More Thoughts on Online Marketing

(I've been reading alot about online marketing strategies lately. Turns out it is really complicated stuff! I can say that with authority because, after all, I'm an industry professional...)

Seriously, though. We've been advising our clients for quite some time that getting noticed on the web takes a trifle more than hiring us to design a site for you and calling it a day. Bearing this in mind here is (yet another) two item list of important dos and don'ts fer gettin' yourself noticed on the web.

1. Don't ask us to design a web site for you all in Flash and then, months later, ask us to optimize it for SEO.

This seems like a simple one for folks in the industry, but the scenario has recurred so many times in our client histories that we can't seem to mention it often enough. Many times we're asked to design a site for a project where a real-world example that the client likes is referenced. Often that site is a beautifully executed Flash web site with soundtracks, animation, video, etc. At this point, we usually sit down with our clients and explain that the site they're in love with was entirely authored in Flash. Flash is a web authoring application which can create visually lavish work but which, historically, has not allowed the site to index well on Google's search engines. (All this, however, is changing, as Google recently announced that it has started to index Flash content. See this post...)

Now -- don't get me wrong -- we LOVE Flash in our office. Most of our sexiest sites were designed in Flash. However, they do have their drawbacks from an SEO perspective. Despite our best efforts at apprising our clients of these drawbacks, though, it has happened three times in the last year that we've been asked, after the fact, to offer SEO advice on web sites we've designed entirely in Flash. If SEO is a principal concern of a client's, then that client is probably best to stay away from an all-Flash web site.

So, again, before you hire us to design your site, think about what your SEO goals might be for the site, not just now but several months from now....

2. Do understand that designing a site is only the first step in getting noticed online. And SEO is great, too, but it's only part of an online web presence strategy...

I've talked about this in previous posts, but again, these are such critical issues for our clients these days, that I'll harp on a few issues again. First, let me begin by saying that we believe in SEO at Splat Productions. And, although we leave hardcore SEO services to the experts we partner with, we do offer an "SEO Pre-Flight" package for all our web clients, which ensures that your site has been prepared, submitted and cataloged according to Google's protocol for webmasters. (Ask us about this and we'll tell you more...)

Having said all this, though, we think SEO is only part of the solution to getting your site noticed on the web. As mentioned in previous posts, site owners really need to be thinking of a comprehensive marketing strategy, in order to increase the chances of more (and better) prospects getting to their site. Remember, the ultimate goal is to push people to your site from as many places as possible. So, then, besides hiring an SEO guy, web clients should also consider the following:

• Increase traffic through reciprocal linking. Suppose you have a document transcription service for lawyers. And suppose you use a courier service to pick those documents up from your clients. Get that professional associate to link to your site from theirs and you do the same for them. Got a business blog? The blogosphere is built on the concept of reciprocal linking. Just look along the lefthand side of this or many other blogs.
• Develop an opt-in email list and blast to it. Regularly. Direct marketing on the web isn't so different from print. Developing an electronic mailing list and reaching out to your customers and prospects with well-written news and promotions is a surefire way to increase hits to your site.
• Make a video and post it on YouTube. Get a MySpace page. Social networking sites like MySpace offer cheap ways to publicize your business without spending much cashola. As always, though, content is king. People won't talk about your business if you don't have something interesting to say...
• Do some cheap PR. Or hire a pro to do PR for you... Did you know that there are PR services which businesses can employ to distribute web-based press releases really inexpensively? We've written a couple in-house and, whenever we do it, we see our site traffic go up. Pricing for online press release distribution is quite reasonable. We've used PrimeZone in the past...

So, there you have it: a short list of dos and don'ts for internet publicity hounds. I'm sure we'll be talking about these issues some more in future posts...

Our monthly sweepstakes is paying big bucks...

I'm not sure if all our Sitegeist readers have joined our mailing list but, in case you haven't, I urge you to check out www.splatworld.tv and sign up. Every month, we draw a new list member's name at random and give away a $75 gift certificate to Amazon. If you're not on our list already, now is the time to join us. Frankly, the odds have been pretty decent you'll win, as the promotion just began running a couple of months back and we haven't promoted it enough. June's winner, by the way, was Michelle Galindez, of the engineering firm Flack + Kurtz in New York. Congratulations, Michelle.

Another Architectural Illustration...

We're very proud of the architectural rendering we do for our clients at Splat Productions. A couple of months back, we added a very talented artist to our staff. Mike Johnson is completely self-taught as a visualization artist. When he first applied to work with us, his work was so stunning and his professional preparation so untraditional that we wondered whether he had actually produced some of the great work he showed us. Within days of interning for us, though, we came to realize that he's the real deal. Mike produced both the image above and the previously blogged skyscraper image.

