Every industry has its own language – the Internet Marketing world is no different. For those of us who work in the industry, it can be so easy to get swept up in the jargon that we forget not everyone uses these terms on a daily basis. At Astonish Results, we’re constantly communicating with clients who do not have backgrounds in Internet Marketing, so it’s important that we stay away from the lingo we’ve become accustomed to and speak in plain English.

My goal for this post is to translate some of the terms we throw around most often into basic English. Here we go…

Internet Marketing

The practice of marketing products or services over the internet. It is also referred to as online marketing, web marketing, or digital marketing. Internet marketing includes websites, email marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and social media.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization – The practice of helping a website show up in the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Search engine optimization is an internet marketing strategy that analyzes web searches – from determining how the search engines are ranking websites in the search results to figuring out what people are searching for and what specific terms (or keywords) are being used.

SEM

Search Engine Marketing – also known as Paid Search – is the practice of increasing a website’s exposure through paid search tactics such as PPC (pay per click). In a very general overview, SEM involves paying to have a search result appear when a search is done for a certain keyword term. If someone clicks on your ad, you pay an agreed upon price. The goals are in line with those of an SEO strategy, but SEO involves organic results and SEM involves paid results.

Link Building

Link building is the practice of getting other websites to link to your site in order to boost rankings in the search engines. Having a relevant, quality website link to your site is like getting a vote. If the search engines see that other websites want to share your information and promote your website, then they are more likely to deem your site worthy of a higher search ranking.

Search Spiders

When we refer to search spiders, or web crawlers, we’re referring to the computer program that can browse the web to find search results. The search engines use search spiders to come up with a quick, up-to-date, organized list of what’s available on the web so the search engine can then determine how relevant the content is – this turns into the search results you see on Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

Unique Content

We all know about plagiarism and the negative consequences associated with it – providing unique content for your website and blog will keep you out of trouble. The search engines love fresh, honest, helpful content – doing so will make your site seem more useful. Every page on your website and every blog post should say something different. You cannot copy content from your website and post it on your blog – the search engines will recognize this as duplicate content and you could be punished. The best way to stay in the search engines’ good graces is to create unique content every time you write.

Search Volume

Search volume is the number of times a certain term is typed into the search engines on a monthly basis. When we decide which keywords should be used in your SEO strategy, we are comparing the search volume for hundreds of terms to determine which are the best fit. In addition to the search volume, we need to look at a term’s search competition before we decide to select it as one of your keywords.

Search Competition

A term’s search competition lets us know how many other sites are trying to be found for the term. If we find that a term has a search competition of 100% then we know it will be very difficult to rank for that keyword because a lot of other sites are also trying to rank for it. We want to find a term that has a high search volume and a low search competition when we are selecting your keywords.

There is much more internet jargon that we use on a daily basis, this was a peak at the topics we reference most often. What are some of the Internet Marketing terms you hear on a regular basis? Let us know if there are any terms you need clarification on and we can feature them in a future post!

In every case, posting the content online you write for your agency is never enough. Just because you make a blog post or a press release available on the internet doesn’t mean that everyone will access it. Let’s be honest, these posts are often tucked away on websites and in order to get the word out you need to do things like post them on your Facebook and Twitter accounts in the hope that your friends and followers will relay the message. However, sometimes even that isn’t enough so it becomes necessary to consult alternative methods to link sharing, one of these methods being social bookmarking. Bookmarking websites have been around for a while, but only recently have they begun gaining steam in the business community. While most people use these for news and finding unique articles, your company should be implementing them to grow traffic to your insurance agency website. But how is this done? How should your agency go about sharing content on social bookmarking sites? It’s easy!

Your best bet is start off with three of the most common bookmarking sites—Digg, Reddit, and Stumbleupon. These sites—especially Stumbleupon and Reddit—are commonly used for internet users to share links of news articles or anything interesting they find on the web. Websites are separated and shared via categories, so for instance topics such as “news,” “entertainment,” and “lifestyle” are commonly browsed tabs. What sets apart social bookmarking from social media is that social bookmarking allows you to reach an audience outside of your community on Facebook and Twitter. If done correctly, your links will hopefully show up in lists under whatever category you choose.

