Holistic Technology Enabled Internet Marketing Solutions

This is an entry in our HALLoween Blog series. Each week leading up to Halloween 2010 we will treat you with internet marketing topics that have a fun and spooky flare.

Google Places is Giving Us a New Way to Search

Photo credit: Juushika Redgrave

We all have an inside scoop on some of our favorite places. Trick or Treaters know which houses have the best candy and which neighborhoods are the best for trick or treating.

With sites like Yelp!, Foursquare, Gowalla, Tripadvisor, Google Places etc. we now have a way to leave our little tidbits of knowledge behind so that others can benefit from them too. Maybe not specifically for trick or treaters yet, but I won’t be surprised when they do.

Google announced yesterday that they are revving up their Place Search to organize the world’s information on locations.

Now establishments that have new information posted on review sites will get more attention with a large red pin point.

Why is this important?

This is important because Google is twisting your arm to encourage your customers to participate in these rating and review websites. People are using Local search and Places search more often, many from mobile browsers. We want to know what is nearby and we want to know what other people have to say about an establishment often, more than we want to know what the organization says about itself.

This search behavior benefits those with good reputations, service, food and it is bad news for people who are relying on smoke, mirrors and fancy advertisements to attract attention.

In the context of a neighborhood trick or treater – Google’s place search would be like knowing who is handing out the best candy (my 10 year old cousin says the best candy is Twix, by the way) and which ones are handing out pennies, apples, have run out of candy or are handing out their leftover Easter candy. Users trust other users like themselves for rating and reviews on businesses. What are people saying about your business online and what are kids saying about your Halloween candy?

This is an entry in our HALLoween Blog series. Each week leading up to Halloween 2010 we will treat you with internet marketing topics that have a fun and spooky flare.

Photo Credit: Dunechaser

Every year I look forward to getting creative and making my Halloween costume. This year I took on the daunting task of making my own, as well as my sister’s and fiancee’s. Perhaps I will end up being a zombie instead of a witch come Halloween, but that’s another story…

In the theme of all things classic, my fiancee is going to be Frankenstein’s monster (the Boris Karloff version). I have enjoyed finding old parts and pieces of clothing to put together to create his costume; the more out of place, the better!

When it comes to your website, you want the opposite. Review the 3 points below and determine if you’ve created a well balanced CMS website or if you’ve created a CMS monster!

1. Too Many Add-Ons – Frankenstein could have added extra parts to his monster, but they were not needed to create it. With a CMS, it is easy to add new features and parts, but are they all really necessary? Just because you can add that cool weather widget or polling functionality doesn’t mean that you have to. Plan out everything that you add to your website and think about what value it will provide visitors and how will it help your site. Otherwise your add-ons can distract your clients from what really matters.
2. Out of Control Navigation – If you read Mary Shelley’s original book, you will know that Frankenstein’s monster was really just misunderstood and was having trouble finding his way. Don’t let your visitors get confused and lost on your website. When your website first went live, navigation was probably well thought out and organized (and if not, make it a priority!). With a CMS, it can be easy to forget about your organization and just start adding menu items every time a new page is added. Adding too many items to the navigation can easily get out of control, so evaluate your content and figure out the logical way people will navigate. This may include adding a site search or dividing out your content by sections that have their own sub-navigation.
3. A Large News Section – Do you have a system in place for organizing your news and event items? Over time you can add so many news and events that it can grow to monster-like proportions. If these are just displayed on a page as a list, then the page can take a long time to load and visitors will never get to the news on the bottom. Figure out a system for archiving your news and events items so that only the most recent ones are displayed. Set up a search or monthly archive for those who want to view past items.

Make it a goal to keep your site in control at all times. This means evaluating add-ons, checking your navigation, and keeping a news archive that is easy to search through. Each time you add something to your website, think about the value it is providing. You want your website to be alive (It’s alive! Aliiiive!) with valuable, easy to access information with few random parts and pieces that send people running screaming for the hills!

Read the rest of the HALLoween blog series

• Treat #1 – 3 Ways to Prepare Your Website for Trick-or-Treaters
• Treat #2 – Don’t Let Your Site Navigation Be a Nightmare
• Treat #3 – Beware of Trick Emails About SEO Services
• Treat #4 – 5 Ways to Reuse Your Content to Create Something New
• Treat #5 – How To Win The Costume Contest

This is an entry in our HALLoween Blog series. Each week leading up to Halloween 2010 we will treat you with internet marketing topics that have a fun and spooky flare.

The kids with the best costumes get the most and best candy, you all knew that, right?

image credit: Mayselgrove

I’ve had some pretty conventional costumes for halloween growing up. The obligatory pumpkin as a baby, the typical vampire as an 8 year old, Ghostbusters at SOME point in the ’90s…I can’t remember. Usually, I would wait a day before Halloween and then figure out what I would want to have for a costume. Clearly, wasn’t very prepared and didn’t have much of a strategy. This is probably why I didn’t win any contests at parties.

Having a conventional website is a lot like having a bad costume. Your competition is always going to win the contest by getting good user conversion if you don’t have a game plan.

Let’s do this, not only am I going to give you tips on web user conversion but we’re going to win this costume contest too!

1. Strategy – Time to think. What separates you from your competition? Maybe it’s your unique location, your quirky customer service or your branding. Determine where your originality will come from and utilize it within specific design aspects.

