Posts Tagged: SEM

Features, Tips, & Announcements / SEO / Social Media — No Comments
27
Sep 11

Key Takeaways from Attending SMX

September has been a good month for Mongoose Metrics. We recently attended the Search Engine Marketing Expo East in New York City where we learned some valuable insights about SEO and SEM. The show’s focus included content marketing, SEO best practices and upcoming trends in social media. Since not everyone could attend the show, the marketing team at Mongoose would like to share some Key takeaways from SMX.

Keep it Simple

This applies to Search Engine Optimization specifically, as Tony Wright (@tonynwright) at SMX outlined the 4 C’s of SEO to outrank your competition:

Code – Make sure it is clean! Cleaning HTML code will help reduce page size and increase accessibility

Content – Good and effective content is key to higher SEO rankings

Connections – Linking to other sites and developing that relationship will help search engines find you faster

Conversations – Social media is now more important than ever – so keep those tweets, Facebook likes and comments coming!

Be sure to integrate the 4 C’s of SEO  to continue improving the visibility and organic rank of your website.

Users are Now in Control

As marketers, we know to focus our message to our audience and our customer. Something has happened within the last year or so that is starting to alter this mentality. Why? Users are now in control and we need to be one step ahead. Understanding what’s going on across all channels is imperative to your marketing success.

 

Photo Credit: Bright Edge

Before it made sense to post an advertisement on Facebook and hope some of your target audience would see it. Now, with such a user-driven environment, we need to be in-tune with what our customers are tweeting, where they are checking in, what they are liking, who they are following and what circles they’re creating. If we keep throwing information in their faces without rhyme or reason, they will simply block our efforts and never think twice about us. I listed some of Jim Yu’s (@jimyu) tips for making sure you don’t get left behind in leveraging social media for SEO:

Tip #1: Measure your social SEO

  • Are your social media pages ranking in search results?
  • Are you doing SEO on your Facebook page?
  • Do you have a Facebook and Twitter presence?

Tip #2: Add social buttons to your site

Add social networks you are active on. Listed below are some of the most popular.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon

Tip #3: Optimize your Facebook page for SEO

  • Add plug-ins
  • Use your brand name in all wall posts & tweets
  • Try to engage your audience as much as possible through likes and shares

 How to Make the Most of Your Content

Everyone has a light bulb moment – when suddenly everything makes sense. After listening to the great panel of speakers: Loren Baker, BlueGlass, Jay Berkowitz, Ten Golden Rules, David Kidder, Clickable and Stefan Tornquist, Econsultancy – I kept thinking about one specific part of the discussion – content. It all starts with a content marketing strategy and here are the industry’s suggestions on making the most of your content.

Cascade your content: You have a great article/newsletter/webinar – Take key topics from that and split into a few blog posts. Dissect those blogs into multiple tweets – tweet about key topics in those blog posts. Share those topics on LinkedIn or Facebook and distribute that content.

Conduct interviews internally: Interview sales and product development to find out what’s new – exciting and note-worthy within your company and write about it. If you find it exciting, there’s a good chance people who follow your company will too!

Update and optimize content so that it spans both search and social: Social media and search are completely integrated; use this to your advantage.

Don’t just post content, make it actionable: One way to ensure social success is to let people know you’re aware and there is an actual human behind the computer. Use Twitter to promote others, talk about current events, answer people’s questions and talk about what is important to you. Before long, making content actionable will become second nature.

If you attended SMX and would like to share your experience – please comment below. We’d love to compare notes.

Analytics / Call Tracking / PPC / Search Marketing — No Comments
16
Mar 11

Calculate Lead Value and Improve Marketing Campaign Performance

Lead value is the average amount a lead (e.g. web form completion, phone call, online purchase) is likely to generate in revenue.

While on a macro level this is useful, the real value comes when lead value is identified for a specific lead source or marketing initiative.

With this information, you can gain a much deeper understanding of what activities drive leads with the highest revenue potential. As a result, you can make more focused campaign decisions, such as allocating budgets towards activities that have the greatest impact on the bottom line.

Data Collection

To calculate lead value, you must have access to lead and conversion data. The more data you can collect the more useful it becomes, as you can better segment leads and get more granular with your analysis.

There are three tools you will need to calculate lead value:

1. Web analytics

Using web analytics software, such as Google Analytics, Adobe/Omniture or Webtrends, you can:

• Track online lead conversions (i.e. web form completions, ecommerce checkouts).

• Indentify where online leads originate (i.e. search engine, online ad, social media, referring website).

• Track offline lead conversions (phone calls).

• Gather useful lead traffic data (i.e. pages viewed, repeat visits and time on site.)

