1. eMarketing, a strategic approach Rob Stokes

2. Something to think about

4. Ireland

5. Denmark

7. Zappos will sell more than $1 Billion worth of shoes online this year

8. Are we giving eMarketing the respect it deserves?

9. So what is a strategic approach?

10. Strategy is about the bigger picture: goals, objectives and success criteria

11. Ultimately strategy is about the decisive allocation of resources

12. Tactics are the actions we take to achieve the success of the strategy

13. “Without strategy, tactics are simply the noise before defeat” Sun Tzu

14. Understanding your customers and competitors is vital to not only guide your strategy, but also your relevant tactics

16. Once you’ve figured out your strategy

17. You need to establish which tactics are going to get you there

18. Here’s how they might all fit together…

20. But eMarketing is NOT just a list of tactics

21. It achieves its true potential when these tactics work together

22. And it’s NOT about “synergy”

23. The tactics need each other

24. They feed off each other

25. They are substantially less effective without each other

28. Channel the link benefit to the brand site for SEO

30. It all starts with a website

31. A hub to drive traffic to

32. A medium through which you can communicate and build a relationship with your audience

33. But it can’t just be any old website

34. You MUST add value to your user’s experience. Before, during and after their visit

35. Websites are no longer just brochures

36. They should be built to attract, convert and retain customers

37. The average website has about 10 seconds to capture a user before they get bored

38. Is your website THAT good?

39. Our web development priorities

40. 1. Usability and conversion oriented design

41. Understand the goals and priorities of your site and design for your users above all else

42. Make sure they can find what they want quickly and easily

43. Drive them towards YOUR desired goals

44. Copy style:

45. Allow the reader to get the gist of your message in a few seconds by merely scanning the page

46. Pyramid style writing

47. Break up text with bolding, bullets, highlighting, crossheads and contextual interlinking

48. Have consistent Calls to Action

49. Don’t make them think…

50. Tell people to take the exact action you want them to perform in order to get the best response

51. Keep navigation basic, consistent and standardised

52. Think about persuasive architecture

54. flashing lights

55. automatic sound

56. scrolling text

58. 2. Search Engine Friendliness

59. Primary goal: Site must be fully indexable and optimised around a set of well researched key phrases

60. Blend 2 or 3 carefully chosen key phrases into a minimum of 250 words on each page

62. Title tag

63. Headings

64. Alt tags

66. Links to the domain

67. Key phrases in URLs

68. Add regular fresh content

69. Text navigation is better than images

70. Offer RSS feeds (AND RSS to email)

71. Well indexed

72. XML sitemapBe remarkable - make your site a resource!

73. 3. Look and Feel

74. Very important, BUT the least important consideration in web development

75. That doesn’t mean ugly sites are OK

76. Sites must look professional and demonstrate your credibility...

77. If these two goals are met, the user will be satisfied.

78. Remember, they are looking to achieve a goal – not look at a piece of artwork.

79. A quick review of a few of your sites

81. No attention focused on the menu or CTA Not enough text formatting

82. Initial Observations Place breadcrumbs higher up on the page (currently at the bottom) There is no search function on the site Meta Data is identical for every page There is no .xml sitemap Canonicalisation is not set up More content-rich, optimised pages

84. Logo should direct home Not enough attention drawn to menu Good attention drawn to conversion goal Move this higher up and state benefits

85. There is no use of Meta Data & Title tags There is no html sitemap There are no breadcrumbs in place There is no .xml sitemap Canonicalisation is not set up Needs more content-rich, optimised pages Error page not customised

87. Logo does not redirect home Make this conversion goal more obvious Place this higher up and state benefits

88. The ‘Open an account’ link appears broken… Store locator map is not interactive No Meta Data and Title tags There is no .xml sitemap Canonicalisation is not set up Needs more content-rich, optimised pages Error page not customised

90. Logo does not direct home ‘Sale now on’ appears to be a link but is not. State benefits of the newsletter ‘Apply’ and ‘careers’ link broken No attention placed on menu

91. There is no user sitemap Some images/text appear to be links but are not Meta Data is not used at all Title tags are not used There is no .xml sitemap Duplicate sites running on different subdomains

92. Monitoring your website’s performance

94. Top stats to keep an eye on

95. Above all else, conversion rates!

96. Unique users (not HITS)

97. Traffic Sources (and their conversion rates)

98. Engagement Metrics

99. Bounce rate

100. Repeat users

101. Pages per user

102. Time spent on site

103. OK, now we have a site that looks good and hopefully converts its visitors, but how do we get these visitors?

104. There are many options, but the most important is…

105. Search Engines

106. 1 Billion searches each day

107. Lots of volume, but why is this important?

108. Searchers are looking for what your are offering

109. They WANT to find you!

110. And if they don’t find you, they will find your competitor

111. And if they don’t find you, they will find your competitor

112. Some data insights…

116. So how do we make sure we are found?

117. Search Engine Marketing

118. SEM = SEO + PPC Organic and Paid

121. You don’t need to be a guru to get the basics

122. Firstly make sure you select the right keywords

124. Competition

125. Propensity to convert

127. Search Engine Optimisation

130. Make sure your site is optimised around your keywords

131. Then build plenty of high quality, keyword rich links

132. And this isn’t easy

133. The best sites inevitably win

134. So grow links organically

135. Build a website that offers so much value that people talk about it and link to it naturally

136. Pay Per Click

137. But first: Why you can’t ignore SEO:

139. www.quirk.biz

140. You choose how much you want to pay per click

141. And how much you want to spend per day

142. If you manage your campaign properly, you can’t lose money!

143. www.quirk.biz

144. Don’t burn your budget early on: Test!

145. Look for long tail key phrases

146. Geotarget your adverts

147. Have a solid call to action in each advert

148. Don’t send your traffic to your home page, use highly targeted landing pages

149. Test, test and test these landing pages

150. Conversion optimisation

151. The process of making your website and eMarketing activities as efficient and effective as possible resulting in a direct increase to your ROI

154. Test individual pages and paths

156. Calls to action

157. Font size

158. Headings

159. Text length

160. Copy style and tone

161. Offers

162. Pricing

164. You should be looking to build communities around your business

165. Social Media can play a big part in this

166. But what is Social Media?

169. A few tips…

170. Be strategy lead. The medium is not the message

171. How will social media deliver on your business goals?

172. Push for critical mass quickly

173. Discover and target influential individuals and communities

174. Identify and fill content holes – don’t echo

175. Consider social media’s impact on your other eMarketing tactics

176. Write with your keyword strategy at your side

177. Create a social media culture internally, it will reflect externally

178. Remember: social media influencers are unique Short attention span: they get info served to them Selfish: ‘What will I get for sharing this?’ Affluent and urban

179. There is someone Twittering about you

180. Jokes

181. Rants

182. Customer service?

183. And employee motivation

184. Are you making the most of it?

187. 12 million people search for “Ryan Air”

188. A Ryanair employee comments on a blog…

190. Followed by the official response

192. Then the online community got hold of it

194. Then the newspapers got hold of it

197. These powerful sites often linked to this site…

199. And we know how important good links are…

201. “ It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you will do things differently. ” Warren Buffet

202. How is online reputation different?

203. It spreads faster...

204. … and the evidence lasts longer

205. Why is this important?

206. Because peers are the most trusted source of recommendation Edelman Trust Barometer 2008

207. People are talking, are you listening?

210. What to track?

211. Brand names

212. Important staff

213. Names of specials/packages

214. Track outgoing communications (PR) by monitoring a piece of unique text

215. Use the data you gather to build profiles of influencer’s who you can target for future campaigns

216. Monitoring your online reputation helps you… … avoid a reputation crisis by informing you quickly … discover quick and effective new marketing opportunities … improve customer service through engagement … understand your customers’ needs and wants better … identify powerful influencers to target with WOM campaigns

217. OK so you’ve got a good site with lots of traffic and a thriving online community. What’s the most effective way to build long term relationships with these people?

218. Email Marketing

219. Use it to build relationships

220. Not to acquire them

221. Successful long term customer relationships are built on mutual trust and respect

222. Do your email newsletters foster relationships?

223. Or do they treat customers like marketing targets?

224. Firstly, get personal!

225. But go beyond the name

226. An email newsletter should be a totally customised experience

227. Allow users to manage their information and subscription preferences

228. …and then personalise accordingly

229. Rather send less often with more relevant content – people will be more likely to listen

230. Nurture your in-house list

231. But make it easy to unsubscribe

233. 2 stage process

234. Don’t gather too much info

237. The biggest challenge: Deliverability

238. Bottom line: Ask yourself what YOU would want from the newsletter as a reader

239. Does it speak to you?

240. Or does it speak AT you?

242. Drive qualified traffic to it.

243. Optimise the conversion of that traffic.

244. Build a relationship with your audience.