Kansas City SEO and SEM

I hope this summer is treating you well! I have a treat for you regarding web lead tracking and email marketing nurturing. In the last two months I’ve been working with interesting software services. One in particular does what every marketer wants; track web campaigns to users’ contact details and streamlines communications through email marketing and lead nurturing. I’m working with a conservative budget, so these solutions are working for a small to medium size company. The final piece I’m working on is tying the phone leads, to the web leads and associating these different buckets at a campaign level, without massaging data and being a spreadsheet jockey. Understand keeping the costs down is essential to staying within budget when building the tracking architecture. If money and time wasn’t an issue, I’d be using Eloqua. The tracking architecture I’m implementing and will be discussing; is still in a testing phase; does not integrate with a CRM using an API and it does not require IT resources to implement. It’s the easy button for lead tracking and nurturing.

Many of my clients use Google Analytics for tracking lead conversions and sales. But what Google Analytics won’t give you is the name of the person submitting their contact details on a per campaign level. Google finds this a violation of privacy and I understand this reasoning. Many times, clients want to know the name of the lead which came in through a pay-per-click campaign so they can nurture the lead. As marketers we know that giving a contextual experience is the difference between acquiring a customer and pissing them off.

I’ve been working with a web lead tracking solution; HubSpot. HubSpot gives you what Google Analytics will not; first name, last name, email, phone number and anything else you want to know tied to a specific campaign. Within minutes you’re able to generate standard and custom fields to create a web form. Once you’re happy with the form, you cut and paste the JavaScript code into your web page and/or blog post and your done. It’s that easy and it works.

Some kicking features about HubSpot:

Once a lead comes in through a form, the lead details are sent to an email or alias. The cool thing; if a lead has a Twitter, Linkedin or any other public social media profiles these profile links are presented in the lead details. Let’s take a moment and think about how this could change your sales experience. Imagine if a sale person could browse a potential customer’ social media profiles before making that sales call? You know the potential client is interested, but now you know they love cats. Mind you, I don’t recommend the sale person disclosing they’ve researched the client’s public social media profiles, but in conversation, the sales representative could mention how much he/she loves cats.

If a lead submits their information and then goes back to your website or blog, you are sent an alert; “Anne Haynes one of your leads is back on the website.” Now you have the creepy factor and can call them right away and answer any questions they might have about your business. I’ve experienced this before with sales people and while I don’t like it, if a lead continues to visit the website, it’s a sign they’re interested. And all this information is tracked in the lead details.

If a lead comes in through one form campaign, you can create lead nurturing campaigns and send automatic emails through timed intervals. This features changes how marketers approach campaigns; sure it’s easy to create a form, cut and paste it into a web page and generate leads through pay-per-click, but managing the experience using automatic emails after a lead shows and interest, this creates a need for communication architectures. And it can become complex. For an example, I will use SEOINC because I use to work there many years ago and they have increased their product offering to include pay-per-click and social media marketing. Now imagine I’m a potential client and I submit my information through the website with a form powered by HubSpot. The SEOINC folks created a nurturing campaign which kicks off an automated email regarding their pay-per-click product offering 20 days after I submit my information the first time. 20 days after the pay-per-click email I receive another automatic email about their social media product offering. It’s all done without you being involved, it happens automatically, so the communication architecture must be designed ahead of time.

HubSpot has API integration with Salesforce and the company will work with you if you have an in house custom CRM solution.

HubSpot features that need some work:

When a lead submits his/her information wrong in a validated field, the user goes to a generic looking validation form. You are not able to apply CSS to the validation form – Yet!

The automatic emails do not have the ability to cut and paste HTML, so the design is limited. However, I’ve been told by my HubSpot consultant this feature is coming out within the next two weeks.

If you’ve built a nurturing program and the lead converts and signs up for other product offers all at once, you must turn off the nurturing program for that lead. This is a process that you want to enforce any way to know your lead to conversion ratio.

Summary:

So far, I really like HubSpot because it’s easy and takes the pain out of reporting. In my opinion, a marketer’s time should be spent optimizing campaigns and not sorting exported spreadsheet data. Don’t get me wrong, I know we need the reporting, but with HubSpot the data doesn’t need cleaning up.

Since I’ve been working with HubSpot there isn’t one person that doesn’t mention SEO to me; critiquing our current ranking with brand only terms, trying to sell the idea of hosting our blog using their blog service. I was raised to know installing blog software on a server gives the search value to the domain where it is housed. I don’t recommend outsourcing your blog using HubSpot. But it’s really good tying contact details to a campaign. There is also a UTM link generator, so you can micro manage your landing page performance and other web activities.

There is more to come as I continue down this process, but know my goal is to tie the phone leads to the web leads and when I get that going on, you will be the first to know!

Are you using a software service that does what HubSpot can do? I’m interested in knowing your solutions

First before this post, I want to do a shout-out to my blog redesign partners. While I try very hard to learn design and coding everyday, I can’t ramp-up to be a designer! In the design world Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and building a site quickly and properly is tough to do, so I leave that up to the professionals. It’s the same as a designer or developer implementing an internet marketing campaing, the disciplines are very different.

Matt Shepard and Jonathan Goetz from Shepard Advertising & Design made my blog weblift happen! I’m the cobbler with bad shoes and when it comes to helping people with their businesses, I generally put my company site on the back-burner. I’m confident this is true in many industries and it’s why outsourcing makes the world a "happier" place. I’m excited to blog now!! My blog has been going since 2006 and I’ve been burned out on the same design. Now with my weblift, I want to write, write and write more! While I still have some content issues, Matt and Jonathan have given me a fresh start. And that goes a long way!

My inspired blog post is because of my redesign. I started thinking about when I started blogging and then the memories came back. Following is my progression into blogging and understanding the communications are changing and will continue to change. Staying on top of the changes are our jobs as marketers, business owners and participants.

First Blog Post Since Shepard Redesign:

Let’s remember when blogging (officially) came out: Google purchased Blogger it was 2003. For those of us that remember when Yahoo! was the top search engine, we remember the word “weblog” from 1997 when Jorn Barger coined the saying. I remember 1997 well; reading the posts and speculation regarding citizens having a “voice”; people buying products online (Oh Gates you didn’t say that); video and audio communications and the rest. Back in the day these ideas seemed ridicules. And today, these technologies are reality.

While I was reading all of these non-mainstream blog posts, I became worried about blogging and being transparent on the web. Fast forward thirteen years and I’m available at the click of the mouse.
It’s not easy blogging; accepting your name (not identity) will be easily accessible; taking your personal experiences and crafting them into journalism worthy articles; stepping out on a limb and dealing with criticism. While this may be mainstream for Hollywood, it’s not for me. I’m a technology person not a journalist.

What I see now are people like me blogging and reporting “news” worthy information and the downfalls are typos, grammatical errors and fast pace communications. Here is a great article on the 4 Grammatical Mistakes that can Enhance Your Copy. And this is how information technology has changed the current communication dynamics. You aren’t dumb when you write, you are creative!!!

As a consultant, my intentions are to put my best foot forward when it comes to communications, but now we talk in 140 characters and that’s where things get strange. 2010, the acceptance of grammatical errors, second phase we are OK with not understanding anything?? When I held an IS Analyst role at a company, I remember being in a meeting and the lead of the meeting used the Palm OS Graffiti while communicating on a white board. In my opinion (IMO) this is rude. Today, I make a point to spell out acronyms because I want people to understand. The hashtag is a joke In My opinion (IMO) because search functionality should eliminate the need. With all the communication hoopla now days, a new graffiti has been born; See You Later (CUL8R), Oh I See (OIC), Got to Go (G2G), Be Right Back (BRB), Sign on the Dotted Line (SOLD) haahaa, Ta Ta for Now (TTFN), Too Good Too Be Forgotten (2G2B4G). I fear these slang acronyms will creep into my work life and end up on a whiteboard and I will sit and be clueless and OK – it’s all good (IAG). Do people make themselves feel better when they write using code and/or acronyms?  There are two ways to think about meetings filled with acronyms; first the people use the acronyms to feel bigger and better; second, it’s in their dialect. Be forewarned there is new Graffiti in the works. How it will affect the conference room is still to be determined. I will cry if I go into a meeting with hashtags!

Here is a list of Top 50 Twitter Acronyms, Abbreviations and Initialism

I need your help! Give me your top 2010 acronyms so we can all stay up-to-date (UTD) hee hee, much love – Anne

By: Anne Haynes
If you browse my blog, you will find me bashing Facebook because it’s too complicated and time consuming. But this year, Facebook has a new face in my life.

Follow me back 30 years, when I lived in Florida with my parents; I was 8 years old. I moved to Florida from the Midwest because my father took an engineering position. I quickly became involved in the music group at my grade school and soon enough I met Rachel and Cory. The three of us became good friends quickly and soon enough I moved to Monterey California (age 14). I went on to graduate from high school and college. I’d think of Rachel and Cory from time-to-time. We recorded a record (not digital) together with our grade school music group. I used Google and tried to find them and boom, one day Cory finds me on Facebook then I’m connected to Rachel!

Now after 30 years Rachel and Cory are coming to my 40th birthday celebration in Vegas. While I nitpick at usability and conversions on websites all day long, I can overlook all of this with Facebook now; it’s enriched my life. I’ve learned that Rachel is a concert pianist, CPA and boat Captain. Cory has three children and is studying to get her masters. And now very shortly I will be talking to my best friends face-to-face after 30 years!

Thank you Facebook for opening your community to everyone; giving birth to the Wall; allowing me to control who sees what; blocking games and applications I don’t like; becoming more like Friendfeed and connecting me with people who’ve loved me in my past!

I’ve been in a redesign for a long time and I’m not making enough effort!

I moved to Kansas 3 years ago after being in Silicon Valley for 20 years. Kansas is an amazing technology hub!!! I can even pitch my technology ideas at Start-Up Kansas City weekend.

I’m proud to live in Kansas and I enjoy the light snow we receive during the holidays! I’m more proud of the people I’ve met experiencing the Google Rush. The information is all out there and the community is amazing, so get involved! Check out this video and make sure to hit the Think Big website supporting the Google Kansas or Kansas Google efforts!

It’s been forever since I’ve blogged, but know I’m working on a redesign and some awesome content! If you have any suggestions on future blog posts you would like me to write, leave me a comment.

Thanks for your patience!
Anne-

How many ideas can we come up with using a symbol? As an SEOer I’ve always said NO to FLASH. But now with Social Media and people demanding stickiness, I see a new use for FLASH using Augmented Reality. This video will remain in my favorites forever because it shows how a symbol can create a reality! Thank you Matt Dickman!

Great and lengthy presentation on social media. It’s obvious we need social media just to filter through the volume of information on the internet. If you are looking to do your own presentation, check out this blog post with more social media stats

I’ve been telling my clients for years that WordPress is one of the best SEO blogging software available today. I’ve been challenged many times and I’m really glad Matt Cutts has stated this fact in the below video. Matt also discusses Google’s PageRank and he makes it simple! Thanks @ThatAmy

I was checking out Wayne Sutton’s website and twitter stream today. He mentioned a presentation on SlideShare. The presentation is interesting and brings up some thoughts I’ve been having on “how much we share” in social media and the effects. I think social media will help people live richer more fulfilling lives. People will begin doing more with their lives because of influences. I started training for a triathlon this summer because someone I follow was training for a triathlon. You could build the case that social media could help with the U.S. over weight epidemic, because let’s face it, no one who is over weight or obese wants their picture on the internet.

And just as soon as I feel good about the impact of social media on people’s lives I become creeped out; have I shared too much? Time will tell how all this shakes out. What do you think will happen?