Online Marketing 101

How to: 1. Connect Prospects to our Mission2. Turn Prospects into donors using online

tools

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Let’s talk about online activities that influence a prospect

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From Curious Prospect to Donor

1. Make sure they can find you online (natural acquisition)

2. Purchase names of like-minded people (paid acquisition)

3. Make it easy for them to sign up (conversion to list)

4. Convince them to Give (conversion to donor)

Strategically communicate with them Engage them in your story (social media) Make it easy for them to spread the word

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Which Tools to Use at What Stage

Natural Acquisition- Optimized Website- Social Media Profiles- Universal Search

Paid Acquisition- Paid media buys- Paid search ads- Email List relationships

Conversion to List- Email testing- Landing Page testing- Web usability studies

Conversion to Donor- Personalized welcome email series- Calendar of email messages - Social Media1 & offline engagement

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Natural Acquisition

“Being Found” OnlineSearch Engine Ranking 101

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Overview of Search Engines

Why do we care about Search? 91% of internet users use a search engine1

87% of people click on the natural results (vs. paid)

The Big Players Google, Yahoo!, and Live.com Google has 70% of the search marketing share,

accounting for 70.77% of all US searches.2 Each has computer algorithm to rank your

pages in the search results.

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How Search Engines Work Google, Yahoo!, and Live create their listings automatically.

They use “spiders” or “bots” to "crawl" links to web pages1 and add those web pages to their index.

When a human visitor to the engine puts in a keyword phrase, the search engine is focused on serving relevant, fresh content that the engines think is matched to the searcher’s intent.

Keyword Phrases

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It’s not about the keywords You want to be found on.

It’s about the keywords the searcher uses to find you.

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How people search

87% of people click on natural search results

Only 48% even see paid ads Most people search for information, smaller

% for commerce People click on the word in results that

matches their query word1

58% of all queries are three or more words

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How People SearchThe Long Tail of Search:

3% of Excite’s search traffic was 3 keywords – 97% of the rest was in the “long tail”

Amazon.com makes 57% of sales from keywords outside of the “popular” terms.

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How Does a Search Engine “Read” A Page?

Remember…it’s a computer algorithm

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It’s a Translation Problem

The spider reads just text, not images or flash. It also evaluates inbound links to determine relevancy.

A search engine tries figure out what your web page is about through its pieces.

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Search Engines are Computers

A Lost in Translation example:

“My Apple is a lemon”

It could mean your page is about fruit If the words “computer” also appears nearby,

the spider determines that the phrase is about computers.

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Writing Spider Friendly Online Copy

Writing tips for online copy: Use contextual words in proximity to the

keyword phrase Repeat the keyword phrase & variations Use Headers like a table of contents Strategically link to the copy, and use the

keyword phrase in the link text.1

Use alt tags for images, so that spiders can “read” the image

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Every page matters

Search engines don’t see “home” pages

Every page is an entry page for searcher

Conversions from landing pages for targeted keywords can be improved through testing

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More Details about Google’s Algorithm

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How Google’s Search Results Work Algorithm has 200+ factors, some weighted more

than others. We know about 40 parts of the 200. In 2007, the Google algorithm changed 9 times

per week. Only 2 web pages are listed for one company, so

one company could rank for the first 152 slots, but will only show up in the #1 and #2 spot

Influenced by: Personal search (geo location, login)1

Universal search2

Behavioral search (previous browsing history, bookmarks, intent= shopping vs. researching)3

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What Impacts Your Search Rankings?

1. The changing search engines

2. Your changing competition

3. Your website constraints Architecture/Links Content Site load speed Code use

None of these are under your control

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How do you Tackle the Challenge? Keyword research

for each page

Competitive Analysis of site and current online marketing efforts

Analyze your site how each page ranks for each keyword

Repair/Enhance site Submit non-indexed pages Monitor rankings/Analyze reports Fix/develop links & Universal Content Repeat

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Questions about Natural Acquisition?

Search Engine Overview

Elements of SEO

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Paid Acquisit ion

Paid online advertising

Email List buys

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Paid Online Advertising Two Models

1. Pay per impression (like traditional media buying) for either a week or month (CPM)

Can place graphic banner, flash or video Or could pay per name acquired (CPA) - though

select networks

2. Pay Per Click (PPC) Used on search engines, and through Google

network (blogs and other sites - NYT) Pay per keyword Placement based on bid as well as “Quality Score”1

which is tied to ad performance (conversions)

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Email List BuysThree Types1. Purchase of email addresses (ie JohnKerry.com)

Negotiated with website owner Pay flat rate per email, without deduping from your list

1. Sponsored Email Negotiated with website owner Pay flat rate per email, without deduping from your list i.e. Amnesty sends a message to members about IRC issue

1. Care2.com petitions Price negotiated with Care2.com Supply them with petition text and follow up email text You pay per names delivered

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Questions @ Paid Acquisition?

Traditional media buying

Pay Per Click advertising

Email buying

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Conversion to List

Landing Page Testing

Usability Testing

Web Analytics

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Conversion to List

Goal: Make sure that no one who interacts with

your landing pages, or website gets confused or distracted during the sign up process.

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Conversion to List Landing Page Testing:

Consistent messaging from email or ad to landing page A/B or multivariate testing Personalize landing page based on passed through

personal data Create header phrases based on best practices & test Usability testing and eye tracking to enhance page

conversions, effective content, navigation & layout Make conversion compelling & clear

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Conversion to List

Web usability testing On the Web, usability is a necessary

condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. You can test the usability of your website.1

American Heart Association increased their online donations by 60% in the first month after implementing improvements based on usability testing.2

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Conversion to List - Web Analytics

Monitor how prospects navigate your site to improve conversions Traffic source (email, natural, paid, links from

other content?)1

What do they do when they arrive? Is there a drop off in traffic through funnel?2

Keep in mind that web analytics is a trending % process, part science/part art

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Web Analytics Terms 1011. Unique visitors, not “hits”

Hits – Measures every element that loads when a visitor request a page (images, javascript, the html itself).

A visitor requesting a page with 30 elements would register as 30 hits! This is an inflated # you shouldn’t measure.

1. Bounce rate – Measured in two ways: % of visitors who see just one page on your site, or % visitors who stay on the site for a small amount of time (usually

five seconds or less). Your homepage bounce rate should be 30% or less

1. Conversions – the # of visitors that did what you wanted them to do when they were on your website

For example: donate, download a .pdf, sign up for a newsletter Industry standard conversion rate is 8-10%

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Questions @ Conversion to List?

Landing Page testingUsability Testing

Improving web site conversions

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Conversion to Donor

Email welcome series

Calendar of email communications

Social Media & offline integration

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Starting a Conversation that Makes Prospects Want to Donate

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Conversion to Donor - Email Converting new names to supporters requires

welcome series email Best Practice for Welcome Series:

Action email first, not generic welcome message or ask Match action email to the prospect’s sign on issue Ask for donation within the first week Segment these names for at least 2 weeks before

adding to generic messaging Test message elements to increase conversions (from

line, subject, copy, headers, link text, signer, P.S.) Test landing pages to increase conversions

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Conversion to Donor - Email

Personalize the Message Segment list Ask for preferences in issue, frequency of

message Send them messaging based on preference Personalize based on donor’s info/web activity

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Calendar of Email Communications Create messaging so that it’s a building

conversation Test individual messages

From line, subject line, body content, links, headers, call to action, signer, P.S.

Measure success based on: Rates for: delivers, opens, CTR, and landing page conversions Overall: Cost per acquisition/email. Donation average per

acquisition/email. Overall number and type of touch point per donor/activist

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Email – Mobile challenges

Unique Challenges with Mobile users: Emails and web pages need to be designed

for mobile use, otherwise renders weird. Mobile traffic is not caught through

traditional web analytic programs because JavaScript is not executed

Additional mobile analytic programs or add-ons are required

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Conversion to Donor – Social Media

Monologues are over, no more: I’ll publish and put it out there and you’ll consume and you

better not complain!. It is now a dialog. - Avinash Kaushik, Occam’s Razor

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Conversion to Donor – Social Media Engage Them in Your Story

Social media/web 2.0 = Web pages created by all users without central control

Good for: Listening to better understand supporters (focus

group) Spreading the message about missing Building attachment to mission Building closer grassroots relationship among

supporters Having donors help define national issue focus

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Conversion to Donor – Social Media

Enable them to Spread the Word Ask them to forward email Post online content that is easily shareable

To the prospect’s blog, Facebook profile, etc.

Ask them to invite others (to social profile, to petition, etc)

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Social Media – Tracking & Testing

Testing & Improving Social Media’s role in conversion Calls to action (eye tracking), frequency of use

of platform tools (posts, sent emails, etc) cross campaign

Track keyword activity cross social media platform (online reputation monitoring)

Track visitors/subscribers, stickiness, #of comments, and conversion based on platform, increased traffic to your website.

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Conversion to Donor – Integrated

Higher Donation Rates & Long Term Donor Value with Campaigns that integrate online, DM, TM and face-to-face engagement

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Questions @ Conversion to Donor?

Email welcome series

Calendar of email communications

Social Media & offline integration

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Summary Natural or Paid Acquisition

Focus on words, analytics and testing Ease of Sign up

Use best practices, consistent messaging, and test for usability

Getting them to Give Personalize messaging based on prospect’s

interests Coordinated multichannel works best:

Email, social media, DM, TM and face-to-face for donor conversion and evangelism

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Appendix

More info

Additional Learning Resources

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More about Google

Google’s aggressive Spam filter is committed to delivering quality results matched to the searcher’s intent. Filters out pages with:

Redirects More “garbage” vs. good content Deceptive coding (this is always changing) Non-unique pages Sites that only contain inbound links Same/similar colored text and background

If found to be Spam = not listed

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Some of the factors we know aboutFreshness1 Page Load time2 Complexity of Page Code3

Title Tag4 Meta Description tag5 Meta Keyword tags6

Heading Tags7 Alt attributes8 Links9

Body Text10 Keywords used11 Keywords in file name12

Number of outbound links13 Number of inbound links Internal linking structure14

Keyword proximity to determine meaning

keyword density on page

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Additional Tools

Analyzing your competition: SEO for Firefox SeoMoz’s Tools Compete.com

Picking keywords: SEO Book’s Keyword Tool

Understanding how the Engines see yrou site: Google Webmaster Tools Yahoo Site Explorer Live Search Webmaster Central

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Learn More – Search Marketing My blog: Search Marketing for Nonprofits Blog:

http://Searchmarketingfornonprofits.wordpress.com

How Search Engines work: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2168031

The expert on linking strategies: http://www.ericward.com/

SEOMoz http://www.seomoz.com

Bruce Clay’s blog http://www.bruceclay.com

Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (book) http://www.yourseoplan.com/

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Learn More – Web Analytics How web analytics is like using Evite for a holiday party

Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik

Web Analytics Demystified (book) http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/

Google Analytics 2.0 (book)

Web Analytics: An Hour A Day (book)

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Learn More – Social Media

Social Media Today http://www.socialmediatoday.com

The Original Signal – Web 2.0 blog http://www.originalsignal.com/

Social Media 101 http://www.slideshare.net/joannapena/social-media-101-creating-

conversations-in-social-circles/

Groundswell (book) http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell