04
Feb
2010

Does Your Website Suck?

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By interactive

Your Website Sucks!
By Josh Perry, Seventh Point New Media Analyst

You’ve created promotions, designed colorful advertisements, and even started writing more frequently on both your website and those of others in an effort to spread your link around the Internet – so why is it that your traffic count is not increasing? Let’s face it. It’s time to come to terms with yourself and admit that you have a problem: Your website sucks. Good. That was the hard part.

You can have the most eye catching, jaw dropping, click addicting, memorable website there is, but if no one can find your site, you’ve very successfully wasted large amounts of time and money. Your website is the closest glimpse of omnipresence that your company will probably ever have. The Internet allows you to have a mobile storefront without the restrictions of physical barriers or boundaries and its up to YOU to see to it that this store looks great and is ready to meet the needs of anyone who walks in. Most importantly, your website is often your first brand exposure to your customers and clients…. If they can find you online. So, “what do I do?” says you…”Glad you asked,” says I.

If your website could talk it would tell you that there are two kinds of people in this world: Humans, and Robots. That’s right, Robots. And if you want a successful website, you have to create it to work for both of them. The no-brainer is the design for the humans. Just as you can’t have a store that is disorganized and looks to have been looted recently, so your site must also be neat and tidy. You’ve more than likely made a relatively attractive website with images and clear content that gets the point of your business across to your viewers. If you haven’t, fear not! There are a variety of ways to give your website a greater aesthetic value that are both simple to use and cost effective. The robots are the frequently forgotten audience, though they are equally important. When a keyword is put into a search engine, the robots go out and they try and find the most relevant sites that correspond to whatever the keyword may be. While there are a number of factors that determine this relevance, making sure that your site is as accommodating and robo-friendly as possible is a great start. Should the robots run into something they can’t read, they will simply move on to the next site as yours now seems irrelevant. Images, for example, are a blind spot to the robots. If you have no “alt-text” in place to describe the image to the robots (and you probably don’t, no offence), they will not know that the particular image could have been precisely what your viewers were searching for.

In the Marketing world, the solution to being found in search engines is a practice called Search Engine Optimization. As businesses are realizing the reach and capabilities of the Internet, more and more are finding ways to have their sites rank higher in the search results.

That being said, there is now a heightened awareness of this side of this vital component to your website… and it’s a safe assumption to say that your competitors are looking into it. and so should you.

Having an optimized site will more than likely not be the deciding factor for what makes your business a booming, Fortune 500 success, but NOT having an optimized site is more of the same old song – missed opportunities. Sounds like a name for a blues song; a blues song you can’t afford to be singing.

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30
Jul
2009

Welcome to our new blog!

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By interactive

youwillneverHello world! I’m excited to introduce to you our new first official blog. We are a full-service advertising, marketing and public relations agency headquartered in Virginia Beach, VA. But since you’ve visited our Web site you probably knew that already. This blog is an attempt to show you the side of Seventh Point you might not know about.

You see, the industry of marketing and advertising is changing; the consumer is changing. And while every agency and marketing firm gives lip service to keeping pace, it’s clear few really are (even the “big boys”). I would prefer to take our agency out of the mix. The whole world of ad agencies chasing their tails is not the association we want. I believe you have to scrape the whole ad agency paradigm… the creative ivory tower, the 15 percent commission, the holier than thou creative types, the empty suit account execs.

I’ll tell you upfront that our agency is a bit of a rogue. The officers of the company are not “ad guys.” In fact, they have disdain for such. Our agency is made up of a collective group of consumer-chasing strategists and hard-nosed producers. We view creativity as a tool, not as a religion. We want to talk business, not pretty colors. We get things done. We make things happen.

The Seventh Point philosophy is best exemplified by the very thing you are reading right now: new media. We don’t “change” or try to “keep pace.” We eat and digest it. The fact that you’ll find us on Twitter, Facebook and in the blogosphere is not because we think it’s cool. It’s because it’s our business. It’s our profession. If it communicates to mass audiences, we will master it. If consumers follow it, we chase it.