You can see a larger sized version of this image here...

If you build it, they probably won’t come… (Unless you tell them about it...)

An interesting client meeting of a few weeks back got me thinking about the differences between web site design services, interactive strategy and the confusion both clients and firms have about where one stops and one begins.

This particular client is a web-based business start up. Their business model involves gathering timely information from around the world about issues relating to consumer products. This information is then distributed in articles and RSS feeds and is accompanied by a significant amount of original editorial content. The web site has a serious, but conversational “magazine” style format.

Several months into their venture, the client is faced with readership levels which were not as high as originally hoped for. As a result, they’re having difficulty attracting paid sponsors and advertisers. We sat down with the client to review the site and we both agreed that a few content and functionality tweaks should be made to the site. However, both parties also agreed that the site did have valuable content and its overall functionality made sense. In other words, the web site "works."

Why, then, was the site not attracting more visitors?

These days, the interactive marketing world is abuzz with “Web 2.0” tools. The idea behind Web 2.0 is that, if you build interactive features such as blogs or social networking components into your web site, the web site is more likely to grow organically. Blog entries will spawn page references on search engines. Word of mouth marketing will result from the social networking components. Your web site will be a fabulous success, without having to spend a dime on traditional advertising.

There are, however, factors at work here which don’t ensure the instant success. There are also fundamental shortcomings to this approach which can only be overcome by using some very un-Web 2.0 strategies.

Some of the shortcomings relate directly to content. Businesses these days are being talked into blogs by every marketing consultant on the block. However, Blogs take work. They really only succeed when the content is fresh and updated continually. It’s one thing to advise your clients to start a blog. But the rubber hits the road when that same client must muster the resources to maintain the dialogue which blogs necessarily begin.

The larger issues at work relate back to the design vs. strategy discussion I mentioned in the beginning of the post.

It used to be that, when a product was introduced to the consumer public, a raft of activities accompanied the roll out. PR consultants were retained to get press placement and generate press releases. Ad agencies were hired to create campaigns designed to introduce the product and its brand. In short, there was a coordinated effort intended to generate awareness of the new product and get people to buy.

The rise of the internet also gave rise to the myth that traditional strategies have no place in this web-driven world. Somehow or another, we’ve been duped into believing that a well-designed web site will draw its own audience. The world has changed. Build a good web site and the customers will come.

But, really, the internet hasn’t changed the fundamentals of advertising and PR much at all. Effective advertising and PR had always been about getting your message out to as many folks as possible and trying to get them to listen to it. When the web site (in our client’s case) is the product, that product still needs a launch. Old School methods like strategic PR, ad campaigns and direct (electronic, maybe) mail, still give a new product the necessary boosts it needs to generate an initial critical mass of users. Once this critical mass is reached, then all the other bells and whistles you’ve built into the web site – the blogs, the RSS feeds, the editorial content, etc – can help sustain the site and make it vibrant.

Sure, the methods we advertisers have to get the word out about our clients’ products do change. But the idea that anything about the internet has changed the essential need to publicize a new product or to do many of the same tasks advertisers and PR firms have been doing for decades is, well, silly…

Unconventional selling strategies for unconventional times...

I recently lead a round table discussion on viral marketing strategies and that brought to mind two recent, seemingly unorthodox real estate marketing tactics – ‘Buy One (House) Get One Free’ and ‘Up For Auction’… one more viral than the other, both likely promoted through traditional PR channels.

In San Diego, Michael Crews Development is offering to give away a row home valued at $400,000, if the buyer purchases one of their luxury estate homes, in nearby Escondido. "We thought, 'Why… (do these sorts of promotions)… just have to be on Pop Tarts and restaurants? Why not buy one home, get one free,'" Dawn Berry of Michael Crews Development told 10 News in San Diego.

Hmm…I immediately questioned the quality of the row home construction and the location. Why would a developer opt to market their luxury homes the same way they would market Pop Tarts? After scouring the web a bit, though, I was intrigued by the viral status the promotion had acquired.

A quick glance at some of the major new outlets – Reuters, Yahoo News, The Street, US News, MSNBC, and The Wall Street Journal Online – revealed that nearly every major news outlet had picked up the story of the developer’s wacky marketing ploy. Additionally, independent stories started to show up in my Google searches, as well as links to YouTube videos. Finally, bloggers – including this one – are commenting on the strategy and seeing it is a ‘sign of the times’ (or zeitgeist, if you will…)

To date, I believe only ONE individual has made an offer on a Royal View estate home, but the exposure has been impressive. I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Crews Development seeks to extend the offer beyond the original May 31st deadline. So, the ‘Buy One (House) Get One’ approach is not yet a case study in successful marketing strategy, but it certainly got a lot of publicity and achieved viral status. And, when the Southern California real estate market picks up again, the strategy may just achieve its original goal of closing more sales.

