There are a lot of conferences, books, and blogs focusing on how to succeed in an ever  quickening online mashup of websites, social media venues, and smartphone and tablet apps.  At WebFadds, we focus on having a smart Content Strategy, then follow it with proven methods to review and revise your tactics.  Here’s an overview for you.

What is your Content Marketing Strategy?

CMS Wire has a great post in which a succinct formula for content strategy is presented.  Here’s how I would boil it down:

Specific Content, for a Specific Target Group = a desired Business Outcome Goal, because of a Specific Method of Motivation.

Let’s examine each.

• Since the goal of content is to engage with prospects and customers, you need to understand who your typical site visitor and end customer are. In B2B, this may be specifically defined something like this: “a mid-career purchasing professional in XYZ industry.”
• Next — you need Specific Content for those specific target group(s). Yes, I know I am showing it second here, and that’s because you have to understand your target well before you produce content. In fact, you have to also understand what motivates them (final formula item) too. In our example here, for a mid-career purchasing professional, you know that looking good (ie. for promotions) motivates them, so you need to develop content that speaks to how you solve both their industry need, and imply how that makes them look good.
• Next — what are your B.O.Gs? I have written about that in a series at Content Marketing Institute (see: this post ), so I’ll summarize here: a  B.O.G (Business Outcome Goal) are what you would like visitors to your website to do that moves them closer to becoming a customer. Examples include getting newsletter signups, white paper downloads or leads from a contact form.
• Finally, what is your M.O.M.? When we are young, often it is our Mom that inspires (try out for that group, etc.), and motivates (time to clean up your room, or else, etc.). So, ask yourself what is the M.O.M. — Method Of Motivation — to get your prospects to act and complete a desired business outcome goal? Hint: all successful advertising professionals know that people act on emotion — not simple logical facts and bullet lists. Cultivate the desired emotions in your content that compel people to act. I will write more about this as we go.

Outcome Improvement: Review and Revise your Content Strategy

How do you test and improve your strategy and tactics? Two methods: Actionable Analytics, and optimization tactics (not only SEO — add VBO, LPO, and CRO — see my article on it here: Three Tests to Optimize Your Website: VBO, LPO and CRO ).  I’ll write more about that here, and I think you will find a number of practical ideas in my article series at Content Marketing Institute.

Eweek has an interesting post about what is driving Data Analytics. In it they covered the following ten factors that go directly to why you need a smart and routine method of reviewing and tweaking site performance via Analytics review. Here are what I believe to be the top 5 — restated for clarity:

• Explosion of Devices: There are more than 1.8 billion people on the Internet with 4.6 billion mobile phones and millions of tablets.
• Movement away from SQL databses = new ways to review data
• Rise of Real time analysis of analytics data
• “Adaptive web” observes engagement patterns among like-minded individuals to understand user intent, then automatically adapts the online experience to the individual
• Social marketing is letting companies run campaigns that include social sites.

There you have it.  Focus on Content Marketing strategy.  Focus on tactics with smart review methods.  Get going.

One of the best things you can do to wring more ROI out of your website is to optimize for desired business results like sales leads.  Few clients are doing this yet.  Why?  Not in their habit path, no one understands it, or sometimes even worse — they are making faith based assumptions (“I think this is going to work”) and gambling their web results on guesswork.  WebFadds provides testing services, and to help you understand more about them and how to be successful with them — here are some strategies and tactics with visuals to help:

• Measurable Desired Business Outcome(s):  What is the desired, and measurable result that your MarCom team  wants?  For B2B, this is often leads generated via a lead form, and to track conversion rates, we need a unique “thank you” page that a prospect sees only after filling out the form.  Sometimes it’s “engagement.” Sometimes a download of an important White Paper.  We can’t improve results unless they are well defined and trackable.
• General Factors that Improve Results:
  • The clarity and strength of your value proposition:  Often, clients are unclear on the question of why choose this company and its product or service.  Another mistake is to believe that visitors will choose to surf the site and figure out their value –not true and dangerous for two reasons:  they may not take the time to do this, and even if they do they may take the time, they may form a very different concept of value about your company,  its services and products.   State the value clearly on the testing page.  You have the opportunity to help them visualize and “feel” good about your company — take it.
  • Reduce “friction”:  Anything that feels too hard or takes too long = friction.  Longer forms do not convert as well as shorter forms.
  • Reduce “anxiety”:  People worry about the credibility of a company, and what they will do with email and other personal information.
  • Increase motivation:  Promise them something like a free white paper, etc.

Types of Tests

• VBO – Visitor Behavior Optimization: In VBO, we are interested in the “Why” of visitor behavior, beyond the “What” we get from Analytics. Sometimes “Where” too. One popular method here is to get a heat map of where people click on particular pages, then ask they questions that get to the “why” for the behavior.  This is good to test a design before you even implement it, because the visitors are just reacting to a JPG of the page.  Another type of VBO test you can take is an exit survey to help you answer the “Why” of visitor behavior.  Analytics answers “what” your site visitors do and don’t do, but not why — so the best thing to do is simply ask visitors questions that help you understand more about their behavior relating to your desired business outcomes.
  
  Above are some results of one kind of VBO test we did for Content Marketing Institute , and  for International Performance Group (Click to Enlarge).  It provided feedback on where people tend to click on the page (heatmap at left), and also what they remembered and believed the site to be about.
  
• LPO Landing Page Optimization:  This is probably what I will recommend for this client based on your comments.  Here we focus on improving desired business results on only one page.
  • We work with either Google Website Optimizer, or another good option Visual Website Optimizer.  Each offer certain strengths — VWO offers a WordPress CMS plugin, for example.
  • A/B Test: Here you are testing two separate page designs.  This requires a complete separate design for each page, and approximately 1000 unique visitors for a valid test (see next point).  Google has a short video example:
    
    
  • Multivariate Test: Here you only need one page, but you test different combination of persuasive elements on that page to optimize for desired business outcomes.  One popular set to test is:  Two Headlines, Two Persuasive Images, and Two Calls to action.  You would then be showing six different page element combinations to visitors, so you would need 3000 unique visitors for a valid test (see next point).  Google has a short video example:
    
    

• CRO – Conversion Rate Optimization: This one is similar to the nature of LPO in that you are interested in increasing the number of desired business outcomes, called “conversions” in analytics (when a visitor completes a lead form they “convert” from a visitor to a prospect). The main difference here is that you usually will take a series of pages into consideration — the sales “funnel” leading from your home page to a secondary page to an actual desired outcome page, for example.
  Above (click to enlarge) is a “funnel visualization” (series of pages leading to a goal) for a client that would like to have more visitors download their whitepaper.  CRO often involves looking at which pages are not functioning well to get visitors to complete a desired business outcome, and here one problem is the homepage.  They have no call to action on their home page to funnel visitors to this goal.
• Number of Visitors to get a Valid LPO Test: Think 1000 for an A/B test (500 interact with each page), and 3000 for a 3 element Multivariate Test (500 visitors interact with each of six page element combinations).  Google adwords is an excellent way to gather visitors for a test (figure .50 cents average per click, or $500 for 1000 visitors plus management fee).  CRO tests may require move visitors.  We can give you a quote on managing your PPC ad campaign.

Two Final Pieces of Optimization Test Advice:

• Always be testing — drive this tactic into your marketing culture, and you will definitely see an increase in ROI.
• Avoid the HIPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion), because at best when a C-Level Manager says “I think this will work”, you are gambling on faith instead of asking your prospects and customers directly via VBO, LPO, and CRO testing.

Read more here:  WebFadds VBO-Max Services |  Contact us today for a quote.

There are a lot of short overview videos about using your WordPress CMS at WordPress.tv. We’ve also done a few that include some strategic tips about optimizing your CMS. Below is a good overview video about WordPress — it’s getting older, but you can still get some good tips. For newer videos from WebFadds bookmark our new Videos Category.

Optimization Tip: As I say in the video below, you’re not optimizing a website — you’re optimizing how visitors think about your website and the actions they take including completing key business goals at your site. I recommend you take a good look in Analytics at the new “on page Analytics” that shows you “hot-spot” activity on your pages — where visitors click. Make sure those clicks are tied to goals you’ve set, like submitting a lead form. At right is a thumbnail you may click to review how this looks for our own site. Note that you not only see where visitors click but also get key insights to how those clicks may lead to goal completions, and other visitor behavior including what they do after scrolling down the page, “beneath the fold”. Contact us for an estimate to take your Google Analytics to the MAX with actionable advice.

