Frontline Perspectives

Technology is a funny thing. In some ways, computing technology seems like it’s on this constant ramp-up of innovation, but in other ways, it’s just a big pendulum swinging back and forth between established paradigms.

We’ve gone from main frames and dumb terminals to thin clients and web servers to clouds. All of those technology shifts have been driven by the need to find the best and most efficient balance of centralized resources and distributed processing power. Read more »

Marketing experts have been talking about search engine optimization (SEO) for years. The business-to-business industry understands its importance, but a lot of companies are still missing out on the full benefits of this marketing strategy. Read more »

Linking is an extremely powerful component in developing a rich and relevant Web site. Current research indicates that the Google algorithms put as much or more weight on the quality and number of your inbound links as they do to the quality of your content.

Some things to keep in mind as you develop your linking strategy:

Choose sites that are relevant to the same keywords as your site. When these sites link to you, your site is a more powerful piece. For example, if you’re a medical equipment manufacturer, looking for sites that have content about medical equipment safety, repair, usage, design, etc., would make for strong link choices. Read more »

A good Web site is not just an online version of your brochures and marketing collateral.

Here are the basic steps to creating optimized content for your Web site:

1. Research keywords/phrases: Take the time to understand what people are really searching on. It’s not always what you think, or expect. Read more »

Based on everything I’ve read and the discussions I’ve had with our clients, it’s going to be another difficult year. Some of us will see sales decreases, some of us will drag along the bottom, and a few lucky ones will start to see our bottom lines change from red to black.

2009 was a year filled with frustration, and for many, fear. The companies that proactively analyzed where to make changes (and invariably cuts) are in a much better position than the ones that chose a wait-and-see approach.  None of those were easy decisions, but making them also provided clarity as to the true strengths and weaknesses of an organization.

Many marketing budgets were cut deeply  for 2009. For 2010 we are seeing a mix of holding to the 2009 budget, 5% decreases and 15-20% increases.  The question I am most asked now is…where do we spend the marketing dollars this year? What will make the biggest impact? Read more »

There are two key reasons that I think companies should have a blog (and why MarketSense has a blog).

1. SEO: A blog adds relevant content to your Web site quickly and easily. This is critical for search engine optimization. It also adds linking opportunities, which is another important element in SEO. Search engines place a high value on the depth of your content and the extent to which you have inbound links from other relevant sites. A blog provides an ongoing mechanism to make this easier.
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A little over two months ago I wrote that Bing had been showing up on the Google Analytics reports for our client Web sites. It was a small percentage of site traffic back in August (less than 3%) but in the most recent reports, I’m seeing closer to 8% of site traffic originating from this newcomer. Read more »

Read an interesting article by Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital in Ad Age this week. He commented on the importance of writing for the search engines and not just for readers. We have been telling our clients this daily, but it’s difficult for clients to grasp.

Steve’s explanation was point on. He says the way to think of writing for “Googlers” is that they are looking for “how to get rid of roaches” not for “bug spray”. This is so true. People want solutions. They want you to educate them and help them move past an issue. They will not find you if all you do is list your products or services. You have to explain “what’s in it for them”. Read more »

White papers are one of my favorite “offers” for lead generation efforts.  Whether it’s a direct mail promotion, an online banner or a print ad, prospects love to get information that will help them be more productive and make better decisions.  The use of a white paper in a lead campaign will almost always produce better results than any other typical giveaway a client has tried. Read more »

In May when Microsoft announced their new search engine, Bing, I wondered whether they could possibly make a dent in the Google fortress. Google is my personal preference, and the more relevant search tool for our B2B clients. That being said, we watch all the search engines to keep on top of optimization, and PPC opportunities.

So, I’ve been test driving Bing. I don’t love their interface (it’s too busy for me). I have been impressed with its results – and have been comparing it’s with results with Google (there is a difference). I haven’t been that impressed with their photo search – I like seeing the url displayed with the photo (perhaps just because I’m used to having it that way on Google?)

But here’s the real kicker… I’ve been watching the analytics reports for our client websites to see if/when Bing would show up. Sure enough, Bing was there in the July reports (less than 3%, but still there). Read more »