Post on 23-Dec-2015
Online Marketing 101
How to: 1. Connect Prospects to EWG’s Mission2. Turn Prospects into donors using online
tools
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Let’s talk about online activities that influence a prospect
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From Curious Prospect to Donor
1. Make sure they can find you online (natural acquisition)
2. Purchase names of like-minded people (paid acquisition)
3. Make it easy for them to sign up (conversion to list)
4. Convince them to Give (conversion to donor)
Strategically communicate with them Engage them in your story (social media) Make it easy for them to spread the word
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Which Tools to Use at What Stage
Natural Acquisition- Optimized Website
- Social Media Profiles
- Universal Search
Paid Acquisition- Paid media buys
- Paid search ads
- Email List relationships
Conversion to List- Email testing
- Landing Page testing
- Web usability studies
Conversion to Donor- Personalized welcome email series
- Calendar of email messages
- Social Media & offline engagement
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Natural Acquisition
“Being Found” OnlineSearch Engine Ranking 101
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Overview of Search Engines
Why do we care about Search? 91% of internet users use a search engine1
87% of people click on the natural results (vs. paid)
The Big Players Google, Yahoo!, and Live.com Google has 70% of the search marketing share,
accounting for 70.77% of all US searches.2 Each has computer algorithm to rank your pages in the
search results.
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How Search Engines Work
Google, Yahoo!, and Live create their listings automatically. They use “spiders” or “bots” to "crawl" links to web pages1 and add those web pages to their index.
When a human visitor to the engine puts in a keyword phrase, the search engine is focused on serving relevant, fresh content that the engines think is matched to the searcher’s intent.
Keyword Phrases
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It’s not about the keywords You want to be found on.
It’s about the keywords the searcher uses to find you.
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How people search
87% of people click on natural search results
Only 48% even see paid ads Most people search for information, smaller
% for commerce People click on the word in results that
matches their query word1
58% of all queries are three or more words
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How People SearchThe Long Tail of Search:
3% of Excite’s search traffic was 3 keywords – 97% of the rest was in the “long tail”
Amazon.com makes 57% of sales from keywords outside of the “popular” terms.
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How Does a Search Engine “Read” A Page?
Remember…it’s a computer algorithm
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It’s a Translation Problem
The spider reads just text, not images or flash. It also evaluates inbound links to determine relevancy.
A search engine tries figure out what your web page is about through its pieces.
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Search Engines are Computers
A Lost in Translation example:
“My Apple is a lemon”
It could mean your page is about fruit If the words “computer” also appears nearby,
the spider determines that the phrase is about computers.
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Writing Spider Friendly Online Copy
Writing tips for online copy: Use contextual words in proximity to the
keyword phrase Repeat the keyword phrase & variations Use Headers like a table of contents Strategically link to the copy, and use the
keyword phrase in the link text.1
Use alt tags for images, so that spiders can “read” the image
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Every page matters
Search engines don’t see “home” pages Every page is an entry page for searcher Every page needs it’s own inbound link
strategy Conversions from landing pages for
targeted keywords can be improved through testing
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More Details about Google’s Algorithm
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How Google’s Search Results Work
Algorithm has 200+ factors, some weighted more than others. We know about 40 parts of the 200.
In 2007, the Google algorithm changed 9 times per week.
Only 2 web pages are listed for one company, so one company could rank for the first 152 slots, but will only show up in the #1 and #2 spot
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Rankings Don’t Matter
Influenced by: Geo Location (IP)1
Previous searching history Personal search (login to Google account)1
Universal search3 Behavioral search (shopping vs. researching)4
Google Wiki So instead:
Focus on # of visitors and conversions Watch your web analytics
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Questions about Natural Acquisition?
Search Engine Overview
Elements of SEO
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Paid Acquisition
Paid online advertising
Email List buys
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Paid Acquisition
Two Online Methods1. Pay per impression ads
2. Pay Per Click (PPC) –though search engines and Google network
Three Types of Email Buys Purchase of email addresses (JohnKerry.com) Sponsored email Care2.com petitions
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Questions @ Paid Acquisition?
Traditional media buying
Pay Per Click advertising
Email buying
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Conversion to List
Landing Page Testing
Usability Testing
Web Analytics
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Conversion to List
Goal: Make sure that no one who interacts with
your landing pages, or website gets confused or distracted during the sign up process.
Fix this through: Landing Page Testing Web Usability Testing
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Questions @ Conversion to List?
Landing Page testingUsability Testing
Improving web site conversions
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Conversion to Donor
Email welcome series
Calendar of email communications
Social Media & offline integration
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Starting a Conversation that Makes Prospects Want to Donate
via Email
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Conversion to Donor - Email
Converting new names to supporters requires welcome series email
Best Practice for Welcome Series: Action email first, not generic welcome message or ask Match action email to the prospect’s sign on issue Ask for donation within the first week Segment these names for at least 2 weeks before
adding to generic messaging Test message elements to increase conversions (from
line, subject, copy, headers, link text, signer, P.S.) Test landing pages to increase conversions
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Conversion to Donor - Email
Personalize the Message Segment list Ask for preferences in issue, frequency of
message Send them messaging based on preference Personalize based on donor’s info/web activity
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Calendar of Email Communications
Create messaging so that it’s a building conversation
Test individual messages From line, subject line, body content, links, headers, call
to action, signer, P.S.
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Email – Mobile challenges
Unique Challenges with Mobile users: Emails and web pages need to be designed
for mobile use, otherwise renders weird. Mobile traffic is not caught through
traditional web analytic programs because JavaScript is not executed
Additional mobile analytic programs or add-ons are required
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Conversion to Donor
Via Social Media
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Social MediaDefinition: a community that creates a website together by
posting content (no webmaster)Types:
Social networking sites Event Promotion sites Social bookmarking sites Content voting sites Online news aggregators Collaborative directories Video Sharing sites Photo sharing sites Local Search Sites Q& A Sites Niche sites based on interest: Complete directory here.
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Social MediaBest Practices It’s a conversation, not a push medium Engage in communities that have your
demographic Needs regular engagement Great for branding, not for direct fundraising Putting social widgets on web properties
makes sharing easy
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Conversion to Donor – Social Media
Engage Them in Your Story Social media/web 2.0 = Web pages created by all users
without central control
Good for: Listening to better understand supporters (focus group) Spreading the message about mission Building attachment to mission Building closer grassroots relationship among
supporters Having donors help define national issue focus
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Conversion to Donor – Social Media
Enable them to Spread the Word Ask them to forward email Post online content that is easily shareable
To the prospect’s blog, Facebook profile, etc.
Ask them to invite others (to social profile, to petition, etc)
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Conversion to Donor
Via Social Media
Blogging
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Social MediaBlogging Blog - A Website that makes being social easy
All SEO tips apply, blog without promotion is not found
Naturally more searchable Every blog post is a web page More frequently updated Written to encourage communication
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BloggingKeep the Conversation Alive Create an editorial calendar for your posts Start a dialogue with bloggers in your niche Ask someone to guest-post on your blog Thank your readers Participate in the comments on your blog
posts Stumped for Ideas? Brainstorm list here.
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Questions @ Conversion to Donor?
Email welcome series
Calendar of email communications
Social Media & offline integration
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Measuring Overall Success
Monitor how prospects navigate your site to improve conversions Traffic source (email, natural, paid, links from
other content?)1
What do they do when they arrive? How many are converting?2
Is there a drop off in traffic through funnel?3
Keep in mind that web analytics is a trending % process, part science/part art
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Measuring Email Success
Measure success based on: Rates for: delivers, opens, CTR, and landing
page conversions Cost per acquisition/email. Donation average per acquisition/email. Overall number and type of touch point per
donor/activist
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Measuring Social Media Success
Testing & Improving Social Media’s role in conversion Track keyword activity cross social media
platform (online reputation monitoring) Track visitors/subscribers, stickiness, #of
comments, and conversion based on platform, increased traffic to your website.
Calls to action (eye tracking), frequency of use of platform tools (posts, sent emails, etc) cross campaign
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Measuring Blog Success
New vs. returning visitors, length of stay RSS Subscribers Conversation Rate - the Number of Visitor
Comments / Number of Posts Citations – # of people who link to your blog
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Summary
Natural or Paid Acquisition Focus on words, links, analytics and testing
Test Your Sign up Use best practices, consistent messaging, and
test for usability Getting them to Give
Personalize messaging based on prospect’s interests
Coordinated multichannel works best: Email, social media, DM, TM and face-to-face for
donor conversion and evangelism
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Appendix
More info
Additional Learning Resources
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How do you Tackle the SEO Challenge?
