• Your business has an increasing amount of organic traffic because customers are finding your website via search engines and social media;
• Your customers increasingly interact with you when they visit your website (ie. “helping your customer further down the conversion funnel“);
• Your website is a thriving, continuously improving channel for sales, leads and signups.

What types of services are included? Web Page Optimization is a rigorous regimen of optimization which involves ongoing testing and improvement of your website’s front-end user interface, web content and back-end technical structure. Core disciplines include:

• Website Usability: Optimizing how your customers interact with your web pages and improving the user experience to drive more interaction (signups, leads, sales, etc.).
• Website Design: Optimizing the layout, look and feel of your web pages to determine which designs maximize interaction with your customers while maintaining the integrity of your brand. (Sometimes “science” proves that the prettiest design is not always the most effective)
• Content Strategy: Researching, mapping and developing web content – copy, media, art, photos – that will be relevant in search engines, appealing to your customers and drive customer interaction with your company.
• Conversion Funnel Optimization: Metric analysis of the lifetime and recurring value of offers, conversion channels and follow-on remarketing and optimization of each conversion path on the website.

What are the benefits of Web Page Optimization? Web Page Optimization delivers ongoing benefits that impact success across all online marketing initiatives. Benefits include:

• Increased leads and sales from web traffic;
• More free website traffic from search engines and social media (often collectively referred to as “Earned Media“);
• Increased success rate of each visit to your website;
• Improved return on investment from advertising as website conversion rates increase;
• Superior website user experience for your customers;
• Guarantee customers see the most compelling messaging and design on each web page;
• Obtain and improve upon the quantifiable value of each visit to your website;
• Cost-effective website improvement without the need to constantly do full redesigns.

Web Page Optimization is a key activity for businesses looking to gain a competitive advantage in online marketing while making sure that they provide the best user experience possible to their customers.

Read more Digital Marketing Opinions or Contact Us to discuss your business’ needs.

© 2009. Thrivepoint LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Halé Bob, a Los Angeles-based clothing company globally known for its unique style and celebrity clientele, employs its website as a key strategy in servicing its global client base, but the website itself was not producing the desired customer relationships or revenue impact. Some factors included: declining revenue during 2008-09 recession; most people leave the site without engaging; Poor performance from online marketing.

Thrivepoint Solution

Thrivepoint implemented Thrivepoint Engage™ – its proven marketing optimization solution – to:

• Completely map the conversion funnel and identify new engagement opportunities;
• Engineer design and message test to increase sales and signups while decreasing abandonment;
• Align online media, paid search and social media with the new strategy;
• Implement SEO on each page to increase organic traffic.

Implementation

Through the conversion funnel analysis, Thrivepoint established that repeat visitors were exponentially more likely to purchase and first-time purchases required a high frequency approach. Halé Bob’s current approach emphasized high reach and low frequency. Thrivepoint recommended implementing a conversion funnel that emphasized first time visitors signing up for remarketing programs that would provide them fashion exclusives and discounts on merchandise. Remarketing was defined as signing up for email, following Halé Bob’s Twitter profile or becoming a fan of Halé Bob on Facebook and the goal was to use these cost effective remarketing programs as the primary channel to introduce the higher frequency needed to turn one time visitors into repeat visitors and then customers.

With this strategy in place, Thrivepoint implemented website optimization consisting of offer, design, message and content testing on key website entry points — i.e., high traffic web pages — to maximize sales and signups to the remarketing programs. Through the course of website optimization, Thrivepoint also implemented search engine optimization by using proven messaging and content from the testing programs. Finally, the improved conversion flow and messaging were integrated with the paid advertising campaigns to ensure that ROI from paid media was maximized.

Campaign Results

The campaign has been a big success!  Declining revenue trends have been reversed and the channel is growing again.

Due to conversion optimization focused on the engagement model and conversion funnel, engagement rate from advertising increased 15x and overall site-wide engagement rate increased 851%.

Due to the improved conversion funnel and website usability, online advertising effectiveness increased allowing spend to grow by 3x which delivered an absolute increase in the size of the remarketing prospect database of 60% in just four months. Revved up remarketing efforts increased the quality and frequency of visitors to the site which contributed to higher visit to sales conversion rates and revenue. As a result, visit to sale conversion rate increased by 124% because visitors were introduced to remarketing programs and encouraged to come back to the site, which ensured that the quality of traffic to the site was continually increasing.

Thrivepoint continues to work with Halé Bob to optimize its marketing programs, website and search engine optimization.

Read more Case Studies from Thrivepoint or contact us to discuss your business’ needs.

© 2009. Thrivepoint LLC. All Rights Reserved.

The answer depends on your business. In some cases, the smart decision for a business is to outsource SEO to a marketing services company. In other cases, it makes sense to bring it in-house which could mean hiring consultants, hiring full-time staff, or asking existing engineers, copy writers and marketers to incorporate SEO into their work. Every business is unique and determining the your business’ needs, objectives and resources is the first step to answering this question.

What follows is an outline of the questions every business should ask itself before bringing SEO in-house or shipping it off to an SEO firm.

How dependent upon SEO is your business? Is SEO a core part of your business plan? Or is it but one tactic to be balanced amongst many others? If SEO is core to your business, it may make sense to have specialists in-house. However, if your SEO needs outweigh your company’s current size and capabilities, you may want to bring in an agency or hire a specialist to help grow your own competencies.

Does the project require cross-functional, specialized skill sets? Does your business need skilled SEOs to developer and deliver strategies to existing teams of engineers, content editors and marketers to implement? Or does the project require resources for both strategy and implementation? Does your business require – and want to pay for – support at different levels of seniority (ie. Entry level + Supervisor + Executive levels)?

Does your business consider SEO an ongoing activity or a one-time project? Does your business need someone to train existing staff – engineers, marketers, etc. – or does it require a full-service staff. Can your business commit to open-ended tenure of a full-time employee? Or does it need to operate on a shorter-term basis? Can your business commit to a long-term contract with an agency?

What is the budget and what will it afford? How will the budget translate into work provided by a consultant, full-time and agency? If the budget is less than what a full-time employee costs, what could it afford in terms of consulting? How would an agency allocate that budget to work completed by subject matter experts vs. administration/supervision vs. overhead? Would those allocations be acceptable to you?

Who will manage the SEO resources? If an agency is hired, is there in-house staff available to manage, support and collaborate with the agency at all levels? If you hire in-house, who would manage the hires and is there an established career path for employees?

How will decisions about SEO be made? Does your business expect close collaboration with the SEOs in day to day decisions? Will your business require extensive research, analysis, recommendations and rationale in presentations prior to evaluate options prior to making decisions? Or do you want a hands-off approach?

There is not one answer to any of these questions. Every business is different. Evaluating these questions and determining how SEO will integrate into your business’ marketing practices and processes will help you determine whether to outsource, or bring SEO in-house – or some combination of the two.

Read more from Thrivepoint about Search Engine Optimization or contact us to discuss your business’ needs.

© 2009. Thrivepoint LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Have you ever been too hot and turned down your air-conditioner only to find that you are too cold later? And then you turn the AC back up only to find that you are too hot later? The difficulty getting it just right is, in effect, what happens with over-optimizing search: The user logs in, changes all the parameters (keywords, bids, creative, etc.) to improve results and then finds that they did too much. So they log back in and make a number of similar changes to correct the campaign; except the campaign quickly goes back the other way. This happens to too many search campaigns and the following is intended to provide a brief guide on how to avoid over-optimization:

Scientific Method: This holds true for Adwords as much as science: Before taking action, create a hypothesis and construct the campaign in a way that lets you know if your hypothesis was right or wrong.

Learning: Whether a test succeeds or fails, knowing what does not work is just as valuable as knowing what does. Ensure that variables are isolated so that results – positive or negative – are definitive.

Historical Data: Do not continue to rely on results and assumptions that are more than 3-6 months old. Continue to re-test former winners and losers to ensure that optimization takes into account changes in the landscape that may impact current results.

Limit Variables: Tests should not overlap with each other. All testing variables should be isolated to eliminate the chance of misreading results and to drive learning more quickly. For example, a change in bid strategy should not be executed at the same time as a creative test if at all possible because it will be difficult to attribute a change in performance to the correct cause.

Limit Risk: Do not run tests on all keywords or adgroups at the same time because results will be unpredictable and there is always a chance that tests will yield poor results. Segment a portion of the campaign to test and run winners on the remainder of the campaign. The level of testing is dependent upon the marketer’s threshold for risk, but should be somewhere between 10-40% of budget. For example, if there are 10 adgroups spending $1000/month each, then segment 1-4 adgroups to be eligible for tests and run winners on the remaining adgroups. Rotate the 1-4 adgroups every time a new test is started to ensure that no overtesting of any particular adgroup occurs.

Click to read more posts about paid search or marketing tests.

© 2009. Thrivepoint LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Quality links from quality sites are hard to come by without effort. They require extended efforts to build, and the approach to achieving a long-lasting quality link can be manual, tedious and very time intensive. At the very least, it is an ongoing effort; not a one time, quick-hit activity. For example, if you are a marketing agency, a link from top university marketing departments would be valuable. It would provide a credible link from a credible institution. It also will help you generate traffic directly from the link as students, faculty and business leaders will visit the university site and likely click through to the links presented on that site. As you can imagine it would take time and extensive relationship building to receive these types of link.