In order to bookmark a link, you’ll need to create a login for every site you want to bookmark with. For now, we’re going to use Reddit as an example because not only is it one of the most visited bookmarking sites, it’s the 45th most visited website in the U.S., according to Alexa.  After registering and creating a username and password, you’re ready to begin bookmarking! To start, jump to Reddit’s homepage where you will see medium-sized text reading “Submit a link” in the upper right hand corner. You’ll be brought to a page where the next step is to fill out information regarding the link you’re posting. Whether it’s a blog post, press release, or any other form of content, it’s important to make sure your title is creative and eye-popping while also including your keyword. If you’re having trouble coming up with a catchy title that includes the keyword, don’t worry; making the title stand out is the most important thing and in some cases it’s okay to omit the keyword. Once you come up with a title, all you need to do is copy and paste the link from your post and you’re site is bookmarked!

Once you start bookmarking your pages, make sure to keep posting them on your social media sites as well: the goal is to reach as many people as possible. Once you start bookmarking every piece of content you post online, you should start seeing better results and more hits to your website.

In addition to Reddit, Digg, and Stumbleupon, here are additional bookmarking sites to consider: Delicious, Jumptags, and, of course, Google.

Most users flock to the internet’s search engines for one thing: to find help.  Help in finding the answer to a question.  Help in solving a problem that they have. Help in purchasing the right car at their local dealership.

Being visible on a variety of keyword searches in Google is applicable and valuable for businesses in every industry.  The world’s largest companies use their websites as the best (and most accessible) source of information about their brand, products, or services. At the same time the world’s smallest companies have established a web presence as a vital lifeline to previously inaccessible markets.

In the end, search engines pull them all together: the smallest companies can compete right next to the largest.  Search engines are the great equalizer of digital marketing.

Or are they?

Not all markets are the same. The search “landscape” for certain industries are more competitive than others.  The big box electronics chains are fighting tooth and nail for top position on keywords like“blu ray dvd player” and “flat screen tv”.

The insurance industry, both personal and commercial products, is no different.  In fact, one leading industry blog just proclaimed the search landscape for insurance-related searches to be the most competitive amongst all PPC keywords. A study conducted on the average cost-per-click (CPC) across millions of keywords found that insurance-related terms were the most expensive, ahead of keyword groups such as “mortgage” and “loans”.

Does that mean that this search landscape is inaccessible and cost-inefficient for the smaller agencies in the industry?  I would offer an emphatic “NO”.  In fact, I believe just the opposite: the high competition in this particular realm indicates the sheer demand for insurance information that potential customers are looking for. Does that mean that smaller agencies should focus their PPC marketing dollars into bids for high-dollar keywords like “car insurance”?  No.  It simply means that these agencies need to have their paid search campaigns strategies modified to get the biggest “bang” for their marketing buck. There is room in this competitive space to be active…and profitable!  After all, if 80% of all insurance customers are beginning their search for their policy online, can you afford to ignore this marketing tactic?

Here are some strategies to be competitive in a competitive paid search marketplace:

With these simple steps, you are well on your way to becoming effective in a competitive advertising space.  Companies of any size can be active in this marketing medium, and capitalize on all of those people who are saying “HELP!” to their search engines.

Fear has a lot to do with the unknown. SEO is still a relatively new development in the marketing industry, so it stands to reason that many companies are hesitant to dig into it. I’ve outlined five of the top reasons companies fear search engine optimization in hope that eventually we can quell these fears. The more you learn about SEO, the less intimidating it will become and the easier it will be to implement a solid optimization strategy.

Fearing SEO or being intimidated by all of the work required of a successful strategy is no reason to steer clear of this proven marketing tactic. According to G.I. Joe, knowing is half the battle – so start your education today. If you can grasp the fundamentals of SEO, then you are one step ahead of the pack. If you don’t have the time to implement an SEO campaign on your own, team up with a consultant but be sure to stay away from the false “quick results” scams out there. Then prepare yourself for some hard work and eventually you’ll see some astonishing results!

The importance of an optimized Google Places listing is a vital piece of your overall SEO campaign. For many businesses, capturing the local traffic will greatly increase their leads, conversions and revenue. Since the Google Places update that brought along the blended search results of Places listings integrated into organic SERPs, Google has continued to refine and reject listings that it feels do not fall within the proper guidelines. If your listing has been dinged for spam or needs some sprucing up, here are a few guidelines you should follow when setting up or re-optimizing your Google Places listing.

