Search Engine News - Session 3

Hello Everybody,

This is the last section for Search Engine News. It's main focus is Link Building.

Links are the top ranking factor, so they are very important. There are different types of links such as one way, reciprocal and no follow. You might do a no follow link so it doesn't count towards your page rank but helps with click through traffic. When making your anchor text remember to not use more than 20% of your inbound links containing your "money" keyword. You don't want to accidentally end up spamming your viewers or google, neither will be happy. Try to avoid getting unnatural inbound link profiles and avoid getting links from irrelevant sites. Visible location matters, if you have a link in your header or content those will be treated as more important. Code location also matters, the first link in the HTML code will be the one that counts the most. There are several other factors that influence link value which include, but aren't limited to: font size, font color, number of words and so on.

Try to get links as close as possible to trusted domains. Links from related hubs are worth more. If your links have higher page rank the more benefits you'll receive from that link. You should avoid having links on every page, link farms, linking to low quality sites, or linking to off topic sites. It can also be benefiting to get links from other site that focus on the same geographic area as your site does. And also be sure to keep track of important links, because if you lose them, you won't know how to follow up.

If you want more information on these ideas visit this link to SearchEngineNews. They also have a certification available to help boost your abilities in SEO and you get a nice little fun badge like this:



Good luck with all your search engine optimization endeavors and have a great summer break,
-Caitlin Campbell

Search Engine News - Session 2

Hello everybody,

In this session we focused on internal ranking factors. Internal ranking factors are variables found within your website. The Title tag is the most powerful on page ranking factor. It should consist of about 67 characters or less. Sometimes Google messes with title tags by putting them in different orders, but they do this because they think it will correlate with your content better. Meta Description tags affects click through rates though it is not essential for ranking. Snippets also affect click through rates though you can opt out of them. Domain names aren't as important so try to focus on using branded names.

The body text is the meat and potatoes of your site. Make sure to use keywords but don't be nonsensical. Quality content makes all the difference. Be careful with your keyword density. Keyword density is the ratio of all the words on the page compared to the topic keyword you're trying to hit.Writing content in a more natural voice is key, but make sure to include your keyword and related topics. The theme of the page should certainly focus on your targeted keyword phrase. Watch out for duplicate content such as product descriptions or print-friendly pages. Spelling grammar and readability are also important for quality. Also try to update frequently, old content has a negative impact. If you're unable to update regularly take that into consideration when writing your content.  For example instead of saying, "president Obama" just leave it board like, "the president".

There is a lot more information through Search Engine News so be sure to look into that for the rest of the information.
-Caitlin Campbell

Search Engine News- Session 1

Hello Everybody
Today we are going to be cover the first section provided by Search Engine News, or SEN for short. This first section focuses on The Fundamentals of SEO.

When it comes to search engines (English), there are two major players; Google and Bing. Google however dominates in mobile searches by having 91.5% of mobile search market share. The way Google works is that it uses bots that are designed to crawl the web to discover new and updated pages then save that content to their index. The way bots work is they crawl the web by following links found on pages the already know about. "Seed sets" are where bots start their crawl and these are sites that have clear identifiable authority (.gov, .edu, .org). Search engines focus not on the number of links, but more on who made the links. Authority- high authority sites are often a short distance away from seed sets. Trust- a combination of website quality, popularity, and links from authoritative sites. Hubs- link to authoritative web pages and can either be big or small.

There are many different things that search results can be based on such as, reported location, IP location, GPS location, search history, social networks, device, language, and previous searches. Universal search results are created by any given search query and generates results from many different sources. The content source and mix varies on the query, time and location. Some queries result in Instant Answer Result, which is when Google answers a question itself without providing a link to the site that gave the answer. These answers are usually based on encyclopedias, where as some queries get a Knowledge Graph. A Knowledge Graph is similar but instead has more consulted more diverse sources for the answers. There are a lot of different search results such as Partial Local Results (mix or organic and Google Places), Full Local, News and Realtime Results, Shopping Results, Social Results, and Product & Brand Result.

When finding your most valuable keywords keep these key points in mind; don't assume how people will search for your product or service, high traffic doesn't often mean high profit or high conversions, and only one type of keyword consistently converts to sales, the last ones used before purchase. Long tail keyword phrases are keyword phrases that are typically 3 words or more that are very specific to what you are selling. These types of keyword phrases are more likely to convert to sales than more generic keyword phrases. The good new is that long tail keyword phrases normally have less competition and are easier to rank for. When choosing your keywords take into account slang, jargon and dialect.