On the other hand, to speed things up, some SEOs build out a network of their own sites against different industry verticals and place links to their clients on those sites. When a client contracts with these SEOs, they will immediately receive some guaranteed number of links, properly optimized, pointing to their site. It always sounds like a good deal. And sometimes it can be. The challenge comes when the client evaluates the long-term implications. When the relationship with the SEO ends, the client’s links are usually taken down and rented to the client’s competitor. All your hard work and money spent goes out the window.

The bottom line is that these types of linking relationships are essentially paid sponsorships where the client is renting space on another website in hopes that they will receive more traffic via the search engines. While there will be some SEO benefit, as with many advertising deals, all clients should look to project the expected results of these paid sponsorships against other paid sponsorships. They could be effective for the client, but it is important for the clients to come to the table with a complete understanding of what is included and not included in any SEO deal.

Click to read more posts about hiring an agency or SEM scams

© 2009. Thrivepoint LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Every marketer wants the best toolset to be used for their campaigns, but search marketing software is developed by a wide range of companies. Knowing who is behind development and maintenance of the software is just as important as knowing what features it offers because the costs and effectiveness of software varies by developer and can significantly affect the outcome of a campaign. It is crucial that clients clearly understand the benefits, limitations and market readiness of the software its employees and agencies use and the developers who make them.

Search engine provided tools are available for most paid search and SEO functions. Google’s tools are the most popular but not the only game in town. Most firms use at least one tool from search engines whether it be webmaster diagnostic tools, paid search management or analytics. While these tools are usually free, some firms do not use them because:

• Multiple Interfaces: Some tools, like bid managers, only work with the search engine who provided the tool. The result is that users must use multiple tools for the same function;
• Quality: Effectiveness of the tools across the search engines can vary dramatically;
• Privacy and Security: Some firms believe sharing sensitive client data with search engines is a conflict of interest.

A 3rd party product is software licensed by the firm from another company that is dedicated to building and maintaining software products. 3rd party products have dedicated development, maintenance, sales and support teams to service clients. While many 3rd party products are run as independent businesses, in some cases, a services firm may offer its tools as a commercial product. Such proprietary products are used by the firm’s employees to service clients and are licensed to other firms for use with their clients.

Proprietary software is an application built by the services firm to be used only by its employees. Some firms maintain full-time in-house staff to develop and maintain the software while others outsource. One of the benefits of proprietary software is tight integration into the firm’s processes, but reliability and effectiveness of the tool depends on the firm’s development acumen and expenditure on development, maintenance and support of its proprietary tools.

Like proprietary software, proprietary tools are built by the service firm to be used only by its employees but instead of writing custom software, these tools are built using off the shelf software, such as Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access. Proprietary tools often develop organically by the services teams and usually are not supported by dedicated developers. Proprietary tools may be as simple as standardized templates or very intricate and sophisticated tools to automate workflow and other functions. While typically considered inferior to custom software, proprietary tools do offer flexibility and, for some firms, a superior and cost-effective solution when combined with search engine provided tools.

To read more and download the whitepaper,Click here. Please contact us if you would like to discuss search marketing software solutions in depth or if you have any other questions.

© 2009. Thrivepoint LLC. All Rights Reserved.

One of the most frequent complaints that we hear from clients is the difficulty in evaluating and differentiating each firm’s capabilities, experience and ability to deliver. With more than 2,000 firms offering some form of search engine marketing services in the United States, businesses looking to hire or buy a search marketing company encounter a cluttered marketplace with little information on how to distinguish between each firm’s strengths, weaknesses and differentiators. This whitepaper was designed to provide that starting point.

The purpose of this whitepaper is to help businesses learn how to differentiate and segment professional services firms offering search marketing services. The goal is to enable professionals to make informed purchase decisions that deliver beneficial and long lasting relationships with search marketing firms. Key questions addressed:

• What are the different types of firms offering search engine marketing services?
• How can different firms be classified?
• What is the difference between consulting and full service search engine marketing?
• What tools are employed for search engine marketing?
• What positions are staffed for search marketing?
• What are the industry credentials and accreditation services?
• What pricing models do firms offer?

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The approach that a search marketing firm employs in its strategy and tactics for achieving results is born from its search marketing philosophy. A firm’s philosophy is taught from day one to new employees and re-enforced to existing employees through process, training, compensation and other aspects of the firm’s culture. While every firm has a unique approach and competitive positioning, in the search marketing field, there are two general philosophies firms tend to segment themselves into.

A BlackHat firm is concerned with immediate success regardless of the rules established by the search engines in its terms of use and guidelines. BlackHat firms bend and break the rules established by the search engines and opportunistically identify competitive gaps where its clients can maximize results. While results may be achieved quickly, they may be short-lived and the firm’s clients may face consequences from the search engines if the techniques are discovered.