Part of our rebellious nature against typical ad agency-think shows up in the fact that we “play well with others.” No egos. We have great respect for other ad agencies; we just don’t want to be them. We’re a confident group but we’re not so egotistical that we’re afraid to cozy up to stellar, brilliant specialists and professionals if it benefits our long-term vision and goals of this industry.

So please, sit back. Enjoy. Get to know us. Let us get to know you. We all share the same passion here, and I hope this blog provides you with additional perspectives and a deeper insight into our work, who we are and how we think.

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08
Jul
2009

Hampton Road’s first flash mob… er… flash trickle

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By interactive

Many of us are familiar with the amazing flash mob videos that weave throughout YouTube. Defined, a flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. Some of the world’s largest brands have had tremendous impact with this guerilla/social marketing technique. Just look at the impact of flash mobs for brands like T-Mobile and the massive London Underground flash dance that has garnered over 5 million views on YouTube. So what happened at the Virginia Beach flash mob on July 8? Apparently not much of anything.

Flash Mob FailDon’t get me wrong, this blog post is not to discredit an attempt at creating an attention-grabbing flash mob gathering. I give enormous credit to Team New Media Conventions for pushing the edge of social media in Hampton Roads. But with that said, as a decade-long practitioner of Internet marketing methods, I have seen the tremendous impact that well-conceived and executed social marketing methods can have for a brand.

I strongly believe that the best new media marketing stunt cannot stand alone without the power and proven efficacy of traditional advertising. The Internet is an extremely powerful marketing tool, but it cannot be an island where your brand gets marooned. New media marketing is a big piece of the advertising puzzle… a puzzle not complete until all of the pieces are in place.

“Advertising is totally unnecessary. Unless you hope to make money.” Jef I. Richards, Professor of Advertising, University of Texas at Austin.

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07
Jul
2009

When giving up control of the conversation goes bad (be prepared)

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By interactive

skittles-social-mediaAfter the initial buzz died down about their social media makeover, I was more than surprised to find that Skittles had a much bigger problem than design on their hands.

In an attempt at an uncommon approach to a traditional corporate site, last month Skittles managed to fully embrace the value of social media by launching a real-time Web site that integrated popular social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia.

It was obvious Skittles had succeeded in harnessing the power of social media, but at what cost? Yes, they gave people a reason to visit the site, but what I found was even more shocking than the new layout everyone’s been buzzing about. Following the trend of social media, Skittles allowed its customers to totally take control of the site’s content by rating videos, leaving comments and connecting with the brand. But did this clever approach to marketing backfire?

Where Skittles corporate had hoped to generate positive comments about the brand, readers can now see negative remarks about miscellaneous topics and even the brand itself. The abuse of the comments section is a disaster, especially when Skittles has no real way of monitoring what shows up. Creating a live Twitter stream that references people using the word “Skittles” leaves the brand vulnerable to profane and offensive comments, all in front of a national audience. Sounds like a big public relations problem to me.

Any business that could suffer from an instance of bad public relations needs to know how to handle a crisis before it occurs. In times like these, what you say is just as important as how, when and to whom you say it. For social media to be truly effective, you have to engage in the conversation, too. What Skittles did to cohesively brand its identity across multiple social media channels is a true work of genius in terms of online marketing. But does their lack of control and insight harm their core credibility as a brand, or is this just another example of poor execution? Should Skittles step in or sit back and let users control the conversation?

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06
Jul
2009

Why Sprint’s new campaign means more than just business

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By interactive

palm preAfter seeing this new TV spot last night, I was more than surprised to find it was part of a new advertising campaign from the No. 3 wireless company, Sprint Nextel.

This is huge for two reasons:

  1. Sprint’s previous campaigns have typically taken the classic, traditional approach.
  2. Their ads are usually presented upfront with a product and brand push.

