Pat Strader

Posts Tagged ‘Pat Strader’

3 Quick Ways to Build a Better Website

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Every business wants to have a great website, right? Producing a website that 1) is aesthetically pleasing and 2) visitors find useful should be everyone’s goal.

However, it seems that quite a few websites become the victim of a disconnect between what the business wants a website to be and what your audience needs it to be.

The bigger the business, often the more difficult this task becomes. Trying to meet each team members requirements and desires can often derail the best of intentions.

Own The Project
Have a decision maker that is given the authority to take ownership of the project. Take input and recommendations from the team members, listen to the wants and desires of the boss or board, the VP of sales and the customer service rep, and make decisions that stick. Decisions need to be geared towards benefiting your audience.

Benefit Your Audience
Talk to your front line staff. What types of questions are persistent? That’s the information your audience needs to be able to find, and find quickly. Make it easier for them to complete their task. Information to help them needs to be easy to find and easy to understand.

Build With Purpose
Know what you need your website to do. What do you want people to do when they visit your website? Call? Chat with a customer service rep? Request a brochure? Align these goals with the information your audience is seeking.

(Then. Measure. Everything.)

Yes, you want a beautiful website, but if that beautiful website has no purpose other than being pretty, it ends up being pretty useless. Awards mean nothing without conversion. Putting thought into these three things will help guide you towards a more successful website.

Got other ways to build a better website? Tell us in the comments…

Tags: development, Pat Strader, usability, web design
Posted in Web Design | No Comments »

Do Search Engines Think You’re Sexy?

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Well, not you, but your website. If your website could talk, it might ask you, “Does mySQL look fat in these jeans?”.

Thankfully, you could answer that question without hesitation, “It’s your inner beauty that matters”.

Search Engines are largely an un-superficial bunch. While the way your website looks does impact user behavior (which may or may not subsequently impact search performance), the look of your site is not that important to search engines. That’s not to say that making it sexy isn’t a good idea!

Fact is, despite Google having Goggles, search engines cannot see, so in the digital realm every ugly duckling out there has the opportunity to become a very desirable swan. And obtain solid rankings.

How to Make Your Site Attractive To the Engines:
The boot camp phase consists of getting your ducks in a row, and harvesting all the low hanging fruit. By paying close attention to the “inner-beauty” of your website, you will be putting yourself ahead of much of the competition.

Does your website load quickly?
Is it available? Or do you have regular server outages?
Is your site architecture well-planned?
Do you have quality internal links in place?

Once you have a handle on the basics, you’ll have already made your website quite attractive to the engines. It’s time to take it a step further.

How to Make Your Site Sexy:
While you can cover a lot of ground by simply making your site attractive with some of the considerations above, you can sexify your site (like that word?) and make it simply irresistable to the bots and algorithms. This helps put you in the position to then work on becoming irresistible to your visitors.

Build Links

High quality, relevant links are like tight jeans to the search engines. When you build quality links and point them to various places within your website, the bots won’t be able to take their eyes of your package. Er, content.

Continue Creating Content

Everything that’s good. Written, video, photos, user generated. No matter what the form, consistently creating content is like phalloplasty for your website (wonder what kind of spam we’re going to get in the comments for using “phalloplasty”?).

Be Social

Get out there and meet people. You’re never going to get asked to the prom sitting at home. Participate, interact, be active. It can attract like minded people to your site, and you can also feed in your social activity to different places on your pages.

Google Gets Beer Goggles (And Bing Does, Too)

Ever see a site ranked ahead of you for no obvious reason? Lots of spammy links, thin content, poor site structure, yet there it is occupying a coveted location in the search results.

How did it get there? Well, it’s hard to understand exactly, so to simplify it a bit: algorithms get beer goggles too. Algorithm changes are, in a way, like sobering up after a wild party. Eventually things fall back into order. You have to pay attention, but the algorithm can’t be your sole focus.

