High Gas Prices? Virtual meetings to the rescue.

Posted by Alessandro Renzi

If your business is like ours, the high price of gas sure is starting to become like a thorn in your foot. Maybe not painful enough that you cannot walk, but annoying enough to notice.  (And if your business relies on transportation, I’m sure it’s even worse!) But the good news is that in today’s world of high-tech communication, the need to travel can really be reduced. In my personal opinion, at times, it is our inability to move forward that holds us back in using technology to replace some of the more traditional behaviors. At the same time, once the bottom line becomes a factor, we shed our old behaviors in a heartbeat, but many of us don’t know how to. Well, let me introduce you to Citrix GoToMeeting.

So, you want to work at Beyondus, eh? Market yourself right.

Posted by Alessandro Renzi

For those few people that know my hiring practices, they know very well of my stringent rules of selecting the right candidate. I don’t leave anything unturned. In fact, for those fans of Seinfeld who are familiar of the episode with the soup nazi, might find me to be quite similar to the character of the soup nazi. The only difference is that instead of saying “No Soup For you!”, I just tap at my “delete” button usually right after I just open the email.

Q&A – Be Wary of Backlinks Email Solicitation

Posted by: Karen Renzi
To submit your own marketing, design, or Web question, go to our Q&A page or email info@beyondus.com.

Q. A client recently sent us this email – note that this is a cut-and-pasted email, see my response under the answer section below it:

What do you think of this?

—— Forwarded Message
From: xxxxx
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:53:05 -0400 (EDT)
To: xxxxxx
Subject: I visited your xxxxxxx.com site and had a question

I was looking at websites under the keyword xxxxxxxxx and came across your site xxxxxxxxx.com. I see that you’re ranked #7 on page 19 in google.

I am not sure if you are aware of why you’re ranked this low but more importantly how easily correctable this is.There is no reason you cannot have a top three ranking for this keyword based on your site structure and content. You have a
very nice site, with quality content.

You need significantly more one way anchor text backlinks. If you are interested I can help you with this…
I am talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new backlinks on a steady and consistent basis from
high PR quality websites is what produces the rankings you are looking for.
The right kind of links are very critical in getting top ranking….and I can hand deliver these quality links to you.
My partners and I own 1000′s websites and offer private linking to hundreds of website owners just like yourself.

I did not send this email out to thousands of people but I am currently reaching out to a list of your “keyword competitors”
as well. You are the one I really favor and the one I see can monetizing the targeted website traffic this can deliver.

I have your contact info as: phone # xxxxxxxxx. Is it Ok to give you a call?

I have a very simple way to prove that what I do works and it is risk free for you to try. Nothing beats seeing the results with
your own eyes.

Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over the phone with you or should I go somewhere else?

——————

A. In general, I would be very suspicious of any email offers like this. A lot of times companies that promise to deliver higher search engine rankings use what is considered “black hat” SEO approaches which will actually hurt your site’s reputation in the long run. Placing links to your site on “1000s” of other sites will most likely do that because I am sure Google knows that those sites are most likely “link farms.”

Blogging Works for SEO!

Ok I’ll be honest. I’ve not been 100% successful in achieving my blog-a-day challenge. Sorry Seth Godin, I will get there. However – I have discovered an exciting silver lining!

My increased frequency in blog posts on various marketing topics has resulted in some pretty interesting findings when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization) for various search terms – I think most of the terms would be considered the “long tail of search,” that is more specific terms vs. general. But they are not THAT far out in terms of description. Check it out – without me doing anything more than posting the blog article, our blog ranks as follows for search terms on Google (today, from my computer). The search term first, linking to my blog post result, along with the Google search ranking:

backward links – #3
wordpress vs blogger – #6
bzzagent – #5
seth godin blog – #3
what to say on business card – #4
haro help a reporter – #2 (link to HARO in case you missed it)
free sofas – #10 (ok, so maybe this one isn’t too relevant to our business but funny nonetheless)

So I’m hooked. I still have a TON to learn but now I’m addicted so look for more blogging from me. For those of you interested in learning along with me, here are some resources that may help you in blogging for SEO:

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

How to get traffic for your blog – Seth Godin

Blogging for SEO

5 Tips for Blog SEO

Direct Mail? Or Email? It’s not an either/or.

I’m so tired of hearing the debate between what is better: email or direct mail. How many times have you talked to a marketer who is so sure that one is better than the other? 

The direct mailers: “Email is cheap and ineffective. Direct mail is more flexible, more sophisticated, more classy. Half the people don’t even get emails or open them with all the spam.”

The emailers: “Direct mail is old school. It just gets junked in the recycle bin – who wants all that paper? Plus they don’t call it snail mail for nothing.” 

The reality? Neither is better than the other. But both are better together.

Q&A: Where to blog? WordPress vs. Blogger

Posted by: Karen Renzi
To submit your own marketing, design, or Web question, go to our Q&A page or email info@beyondus.com.

 Q. I don’t blog, but I’ve had several clients ask me about good sites to start their own. I know you’ve mentioned it, do have any recommendations?

A. Well, first of all, thanks for giving me a quick topic to look into for my own blog post today! The 2 main sites for setting up free blogs are www.wordpress.com and www.blogger.com. They are both incredibly easy to set up. I only wish it was just as easy to keep up with regular posts!

I have to admit I didn’t do hardcore evaluations before choosing a blog provider myself. We obviously are using WordPress for our own blog, primarily because

CAN-SPAM Updated (from our e-newsletter)

Read our full newsletter on our site. Excerpt below:

The FTC recently updated the CAN-SPAM act which has been in place since 2003. What does this mean for you if you are doing e-mail marketing? As it turns out, not too much – if you’ve been diligent in following best practices. The changes in a nutshell (directly from the FTC release):

1. An e-mail recipient cannot be required to pay a fee, provide information other than his or her e-mail address and opt-out preferences, or take any steps other than sending a reply e-mail message or visiting a single Internet Web page to opt out of receiving future e-mail from a sender
2. The definition of “sender” was modified to make it easier to determine which of multiple parties advertising in a single e-mail message is responsible for complying with the Act’s opt-out requirements
3. A “sender” of commercial e-mail can include an accurately-registered post office box or private mailbox established under United States Postal Service regulations to satisfy the Act’s requirement that a commercial e-mail display a “valid physical postal address
4. A definition of the term “person” was added to clarify that CAN-SPAM’s obligations are not limited to natural persons

Other resources on CAN-SPAM:
The rules for CAN-SPAM compliance
Free CAN-SPAM compliance review for your business

Branding Works – the 5-year-old test

This past week, my five-year-old daughter demonstrated something very interesting to me: the power of the brand. Perhaps it has something to do with having parents who work in marketing and design, but she’s got an uncanny ability to notice advertising and branding.

So back to this week – she was “drawing from life” this week on little post-it notes – see at right. In the top is a “house” on blue, next a “fan” on pink, and last but not least, on the orange: “Verizon.”

Yes, in her own words, the bottom image is “Verizon.”

Ahh, the power of the brand: inspiring young minds everywhere.

(I don’t know whether to be impressed or scared by how impressionable she is!!)

Our Email Newsletter – out at last

We find it is so much easier somehow to work on our client’s behalf than our own. I guess that’s what happens when you put clients first – I’m sure everyone experiences it, even at a personal level. Anyway, I’ve been trying to focus on our own marketing more these last few weeks and am proud to say that our latest email newsletter has gone out! If you haven’t joined our list, please sign up for our emails.

To make sure our blog readers get a chance to see some of the content, I’ll be posting some of the newsletter content here as well. What better content to start than info on email marketing!

Email Marketing Updates

We’ve been hearing a lot of questions on email marketing from clients lately, so I thought I’d devote some space this month to a few email topics. I’ll also be hosting a free Virtual Q&A Session – Email Marketing 101 – next Thursday, July 10 beginning at 1:00pm ET. Please email me to RSVP for the dial-in and details.

Study Shows Email Marketing is Tops
Datran Media released a study on marketing & media – some interesting tidbits sourced from Datran Media’s release specific to email marketing: