Choose the Right KPIs

First, you need to understand your business goals and strategic direction, as well as what drives revenue for your company. Then you can identify the KPIs that will tell you how effectively you are performing.

Key performance metrics should be quantitative (measurable), and help you evaluate how your business is performing (directional). They also must be actionable, so you are able to improve them. Everything else is a Vanity Metric.

You should also understand the difference between KPIs and metrics.

• KPIs – The  top 5 or 6 metrics that explain how well you are performing against a specific business objective. The best KPIs are presented as composites, so they provide the business intelligence you need to quickly gauge how they are changing over time, in what direction, and at what rate. For example, presenting net sales in the context of performance over last year is better than presenting just net sales.
• Metrics – Just about everything else. That doesn’t mean other metrics, like page views and downloads, aren’t still useful. However, they should be communicated in a meaningful way. For example, instead of presenting the raw number of downloads, provide a ratio.

Let’s say one of your business objectives is to improve customer retention. One of your digital objectives might be to drive repeat purchases. KPIs that you might consider include:

• Purchase frequency
• Average purchases per customer
• Repeat purchase conversion rate
• Repeat AOV (average order value)

I’ve found that using a visual hierarchy like the one below makes it easier to select and map the right KPIs for your business objectives and digital strategy.

Other Digital Reporting Tips

1. Prove an Executive Summary – To ensure everyone understands the key takeaways, always include a written, high-level overview, along with specific recommendations for improvement.
2. Show trending – Raw numbers are useless without the context that indicates direction over time.
3. Report meaningful data – There’s an infinite amount of data available today. Keep your team focused by distilling your reports down to the critical KPIs, and only providing the metrics that matter. Not only will you save time  and avoid unnecessary distractions, your reports will be easier for users to digest.
4. Avoid hyper-focus – Data fluctuates naturally, and  measuring it too frequently can sound false alarms, causing you to make unnecessary adjustments to your strategy. It’s also most valuable when used for trending. While some data points, like revenue, might need reported daily, monthly and quarterly reporting is usually adequate.
5. Do the deep dives – One of my friends came up with the really smart plan of doing a monthly “deep dive.” One month, he would go into detail around the checkout process. The next month, he might get into the weeds examining site search. This was great, because it provided us with a methodical approach for consistently improving the performance of our website, without dragging us down in data overload.
6. Automate reporting – Almost all analytics programs can be configured with a custom dashboard that displays the KPIs specific to your organization. Some, like Google Analytics, have hundreds of custom dashboard templates that can be installed, and further customized, in just a few minutes. They’ll even generate and send your report. Rather than wasting time on data collection and presentation, you can focus on what matters – analyzing and interpreting the information.
7. Know your audience – Executives, managers and project-level employees need different metrics. Rather than taking the one-size-fits all approach, giving everyone everything, create 2 or 3 different reports with the data relevant to them.

What to Metrics to Report

I’ve been helping clients create and interpret analytics for 15 years. The most difficult have been ones related to testing, collecting and evaluating data not available in current analytic programs; I had to do everything manually (or help them develop new reporting capabilities).

Thankfully, there are plenty of great metrics already available in most analytic tools, including Google, that will provide you with business intelligence and insight into how well your digital marketing strategy is performing.

Below are some metrics you may want to collect, broken out by dashboard view — there’s probably quite a few (really good ones) you aren’t using, yet!

Traffic Overview

• Page views
• Visits
• Unique Visitors
• % New Visits
• Revenue/Visit
• Pages/Visit
• Avg Visit Duration
• User Segments
• Bounce Rate
• Traffic by Source (direct, search engine, social media, email, display, ppc, referral)
• Avg Site Speed

Ecommerce Overview

• Revenue
• Conversion Rate
• AOV
• Products Sold
• Orders
• Revenue by Channel (direct, search engine, social media, email, display, ppc, referral), including conversion value, total conversions and % of total conversions
• AOV
• Top Products (# orders, quantity sold, revnue, avg quantity sold and % of total revenue)
• Top Categories (# orders, quantity sold, revnue, avg quantity sold and % of total revenue)
• Top Referrers (# orders, revenue, conversion rate, % total revenue, per visit value, AOV)
• dROI
• % of Total Sales
• CPA
• New Accounts (by source)
• Returning Customers/Retention Rate
• Assisted Conversions
• Abandoned Carts (# of orders, revenue)
• Promotions Activated
• Discounts Given (promotions)
• Top Campaigns (# orders, quantity sold, revenue, % of total revenue)
• Top Non Branded Keywords (visits, revenue)
• Visits & Revenue
• COTA: AOV Ratio
• CoCA:LTV Ratio
• Shopping Cart Removes
• Product Compares

Desktop Overview (repeat metrics to create Mobile and Tablet Overviews)