Video: Overview of Using WordPress as your CMS:

Have you spent time in Google Analytics, enjoying the reports, but scratching your head as to what they mean?  What action can you take based on the information you’ve reviewed?

The answer depends on learning what visitor behavior you should watch, based on what business goals you have for visitors to your site. Do you have goals for what you want visitors to do?  Are they tied to dollar values in terms of ROI?  We always advise clients to begin a site design or upgrade by determining “conversion” goals for when visitors “convert” to prospects, leads, and customers.  There’s a debate right now among managers and business owners asking, ‘is Social Media good for ROI’?  You can answer that question, plus gain other actionable insights from your metrics when you set goals for business outcomes, and then use Analytics to determine ways to guide visitors to those outcomes.

Three Google Analytics rules, and five filter strategies to guide you

Three rules of Metric Analysis:

1. Metrics are Secondary, Action is Primary: Use Analytics to gauge Visitor movements toward or away from defined Business Outcomes, and Conversion goals at your site.
   CHALLENGE QUESTION:  What are the three top Business Outcomes you want at your site, and what is a good ROI dollar value for each?
   
   Above (click to enlarge) one way to gauge visitor behavior, leading to a business outcome is through a “funnel analysis” — but this requires that you first identify and set-up dollar value goals
2. Custom Configured Dashboards Reveal Your Next Tactics: Always custom configure your dashboard overview, and never rely on the simple “top 10″ reports.
   CHALLENGE QUESTION:  What actionable Analytics may not be found on standard reports, and further, what important Analytics are three or more clicks deep into your standard reports?
   
   Above is a a customized Google Analytics “Dashboard” — note three important customizations:  Conversions are shown at top under overview, overview shows a specific segment of visitors (returning visitors), and behavior is compared for two different periods (blue and orange lines)
3. Always be Reviewing Visitor Segments.  Always: Every visitor at your site arrives with different intentions and is in search of different goals.  Use “Advanced Segments” to learn how to serve them.
   CHALLENGE QUESTION: What visitor segment bounces away from the same page that other segments continue through to a conversion, and what can you do about that?
   
   Above -  we have filtered the metrics to view the behavior of three custom visitor segments, to see how they relate to key phrases people used to find this client’s site.  The three segments (click to enlarge) are Returning Visitors, Search Engine, and Non-Bounce Visitors.  Below, I’ll recommend five filtering strategies.

Five Filter Strategies: You can create permanent custom filters — I call them globals, and also filter report results on the fly as you review your metrics.

• Well Converting Keywords: Keywords/phrases visitors clicked to arrive at your site, with a per vision goal value of .XX cents or higher.  You’ll then focus on them in future blog posts and articles using SEO-savvy copy writing techniques.
• Make Social Media Prove its Value: Filter to check ROI value for Social Media.  One approach is to filter data from “referring sites”, to see how Social sites like Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIN send visitors with good ROI value.
• Who’s not Bouncing?: Study keywords that have a low bounce rate (less than 30%) and that referred at least 2 visitors (the higher the better).
• Follow the Path: Use Path Analysis to determine where your visitors are coming from, and then what pages in sequence they visit at your site.  Then the 46 thousand dollar question… at what page do they leave and how can you prevent that?
• View, Sort, and Filter for Conversions: You can filter just about any report to see if your visitors converted… and why they didn’t.

WebFadds will be applying methods like these in our “Analytics-MAX, Site Goal Service” in 2010, and thanks to recent upgrades to Google Analytics including advanced Segmentation and Filtering, we look forward to a surge this year.  Please contact us today, and we’ll be pleased to return a prompt estimate for your Actionable Analytics needs.

What does a tag cloud say about your business blog? Quite a lot, actually.  Remember… marketing is now publishing, and publishing is sales.  And within those disciplines lie the realm of both Art and Science.