Even though the commercial promotes their 4G network, what’s different this time is that Sprint has finally taken its CEO Dan Hesse out of the picture and centered the brand around (drum roll, please) you.

Hoping to bounce back from their loss of 1 million users in the fourth quarter, Sprint urges its customers to get connected and see “What’s Happening Now.” The campaign whimsically but simply gives statistics of things like how many people are sending text messages during a business meeting, to how many tweets just took place on Twitter—all happening in real-time (a lot like this viral video).

But Sprint hasn’t just mixed the campaign into traditional TV commercials, either. They’ve also integrated digital billboards, online banner ads, a sleek interactive micro-site, and homepage takeovers on YouTube, Yahoo, MSN and AOL that will begin at the end of the month.

So, has this campaign launched Sprint’s brand into the now? Or has it totally missed the mark? Whether this campaign proves successful at pulling in new business or not, Sprint has definitely hit on something other brands, big and small, need to pay attention to. While the ads don’t necessarily tell us why Sprint is better, the campaign does illustrate the appeal of the data-addictive customer, putting social networking sites like Twitter into the mainstream. I think it’s a defining moment that shows Sprint is not only evolving, but leading the way. This new world of brand marketing and integration is about starting a conversation by engaging a community (in Sprint’s case “the now” community). What Sprint has built is a social media strategy centered on technology, information and human experiences—and, of course, all the things you can do on its network with their new phone.

The magic in marketing is evolving. It is no longer enough to simply tell the consumer to purchase your product or service. As seen by Sprint, the new world of marketing involves an engagement with the consumer. Traditional broadcast media is still a branding juggernaut but social media and the phenomena of multimedia and micro-sites are here to stay. The Internet is the new domain of peer to peer, or word of mouth advertising; it is the holy grail of marketing. By participating with the consumer where he or she resides on a social level, marketers can spark and reinforce the positive brand images that allow a video to go viral, or allow a brand to be trusted and loved.

Remember, advertising introduces a brand—the consumer’s interaction with the product in their daily life (including online) is what creates brand loyalty. How effective is this innovative approach to marketing? Does this kind of campaign have the potential to go viral?

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05
Jul
2009

Think quickly! Exploding demographics on social networks might mean revisiting the business model

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By interactive

social-media-waste-of-timeGuess what marketers? The median age for Facebook and Twitter is now over 25. In fact, studies show that the largest single group leading the recent trend is adults 35 to 44. Meaning that buzz you’ve been hearing isn’t just hype after all.

Welcome to version 2.0 of one of the oldest forms of advertising. It excels at three key measures: reach, frequency and targeting. It’s word of mouth marketing on steriods, and it’s definitely here to stay. But, is social media the end-all be-all to traditional advertising? No. Well, not yet anyway. Facebook has been around for years now, but with its popularity exploding the audience has shifted dramatically. In the past two months alone, the number of new members over the age of 35 has doubled. It’s now women over 55 who belong to the fastest growing group.

And this changing demographic doesn’t stop there. One of the most massive increases in audience growth is from Twitter. Already this month, Twitter traffic is up 700 percent over last year, drawing almost 10 million visitors worldwide in February this year. What’s even more surprising is that the average age for users is now 25 to 54-year-olds, making the median age of Twitter users 31.

So, what does this mean for advertising? It means if you have a Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking account, your target audience should be, well, you. Even though a chunk of activity still belongs to a younger demographic, adults are now significantly making an impression on social networks. This means they are more empowered to make decisions for themselves and others—influencing their friends, families and yes, even your brand. The scary exciting part? At the very same moment you are reading this, that number is rising, and fast.

Because social media has shown no signs of slowing, it’s not only become one of the quickest means to desiminate news, but a broadcast medium of instant communication—radically changing brand management, even public relations. While most brands are trying to figure out how to leverage this new medium in the future, we need to be rethinking how we are integrating social media into our online marketing efforts today. This probably means revisiting your business model and reevaluating the way you’re spending advertising dollars.

