Ferguson SEO Consulting

As we prepare to move into 2011, it’s a great time to evaluate the past year and take a peek at the upcoming year. Many of us are creating laundry lists of decrees for the New Year – make sure you’re including some Internet marketing goals in your 2011 resolutions. While losing 20 pounds would impressive, we feel improving the return of your Internet marketing program by 20% deserves some consideration (disclaimer: we are a bit biased). Obviously, the specific items you choose to include are up to you, but we’ve listed a few suggestions based on conversations with clients and other marketers.

I Will Implement Cross-Channel Integration. If “cross-channel” isn’t part of your marketing vocabulary yet, take the time to look into it in 2011. Simply, we’re referring to a portfolio-based approach, where all marketing channels are examined side-by-side. I typically aggregate different Internet marketing channels into an aggregate report. This report can be used to make insightful decisions incorporating all aspects of the Internet marketing program. Cross-channel reporting (and subsequently decision-making) will help to ensure you’re allocating budget to the most effective/profitable channels. You can even take this one step further and integrate all your marketing channels into one comprehensive strategy (and report).

I Will Not Be Afraid of Social Media. While social media surpassed the label of “buzzword”, many companies have yet to develop a social media framework for their Internet marketing plan (or for their company in general). Social media is still a growing online branding opportunity as well as opportunity to interact with current and future customers. However, any social media effort or thoughts are going to fail unless you have a clear-cut strategy. In 2011, I recommend dedicating some time to social media. Here are some initial questions to ask yourself:

• What goals can social media help me achieve?
• How will I measure success in social media?
• What message do I want to send using social media?
• Which social media channels are well-suited to my product/service and goals?

I Will Have a Local Presence. Especially with recent enhancements to local results in Google, it will be more important to include a geographically-based strategy in your Internet marketing program. For example, if someone includes a city or location as part of their query, Google will serve a Places listing with businesses that match the user’s query in the specified area. If you have physical locations and are not taking advantage of Google Places listings, you’re missing the opportunity to be featured in some prime search real estate.

I Will Learn About and Test New Features. The search engines often release new features because they feel the features will enhance the user experience in some way. One example of this is the Google Places drop-down in PPC advertising (see example below), which provides a map of the closest location without having to click through to the Web site:

Other features recently released by Google include Contact Form Extensions (a contact form that drops down from your PPC ad), Product Listing Ads (which contain images and prices for items that match the search query), Broad Match Modifier match type and Automation Rules. The specific features you test and implement will vary depending on the nature of your business. As a standard rule, keep up to date on emerging search marketing technologies and test them regularly!

I Will Learn About Customer Lifetime Value. In marketing, customer lifetime value (CLV), lifetime customer value (LCV), or lifetime value (LTV) is the net present value of the cash flows attributed to the relationship with a customer. The use of customer lifetime value as a marketing metric tends to place greater emphasis on customer service and long-term customer satisfaction, rather than on maximizing short-term sales. In marketing, customer lifetime value (CLV), lifetime customer value (LCV), or lifetime value (LTV) is the net present value of the cash flows attributed to the relationship with a customer. The use of customer lifetime value as a marketing metric tends to place greater emphasis on customer service and long-term customer satisfaction, rather than on maximizing short-term sales. Read this article on the lifetime value of a customer by Bob stovall, it specifically mentions Amazon’s strategic importance placed on customer lifetime value.

Final Thoughts

These ideas are merely the tip of the iceberg – I suspect we could (working together) develop a list of 365 different aspects to examine. Take some time to think about your Internet marketing program and determine how you’re going to invigorate your program this year.

What are you thinking about as we move into 2011?