Archive for ‘Marketing

Our Word Clouds Unveiled

Posted by sara

Apr

2011

Last week we asked what five words come to mind when you think of SmallBox. We put the question out there via our blog, twitter and facebook, hoping to cast a wide net and get responses from our clients, friends and competitors. Most of the results were overwhelmingly positive, some were surprising or unexpected, but all were insightful.

We compiled answers internally as well and created two word clouds – one of our own responses and one for external results. We then spent a lunch hour with submarine sandwiches and word clouds in hand, dissecting the differences between the two.

The Internal Cloud:

The External Cloud:

Badges We’ll Proudly Wear:
Many of the words you used to describe us we love, love, love. Thank you for saying we’re energetic, knowledgeable and diverse.

The major difference:

Pretty much every SmallBoxer used the word “creative” to describe us. By comparison, “creative” appears almost as fine print from the external responses. In diving into it, we wondered why such a disparity between our chosen label and how we’re perceived? One cause might be that our process involves a lot of behind-the-scenes creative thinking. While we pride ourselves on this part of our work, it doesn’t always get the same promotion as a big, shiny end product, like a website launch.

The inevitable question about price:
“Expensive” was a thread among a few of the external responses. We know that SmallBox is not the lowest price option out there. We see ourselves as the the destination for businesses and organizations serious about web marketing. Rather than viewing it as expensive, we view our fees as an investment that will pay for itself through increased business. We don’t take on clients and projects if we aren’t confident in getting them that return on their investment.

A surprise:
“Confusing” and “unfocused” surfaced among our descriptors. We do have a diverse team that can handle all types of work, and sometimes we might venture outside of our normal scope or process for the right project. This could also be a by-product of trying to keep the work we do new and exciting and challenging.

The good thing is knowing these perceptions exist allows us to be more purposeful in how we present our team. What do you think? Did you notice any surprises? We’d love to hear what you think. Until then, we venture onward with this new-found awareness!

“The Dirty Little Secrets of Search”: SEO in the New York Times

Posted by thomas

Feb

2011

0
Comments

Filed Under: Culture Everything Else Internet Marketing Marketing Search Engine Optimization Search Engines SEO

There was an article in this Saturday’s edition of the New York Times about black-hat linkbuilding that we found interesting. This article might be very informative to the average reader but there’s nothing particularly novel about this ‘news’ to anyone at SmallBox. Provocatively titled, “The Dirty Little Secrets of Search,” this article is just further confirmation of something that we’ve known for a long time: Google is getting more and more discerning about filtering good quality links and high-quality content out of the online jungle.

For anyone who doesn’t have time to read the ten page article, here’s a quick summary:

The NY Times noted that JC Penney’s was showing an abnormal level of dominance in an unusual diversity of keyword constellations in Google Search this holiday season. They showed up in a No. 1 ranking spot for keywords as competitive as “dresses” and “bedding” and as diffuse as “area rugs” and “grommet top curtains.” Other keywords where they were showing up in the number one spot included: “furniture,” table clothes,” “skinny jeans,” “home decor,” and “comforter sets.” They beat out huge operations like Lowes, Home Depot, Bed, Bath & Beyond and any number of other Big Box retailers in keywords where these other industry leaders should have naturally dominated.

About 34% of Google’s traffic goes to the No. 1 website on the SERP. The website ranked No. 2 pulls in about half of that, or 17% of all traffic. As you can readily imagine, with number one rankings in practically every product category for sale in their store, JC Penney’s must have been getting great traffic over Christmas.

So: how did they do it?

Well, unfortunately for them, they did it by using black-hat SEO techniques. Company executives claim that they had no knowledge that black-hat techniques were being used and it’s quite likely that they’re telling the truth. They contracted a link-building service that used shady practices to get them results and now they’re paying the price. Across the board, after Google’s corrective measures, JC Penney’s has been buried back in pages 6 or 7 on Google, even for terms where they would, perhaps, naturally appear on page one or two. That’s because when Google gets wind of the fact that you’ve been using black-hat methods they dock you. Getting docked liked this is a known-quantity in the industry, that’s why reputable firms stay away from black-hat techniques. This can really hurt revenue.

There’s no doubt that JC Penney’s reaped a huge benefit by dominating such a wide array of search terms over this Christmas season, but over the long run the campaign that brought them so much traffic between black Friday and Dec 24th 2010 is going to damage their bottom line.

Back in the Wild West days of Search Engine Optimization–say during the early days of the past decade–there were all kinds of ways to manipulate search results. You could type in your keywords over and over in white type-face against a white background and draw visitors like moths to a flame. Trashy link-farms were a legitimate way to leverage the marketing potential of a website. But that was a long time ago.

These days Google’s algorithm has gotten so smart that, believe it or not, honesty actually is the best policy in terms of how we drive online business. Thoughtful, well written content trumps keyword stuffed content. Links from sites that are germane to your industry will usually help you a great deal more than links from random sites, and links from link-farms will end up hurting you in the end. Google can tell. They’re not omniscient yet, but they’re getting close.

That’s why SmallBox has focused on staying at the cutting edge of totally straightforward, strait-laced SEO techniques over the past few years. We always recommend to our customers that they make sure the code and content on their site is in good shape before investing in link-building. The industry is always changing, and new opportunities appear practically on a weekly basis, but there is a consistent theme to our approach: we’re interested in long-term solutions because, in the end, long-shots don’t pay off.

To learn more about SmallBox’s SEO service click here.

Google Boost: Fear Not PPC Managers & SEM Pros: Boost is a gateway drug

Posted by thomas

Jan

2011

4
Comments

Filed Under: Everything Else Marketing Pay Per Click Search Engines SEM

Google Boost: it should be available in most major cities by this summer. Is it going to be a big hit or not? Is it going to change the landscape of our profession or is it just going to be another little bump on the road? Our guess is: it will make the pie bigger, but it won’t be replacing PPC management any time soon.

