SEARCH NEWS – MARCH 2012

Sell SEO Make Money Search News is your monthly source to keep you up to date on the latest trends in search engine marketing. You’ll know about emerging trends in online marketing and we’ll explain how those trends can be put to use in your business.

Get Ready: Facebook’s “Timeline” Coming to Brand Pages

Facebook’s brand pages are about to get a makeover. The “timeline” format that many Facebook users have applied to their personal profiles is now available for brand pages. All brand pages will transition to the new look by March 30.

If you’re promoting your business on Facebook, now is the time to start optimizing for the new layout. Showcase your brand, products and services in the large cover photo space. It’s huge! The new layout provides countless new ways to promote your brand. But it’s only worth doing if you have a social media strategy, goals and the time to manage your page. We have a multi-tiered social media marketing service — you can choose the level of support that suits your needs. And, you can log in to your reporting dashboard at any time and see data from your social media campaign alongside your other online marketing campaigns. Please call us for more information.

Google’s Putting It All Together for Online Marketers

On March 1, Google implemented its new privacy policy. We’ve been writing about the downside of the new policy in terms of Google users’ privacy concerns, but there is an upside for those of us in the online marketing business.

Google users will now have one comprehensive profile and data will be shared across all of its platforms (Search, Google+, Gmail, YouTube and so on), making it easier for Google to be more precise with ad targeting. Theoretically, we should see better return on our investment in PPC and SEO as a result of Google’s ability to get a clearer picture of each individual who uses Google.

A survey done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project after the new policy was announced found that 83% of U.S. search engine users rated Google as their preferred search engine. (Yahoo was a distant second at 6%.) Nearly 75% of survey participants said they don’t want search engines to analyze personal information for advertising purposes. More than 33% said they don’t want ads to be customized based on their web surfing activities. Will people will turn away from Google now that the new policy has been implemented? Very doubtful. Big search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, and social media platforms like Facebook, all collect personal information for advertising purposes. People who are concerned about privacy aren’t going to find it on the internet.

New On the Social Scene: Pinterest

Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board that allows users to share images and links. It’s getting noticed by online marketers because reportedly, unique visitors to Pinterest are skyrocketing and Pinterest is driving more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn, Reddit, and YouTube.

Pinterest does permit businesses to set up accounts for their brands, but it’s a very unique platform that requires “thinking outside the box.” Read the Pinterest Brand Best Practices page for examples of how some businesses, such as Whole Foods and Bergdorf Goodman, are using Pinterest to build their social networks.

Who’s Very Likely to Be Your Next Customer?

The person who has already bought your products and services! And one of the best ways to bring that customer back is an email marketing program. Make your customers repeat customers by nurturing them with an email marketing campaign. It’s easy to do if you sign up for our email marketing service. We can create a campaign for your business and customize content for your customers so they’ll keep coming back. We can also create a targeted campaign for your prospects. Data from your email campaigns will be reported on your dashboard, alongside data from your other online marketing campaigns.

A survey by ExactTarget showed that more than 50% of consumers make purchases as a direct outcome of email. And, according to Direct Marketers Association, email marketing garners an average ROI of $43.52 for every dollar spent. That’s expected to reach $44.25 in early 2012. Email marketing works. Give us a call for more information about on our email marketing service.