Quick Google Tip – Backward Links

Just a quick tip today for all of you interested in knowing about your website’s status in the wide world of cyberspace: How to look up Google’s listing of “backward links.”

What are Backward Links?
Backward links (also known as back links, inbound links, or incoming links) are links TO your website from other sites. Inbound links are taken into consideration when Google ranks a site. Basically, the more relevant, inbound links you have directed to your site, the more Google likes you. Which begs the next question: what is “relevant”? Relevant means that the site linking to you, and even the specific text that makes up the link, makes sense in the context of the content on both sites. Examples:

An article about organic kid’s clothes on a parenting site that links to your baby boutique, which features organics. RELEVANT.

A listing with a link to said baby boutique on a cross-country trucker’s resource site. NOT SO RELEVANT. 

How do you determine Google’s indexing of backward links?
To find Google’s list of backward links for a specific site, do a regular Google search as follows:

link:www.yourdomainhere.com

It will return a list of the sites it has registered as linking to yours. You can see the total count to the upper right of the results.

Does Summer Change your Marketing?

I know a lot of businesses experience summer differently than the rest of the year with respect to how busy they are, revenues, etc. I know we have historically seen a difference during summer ourselves. Our clients are often harder to reach and less likely to focus on getting projects done. I think time becomes even more at a premium – kids are home, summer hours go into effect, people go on vacations (or at least their brains go on vacation).

But for the many seasonal businesses I know personally, living in a corner of the world where summer just buzzes (the Niagara Falls region!) – summer for them means 16-hour days and lots of (iced) coffee just to make it through.

 

What Time is best to send emails?

Posted by Karen Renzi

And the coveted answer on WHEN to send out email marketing is: There is no one answer to the question of what day/time is best to send out emails – let the customer tell you! This post on MediaPost’s Email Insider suggests one of those things that fits into the “why didn’t I think of that” category: Segment your email list by looking at the previous times that recipients opened your email.

1. Identify a few general chunks of time – say “early morning,” “lunchtime,” etc.
2. Group your recipients accordingly by the times they’ve opened previous emails.
3. Send out your next email segmented by the time blocks (at the corresponding time of course).
4. If all goes as planned, your recipients will be more likely to open the email upon receipt because it dovetails with the time of day they are typically checking email, making it more likely you’ll be seen and kept top of mind.

Like any other segmentation, if you are going to invest the time to do it, you should also be sure to invest the time to measure it. So be prepared to measure response rates. Note that some higher-level email service providers include this type of send segmentation as an automated feature, a big time-saver.

5 Tips for Reporter Communication

Posted by Karen Renzi

I can’t believe it – yesterday flew by without a post. This blog-a-day challenge might be tougher than I thought! Anyway, jumping right back in. I continue to be enamoured of the opportunities presented by HARO. Today I came across a great 2-part post on another blog: How to Respond to ProfNet, PRLeads, and Helpareporter.com Queries, Part 1 and How to Respond to ProfNet, PRLeads, and Helpareporter.com Queries, Part 2. If you are thinking of responding to reporter queries – please read this.

The same basic principles always apply when communicating with reporters – whether responding to a query, distributing a press release, or pitching a story.

1. Take your ego out of the equation. Unless you are some kind of celebutante, you aren’t the “angle” of the story and the reporter isn’t going to be impressed by a lot of I-me-we words about how great you are.
2. Write like a reporter. This means concise and organized to get the main points out quickly. Attention-grabbing headline or subject line and who-what-when-where-how.
3. Keep it relevant. Select your main thesis and stick to it. Make sure you are talking to the right reporters. And if you are responding to a specific query, by all means make sure your pitch is 100% in alignment with it.
4. Make it meaningful. Don’t waste your time writing it if it’s not newsworthy. If you were a reader of the publication, would it be an article you would read?
5. Mind your words. Make sure your grammar is correct and your words carefully chosen. This is your chance to make a professional impression, and what you write might just get republished as a quote (if you’re lucky) – so make sure it is worded exactly as you intend.

Messy Marketing

Posted by Karen Renzi

Today I’ve been feeling very frustrated. Why? Well, I’m the first to admit I may be a little controlling (in a good way of course) and sometimes a little compulsive – but as a marketer it drives me CRAZY when I see a “messy marketing” situation. And not just one but two “clients” today presented with bad cases of messy marketing.

So what, pray tell, is “messy marketing?” To me, it’s a situation where in the marketer’s ideal world there exists a marketing plan that could illuminate, eludicate, and altogether simplify a marketing challenge. It’s right there, just beyond the horizon - BUT IT’S NOT BEING PURSUED.

HARO – Help a Reporter Out. Free publicity on a silver platter.

I have been a subscriber to this HARO email list for a few weeks now. I honestly can’t even remember where I heard about it – probably a blog somewhere! Anyway – what a treasure trove of free publicity opportunities!

Peter Shankman, whose entertaining comments lighten up every email and who apparently has his own fan club on Facebook, uses thrice-daily (morning, afternoon, evening M-F) emails to connect reporters seeking specific sources and information for their stories with eager publicists and experts from all walks of life. Anyone interested in the power of PR to grow their business NEEDS to join. (Or if you just like to look for ways to get your 15 minutes of fame.)

He put it well today:

BzzAgent Word of Mouth Marketing (and yes Seth Godin is involved)

Posted by Karen Renzi

So sychronicity at work again. When I was at Seth’s (hope you don’t mind me getting first-name-familiar with you, Seth) presentation last week, I was wondering what he thought about the set of sites that have packaged up word-of-mouth marketing with a nice shiny bow. The two I’m using thanks to Amy Reynolds (our account manager you all know and love) are BzzAgent and HouseParty.

I’ll leave it to Amy for another post to extol the virtues and free stuff from the 2 services but back to my original point. Lo and behold I was invited today (being an official BzzAgent) to join a BzzAgent campaign for The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II by CEO and Founder of BzzAgent Dave Balter. Hmm…so no free hardcover book coming for me in the mail, but a free download for everyone – and as part of the “in group” I was notified right away.

BzzAgent directed me to choose from about 20 blogger sites to access the free download. And of course our buddy Seth is right in there. How could there be a WOM marketing incarnation like BzzAgent and not have Seth in the know!

If you’re interested in checking out the book yourself – go ahead and download! I haven’t had a chance to read it yet (cut me a little slack!), but I will – and I’m sure more commentary is to come.

Hello Seth Godin…Blog a day challenge

Posted by Karen Renzi

Last week I had the pleasure of attending an event which featured marketing guru Seth Godin as a speaker – who come to find out is a Buffalo native! Now I’ve been familiar with his work since way back when Permission Marketing was the “new thing” in the early years of email marketing, before CAN-SPAM even formalized opt-in standards for email communication. I’m a frequent reader of his blog posts (like probably millions of other people) at Seth’s Blog, which amazingly ranks 4th in a Google search for “blog.” Now that tells you he’s doing something right.

So when Seth Godin tells us that if you want to do it right you have to blog every day – yes EVERY DAY – well, first I’m thinking “Oh crap, how in the world can I keep up with a blog post a day.”

But that soon gave way to “Ok, let’s give it a shot.” So I’ve decided to challenge myself and my team to make sure we post a blog every day. I’ll keep you posted periodically on whether it’s working.

So there, Seth Godin – check off another inspired marketer.