-Categories: Your categories should not contain any type of geo-information such as city or state information. The categories can a place where you may want to stray into trying to fit your keyword terms but resist the urge. Your listing will likely get flagged for spamming the categories section. Instead select the categories from Google that are the best fit for your business. If necessary, create your own descriptive custom category but be cautious with your keyword usage here.

-Business Name: Real Name no geo-terms or keywords stuffed into the title. Your Places title should be the same name that your business is known as in the real world. Do not add additional terms to help yourself rank higher-your listing is very unlikely to be published. Keep your business name the same through all of your listings.
EX. If your website’s Title Tag says . Uniform, matching data is very important to Google.
-Street Address: This should be an actual brick and mortar location, no PO boxes. If you have more than one location there should be individual logins for each address with a separate login. Contact information should match across all listings and citation sites and the information should be crawlable on your website. The crawlable data should match with the listing information on your Google Places listing.
-Local Phone Number: When searching for a local business, many people want to have a local contact phone number to call, not an 800 number. Like your address, your phone number should be crawlable on your website to allow Google to match up your listing information and your website.
-Local Area Code on Place Page: Same as the address and phone number, the zip code of your business will have a lot to do with your agency appearing in Places SERPs for a given locale. It is not impossible, but more difficult, to target a city that is out of your area code without a local link building strategy.
-Inbound links and Page Authority of your website: The amount of inbound links and page authority of your site also plays a role in how your Google Places listing ranks. A site appears to be more relevant and popular when it has many backlinks and will likely rank ahead of a brand new site with very few links. A technique that works really well to improve your backlink profile is to actively blog and build links pointed back to your product pages.

To begin to rank you need understand that Google looks at your local listing and wants to match up the information from your site to your Google places page. If your information is all correct, the listing is more likely to appear in search engine results. When you have confusing or misleading information, Google will definitely be less likely to publish your Places listing near the top of the page or even display it in SERPs at all.

Since the release of Twitter, there has been a misconception about its purpose. Many people believe that it is only useful for viewing status updates from those that you are following. In reality, it is so much more than that.

Although Twitter is a great way to keep your friends updated about events and other interesting information, it can also be utilized as an effective insurance marketing tool. Twitter is a practical way for businesses to keep their existing customers updated regarding any company news, events, and new product information.

While there are so many different tools available to help you get the most out of Twitter, I am going to narrow down a few of the more popular tools that can help you set the framework for your insurance sales strategy.

Here are a few basic applications that can be used to help you get started on promoting your business on Twitter:

Socialtoo.com:
Socialtoo is a free, handy tool that has many different uses! With this tool, you can:

• Keep track of all the people who have followed or unfollowed you on Twitter
• Have the ability to send a confirmation message to anyone that decides to follow you
• Follow people that follow you
• Blacklist users you do not want to associate with and prevent them from following you
• Follow anyone that has followed you in the past
• Create surveys

TwitterTools
If you run your own WordPress blog, then this is a must have! This plugin gives you the ability can integrate your Twitter account and your WordPress blog together.

This tool allows you to pull your own tweets into your blog and also allows you to create new tweets on your blog posts from inside WordPress. With this tool, you can quickly notify your friends on Twitter when you made a new blog post.

TWhirl

Twhirl is a tool that allows you to post Twitter updates, follow your friends and search for specific tweets. Most of the features that are available on Twitter are also available on Twhirl.

With Twhirl you can:

• Post short 140-character updates about what you are doing
• Follow your twitter friends and read all their updates
• Send users direct, private messages

Social Oomph

Formerly known as TweetLater, Social Oomph is a service that offers users the ability to enhance their tweets and actually send them through an e-mail! The purpose of this application is to help you be more productive and save time with your social activities on Twitter, Facebook, and even your blogs.

You can either opt to take advantage of the free service or sign up for the paid service. The free service allows users to schedule the occurrence of all your Tweets, track keywords, receive e-mail digests of keywords you specify, and efficiently view your mentions and retweets across many accounts.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a Twitter application that is integrated with Twitter’s interface. This allows those who are logged in to send and receive tweets. You can also view other profiles. In comparison to many other Twitter applications, this is one of the more popular ones.

With TweetDesk you can:

• Quickly send out tweets
• Receive G-mail notifications in your inbox
• Unicode art including smiley faces, arrows, and even upside down text!

