Archive for the ‘SEO Tips and Tricks’ Category

I got called out.  By my buddy, and colleague Jean-Guy Francoeur.  He did a great post about how a big bank in Canada, ING Direct, just did an online campaign using classic Internet Marketing Techniques (eg, launch sequencing, squeeze page, social media, etc). And he asked me to do a little commentary on it, so here goes…

Firstly, let me preface this with exclaiming that I love that a big bank just used this method. This type of campaign is almost entirely reserved for nimble, responsive, online businesses that are heavily niched. But don’t be fooled, internet marketers have been on the cutting edge of great marketing techniques since the internet started. In fact, you can thank internet marketers for making information on just about everything under the sun free; to get an edge on their competitors they must give away all sorts of great goodies before they even think about charging a dime.

If you haven’t seen the page you can go to http://www.your185.ca/v/ right now or just watch this video, which was about the only thing on the page:

Ok, with that out of the way, let me do this Benjamin Franklin style: a list of pros and cons.

Pros for their campaign:

• -Their president is really great on camera. He comes across very genuine and like a pretty normal dude

• -Further to that the video appeared off the cuff (although I’m sure it was not), one-take, unstaged, and in a regular cab not a limo

Pete is pretty personable, I gotta say, I like him.

• -He mentioned a location that many of us know (especially Torontonians).  This is actually hugely important because it gives us context. Every great story has places, people, a premise and dialogue. And the more familiar you are with each, the more you connect with the story. In his case we didn’t know him (but because he was genuine we felt like we could know him), we probably knew the place, we could have connected to the premise (of banks screwing us over), but he lacked dialogue.

• -I like how his tie matched the page (small, but important. Conveys a serious level of professionalism, and thus I trust him. To learn more about what’s going on inside your brain that leads one to draw that conclusion talk to content consumption guru Ryan Garey)

• -They included social media (buttons for facebook/twitter/youtube, but as a side note they only had facebook on their French version)

• -The page is clean and neat and undistracting

• -Like every great launch, there was a date attached to it!

Ok, now let me lambaste this hot-shot big-wig bank executive with some stinging cons!

• -Way, way, way too many ‘ummms’. I like the idea it looking off the cuff, but it became very distracting.

• -I wasn’t really sure what he was selling me. I think the CTA (call to action) was to go to the Eaton Centre if it’s Aug 18th and you’re watching the video. Not a good CTA.
  

  I got this from RyanGarey.com, and thought it was perfect!

• -There was no info capture form. At the time of writing this post youtube says 7,529 people watched this video. If they had a piddly poor 15% optin ratio (we aim for 30% as our baseline, and have some pages that get upwards of 52%) then they’d have over 1,000 people to contact who had already raised their hands and stepped forwards to say “I am at least moderately interested in what’s going on here”. Maybe they don’t like making money? Now that’s new in banking.

• -Squeeze pages (information capturing pages) are most effective when you give value for FREE. He could have offered an ‘inside look’, ’sneak peak’, ‘be a beta tester’, ‘an ING t-shirt’ or a million other things to ethically bribe people. His offer instead was to check out our new product. That is very ME focused, and not at all customer focused.

• -I’ve watched the video three times now, and I still don’t really know how the THRiVE Chequing account is different from any other account out there.

Ok ok, that’s enough. I’ll take it easy on the guy. I do have to applaud him and his company for being the first big corporation (that I know of anyway) to take a serious stab at online marketing. And if this is where big business is going, we should all be happy! And here’s why:

1. Online marketing means them giving us all sorts of FREE stuff to get our attention.
2. The internet is controlled by those who use it (more or less). So if corporations doing launches want to use social media they have to be ready to hear what their customers are really saying. And further to that, then do something about it (yaayyyy! We have a voice!)
3. For internet users to become captive you gotta put together something pretty darn interesting (read: fun, funny, insightful, or touching). For some great examples of that look up the recent Old Spice campaign, or the “Who is the hero of the world?” video.

Final thoughts.

If you want to learn anything from this campaign they did, here’s what I recommend you take from it:

1. Just do it. Gerry Robert said it best, “Get it down, then get it right.” Kudos to ING Direct for at least trying, I’m sure they learnt a tonne!
2. When making a squeeze video follow this basic formula:
   

   These are some cool stacking moustache mugs

   1. -Tell them who you are
   2. -What you’ve got
   3. -Why they need it
   4. -What to do next
   5. Then CAPTURE their info and send them some cool goodies (this is called “Stacking the Cool”).

Final, final thought.

Did I miss anything? If you can spot three pros and three cons that I missed, I’ll send you my guide on how to write good copy for online marketing.  Comment below!

