the other day and he came in talking about how great Bing is – Bing is Microsoft’s new search engine (they call it a decision engine).  He was raving about how you can type in a type of food and your zip code and see local results!  I thought to myself, “Doesn’t Google already do that?”

So, as he sat in my office, I opened up Firefox and went to www.bing.com and a new tab to www.google.com and a tab to www.yahoo.com - I figured, let’s give it a whirl!

In my search string, I typed in “pizza 80241″ where 80241 is a zip code nearby in beautiful Colorado where our Colorado Web Development company is located.

Here are my rather interesting findings – I was actually quite surprised in many ways:

Note: I only looked at anything that showed up above the fol.d  Just to be as fair as possible.

1. Google

Google actually had a good degree of variation based on smaller chains to larger chains and geographically dispersed.

All from Local Business Results – Google Local:
Capri Pizza, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, Papa Murphys, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Anthonys, Abos, and Capri.

Then on the organic results from the SERP:
2 links to pizza pages on yellowpages and 2 links to pizza on merchant circle.

Either way, I’m sure I could find something useful and tasty just in the local results up top with the map.

Note: Now what was odd is that the points on the map were quite varried, there were some really close (5 – 10 mins) and some far (20 – 30 minutes away) – but a good distribution none the less.

2. Yahoo!

This one I didn’t get…there were 3 results up top next to the local results with a map.  3…just 3.  And #3 was over 30 minutes away from this zip code.

Here are the Yahoo! Local results:
Anthony’s II, Boardwalk Cafe, and Carl’s Pizza.

Note: No Dominoes, Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, or any of the big ones that I know are around that zip.

Organic results from the SERP:
Result #1 was to Yahoo Local, #2 to yellowpages, #3 to citysearch, and #4 to DexKnows.

This is very interesting, while Google linked directly to the web sites of the retail pizza locations – it could be the corporate site vs. the local shop – Yahoo! instead chose to link to several directories.  Good food for thought if you see what I see

3. Microsoft Bing

This one really cracked me up…the local results up top were actually pretty good.

In the Local listings at the top we had:
Capri, Abos, Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Pudge Bros, Anthonys.

Note: All good, all close, and a good mix of small chains and large chains. 8 listings in all showing.

But the key here is that all 8 were very close to the zip code entered!

So down below the local listings in the organic SERP…and I love this:

Capri Pizza, Autozone, Space Imaging, A Denver Directory, Yellow pages.

Did you catch #2 and #3??? Autozone and Space Imaging!

Okay, so that was the link title and the links went to yellowpages which did actually link to Autozone and Space imaging without any mention of pizza – oddly enough this decision engine gave some weight based on an ad that probably showed up on those pages…even though the pages were for Autozone, etc. If I were looking for something more important, like a Hospital and I got something like Autozone or a bakery pop up – I’d be pissed.

So, who won Round 1 of the Search Engine Faceoff?

Local listings at the top: I have to give it to Bing, the results were the most accurate and well rounded.

Organic results inline SERP: This one goes to Google, they linked to the actual web sites of the pizza places and showed me coupons, etc.

(Google: 1 Yahoo!: 0 Bing: 1)

If you haven’t heard yet, Google is now allowing users to setup their own profiles and will integrate Google Profile information on specific Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERP).

Here is what Google stated in their Google Friends Newsletter:

Profile information now in search results
To give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name, we now show Google profile results at the bottom of U.S. search pages. These results offer abbreviated information from the profiles you created, a well as a link to the full profiles. We’ve also added links so it’s easy to search for the same name on MySpace, Facebook, Classmates and LinkedIn. Your public profile page identifies you and serves as a hub for your content on the web.

You can click here to setup your Google Profile.

Okay, so Google doesn’t know my bank account numbers or what my K-1 shows or any other financial details – I think.  But they do know where I hang out online and probably in real life, how I search, what I read, and so much more. I guess personalized search results require some privacy to be relinquished.

Anyway – back to the point – if you hurry, you can get a set of FREE Google Profile Business cards.  iPrint.com is giving away 10,000 sets.

Just click here for your free Google Profile Business cards – if you are quick enough!

Google announced on their blog that they had optimized the product search pages to be easier viewed on mobile devices.  You can now easily sort by price, rating, brand, or even online stores where the product is available.  Here’s a link to the the Google Blog post.

Sounds like a good plan for consumers.  When you are out and about at the store and you want to purchase an item, that’s the point where you need knowledge of the product:

1. Is it a quality product?

2. Is it being sold at a fair price?

3. Does it have good user reviews?

By allowing mobile users (specifically on iphone and Android, but available on other mobile devices) to be able to research products through an interface designed for mobility at the purchase point, Google helps keep information at the fingertips of the user.

Now, the question that is begging to be asked…Does having more information create an opportunity for the brick and mortar store to lose a sale?  Will Google let online e-tailers advertise on these pages?  Will Google develop location awareness and offer alternate retailers nearby to purchase the same product?

What do you all think?

5 reasons why Internet Marketing kicks-ass over traditional marketing efforts:

1. Testing an off-the-wall idea is easy

With the Internet, you can go from idea to conception within a few days.  In many cases, digital is so much easier and quicker than having to go through a design/print or guerrilla marketing campaign.

2. It’s easy to measure ROI

With proper web analytics, you can judge the success of your campaign.  Whether it’s tracking traffic or conversions, show ROI!

3. It’s relatively inexpensive

With a budget of a few hundred dollars, you can test things out through pay-per-click – just to test out an idea.  Where else can you test out an idea on a massive targeted marketplace for that cheap?

4. More efficient – cost per click is going down, so targets are being fine tuned.

With proper keyword research and targeting, you can actually test your idea on a specific demographic.  Instead of throwing something on the wall to see if it sticks, at least focus in a bit and throw it on the wall in the direction of someone that may actually be interested.

5. It’s pretty quick.

You can get a campaign up and running pretty quickly compared to traditional marketing such as planning an event, attending a trade show, designing, printing, and mailing postcards.

Forrester Research projects that paid search marketing will grow 26% this year, reaching $11.4 billion in the U.S. In addition, the company’s “U.S. Search Engine Marketing Executive Survey” (conducted by Jupiter Research prior to its July acquisition by Forrester) forecasts that search budgets will remain stable through much of 2009.

Don’t get me wrong…if consumers are not spending money then Search and Internet Marketing WILL SUFFER, but not as much as traditional marketing efforts.  You’ll see a decline, but businesses still have to market for long term growth and they will focus on things that bring them more sales vs. brand building.

Okay, that title was a bit harsh!  Not ALL PR companies have their head stuck in the sand…quite a few are evolving and growing.  We’ve seen this lately through business closures.  Several PR firms are closing their doors because they didn’t adapt to a changing market – even though they thought they had.

One big gap that still remains is PR companies focusing solely on Adwords and sponsored links (pay-per-click) without any On-page SEO or Inbound Marketing initiatives – this is an expensive recipe for failure.

How does pay-per-click work?

Let’s think about how Adwords and Sponsored links work.  Essentially, you are bidding on specific keywords.  As long as you bid high enough, your ad and web site link will show up wherever the Search Engine is serving ads (SERP or Ad delivery networks).  Each time a user clicks on your ad, you pay your bid amount.  The Search Engine decides when to show your ad, how often, and in what order.

There are a few inherent problems with basing your whole marketing strategy on this:

1. You don’t control the Search Engine.  They choose when and were your ad will show up and how much you will pay for the click or impression.  Yes, you choose a limit, but ultimately the Search Engine still has control.

2. You can estimate how much to bid, but you can’t be 100% sure how high you need to bid to take the top spot.

3. If your business plan is based on Pay-Per-Click, then any competitor old or new just has to out bid you in order to take your spot. You can be de-throned and lose a lot of traffic if you are relying just on sponsored links.  This is assuming your web site and product are mediocre.

4. If you did not spend enough time figuring out what keywords to target, then you  may just be throwing all of your money down the toilet.  Pay-per-click assumes you know your market and you know what keywords to target.  If you are targeting the wrong words, you may be wasting your marketing dollars because you  may get traffic, but no conversions or sales.

5. Even worse is letting the Search Engine decide what keywords best suite you.  With Google this is called Broad Match. It takes your list of keywords and then makes an assumption to related terms.  If you targeted the keywords “dog biscuits” and you used broad match, then Google may also show your ad for someone searching for “dog kennel cough” – they both deal with dogs, but someone looking up kennel cough may not be looking for dog biscuits and those marketing dollars were most likely just wasted.

So, what’s the missing key?

Do use pay-per-click, it’s a good way to supplement gaps in Search Engine Coverage, get visibility for new product launches, or even help you with keyword discovery.

Don’t plan your whole marketing campaign on pay-per-click.  Make sure you are looking at on-page SEO and off-page SEO – that’s what you’ll need for long-term sustained growth.

Some people are afraid of change…Unfortunately for some and Fortunately for others – change is now part of life and business as we know it.

Here’s a quick video illustrating change and how change is increasingly speeding up…to me it’s exciting:

I’m still trying to figure out why people have an aversion to change?  Is it the unknown?

