Earlier this week Google Analytics announced the availability of a whole herd of new filter fields.  The new fields heavily target those with high-volume mobile traffic, but don’t feel left out if that’s not your niche, there are also some interesting non-mobile options, or options that can be combined with mobile if you like.

Here’s the full list with some thoughts after the ones that stick out.

• Is a mobile device
• Is a tablet – This is good, because some tablets traffic gets lumped into mobile, and they really are two entirely different experiences
• Mobile brand name – great for determining who your audience is and why type of app you should build first – iOS, Android, Windows or Blackberry/Rim
• Mobile model name
• Mobile marketing name
• Mobile pointing method – Also useful, because how you design your app should work with the type of phone they use.
• Mobile has QWERTY keyboard?
• Mobile is NFC supported?
• Mobile has cellular radio?
• Mobile has wifi? If your app has high bandwidth, designing it for use with cell signal only, or no wifi capabilities can hinder pickup, this is good data to know.

• Social network
• Social action
• Social action target

• Hit type: (page, social, transaction, etc.) – Interesting, not sure how this one would work but it’s definitey worth looking into.
• Internal search term – Love it, the site search report is okay, but if you can use a filter and build a whole profile dedicated to internal/site search, you can focus on improving internal workings that much more.
• Internal search type – see above.

• Browser size – ALWAYS useful.  So many times I see a site designed way to large for the majority fo their users, so the calls to action are below the fold and require a scroll.
• IP version

• Local currency code – Sell in many currencies?  Not sure if you should?  This might tell you what you need to know.

If you’re new to using filters to get more from your data, try one or two to get your toes wet.  But be aware, you should NEVER Implement a filter on your main analytics profile, always create a new one.  If it doesn’t work, or you configure it in correctly, a separate profile means you still have clean un-corrupted data.

The first thing I noticed about this webinar was the Title.

Click the image above or get the slides here: http://www.slideshare.net/wrttnwrd/time-management-for-marketers-the-mozinar

One issue that came to light with the initial announcement was how to handle URLs that are specified at the Keyword level in an adGroup, in conjunction with a site that uses separate URLs for mobile visitors. In the past, one might run separate desktop and mobile campaigns, so mobile-targeted KW level URLs would be specified in a separate adGroup from the Desktop URLs. In the new configuration, the two are merged, so…how does one handle sending visitors to the right location?

Targeting Mobile in Enhanced Campaigns

When one sets up ads, one would normally set up one or more ads for Desktop visitors, and one or more ads for Mobile visitors, and the URLs for each can be hardwired to indicate the “preferred” audience. This is only done at the Ad level, though, and Keyword-specific URLs are left out of this targeting – until now.

Using ValueTrack Parameters to Segment the URLs

Google has a number of “ValueTrack” parameters that can be used to dynamically alter ad copy and/our destination URLs. The most popular of these is probably Dynamic Keyword Insertion (or DKI). DKI allows one to reflect the Ad Campaign’s Keyword in the title or text of the ad copy (or in the URL) by using the {keyword:[default text]} construct in the ad copy.
Google provides a number of other ValueTrack parameters, including an brand new one called "ifnotmobile" . Ifnotmobile is a complement to an older parameter "ifmobile", though the use of this older parameter has changed with the launch of the Enhanced Campaigns. These two ValueTrack parameters can be used to tailor the URLs to the specific platform with a high level of granularity.

Using ifmobile and ifnotmobile to Target the Right Landing Pages

The {ifmobile:[sometexthere]} construct is used to insert text into an ad or URL for mobile visitors only. In the past with standard (legacy) campaigns, this would be used to target mobile AND tablets, but in enhanced campaigns, tablets are treated like desktop systems: {ifmobile:[sometexthere]} is used for mobile platforms only, while the {ifnotmobile:[sometexthere]} construct is used to target desktops and tablets in Enhanced Campaigns.

