The most appropriate way to think about email marketing programs, (when used as a method of long-term relationship building) is as ground cover. In battle terms, that was the early work of airplanes dropping bombs – not particularly targeted, but effective at softening up the beaches before the soldiers, tanks and snipers came over.

The snipers in this analogy are the most important part – they represent the one-to-one meeting, carefully aimed at the prospect’s key motivation.

Email marketing programs work best if you’re patient and multi-channel

When courting a beautiful woman, it’s best to work slowly, yet steadily. Make contact (soften up the beaches) about once every week or two, but don’t ever ask for the sale. Then, after the right amount of time, ask for a date, but keep that date in a noncommittal environment, like a coffee shop. Never ask for dinner on the first date; too intimate.

Emails can become overwhelming if you do them on a rigid schedule. If every week you’re sending something, I worry you’ll get stale and your audience will start to learn when to ignore your emails.

My advice is to take a more random approach. I do this with YouTube videos, Blog Talk Radio shows, and other inventive media. Then I might even call the target after hours to leave a voice mail guiding them to these new media. It shakes the courtship up a bit and keeps it interesting.

The trick is to understand how and when to use your assets

I’ve written before about orchestrating your entire multi-channel approach. If you think of your email marketing program as a steady campaign, then your more colorful assets, which are usually more difficult to make, can show up just in time to add some much-needed interest. Then back to the steady emails.

All of this is designed to stay top of mind, and to occupy a special place as a trusted advisor so that when the moment comes, you’ll be on the consideration set. Remember that email marketing programs occupy an important part of your relationship-building, but they’re only one part.

Of course, this wasn’t always the case. In the outdated mode of one-way mass communication, which dominated the marketplace as recently as 15 years ago, consumers had no say in what, where or how they received marketing messaging. And interaction was limited to filling out a business reply card and waiting for a phone call from a sales rep. In short, content was limited to a few paragraphs of ad copy or what an announcer could cram into a 60-second spot.

Social Media: a Vehicle, Not a Destination

Today, with the advent of social marketing – a.k.a. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, et al. – interaction is at the forefront. Friends, acquaintances and colleagues spend a majority of their time online sharing ideas, thoughts and sympathies with each other. But they also share links. Lots of links.

And those links lead to content.

Some of that content is created by individuals just for fun. Much is created by major commercial content providers, from online newspapers and magazines to humor sites to cause-related organizations.

This is where today’s marketer can fit in nicely.

Using valid direct marketing data in order to reach your target market on social networks and elsewhere, you can point them to your own content-rich direct marketing communications that can entertain or inform, and ultimately persuade your target to consider what you have to offer.

Good Website Content Writing = Satisfied Visitors

You see, a web presence without meaningful content to back it up is nothing more than window dressing. Without compelling content to attract visitors, your online marketing will gain little traction. And the simplest place to put your content? A blog.

Some people think that blogs are no longer relevant, having been supplanted by short, single-sentence posts in social media venues. But in truth, having a company blog is more important than ever.

We’ll discuss why in a future post.

Then there are the SEO scum who cheat the system

The system has been bilked for a very long time. I’ve written about this before. Read more about SEO scams here and more here if you’re really bored. My theory is that Google was simply recognizing that thousands of people are employed by these sleezy SEO companies and no one wanted to see folks lose their jobs. But, enough is enough.

Now it’s time for an honest assessment of companies based on what they offer consumers; and nothing else. The ranking algorithms of search engines are complex, yet mostly honest. They look at how long a website has been around – you have to earn it.  Then they look at what you say on your website – you have to be an authority. Then they (sort of) look at how many people think you’re an authority by linking to you – that part got mucked us just a weeeeeeeeee bit. This is the part that one search engine is clearly going to clean up. Maybe the others will as well.

Justice, thy name is Google

This is the fourth such article I’ve seen about SEO scams over the past few months. (Article here) I’m so delighted to read this that it warms my heart. The poor consumer doesn’t really know what determines which search results show up on the left side of Google or Yahoo. I’ll tell you why they are there – OFTEN, THE COMPANY SHOWING UP PAID A TON OF MONEY TO DRIVE THOUSANDS OF LINKS TO THEIR WEBSITE.
Period.
End of story.

