Online Marketing 101

How to: 1.

Connect Prospects to EWG’s Mission 2. Turn Prospects into donors using online tools

Let’s talk about online activities that influence a prospect 2

From Curious Prospect to Donor

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Make sure they can find you online (natural acquisition) Purchase names of like-minded people (paid acquisition) Make it easy for them to sign up (conversion to list) Convince them to Give donor) (conversion to    Strategically communicate with them Engage them in your story (social media) Make it easy for them to spread the word 3

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 4

Natural Acquisition

“Being Found” Online Search Engine Ranking 101 5

Overview of Search Engines

 Why do we care about Search?

 91% of internet users use a search engine 1  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 pages 1 and add those web pages to their index.

Keyword Phrases

 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.

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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 word 1  58% of all queries are three or more words 9

How People Search

The 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. 10

How Does a Search Engine “Read” A Page?

Remember…it’s a computer algorithm 11

It’s a Translation Problem

A search engine tries figure out what your web page is about through its pieces.

The spider reads just text, not images or flash. It also evaluates inbound links to determine relevancy.

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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 14

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 15

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 17

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 18

Questions about Natural Acquisition?

Search Engine Overview Elements of SEO 19

Paid Acquisition

Paid online advertising Email List buys 20

Paid Acquisition

 Two Online Methods 1. 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 21

Questions @ Paid Acquisition?

Traditional media buying Pay Per Click advertising Email buying 22

Conversion to List

Landing Page Testing Usability Testing Web Analytics 23

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 24

Questions @ Conversion to List?

Landing Page testing Usability Testing Improving web site conversions 25

Conversion to Donor

Email welcome series Calendar of email communications Social Media & offline integration 26

Starting a Conversation that Makes Prospects Want to Donate via Email 27

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 28

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 29

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 31

Conversion to Donor

Via Social Media 32

Social Media

Definition:

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 Media Best 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 34

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 35

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) 36

Conversion to Donor

Via Social Media Blogging 37

Social Media Blogging  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 38

Blogging Keep 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 40

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 41

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 42

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 43

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 44

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 45

Appendix

More info Additional Learning Resources 46

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 47

Some of the SEO factors we know about Freshness 1 Title Tag 4 Page Load time 2 Meta Description tag 5 Heading Tags 7 Body Text 10 Number of outbound links 13 Keyword proximity to determine meaning Alt attributes 8 Keywords used 11 Number of inbound links keyword density on page Complexity of Page Code 3 Meta Keyword tags 6 Links 9 Keywords in file name 12 Internal linking structure 14 48

Social Media Social 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 Media Event Promotion Sites  Meetup.com -

1.9M visitors/month

 Eventful.com – 535K visitors/month  Citysearch.com – 8.6M visitors/month 50

Social Media Social Bookmarking  StumbleUpon

– 1M visitors/month

 Del.ico.us

– 362K visitors/month

 Mixx

– 2.2M visitors/month

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Social Media Online 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 Media Collaborative Directories  Wikipedia

– 75M visitors/month

 Dmoz.org

– 2M visitors/month

 Zimbio.com

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- 2.1M visitors/month

 Squidoo pages 2 -

3.8M visitors/month

 Ning.com

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– 5.9M visitors/month

 Craigslist

– 21M visitors/month

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Social Media Video & Photo Sharing Sites Video  YouTube

– 71.4M visitors/month

 Yahoo Video

– 1.8M visitors/month

 Google Video

– 6.9M visitors/month

 Facebook 2 Photos  Flickr 3

– 23.9M visitors/month

 PhotoBucket

– 36M visitors/month

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Web Analytics Terms 101

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2.

3.

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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.

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

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% 55

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 56

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/ 57

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)

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Web Analytics: An Hour A Day (book)

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Learn More – Social Media

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Social Media Today

 http://www.socialmediatoday.com

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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 59

Questions?

Katherine Watier Watier Creative Nonprofit Search Marketing Consultant 301-793-6121 [email protected]

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