Until next time,
Caitlin Campbell

Week, 11

Hello Everybody,

I'd first like to point out that I am now an SEO certified professional. This will help me with applications and optimizing my own sites. You should look into getting certified yourself!

Now that I have passed the SEO certification exam we're going to move on to some other topics. We're now going to be talking about a program created by Search Engine News. I will start blogging about them next week.

If you need some more information here are links to other marketing blogs created by some of my classmates: John, Francesca, Shannon, Carlos, Ashfaaq, Maureen, Cory, Kaitlyn, Bruno, Sumaira, Trevor, Anthony, Kevin, Tommy, Steve, Drew.

Until next time,
Caitlin Campbell

Chapter 12 - Understanding Google Panda

Hello Everybody,

In this chapter we cover the end of black-hat over-optimization tactics and new
requirements for high search engine rankings.

The End of Black-Hat Over-Optimization Tactics
Unethical methods designed to outwit Google's ranking algorithms face steep setbacks.

• Backlinks Revamped
  Google is combating spamdexing more vigorously than ever. Google's link-based algorithm's will no longer give credit to any form of spam and unnecessary links. 
• Paid Editorial Links
  If you have been paid to post an editorial, review, article, or any other content, you must disclose this fact to your readers. An unnatural spike in inbound links over a short period suggests you're purchasing linking and will be dropped in rankings (except when going viral).
• Exact Match Anchor Text Keywords
  Spam tactics involving the use of automated software to randomly place hyperlinked "exact match anchor text" keywords with nonsensical comments on other people's sites is heavily discouraged.

New Requirements for High Search Engine Rankings

• Good Content
  Google now rewards websites that provide regular, high-quality, useful, and targeted content to its readers. Show signs of growth.
• Social Proof
  Google wants your content to be engaging enough that it gets disseminated across social media platforms.
• Author Rank
  It shows whether a person is or isn't an authority on a subject matter. If your name or website is frequently referred to in a particular area of specialization, Google will determine that your website carries more authority over the rest of the other websites in the same niche and rewards you with higher search engine rankings.
• Internal Links
  Link spam isn't effective. Over-optimization of key words and meta-descriptions will cripple your site's ranking. Internal links need to point to other pages within your website that are equally rich in content.
• HTTPS as a new Ranking Factor
  Increased focus on security; encrypted connections  lead to better surfing experiences for Google's end users.

That's all that I have for you on the SEO chapters, so until next time
-Caitlin Campbell

Chapter 11 - Understanding Google Panda

Hello Everybody,

In this chapter we're going to look at Google Panda. We'll be covering Google Panda at a glance, an in-depth look at Google Panda, and weathering the storm.

Google Panda at a Glance
Google Panda is a series of incremental changes to the algorithm used by Google to sort search result rankings. Google Panda is designed to give higher priority to sites with both original and high quality content while lowering the rankings of "think sites" or sites that are considered to be of low quality or duplicate content. The Panda update was to address allegations that Google SERPS delivered lists of useless sites. 12% of all searches on Google suffered a loss of both ranking and traffic with the implementation of Google Panda.

An In-Depth Look at Google Panda
Panda uses artificial intelligence to go through search results in a manner that is far more complex that anything Google has used before. It started with humans testing sites on loading speeds, design and layout, quality of content, and if they'd ever visit that site again. Engineers took that data and correlated similarities of the good and bad sites, which was added to Google Panda's artificial intelligence. Backlinks are still used but they have become less important. Sites will be penalized for multiple pages with similar content.

Weathering the Storm
Even if you are confident about the quality of your site, you still need to exercise caution. You need to Panda Proof your site.

• The power of the Niche Websites
  Since Google is focusing on giving priority to sites with in-depth content on specific topics, sticking to a niche that you are intimately familiar with is good for taking advantage of Google's new algorithms. It defines your site.
• Put Further Emphasis on the Quality of Articles
  Make sure the articles you post are worth reading.
• Use Social Media to your Advantage
  Integrating the power of social media to your SEO practices can prove to be the solution to making Panda work for you.
• Change the Way you Deal with Backlinks
  If you want your backlinks to be more effective, make sure that they are from sites that are relevant to your niche.

Never be content with your current techniques and strategies. Always be prepared to adapt. SEO is the backbone of any website, and it is constantly changing.
-Caitlin Campbell

Chapter 10 - Social Media Optimization

Hello everybody,

This chapter focused on social media optimization, mainly Facebook. We will cover the path to Facebook news feed optimization, social media marketing and optimization and conversion rate optimization.