The number one criteria for ranking companies high on the left-hand side of Google for faaaaaaaar too long has been how many links were pointed at your website. An entire industry sprang up to meet that need. 90% of them are SEO scum but, hey, it’s a job.

Now, it appears that it’s time for search engines to get honest about how “gamed” they’ve been over the past 10…er….20 years by this practice. But, once again, it’s Google who takes the lead. Bless them! Yahoo was looking so creepy in what showed up that I saw no logic logic to it at all (unless it was the logic of the almighty dollar).

Still I worry about honest SEO

The article above seems to want to reassure us that only “12% of search queries” will be affected by this. Well, which 12% ? I hope it’s not just the huge companies. What about the smaller companies who can’t afford to have an army of SEO scum pointing millions of links at them?

This article pretty much condemns Google. The most damning part is the Hitwise statistics which point out the 82% of searches on Bing are considered successful by users while only 66% of searches on Google are useful. “Useful” being measured in terms of bounce rate (or how long the user stayed on the website suggested by the search engine).

I believe it’s time that all search engines get real about what consumers want. Give up on the scam of link scumming and get serious about content. You might say we’re biased because we’re a content writing company. I’d counter that we’re also a group of folks who use search to find the best results, and we’re tired of the crap showing up in our queries. Give us content that answers our questions and solves our problems.

If you run a company who depends on your website to drive new customers in the door, then stop looking for the quick way to scam the system and build something real on the Internet. Stop going to the SEO scum and call Ion Leap instead.

Ion Leap builds lasting brands with valued content.

In the middle ages, there was a process to becoming a member of a guild. You had to work hard for years as an apprentice under a master craftsman. After a specified number of years, and by showing good craft, you might be admitted to the guild. The Internet isn’t much different. If you work hard at being a valued member of your chosen field, and you do so consistently among your peers, they will value you. Search engines like Google and Bing will see them valuing you with their links pointed at your website. As a result, the search words you seek will choose you and you will gain search page ranking on the phrases you seek.

Search page ranking requires hard work and consistency.

The reason most companies fail at this is because it demands gobs of time. If you’ve got a good Internet presence, then you’re wrangling a 20-headed beast – content writing, link building, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, mobile, e-marketing, and countless other outlets and activities require constant care and feeding. Very few companies have time to manage all this. That’s why we started Ion Leap. We’re a content-driven, Internet-focused advertising firm that helps companies get found by customers using strategic web publishing and inventive tactics. Our mission is to coax search engines into loving you.

If you write things people value,
you will be rewarded with links pointing at your website.

If you have links pointing at your website,
the search engines will reward you with a higher ranking in the organic search results.

People will follow you on your Facebook Fan Page.

You will have friends on Twitter.

Recently, we invented a very simple and addictive Facebook and blog writing idea for a famous resort in the Caribbean. It’s very visual in nature and lots of fun. All it requires is that they bring more friends who will want to participate in the fun.

In a very simple and relevant way, we added a great deal of value. The client will be rewarded with tons more followers, many of whom will give them money to visit their resort.

Internet marketing shouldn’t focus on words.

It should be about ideas. Probably about ideas that sell things.

That’s not un-zen…selling stuff.
It is the inevitable outcome of creating wonderful things.

The Internet really is no different than the real world. If you are wonderful,
people will find their way to you.

If people aren’t finding their way to you, it’s probably because you are in your own way.
Or at least your website is.

We begin by getting your website
out of your way.

Get your blog writing right

The problem with such blog writers is they don’t value their blogs as resources for content delivery. At Ion Leap, we represent trusted brands on the Internet, so we do our homework in their categories with great care. Every word is considered; every sentence checked for accuracy.

Does your blog writer value accuracy?

Even the slightest slips on blogs can harm a company’s reputation among its customers. Ion Leap regularly gets our clients to the point where they trust us with their content writing so much that they no long check everything we post.

