Bruce Clay Blog : 3/77 : Internet Marketing Optimization
November 5, 2012Email Marketing Done Right: Finding Its Place in Your Digital Strategy and Using Data to Personalize the Experience
Email marketing is alive and well, and is an important part of your company’s content and communications strategy. When done right, email marketing is a seamless part of your digital marketing campaign, and continues to engage your customers long after that first conversion.
With SES Chicago around the corner, I wanted to chat with one of the upcoming speakers, Sundeep Kapur. I caught him at SES San Francisco this year, and I liked his approach to using data to personalize email marketing.
Sundeep is a digital evangelist for NCR Corporation, a global technology company that provides products like point-of-sale terminals, barcode scanners and much more. He specializes in converged channel marketing strategy, from direct marketing to social media. Sundeep is also a teacher, and dubbed the “Email Yogi,” working with businesses across multiple industries to personalize and speak to consumers more effectively.
Sundeep and I sat down to chat about email marketing, and the conversation that follows is jam-packed with info on how email fits into the digital strategy, how to use transaction data to personalize emails, the future of mobile and email marketing, subject line optimization, campaign distribution times and much more.
October 19, 2012
3 Qualities of a Message that Makes an Impression, via PubCon and TED
You or someone you know is likely nursing a hangover this morning after a week in Vegas attending PubCon and its parties. I’ve got this impression of PubCon for being a fun-first kind of conference — its Vegas setting and annual poker tournament help. Yet as they say, work hard, play hard. A best-of show roundup from blogger and attendee Gil Reich reveals deep professional and intellectual insights shared at the conference.
Read more of 3 Qualities of a Message that Makes an Impression via PubCon and TED.
October 17, 2012
SEO Newsletter: The Growth Edition, Available Now
SEO Newsletter: The Growth Edition is hot off the presses. Another title we toyed with is “The How to Make A Site Better Edition.” The articles contained within address website management at all stages of planning, building and maintenance. If you’re launching, redesigning or rethinking a site, we point to areas where our experience suggests your site can improve.
Read more of SEO Newsletter: The Growth Edition, Available Now
October 15, 2012
How Do You Want It? Accepting the Value of Easy Brand Engagement
Human interactions have a dual-nature. We seek deep affectations, touching others as well as being touched. At the same time, we embrace easy endorsements. Humans are motivated by an inner desire to have their presence seen and felt. Sometimes it manifests as piling in on the movement of a group. Other times a more intimate but more deeply felt connection is made.
Online, businesses play to this behavior by enabling user interactions across a range of intensities. +1s and likes should be implemented on a brand’s content as it makes it easy for users to engage. Those interactions which require a higher investment from the user, like a phone call or a review, must also be wooed. There’s no question that a business should provide for interactions on all ends of the spectrum when it comes to attracting user engagement online, but it does raise an interesting question about the nature of online interaction.
October 10, 2012
Lessons from Facebook: How to Be Irresistible
While other addictions are more dangerous to your physical health, it’s hard to compete with Facebook as far as irresistible urges go.
A study conducted in Germany found Facebook to be as enticing as even the most primal desire, sex, and the most tempting substance, cigarettes. While Facebook’s addictive nature may not be as physiologically demanding, succumbing to its pressure is more difficult. It’s too easy to rationalize another visit to the network as harmless, and so we give in — over and over again.
Businesses can learn about what makes Facebook so addictive. Mimic some of Facebook’s behaviors to draw users back for more.
Read more of Lessons from Facebook: How to Be Irresistible.
October 9, 2012
The SMX East 2012 Recap
There’s nothing better than conferences to get an understanding of what’s on the minds of search marketers. And while I couldn’t cover all the sessions (lack of additional hands and prevented me from doing so), I did cover some great topics including:
-What SEO metrics matter.
-What technical SEO metrics matter.
-Link building in a post-Penguin world.
-Introduction to schemas.
-Persona building.
-Optimizing your search career.
-Advanced keyword research tactics.
Since all of us are very busy, I thought a roundup of what you need to know from the sessions covered is in order. How about it?
October 3, 2012
Is Your Search Marketing Career Optimized? – SMX East 2012
Last session of the day, folks. And what better way to wrap it up then to talk about a different type of optimization – optimizing your search marketing career. With more and more people choosing search marketing as their livelihood, I bet lost of people have questions about how to excel in their field. This is what the session aims to tackle. You can mine tidbits from this session at #24B on Twitter.
What’s Your Personas-ality? – SMX East 2012
Couple observations about the conference: 1) Gluten-free chocolate cake! I also noticed vegan and kosher options. Very cool. 2) Roaming nuns! Yes, folks, search has officially gone mainstream. Some very lovely sisters were roaming the expo halls looking for Web marketing services.
That’s a great segue into personas, right? Who are the people in your community and how can you market to them? You can follow Twitter chat om this session at #22b.
September 26, 2012
8 Marketers Share Where They Go for Creativity, Research, Humor & More
I’m always fascinated by the things people discover on the Web. With a seemingly endless supply of options, finding the content that speaks to you on a regular basis is like uncovering a gem. Virginia is always sending me the coolest things from the most random places online. This is what inspired the following post. I wanted to know what other people in the industry were reading, so that we could all benefit from finding new, cool places to consume great content.
Both Virginia and I handpicked some folks in our network, and asked them where they went online for personal interests, news, research, a simple laugh or a creative kick in the butt.
Here, we’ve collected feedback from Lisa Barone, Jonathon Colman, Bryan Eisenberg, Ian Lurie, Aaron Wall and Marty Weintraub. And of course, as the woman who inspired the post, Virginia weighs in, too (and then she nudged me to share mine).
September 19, 2012
A Look into the State of Search Marketing 2012
The State of Search Marketing Report 2012 by Econsultancy and SEMPO hit our inbox recently, and the survey data gives us a glimpse into some of the big challenges many companies are facing now and what’s important to them.
In this post, we’ll look at some of the emerging themes — ROI and attribution being one of them. As you’re reading this, I encourage you to think about ways you can help companies overcome some of their biggest challenges in digital marketing.
Whether you’re an in-house marketer looking to get buy-in or an agency/consultant looking at your approach to services, this data gives a glimpse into the psyche of companies, their challenges and opportunities in Web marketing.
