The Blue Owl

Because I express better in writing. (function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga'); ga('create', 'UA-41395728-1', 'tumblr.com'); ga('send', 'pageview');

[theblueowlchirps]

If you're starting out in SEO and need foundational training in Excel to enhance your analysis skills, build your confidence with this helpful starter guide Excel for SEOs. Access via your browser or download the PDF. It also comes with a nifty Workbook sample!

http://www.distilled.net/excel-for-seo/

[haydiroket]

[staff]

By haydiroket

GPOY.

[theblueowlchirps]

Segment your Landing Pages for Better Performance

You may know about it, or you may just be finding out about it now: landing page segmentation will increase conversions. We know that to offer the best service to customers, our message must be relevant. As customers are not all alike, that means the message must be tailored to their needs.

If we segment the market for our keywords and our email marketing campaigns to boost performances, it's common sense to do so for your landing pages. Segmentation is a vital step in your strategy and necessary to maximize leads and sales. Lastly, paid search costs money, and these costs can add up. As this blog states, a successful and accountable marketer should use every method possible to get the most out of a campaign's performance.

Said beautifully, "Like anything intended for a specific recipient, a targeted landing page is far more effective when it engages an individual with the right message."

Continue to Landing Page segmentation with PPC Associates!

Also, learn new ideas to funnel your visitors when they reach your landing page. ion provides five great segmentation landing pages to inspire you.

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[theblueowlchirps]

Sure, spam is good at times. But Google isn't a fan and they'll let you know.

Find out about Google's penalties on spam.

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Infograph on content for SEO. Candy for a marketer's eyes.

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Content is king?

From Search Engine Watch - Content Marketing is the New SEO

The article sums it up with a sprinkling of humorous quips - content is king. Love your website with frequent servings of fresh and well-written content if you hope to get more. And just as wisely as this post explains the importance of content marketing, it also wisely reminds you that other activities of SEO are as equally important. Take into consideration every aspect of your site SEO, as well as writing fantastic content, and your website will flourish with interested visitors.

[theblueowlchirps]

The Anatomy of a Good Email

We’re not all gurus in email marketing, yet many of us have sent or frequently send business emails to a mass list. Before MailChimp and sharing what my previous manager shared with me, the company I currently work for had a small idea about good email marketing practices, but none of the legal implications. They could not determine with certainty if the email was a success or how to optimize it. No doubt, this may sound too familiar to many businesses who are just starting out or who have been comfortable with the familiarity of a free email client like Gmail or the traditional Outlook.

I do suggest investing in an email marketing solution that provides metrics of email performance and that keeps your business on the right path. If there is no room in the budget for this, read the CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for businesses. Not only will it give your emails credibility with items such as the required footer information, but it will also protect your business from getting blacklisted or running into the FTC - full of imposing agents in black suits.

No time to read? I presented a drive-thru list of the compliance guide by the FTC until you’re ready to sit down and get serious. What you need to know in a flash are the following:

Tell people where you got their email.

You must include an unsubscribe link and honor opt-out requests.

You must include your physical mailing address or a PO Box.

Don’t use false or misleading header information.

Don’t use deceptive subject lines.

Identify the message is an ad.

With the dirty stuff out of the way, it’s time for quick tips on writing a great email. After researching best practices to improve our email marketing campaigns, I noticed a nice improvement in our open rates and click rates. Not only did I use the A/B testing feature on Mailchimp, I also gathered and applied the following to reduce the number of emails that get caught by spam filters and to make our emails relevant and professional.

Anatomy of a Good Email

1. Write your company name in the From field. The recipients on your list will likely recognize and trust a business name than someone called Barrister Okocha (this "lawyer's" cool name was found in my spam folder!).

2. Use a relevant subject line that is clear and gives an idea of what the email is about. A sense of urgency also helps. A generic example: Summer Game Special: Request Your Free Games Today.

3. Sometimes, creativity is not a good option for subject lines. You can risk sounding irrelevant or vague. An example of a bad subject line: Get 10% Off Your Next Purchase. Huh? My purchase on what? Toe warmers, Bebe, Baldness-Fighting Hormone Pills?

4. Include an opt-out link. You may need a tissue for this, but sometimes people who opted in decide later they really don't want to spend 3 minutes perusing your message again. Ever.

5. Include a valid physical mailing address. Stalking is not a problem in this case.

6. Include a reminder of why they are receiving your email. Never collect emails you find on web sites and send an email to a huge list containing them. It's wrong and will likely call the attention of imposing agents in black suits.

The following are some tactics on how to avoid spam filters:

Don’t get color-happy with your text and avoid overusing the red font. 

One exclamation point will have enough impact. Having too many will alert spam filters.

Don’t use ALL CAPS.

Avoid words that populate your junk folder: free, click here, chat with Russian singles (other schools of thought say to not be afraid of a word like 'free', however).

Keep your HTML code clean.