Below are examples of how to apply this to a variety of desktop vs. mobile implementation approaches, including:

• Mobile-specific subdomains
• Mobile-specific subdirectories
• Mobile visitors identified via a CGI parameter
• a Mobile placeholder page for a non-mobile-friendly site

Note that sites which use server-side browser detection to segregate mobile traffic from desktop visitors likely do not need to use this approach, since all visitors could request the same landing page and the server would sort it out.

Keyword Level URLs and Mobile Subdomains

To implement this with a mobile subdomain for mobile visitors, one could set up the URL similar to the following. Assuming that mysite.com is the main site, and that mobile.mysite.com is used for mobile visitors, the Landing Page URLs could look like this in AdWords:

{ifmobile:mobile.}mysite.com/specials.php

Thus, desktop and tablet visitors would visit mysite.com/specials.php, while mobile visitors would be directed to mobile.mysite.com/specials.php from the same ad or keyword URL in the AdWords account.

Keyword Level URLs and Mobile Subdirectories

To implement this when using a subdirectory set up for mobile visitors, one could set up the URL similar to the following. Assuming that mysite.com/... is the main site, and that mysite.com/mobile/... is used for mobile visitors, the Landing Page URLs could look like this in AdWords:

mysite.com{ifmobile:/mobile}/specials.php

Keyword Level URLs and a CGI parameter Specifying Mobile

To implement this when you have a CGI parameter set up to distinguish between desktop and mobile visitors, you could set up your URL similar to the following. Assuming that mysite.com/...?mobile=0 is used for desktop and tablet visitors, and that mysite.com/...?mobile=1 is used for mobile visitors. Your Landing Page URLs could look like this in AdWords:

mysite.com/specials.php?{ifmobile:mobile=1}{ifnotmobile:mobile=0}

These would resolve as:

mysite.com/specials.php?mobile=0 for desktop and tablet visitors and as mysite.com/specials.php?mobile=1 for mobile visitors.

Specifying a Completely Different URL for Mobile Visitors

Finally, in some instances one may want to send a mobile visitor to a completely different path than desktop visitors. Perhaps the site isn’t generally mobile-friendly, but it does have a single page that is mobile-optimized, and the AdWords campaign should send ALL mobile traffic to that special page. The Landing Page URLs could look like this in AdWords:

{ifmobile:static.mysite.com/mobilepage.htm}{ifnotmobile:mysite.com/specials.php}

In this final example, desktop and tablet visitors would go to:

mysite.com/specials.php

while mobile visitors were sent instead to:

static.mysite.com/mobilepage.htm

Note that there are limitations in Google AdWords regarding the Display URL and Destination URL. Insure that the mobile and non-mobile domains are closely related or the ads might be disapproved.

I found some resources that will definitely help you out.  Some of these resources might list “comment on blogs” or “submit information to blogs” or anything that says “Link Exchange” as a tactic – PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT!  It’s not valid – but I didn’t want to disqualify 90% good advice for 10% nonsense.

I wrote an article in 2007 called “30 Free Ways to Market Your Small Business Site” over at SearchEngineWatch.com.  I updated that post last year and it’s one of the most popular pieces I’ve written to date.  There are 30 actionable things you can do, all by yourself, to promote your small website.

This article by PCmag.com from 2009 has some good ideas.  I like the tips on keeping slow employees and downtime for marketing.  Your customer service staff is your front line, and they can write content or answer questions online because they know exactly what the people that call are asking.  Use them!  Also checking out what the competition is doing is great – just don’t chase them.

TEST your pages!  If you don’t have analytics, install Google Analytics on your website.  If you don’t look at any report on a regular basis, just being able to use their Content Experiments features is worth the time to install.  Testing new ideas for landing pages is a great way to increase revenue without spending a ton of money in advance.  Simply changing the color of your “Buy Now” button can have a big effect.  Making it easier for visitors to buy from you is also a great way to increase revenue.  Check out these Tips for Optimizing Your Site for the Sale.