Keyword research for each page
Competitive Analysis of site and current online marketing efforts
Analyze your site how each page ranks for each keyword
Repair/Enhance site Submit non-indexed pages Monitor rankings/Analyze reports Fix/develop links & Universal Content Repeat
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Some of the SEO factors we know about
Freshness1 Page Load time2 Complexity of Page Code3
Title Tag4 Meta Description tag5 Meta Keyword tags6
Heading Tags7 Alt attributes8 Links9
Body Text10 Keywords used11 Keywords in file name12
Number of outbound links13 Number of inbound links Internal linking structure14
Keyword proximity to determine meaning
keyword density on page
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Social MediaSocial Networking Sites Facebook - 130M active users
MySpace - 110M active users
Care2 - 1.3M visitors/month
Gather - 874K visitors/month
Parents.com - 1.7M visitors/month
Babycenter.com - 4.1M visitors/month
Livescience.com - 1.9M visitors/month
RightHealth.com - 7.4M visitors/month
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Social MediaEvent Promotion Sites Meetup.com -1.9M visitors/month
Eventful.com – 535K visitors/month Citysearch.com – 8.6M visitors/month
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Social MediaSocial Bookmarking StumbleUpon – 1M visitors/month
Del.ico.us – 362K visitors/month
Mixx – 2.2M visitors/month
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Social MediaOnline News Aggregators Digg.com - 11.4M visors/month Reddit.com – 1.3M visitors/month Technorati – 2.5M visitors/month Propeller - 1.5M visitors/month
Newsvine - 1.2M visitors/month Fark - 1.9M visitors/month
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Social MediaCollaborative Directories Wikipedia – 75M visitors/month
Dmoz.org – 2M visitors/month
Zimbio.com1 - 2.1M visitors/month Squidoo pages2 - 3.8M visitors/month
Ning.com3 – 5.9M visitors/month
Craigslist – 21M visitors/month
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Social MediaVideo & Photo Sharing SitesVideo YouTube – 71.4M visitors/month Yahoo Video – 1.8M visitors/month Google Video – 6.9M visitors/month
Facebook2
Photos Flickr3 – 23.9M visitors/month PhotoBucket – 36M visitors/month
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Web Analytics Terms 101
1. Unique visitors, not “hits” Hits – Measures every element that loads when a visitor request
a page (images, javascript, the html itself). A visitor requesting a page with 30 elements would register as 30 hits!
This is an inflated # you shouldn’t measure.
2. Bounce rate – Measured in two ways: % of visitors who see just one page on your site, or % visitors who stay on the site for a small amount of time (usually
five seconds or less). Your homepage bounce rate should be 30% or less
3. Conversions – the # of visitors that did what you wanted them to do when they were on your website
For example: donate, download a .pdf, sign up for a newsletter Industry standard conversion rate is 8-10%
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Additional Tools
Analyzing your competition: SEO for Firefox SeoMoz’s Tools Compete.com
Picking keywords: SEO Book’s Keyword Tool
Understanding how the Engines see yrou site: Google Webmaster Tools Yahoo Site Explorer Live Search Webmaster Central
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Learn More – Search Marketing
My blog: Search Marketing for Nonprofits Blog: http://Searchmarketingfornonprofits.wordpress.com
How Search Engines work: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2168031
The expert on linking strategies: http://www.ericward.com/
SEOMoz http://www.seomoz.com
Bruce Clay’s blog http://www.bruceclay.com
Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (book) http://www.yourseoplan.com/
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Learn More – Web Analytics
How web analytics is like using Evite for a holiday party
Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik
Web Analytics Demystified (book) http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/
Google Analytics 2.0 (book)
Web Analytics: An Hour A Day (book)
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Learn More – Social Media
Social Media Today http://www.socialmediatoday.com
The Original Signal – Web 2.0 blog http://www.originalsignal.com/
Social Media 101 http://www.slideshare.net/joannapena/social-media-101-creating-
conversations-in-social-circles/
Groundswell (book) http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell
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Questions?
Katherine Watier
Watier Creative
Nonprofit Search Marketing Consultant
301-793-6121
katherine@watier.org