L&S Unscripted

The workforce is constantly changing.   Today, we represent diversity, in many aspects, and as an agency and we need to ensure that we continually support those around us who offer different perspectives because one-size doesn’t fit all in this expanding world of new clients, new technology and new challenges.

At Lawrence and Schiller, our leadership encourages us to take control over our professional lives.  We are asked to step up and to develop our own futures here — if we see a need, find a solution and move it forward.  So a few weeks ago, a few of my female colleagues met after work for drinks, dinner and conversation.  In addition to the normal gossip of shoes, new restaurants or celebrity-itus, our conversations turned toward work life. How well do we know each other and how can we support each other’s careers within our agency?

An idea was formed and a peer-networking effort has started. This is a way for us with more experience to interact, support and learn from those just beginning marketing careers.  On the flip side, we also want to stay connected to issues that matter for young women in today’s fast-paced environment.

This effort may have started as a way to support other female colleagues’ success within this company. But after some initial research on similar efforts in other companies, I’ve found that this type of networking creates an internal reflective process that creates additional benefits for the agency — efficiency, knowledge transfer, collaboration and overall improved communication across disciplines and teams.

Progress is everyone’s business and I’m looking forward to connecting with others in the building. If anyone has great books or topics to help get this launched - please post them here. I’d love to hear your successes in similar efforts.

Billie Jo

There’s nothing tricky about writing copy for web sites. Generally speaking, if real people love your site so will search engines. Here are a few tips for writing user- and search-friendly web copy:

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Example 1: “Vinnie’s Vegetables offers ripe, glorious vegetables of all varieties: carrots, celery, radishes, rutabaga, red peppers, green peppers, yellow peppers, onions, garlic, zucchini, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, bok choy, eggplant, squash, green peas, sweet peas, snow peas, brussels sprouts, collard greens, green beans, spinach, red potatoes, new potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, russet potatoes and yams. Our vegetables are grown “clean and green”. For more Vinnie’s Vegetables click here.”

Example 2: “Vinnie’s Vegetables offers fresh, organic produce year-round. Our pesticide-free vegetables are grown locally – no shipping means a lower cost and greener living for our customers. Sign up for our email newsletter to get ‘Vegetable of the Week’ updates.”

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1. Use keywords when contextually appropriate, but stuffing is for turkeys. You can’t trick search engines into looking at your page, and you’ll probably scare away visitors if you try. Instead of a long, boring keyword list of products/services (like in Example 1), be upfront about the best attributes of your company. If you hook a visitor on merit, they’ll dig deeper for details.

2. Think like your potential customers. Use keywords a visitor might type into a Google search. Instead of vague phrases like “grown clean and green”, try “green lifestyle” and “organic produce”. Also avoid industry-speak if your audience is the general public. If you aren’t sure what people search for, ask your mom (or spouse or kid) what they would type into a search engine to find your product. Their answers might surprise you.

3. Link internally from keywords. In Example 1, “click here” isn’t doing Vinnie any favors with the search engines. It takes up unnecessary space and makes navigating less seamless for visitors. Also, make sure the words you link from make sense with your destination. In Example 1, “offers” isn’t a clear link – is it an order form? Special offers? Good internal links should forge clear paths to more information.

Even with good-quality, succinct copy on your pages, search engines will still look for the most relevant site overall. So in addition to good copy on each page, give visitors a reason to dig around and come back again. Throughout the site, have lots of fresh, thorough content and calls to action (order a brochure, sign up for our email newsletter, etc.).

Search engines (primarily Google and Yahoo) consistently refer 30-60% of our clients’ web traffic. People are searching for your product or service – the only question is: can they find you? Have you often wondered how to gain that highly sought-after position in the search engine results pages when people type a key phrase that’s applicable to your line of business? The path to success is search engine marketing and I’ll begin by defining the two sides of the equation:

• SEO: search engine optimization; work performed behind the scenes to best optimize your web site for top search engine positions (ranking). Example: the top organic (non-paid) positions on Google or Yahoo for a particular search term.
• PPC: pay-per-click marketing; paid text ads placed in the “sponsored listings” area on search engines. Normally the top 2-3 listings on the search results page and the right column of listings.

We hear the question all the time – if we’re working to optimize our web site for search engines (SEO), why do we need to invest in a pay-per-click marketing campaign? In most cases, we recommend both and our clients who aggressively pursue the online marketing landscape use both. I once heard an analogy that it’s similar to advertising in the yellow pages. There’s a huge advantage to acquiring both positions. Considerations:

Time:

• Short-term solution: PPC, the fastest way to drive traffic to your web site. You build the campaign, take it live and within an hour, you could be appearing at the top of the paid listings on Google, Yahoo or MSN for your selected keywords. PPC is also a great avenue to test keywords, ad copy response and landing page effectiveness.
• Long-term solution: SEO is a process, not a project. The time spent optimizing your web site copy, image tags and META data will have a positive long term result, but you have to be patient and often, even the best SEO work takes a couple months to show a true increase in rankings.