You can follow Jeff McLeod on his personal blog at JeffMcLeod.ca

Technorati Tags: ING Direct, Jeff McLeod, launches, marketing, online, squeeze pages

How to Style WordPress

Using Plug-ins and Widgets

Jeff McLeod

Jeff@JeffMcLeod.ca

Powerpoint accompanying this article

Get a .doc copy of this post

Copy of WordPress with all my favorite plugins already included

In this article I’m talking about:

1. Setting up the Look and Feel
2. Setting up Social Media/Social Networking

This is my little list of things I think you should download and how I think you should configure them. To understand my thinking watch the video at http://jeffmcleod.ca showing you how and why I choose all of this. Also you can download all of these plug-ins in one file from the website.

1. Set-up the Look and Feel
   1. Delete the example comment and post

1. Go to Appearance->Themes->Add New: Upload (or you can see what WP has to offer). Activate the theme

1. i.     Go into the FTP and change the logo to the client’s logo (wp-content/themes/themename/images/client-logo.png)

1. Note: this is only if you are using the templates that I provide at http://jeffmcleod.ca
2. ii.     Go to Appearance->Editor: Header and ctrl-f for ‘client-logo.png’.
3. iii.     Make the file path the same as the path of the logo you just uploaded
4. iv.     Save changes
5. Go to Plug-ins->Add New, search for “Excerpts Deluxe”. Install and activate.
   1. i.     Set “Cutoff after:” to 200 words
   2. Set-up Social Media/Bookmarking
      1. Go to Plug-ins->Add New and search for “Share This”, install and activate

1. Go to Plug-ins->Add New and search for “Sociable for Wordpress 3.0”, install and activate
   1. i.     Settings->Sociable WP3
      1. choose which buttons you want (I add Google Buzz, LinkedIn, Technorati, PDF, Email, and RSS)
      2. Check Position: “Front Page…”, “Individual posts”, and “Individual pages”
      3. Check “New Window – Use “target=_blank”

1. Go to Plug-ins->Add New and search for “Subscribe to Comments”.  Install and activate.

1. Go to Plug-ins->Add New and search for “Quick Subscribe”.  Install and activate.
   1. i.     Go to Appearance->widgets and add this

1. Go to Plug-ins->Add New and search for “Twitter Badge”.  Install and activate.
   1. i.     Settings->twitter badge: enter your twitter account, and I like to change the text and colour here, but that’s a personal preference

1. Go to Plug-ins->Add New and search for “Facebook Fan Box”.  Install and activate.
   1. i.     Go to Appearance->widgets and add this
   2. ii.     Get your FB id (long number in URL of you Page) and add it here
   3. iii.     You should view your page at this point to see if the Facebook Fan Box fits into your sidebar properly.  You may have to play around with the width

1. Go to Plug-ins->Add New and search for “WP Post Notifier For All”.  Install and activate.
   1. i.     If people want to be taken off the list you do it in this plug-in’s settings

1. Take over the world!
   1. Start pushing your great content now that everyone will share it and subscribe for more!
   2. To find out how to create great content go to www.jeffmcleod.ca
   3. If you missed the videos on how to install WordPress, or how to set up your SEO watch those videos too.
   4. Share this video with other!

You can get all of these plug-ins in one file (so you don’t have to download each individually) at http://jeffmcleod.ca

Technorati Tags: blogging, how to style wordpress, social media, social media marketing, social media marketing tips, wordpress

How to Optimize WordPress

Using Plug-ins

Jeff McLeod

Jeff@JeffMcLeod.ca

In this article I’m talking about:

1. Setting up Anti-spamming
2. Setting up Search Engine Optimization
3. Setting up Mobile Functionality

Powerpoint accompanying this article

Get a .doc copy of this post

Copy of WordPress with all my favorite plugins already included

This is my little list of things I think you should download and how I think you should configure them. To understand my thinking watch the video at http://jeffmcleod.ca showing you how and why I choose all of this. Also you can download all of these plug-ins in one file from the website.

1. Set-up Anti-spamming
   1. Go to settings->general->membership: uncheck “anyone can register”
   2. Go to settings->discussions->other comment settings: uncheck “Users must be logged in and registered to comment”
   3. Go to settings->discussions->before a comment appears: uncheck “Admin must always approve comment” and uncheck “Comment author must have a previously approved comment”
      1. i.     Save changes
2. Go to Plug-ins and activate Akismet (if the plug-in isn’t installed search for it under Plug-ins->add new).
   1. i.     Once installed, activate the plug-in. It will tell you that a key needed.  Follow the link to get a Key.
   2. ii.     Choose personal use if you want to use it for free.  Otherwise pay for it.  Retrieve the key from your email and input it into wordpress.
   3. Set-up SEO
      1. Go to Settings->permalinks and select custom.  Set it to “/%postname%
      2. Go to Settings->plug-ins->add new and search for “All in one SEO pack”.  Install and activate.
      3. Go to Settings->plug-ins->All in one SEO pack->Options configuration panel
         1. i.     Plug-in status: enabled
         2. ii.     Fill in the Home Title, Home Description and Home Keywords
         3. iii.     Post Title Format: %post_title%
         4. iv.     Page Title Format: %page_title%