Just remember, even though social media has become a strong contender, it doesn’t mean it can stand alone. Social media is rapidly changing the way in which media professionals advertise and should be considered an important part when planning a campaign strategy. It’s time even traditional agencies be present, listen and engage—or be left in the dust. It’s called Advertising 2.0. You have the audience. What will you do with it?

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04
Jul
2009

The danger of public relations and social media (and by danger I mean opportunity)

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By interactive

Truth Justice Equality Public RelationsNo one wants to believe there will come a day when their brand will face a public relations disaster. But the truth is, even though we take all the precautions in the world, we now live in a digital age where the chance of facing a PR nightmare is higher than ever. With the power of new media platforms like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, the smallest of incidents can end up as instant phenomenas of unmitigated brand damage. The question is, do you have a plan in place to monitor and potentially prevent a PR crisis? What about respond to a public outcry against your image?

Take for instance the recent story in which two former Domino’s employees posted videos of themselves doing disgusting things to food while on the job. No prevention plan in the world could have protected the 50-year old pizza company from something like this happening. It was an unfortunate storm that involved rogue employees combined with the viral power of today’s social networks. In just a few short hours, a video was posted to YouTube, word quickly spread through Twitter and Facebook, and eventually traditional media outlets picked up on it. Overnight, Domino’s had taken a huge pie in the face.

So what did the company do in response to this calamity? Send out a verbose corporate press release that would only further publicize the humiliation against the brand? No. Domino’s chose to take its response directly to the very outlets where the story spread in the first place. Representatives contacted bloggers who were spreading the story and gave personal responses decrying the actions of its employees. Company president Patrick Doyle posted a video apology on YouTube, and the company reached out and thanked the customers who alerted it to the incident—finally tracking down those involved through Twitter.

In other words, Domino’s took its message directly to the public with absolutely no veil. By all accounts, an effective response far above and beyond anything a press release could have done. The circumstances may have been unique, but the lesson here isn’t. Just ask other long-established brands like Tropicana or Motrin about the power of the online crowd in spreading a backlash. It happened to them and it can happen to you.

If you haven’t done so already, the time must be sooner than later to ask yourself how well you’re prepared to monitor, prevent and respond if something similar were done to your brand. Are you doing enough to track conversations going on in social media to see what people are saying about you? Are you engaging with influencers and building relationships to know where to go to get a message spread quickly? What response plans do you have in place to react if a situation came knocking at your doorstep? If you haven’t asked yourself these questions then you need to start now. [insert shameless plug here] Oh yeah, ask us—we’d be happy to help.

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03
Jul
2009

Why pay-per-click advertising makes cents

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By interactive

staying-up-in-down-economy-marketing-strategy-cmos-wipro-best-buy-youngThe most common question I’ve been hearing lately seems to be, “what are some ways to get the most efficient results from our advertising budget?” With the condition of today’s economy, it isn’t surprising that more and more brands are looking to get added value out of their spends. In the fight between limited consumer consumption and an even more limited consumer attention span, businesses need to tread strategically to find the best return on their costs.

When answering that question, I find myself commonly coming to a recommendation of contextual pay-per-click advertising. This strategy allows you to focus your money on qualified traffic that surrounds relevant search queries and Web sites that your target audience is already out there using. Remember, your customers are out there looking for you, it’s just a matter of making sure you show up at the most opportune time with the most optimized strategy.

PPC advertising, for those unfamiliar with the term, utilizes platforms run by search providers such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN adCenter. These systems allow an advertiser to target keywords and Web placements based on contextual factors that ensure your ads are showing up in accordance with your goals in seeking out potential new customers. This of course differs from traditional media buying efforts that are focused more on maximum exposure to a demographic or outlet, regardless of whether the user is looking for the service or product. This isn’t to say that those types of traditional advertising methods aren’t viable, but for now let’s delve a bit deeper into the unique values of contextual advertising.