Cost:

• PPC is a great online advertising medium because you only pay for clicks that actually land on your web page. Therefore, if your web site is well built and guides the user to the desired conversion (sale, information request or particular web activity), it is a very effective way to gain new traffic to your web site. The best part is that PPC is entirely measurable – an exact ROI can be produced for every dollar spent.
• SEO is often referred to as “free” as once you gain a ranking, you don’t pay for clicks on the search engine listings. However, SEO as a process is not free. It requires constant effort, diligently keeping up with new tactics and modifying the web site code accordingly.

Bottom line:

Search engine marketing is a highly effective, efficient online marketing tactic and it consistently produces the lowest cost-per-lead for our clients when compared to other online marketing campaign components. Once you launch your search engine marketing campaign, you’ll want to assess both types of traffic, organic and paid, to identify the quality of both sources of web traffic and adjust your campaign accordingly.

Get in the game,

Robin

The downturning economy doesn’t mean that your customers will stop spending money - they’ll just start spending it smarter.

Here’s some smarter ways to reach them:

1. Research.
The better you know someone, the more likely you are to be able to reach them.  Now is the time to find out as much about your customers as you possibly can. 

• Monitor the online conversation and research what people are saying about you and your competitors.
• Implement online surveys – they’re cost effective and provide guidance for deeper exploration.
• Double down on user and focus groups to stay in tune.

2. Digital Strategies:
With $4.00 gas, it’s safe to say that people will be utilizing online tools to research and shop, meaning it’s probably time to reevaluate how you are using technology. 

• Update your web site copy to focus on value and trust. Make sure that your search engine optimization is consistent with current events.
• If you don’t have an email database, build one. E-mail marketing is inexpensive and measurable.
• Dive into social media and be a part of the conversation – it’s free. 

3. Public Relations.
PR is one of the most affordable and effective tools in the marketing mix. Consumers are looking for assurance and guidance from the companies that they choose to do business with. Make sure you are telling your story effectively.

• Get involved with your customers through experiential marketing and invite dialogue with promotions, events and sponsorships.
• Develop a cause marketing campaign that shares a mutual interest with causes that matter to your customers.
• Give the media insights into your industry and how you are helping people during uncertain times.

If you’d like to talk through how you could implement these into your marketing plan, give us a call.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Green Conference hosted by Ad Age in NYC. It was a treat to hear CMOs from majors including McDonald’s, Conservation International, Burt’s Bees and Patagonia share their perspective on environmental marketing. A few snippits:

- Don’t wait until you are doing all you could to share about your organization’s successes in green; Celebrate and communicate your small successes.

- Perfection is not the goal; it’s more about encouraging progress and improvement; Simple changes make a difference.

- “Responsible consumption” is a term or idea consumers seem to grasp and are not intimidated by;  Encourage quality vs. quantity, refills, upgrades, etc.

- Keep to your own brand’s style and personality when tackling environmental innovation and communication. i.e. McDonald’s ties in movies like Saigon Panda in their Happy Meals and web applications designed to show kids and families the importance of preservation and enviro-responsibility because they are about kids and families.

- “Green fatigue” is real these days- consumers have seen enough of the expected babies, earth and flower images; instead communicate primary benefits. i.e. Yes, the Toyota Prius is better for the earth, but the primary benefit is that it’s a quiet ride and provides fuel economy.

I have a thousand more notes and hope to share more at an upcoming Food for Thought lunch presentation. Hope to see you there.  Until then, Ad Age did a nice series on Green Marketing recently available here so check it out if you’re into it.  http://adage.com/greenmarketing08/

For many, the official company website is positioned as a tool to communicate information about new products and services.  And with many of our clients, we are asked to ensure that our marketing efforts drive consumers to the website to register for e-mails, free coupons, prize promotions, etc. 

Many times, the target customer responds to marketing and registers valuable contact information on the website, only to never hear from the company again - it’s a black hole phenomenon.   What happens to those e-mail addresses? 

Here’s where a CRM solution could help.  Instead of floating around in a black hole, those e-mail addresses can be stored in a simple database solution, of which there are many, and be available for on-going customer communication.  Many times when we throw around the term CRM, people’s eyes start to glaze over. People hear terms like dataflows, applications, source codes, business process and all of a sudden, CRM can sound scary or complicated, and expensive.

CRM can be simple.  Our team likes to define CRM as “organized” communication with others.  Some real world examples that people use everyday are Microsoft’s Outlook, your rolodex, or even your Christmas card list.  Somehow, people gave you their contact information with the expectation that you would communicate with them in the future. 

CRM can eliminate the black hole phenomenon. Instead of letting your customers’ e-mail addresses sit in a file somewhere, use them to communicate with people who want to hear from you. 

A CRM tool, like Listrak, can help make it easy to do and easy to manage.  The best CRM tools provide solutions to help your company manage data, or in this case, e-mail addresses. By starting to communicate with your customers, your company can begin to understand, as well as anticipate their needs today, and in the future.

Simply CRM’ing

Billie Jo

Search engine spiders, defined: Spiders are used to feed pages to search engines. It’s called a spider because it crawls over the Web. Another term for these programs is webcrawler. Source: www.webopedia.com

Can search engine spiders ‘see’ your web images? With the emergence of Google images and other image search engines, the importance of indexing the images on your web site has become all the more important. While you should be adding ALT tags (defined: The ALT tag is meant to serve as an ALTernate if the image source does not exist, or if browsers have images disabled) and descriptions to your images for organic search engine ranking purposes, the only way for the image search engines to find your images (and furthermore, link to your web site) is by adding information that allows the spiders to see you.

For example:

Non-Optimized Image:	Optimized Image:
What you see:	What you see: Mount Rushmore, Black Hills of South Dakota
What the spider sees:	What the spider sees: ALT=Mount Rushmore TITLE=Mount Rushmore, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota Caption= Mount Rushmore, Black Hills of South Dakota

The saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words” doesn’t hold true for search engines unless you tell the spider what it’s supposed to see. A fully optimized image includes the following elements: ALT tag, TITLE tag, thumbnail (version shown on the web) with a link to a larger version or additional content, and a descriptive caption beneath the image. Additionally, the file directories should be named similar to the topic.

Example of optimized image code (applies to the example above):

<a href=http://www.travelsd.com/_images/placestogo/rushmore/rushmore.jpg><img src=”/images/placestogo/mount-rushmore/mount-rushmore.jpg” alt=”Mount Rushmore” title=”Mount Rushmore, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota” /></a><br />

Resources: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_IMG.asp or http://www.htmlquick.com/reference/tags/img.html

Organically optimizing,

Robin

Dear Jane Sample came up with the Brand Timeline Portrait, but many bloggers are jumping on the bandwagon because it’s a cool idea. It’s basically a visual representation of the brands that you use, that you have a connection with and feel loyal about. This timeline can be helpful to Planners as it gives a snapshot of their target in a new way and it could have media implications.

As I looked at the various timelines posted by bloggers, I thought I’d give it a shot. It’s definitely a work in progress because even as I write I this I see brands that I forgot. For instance, as I look around my desk, there’s Kleenex, Papermate, Scotch etc. It starts to hurt my head. Luckily, there’s Tylenol in my drawer.

Each day I am amazed by the savvy technical skills of little kids. While I still much prefer my external mouse, when my 4-year old hops on the computer, it’s incredibly natural for him to maneuver the laptop mouse, keyboard and arrows. It stuns me. He has the lingo down, too. I’ll hear, “Mom, you got an e-mail” when my Outlook makes its distinct chime. And once he arrives on a web site, he navigates through without hesitation… the funny thing about kids is that they just keep clicking until they find what they want – they don’t get frustrated, unlike many adults.

You may be thinking, “Really – you let your 4-year old use the Internet?” I do, but with caution. We have an awesome toy plug-in that works with the Internet - Fischer-Price Easy-Link Launch Pad – it essentially locks all other computer activity and allows kids to play very specific games. It’s awesome. Alternatively, another favorite in my household is Playhouse Disney. 

Beyond games, kids are also exposed to various forms of online communication – when I’m on Instant Messenger or Facebook, my son’s curiosity is always piqued. He’ll ask, “Hey Mom, who are you talking to?” Fact: he says “talking,” even when I’m IMing or texting. Kids are growing up with an entirely different view of communication options… they know that it’s not just verbal. Social media has also arrived for kids: check out Disney’s Club Penguin and Webkinz.  

It scares and excites me to think about where technology will be when my 4-year old is in his 20’s. First came technology, then came social, and experiential is next. Get ready. Look at how experiential the Wii is – computer activity will follow suit.

Plugged-in and parenting,

Robin

My husband and I are upgrading to smart phones. Up until this point, our cell phones have been, er, not smart (to say the least). We are also combining our single plans into a shared family plan, something that’s long overdue.

So we’ve been on the Verizon web site a lot, without a lot of luck. We found the phones we wanted, but we couldn’t figure out how to get the online discount on both at the same time. And we couldn’t access the family share plan with those phones selected, but we couldn’t figure out why. After a reconnaissance mission to the local Verizon store, we confirmed with their salesperson that our desired combination of phones and plan was a possibility. But as we would save 300 bucks buying online, we left the store and decided to have another go ourselves.

And we almost didn’t make it. Until a friendly chat box popped up – “Can I help you?” And “KaylaK” did, very well. She explained that we first had to upgrade on our single accounts and buy our phones, and then we could combine our plans. She walked us through this, step by step. She stayed online 26 minutes after their customer service lines closed to help us finish. Sure, some of the responses were obviously canned, but they were also thorough and that was good enough for us. Our new phones will arrive in one to two business days.

The more I am exposed to site design and optimization, the more I realize there is no “perfect” web site. While you can provide good paths and clear navigation for your visitors, they are still human and unpredictable. Site visitors are like water in your basement, they will always find the cracks in your foundation. Sites change and evolve constantly as products are added and processes are tweaked, and something in the user experience inevitably gets bumped or shifted. So the answer is to fight humans with humans – provide a real live person who can answer as many questions as your site users can come up with. Live chat is an effective, easy and cheap way to add an element of human interaction to your web site. Because, like Bruce Springsteen says, “I just want someone to talk to, and a little of that human touch.”

In an increasingly plugged-in world, don’t we all?

Krista G.