1. Go to Settings->plug-ins->add new and search for “Google XML sitemap generator”.  Install and activate.
2. Go to Settings->XML-sitemap->”build it for the first time”
3. Go to Settings->plug-ins->add new and search for “SEO Smart Links”.  Install and activate.
   1. i.     Check “Comments”, “Target->Tags”
   2. ii.     Set “Max links” to 10, “Max Single” to 1, “Max Single URLs” to 0
4. Go to Settings->plug-ins->add new and search for “SEO Slugs”.  Install and activate.
5. Go to Settings->plug-ins->add new and search for “Global Translator”.  Install and activate.
6. Go to Settings->plug-ins->add new and search for “cbnet Ping Optimizer”.  Install and activate.
   1. i.     Go to Settings->cbnet Ping Optimizer and check “Limit excessive pinging in short time” and set it to Ping at most 1 time within 15 minutes

1. Set-up Mobile Functionality
   1. Go to Settings->plug-ins->add new and search for “WPTouch iPhone”.  Install and activate.
      1. i.     Under WPTouch iPhone->settings->General Settins->Post Listing Options uncheck “Hide Excerpts”
      2. ii.     Under WPTouch iPhone->settings->General Settins->Sytle & Color Options->background choose either “Skated Concrete”, “Argyle Tie” or “Thatches”

You can get all of these plug-ins in one file (so you don’t have to download each individually) at http://jeffmcleod.ca

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, how to optimize wordpress, optimize wordpress, plugins, SEO, wordpres plugins

In this article I’m talking about:

1. Downloading WordPress
2. Uploading it to your site
3. Setting up the database
4. Configuring your wordpress installation
5. Logging into wordpress

Powerpoint accompanying this article

Get a .doc copy of this post

Copy of WordPress with all my favorite plugins already included

This is my little list of things I think you should download and how I think you should configure them. To understand my thinking watch the video at http://jeffmcleod.ca showing you how and why I choose all of this. Also you can download all of these plug-ins in one file from the website.

1. Download Wordpress
   1. Google “download wordpress”
   2. It’s free
   3. I am sticking to 2.9.2 for now (you can download this from me at http://jeffmcleod.ca )
   4. Upload WordPress to your site
      1. Log in to FTP site
      2. I like to use FileZilla, but do as you please
      3. Copy entire folder contents onto FTP
      4. I recommend the root folder
      5. If you use a deeper folder it will be in all of your URLs (ie www.yourdomain.com/downloads/stuff/wordpress/…, not cool)
         1. i.     Also, you won’t be able to post any pages to the homepage)
2. Rename folder to whatever you want (ie blog, membership)
3. Set-up Database
   1. Log in to cPanel
   2. Go to mySQL Databases
   3. Create new database
   4. I use the folder name, you can use whatever you want
   5. Create new user
   6. At this stage I always use admin
   7. Add user to database
   8. Configure WordPress installation
      1. Go to the URL you uploaded your Wordpress file
      2. Start config process, log in (remember your database name and user name will have your ftp log-in name in front “ftplogin_databasename” and “ftplogin_username”
      3. Make sure to copy your new password
      4. Logging in to WordPress
         1. Paste your new password
         2. IMMEDIATELY change it
         3. Set-up all your plug-ins (go to http://jeffmcleod.ca to see a video on all the best plug-ins for business, and how to optimize their config for effectiveness)

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, how to install wordpress

I’ve used this little trick and its worked really well for me in the past.

Instead of just going to your blog directly, do this. Go to Google.com and search your “first name last name” so for me in the search box I would put JG Francoeur.

Now your blog may rank on the first page. If its not yet don’t worry about it it’s coming! After you’ve found your blog on the Google search results, click the URL. So instead of clicking directly on your blog url, go through Google and this will help because it’s extra clicks for you.

It’s not a “revolutionary tip” but it’s a quick tip and it will help your Google ranking.

Technorati Tags: 10 mistakes, advertising, how to better convert leads, how to build a database, how to capture leads, how to generate leads, how to marketing, how to nurture leads, how to qualify leads, lead generation, lead nurturing, lead qualification, marketing 101, marketing consultant, marketing ideas, marketing solutions, marketing tips, online marketing expert, sales training, small business marketing, Toronto Marketing Consultant