• Visitors
• Unique Visitors
• Per Visit Value
• Bouce Rate
• Revenue
• Conversion Rate
• AOV
• Products Sold
• Orders

Organic Search Overview (repeat for other channels)

• Marketshare
• Marketshare by Category
• % of Total Visits
• % of Total Revenue
• Visits
• Revenue
• Top Keywords (visits, revenue, AOV, conversion rate, revenue/visit, % total revenue)

Adwords Overview

• Revenue
• % of Total Revenue
• Impressions
• Cost
• ROI
• Cost Per Transaction
• Top Adwords Search Queries (visits, revenue, AOV, conversion rate, % of adwords revenue, % of total revenue)
• Top Campaigns (visits, revenue, AOV, conversion rate, % total revenue)

Social Media Overview

• Orders
• Visits
• % Total Visits
• Revenue
• Top Social Networks
• On Site Social Actions
• CTR
• Engagement
• New Visitor Acquisition from Social
• Audience Growth Rate
• Influence
• Reach
• Negative Feedback
• Likes, Shares, Retweets, Pins
• New Likes, Shares, Follows, etc.

Brand Overview

• Share of Voice
• Customer Satisfaction
• Mentions
• Complaints
• Returns
• Sentiment
• Engagement

Content Overview

• Most Popular Posts
• Top Converting Pages
• Top Landing Pages
• Top Exit Pages
• Most Shared Content
• Comments
• Most Commented Content
• Comment Response Rate

Email Overview

(In addition to the metrics provided by your email delivery provider.)

• New Email Subscriptions
• Subscription Conversion Rate

Live Chat

• Conversion Rate
• AOV
• Overall Generated Revenue
• % Assisted Transactions

Though I don’t have OnStar in my car, a recent tour of its command center was enough to convince me that everyone should have it. From the hands-free phone to satellite tracking in case of theft or accidents, OnStar and General Motors offer features that deliver a safer driving experience.

Before my tour, I was lucky enough to listen to Gary F. Grates, GM’s vice president of corporate communications/ North America. One of the items he communicated was GM’s key marketing message to consumers: “Quality and safety.”

If you’ve seen the OnStar or Hot Button commercials, you know their advertising is on track. However, as a Web marketer with a communications background, I was eager to see how GM promoted this “quality and safety” message through the search engines.

I’m sad to say they don’t.

I searched on Google for safe cars, anti-theft devices, family cars and more. There were no results in the top 30! I opened the source code, checked the meta keywords and searched again.

Other than phrases that used “OnStar” in the query, only “air bag deployment” returned a first-page result. Unfortunately, it linked to an OnStar.com pop-up window (no navigation) that created the dreaded user trap. It’s a useless link. Most users will leave the site, do another search and find a competitor’s site.

Since 65 percent of car buyers go online to research models before buying, according to an Autoshopper.com study, and the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) reach more than 80 percent of Internet users, implementing a plan to promote the “safety and quality” message online only makes sense.

Could GM and OnStar better communicate the safety and quality message through search channels? Yes. Yet even these world-renowned industry leaders have missed out on three basic search engine optimization steps:

• Optimize content for safety and security key phrases.
• Create additional content related to these terms, including optimized news releases.
• Advertise through Google AdWords or Yahoo Search for important or problem key phrases, especially those where competitors already advertise.

If I were Gary Grates or others in the driver’s seat at GM, I would recommend consulting with search engine marketing experts to develop a strategy that integrates the quality and safety message. With this guidance, GM and OnStar undoubtedly would earn first-page rankings for the terms that car buyers most commonly use in their online research.

Searches for Key Phrases

These key phrases from OnStar’s meta keyword tag generate approximately the listed number of searches each day, as reported by the popular keyword research tool WordTracker.

The only term to deliver a first-page result is “air bag deployment.”

As you can see, the GPS-related phrases generate the most traffic. GM and OnStar executives could consider this valuable insight into the mind of potential customers. One way to take advantage of it would be to create and optimize additional content that upsells OnStar’s GPS capability.

As you can see, the GPS-related phrases generate the most traffic. GM and OnStar executives could consider this valuable insight into the mind of potential customers. One way to take advantage of it would be to create and optimize additional content that upsells OnStar’s GPS capability.

Overview

When DoctorSolve Healthcare Solutions, one of the top-rated online Canadian pharmacy intermediaries, wanted to improve its Web sales, the company approached a Web development and Internet Marketing firm in Canton, Ohio, that specializes in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and online Public Relations, and PR Newswire, the leader in global commercial news distribution, targeting and monitoring services. DoctorSolve had to overcome a major obstacle: The average consumer was hesitant to believe that prescription medications imported from Canada were legitimate and safe.