Avoid duplicate content.

Spell correctly and do not use uncommon characters and symbols.

Do not use all graphics. Emails must have text to be readable by spam filters, and textless emails probably look invisible to them. I call an email like this, Casper. And spam filters don't find him friendly.  

Always have a plain text alternative.                                                                                                                                           

    Other good-to-knows:

Good grammar

Attractive images without the clutter.

Include an introduction, a message, and a call-to-action.

Try out the A/B testing, if applicable.

Get started on the right path to writing great, business emails meant for a mass list. Over time, your practices will be refined, and you’ll get more bang for your buck as you capture happy customers with your well-designed and relevant emails.

[theblueowlchirps]

GO AWAY, Hard Selling! Try a little more inbound marketing – with a blog!

If you believe in your product and you love the benefits it provides, there is little need to push your products on other people.

As the world changes and customers become smarter, the way a company sells also needs to be updated.

Along comes something called inbound marketing. I came across a few articles over the last few months, and I recently came across this one. I then had a spark to write about it. The post summarized what a coworker and I talked about last year: “inbound marketing is about letting go of the old school “hard sell” and letting qualified customers come to you.”

Frequently, I and another colleague have mentioned to management that we need a blog. It’s a beautiful platform to express your thoughts, share content, talk about the industry, and even your own products without the cost of phone calls, transportation, booth rentals, and so on. Their response is another story. My point is that search engines love blogs. They love fresh content. New content! Static pages are as interesting as a dusty old mat on your back doorsteps. If you don’t find that interesting, then search engines won’t either; and you won’t attract a nice steady stream of traffic that usually includes new customers.

With a blog, you are “creating a dialogue with your customer”. I’ve worked around sales people. Many of them use the same pitch, spice it up a little, or tailor it based on the buyer. It’s tiring to hear them sometimes borrow each other’s spiel. Inbound marketing can be their friend! When you produce content that is relevant, helpful, or simply entertaining, you gain the favor of customers and new fans. Surely, they may even find it more influential on their purchasing behavior than a stranger trying to get their business!

Bring in the customers with brilliant tips, industry news, and opinions from respected top experts. Talk about why your product provides a solution or a benefit, not just that it does. With a blog, there’s a ‘real’ voice coming from the company – not another one of their trite slogans or discount baits.

Lastly, companies can respond back. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are great for that. Engaging your customers and talking back to them builds relationships, because that is how relationships grow – by communicating with each other. Still, you may want to avoid too much digital sharecropping. Place all of that content on a website that belongs to you. “Active webpages generate attention from customers and search engines, increasing the success of your inbound marketing.”

The digital landscape changes quickly, and so should your business. 

[theblueowlchirps]

There and Back Again: Board games to video games to board games...

I am a gamer – but not as hardcore as my brother or my boyfriend. Still, I have known the pain of playing with PUGS, experienced the joy of sniping my friends, and felt the anguish at the end of ME3. It was not until I began working for a traditional game company that I rekindled my liking for board games.

My childhood experiences with board games involved Candyland, Trouble, Monopoly, and Risk. But along came Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and then Playstation. Accompanying those systems were the actual games: Mario Kart, Zelda, FFVII, Tomb Raider, and so on. It was goodbye cardboard and plastic pieces for quite a long time. I won't get into my introduction to MMOs (fortunately, I am not addicted).

Years later, I work on a marketing team in increasing brand awareness of traditional games such as card games and board games. I also have gotten over the ubiquitous exclamation points in many of the company's game titles, like Spot it!

It is a top selling game on Amazon. Many people enjoy it and yes, the game is fun. Though, I share the same opinion of other gamers who prefer in-depth strategy and involvement in the games they play: Spot it! is a perfect pre-game game.

As in, Spot it! would have been perfect last Saturday while a friend and I waited for another to set up Star Trek Catan. To read more about Spot it!, a matching card game, please check out this lens. It is my first one ever!

  So if you are a casual player who is looking for a quick and easy game to play with friends and family, I recommend looking up Spot it. If you are a serious gamer in need of something to kill time in between drawn out trades, then Spot it is perfect for you.

[theblueowlchirps]

Cat in a shark costume chasing the duck!  Videos by texasgirly1979 are not only charming, but amazing! I love animals, but this makes me love them even more.

[theblueowlchirps]

Actions to Gain More Quality Likes

Quantity is nice, but don't forget Quality. Here are tested and true social media practices that works well for me. I work for a small to mid-size business. Larger companies will have sophisticated software and tools, as well as hundreds of thousands of fans (and probably managers that value you as a smart, budding marketer and who understands current marketing trends - but that's another story).

In time, your page will get to that 5,000 mark or even 20,000 mark; but for now, start small. 1. Plan, act, monitor, and optimize. The essence of this is simple. Determine your goals, take action, look at the results, and fix what isn't working. Real world example: You're thinking about what content you should post. You find a few articles, inspiring quotes, and hilarious pictures of a grumpy cat. Ideally, the content is relevant to your audience. After scheduling them, you sit back and wait to see how each content performed the following day.