The Path to Facebook News Feed Optimization
When setting up your Facebook for your business, it is important to remember that your initial page is vital to your success. Create content that encourages people to take action. You goal is to have your page in people's top news feed as often as possible, there are three different factors that determine how this happens. The first is your business's affinity score. Affinity score records how often the user will comment, like, or visit the profile in question. With this however, understand that a not very active user would have to take little action to raise your score, but a very active user would have to complete a lot of actions to raise your score. The second is your page's weight which is calculated by taking into consideration the number of actions taken on a post. The third is time decay, which is how long that particular post has been on Facebook. As more time passes, the more decay that post will take despite its about of likes.

Social Media Marketing and Optimization
Social networking sites are able to calculate the overall popularity and provide each user with their most popular choices. When working with Facebook try to engage with users, not with advertisements, but focus on why people are on Facebook; fun, learn something new, and keep connected. Ask questions that will entice the users and invite action that will ultimately benefit your ratings. Engage by hosting contests or posting videos and pictures. Be sure to engage on a regular basis to improve your rankings.

Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion is about the numbers, if you aren't attracting the right fans to your page, you aren't going to be getting all you could have out of your page. Facebook has a tool called Facebook Insights which gives you direct feedback on how well your efforts are paying off. It gives you statistical information so you can tailor your efforts. Conversion rates happen when there is value for the user. For each post focus on the idea that while the computer is certainly an implement in creating your business, the true business development comes from being able to develop relationships.

Until next time,
-Caitlin Campbell

Chapter 9 - Latest SEO Tactics & Strategies

Hello Everybody,

In the chapter of SEO we cover the need for sitelinks in your website, website speed optimization, increasing traffic by using social bookmarking, and facebook ad tactics.

The Need for Sitelinks in Your Website
Sitelinks are what you use when you want to navigate to a certain page of a site. People use sitelinks to navigate through the website without wasting too much of their time. Two column sitelinks appear when a result for a certain query is the most authoritative, while single line sitelinks appear when a result is more relevant than authoritative for a certain query. You should create a website that's already easy to navigate by making sure your titles, anchor text, and navigation tools are consistent. To turn off sitelinks use Google's Webmaster to block them. Breadcrumbs are site hierarchies which can be used in place of URLs to show where a site a particular result fits best. Ad sitelinks are normally used to attract more traffic to a website, thus enabling more people to find your website. Make use of those ad sitelinks that will segment you user even before they have a chance of going to your website. Highlight and segment your brand and direct traffic to the specific pages you want to target.

Website Speed Optimization
Soon Google will be pushing for faster sites. You should care about how your site's loading speed is in comparison to your competition. Faster websites will generate higher conversions and volume per average conversions. There are several things you can do to improve loading speeds. Modify your script language by scaling back on flash and other special effects. Revise your hosting provider's SLA's to determine the speed and brand width allocation. Take your Java website script and bare it down to the minimum required. Use lower resolution for your pictures (for internet use I personally would recommend using 72 dpi).

Increasing Traffic by using Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking shares sites and creates potential for back links, while encouraging your business's popularity. Keywords are of great significance here. More online markets are utilizing social sites to target their niche and redirect traffic to their intended sites. Use the different tools out there like TweetStates, HubSpot Marketing Grader, Twitterholic, BackTweets, Facebook Insights, Google Alerts, Icerocket, and Klout to monitor and analyze your social media activity.

Facebook Ad Tactics
When advertising through Facebook you can select who sees your ad with variables such as keywords, geography, age, gender, education, relationship status, and workplace. You should target specific audience and change your ad on a regular basis. You are given 25 characters for your headline, 135 for description, and one photo (which is probably the most important part). Make sure your ads are approved.

Remember always

• Carefully select your target audience
• keep testing your market and improve ads
• use Facebook reports
• Use your creativity with both text and images

Until next time,
-Caitlin Campbell

Chapter 8 - Advanced SEO Techniques

Hello Everybody,

This chapter we learned top pointers for high rankings on local search engines, use of HubPages to promote sites, and auto-pinging a blog and its RSS.

Top Pointers for High Rankings on Local Search Engines
You may want your business to be global, but people still prefer to buy local, so it's important to make your location known. Here are some steps to keep local.

1. Include your client's website to local search engines
   Google Local Business Center has free listing and it works hand in hand with Google Maps. Yahoo! Local Merchant has 3 types of listings: Basic listing (displays address, website, phone number, hours and store information), Advanced listing (same as basic with logo, tagline, 10 photos, business description) and Featured listing (same as advanced with premium placement, guaranteed placement, and more exposure).  Ask Business Search to be on a map with other local businesses.
2. Submit your client's website listings to popular directories and Internet Yellowpages
   Directories examples are yelp.com, citysquares.com, mojopages.com, and insiderpages.com. Internet yellow pages examples are superpages.com, switchboard.com, and yellowbook.com.
3. Set your geographic location in Google's Webmaster Tools
   Find detailed reports about your page's visibility and make changes based on your reports.
4. Add contact information to your site
   Add a physical address and phone number in an address tag and all pages of your site.

Use of HubPages to Promote Site
HubPages allow users to publish content and gain information about a specific topic or both. Users submit content via one-page websites or hubs. Hubs can be used to promote businesses to link to other content sites. HubPages can bring you traffic by allowing you to give a back link to your website and attracting readers by constantly updating your hub. Each new hub is given 50 points and then gets either voted up or down. The score is then translated into 3 different ratings: Average (few hubs with average scores), Prodigy (few hubs with high scores) and Stop (low scores on lots of hubs).

Auto-Pinging a Blog and its RSS

Pinging is a mechanism in blogging by which you tell Google that you have made some changes to your site or pages and that it should come back to your site to look. A blogger needs to ping many individual servers to get the desire publicity. AutoPinger is a free and convenient service for all bloggers and pod casters. Auto-Pinging is a mechanism wherein you can take advantage of the XML-RCP platform and consolidate all the ping jobs into one common location that is totally disconnected from your blogs.

Until next time,

-Caitlin Campbell

Chapter 7 - Marketing Strategies

Hello everybody,

This week in SEO we covered different marketing strategies in regards with SEO. There's local search marketing, link baiting, and Google webmaster control.

Local Search Marketing
74% of adults use search engines as their primary source for obtaining local information. Local search marketing refers to search marketing in a limited geographical area. When trying to optimize your site locally you need to focus on making your keywords local. When doing this keep in mind local terms, such as bistro or restaurant. In regards to on-page optimization be sure to include local phone numbers and physical address. Use geographical qualifiers (such as city names) in your title tags to up their importance. Have directions on your site or an embedded map. Most major search engines have local business centers so be sure to submit your business information with that and your site will be integrated with the local section and maps. The local search results box is the first to be displayed to recognize it's importance.  Also make sure your site is listed on directories such as yellowpages.com.

Link Baiting
Link baiting is the process where you use a bait to attract back links (something on your site that makes others want to link to your site). There are different types of hooks

• Resource hook - Hooks that generally provides useful resources to the audience.
• News hook- This hook banks on providing the latest news first or compilation of stores following a particular new item. When doing these types of hooks know they need regular posting.
• Contrary hook- looks at views contrary to an established or perceived school of thought contradictory or controversial view.
• Attract hook- similar to the contrary hook but seeks to be more provocative, direct and upfront in nature.
• Humor Hook- seeks to bring in some aspect of humor into the daily mundane lives of people. This is very effective and stands out.

Google Webmaster Control
Google provides several tools for various needs. For example Google helps you diagnose, analyze and solve crawling, and indexing issues. It gets help for potential issues in crawling and indexing. It helps submit content to various Google services. It enhances site functionality. It analyzes traffic through Google Analytics.

Keep these things in mind when working on your marketing strategies, until next time,
-Caitlin Campbell

Chapter 6- Latest Concepts

Hello everybody,

This week in SEO we went over the latest concepts of search engine optimization. Some of these ideas overlap with concepts covered in the Hubspot posts, but it's always good to be reminded.

One of the concepts is doing blog optimization. When doing blog optimization keep in mind to maintain simple content, search engine submission, keywords, optimize your blog template, and maintain regular updates. When doing SEO watch out for content duplication, this is commonly found in product descriptions and manuals or alternative print pages. Duplicate information can cause your website to be penalized and lowered in rankings so be careful. Look into utilizing podcasts, online audio files delivered through a RSS feed, to your website. These are good for information, promotional clips, interviews, talk shows, news, sportscasts, commentaries and story telling.

When working with SEO know the present situation and what's waiting in the future. Presently every web page is created in HTML, neatly constructed unitizing specific tags, and the title and description summarize web content using keywords. In the future there will be a decrease in algorithm based search. There will be open source software and link exchange will receive lesser importance. Local search will gain more importance and there will be vertical search engines. Credibility of PPC will decrease and LSI will gain importance. There's a lot of different things to keep in mind when using SEO such as the "Google dance" which happens once a month when Google makes changes in its algorithm which can cause your rankings to drastically alter, but don't freak out just wait for it to pass.

When learning SEO you have to take into a lot of information, but do your best to keep your head in the game.

-Caitlin Campbell

Cultivating Happy Customers

Hello everybody,
Today I'm going to introduce you to the last Hubspot class of cultivating happy customers.

This class is the only class in the Delight Phase of the Inbound Methodology. Studies show that it is 6-7x most costly to gain a new customer than it is to retain an existing customer. 7% of consumers say that their customer service experiences with companies typically exceed their exceptions. Only 7%. This is ridiculous considering customer delight is a competitive advantage, any of your customers can become promoters that will attract more strangers to your business. Customer delight is not just a post-sale activity, it should be a priority both pre- and post- sale and wherever customers are in the buyer's journey. There are 3 pillars of customer delight. First is innovation- change is better than the status quo. Second is communication- personal is better than impersonal. Third is education- empowering is better than ignoring.

There are seven customer delight guidelines

1. Delight Employees
   Delight your employees and they will delight you customers. Both customers and employees are any business's greatest assets, so your hiring methodology is critical to delighting your customers. When hiring look for skills, culture fit, beliefs, experience, and ideas.
2. Educate Employees
   Develop team principles for your employees to follow. These principles should reinforce the fact that employees should always solve for the customer. There are different ways to execute employees such as teach every employee the pillars of customer delight. Implement a new hire training program. Develop ongoing training programs. Educate them by doing, bot by way of lecture or presentation. Share stories of what great customer service resembles. Share examples of what solving for the customer looks like. Everyone at the business should be educating employees in some capacity.
3. Empower Employees
   Everyone at the business should be able to identity the persona. Let employee's personality shine through. Keep in mind the customer delight checklist: Solve their problem, provide recommendation, and be enthusiastic and fun. Always under promise and over deliver.
4. Listen
   Collect data - identify opportunities to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. You can do this through social monitoring. Silence is your friend, so keep in mind the 80/20 rule, you only talk about 20%. Repeat what the customer sad to make sure you're all on the same page. Show empathy and be empathetic.
5. Ask Questions
   Go exploring with customers. Pay attention to verbal and non-verbal communication.
6. Help and Educate
   Be problem solvers. Create content made just for customers. Focus on how can you exceed their expectations. It's not just what you say, but how you make them feel that create a lasting relationship.
7. Follow Up
   Make sure you always resolve all of their problems. Be on time especially after someone just became a customer because that time is critical.

Keep in mind that all small interactions add up to the experience in a whole, so always focus on delighting your customers.

-Caitlin Campbell

Taking Your Sales Process Inbound

Hello Everybody,
Today we are going to be reviewing helpful tips given by Hubspot in order to make our sales process inbound by transforming the way you sell because buying habits have changed.

Because of this change we need to change the way we sell. Here are some of the best practices for effectively transforming the way you sell.

• First transform the way you target accounts. Make sure you are targeting the right people. 
• Next transform the way your prospect accounts. Understand the lead before picking up the phone and in order to do this you need to research you leads. First find out their company information such as size, revenue, products, customers and the leads role in the company. Second read about their industry, such as their news, funding, hiring, events, expansions or shared contacts. Third check out their social media, is your lead talking wit other companies or researching other needs? And fourth do lead intelligence, monitor the lead's engagement with your company like what did they download or pages are they viewing. 
• Next transform the way you connect with accounts. To do this start with building rapport by establishing a commonality based on your research. Second know your audience, understand who you're talking to and tailor your conversation based on that. Third speak withe prospect's language by articulating your information in a way that resonates with your prospect. Fourth be helpful, answer questions and give tips. 
• Lastly you need to transform the way your prospects perceive you as a salesperson. Be a sales educator by listening and understanding your prospect's pain and challenges. Make your sales organization human again.

After you have done all your research then you can call that lead. When you call ask how to help or offer tips for their company. Offer a positioning statement which is an expression of how a given product, services or brand fills a particular consumer's need in a way that its competitors don't. If you don't get a hold of the person the first time leave a voice mail, followed by a email with the words "per my message" so they know that the voice mail was left first. If they don't respond after a couple of days call again, this time add value to your message to intrigue him. Again if he doesn't answer leave a voice mail, followed with an email. Again if he doesn't contact you call one last time, making it clear in your message that you won't contact him again but you're there for him to reach out to you if he wants to.

Remember to provide a relevant, personal and delightful experience for each of your prospects from start to finish,
-Caitlin Campbell

SEO Monitoring -Chapter 5

Hello Everybody,
Today we're going to be talking about SEO monitoring.

SEO campaigns offer an unique advantage over other internet marketing campaigns because they offer overall return on investments (ROI)  and it allows you to deliver long term success. Here are the steps for determining ROI of e-commerce sites. Know your original statics, such as sales and traffics before you have implemented a SEO campaign. After the search engine optimization calculate the number of items sold and multiply it with the average price. This will give you the actual sales. After calculating the difference between sales pre-optimization and post, you can calculate the increase in sales. If your sales figure can recover the investment in s short period of time, you are generating a good ROI. In the case of information sites apply a dollar value for each converted user to determine the ROI.

The real objective of an SEO campaign is to generate qualified traffic to your site and convert as much as possible into leads or sales. Traffic Analysis is the evaluation of referrals from search engines based on conversion of traffic for keywords  choices. Visitor traffic analysis helps to optimize the campaign in great details to increase ROI and this can be done in the following parameters. Traffic on keywords- know what keywords work and which don't. Pick the right keywords and replace the non-performing ones. Keywords and Landing Pages- know which keywords lead to which pages. Know which pages get the most traffic and why. Whether the Call to Action was followed for Conversion- know if visitors are performing that activity or not and try to find out the reasons behind it, such as wrong keywords or lacking quality content. Qualified Traffic- know the demographics and phychographics of the traffic you are getting for the client and make more precise or well-defined keywords. Converted Traffic- Track down how many sales you are generating, lots of traffic doesn't matter if there's no conversions.

When choosing an SEO consultant it is important to have a grasp of what their job entails, such as on page optimization, off page optimization, PPC campaigns, link building, site restructuring and more. The aim of an SEO consultant is to get higher rankings. To do this they start with website research, then keyword research, content building, placement of the right keywords, sit submissions, and tracking performance. Keep in mind that no one can guarantee you success, and if they say they can tread lightly. You don't want an unethical SEO specialist that can end up having your website banned or penalized.

Remember SEO is just basically educated guesses based on past research and habits,
-Caitlin Campbell

The Power of Smarketing

Hello Everybody,

Today I'm going to introduce you to the concept of Smarketing with tips and tools from Hubspot that will help you with your search engine optimizing. This is the second class of the close section in inbound methodology.

According to Hubspot, companies with strong sales and marketing alignment get 20% annual revenue growth. To do this we remind both sales and marketing that we're all on the same team. There are different way to create this type of mentality, and one of them is to align both departments around the same goals. Allow visibility into each other's goals and progress. Provide compensation based on each others goals. It is also good to have alignment around personas. Communicate persona details across the company, educate each other about new persona details, and specialize teams around particular personas.

In order to complete these types of alignments Hubspot provided 5 steps to integrate Smarketing.

1. Speak to Same Language- Keep in mind that sales is a numbers driven division, so it helps when you integrate numbers into the marketing divisions. Base you marketing goals by taking your sales goals and working backwards. Also you map the buyer's journey to the lifecycle stages. Only 45% of business have stabled a companywide definition of a sales-ready lead. A sales-ready lead is a person that's a great fit lead with high level of interest. You also need to define the handoff process and your buyer persona as a group.


2. Set up Closed-Loop Reporting- There are questions you should ask yourself when setting up closed-loop reporting, such as do you send leads to  sales and never hear if they were good? Do you end up creating and trying to manage duplicate leads? Do you send leads to slews with the basic contact information without intelligence about what content those leads consumed?  And Are you unsure of the impact your marketing efforts have on revenue? The concept of closed-loop reporting is to complete the feedback loops between marketing and sales. It benefits marketing by getting them up to date contact info and status updates, learn which marketing programs are working and which aren't and increase marketing ROI. It benefits sales by de-duplicate leads, help prioritize leads, help make warmer calls, and increases close rates and sales ROI. Types of closed-loop reporting include: closed loop lead intelligence, closed loop CRM integration, and closed loop lead alerts. 


3. Implement a Service Level Agreement- Service Level Agreement or SLA for short, defines what each team commits to accomplishing in order to support the other. It crystalizes the alignment around the goals. To calculate marketing to sales know how many lead of a certain quality does a sales rep need to make quote. To calculate sales to marketing know how many call/email attempts to engage should a sales rep make to every lead and most waste leads.


4. Maintain Open Communication-Ways to maintain open communication include implementing weekly smarting meetings and if your business is larger have monthly management meetings. Have campaign communication by marketing your campaigns to your sales team and share the information they need in order to be successful. Have product communication by sharing updates about products and services- arm the sales team with the details and why customers/prospects will care.