Pros of Google Boost include: ease of use, and an eye-catching factor. Boost’s ads will stand out from other sponsored links, because they’ll be including star-ratings, reviews, and you’ll get a blue pin to distinguish you on the map from all the other red pins. Also, it’s minimum price-tag is $50 dollars, which is lower than most PPC campaigns if you want to outsource the heavy-lifting to a professional. The cons include: limited control, diminished effectiveness, and a loss of equilibrium in terms of how sponsored links will be ranked.

Scanning the articles that have been written about Boost, and consulting our in-house specialists (re: Ben), the consensus seems to be that Google Boost will most likely act like a gateway drug–introducing small businesses to the power and potential of Search Engine Marketing, but ultimately leaving them wanting more.

Here’s the theory: Businesses who have yet to be sold on the concept that AdWords campaigns will produce a solid, measurable return on investment for them (especially if they hire a professional to run their campaign), will buy into Google Boost because its entry-level pricetag is relatively cheap. When they start to see the response, they will become intrigued–they will want to know more. When they know more, they will want more control–so that they can make more money. But they won’t be able to refine their campaign because Google Boost is opaque and one-sided. Boost is not designed to integrate business-owners’ knowledge and input to make campaigns more profitable. At this point small business owners may try to mount their own AdWords campaigns, which, oftentimes, they will probably end up turning over to a professional. Other business-owners will go straight to professional PPC managers when they see the results of their Boost campaigns.

So: our working hypothesis is that Google Boost will make the pie bigger. What do you think?

If you need some advice about Search Engine Marketing check out SmallBox’s services here. Or just get in touch with us here.

It’s time to get serious about mobile.

Posted by Jack

Dec

2010

1
Comment

Filed Under: Design Internet Marketing Marketing

Over the past few years, the buzz around mobile sites has slowly grown from a futuristic luxury to a necessary part of a serious online presence.

Have you seen the way your site looks in a mobile browser?
Big, beautiful graphics and perfectly sized text can show up as a tiny representation of your website, requiring lots of zooming and flicking of the fingers necessary to navigate. An element of a design that might be obvious (and important) on a desktop browser might be completely lost to the mobile user.

How many people actually look on their phones?
In parsing through Analytics data for our current and previous clients (something we like to do often!) we’ve noticed a huge upward trend. Over the past year, many of our clients have seen a 4 fold increase in mobile traffic, with some clients receiving as much as 15.5% of their overall traffic from mobile visitors.

Just take a look at these examples from two of our clients. Mobile browsing is going nowhere but up.

What are my options?
There are many ways to create a mobile website.

Restage – This involves creating a separately managed website that is served up when the browser establishes itself as being mobile. A content management system can be used to keep it up to date. This is the most customizable & manageable option.
Reskin – This involves making modifications to the display of content of your site. Often times this is done with a custom CSS file that makes changes to what is already being output. In other words, you might change the width of certain elements, change font sizes, or make particular items disappear altogether. This is not always an option, depending on how a site was coded, and offers the least number of options.
Integrate – This is your best bet if management time is a concern. With this method, your site, managed in your current content management system, is displayed one way for desktop browsers and another way for mobile users. The content remains the same, even though the shell around the content is customized to the browser.

Needless to say, SmallBox can perform any of these three options. We call it our MobileSized! service.

There has never been a better time to get a mobile presence. Give us a call today or shoot us a message if you’re interested in exploring your options. Just take a look at our site MobileSized!

When to Outsource Marketing?

Posted by Jeb

Dec

2010

2
Comments

Filed Under: Marketing

This is a question I’ve been pondering for the last few months. Although you might think my answer would be- “always! let SmallBox handle it”- it isn’t. Beyond the fact that we aren’t going to be the right marketing outsource solution for every company, there are also very legitimate reasons for many companies to have internal marketing staff. Some of the variables include your industry, your marketplace, your size, your target customer, etc.

The question becomes when and how to go outside for these services. The challenge with modern marketing is that it is incredibly complex. The old days of print/TV/radio are long gone. We have a fascinating and frightful multi-channel world now. How a company leverages these endless marketing opportunities is often the difference maker.

Consider just the Web marketing realm. You have websites (infinite choices there alone, should you spend $2k for a WordPress site or build your dream home for $50k?), Search Engine Optimization (more science than voodoo but still a mystery zone at time), Pay Per Click advertising (Google AdWords for instance, like going to the Casino, it’s easy to lose a lot of money if you don’t know what you are doing), Email marketing (so many providers and ways to approach email), Social Media (ok, now I have my Twitter account set up, what next?) and that’s just the major areas of focus. You can get into Video blasting, banner advertising, re-targeting and a dozen other niche Web marketing options. It’s overwhelming.

So I recommend running a costs/benefits analysis when looking at your marketing spend. If you hire someone to build a new website, optimize it for search engines, oversee email marketing and set up Pay Per Click campaigns you will most likely only find someone that is really good at one or two of those things. Even if they are really good they won’t have the benefit of a team to push them to do go great work. So now you are looking at $60-100k yearly commitment minimum to bring on a full time employee for these tasks. Chances are you can find a local marketing shop that has expertise in most of these areas and it probably will come in at or under the cost of hiring a full time employee. Also, chances are that local firm will do a better job at getting you a return on your marketing investment than the in-house Jack or Jill of all trades.

If you are looking for a place to start I would recommend you do a Google search for Web Marketing Indianapolis and start with the companies on the first couple pages. You might just find us there.