With PPC advertising, you’re setting up a campaign that only costs you money when a user physically clicks one of your ads as opposed to paying for the chance to simply have your ad viewed. This allows you to track and analyze a direct cost with a directly measurable result when it comes to the traffic you are sending to your Web site. With the ability to bid specific amounts on individual keywords and placements, the opportunity to optimize based on your ROI will help you figure out exactly where to best spend your money. If you find a keyword that is getting a large amount of targeted click-throughs, you can easily scale your budget knowing that every dollar spent will return two dollars in profit. On the flip side, if you’re spending money on keywords that aren’t performing to expectations, you can simply pause your bids and readjust your strategy to optimize accordingly.

When you’re running a PPC campaign, you control exactly when, where and what ads are displayed. There are no contract terms or minimum budgets when it comes to getting your contextually targeted ads up in front of your audience. The market will tell you exactly the costs of your advertising and you can decide at any point to make adjustments based on the response. You also have the ability to interchange specific ads, and target placements and bids to ensure that you’re continually optimizing your campaigns for the best results. There is no worse feeling for an advertiser than to see a media buy not perform and knowing that there’s nothing you can do about it. The flexibility that comes with PPC advertising mitigates that risk.

One of the biggest advantages of PPC advertising is the statistics that come along with your campaign. You have the ability to see exactly how much each keyword click costs, how many of those clicks convert into sales/leads for your company and any number of additional relevant measurements. The level of data that you get (all in real time) lets you to focus and optimize your strategy based on concrete analytics. This allows you to take a smarter look to see exactly what does or doesn’t work. At Seventh Point, for example, we work with our clients to make sure we’re constantly testing and comparing every measurable statistic so we can know which ads, keywords and placements out perform each other. Once we get our campaigns to profitable levels, it’s just a matter of scaling the strategy to maximize the value of our client’s dollar.

With the transparent and flexible methods involved in PPC advertising, brands now have taken control away from gatekeeper media sources and are taking their budgets into their own hands to find the most efficient means of getting their message in front of consumers. When done correctly, contextual advertising can be a powerfully cost-effective method of telling the story of your product or service as a standalone or complementary advertising strategy.

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02
Jul
2009

A depressing economy doesn’t have to depress your share of voice

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By interactive

header01Businesses have been trimming the fat for years, but now most are being asked to pull their belts tighter than ever before. And, as most marketers know, it is advertising budgets that are usually the first to experience the crunch.

But what if I told you that times like these are rare and perfect opportunities for bold companies to seize the quiet marketing frontier; to speak more loudly and more often than their timid competitors, and to gain market share and share of voice.

Easier said than done right? In a recent Virginian-Pilot article, Beach Ford president Tom Barton III was quoted as saying that he has responded to the recent crisis by (wait for it) cutting his advertising.

It’s important to remember, especially in times like this, that your marketing dollars fund more than just advertising. Don’t forget that public relations can often accomplish the same, if not more than advertising, too. Under the public relations umbrella at Seventh Point falls something called “special events.” What an event can bring you is a truly special, low-cost opportunity to engage with your ideal target audience in the most organic and personal arena.

Take for example the recent opening of LTD Management Company’s aloft Chesapeake hotel (a sister brand to the upscale W Hotels). Like most industries, tourism is suffering and unfortunately for LTD, its business is building and managing hotels. That means getting people to eat, drink and lodge in its properties during a time when people are very reluctant to splurge. Because this particular hotel serves as hip destination for the local community rather than just the traveling public, LTD decided to host a grand opening event for the Hampton Roads community, instead of spending enormous amounts of money in traditional advertising. The goal of the “aloft Chesapeake a:bash” grand opening event was to introduce this chic, sophisticated concept to a Hampton Roads community that was largely unfamiliar with thinking of hotel bars as places to see and be seen.