Locally, Westrum Development, in an attempt to gain traction for their stalled ‘Hilltop at Falls Ridge’ development in East Falls, Philadelphia, opted to auction their remaining 11 Phase I units. Many saw the ploy as a risky strategy or a sad commentary on market conditions. However, all 11 units sold and – at least for now -- their lender has been silenced. And, although the auction, which is more common than ‘Buy One (House) Get One’ didn’t reach online viral status, there were a number of local threads and articles pertaining to the event. Good old-fashioned word-of-mouth also helped, contributing to the sizeable turnout at the auction. On to Phase II!

A little Eye Candy...

Het Strijkijzer, the largest residential tower in Den Haag, Netherlands, stands 132m tall and has 41 floors. The building was awarded the 2007 Gold Emporis Skyscraper Award, with Emporis citing "its elegant reinterpretation of classic high-rise architecture, its contextual approach to a limited site, and its efficient program for accommodating new entrants to the housing market."[1]

We thought the building was beautiful, elegant and would lend itself to rendering. We've added it to our portfolio, which we're recently filling up with more urban imagery, as we expand our market reach into New York and Washington. And, speaking of the Big Apple, it was interesting for us to learn that a partial inspiration for the building was the Flatiron building in Manhattan.

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References

1. ^ Emporis Award 2007. emporis.com. Emporis (February 2008). Retrieved on 2008-06-03.

Branding Alert: Your marketing does the walking, but does your sales team do the talking?

(Editor's note. Once again, we thank Rob Armstrong, from Matador Creative, for contributing this week's article...)

We all know how crucial establishing a consistent brand image is. And during the branding process, a great deal of research, strategic and creative resources are devoted to produce that identity. Then that all-powerful brand image is made public through a spectrum of communication channels—over the Web, through the mail, e-mail, and in magazines and newspapers. Sometimes, when it fits the budget and the target audience, it’s relayed via radio and television.

Despite how extensively these marketing vehicles can saturate your target buyers’ minds with meaningful, convincing messages, all of it can be undermined, undone and defeated by a small yet crucial faction beyond the influence of your marketing communications team. That renegade element, my friends, is your sales force. If prospects don’t get the same vibe from the salespeople that they do from the marketing, their belief in your brand promise may be irreparably shaken.

Take, for example, a destination property in Florida whose brand identity I helped to build as a writer and creative strategist. Its brand image evoked a British West Indies style ambiance. The main clubhouse featured the décor and architecture of a late 19th century English manor surrounded by swaying palms and pineapple trees. At its grand opening, calypso music played, cool tropical drinks flowed and an island-style barbecue had hungry prospects lined up at the door. About 1,200 qualified buyers eager to tour furnished model homes were snatching up brochures, maps and inventory listings over a single weekend. Yet the two-day event only produced a handful of reservations and even fewer sales. The culprit couldn’t be the marketing—it did its job remarkably well. It got more than a thousand qualified buyers to the property on one sunny Florida weekend. No… the blame for this debacle had to be elsewhere.

When I popped my head into the sales center, it didn’t feel very… cool, relaxed, British West Indies to me. “You want golf? We got golf.” boomed above the din of buyers. No dulcet, soothing voices discussing Hurdzan-Fry, the world-renowned designers of the golf course or any articulate mention of the developers’ efforts to recreate the ambiance of a turn-of-the-century island plantation. Of course not. All I heard was the coarse, throaty, staccato rattling of sales people who sounded more like they should be working the floor of the stock exchange. “Yeah we got golf. That’s in this neighborhood. We have another neighborhood with no golf.” My first instinct was to slap the salesperson and demand to know if she had even read the brochure I took great care to write. I didn’t.

I don’t know anyone who’d respond positively to the way the brand messages were communicated by the sales team. Had no one explained the brand strategy to them? Did they even know what they should emphasize about the property? Were they listening carefully to buyers, so that they could contribute valuable feedback to us, the marketing team, so that post-event ads could address any points of hesitation floating around out there?

Sadly, no. Lost opportunity big time. I don’t know how many sales are lost on a daily basis because the sales team is never indoctrinated in the brand. They should be selling with cult-like adherence to brand messages. If that takes brainwashing and reprogramming—so be it. The most bewildering part of the scenario I described was that everyone on the sales team was an employee of the development company—not a third-party realty agency. Yet they still were never held accountable for their lack of eloquence and brand awareness at a time when every sale was precious.

There is a definite dividing line between marketing and sales. Marketing drives leads. Sales closes sales. When voluminous leads don’t produce sales, poke your head in the sales center. You may find the reason as grating to your eardrums as I did.