Perhaps one of the best pieces of advice I found was in this National Federation of Independent Businesses article.  “Get Out The Door.”  If you operate online, your world becomes this 5 square foot cocoon around your desk.  Even if you do not have a brick and mortar business – networking and meeting people in your community or niche is so important.  You can find clients, partners, innovative thinkers, and people with problems your business can solve.  It’s a great way to keep your brain from going stagnant.

Bottom line? Get creative!  Think about all of the things you can do to help yourself and make a list, cross things off as you get them done.  Add new ideas.  Buy a nice Moleskine notebook that you can keep your great thoughts in and journal your way to a better online marketing strategy!

“Do it right the first time”

As a kid, I hated hearing that, I just wanted things done FAST, and quality?  Well I didn’t really care about it.  As an adult, I’ve come to respect the saying, and although I’ll never admit it to her, mom was right.

When you write content for the web, there’s the fast way, and the right way – and the two meet somewhere in the middle for most.  If you’re not worried about reach and pickup of your content, worrying about having properly placed links, keywords, headings, images, etc. shouldn’t bother you.  If you want maximum exposure in the search engines, you need to think about all of those things – as well as readability.

Training your writing habits to naturally include optimization will save you so much time in the long run. After all, where is your time better spent? Creating new content; or going back and fixing old content to be better optimized?

Before I share some habits it’s a good idea to touch on what I mean by “optimized content.”  Optimizing your blog posts includes putting keywords in the right places, adding internal links and external links correctly, without making the page unfriendly to users and hard to read.  Read on for tips on writing optimized content.

5 Habits of Writers Who Optimize Well

First, good content is readable content.  You can write for a search engine, but if a person can’t read it, or doesn’t want to read it, you’re wasting your time.  Writing optimized content is writing user AND search engine friendly content, and if you do it right, they should be one in the same.  I have 5 habits I try to follow to make sure I don’t have to go back and optimize content.

1. Use a descriptive keyword phrase in the title – descriptive of content first, search engine friendly second.  Use a phrase that users would type to find your content.
2. If you can control your URL, put your descriptive keyword in the URL, but leave out connecting words like “a,” “and,” and “the.”
3. Add in links to related content from your post or page.  If you can, and if it makes sense, make those links keyword rich.  If you’re linking off-site to a resource, make sure that link opens in a new window or tab.
4. Optimize your support content.  image file names should contain a descriptive keyword, use your alt tags wisely and describe the photo with descriptive words.
5. Write your Page Title and Meta Description as you write the article, don’t wait until later.  Try a plugin or system to help you increase your chances.  I like Yoast WordPress SEO plugin, and I have heard EXCELLENT things about Scribe from CopyBlogger.  They help you find keywords to compliment your topics without having to do extra research in a separate tool.

I want to emphasize, never throw out readability in favor of search engine optimization.  Make your writing readable, but make it usable by search engines as well.  If you develop habits and do this as you write, it will eliminate the need to “go back” and make changes later.

You may be able to achieve some nice rankings through basic SEO, drive some decent traffic with a PPC budget, but what if that’s just not enough?  More and more the words “engagement” and “community” are being thrown around.  But what do they really mean to business?  Can engaging your customers and building a community really drive more traffic?

You bet they can!  We put together some tips that can help you talk WITH your community instead of talking AT them.

