Avoiding
The Meatball Sundae ...
Over the past five years here at Blue Tent,
we've learned that if there's one thing you can count on the internet
for, it's change – and rapid change at that. It seems
that just as you are beginning to understand your current internet
marketing strategy, along comes some new technology and new terminology
to change the game completely. Fancy terms like "Web 2.0," "social
networking,"
"long tail" and "blogosphere" are bandied about
in marketing meetings without anybody ever stopping to ask "why."
And
that, is precisely how your marketing begins to resemble what Seth
Godin has recently dubbed the "Meatball
Sundae"
– the unfortunate combination of two inherently good things,
the meatball (your business or another commodity) topped with
all of the latest new media marketing tools (google, blogs, social
media). Basically, the two just don't combine very well.
The point is that you can't just take all of the
latest new media tools and gadgets and pile them on top of your existing
business and marketing plan and expect to see good results. The trick
is knowing how to adapt your business and your marketing strategy
in order to integrate and leverage these technologies successfully.
Godin convincingly argues that we are in the midst of a paradigm
shift and identifies 14
Trends that drastically alter the rules of
engagement.
Does your business tend to acknowledge and adapt to
change or does it tend to deny and defy? Will it thrive in this
new paradigm or barely survive?
How can we help you "Win on the Web?"
Until next month,
The Blue Tent Team
New
Site:
MountainWorldTravel.com
We've
long played a role in the real estate and vacation rentals verticals,
but we are less well known in the adventure and outdoor travel
worlds. It's an industry that's part of our DNA since so many
of us here at Blue Tent spend our free time exploring the surrounding
mountains. At any rate, we've just launched our first major adventure
travel site on behalf of Mountain
World Travel. This company is especially unique in
that it uses the internet for 100% of its marketing. Their
new site features:
- A Fitness calculator to help you find the right trip
- Dynamic search
fields to guarantee search results
- Beautiful trip preview and details
pages with extensive information on countries, trips, etc.
- A dynamic
PDF brochure generator which saved the client time,
money and the need for custom brochures for each trip
- A beautiful graphical
presentation with stunning images
- Coming soon ... seamless integration to the highly
regarded Resmark booking engine
Take a moment to visit some magical places, take
a tour. You just might find yourself planning a trip to climb
Kilimanjaro!
» Check
out the all-new MountainWorldTravel.com
6
Tips To An Effective Email Program
Pick Your Leader
Don’t let your most effective marketing tool play second fiddle to
your company’s other marketing efforts. Too often, we see a general
lack of leadership and responsibility in our clients’ approach to
email marketing. By identifying the leader of your
email marketing program, you will not only increase program effectiveness
and productivity, but you’ll also facilitate better communication
and ultimately a higher return-on-investment.
Establish A Schedule
Next, ask your email program leader create a schedule of target delivery
dates and associated deadlines for each month and include core topics.
The schedule should serve as a your email marketing road map for 2008.
It should be regimented enough to establish a clear course of travel,
yet remain flexible enough to leave room for changes and adjustments
along the way.
Clear The Deadwood
Start by running a “Most Active User Report” and remove everyone
that did not open a single email in the last 12 months. It’s silly
to send to someone who doesn’t want to read what you have to say,
and it’s also a waste of time and money! This will also give you
a better overall reporting on the effectiveness of your campaigns.
» Read
complete article
SEM
2008: Basic, Best Practice & Custom
In an effort to continually improve and integrate our SEM programs,
we have updated our SEM Service Tiers for 2008. These redefined tiers
focus strongly on consultation and analysis, emphasizing our holistic
approach to SEM that integrates the technical side of SEO with your
paid search and web analytics programs. These services (SEO, PPC,
Google Analytics) can be purchased separately or bundled together
for the best results.
Which Tier Best Suits Your Company?
Basic: In this entry-level program, we monitor your organic rankings
and paid-per-click program with detailed monthly reports, and provide
ongoing account management and recommendations based on your account
performance.
Best Practice: Need to be on the first page of
Google? Are your keywords highly competitive? If so, the Best Practice
tier offers a solid strategy for your business by dedicating 5 hours
of monthly recurring SEO tasks (link building, content development,
etc.) along with an additional 1-2 hours of monthly consulting, reports
and analysis to keep you company outperforming your competition on
the major search engines.
Custom: This tier is designed for our most sophisticated
clients in the most competitive markets. Get your site to the top
of the major search engines in the most competitive environments.
Dedicate a minimum of 10 hours of ongoing SEO tasks combined with
additional account management to gain top positions for competitive
keywords, increase site exposure through social media sites and establish
a quantifiable set of key performance indicators to measure and analyze
program performance.
» Contact
us today to improve your SEM strategy