Good Publishers will always tell you there is much art in what they do. Marketers often point to the science rooted nowadays in Analytics as the guide for their tactics. Looking at both gives you a one-two punch that’s hard to beat. We’ll take a look at both here for our site plus the blogs of three colleagues we often work with as collaborators in a content marketing cabal.  You can follow this whole cabal, and other SEO/SEM gurus on a Twitter list at:  Seo-Sem-cabal

“you should no longer be relying on standard reports in Google Analytics to plumb out what is going on at your sites…”

THE ART: Symbols in a Cloud

First, let’s take a fun visual look at the tag cloud that Wordle.net generates for the blogs from Junta42.com, ContentMarketingToday.com, acSellerant.com, along with our own here at WebFadds.com. Each company is a web development and marketing firm focused on creating compelling content driven solutions. Each company develops CMS solutions on the seo-savvy WordPress platform.  The tag clouds below give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text at the blogs.

Cloud for Junta42.com, “The Content Marketing Revolution Blog“, with Joe Pulizzi:

What immediately pops here is Content, Marketers, Marketing, Social, Media, and Brand. Joe, along with Newt Barret (next cloud) wrote the book, “Get Content, Get Customers“.

Cloud for ContentMarketingToday.com, “How to turn prospects into buyers with Content Marketing,” with Newt Barrett

Here, Newt Barrett (co-author of “Get Content, Get Customers“) writes an insightful blog where the words Marketing, Content, Customers, and Click stand out.

Cloud for acSellerant.com – “Profitable Growth for IT Providers,” with Bob Leonard

Bob runs a marketing agency focused on a particular niche — IT Vendors & Providers. His cloud reveals the terms Content, Information, Prospects, Sales, People, and Clients.

Cloud for WebFadds.com – “Tactics & Strategies for Success Online,” with Scott Frangos

Scott (that’s me) is Managing Director for WebFadds.com, a firm offering SEO-smart CMS solutions built in WordPress, Social Media and Optimization services.  Here, the words, New, Marketing, Google, and Test stand out.

Ok, there’s a quick look at the visual poetry — the art of what is being presented at these marketing tactics blogs, in the form of a word cloud. As we move now to the science, some key questions are:

• How do the words emphasized sync up with the keywords people search on to reach those sites?
• Does analytics — the science within the art — tell us of other keywords that are valuable and so should be included more often to serve readers first, and then SEO — second?

THE SCIENCE: What’s Actionable About These Keywords?

To keep this article at a workable length, we’ll take a brief look at some Analytics science relating to the word cloud you just saw for WebFadds.com — watch here for more on related tactics and strategies.

First, I looked for the major four keywords from the WebFadds.com cloud — New, Marketing, Google, and Test — in the keywords reports for analytics.  Guess what?  Not a lot going on.  There were two visits for terms containing “Google”, for example when I had written about Google Wave, and CMS ranking in Google.  I’ll give you a conclusion about this below.  Next I moved on to the term “WordPress”, and found some actionable information — a good thing, since we are focused on WordPress as a CMS development platform.

To learn more, I went beyond the simple keyword reporting in Analytics, using a filter technique.  If you get anything from the science part of this post, it is that you should no longer be relying on standard reports in Google Analytics to plumb out what is going on at your sites. Instead take advantage of advanced filters and custom reporting features to get a good handle on the order in the chaos of your site.

Filter for a particular keyword in your cloud:

Above, I used the new Keyword Filter to go beyond what Google Analytics shows in its standard reports, and take a look at how people entered using the word “WordPress” in a search phrase. More, I wanted to learn what key phrases a visitor used turned out to cause them to visit more than one page at our site — the second part of the filter. This “data mining” provided the following result…

I see four key phrases containing the term “WordPress”, but one stands out in terms of new visits, time on site, bounce rate, and pages per visit — “wordpress installation service.”

Actionable Conclusions:

• Using “wordpress installation service” in new blog posts should help us gather more visitors seeking the WordPress installation service we offer.
• We need to use another smart filter technique in Analytics to study how visitors on this key term are converting to leads
• The major keywords in our cloud — New, Marketing, Google, and Test — are not yet yielding any trackable visitor behavior of value to WebFadds.com — probably too general.

Of course there’s much more you can review from the science end, and then apply it back to the art in your publishing. What art? Copywriting, design, and the art of engagement itself which involves new social media techniques, along with good old human social skills. The important thing is to stay focused on serving your visitors in such a way that it inspires them to help you meet your business goals.  Contact us today, and I’ll work with you to develop a successful campaign for your web business.