“The biggest challenge for DoctorSolve was convincing consumers that purchasing prescription medications from their pharmacy was safe because the U.S. government, via the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was disseminating a contrary message to the general public,” says Melanie Broemsen, an SEO and online Public Relations specialist. “We felt that when presented with objective information about the safety of these drugs, U.S. consumers would realize that not only were the drugs safe, but that DoctorSolve offered a valuable service to Americans that otherwise could not afford necessary, life-sustaining medication.”

After studying current trends and opinions on the U.S. healthcare system, Broemsen helped DoctorSolve build an arsenal of factual information regarding the safety of imported prescription medications and collected additional patient testimonials.  These would be used throughout campaign to build credibility for the company, as well as dispel myths circulated by the FDA about the safety of imported drugs. The extensive medical background of the two founders, Dr. Paul Zickler and Dr. Paul Assad, added additional credibility to the campaign.

Challenge

DoctorSolve’s goal was to gain wide-range exposure, particularly in the senior market, says Phyllis Gerhardt, Marketing and Public Relations Director for DoctorSolve.  Since the company was primarily Web-based, it needed to take its Public Relations campaign online in order to reach its primary audience.  Broemsen planned an aggressive strategy which focused on developing news releases optimized for the search engines and distributed over PR Newswire, and educating consumers about the safety of drugs imported from Canada.

“The news releases not only offered our company a way to change the false perception that prescription medications ordered from an online pharmacy were unsafe, but also positioned DoctorSolve as one of the most credible online pharmacies, “ says Gerhardt. “At the same time, we were able to draw additional online traffic through careful optimization of the releases.”

Solution

Broemsen crafted monthly news releases that integrated information about the safety of Canadian drugs, as well as targeted specific key phrases that Internet users type in a search engine to find the company’s products. The news releases were distributed over PR Newswire’s US1 national newsline because of its extensive reach into newsrooms around the country as well as its significant Internet reach.  To ensure that the releases reached appropriate editors, the broad distribution of US1 was supported with distribution to PR Newswire’s prescription medication and senior interest microslists.

To build additional momentum and help position the company as an authority, Broemsen provided daily monitoring of PR Newswire’s ProfNet Leads, queries that are sent out from journalists who are seeking experts for stories.  Two such examples were stories that appeared on Fox TV in Phoenix and Bloomberg as the result of a ProfNet pitch.  In addition, profiles of the company’s founding physicians, Dr. Paul Assad and Dr. Paul Zickler, were added to the ProfNet Expert Database for access by journalists.

Results

Within three months of beginning the campaign, DoctorSolve experienced a 302 percent increase in new orders (August 2004 compared to January 2004) and a two percent increase in refill orders for the same time period, for a total increase in orders of 16 percent.  Six months into the campaign, the company has maintained its initial growth and is averaging a 200 to 250 increase in new orders when compared to the same month in 2003.

As well as receiving numerous pick-up and mentions, both doctors have received interviews with national and local media, including:

Pickups & Mentions

• Newsweek, September 27 2004
• KING5.com, Seattle, October 22 2004
• Seattle Times, May 2004
• Business in Vancouver, February 17 2004
• Dallas Morning News, August 2004
• FOX TV News, Phoenix 2004

National & Local Media Interviews

• Inside Edition, 2004
• KING TV, Seattle, February 15 2004
• KIRO TV, Seattle, May 2002
• Boomer Times & Senior Life, September 2003

In addition, the Web site ranked 12th among all online pharmacy sites for the number of senior visitors (42.4 percent) by Hitwise for the week ending Sept. 11, 2004, and 30th most popular among all U.S. Internet users.

Online pharmacies are experiencing an increase in site traffic. comScore Networks has released a study indicating that affordability, convenience and selection are major factors in the ever-increasing popularity of online pharmacies.

comScore’s study shows that between Q3 and Q4 2004 the number of Americans who visited online pharmacy websites increased 14 percent, to 17.4 million.

Price incentives for online shopping are great. Sixty-six percent of those who took an online survey reported internet pharmacies as “providing healthy competition” to regular pharmacies; 45 percent of respondents said they visited online pharmacies to research prices; and 64 percent of those who made online purchases did so primarily because they were cheaper than in stores.

Another major incentive to shop online is time. Fifty-seven percent of online shoppers saw saving time as a reason to purchase pharmaceuticals online.

Despite the popularity of online pharmacies, the legitimacy of online drugs is a concern. Fifty-four percent of respondents to the online survey were “very concerned about the safety of drugs available online.”

But even so, many respondents to the survey felt that restrictions on certain drugs should be eased. Fifty percent of those surveyed did not agree with the statement that “The FDA should regulate all drugs that are consumed in the United States.”

Bridget O’Toole, senior vice president, comScore Networks, notes, “62 percent of respondents feel some prescription drugs that have been proven effective should be available to the public despite possible secondary effects — even in light of the recent controversy surrounding COX-II drugs.”