Create good content and a good SEO maintenance schedule, and the readers and rankings will follow.

Staying In Shape Online

Just like in the real world, some are seemingly born with “it”. However, when you peel back the surface, it’s very clear: You have to work for it.

Websites are just like humans, in a way. It’s all to easy to let yourself go. One day you’re going for an early morning five-miler; the next day you might find yourself sitting on the couch eating Twinkies while a Jefferson’s re-run flickers on the TV and wonder what the hell happened.

Same thing with your website. Let it go, neglect it, and before you know it you find yourself knocked completely out of the rankings.

How do you keep your sites sexy?

Tags: ideas, low hanging fruit, Pat Strader, SEO, upkeep
Posted in SEO | No Comments »

Working With Your Digital Marketing Team

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

First, why work with a digital marketing team?

Digital marketing companies:

create strategy
design
develop
optimize
train
measure

Do any of those sound like processes that could help your marketing efforts?

The Alternative

Yes, of course you could have your brother’s nephew design your website in Front Page. You can also create your own fan page and spam it to bits, post asking for more fans and end every sentence with three !’s. Run your own pay per click campaigns without landing pages and bid management. Want to simply use the same copy from your brochure online? No problem.

Forgive me for sounding jaded, but I’m, well, jaded. I’ve talked to many companies that use that type of rationale I explained above to not hire a digital marketing company.

The fact is, you can run your own digital marketing from the ground up. However, you can also build a car from parts, but why would you do a job that others have years of experience in doing?

By hiring a digital marketing company you can expect efficiency, experience, and in-the-trenches knowledge. You can also expect to be asked to communicate and participate.

The Relationship

Entering into any relationship, whether it be work or personal, requires several things to be successful. Beginning a digital marketing project is no different; people will often enter into a contract not knowing what exactly is expected of them in order to achieve success. Even when entering with eyes wide open, there are still potential pitfalls that can derail your project.

Understanding that digital marketing is important to your company is half the battle. If you and your company don’t buy into the process, you’re setting yourself up to fail.

Once the contract is signed is when the real work begins. It’s important to realize that signing the contract marks the beginning of your work, not the end. View it as an investment; you will reap what you sow.

The Communication

It is always important to make sure everyone is clear on how the project will run and how (and where) communication lines will operate. The time to communicate your hopes, wants, expectations is at the onset, not mid-way.

Establish preferred methods of communication, and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone. Email and Instant Messages offer a great opportunity for quick, concise communication. However, it does not convey tone, sarcasm, and poor attempts at humor.

Provide direction, and still let your team “do their thing”. Give ideas about the design you have in mind. Help brainstorm keyword seed lists. However, let your designer design, let your SEO do the keyword research.

The Participation

Digital marketing projects are processes, not events.

In order to reach the finish line, milestones must be passed and completed. Almost always, you will be asked to provide some form of feedback and approval for those milestones to be met, and for progress to be continued toward project completion.

Providing quality, timely feedback is important to the workflow of your project. When presented with design ideas, a reply of “I don’t like it” helps no one, and serves simply to continue spinning your wheels instead of making progress.

When you participate, you are part of the process. In today’s world, there really is no “completion” when it comes to marketing online. You need to continue to publish, to monitor, measure, and modify. Participating in the planning, the building and the implementation will keep your marketing efforts worth your money and time.

Tags: Digital Marketing, getting started in social media, partnerships, Pat Strader, project management
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

The Strategy Behind Planning Your Blog Posts

Friday, June 25th, 2010

If you’re a good blogger (i.e. you post regularly, always have things to write about), then congratulations.

I have a cookie for you. And, hey, keep on writing that post.

For the rest of us, it’s not so easy. While we know blogging is important for many reasons (for me, it’s SEO!), it can still be a tough nut for non-writers to crack. Planning posts is second-nature for good bloggers, and is something that can help us bad bloggers move to the right side of the tracks.

