Central Perk

sâmbătă, 14 aprilie 2012

How to Pitch SEO: Sales Tips for Appeasing Marketing Directors #BrightsonSEO

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 08:30 AM PDT

Today I've presented a few tips and tricks to gain the favour of marketing directors at #BrightonSEO. Whether you are in-house or agency side, selling the value of SEO lacks the glamour of TV advertising, the accountability of PPC, and the buzz-factor of social media. Here are a few tips and tricks to better promote SEO to marketing directors.

The secretary/receptionist is your best friend. These are the gate keepers to your budget, and they're invaluable. Chat them up, find out what they like to do at the weekends, and ask about their families; when you have this type of rapport going it's much easier to ask "has Mike had a chance to review my budget proposal with the MD?" or "Does Mike have any more meetings with other agencies this week?"
Say My Name. The sweetest word to anyone, in any language, is their own name. Use it often to maintain interest as you explain your justifications for increase in budget or while selling your SEO service.
Sharing is Caring. The best way to get in contact with a new business lead or gain the favour of your in-house marketing director is to offer them something. For instance, if I have an extra ticket to a marketing event or have acquired a niche report on a competitor of interest, I'll be sure to share it with my new relevant new business leads.
Smile. I know, an American telling Brits to smile isn't convincing – but it works :) Especially when you pick up the phone, people can tell whether your smiling in your voice. If Marketing Director Mike has a choice of having a 15 minute meeting with Depressed Deborah or Smiling Sam – Mike will pick Smiling Sam.
Investigate. You want budget, but what does your Marketing Director of choice hope for? Is he stressed over the lack of traffic to a new site just launched? Is he pondering how to spend the remaining budget from a TV campaign which was cancelled at short notice? Ask questions.
ABC's. Repeat after me "Have I explained that clearly?". Marketing Directors are looking at the bigger picture, and as a general rule don't understand terms like "build directory links" and "institute canonical tags", nor will most admit they don't understand. So keep your explanations in terms a 10 year old would understand.
Open Questions. An open question is any questions which initiates discussion and cannot be answered with a Yes or No. Good open questions usually start with the words how, what, and why. For instance, "How did you think last year's SEO budget performed?" will reveal more detailed insight than "Were you happy with last year's SEO spend?"
Positive words. Setting a negative tone, with negative words and thoughts will automatically put dark evil clouds in your marketing directors mind. Keep things positive, if you're pitching for new business don't speak negatively of other agencies, if you're in house, don't diss the way Bob the PPC Manager mismanaged his money and it would have been better spent on link building.
Shush! As the investigator, it's up to you to nod your head, take notes, and listen. This is not a 50/50 conversation, it's 90/10. The more you listen, the more your are graduating into the role of trusted advisor instead of annoying employee harassing for budget or money hungry agency.
Alternative avenues for raising funds. We can all talk about social search and personalised search till the cows come home, so why not look to dip your foot into the resources available in social media? Is there an in-house team which could help build links through blogger relationships? For agencies, can you exemplify why your approach works so well with social, and additional budget should be pulled in to work on a united approach?
What's the impact? Marketing Directors must legitimise everything they've spent, and so it's these terms that you must present your solution to them in. There are three main ways to do this – 1) Revenue 2) Rankings and 3) Traffic.
Revenue. Evaluate the organic exposure you're predicting you'll receive in terms of revenue. If you get position three for the term "dog insurance", what does that look like for your marketing director?
Measure it as PPC. If you've got a plan to boost rankings for a hundred of keywords, value that traffic as it would be worth in PPC exposure. What sort of media budget would be required to the projected levels you expect?
Rank. Appease their vanity! How often do MDs and Marketing Directors search for themselves online? A lot. Plain how your plan will launch them to the top of the rankings for the terms that they hold dear to themselves. Even if this isn't your personal priority, if it's their priority, work it into the plan as a key point.
Traffic. Has a lot of money just been invested in a new website that's invisible in SERPs? Have conversions rates on site been poor due to the wrong sort of traffic arriving? Explain how your strategy will deliver the right sort of traffic, and at what sort of increased levels?
Raise your hand with the answer to solve your Directors problems. You've listened, you've asked open questions, you've learned what your Directors priorities are, you've understood what has gone wrong in the past and have put measures into place to ensure those bad things will never happen again. So provide your solution! This should be in the last 10% of your investigation, where you as the trusted advisor know what to do.
Take a Risk Yourself. Guarantees are great, but holding them in place with tangible results puts a lot more girth in what you're predicting will happen. For agencies, this may mean discounts or refunds if certain projections aren't met. In house, this may mean striking deals around future performance – if certain results are met, more budget from lower performing avenues will be set aside for you in Q3.

Do you fly the SEO flag in house or as part of the new business function at an agency? What tips and tricks have you come across to gain additional budget or sign a contract?

Google & Bing Panel Discussion – BrightonSEO 2012

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 04:01 AM PDT

The panelists consisted of representatives from Google (Pierre Far), Bing (Dave Coplin), Expedia (Martin McDonald) and well known Freelancer Rishi Lakhani -

Question 1 – Is SEO doomed, damned and/or in it’s infancy?

Google (Pierre) – SEO has never been dying. It’s evolving, and we’ve seen it change over time.

Martin McDonald – it’s in its infancy – but SEO will evolve, SEO will evolve into any organic medium. (e.g. mobile apps)

Rishi – The industry unfortunately has no standard practice, ethics board or a governing body – until this is implemented it will be difficult for the industry to be a formally recognised industry.

Bing (Dave Coplin) – SEOs were like magicians, alchemists. No one understand what SEOs do. However, SEO will evolve well beyond what we can imagine -
There is no career path laid out, but SEOs have the ability to shape whatever career they want.
SEOs are passionate; this alone is commendable – you’d never see 1000 attendees for an email marketing conference!

Q2 – Question aimed for Pierre – “Been getting inquiries from people who have got themselves de-indexed. However, it’s been very difficult to define what a bad link is? Could you broadly classify what a ‘bad link’ is? secondly, what is the re-inclusion, process?”

Answer, when you say de-indexed, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s out of the index, only that it doesn’t rank in the SERPs. There’s 2 ways of getting penalised: manual penalty (the more serious penalty) and algorithmic penalty (e.g. can get away by changing on-page layout etc.)

So how do you classify if a link is bad? Ask yourself the following questions:

1) does the webmaster of the linking website genuinely want to link to you?
2) does linking to you add value to the user?

In terms of reinclusion – show that you have made an effort – Let Google know that you have identified bad links, you have emailed all the webmasters, these guys say they can’t remove them, these guys never got back to me, etc. and we will make an effort to help you.

Also make sure to tell us what you did, and to be honest.

Rishi – Check GWT, and see if there’s any dodgy links pointing to you

Martin – “How about competitive industries where people buy massive amounts of links?”
Pierre – buying links is a definite NO! Definitely report it!

We use over 200 signals, and there are some websites that rank without any links.

Q3 – What about Content? What should shape a good content strategy?
Bing (Dave Coplin) – Definitely social; it’s the new kid on the block, if you are bloody good, then your content will get shared.

So What is social? (Dave) For Bing it’s Twitter and Facebook

Google (Pierre)- who are my users? what do they want? and do they get it? Every page on your site must supply a knowledge demand. Use rich snippets, when dealing with duplicate content think about what you choose to serve as canonical. Also content doesn’t only mean text, use video, images, apps, reviews etc.

Rishi – Think about whether you are making it easy for people to share?
Does your content have tips?
Update old content. Ask yourself if these need updating, are they still relevant?
Add genuine resources in your posts.

Q4 – Do you test before rolling out Google Analytics redesigns?
Pierre: yes, we do test. We serve webmasters, serve in-house webmasters, agencies, so eventually something will have to give, but we try to cover as much as we can. Also provide us with specific feedback – tell us why the design is bad? Don’t say “your redesign is crap!” tell us what is the deficiency and how we should improve it.

Q5 – What is good social signals?

Bing (Dave)- good social signal is the quantity of the shares, the speed of which it is getting shared.
Google (Pierre)- if you are raising awareness about something, and it is genuinely shareable content, then these will get the coverage naturally.

Q6 – Aimed at Pierre – “you mentioned that you should know who your customers are, and what they’re looking for? Can you tell us about not giving us the search query data”?

Pierre: We do provide this data in in GWT – for most webmasters this data is more than sufficient.

Martin – The data sample size is so small that it’s rubbish, I rank for Expedia!
Rishi – I rank for insurance according to GWT. The data isn’t accurate.

Pierre – GWTs process data differently, our main focus is about protecting users and we don’t want user’s personal data being compromised by providing search query data especially with the roll out of Google plus your world.

Bing – easy to be angry about this – I’m not defending Google, or “dissing” them, but you must genuinely appreciate that there’s a larger issue here. People are getting more concerned about privacy issues.
But it certainly does show that there is an underlying need for more discussion and engagement among all parties; users, webmasters, legislators and search engines.

-Ends-

Seth's Blog : Money scales but emotions around money don't

Money scales but emotions around money don't

You're not half as annoyed when you get a $25 parking ticket as you are when the fine is $50.

An investment banker isn't twice as excited about a $20 million bonus as she is about a $10 million one.

There are threshholds that determine how we feel about money-related events (good and bad), but beyond those threshholds, the relationships get all out of whack. Being a million dollars in debt feels about the same as being five million in the hole.

The way you feel about more (or less) of something probably doesn't rise or fall based on how much it cost to produce that feeling.

Marketers and organizations and the less emotional use this fact against us all the time. They understand that while the utility curve for money for a single individual can change widely over time, the value of that money to the organization is largely linear.

• Email to a friend •

vineri, 13 aprilie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Massive Jump in Bank of Spain Borrowing from ECB: Bank of Spain Balance Sheet Shows Spain Deep in Trouble, LTRO is Essentially Useless

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 11:13 AM PDT

CDS rates to protect against default by Spain rose to an all-time high today as Investors brace for more pain in Spain.

Spain was firmly back in the spotlight on Friday, after news of a sharp rise in borrowing by the region's banks from the European Central Bank triggered losses across European stocks, but especially for the IBEX 35 index XX:IBEX -3.58% , which fell more than 3% to a three-year low.

The yield on the 10-year government bond in Spain ES:10YR_ESP +0.0004% , which had appeared to get some relief in the latter half of the week, resumed a climb upward, rising 15 basis points to around 5.93%.

The cost of insuring Spanish government debt against default using credit-default swaps, or CDS, rose to an all-time high. The five-year Spanish CDS spread widened to 505 basis points from 476 basis points on Thursday, according to data provider Markit.

That means it would now cost $505,000 annually to insure $10 million of Spanish government debt against default for five years.

Data released by the Bank of Spain showed gross borrowing from the central bank hit 316.3 billion euros ($416.7 billion) in March, up from €169.86 billion in February.

Massive Jump in Bank of Spain Borrowing from ECB

Inquiring minds are digging into Consolidated Balance Sheet of the ECB and by the Bank of Spain, searching for clues about the LTRO program for the entire Eurozone and also for Spain in isolation.

Consolidated Balance Sheet of Eurosystem
Net Lending to Credit Institutions

click on chart for sharper image

During March alone, the LTRO expanded by 433.236 billion but main refinance operations shrank by 87.821 billion. In March alone, 301.424 billion was parked right back with the ECB.

Please consider Spain.