Sixty-three percent of online pharmacy visits in Q4 2004 were to sites that don’t require a prescription to buy pharmaceuticals. These non-traditional websites saw a 36 percent gain in visits between Q3 and Q4 2004, more than double the 14 percent industry average.

So while safety is a concern for those visiting online pharmacies, the offer of greater choice and less restriction on purchases is also an incentive to shop online.

What are the implications of these findings for online pharmaceutical marketing?

While online shoppers favor online pharmacies for their prices, accessibility and selection, convincing shoppers that their purchase is safe, and worth repeating, is the major task of marketers.

One online Canadian pharmacy, DoctorSolve.com, partnered with a web development and marketing company in northeast Ohio to deliver regularly released news articles, optimizing hits as well as credibility with the online market.

Melanie Broemsen, an SEO and public relations specialist in Canton, Ohio, says, “The biggest challenge for DoctorSolve was convincing consumers that purchasing prescription medications from their pharmacy was safe because the U.S. government, via the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was disseminating a contrary message to the general public. We felt that when presented with objective information about the safety of these drugs, U.S. consumers would realize that not only were the drugs safe, but that DoctorSolve offered a valuable service to Americans that otherwise could not afford necessary, life-sustaining medication.”

MELANIE BROEMSEN, a technology specialist from Canton, Ohio, has moved several times over the last few years, and almost every time she has had to set up new land-line telephone service or change numbers. She did neither when she moved to another part of town in December.

Just a month before she got her new apartment, the federal government made it possible for her and other people who live in the 100 largest metropolitan areas to keep their land-line home numbers when they switch their regular phone service to a wireless carrier. ”I wanted the stability of keeping my home number for me, my family and friends,” Ms. Broemsen, 33, said. ”Changing my land-line into my cell number, and therefore only paying one bill, seemed like the perfect solution.”

It could also prove beneficial in the long term. Telecommunications experts predict that cellular service will improve significantly over the next few years as companies move toward consolidation. Last week, Cingular Wireless agreed to acquire AT&T Wireless for $41 billion; the deal would create the largest wireless company in the nation. Bigger players, the experts say, are likely to complete more network upgrades and service improvements, which ultimately could mean fewer dropped calls, clearer reception and larger coverage areas for customers. But they also warned that fewer competitors could mean fewer deals down the line.

For now, though, Ms. Broemsen sees financial benefits to going wireless. She said that disconnecting from a land line saved her about $30 a month. (It would have been more, she said, had she not decided to upgrade her wireless service by adding calling minutes to her plan. The extra minutes were needed because she would no longer have a land line.)

When the Federal Communications Commission announced its new policy on phone-number portability last year, most attention was focused on how consumers could transfer their cellphone numbers from one wireless carrier to another. Adam Guy, an analyst at the Yankee Group, a market research firm, said that happened because the federal government did not issue its ruling on the land-line number transfers until just before the portability rule took effect on Nov. 24.

Of the nearly 1.5 million numbers that have been transferred, only about 36,000 have been from land-line to wireless phones, the Federal Communications Commission said. But Mr. Guy and other analysts predict that more consumers will choose to keep their land-line phone numbers, which some have had for decades, and switch to wireless service altogether as the service improves and after realizing how much money they can save.

In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress tried to foster competition by opening the regional Bell system to smaller competitors. But consumers still have few choices in land-line service. As of 2002, only 13.2 percent of the nation’s 188 million local phone lines were served by competing carriers, a 2003 report by the Federal Communications Commission said. The small amount of competition is evident in the cost of service, analysts say. The average cost for local services, including features like call waiting and caller identification, and excluding long distance, has risen 25 percent, on average, since the Telecommunications Act was passed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, versus general inflation of 17 percent over the same period. Even customers who subscribe to bare-bones service had rate increases of 17 percent, on average. The F.C.C. report found that basic local monthly charges for residential phone service averaged $23.38 in 2002, up from $19.95 in 1996.

By contrast, the cost of cellphone services has fallen nearly 30 percent since 1998, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking such rates. Today, a cellphone user can get large ”buckets” of calling minutes in plans starting as low as $30 a month, and many include long-distance service and free calls at night and on weekends, noted Allan Keiter, president of MyRatePlan.com, a Web site that compares wireless plans. In most cases, he added, features like caller ID and voice mail are considered standard in wireless plans but as extras on local land-line service.

Wireless providers keep upping the ante. In late January, Verizon Wireless announced that it would allow unlimited calling between its subscribers. AT&T Wireless does the same. Cingular Wireless quickly introduced a similar plan, limiting the calls to 6,000 minutes a month.

Local phone companies, though, say they are not afraid that subscribers will cut their land lines en masse. And in many cases, the local companies have ownership stakes in wireless carriers anyhow.