As an example, I started the Matterhorn Marketing blog back in 2006. Despite knowing the importance of posting, I was never able to get it together to maximize its value to the business.

Why Planning Your Blog Matters

The importance of planning posts, as a part of an underlying content strategy, can help eliminate the paralysis by analysis that prevents a lot of us from becoming one of the good guys.

Simply brainstorming topics that are of interest to you, and more importantly are of interest to your audience can help create an outline of post topics. This alone can prove to be a valuable step.

I mean, I’m certain that I’m not the only one that knows they need to feed the blog, logs into WordPress and then stares blindly at the dashboard thinking, “what should I write about?”

Our resident content strategist and house-blogger, Ben Curnett, has placed me (as he does with all of our partners) on a pretty simple path by providing a framework which makes posting regularly seem less, well, scary.

Additionally, the bar has been set low. I know (I know!) can write a few hundred words per week. I know you can too.

Simply put, planning blog posts for the bad blogger.

Create a list of topics which interest you AND your audience
Plug those topics into a calendar
Set attainable goals

The benefits of regular postings are numerous. As an SEO (Search Engine Optimization’er) at heart, I always find myself approaching content creation from that perspective. As a result of creating consistent posts, a few of the SEO benefits you can expect are:

Google and Bing will visit your site more often. They love fresh (good) content.
You’ll create more opportunity to be found through long-tail search. More on long tail terms in another post… it’s on my schedule.
You’ll provide more opportunity and reasons for people to link to you.

How do you plan your posts and what benefit do you receive from it? Or, perhaps a better question, how would planning help you?

And why haven’t you done it yet?

Tags: blogs, content strategy, Digital Marketing, Pat Strader, planning
Posted in Blogging, SEO | No Comments »

What The Hell Are Location Based Services?

Monday, May 31st, 2010

For many small and travel/tourism businesses it can be a daunting task to keep up with emerging technology and social media platforms.

Things are not going to be getting any easier. Cue location based social networks or location based services (LBS). While they are not necessarily new, they are gaining users quickly.

The ubiquity of GPS enabled phones and our seemingly insatiable desire to stay connected has fueled a boom in social networks that allow you to share your whereabouts with friends.

In a nutshell, you create your user account, connect your phone to your account, and when visiting a location (everything from gas stations to hotels) you check in by using a few simple hand gestures to post to your account. While checking in you then notify friends, or those nearby, of your whereabouts and what you may be doing, or what you think of where you are. You can also do a variety of other tasks, depending on the platform. You can earn points and badges, you can share photos, post reviews, collect items, participate in a scavenger hunt or even earn rewards from businesses.

Many businesses are already finding ways to leverage these services. Here are two you can get started with, including a quick tip for each.

Foursquare
Combine location based check-ins with game mechanics and you have Foursquare. Check-in, earn points, earn badges, share to-do lists. This service is growing very quickly. Last week it was reported that nearly 1 million check-ins occur every day.

Tip: Create a company account, and sign up as the manager of your business. You can create a virtual customer loyalty program with rewards for check-ins and frequency.

Yelp
A stalwart in the review networks, Yelp now allows users to “check-in”. This is a powerful combination, that I think will serve as a model for others. It combines location based check-in with reviews. Users can also upload photos.

Tip: Be sure you have claimed your business on Yelp. Build out your profile with as much information as possible and monitor your page. If you are fortunate to receive your “people love us on Yelp!” decal, display it prominently! Also, don’t be “one of those guys” and review your own business. It is petty, and you’ll end up with pretty bad karma.

I’m interested to find out if you’re using any location-based services, personally or for your businesses. If so, what’s your take?

Tags: getting started in social media, marketing strategy, online reputation management, Pat Strader
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Three Very Simple Fanpage Tips

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

The Facebook Fanpage. It’s everywhere!

After some time of groping in the dark, and some functionality changes to groups and pages, marketers have now turned in force toward the fanpage.

Why? It’s another platform for interacting with your audience and expanding brand recognition.

Need more? Here are some lovely statistics from Morpace, Inc…

Facebook has more than 400,000,000 registered users.
68% of consumers with Facebook accounts say a positive referral from a Facebook friend would make them more likely to buy from or visit a retailer.
36% say Facebook is a good tool for researching products.

Here are a few very simple tips, which can greatly improve the quality of your Facebook marketing…

Give your fans a voice
Interaction with your fans is a goal, so allow it to happen and allow it to be easily found.

I often see businesses that have made it hard for fans to be visible based upon the wall settings. Allow your fans to post to your wall, post photos, and post videos. Real people posting photos of themselves using your products, well, that’s gold, especially if you are in the travel and tourism business.

Within your admin section, under wall settings, ensure you are allowing your fans to interact.

Ask A Question
How many times have you carefully crafted a wall post, only to have no comments or response? When you make statements, you automatically preclude interaction.

Ask people questions. For example, if you were going to post about an event happening this coming weekend, don’t stop with just the basic “This weekend be sure to visit blah blah for event XYZ.” Finish with an open-ended question, “What are your plans for the weekend?”.

Try it. Yes, social media is about connections. But people really (really) want to talk about themselves. Are you inviting them to do that?

Post Photos in Threes
Many small businesses are digital asset-poor not having vast library’s of photos and videos. Because of this you have to maximize your assets and try to receive the greatest amount of interaction.

So, when posting photos to your fan page, post in groups of three. You can continue to add to existing albums, and maximize the opportunity for interaction.

Why three? Simply because three photos are all that will show on the page when you post. Post three, then when it is time to post again, the freshest three will display on the page.

A side benefit is that it will display any previous interaction with the album, allowing you to leverage social proof to keep fans posting and interacting with your content.

Those are just three simple tips for fanpage optimization. There are tons more. What are your favorites?

Tags: facebook, fanpage marketing, getting started in social media, marketing strategy, Pat Strader
Posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

4 Ways To Use QR Codes Right Now

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Have you heard of Quick Response (QR) Codes?

If not, you will. Soon. QR Codes are defined in Wikipedia as (I wish there was a better location with a definition!):

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is derived from “Quick Response”, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

Simply put, a QR Code is like a bar code that you see in the grocery store. However, instead of telling you how much your box of Fruity Pebbles might cost, it can share data in lots of different forms, from a link to an SMS message to almost anything you can think of.

The utility that these codes afford you (and the end-user, too) are equally as diverse. For the end user, it’s a method to quickly (QR = Quick Response, remember?) and easily retrieve, obtain or interact, using a tool that is nearly ubiquitous: a phone.

All users need is a handheld device with a free reader installed. For the business owner or marketer it provides not only a method of information dispersal, but also a method of tracking. While not all QR Code generators offer the ability to track usage, it’s not hard to find ones that do.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking about how to use them, and why…

Ideas for QR Code Use:

Make Offline Trackable and Interactive

Create a code linking to an optimized mobile-friendly landing page. Place the code on your print ads, rack cards even billboards. Utilize a simple call to action to scan (which you can measure) and re-enforce that call to action on the landing page. You just made an offline component interactive.

Go Paperless

Do you display at trade shows and conferences? Many that do spend time running to Kinko’s for copies (and then extra copies). You then hand off to attendees to be shoved in an over-flowing bag of other similar pieces. Display a code, linked to a PDF that folks can scan, download and print once they are back to their computer. Simple, trackable, cost-effective. And very green.

Make your contact information portable

You can create a vcard containing all of the same information from your business card, and display as a QR Code. I use one on my Twitter profile, have created stickers which I often place on my conference badges, and I’m even geektacular enough to have made a t-shirt with my vcard code, which I sometimes wear.