While BlackHat is a term used most often in reference to SEO, it can just as easily be applied to paid search. With commercial contracts and direct API access, paid search offers many opportunities for BlackHat firms to exploit advantages in paid search campaigns.

A WhiteHat firm focuses on delivering results while ensuring that the client’s marketing does not violate the terms of use and guidelines of the search engines. WhiteHat firms work within the confines of the rules to establish practices that will maximize client results without the risk of penalties from the search engines. While the risk of penalties from the engine is greatly reduced and results generally last longer, results may take longer to develop.

It should be noted that a BlackHat firm will include a layer of WhiteHat practices in its offering as a matter of best practice. Balancing the combination of the two provides more stability for the BlackHat program. And on the other hand, there are times when a WhiteHat firm inadvertently employs BlackHat techniques on its client’s business. This can happen when a firm’s training programs are out of date or if inexperienced staff is assigned to a client’s account.

To read more and download the whitepaper,Click here. Please contact us if you would like to discuss your upcoming agency search with a Thrivepoint advisor.

© 2009. Thrivepoint LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Ensuring success and limiting risk starts with the implementation of a robust regimen of upfront planning before any SEM meetings take place. The upfront planning process is designed to ensure that clients are making objective and well-informed decisions that lead to long-term, successful partnerships with their SEM.

Here are five steps that clients should take before meetings with the SEMs:

Current Situation: Write an evaluation of the current situation. Key questions to answer are: What is the current budget? What is the current approach? What are the current resources and tools? What is working? What is not working? Why are we considering hiring a new agency? What will change from the current situation when the new agency takes over?

Objectives: Outline the objectives of the engagement and expected results. Create a business case which outlines the expense, projected quantitative and qualitative results and costs for not making any change.

Requirements: Outline requirements for the agency’s capabilities, resources, tools, staff, client experience, case history, proximity, scope of work, etc. Prioritize requirements as need to have and nice to have. Need to have requirements are the minimal requirements the SEM needs to meet to be considered. Nice to have requirements will provide flexibility for the SEMs to differentiate their offering from the competition.

Constituents: Identify who in the client organization will be involved with the research, evaluation, negotiation and decision making. Ensure that there is buy-in from each consituent on their role in the process and the time commitment that is expected.

Decision Criteria: Review the objectives and requirements with constituents and determine each constituents decision criteria. Ensure that there are not any conflicts between different constituents criteria. Ensure each constituents criteria matches the role that they will play in the evaluation.

By implementing a planning process that involves these five steps, clients will maximize their odds of finding the right long-term partner and realizing the gains that a business can achieve with the right SEM partner.

If you would like additional information on this topic or to meet with an advisor to discuss your upcoming agency search, please contact a Thrivepoint Advisor.

© 2009. Thrivepoint LLC. All Rights Reserved.

What is the current stage of the buy process? Disclosing the current stage of the buy process enables the agency to tailor the information they provide to the buyer’s needs at the time. Receiving a full-blown proposal during the information gathering stage is overkill, because at this stage, the buyer might be interested in reading whitepapers, case studies and other industry research published by the agency. On the other hand, receiving research instead of a proposal when the buyer is at the decision making stage is a clear miss for both buyer and agency.

What is the current solution in place? Whether the buyer uses consultants, in-house employees, another agency or nothing, the agency should know the details of the current situation. With this information, the agency can provide case studies and references that most closely match the buyers existing situation so that the buyer will be armed with most relevant information about the agency’s track record.

What parameters will drive the decision? Communicating needs and requirements to the agency ensures that the buyer’s decision making process is objective and that the agency has a fair opportunity to demonstrate its historical track record in meeting the requirements. Distinguishing between need to have and nice to have requirements is also important because it lets the agency know the minimal requirements for contention (need to haves) and how to differentiate from the pack (nice to haves).

Who will be involved in the decision making? No matter who is making the final decision, it is important to disclose the other people who will be involved in the evaluation process whether it is the finance department, executive staff or others. The information the finance department needs will be different than what the CEO or VP of Marketing need and outlining these information requirements will help the agency to deliver the most relevant information.

When is the buyer making a decision? All agencies are glad for the opportunity to share its capabilities, case studies and research with interested marketers. The exception to this rule is if the buyer does not correctly disclose the decision making deadline. In this case, the agency may put in more work than necessary to design materials to try to close the business and they will likely tire out the buyer with followup calls and meeting requests. Setting expectations upfront for whether the decision is happening imminently, never or somewhere in between helps the agency share the right information with the buyer and to ensure that its communications are timely and productive for the buyer.

If you would like additional information on this topic or to meet with an advisor to discuss your upcoming agency search, please contact a Thrivepoint Advisor.

© 2009. Thrivepoint LLC. All Rights Reserved.