Halloween costume tip #1 – Forget about this year’s trends…I saw at least 20 “Jokers” in 2009. Thanks, The Dark Knight. Traditionally frightening and humorous costumes are the big winners. Keep “The Situation” and your Twilight costumes at home.

2. User Conversion – Let’s get creative. There are millions of different stock photos of smiley business men and women hovering over a computer that you can use…but why take the safe route? Think about personalizing your messaging and how you want to represent your products and services. Try taking your own photos if it fits within your marketing schedule. Showing that you are creative and original shows your users that you are willing to take time to invite them into your world.

Halloween costume tip #2 - The more blood and guts, the better! Flesh devouring demons, brain consuming zombies and rotting corpses show that you aren’t afraid to get good and dirty. Not to mention, these types of costumes will be sure to scare the snot out of any children coming to your front steps to trick-or-treat! Boo-yah!

3. Buttons – Being a graphic designer, I like to see user conversion elements that don’t look the same as everything else on the internet. Icons are where it’s at. Accentuate your conversion accessories. Think of the depth of detail you want your buttons to possess. Size, shape, texture, color and fonts should all be considered while choosing appropriate conversion buttons.

Halloween Costume tip #3 – Accessorize. Seriously, carrying and wearing accompanying items show that you put maximum effort within your costume idea. For instance, I’m thinking about being a Lumberjack this Halloween (don’t steal my idea, I grew a beard for this) and possibly carrying an axe. Maybe not a really real axe, but a plastic one. Think about your costume head to toe. Does your hair color match the rest of your costume? Would you have a better chance of winning the contest if you had a fake weapon or an exposed head wound? The choice is yours!

4. Become the user – This is a big deciding factor on how effective you can make your conversion elements. Step out of your business marketing realm and become the same person who wants to purchase your product. How easy is it to get to the information about your services? How many steps does it take to contact a representative from your company? Are your conversion tactics entertaining or interactive enough where it is going to entice the user to click deeper into the product pages? Playing a different role as a user on your site isn’t easy, but to determine the users characteristics, you must become the user.

Halloween Costume tip #4 – Play the part. Your costume will be that much more convincing to costume judges if you act like the character you are visually displaying. If you are Frankenstein, stick those arms out in front of you when you walk. Zombies? Grunt how much you love to eat brains! Maybe you’re gonna steal my idea and be a Lumberjack, sing songs about how awesome it is to chop wood and drink maple syrup. Whatever it is, have fun and become the character.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Read the rest of the HALLoween blog series

• Treat #1 – 3 Ways to Prepare Your Website for Trick-or-Treaters
• Treat #2 – Don’t Let Your Site Navigation Be a Nightmare
• Treat #3 – Beware of Trick Emails About SEO Services
• Treat #4 – 5 Ways to Reuse Your Content to Create Something New

This is an entry in our HALLoween Blog series. Each week leading up to Halloween 2010 we will treat you with internet marketing topics that have a fun and spooky flare.

Each year on October first I start brainstorming my costume for Halloween. Sometimes I have a general idea of what I want to dress up as, and sometimes, like this year, I am not sure. In previous years, I’ve had to decide if I wanted a store-bought costume or if I wanted to make my costume. If I make it, will I need to start from scratch or do I have some items that I can put together to make my costume?

This year I thought of my previous costumes and which items could I use again to make a new, different costume. This is a great way to think about the content that you are putting out on the web. Just like your costume, you don’t need to something brand new each time, you can reuse previous content to make new content. Here are some great ways to use the content you already have to create new content than can be distributed on your website and online.

photo credit: burke_white

1. Blog – Some blogs are short and some blogs are more detailed. Turn your longer blogs into whitepapers or webinars. Both give you the opportunity to elaborate on your original idea. Plus, the more content you have on a particular topic the more you likely you will be viewed as an authority on that topic.
2. Webinar – On the flip side, you can break your webinars and whitepapers into blog posts. After you’ve created a webinar go back and take a look at your slides. Your webinar slides usually aren’t text heavy; they contain limited text to get your point across. Use one or two slides as an outline to write a new blog post for your website.
3. Whitepaper – Whitepapers are written to help people with a particular problem or to educate readers on a certain subject. They are comprehensive and cover the point thoroughly. Use a whitepaper you have written to create a webinar or break up the whitepaper into sections to create a blog series based on that subject.
4. Video – People consume content differently; some like to read whitepapers while other would rather watch a video tutorial. Take a quick video of yourself giving a brief explanation of a blog post. Then, distribute that content on YouTube and your other social networks with a link back to the blog entry. Not only are you creating a diverse blend of content, you will also be spreading your content beyond your website.
5. Testimonials – Use your testimonials to create case studies that you can put on your site to explain in further detail the challenge that your product or service helped solve. You can describe the solution and the results in more detail than a testimonial as well as demonstrate the satisfaction of your customers.

You don’t have to buy a new costume each Halloween; sometimes the best costumes come from items you already have (you just have to be a little creative). The same goes for the content you’re distributing. It takes a lot of time and energy to create new content, but by reusing what you already have, you can create new, diverse types of content. The content that you distribute will continue to educate others as well as help build the image of your company as an authority in that particular industry.
Read the rest of the HALLoween blog series

• Treat #1 – 3 Ways to Prepare Your Website for Trick-or-Treaters
• Treat #2 – Don’t Let Your Site Navigation Be a Nightmare
• Treat #3 – Beware of Trick Emails About SEO Services