We bring subject matter experts to our clients and add SEO value (and content reliability) to every blog post they write. In the end, both Google and our clients’ prospective customers find incredible value in what we write.

Ion Leap builds long-term brand value with trusted content

We’ve been in marketing for over 20 years and have been trusted by some of the country’s most-loved brands. On reason we hold this trust is that we’re careful with how we represent our clients’ content.

If you’d like your company’s voice to be managed by consummate professionals, contact us at the link above and ask about our blog writing services. We’ll happily provide a list of contacts among our current customers so you can see for yourself how we handle content writing for brands like yours.

Blog writing and content will become more important

The age of attempting to trick the search engines with link building spam is, hopefully, soon to wind down. When I see websites out there who have 65,000 links pointing to them (and they sell cat food), then it’s time for Google to begin to devalue this practice and begin to focus on written content. There’s no better way to handle your content than blog writing.

If you currently have a blog parked on your website, you’re part of the way towards building your content assets for search success, but it’s not enough. You must have a key phrase strategy which you incorporate very carefully into each of your blog postings. If you’re writing it carefully enough, you will be ideally positioned for SEO success in 2011. If you’re not, it’s time to call Ion Leap for advice and writing services.

Social Media will continue to rise in importance

While the pundits who predict that social media will take over everything are certainly over-reaching, they’re not wrong about its increasing importance. Perhaps the success of sites like Facebook, Twitter and Stumbleupon are a reaction to too much commercialism in other places on the web. People turn to groups of friends for advice, recommendations and entertainment.

We at Ion Leap think the combination of social media plus mobile delivery will point the way to the future of digital marketing; if not in 2011, then shortly thereafter. And we’re preparing all our clients to be ready for it.

One thing we’re beginning to ponder for 2011 is how to build a more effective corporate presence in the social world. We’re looking at all sorts of solutions to keeping companies relevant as everything moves more towards personalization. Can a corporate fan page on Facebook retain its relevancy. We have some very unique suggestions we’re talking to our customers about. We can’t reveal some of our techniques here, but we’d be happy to speak over the phone – (917) 676-6788.

Mobile delivery will be critical

In 2011 and onwards, mobile delivery will be more important than ever. Having a position you can occupy by using this delivery platform will be terribly important.

We’ve blogged before about the importance of positioning yourself in the growing localization movement. This is only one part of your critical mobile strategy. It’s time to start crafting your mobile content strategy; and we’re not just talking about blog writing. We’re recommending all our clients move quickly to establish a brand in mobile delivery. If you manufacture a product then you should be able to guide prospective customers to it; but there are far more lasting brand opportunities available to you.

By building your brand based on localization services with a content / context overlay, you’ll be grabbing space that others will clamor for years from now.

Begin now to set up your Internet presence so you encourage your customers to transact business with you via electronic funding. Make it simple and intuitive now, with just a few options for purchase, so your customers look to you as a leader in the mobile transaction space.

Your blog can help

If your website has a blog on it, it makes a major difference in how it’s viewed by search engines. Freshness of your content is now viewed as a plus. This is a way the search engines are offering more “real-time” value to their users. It’s also a guarantee that the search results don’t present stagnant websites which haven’t had anything new to say for years.

Writing on your blog is one of the easiest ways to update a website. Because it’s a content management system, it makes it possible for just about anyone to update the site.

But updates aren’t enough

Ion Leap blog writer teams know what Google and your business prospects are looking for. While fresh content is part of it, there’s much more to it. Our content writing seamlessly weaves key phrases into the pages in a particular density which makes it very attractive to search engines, and that’s one of the main ways we make your site rank higher. There are others.

Site structure and SEO

From a long-term perspective, we’re extremely pessimistic about the current practices of ‘link farming,’ directory hammering and other methods which have nothing to do with creating real website value. However, we also understand how Google works and we will get your website compliant with what the search engines want. There are SEO practices which can make a major difference in how your site is crawled by search engines.