5. Rely on Data-A good way to relay data is through the use of dashboards. Create and share a common dashboard with the reports aligned with the teams' goals. Check the dashboard daily and encourage individuals to fix problems. Dashboards are frequent, public and transparent. You can have different dashboards for different things such as a marketing dashboard for measuring and communicating the progress towards primary goals. They can be used to track leads by source, track leads by campaign, track volume of MQLs money marketing reports, sales by day, and sales activity reports. 

Remember when things don't go according to plan, rely on data not emotions- separate reality from perception.

-Caitlin Campbell

Sending the Right Email to the Right Lead

Hello Everybody,

Today I'm going to be talking to you about sending the right email to the right lead. A lot of people thinking emailing people is just spamming, but there's so much more to it when done correctly. Emailing helps to close leads into customers. This is the first step in the close stage of inbound marketing. There are reasons that you might want to look into emailing your leads, for example there are more than 3.2 billion email accounts today. 95% of online consumers use email and 91% check their email daily. Email and a longer lifespan than social media does and it is cost effective.

Email marketing works for every stage of the inbound methodology. It is good for attracting new visitors, which works when your current leads forward one of your emails to somebody new. It can convert visitors into leads. It nurtures current leads into customers because you are able to tailor to specific leads. And you can delight current customers into promoters by offering customer discounts and the like.

When emailing you need to be sure you're sending the right kind of email. Determine who your audience is. Know who your ideal customers are and know their interests, pain-points, behavioral patterns, motivations, and goals. Know where they are on the buyer's journey and cater towards that. Segment your contacts database. Know what your goal is, for example is it to increase deliverable, increase engagement, or to increase reach. 25% of email lists decay every year, so there's no point in sending emails to people who won't read them. Send the right content at the right time. If someone is in the awareness stage of the buyer's journey it would be beneficial to send them videos, blog posts, slide-share, or free-tools. In the consideration stage send webinars, case studies,  and FAQ sheets. In the decision stage send free trials and product demos.

Emails should add value, not ask for it. Here's some best practices for emails.

• Identify a specific goal
• Personalize sender info (this will increase your open rate about 3-5%)
• Personalize email copy (14% higher click-through-rate)
• Get to the point
• Address leads directly
• Use actionable language
• Focus on benefits
• Use multiple call to actions
• Encourage sharing
• Edit the plain text
• Optimize for mobile
• Analyze results (test different subject lines, email templates, offers, length, images, copy, and call to actions)

Keep these things in mind when emailing, because no body likes getting spam.
-Caitlin Campbell

Perfecting the Conversion Process

Hello everybody,

This week in Hubspot we learned how to optimize the conversion process. This is the final step in the convert series and this is how you get leads. First let's recall what the conversion 3 main building blocks are again.

The main goal of the conversion process is to attract your buyer persona and to lead them to the sale. Call to actions, as we may recall from previous posts, are things that are created in order to entice viewers to actually do something specific. Examples are things like "download the e-book now" and so on.
Call to Action Best Practices

• Make your copy action-oriented (be clear and direct in what you want your viewers to do)
• Use an attention-grabbing design!
• Make sure to use strong on-page placement (for example make sure it is noticeable and near the top of a page, not near the bottom where it can easily be overlooked and go unnoticed)
• Test! Test! And test some more! When testing you can change certain aspects then gauge which ones create better click through results. For example you can change your call-to-actions design, text and copy, page placement, positioning, and offer type. See what makes people bite and works best, then stick with it.
• While doing these steps it is important to keep in mind that you're going to want different call to actions based on where each person is in the buyer's journey (awareness, consideration, or decision).

To know how to make a successful landing page read my blog post on the subject by clicking here.

Thank You Pages Best Practices 

• Deliver the offer (this may sound obvious but it is important nevertheless)
• Guide them further through the buyer's journey. On your thank you page you can include another call to action that may be for more specific information that will help viewers move along in the buyer's journey.
• Include social networking options. This will give you the ability to gather more leads.
• It is always important to include thank you pages because it furthers your relationship with your buyer persona. Being polite in real life can go a long way, it is no different when it comes to relationships through the internet. 

Now you know the last step of the convert process, next we'll be moving into the close section of inbound methodology!

I'll meet you there,

-Caitlin Campbell

Pay Per Click-Chapter 4

Hello everybody,
This post is going to explore pay per click campaigns.

First off, for those of you  who are unfamiliar,  pay per click campaigns are advertising campaigns that run on search engines result pages. In simplest concept, the greater the bid the higher your ad will be listed on search engine results. Google's pay-per click program is called Adwords. I have minimal experience using Adwords, but from what I have experienced it would be vital to any online marketing campaign. When using Google Adwords its important to know that they don't base your ranking purely off of your bidding amount. They also factor in your site's quality. For example Google offers discounts to sites with a higher click-through rate, even though about 20% of click throughs are fraudulent.