Jim Smith, a spokesman for Verizon Communications, which owns a controlling stake of Verizon Wireless, said the number of customers who had transferred their home numbers to wireless was minuscule. Michael Coe, a spokesman for SBC Communications in San Antonio, agreed there had not been ”a noticeable impact.” (SBC and BellSouth own Cingular Wireless in a joint venture.)

STILL, a survey by the Yankee Group last year of nearly 2,500 wireless subscribers suggested that the all-wireless movement was gaining some momentum. Four percent of the respondents said they did not have a home phone in 2003, up from 3 percent in 2002, and 15 percent planned to replace their land-line phone within five years. (Mr. Guy estimated that 2 percent of all American households now have no home phone service and rely only on wireless.)

Some local phone companies have been offering incentives to keep customers. SBC, through Cingular Wireless, recently introduced FastForward service, which reroutes all cellular calls to the subscribers’ home numbers whenever they drop their mobile handset into a $40 cradle that doubles as a phone charger. The service costs $2.99 a month or is free with some packages.

Some people may be reluctant to cut the cord, however, after hearing about other consumers’ problems in doing so. Since number portability began, nearly 5,000 consumer complaints have been filed with the F.C.C. Five percent had to do with land-line-to-wireless number transfers, it said.

Although Ms. Broemsen said she was happy she went wireless, she said it took several weeks and many phone calls to switch her home phone number from SBC to Nextel Communications, her wireless carrier.

Neither company took responsibility for the delays. Dennis Koenig, a spokesman for SBC, said it had never received an order request from Nextel concerning Ms. Broemsen’s service. Nextel said only that transferring a land-line number to a wireless phone could take four weeks ”due to system processing with land-line telephone carriers.”

Besides dealing with delays, consumers should consider other factors before disconnecting their land lines, according to telecommunications industry experts:

Although consolidation is likely to improve service, land-line service still beats wireless in quality and reliability. The experts suggest testing a cellphone service to make sure it works throughout a home before signing up. Most wireless providers offer 15- to 30-day money-back guarantees to test coverage; usually, customers are liable only for the minutes used.

Future mergers may bring headaches, at least initially. Consumer groups are already warning customers of AT&T Wireless and Cingular to brace for problems — like billing errors and difficulties in reaching customer service representatives — that typically occur when two large companies combine operations.

Internet connections may be affected. Those who get access to the Internet via a phone modem or D.S.L. may have to find an alternative like a cable modem or a satellite Internet connection.

Cellphone batteries need recharging. Cellphones with color screens, for example, may require recharging after about 90 minutes of talk time, said Scott Ellison, an analyst at IDC, a research firm in Framingham, Mass.

Wireless plans often require a contract. Most cellphone providers make customers sign one- or two-year agreements to get the best deals on plans and phones, with penalties for canceling early. Land-line phone service usually requires no contracts.

Land-line phones are generally better for emergencies. Police and fire departments can pinpoint a caller’s location when an emergency call is made on a land line. While wireless phone companies have been required to adopt a similar service across their networks, Mr. Guy of the Yankee Group said that it would be a year or so before the service was rolled out nationally.

One cellphone may not be enough for a household. Buying a wireless phone for everyone at home may be too expensive. An increasing number of plans, though, offer free phones and a large amount of minutes that can be shared by family members.

Land-line service is better for local calling. Despite the high numbers of calling minutes that wireless companies are promoting in their plans, most land-line plans offer unlimited local phone calls — the bulk of the calls made by most consumers. Wireless companies typically charge local calls as part of the minutes used. The average consumer makes 700 to 800 minutes of local and long-distance calls a month, according to industry estimates. Industry analysts suggest that consumers who are considering going wireless keep a log of all their local and long-distance calls for one or two months to calculate how many minutes they use. That will help determine which plan is best for them, since it can be expensive for wireless customers who go over their allotted minutes. (And remember that incoming calls on wireless phones are typically charged as minutes used.)

JORDAN J. BALLOR, 25, a theology student from Kentwood, Mich., said he understood the drawbacks of going totally wireless. He was told by T-Mobile that the transfer of his home phone number to his mobile phone could take up to 90 days before it was completed. But his decision, he added, came down to dollars and cents. He said his wife, Amy, 23, an administrative assistant for a publishing company in Grand Rapids, wanted a high-speed Internet connection at their home but could not afford that service on top of their home phone and cellular bills. So when number portability became an option, the couple started the process of switching to wireless phone service and getting a cable modem for the Internet.

The couple had spent about $45 a month for land-line service and $25 a month for cellphone service, for a total of $70. (They did not subscribe to an Internet service.) They signed up for a family cellphone plan from T-Mobile at $49.99 and added cable modem service at $42. So, for $20 more a month, they will add high-speed Internet to their mix of telecommunications services.