• Conversation is key.  What’s the best way to start a conversation?  Ask a question.  Ask questions, read answers, offer opinions, offer help.  You have a product or service that people want.  Ask them how they use it, or why they needed the service.  When they answer, be sure to acknowledge their post/comment. (See the next point!)
• Answer questions.  I’ve heard at least four times in the last month that people are frustrated with brands that don’t answer questions posted on their FB page.  Many brands talk AT their potential consumers, and don’t talk with them.  If someone engages you, you better answer them, every single time, because this is the bread and butter of starting your community.  IT doesn’t matter what platform.  Your website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – anywhere – of there is a question or comment directed to you, or about your product or service, you need to acknowledge that you read it.  Even if it’s with a simple “Thanks for your comments.”  But be careful – don’t copy and paste the same response 20 times in a row, which looks like an auto responder and will irritate customers more than saying nothing.  Be genuine.  If you don’t care and don’t want to talk with your customers, don’t get a Facebook page.
• Name and Logo matter.  Building a brand can be done with any business name, but if you have something catchy, funny, memorable, even controversial, it will stick with people and they will remember it when they are ready to buy.  Design a fun or functional logo that doesn’t look like anyone else’s – especially anyone else in your niche.
• Tagline.  I love taglines.  I try to be very descriptive of what I offer, what the value is and why my brand is better than anyone else’s.  The tendency here is to be verbose, but keep it short and sweet and memorable.  The most successful story tellers can tell stories in 10 words or less.  Can you?
• Do what you Say.  Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Period.  Do what you say you’re going to do, and do it well, and acknowledge when it isn’t done well.   Sometimes a mistake can bring more brand advocates on board if it’s handled humbly and honestly.
• Say what you do.  Don’t hide your mission from your customers.  What is your goal, why do you come to work every day?  The more passionate you are for your work, the more contagious that passion becomes.  Tell people what you do, and why you do it.  Tell them the story.

Building a brand can be fun, and exciting, and the process can bring together a lot of different facets of your business that have never worked together before.  Everyone you employ should be passionate about what your company does.  USE that passion.  Have to have an open mind about where you’ll end up.  Not every task, post, thought, or idea will be successful.  Be prepared to fail.  For every 10 times you try to engage the audience, maybe ONE will work – but when it does work, be sure you’re learning from it.

The idea of a business donating proceeds to a charity has been around since marketing began.  There has always been motive behind these donations – the word of mouth attached to a brand because of their good works can be invaluable if it’s done correctly.

If done incorrectly, it can be awful.

So what can you do to be a philanthropic online organization?  Here are some tips for finding and benefiting from affiliating your brand with a charity, or a set of charities.

Find a charity you and/or your staff feel passionate about.  Don’t pick something because it’s there.  Without passion, there’s little drive to succeed. Getting buy in from your customers begins with your employees buying into the program.

Find a way for your customer’s CHOICE to be their donation.  If a customer only has to chose your brand to donate, and an extra cost or charge is not levied – they’re much more likely to participate - and choose your brand over another.  A great example is Newman’s Own.  I buy their spaghetti sauce and salad dressings.  I do it because 1) they taste good; and 2) they donate profits to a great charity.  It doesn’t really cost me much to do this, it’s a donation by decision vs. a donation by dollar. Here is a really good Inc.com article that outlines how to incorporate philanthropy into your business.

Find a program that will partner with you.  Their participation is vital to success.  If you’re both marketing the promotion, your outreach can grow exponentially.  It also helps to have an advocate at the charity that can help you create marketing collateral such as logos, email headers, etc.

Be transparent.  Show every dollar you raise, and show the process of giving to your charity, and their receipt of your gift.  Images, press releases, video, there’s a lot of opportunity here.  Take advantage of the press you can receive, and protect your brand from critics by being extremely clear about what you’re doing.

Grow a thick skin.  In any venture, there are haters.  People whose sole purpose in life is to make everyone around them (and on the internet) as miserable as they are.  They will criticize, they will question your choice of charity, they will argue with your reasoning.  You will not change their mind.  Before you launch your philanthropic journey – make sure your mission and goals for the program are very clear, so you can point critics back to them when they try to cast a negative light on your effort.

Be gracious, and humble.  Thank each and every one of your customers who donate for their contribution.  Outline what their contribution means to the charity, and how the funds will be used.  If you run a thoughtful and thankful campaign, your next campaign may have some repeat customers.

As a marketer, I see another side to philanthropy.  The ability for you as a business owner to gain word of mouth and other marketing opportunities, such as links, from your involvement.  I always warn that this is a side benefit, and should never be the sole reason you plan to be charitable.  The passion for the charity outlined in the first bullet point is really a key component to success.  If you go into the whole process with a “WIIFM – What’s In It For Me” mentality – you wont get much out of it at all, and it defeats the purpose of charity.

Sometimes, shoppers don’t know they need something, or have forgotten something, unless you remind them.  Think about how a grocery store is organized, lots of last minute items are always crammed near the check stands.  This is their last opportunity to get you to pick up that last thing.

Think about it.  Amazon, EBay, Overstock – the big online retailers – they all give you more shopping options on their thank-you pages.  You just bought a book on Amazon, they serve up other books by the same author or in the same Genre.  Why not?  Think outside the box and think about things you can market to your visitors after they buy.  Here are some examples to get your creative brains fired up.

• Sell cell phone accessories?  If someone buys a cover, market a screen protector or a new charger with an extra long cord on their thank you page.
• Sell laundry dryer parts? If they buy a new heating element, remind them about the danger of clogged vents and market a vent cleaning kit or a new lint trap for their dryer model on the thank you page.
• Sell power tools?  An adapter, or even a case to carry your tools around in is a great add on product that you can offer before AND after the sale.

Many people might not be able to buy right away, make these add-on products bookmark-able, or create a wish-list system in your e-commerce shopping cart so they can save it for later.

I also like the idea of thanking your buying customers with an email that offers a related product or a discount should they come back and shop again.  Work on retention via email marketing, social media engagement, and even a brick and mortar tactic of “remembering” them when they come shop.  A cookie that recognizes a previous customer and delivers a message thanking them for returning makes that customer feel at home on your website.

Remember, retaining current customers is much easier than finding brand new customers.

My online marketing background started in the travel industry.  Now at KeyRelevance I deal with clients with a wide range of interests.  The one thread that is constant is the reality of what a crisis or disaster can do to your online and offline business.  Hurricanes, Oil Spills, Fires, and other disasters happen all the time.  Sometimes we have a business that can thrive in these environs, sometimes we are greatly impacted by them.  The key to weathering the storm is to have a plan!

Media

Sometimes, the media is your worst enemy.  They report on disasters and sensationalize damage because they think it makes “great TV.”  What they don’t take into consideration is the impact their reporting can have on your business. Future guests who are booked into your hotel, or possible product purchasers might think you cannot accommodate their stay or order, when in reality you are ready and waiting for them to come buy or arrive. Here are some tips to keep up with the media during a disaster:

• Don’t wait – cultivate a relationship with local TV, Newspaper and Radio reporters before you need it.  They’re more likely to take your call when they’re really busy prepping to report on breaking news.
• Don’t Hide – be up front about what is happening locally.  Share it on your website and on your social media outlets.  Keep your customers informed, let them know what’s going on, what you know, and when you’ll know more.  It’s even okay to say, “We’re not sure what this means, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.”
• Hit the Pavement – When you need to get the word out that you’re open for business, or will be open for business – get that word of mouth going.  Online this will be via social media, offline this will be by popping in and visiting your business neighbors and the local media outlets for a quick chat.
• Utilize Press Releases – Push out one to two press releases a day as you have updates on the situation and how your business is handling it.  Staying ahead of – or at least even with – the mainstream media can help gain visibility for your business.
• Use your Assets – If there is a big-name company in the area, piggy back off of the searches for their name by mentioning it in your own press.  Example: You’re a hotel near Busch Gardens and there’s a hurricane coming.  Use “Busch Gardens Hurricane” or some other relevant keyword in your press release.  A title like “Joe’s Hotel, Near Busch Gardens, Re-Open after Hurricane Anna”
• Redirect Pay Per Click Funds – Look for trending keywords around the name the disaster is given in the press and consider buying keywords related to your business.  Craft ads that will let searchers know you’re open and safe, or let them know that they need to contact you for information on re-ordering, re-booking or canceling their business should the need arise.

These are just a few tips, but they can make a big difference when that unforeseen disaster sets in.  We never want these things to happen, but if we’ve at least thought about them, we’re in a much better position to mitigate the damage to the bottom line.