Perfect for Travel and Tourism

As many of your know, we work very closely with the Travel and Tourism industry. There are tons of opportunities for QR Codes to intersect with travel. Creating a QR code for monuments or historic locations can provide visitors with more information, even delivering interactive information. The photo depicts an “in the wild” example. I am told that they are becoming more prevalent on and around monuments in the Washington D.C. area as well. Battlefield maps, videos and photos, the possibilities are endless.

If you aren’t using QR Codes, it’s time to start thinking about putting them in play. Smart phone use is soaring (Readers are available for many other camera-enabled phones too), and many are coming out of the box with a reader installed. And the codes themselves can be created fast and cheap and provide tracking for your offline campaigns.

These are just a few. What are some ways you’re seeing QR Codes being used?

Tags: Digital Marketing, ideas, Pat Strader, QR Codes, Social Media
Posted in Digital Marketing | 6 Comments »

3 Things Folks Can Learn From Salt Lick BBQ

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

It’s the last day for us here at South by South West in Austin.

Last night we made the trek for some real Texas Barbecue. Choices, choices. Stubb’s, Iron Works or Salt Lick? Damn!

As Ben mentioned:

Yes, you can have a burrito where ever you live. But Austin is a food town. And people, no matter who they are, love food. LOVE IT! You know what makes them love it even more? An invitation. Go to Champions on 4th and talk to Jason the bartender. He’ll tell you where the best BBQ in the state is (hint: it’s Salt Lick).

We had an incredible meal of brisket, sausage, and ribs. NOTE: this is real Texas-style barbecue, in the Texas hill county.

So what does BBQ have to do with marketing? It is not so much barbecue, as it is how Salt Lick has created a business of simplicity, quality service, and cultivated relationships built around a quality product.

3 Things You Can Learn From Salt Lick:
1. Keep it Simple:
The paradox of choice is not an issue at Salt Lick. You have a handful of choices for your meal and one no-brainer, “family style”. It is B.Y.O.B., cash-only, and you sit at a picnic table.

Beautifully simple. For the customer, choosing a meal is painless, and there’s no sense of buyers-remorse.

Can you simplify your product offerings? Do you have so many products, bundles, packages and variations that you are making choosing your product stressful for your customers?

2. Make Service Personable:
Our server Ian was nice, funny, and damn good at his job. He even educated us barbecue noobs on the different types of brisket. Lean, deckle, burnt….3 distinct choices which he tried to find which might be a best fit for our taste. Who knew?

He sat down to talk to us, he talked about his kids and asked about ours.

He gave us perfect directions to a diner where we could pick up a piece of pie, as they had sold out of their legendary cobbler that evening. He made sure we had a great experience and provided a great service… and we tipped him well.

Do you have any Ian-types working in your customer service department? If not, find them.

3. Cultivate Your Evangelists
Ask folks around Austin where to go for the best barbecue and it is a nearly unanimous response. In fact, if you ask, don’t be surprised if you get a look like you just stepped out of a vehicle equipped with a flux capacitor. “Seriously? It’s Salt Lick, get there!”

Before deciding to head to Salt Lick, we stopped in one of the watering holes and asked a couple members of their staff. They recommended Salt Lick, described the setting, made sure we knew it was B.Y.O.B and cash-only. Then they helped us with detailed directions to get there.

If you’re in travel and tourism, are you building relationships with the “front-line” folks in your area? Bartenders, gas station workers, toll booth workers….anyone that has contact with the public that may be interested in you.

Reach out, cultivate those relationships, offer them FAM-trips so they know what you do, how you do it, and most importantly, so they know you.

How to get people to your door?

Tags: barbecue, food, Marketing, Pat Strader, sxsw
Posted in Inspiration, Marketing | No Comments »

Snowday!

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

We’re going out to play!

(You should take one, too.)

Tags: content, Pat Strader
Posted in Inspiration | No Comments »

A Blog About Digital Marketing…

Stay in Touch

Receive Our Email Newsletter

Archives

Categories

Matterhorn Marketing