”We will be able to keep our home phone number,” Mr. Ballor said, adding, ”We are getting a lot more now for spending a comparable amount of money.”

Public Relations is more than distributing a news release. It’s the art of effectively communicating a specific message to a target audience. In many cases, that audience is comprised of media representatives that help you generate publicity. However, that audience may also be your investors, employees, clients or community.

A good online PR campaign can help you increase your Web presence, improve your rankings and enhance your company’s image – especially when combined with proven search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. This might be a new concept for some of you, but I know it works. Using these techniques combined with traditional SEO and PPC, I was able to achieve a 400 percent sales increase in only 18 months for a former employer.

Right now, I have a client that operates a business in an industry that is a “hot topic” – one that tends to spark media interest. Our client was ready to start tooting their own horn, so I put together a small PR plan for them. We put the first phrase into motion with a feature release at the end of June. Since then, we have distributed two more news releases. We’re also working with them to make some small changes to the site that will enhance credibility and usability.

Anyway, I compared statistics from the week before to the week after the first release:

• There was an 8 percent increase in unique visitors.
• There was a 7.2 percent traffic increase to the order form page.
• Order form downloads increased by 42 percent. (Conversion rate increased.)

In addition:

• Return visitors, which usually average around 30 – 32 percent, spiked at 43.4 percent the day after the most recent release.
• Google backlinks have increased 270 percent since the beginning of the campaign.
• Traffic peaked with about 18,000 unique visitors per week prior to the start of the campaign. Since then, the traffic has been steadily climbing, with the highest number of visitors last week (nearly 24,000).

Now, we’re still working on measuring the effect in terms of phone calls and print exposure, but as you see, the results so far have been fantastic. Can you imagine what kind of results a long-term, dedicated online Public Relations campaign might achieve?

As SEOs, I think we tend to forget that there are other ways to generate business: we are trained to think search engines (Google), search engines (Yahoo), search engines (MSN)! Not that it’s bad– all Web sites need good SEO work to be successful. However, there are other methods out there beyond SEO and PPC. Just like you should include the four food groups in your diet, you should be sure to include a mix of techniques in your Web marketing plans: SEO, paid marketing/advertising, and online Public Relations. The key to maximizing your Web site’s effectiveness is finding the right combination for your business.

Of course, there are many other benefits of online Public Relations.

Some of the “side effects” include:

1. Increased exposure offline;
2. Ability to spot key trends among target audiences (before the competition);
3. Higher conversion rates;
4. Ranking for “problematic” terms;
5. Improved credibility and public image;
6. Formation of relationships with key media representatives.

Even if you have a news section on your site, there IS more you can do. If you have questions or need some help, just ask.

Since its inception, the Internet has played an increasingly important role in a PR professional’s communication strategies. Over time, it has developed into a mainstream form of communication. As a result, you now have an interactive, instantaneous tool to convey your message to your key publics.

Of course, to generate online publicity for your organization, you need to get your message in front of your key publics. The first step is posting the information to your organization’s Web site. If investors, reporters, and other important publics visit your site, they will be able to read it.

The second step, however, is one that is commonly overlooked: ensuring that your news releases and other PR documents can be found in search engines. The search engines provide a natural outlet to connect with your target audience. Reporters and other stakeholders use them to find company and industry news – in fact, they are actively looking for it!

Unfortunately, if your news releases are not included in search results, you will miss the opportunity to communicate with them. You may even frustrate users if they are specifically searching for your organization’s information.

Are your news releases being found?

Finding out if your news releases are included in the search engines is an easy task. Simply copy a sentence or two from a release, and paste it (inside quotation marks) into the search box at your favorite search engine, such as Google. If it is indexed, you will get a result similar to this: (Screen shot image)

If you don’t see your news release listed, or if the listing directs you to a site other than your own, you will want to investigate further to find out what is actually happening. However, if you follow these tips, chances are you will have success getting your news releases included in search engine results.

Tips to make sure your new releases are included in search engine results:

• Post your news in HTML format. Include a link to a PDF version as a courtesy to people that may wish to download it. To avoid trapping users inside the PDF file, include active hyperlinks back to your Web site (and contact information) on every page of your PDF document.
• Check that links to your news releases point to a page in your domain (www.yourcompany.com). If you use a third party to post your information, the links will probably point to their domain. While it doesn’t necessarily mean that your news won’t be indexed, it is better to direct visitors to your own site. This way, you have control over how your message is presented, as well as the opportunity to introduce them to additional information about your company. In addition, if the third party site is not search engine friendly, you will not be able to make the necessary changes to get the releases indexed.
• Make sure your news releases are not deep inside your site. This means checking to see how many parameters are in the URL. Search engines have trouble digging more than three to four parameters deep into a site.

If you have followed all of these guidelines and your news releases are still not getting indexed by the search engines, it is time to contact a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist.