Consolidated Balance Sheet of Banco De Espana

click on chart for sharper image

ECB system-wide lending in March went up by 39.690 billion euros.
ECB lending to Bank of Spain alone jumped by 75.168 billion euros.

Thus, lending shrank by 35.478 billion euros elsewhere. What did Spanish banks do with the money? They parked it in sovereign bonds are now underwater on the purchases.

If you were looking for specific details as to why CDS rates for Spain hit an all-time high, there you have it.

Will There Be A 'Corralito' in Spain?

In response to Black Market in Spain: Cash Transactions Exceeding 2,500 Euros Now Banned, Gonzalo Lira pinged me with Will There Be A 'Corralito' in Spain?

The "corralito" ("little bullpen") was when the Argentine government limited weekly transactions to AR$250 a week back in 2001.

In my piece, I argue that a "corralito" would be part of a Spanish withdrawal from the eurozone—and on cue, Rajoy is on the road to implementing it.

There is no solution to the Spanish problem except EMU exit and devaluation.

Lira's target date for Spain exit from Eurozone this year is certainly debatable, but economically-speaking it is bound to happen as the current setup is extremely unstable and worsening every day.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Closer Look at Unemployment Claims, Covered Employees, Labor Force

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 02:09 AM PDT

Reader Tim Wallace supplied an interesting set of graphs and comments on unemployment claims, the labor force, and employees covered by unemployment insurance.

Unemployment Claims Not Seasonally Adjusted

click on any chart for sharper image

Data for the above chart: http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/claims.asp

Unemployment Benefits

The above chart shows the number of employees that are covered by unemployment benefits. The implication is 11 years of lost jobs almost all of it in the last three years.

The next chart shows that we need to add 17,598,279 to the work force with unemployment benefits coverage just to get back to equivalent coverage of 2001!

Civilian Working Age Population

Data for the above chart: http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab1.htm

This chart straight from the BLS shows that the number of people of of working age continues to grow. Working age population grew by 28 million since 2001 and 9.4 million since 2008 alone. However, the number of people eligible for benefits is actually 911,000 lower than in 2001.

Percentage of Labor Force Covered by Benefits

The above chart divides the number of people in benefits producing jobs as shown by the Department of Labor report by the number of people in the age appropriate to labor from the BLS report and returns a percentage of people actually participating in a benefits producing job out of that potential labor pool.

From a peak of 59.4% in 2001 we have plummeted down to 52.2% right now in April 2012. And the number is lower than last year, significantly lower than 2010, far lower than 2009, etc. This does not imply an improving labor market but rather clearly demonstrates the continued deterioration of workforce in the USA and probable pressure on those working to provide even greater amounts of their income to those not working.

This 52.2% is a very scary number. It says 47.8% of those of working age are either not working or they are self-employed with no benefits.

The above charts and commentary from Tim Wallace. Thanks Tim!

Given the volatility of weekly claims data, I asked Tim to produce a 6-week moving average of claims vs. the same six week in prior years at the end of the month.

Six weeks should be sufficient to smooth out Easter or Thanksgiving effects, and if not, we can just add another week at such times to cover it.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

sâmbătă, 14 aprilie 2012

How to Pitch SEO: Sales Tips for Appeasing Marketing Directors #BrightsonSEO

How to Pitch SEO: Sales Tips for Appeasing Marketing Directors #BrightsonSEO

Seth's Blog : Money scales but emotions around money don't

Money scales but emotions around money don't

More Recent Articles

vineri, 13 aprilie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

sâmbătă, 14 aprilie 2012

How to Pitch SEO: Sales Tips for Appeasing Marketing Directors #BrightsonSEO

How to Pitch SEO: Sales Tips for Appeasing Marketing Directors #BrightsonSEO

Seth's Blog : Money scales but emotions around money don't

Money scales but emotions around money don't

More Recent Articles

vineri, 13 aprilie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Pagini

Persoane interesate

Arhivă blog

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