Online Marketing 101

How to: 1. Connect Prospects to our 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

1.

2.

3.

4.

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 1 & 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  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  Influenced by:  Personal search (geo location, login) 1  Universal search 2  Behavioral search (previous browsing history, bookmarks, intent= shopping vs. researching) 3 17

What Impacts Your Search Rankings?

1.

2.

3.

The changing search engines Your changing competition Your website constraints     Architecture/Links Content Site load speed Code use

None of these are under your control

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How do you Tackle the 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 19

Questions about Natural Acquisition?

Search Engine Overview Elements of SEO 20

Paid Acquisition

Paid online advertising Email List buys 21

Paid Online Advertising

 Two Models 1. Pay per impression (like traditional media buying) for either a week or month (CPM)  Can place graphic banner, flash or video  Or could pay per name acquired (CPA) - though select networks 2. Pay Per Click (PPC)  Used on search engines, and through Google network (blogs and other sites - NYT)  Pay per keyword  Placement based on bid as well as “Quality Score” 1 which is tied to ad performance (conversions) 22

Email List Buys

Three Types 1.

2.

3.

  Purchase of email addresses (ie JohnKerry.com) Negotiated with website owner Pay flat rate per email, without deduping from your list    Sponsored Email Negotiated with website owner Pay flat rate per email, without deduping from your list i.e. Amnesty sends a message to members about IRC issue    Care2.com petitions Price negotiated with Care2.com

Supply them with petition text and follow up email text You pay per names delivered 23

Questions @ Paid Acquisition?

Traditional media buying Pay Per Click advertising Email buying 24

Conversion to List

Landing Page Testing Usability Testing Web Analytics 25

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.

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Conversion to List

 Landing Page Testing:  Consistent messaging from email or ad to landing page  A/B or multivariate testing  Personalize landing page based on passed through personal data  Create header phrases based on best practices & test  Usability testing and eye tracking to enhance page conversions, effective content, navigation & layout  Make conversion compelling & clear 27

Conversion to List

Web usability testing  On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people

leave

. You can test the usability of your website.

1  American Heart Association increased their online donations by 60% in the first month after implementing improvements based on usability testing.

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Conversion to List - Web Analytics

 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?

 Is there a drop off in traffic through funnel?

2  Keep in mind that web analytics is a trending % process, part science/part art 29

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% 30

Questions @ Conversion to List?

Landing Page testing Usability Testing Improving web site conversions 31

Conversion to Donor

Email welcome series Calendar of email communications Social Media & offline integration 32

Starting a Conversation that Makes Prospects Want to Donate

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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 34

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 35

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.

 Measure success based on:  Rates for: delivers, opens, CTR, and landing page conversions 

Overall:

Cost per acquisition/email. Donation average per acquisition/email. Overall number and type of touch point per donor/activist 36

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 37

Conversion to Donor – Social Media Monologues are over, no more:

I’ll publish and put it out there and you’ll consume and you better not complain

!. It is now a dialog.

- Avinash Kaushik, Occam’s Razor 38

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 missing  Building attachment to mission  Building closer grassroots relationship among supporters  Having donors help define national issue focus 39

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) 40

Social Media – Tracking & Testing

 Testing & Improving Social Media’s role in conversion  Calls to action (eye tracking), frequency of use of platform tools (posts, sent emails, etc) cross campaign  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.

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Conversion to Donor – Integrated

 Higher Donation Rates & Long Term Donor Value with Campaigns that integrate online, DM, TM and face-to-face engagement 42

Questions @ Conversion to Donor?

Email welcome series Calendar of email communications Social Media & offline integration 43

Summary

 Natural or Paid Acquisition  Focus on words, analytics and testing  Ease of 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 44

Appendix

More info Additional Learning Resources 45

More about Google

 Google’s aggressive Spam filter is committed to

delivering quality results matched to the searcher’s intent.

 Filters out pages with:   Redirects More “garbage” vs. good content  Deceptive coding (this is always changing)  Non-unique pages  Sites that only contain inbound links  Same/similar colored text and background  If found to be Spam = not listed 46

Some of the 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 47

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 48

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/ 49

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 51