There are several factors that can stop your news from reaching its intended audience: Web site architecture, code and format. A SEO professional will be able to better determine which of these is causing the problem, as well as provide you with additional tips on how to make sure your key publics find your news releases in the search engines.

Since we posted our query on “PR and the Blogosphere” a couple of months ago, Melanie Broemsen has become one of our most reliable sources of interesting stuff. We’re not yet into a daily blogging rhythm and so have not been passing these items along (apologies), but we’re nonetheless grateful to Melanie for keeping us posted. It was Melanie, for example, who first filled us in on the phenomenon of the “google bomb,” pointing out that keying “miserable failure” will bring us to the biography of President George W. Bush and that “waffles” will take us to John Kerry’s site.

Melanie is an SEO Specialist in Canton, Ohio. “SEO,” of course, stands for “search engine optimization” and the fact that agencies are now hiring people into such roles says a lot about the priority that clients are attaching to their Web presence. Among Melanie’s main tasks is the preparation of Internet marketing research reports, providing clients a comprehensive review of their Web sites, an analysis of related online market conditions and the competition, and an Internet marketing strategy.

“I like to joke that I surf the net all day,” she says. “That’s easier than attempting to explain what I really do and watching eyeballs glaze over.”

Melanie really does surf the net all day, but with the purpose of gathering information for client reports.

“To be able to help our client best utilize their sites, I have to understand the underlying cause-effects of the important relationships on the net — in short, why things work the way they do. I’m in the trenches — I see the results on a daily basis, client by client, so I have a good understanding of what’s really happening.”

We asked Melanie to tell us what’s really happening — particularly with respect to blogs and search engines. She forwarded the following.

Blogs Rank Higher

Blogs tend to rank higher in Google than other Web content. That’s because blogs are heavy on content and links – two of the factors that Google considers important when it determines rankings. The underlying “code” it generates isn’t very complex, so search engines, like Google, are able to index it. Google also prefers “fresh” content, and since blogs are typically updated more frequently than a traditional Web site, they are given a little “boost” when rankings are determined. In fact, blogs can create a phenomenon called a “Google bomb”, which is how the whole “miserable failure/George Bush” search got started. Basically, the blogging community works together to manipulate the rankings. Here’s a link to a recent article that explains the Google bombs.

What It Boils Down to in Terms of PR

Just one disgruntled employee or dissatisfied customer can wreak havoc on your company’s reputation, simply by appearing in the search results with a ranking higher (or near) your own. We’ve been approached by some organizations that wanted to have the listings removed. Unfortunately, you can’t — unless you can gain a legal judgment. You have to beat them at the game – and they have the home field advantage. From another perspective, PR professionals can provide news via RSS feeds to interested parties. We have a couple of clients that have such busy news sections, it makes sense. With the click of a button, you can distribute your message to your key publics. It enhances an organization’s reputation, helps branding, and reinforces corporate identity, and that doesn’t even account for any boost in rankings or the endless possibilities of incorporated marketing campaigns.

What to Do

The most important action you can take is to develop a strong relationship with your Web development and / or Marketing team. Work with them to develop text-heavy content, and supplement it with a link development campaign — for your site or your blog. Keep in mind that Google, by default, only shows two pages of results per site. If two already show, don’t expect more. If you need more listings in order to push a “bad” result further down the list, you will have to create new sites (different domain) or work with other organizations to improve their rankings. If you feel that you’ve implemented the strategy above and aren’t getting results, consult an SEO specialist for advice.

Extra Info

Google uses a complicated mathematical algorithm to determine rankings. When Googlebot (Google’s spider) “looks” at a page, it measures factors such as links and content. Then, it assigns a weight to each factor and makes a calculation. That’s pretty much your ranking. Only Google knows what the actual algorithm is, but the SEO industry has been able to evaluate trends and identify many of the influencing factors, such as content and links.

One of the most important factors Google considers is content. If your keyword density is high, then it assumes your page is relevant. For example: If you use the words “March Madness” six times on a page, then Google would give a higher ranking than a page that only uses it once – for the search query “march madness.”

Another important factor that Google considers is links. It matter what those links say, and where they come from. In essence, it is a popularity contest. It is better to have a link pointing to your page from another high ranked page than one with a low ranking. And if you wanted to rank high for the terms “March Madness,” then the link say “March Madness 2004″ instead of “Dan’s Homepage.” The page with the best links wins the top slot.

If you score high for text and links, then you will rank even higher.

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These days, it seems anyone can be a writer, or an author. Getting published is as easy as setting up a blog, slapping together an ebook, or paying someone to publish your work.

In fact, for a mere $1500 you can bang out a 1200-word article and have it appear in hardcover alongside “best-selling authors” who have spent decades earning their stripes. After all, why waste time earning credibility as an author when you can simply buy it?