When first setting up your pay per click campaign you need to do keyword selection. You start with a market analysis to know what your competition is doing. You also need to figure out what your goals are for your campaign, for example are you aiming for exposure, traffic, clicks or conversion. Think of persuasive and specific keywords that your customers would use when looking for your product or service.
Next you focus on bidding strategies. When it comes to bidding there are different tools that can help you monitor your campaign and help you adjust your bids accordingly. For example if your site has a click through rate of about 7% you should be able to cut your bids in half without loosing too much footing in ranking.
Next comes advertising text. Never rely on one advert, try several then decide which one was the most effective. Advertising is divided into two different parts, title and ad text. Title should be key word rich. When creating ad text keep in mind that the function of the internet is information.
Next you need to develop proper landing pages. I wrote a whole post on landing pages with great tips in detail, to read click here.
And then you need to track. For full search engine optimization you need to be consistently tracking your work and your competitors to stay on top.

That's all I got for you today, until next time
-Caitlin Campbell

The Anatomy of a Landing Page

Hello everybody,
This week on Hubspot we learned about landing pages.

Landing pages are a website page specifically designed to convert visitors into leads. They work like digital sales reps. It goes along with the concept that I'll give you something, if you give me something in return. Landing pages are the heart of the conversion process. They convert unknown visitors to known leads which provide you with the necessary information to begin fostering a relationship.

Elements to a high quality landing page include offer, buyer's journey, buyer's persona, and landing page best practices. A landing page offer is something offered by an organization that had perceived value to website visitors other than the core products of services the organization sells. You landing page and offer must be in harmony with what your persona is looking for based on where they are in the buyer's journey. 71-89% of purchase decisions start with a search engine. 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. The businesses that are the most educators will be the most successful. There are two major ways to fail when it comes to knowing the buyer persona. First is the persona relevancy factor; if your offer is attractive to a buyer persona, but not to your buyer persona, you'll get leads that will never close. Next is the persona irrelevancy factor, which means your landing page is irrelevant to all personas, meaning you won't convert anyone into leads.

And here are landing pages best practices

• Write clear, concise, compelling headlines
• Explain the value and importance of the offere to your persona
• Use bullet points to make information easily digestible
• Select the appropriate number of form fields for your offer (the more important your offer the more personal information you can ask for)
• Remove navigation and all links
• Include a relevant image, gif or short video
• Add social media share icons
• Add testimonials when relevant
• Use industry awards and recognition

Now you know all about landing pages,
until next time,
-Caitlin Campbell

Site Readiness -Chapter 3

Hello Everybody,
Today we'll be talking about site readiness.

Link building is an essential part in order to raise your ranking. There are three different ways that link building is done. The first is one way linking. One way linking is by far the best way to improve your ranking. These are links to your sites from sites which do not receive a link from your site, which is also why it is sometimes hard to pull off. It protects you from bad back links and it is important to keep in mind that when it comes to search engines find your links, simpler is better. The next way to build links in reciprocal linking. This is the most popular and it relies on trust. Basically 2 websites agree to link to each others websites in order to up ranking, but it is not nearly as powerful as one way linking. The third and final way is triangular linking. This is when 3 or more websites set up a kind of chain of linking, so that all links appear to be one way links, when in reality it is a deal between different sites.

Another big topic that chapter 3 covered was cloaking and doorway pages.

Cloaking is when webmasters deliver one page to search engines for indexing while serving an entirely different page to everyone else. There are 5 different types of cloaking. The first is user agent cloaking which is good fro specific agents. IP address cloaking which is good for taking care of demographic groups. IP and agent cloaking which is good for a combo of the above. Referrer based cloaking which is basing delivery on specific referral strings. It is good for content generalization. And the last is Session based cloaking, which are sites that use session tracking in order to do incredible things with content. 

Doorway pages are programmed to be visible only by specific search engine spiders. They are build specifically to draw search engine visitors to your web site. The purpose is to trick search engines for higher rankings therefore its unethical. There are 3 ways to deliver doorway pages. The first is low tech delivery. Webmasters create and submit a page targeted towards a particular phrase and use meta refresh tags. The second is agent delivery. This is a doorway page that only the search engine sees. You can send the search engine to a tailored page while they direct users to the actual content you want them to see. The last is IP delivery/page cloaking. This delivers pages to search engines by IP address.

-Caitlin Campbell