2. Call Tracking

Call tracking solutions, such as Mongoose Metrics and others, are necessary to track offline conversions. These solutions record the source of any lead that chooses to call rather than complete a web form or purchase online.

To gather this data, the platform dynamically changes the phone number that appears on your website, based on the traffic source. Tracking phone numbers can also be assigned and integrated directly into offline campaigns (e.g. TV ads, radio spots, billboards, print ads, fliers etc.) to capture source information for leads that may never visit the website.

3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System

CRMs, such as Salesforce and SugarCRM, allow marketing and sales professionals to organize and track lead communications, customer conversions and generated revenue.

Several CRMs also enable you to integrate web analytics and call tracking data associated with individual leads.

Calculate Lead Value

Once you’ve collected a good sample of data, calculating lead value is a fairly straightforward process:

1. Create a report that includes all leads and associated revenue. Make sure the report includes leads that have not converted into customers.

2. Add all leads together = Total Leads.

3. Add all sales together = Total Revenue.

4. Divide total leads by total revenue = Lead Value.

Total Leads / Total Revenue = Lead Value

What to Do With The Data

This formula can be applied to your total lead volume, or used on a more specific category of leads (e.g. online marketing, online advertising, PPC campaigns, PPC keyword bids). The more detailed you can be with your data collection, the better equipped you’ll be to:

• Allocate marketing budgets to campaigns that produce the most valuable leads.

• Cut budgets on campaigns that don’t drive quality leads.

• A/B test campaign updates to see if lead value improves.

• Evaluate the ability of a lead nurturing campaign to improve lead value.

• Improve sales performance by adjusting follow-up communications, messaging, and even an individual sales professional’s technique.

How are you using lead value to improve your marketing campaign performance? Share your insight in the comments below.

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No Comments
25
Feb 10

Team Mongoose Heads for SMX West to Evangelize about Call Tracking Solutions

A team of call tracking experts from Mongoose Metrics will attend Sales Marketing Expo – SMX West – on March 2 – 4, 2010 in Santa Clara, California.  Rob Bisker, Brian Maher and Jeff Tirey will help conference-goers understand the offline impact of online spending while showcasing Mongoose’s innovative product suite of intelligent phone conversion tracking systems. 

Tirey, co-founder and vice president of products for Mongoose Metrics, will speak about “Phone Call Tracking Integration Strategies” in the SMX Theater on Tues., March 2 from 11:40 a.m. to 12 p.m.  His presentation will provide a hands-on overview of the methods and benefits of integrating Mongoose Metrics’ phone call tracking platform with third-party platforms such as web analytics, CRMs, bid management and more.

Stop by the Mongoose Metrics booth for a full demonstration of how call tracking can help your company:

  • Optimize online campaigns: Know which campaigns, keywords and marketing tactics drive callers and whether those calls generate revenue – offline or online.
  • Improve site design: Understand which pages drive calls – customers may be confused, and there may be opportunities for site usability improvement.
  • Save money: Find new ways to more effectively close business online and reduce call volume.
  • Save time: Our integrated reporting environment saves time in analysis by consolidated call information with your analytics and CRM providers. 

If you’d like to schedule an appointment while you’re at SMX, please contact Mongoose Metrics’ Sales Director Rob Bisker at rob.bisker@mongoosemetrics.com or 1.877.784.0496.

SMX West happens March 2-4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Here’s what’s in store:

Exceptional Content: More than 50 sessions for search marketers of every skill level will be presented. Sessions will cover all of the search topics: paid search advertising (PPC), natural search optimization (SEO), local/mobile search, social media, real-time search and much more. See the agenda for further information. Keynotes & Presenters: You’ll be treated to three outstanding keynote presentations – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Google’s Director of Research Peter Norvig, and The State of the Search Union panel of search experts. They will be joined by over 125 of the best minds in search marketing who will share their tactics and experiences.

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No Comments
25
Feb 10

Integrate Your Call Tracking Data inside Google Adwords Reports

Getting the full picture of online spending just got easier for millions of Google Adwords users.  Mongoose Metrics recently introduced a proprietary technology which lets Google Adwords users easily and immediately view offline conversion data (incoming calls) right next to online conversion data (clicks) within Google Adwords’ report dashboard.  SEO/SEM marketing professionals now can instantaneously understand which keywords are driving phone calls and generating sales.  If you’re using Google Adwords it’s a no-brainer to place your phone call data where it makes the most sense – right next to your PPC data.  Mongoose Metrics is the first – and only – call tracking provider offering this powerful tool to help you get a complete view of offline and online conversions.