Call me old school, but I actually respect my craft. I’ve invested the time and money to professionally study both classic and modern authors, and my bookshelves are brimming with my favorites: Fitzgerald, Shakespeare, Tolkien, Garcia Marquez, Rice and a collection of children’s literature, among others. I’ve been known to read cereal boxes and milk cartons, and occasionally and oh-so carefully, correct a professor.

To me, writing isn’t just a profession. It is one of my loves. And paying someone to publish my words just to see my name in print would equate to something much worse than being a snakeoil salesman. It’s something no self-respecting writer would do.

At least that none I know.

Thankfully, I’m not the only one that feels this way… There’s a special notation in the American Heritage Dictionary to address the frauds that try to pass themselves off as more than they are:

Usage Note: … The verb author, which had been out of use for a long period, has been rejuvenated in recent years with the sense “to assume responsibility for the content of a published text.”…. The sentence He has authored a dozen books on the subject was unacceptable to 74 percent of the Usage Panel, probably because it implies that having a book published is worthy of special lexical distinction, a notion that sits poorly with conventional literary sensibilities and seems to smack of press agentry.

Note the part about assuming responsibility for the content of a published text… There’s also clarification that states an author is someone who practices writing as a profession – meaning, of course, that they get paid to create, and not vice versa.

I feel sorry for these snakeoil authors. They don’t see the forest through the trees…

• The benefits of earning your stripes far outweigh the ego boost of instant credibility – You don’t have to be a starving artist, but making a real effort to learn and polish your skills will not only make you a better writer, it will earn you the respect of other writers. And of your fans. On the flip side, when people discover (and they always will) that the ONLY reason your name is in print is because you bribed a publisher with green just so you could boast that you’re a “best-selling author” – you’ll INSTANTLY lose the credibility you paid so dearly for. With no REAL credits to your name, you’ll become a laughingstock. You might even be called a fraud. On the flip side, getting a paid gig that you’ve earned by gaining recognition for your talent over time, and from your peers, will make it that much sweeter (and true) when you say you’re a writer and author.
• You’re a victim, allowing yourself to get preyed upon – Yes, there is a money-making scam behind this system – and YOU are the sucker. The publishers take your money, and then rely upon you to buy and sell their books. If you the words you write suck and they don’t resonate with your audience, they don’t care… Because they already made their money. After all, you already paid cash for the 500 copies in your garage… (No wonder it can be called a best-seller!) But hey, at least you can say you published a book, right?

Thankfully, these shams and quasi-authors are easy to spot. Google them. Google their publisher. Ask what they do FOR A LIVING. In fact, ask a lot of questions. How did they get gig? Who is their agent? Did they have a draw, and what were the royalties? Do they have any more books published? What was the editorial process like?

Then use the brain God gave you. If they’re a snakeoil author, they won’t be able to answer your specific questions without squirming. And if they claim to have written a recent best-seller and clearly aren’t working in the industry, and in fact have ZERO prospects, run. Fast. Trust me, you don’t want any of what they are selling.

Their willingness to trade integrity and respect for the craft for personal gratification is shameful. And presenting their pseudo-work as more than it really is seems like an indicator of a much bigger personality flaw. Perhaps poor self-esteem is driving an overwhelming need to feel important. Maybe taking the easy way out and cutting corners is their norm, rather than the exception to the rule. Or maybe, the postage-paid status symbol is compensating for a lack of real talent, a desperate attempt necessary to manipulate the unsuspecting and oh-so-willing sheep into buying their sub-par wares.

Just like the snakeoil salesman, I can’t take these wanna-be-writers seriously. They’re the type of people who spend a day visiting campus, and then say “they went to Harvard Law School.” Or they spend a week earning a certificate in a psuedo-science like NLP, and then spout expertise in neuroscience. Full of half-truths and exaggerations, these fluff-over-substance types will happily mislead you in any area, comfortable that they can always say they never “lied” if called on the carpet. But if you dig, you’ll find the facts don’t usually support their brash claims.

My advice? Steer clear, because their approach to life seems to ensure nothing but trouble if it becomes entangled with yours.

We lived there until the day of this photo, when we moved back stateside. I did a bunch of cool things as a bebe, like visit the Alps and waddle through famous German gardens and forests – none of which I remember, but the photos are cool. Can’t be sure, but I like to joke that the experience at least partially contributed to my explorer ways…

Anywho, I wanted to do something nice this Memorial Day for our heroes, and found Soldiers Angels. I just finished the first letter to my adopted soldier, complete with a questionnaire and lucky charm – a coin a Navy friend brought back from South Africa. It’s a great organization, and gives you a personal way to support our troops.

There are more than 1400 soldiers waiting for an angel. Please take 5 minutes to send a care package, or adopt your own solider today.