Please post a comment and share your thoughts!

According to answerbag.com the most popular answer is:

“Some people are set in their ways…and change means having to do, view, think of things differently. Some are afraid they won’t fit in or they aren’t prepared.”

For me, I’m kind of excited…If everything out there was already created and marketed, then we may as well go get a job at  7-Eleven…but there’s still great opportunity for those who choose to lead the pack and embrace change.

If you are one of those who feels unprepared…it’s okay.  There’s still so much out there to learn, if you get started and learn new things, you won’t miss out.  There’s no shame.  Unless you look back in 20 years and still haven’t learned anything new…

Best of luck.

We’ve met some great Search Engine Optimization milestones for our Denver and National clients in 2008 through various Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing strategies.  But, we do not intend to rest on our laurels!!

In our never ending quest to improve our strategies and tactics to help our clients climb the Search Engine Result Page (SERP), we are heading out to California to attend Search Engine Marketing Expo West!

Now, before you just assume we will be on a sun-filled vacation, know that we’ll be stuck (hapilly) in the Santa Clara Convention Center pretty much every day this week from 8am to 10pm.  We are glad to do this as it helps us stay ahead of our competition and keep our Search Engine Marketing tactics sharp and effective.

A few of the companies that we will be meeting with and listening to are:

It should be a great conference and we are already excited about some of the new things we can try out as soon as we get back!

Make sure you contact us to see how we can help your business scale the Search Engine Ladder.

With 2009 just hours away, there’s hope, expectation, and reservation in the air.

A few thoughts: 2009 will be the year of…

The self-employed

There is one key attribute to success that most do not realize.  Everyone is self-employed.  Whether you work for a corporation or have your own freelance company…you are essentially self-employed.

If you work for a company as an employee and get a W2 at the end of the year, you are still in theory a one person company and your product is…you.  Your time, your creativity, and your talent…that’s what you get paid for.

In 2009, I believe we will see people take more responsibility for their own progress and careers.  Instead of leaning on job security – which is a mind game anyway – we will lean towards independently looking towards progressing ourselves.  You are your own boss…even if you have to answer to someone.

Through this realization, we will see people branch out into other areas.  You no longer have 1 job…you may open up a side business selling info products, freelancing, blogging – who knows.

2009 will be the year of the self-employed.

Shifting priorities

As retirement accounts dry up, loans are called, and credit lines are reduced we need to optimize and adapt for the better.  What were priorities in 2007 and 2008 will change this year.

From families and businesses paying off their debt and re-structuring their expenses to save more to real estate investors going crazy over bargains to be had.

From workaholics spending more time with their families to students finding new ways to pay for school so they don’t have to borrow.

From parents taking back control of their retirement by not relying on extremely leveraged institutions for help to college savings accounts being started for new born babies.

2009 will be the year of shifting priorities.

Inbound Marketing

As marketing morphs into consumer interaction and corporate execs become transparent a new way of reaching your audience is taking hold.  Inbound Marketing is the process of building your brand and evoking consumer loyalty through communication, relationships, and an equally satisfying need to make our world a better place.

Utilizing Search Engine Optimization, Brand Marketing, Social Media, and overall Reputation management; start-ups will compete with giants by creating communities for niche markets and taking over market share through quality products/services and Inbound Marketing.  If you build it correctly, they will come.

2009 will be the year of Inbound Marketing.

Personal Branding

In line with being self-employed, the personal brand comes into play.  No longer do consumers only care about the product or service, they now care about the people behind the curtain.  With so many companies faltering in 2008 it becomes increasingly important to put your money towards the leadership behind a cause.

With the transparency that social media networks bring to executives, personal brand will play a big role in consumer confidence.  This is extremely apparent when you look at Apple and Steve Jobs…then the challenge is how do you pass on “your brand” to the company yet still take it with you when the time comes.

2009 will be the year of Personal Branding

Twitter Emergence

Many people are confused by how to monetize or even utilize social media networks.  Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, or twitter, they are confused.  And rightly so…these applications have a feature set but it’s up to the users to determine how that feature set is used.

In 2009, I see twitter emerging to a mass audience.  Whether they know how to use it or not, twitter offers something the other networks are not geared towards..the ability to find and connect with strangers of like mind.  Networking and building, this is where I see twitter exploding.

2009 will be the year of twitter emergence.

On a side note, if you are interested in a really cool twitter showcase coming in January ‘09 – follow me @arifgan – details to come early Jan…seriously, you don’t want to miss this one.

Now, on to you…our readers are clever, creative, and determined so let’s hear it…

2009 will be the year of?