Posts Tagged ‘Content Creation’

Linkbait, your website’s best mate

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

compare_the_meerkatThe holy grail of SEO, a self-feeding SEO machine, and all that jazz…

When the quirky meerkat Aleksandr Orlov appeared on our screens in 2009 to inform us of the difference between Comparethemarket.com and Comparethemeerkat.com, some brilliant linkbait was born.

The spin-off site Comparethemeerkat.com (where you can compare thousands of meerkats), has attracted nearly 10,000 inbound links, from people compelled to spread the meerkat word. By linking the spin-off site to the main price comparison site, Comparethemarket.com will have been able to pass on valuable link-juice and gained some well-earned Google-love. Simples!

So what is linkbait?

According to the head of Google’s Webspan team and SEO-guru Matt Cutts, linkbait is anything “interesting enough to catch people’s attention”. More specifically, linkbait differs from viral content in that it’s not just designed to be spread around, but to be linked to aswell. And while the primary purpose of linkbait is to attract inbound links, it can also help to generate press, create a buzz and drive traffic.

The beauty of linkbait is that once you have created your interesting content and told a few key people about it through any type of media channel, it can quickly snowball around the net and translate into numerous inbound links from blogs, Twitter, social networks, etc … These key people are often referred to as the LINKERATI (a term coined by Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz fame) and carry a lot of weight in the world wide web.

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Posted in Content Creation, Natural Search (SEO) | 3 Comments »

Online PR - Not just about relationships with the public

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

love_hateI recently told a friend of mine who is a journalist that I was doing online PR. “Ah”, she said, “you’ve become the enemy!” We had a good old giggle, but this illustrates perfectly the love-hate relationship journalists have with PRs and why it is such a challenge for us PRs to pitch to them.

Just to explain how it all works, here is what I do. As a PR, it’s my job to ‘manage the flow of information between an organization (my client) and the public (target market)’. Just like with offline PR, I need to create personas, or target market segments, find out which publications they read (in my case websites) and then get their products onto these websites, for free. Some people think this means pushing out an offline press release on a news wire, but it is much more than that and with online PR particularly, the relationship with the journalist is key.

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Posted in Content Creation, Online PR, Persona Targeting | No Comments »

Getting personal with your customers

Monday, June 29th, 2009

girl_blue_skyWe are increasingly aware of how customers are looking to get the best price for the best product, but how can us online marketers ensure that we reach these potential purchasers and get under the skin of what really motivates their buying habits?

We need to go back to basics and forget about the traditional demographics which have influenced marketing campaigns for years. Of course age, sex, income and marital status are important but what you really need to think about is who are your target customers, what influences their spending decisions and which sites do they visit during their spending journey?

Its time to get personal and the answer lies in creating personas…

Personas are fictional characters. They take on identities and represent your customers by their buying trends and search habits. The persona will put a human face to data and create something that can seem real and familiar. Ideal online customers are no longer just ABC1’s, they are individuals sat in front of their computer, researching their next purchase.

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Posted in Brand Engagement, Content Creation, Online PR, Paid Search (PPC), Persona Targeting, Web Copy | 1 Comment »

How to kill conversions with your landing page!

Friday, April 24th, 2009

webpagesWhether it’s PPC marketing, email marketing, affiliate marketing or natural search driving traffic to your website, your landing page is critical to the campaign performance - and it’s your big opportunity to engage with a potential customer.

So why do so many sites get it so wrong, and what are the most important things to remember?

What’s wrong with my landing page you ask?

Well firstly, you have to realise everyone uses the internet differently - so don’t try to pigeon hole all users in the same place.  Some users scan a whole page within a few seconds of landing on a site, while others focus on a block of text and read carefully - it all depends on the visitor.

With this in mind there are 6 things worth considering to ensure your landing page is optimised to its full potential:

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Posted in Content Creation, Conversion Optimisation, Top Tips, Web Copy | 2 Comments »

What do mind-bending tricks have to do with conversion rates?

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

derren_brownFive ways to influence the minds of your potential customers - with web copy.

Ok, so you’ve got a super-slick design for your website and your marketing campaigns are sending a nice number of potential customers to browse its attractive pages - but what happens once they’ve arrived? Just like a sales person in a shop can employ verbal sales techniques to convince someone to whip out their credit card, the words on your site (or web copy) can act in the same way, all year round - and you don’t have to pay them a salary! Apart from applying some basic principles, such as good grammar (!), interesting and informative content and the inclusion of keywords, there are five clever, mind-bending tricks you can employ to tap into the minds of your potential customers and influence what they do on your site.

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Posted in Content Creation, Conversion Optimisation, Top Tips, Web Copy | 4 Comments »