Facebook posts have a very short lifespan. Some say 3 hours, others say 22 hours.

Take a look at your insights. What is the reach and engagement? What is the virality? Keep track of this and record the data in a neat excel file with the date range. You may want to use these metrics as your KPI to measure success and failure in the future. Monitor over the next few weeks which content scores well in the areas of reach, engagement, virality, and impressions. 2. Load up your social media arsenal. There are a number of tools that can help anyone with a small budget or none at all. Here are recommended services: Buffer makes sharing content easier, and having an app that also schedules them for you while you're away makes this tool invaluable. Another feature is the Buffer button. Once installed in your browser, finding and sharing content will be a breeze.

Please keep in mind that sometimes you may need to edit the text that is automatically generated for you. Hootsuite enhances your social media management. The dashboard allows you to view all of your networks and customize your stream so users know who's communicating and what topics are interesting all in one glance.

Take advantage of the scheduling features. Yes, you need lots of content to have a reason to schedule, and being a content curator is hard work. Then, when you have your content, you want to make sure that it is being shared. Too often we forget to post that fantastic news article our readers will love. Hootsuite solves that problem by allowing you to customize your post, add a photo, and schedule it on any day of the week and at any hour. Trap.it. You need content right? It's not always easy to find topics that are post-worthy. Enter Trap.it to save the day. It's a content curator, a content concierge, a personal assistant - or whatever you want to call it. It captures topics you want to keep track of and provides them to you every day.

Depending on your interest and/or industry, you'll eventually learn what blogs or news source will have great content to share. I work in toys and games, thus, I love Dr. Toy and Global Toy News. However, finding great and relevant content requires that you read before you post. Offerpop how I love thee. It's a fantastic integrated Social Marketing Platform. Run your Facebook campaigns and more. And there are so many campaigns available: Referrals, Photo Contests, Sign ups, and others that you must check out. Depending on your fan numbers, the prices vary. The pricing tier is quite reasonable and tech support is helpful.

I also like their 'Like' gate mechanism. This encourages gaining a like on your Facebook before people can participate in your promotion. You also can select mobile likes as well! Also, Offerpop is a sure way to follow Facebook's promotion guidelines. Otherwise, if they catch you, you may lose your page. Commun.it is such a beautiful communication management tool. It's Twitter software, but it has to be mentioned. A big part of social media is interaction, not neglect. This goes without saying, but surprisingly, there are still some who create an account, do nothing, or talk about themselves endlessly. Commun.it can help manage your community, monitor engagement, and discover leads. You can do everything you want to from your dashboard such as finding who you need to reply to, topics that are trending that you may want to be involved in, who to follow, and also, who is wasting your time. 3. When Time is your friend. Post at the time your audience is most likely to check your content. Track your metrics such as reach and engagement for at least 3 months or so, and test the different hours of the day. Once you see a pattern, that time of day may be the time when your reach and engagement are maximized.

4. In the school of social media, talking is okay! Communicate back with your followers. Social media is a two-way conversation. If a fan asks you a question or writes a comment, reply back with something substantial. Of course, pages that receive hundreds of comments on one post may find this too time consuming, but many new pages should invest a little effort by engaging back.

[theblueowlchirps]

This has to be one of my favorite promotions that I created and implemented. I think it was too involved for it asked for a mini short story -  we only received two entries! Two! I think this promotion would have done very well if it was executed through Disney...by me. :)

[theblueowlchirps]

Imagination. Creativity. Dwarves.

Einstein quoted, "Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."

This is a quote I live by in my personal life and definitely in my work life. Creativity helps one to design cool promotions, turn unsightly designs on Photoshop into brilliant masterpieces despite limited technical skills, and imagine solutions before the actual planning and implementation.

For example, for five years, I have occasionally weaved tales about my adventurous, lascivious dwarf. Becoming one of my all-time favorite characters, I reuse him in many other settings such as gaming and the frivolous past time known as dressing-up-and-running-through-san-bruno-mountains-like-whoa. Truthfully, I only dressed up once and it was with a good friend and her cousin who's studying film.

The point of this longest caption ever is not about how dwarves and the photographs that result are fun to view. I am sharing with readers across the green earth that creativity allows you to think outside the box and express yourself in limitless ways. Exploration to anywhere is possible for there are no boundaries in the realm of the mind.

Really, how could we have created a visual story betwixt gnomes, dwarves, and dragons from photographs without our creativity?

Creativity is a great quality to have no matter your role in life. It's a great quality in leaders, it's a spark that businesses need, and it births awesome stories and multimillion dollar franchises like the Hobbit. It's also necessary to start a blog.

(And yes, I'm in that picture. I'm the lady dwarf on the right and I made that wig out of yarn in about 4 hours. The beard was borrowed.)