Although there are an overwhelming amount of tools available to help you maximize your insurance marketing strategy, hopefully you will take advantage of a few of these tools. Some of these applications you will find are easier to use than others, but it is important to figure out which ones will work best for your Twitter marketing strategy!

Writing content for the web is much like cooking – you have to use the right balance of ingredients in order to get the desired result. When it comes to search engine optimization, you need to find the right keywords and then use them appropriately throughout your content. There is a definite skill involved with finding the right measurement of keywords in your web content – if you use too few you won’t be recognized but if you use too many to the point of saturation your content can be perceived as spammy. Utilizing the proper portions is key.

SEO Recipe

Ingredients:

Strong Keywords

Keyword Links

Content

Directions:

Much like testing out new recipes and tweaking old favorites, there is no singular technique to creating the perfect SEO strategy. The search engines alter their algorithms on a regular basis, so it’s important to be willing to experiment with various methods. Now, while it’s important to try new practices there are definitely some aspects of search engine optimization that are go-to’s. It’s vitally important to determine a set of keywords and incorporate them naturally into your content. This is where things can start to get tricky – it is so important that you use your keywords appropriately. Think of keywords as an ingredient, if you use too much the whole recipe will be thrown off.

While we cannot say for sure exactly how many keywords should be used on each page of your site, it has been determined that overloading a website with keywords is a bad practice. Keyword stuffing has been identified as an unethical misuse of the web and it can even get your site penalized. Keyword stuffing can be defined as the act of over-filling your website’s pages with keywords by creating lists or paragraphs of terms or unnecessarily repeating terms throughout the content. The search engines want to promote a positive and useful user experience, keyword stuffing detracts from that.

Keyword overkill can also result from hidden text – for example: hiding terms by putting them in a white font on a white background, including text behind an image, or setting the font size to 0. Just because the standard user cannot see the hidden text doesn’t mean the search engines can’t. When the search engines find hidden text, they are likely to deem the website as untrustworthy because it is offering a different experience to users than the search engines. Such a discovery can mean reductions for your website’s rankings.

There are many facets that must be incorporated into your online marketing strategy, but a major key to remember is keeping a balance. Any reasonable talented chef understands that you need to use a properly portioned mix of ingredients – the same is true for search engine optimization.

So you have a Twitter! Now what? Many people have the misconception that Twitter is just updating your status…and who really wants to read about each other’s state of mind? The reality is, Twitter is much more than that.  Twitter is a way to build a community with people who have the same interests as you. It invites you to share what you have to say with people who are actually interested! Whether you use Twitter to stay in touch with friends or for insurance marketing, you should know how to utilize its tools and make the most of your account. Here are 10 ways to get your Tweeting on!

#1: Be inviting. Sure- you can just keep adding a bunch of people who are in the same field as you. Or you can take the time to get to know these people! Every once in a while, send a friendly message over—even if it is just to say thanks for the follow. Your followers will be happy to see that you are taking the time to actually communicate with them.

#2: Re-Tweet. This is considered a compliment in the Twitter world! Re-tweeting not only shows people that you are interested in what they had to say, but connect with them. And YES you have to actually know what you are re-tweeting.

#3: Be Human. A few things fall under this category. First, don’t just spit out links all day. People would like to know that there is actually a personable and caring person behind the username! It’s important to incorporate a few random thoughts or even highlight some of the days interesting events. People will be able to relate with you on a greater level than if you just link back to your sites and work. Second, if you get a response to something, respond back! Trust me, people love getting replies. Yes- it makes them feel special! And don’t try to be cool…you know you enjoy seeing your name with an @ in front of it!

#4: Become a slave to the trends. Trending topics are seen with the hash tag (#) in front of them. Use them! If you want your post to be seen by others, this is a great way to do so. It’s a great way to connect with users who have similar interests as you.

#5: Time your tweets. Okay so we KNOW you want to market and post every link to everything you do. However, no one wants to scroll for 2 minutes with just your face and a link next to it. Find a schedule that works for you! Maybe send out 2 links in the morning and then another few around lunch.

#6: Jazz up your bio. This is your chance to share who YOU are to your followers. Don’t make it sound like you are a workaholic! Write about your interests and share a few quirky facts about yourself.

#7: Picture perfect. A picture is just as important as your bio. No one wants to be friends with the giant egg. This will make others feel like you do not take your Twitter account seriously. Your company’s logo is also not a good way to go. Your followers want to see YOU. Give them what they want!

#8: Incorporate humor. Being serious all the time never got anyone anywhere. It’s important to amuse your audience! Tweet a line from a funny movie or something funny that has happened in the office. Score more points with a funny joke or riddle for all to solve. Show your followers what you got!

#9: Tweet regularly. If you do not keep up with your tweeting, people may assume you are inactive. This doesn’t mean you have to spend all your free time and weekends tweeting about your life, but it doesn’t hurt to open up outside of work hours sometimes! If you don’t feel like going on your computer, think about getting Twitter for your mobile device. Makes tweeting on the go easy!

#10: Reach out. Don’t just wait for people to come to you. Send an @ message to one of your followers and ask how they have been. Sending a direct message is also a nice way to reach out. Show people that you care!

Twitter success is not going to happen overnight! It takes a lot of time and patience with your followers. As long as you reach out to others, you are sure to become build a fan base and connect with others in your field of interest. Happy Tweeting!

The way we read text on a computer and the way we hear a sentence calculates differently in our brains.  For example if you read a joke, the meaning may go over your head, but if you hear the same joke out loud, it can be tremendously funny based on the tone of the person’s voice.  In this virtual age of internet marketing, as people rely more on technology rather than human interactions, our words may be getting lost in translation due to one key factor: voice.

According to The Angel Voice blog, the concept of voice has gotten lost in recent years with the internet and smart-phones taking us away from actually communicating with each other.  Most of the time, people would prefer sending a text to another person or posting a comment on their Facebook wall instead of having a one on one talk with a person, whether physically or on the phone.

However, although technology has given us the easy way out, what ends up truly disappearing in a conversation are the nuances that come across through the spoken word as opposed to the typed word.  The typed word is open to interpretation, but the nuances of how someone speaks those same words are well defined.

As far as social networks go, they are designed to help us keep in contact with friends, family, and business colleagues.   We “see” their words everyday and interpret them personally in correspondence to how we want to comprehend them, but we don’t get to “hear” their voice to grasp the real meaning.  But now that has all changed.  Two new services from Voice.com allow you to post voice comments to Facebook and Twitter, called Voice for Facebook and Voice for Twitter.

Registering for these applications allows you to call a phone number, record audio, and have that audio posted to your Facebook wall or Twitter feed.  To start using this tool, you must input your cell phone number and sync this number with your Facebook or Twitter account.  You’ll be given a phone number to call.  When you call the number, the application recognizes your caller ID and posts your audio comment to your social media outlets.

With voice enabling social media, you will now be able to hear how your friends feel about a particular topic versus someone trying to get their point across with multiple exclamation points.  However, no matter what means you use to share your messages with the world, it is important to remember that internet marketing is constantly changing.  As rapid as these alterations may seem, you can make the positive evolution necessary to increase your community following by relating to them with your own unique voice!

I know what you’re thinking – “how can an employee of the month contest help my social media efforts?” Too often we overlook the little things in the larger scheme of our internet marketing strategies. Social media is a key tool in personalizing your agency and business efforts. There are many different ways you can achieve such personalization, and your employees are integral to the process.

Agencies often focus so much on their brand in social media that they forget about the actual social aspect. Clients and potential customers can have a hard time putting real faces to your business name. Holding internal contests, like an Employee of the Month program, can help to meet that goal of showing the consumer your agency is full of real people, just like them. Speaking as the recent winner of the Astonish Results Employee of the Month vote, I can tell you first hand that this actually works. The point of social media is to get social with your audience and your clientele. Check out what happened when Astonish announced the Employee of the Month:

Both our employees and our clients were engaged in the posting. We also shared it on Twitter:

After we sent out this Tweet, my professional twitter account (noted in the Tweet) received a plethora of additional followers from our insurance agency partners.

Sharing this type of information is not only fun for your social media manager (or you) to do, but it also meets the goal of personalizing your business to employees and consumers alike. Culture is everything – your employees need to feel it and your customers need to feel it. Not only are you rewarding your employees with such a contest, but you’re also giving your customers a glimpse inside your company and its office culture. You’d be surprised how seemingly little things such as this boost consumer confidence in your brand and your business.

What are you doing within your agency that could work to personalize your social media? Do you hold similar internal contests? Share your feedback with me on Twitter, @Astonish_Shawna.