We write content that creates long-term value

Ion Leap is all about long-term value. We create website content that your readers will find incredibly useful. Many of them will bookmark it. Others will point links at it. In the end, this is the way both your prospects and the search engines will value websites. By starting to create content of lasting value now, you’ll be set for the future. A blog writer team from Ion Leap will combine the artistry of persuasive writing in any business category with an SEO writer who makes sure Google will also love the page.

To learn more about how an Ion Leap Blog writer team can get you ranked higher on Google, use the “Contact” link above.

This site has QR readers you can pull into your phone. From what I’ve read by 2011, almost all phones will be QR enabled. QR was originally invented 10 years ago by the Japanese to be faster than barcodes. Japan is way ahead on this one; kinda like the early days of SMS.

To us, what’s fun here is the possibilities of what happens between the media. For instance, the typical business card. Mine has a QR code on it. When scanned, it will bring up a private website which will have full contact information, work samples, news, etc. All this will be a mobile site.

Here’s a funny one – Pet Place dot Com. Amazingly, 3,952 other websites have pointed links at this website. Oh, really??!! They started their website in June of 1998 (go to WhoIs dot com and look them up). So they’ve had time to acquire a good deal of outside websites who are fans…but 3,952? No Way. These guys have hired a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company who’s been planting links in directories all over the internet.

Strange inconsistencies

There’s another company out there called Cat Care dot Com who also shows up on page one on a search for the phrase “Cat Care” and they only have 82 links pointed at them. The difference? They’ve been around since 1996 and have a different approach to their website – one that Google and human beings like better.

Then I did a search for the phrase “Cat Food.” One of the top 10 websites is Iams dot Com. Amazingly 3,229 other websites have pointed a link at Iams dot Com. Did you point a link at Iams? I sure didn’t.

FancyFeast dot Com also started their website in 1996. Yet they have only 189 links pointing at their website. So why are both showing up on page 1 of a Google search for the phrase “Cat food?” We’ll get to that in a few paragraphs. First, what’s going on out there?

SEO link hammering and how to beat it with an honest approach.

Don’t get me wrong. SEO companies serve a purpose, especially in some categories. But when I see thousands of links pointing to a company’s website and they make cat food…come on now…something is wrong. Are that many people passionate about cat food? And why are so many crazy about Iams yet not Fancy Feast. My cats always loved the later brand far more than the former, but even then I didn’t get so excited about it that I got on every website I manage and point a link at the company. No, something is clearly going on here.

SEO companies make their money primarily by getting onto directories out there and planting links. There are 2 kinds of directories – 1. Listings like Search Site dot Com 2. Article submission sites like Buzzle dot Com

SEO guys typically hate the article approach because it requires a lot of work and it’s a slow way to build up off-page link credibility. There are some other arguments against this approach that make sense, like not wanting to compete against your own website. But a great reason to use these sites is that you can plant an anchor text link in a page full of relevant content full of key phrases. Google likes that.

Why this is good for you…and Ion Leap

In certain categories, it’s very clear that everyone on the top couple pages of a Google search results page (SERP) is using SEO companies to plant tons of links. So once every company out there has 22,000 outside links pointed at their website, then how will you compete?

You’ll have to put up relevant content for your audience and it will have to be really good content.

We have to admit, we do link building too. But Ion Leap does it in a far more careful way than just hammering links onto directories. I won’t go into our full approach here because it’s proprietary, but as you read through out website you’ll begin to see that the difference between us and SEO companies is that we’re very careful and are building lasting value for brands by using blog writer teams to create high value content writing. Internet marketing at Ion Leap is not instant. It can take us several months to get some companies in competitive categories ranked well. But once we achieve this with solid content writing by our blog writer teams and careful link building, you’ll be next to impossible to get around on the ranking.

If there’s a level above “white hat” in the world of SEO practices, that’s Ion Leap. We are a more careful internet marketing company.
______________________________

Steve St. Clair runs Ion Leap and, for fun, runs the Sinclair DNA study, which studies the history of the Sinclair family using the wonderfully accurate science of DNA. Through this study, Steve has applied the rigor of DNA he applies the clarity of marketing data and metrics to clients’ rankings on Google and Bing.