With a tailored list of over 300 guests hand-selected to fit the profile of the trendy, style-conscious aloft Chesapeake audience, LTD welcomed the invitation-only, A-listers to an intimate evening to experience aloft accommodations first hand. The cost of the event was slight, but the results were huge and generated  conversation in numerous mediums. What this event accomplished was awareness of a unique, new outlet and buzz about its energy and excitement. People throughout the local community were amazed by the quality and personality of this hotel, and because of the “hip” demographic targeted by aloft, the social marketing opportunities were gigantic. The event was not only blogged about; Twitter updates went flying, post-event pictures were posted to Facebook, videos were uploaded to YouTube, and a feature article in the local paper raved about both the hotel and event.

One thing we discovered: even in a poor economy, people still like to have fun. We are going to survive this economy, and as a business now is not the time to crawl into the fox hole. It’s time to think wiser, spend wiser and find cost-efficient ways to micro-market to your target audience.

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01
Jul
2009

Finding your needle in the haystack with SEO

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By interactive

header03Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the science of helping search engines and Internet directories find your Web site and favor your information as the most current and relevant over your competitors’ sites. SEO, simply put, makes your Web site appear higher in search results. When consumers find your Web site first they buy from you, not the other guy.

You’re probably asking, “so, how does SEO impact me?” According to a 2008 CMO Council survey, 80 percent of decision makers say they found the vendor they bought from, not the other way around. As of July 2008, Google announced that it has identified over one trillion unique pages on the Internet. That’s a lot of competition for your potential customers to sift through before they find you.

Without a targeted SEO plan, the likelihood that your intended audience will find your Web site is greatly diminished. With the enormous amount of noise and clutter on the Internet, high SEO rankings are essential. They also don’t happen by accident; you have to make them happen. Your SEO initiative has to be intelligently planned and as carefully executed as any other marketing program.

Between 70 and 80 percent of all online purchases start with a search engine query. A search engine optimized Web site can gain enormous new traffic, providing a significant return on your marketing investment. According to a June 2007 study by AOL, the difference between traffic for the number 10 search result versus the number one result averages a whopping 1,400 percent. That’s a lot of new customers!

According to Search Engine Watch, only 7 percent of searchers will go beyond the third page of listings. So without a well-planned SEO program, your Web site may be missed by up to 83 percent of your potential audience. That is a deficit no business can afford to give up.

I bet you’re thinking, “but my Web site was professionally built!” And I bet it works wonderfully, but it is most likely not search engine optimized. SEO is not a function of IT or Web design services, SEO is a marketing function. Many sites are built by Web design experts making great sites, but without the marketing strategy of built-in optimization. So you end up with a nice site, but important target audiences you wish to connect with may have trouble finding it.

There are a number of great tools online that will give you an overview of your SEO “grade.” I recommend running your URL through free SEO checkers to assess your current state of optimization. Here are a few that we use at Seventh Point:

  1. website.grader.com is one of the best free tools online to get an SEO report on your Web site. Very comprehensive information with a 0­­-100 grading system. Check this one first and often.
  2. www.seo-browser.com shows you how Google sees your Web site.
  3. www.reactionengine.com is a wonderful tool that grades your Web site on an A-F scale and gives you tons of insight on the SEO readiness of your site.

So, what if you have a bad SEO “grade?” I often tell a potential client that becoming knowledgeable about SEO techniques is not rocket science. Some business owners and internal marketing departments have taken the time to learn about SEO and implement these lessons in their company Web sites with varying degrees of success. Additionally, SEO is a process that needs to be maintained through monthly “grooming.” This regular service, though not time consuming or expensive to complete, requires an almost constant monitoring of the Internet landscape and study of changing search engine rules and trends to be effective.

Becoming familiar with SEO is easy, but becoming an expert in SEO techniques and their implementation is extremely time consuming and difficult. It has taken me over eight years to learn and decode the secrets behind Yahoo! and Google. Hiring an in-house SEO guru can demand a salary approaching six figures. Therefore, outsourcing SEO services makes sense for most businesses.

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