2009 June | Oasis Interactive

Keyword-to-Conversion Model

June 25th, 2009 | 0 comments

The usual approach to SEM by most companies are:-

1. Identify keywords used for search (either by guessing, online media companies or online tools like Google Keyword Tool)

2. Craft out Ad copy, focusing on product USP and Promo mechanics

3. Link to website (either homepage, promotion page, microsite or specific product pages).

This method is not wrong to some extent but if you give it a deeper thought, the entire process could be more focused, direct and conversion-driven. I term it as the keyword-to-conversion model. Basically, conversion starts from the point a search attempt is made.

keyword-to-conversion

The key here is to identify the search objective through the search words/ phrases used. Based on the search objective, the ad copy has to be created to address this. The aim here is to allow the ad copy to be relevant to the search objective, thus allowing the consumer to be able to relate to the ad. With this, we can achieve what we call a ‘true click-through’.

A ‘true click-through’ is a result of a non-impulsive, need-driven action. It basically filters real clicks from those that are merely in for the wrong reason, thus reducing your PPC budget, increasing ROI. Let me emphasize that this approach is strictly for Search networks and is not applicable if you are advertising on a content network.

With a ‘true click-through’, 50% of the battle is won. Remember, the person that is coming onto your site now has a ‘real’ intention / objective and is not merely browsing. As such, the landing page is crucial. It has to make references to the ad copy and search objective. For example, if the search objective is to compare prices of a service, the ad copy could say ‘voted most cost effective service by ABC magazine’, providing a point of comparison. The landing page should further emphasize the concept of ‘comparison’ – such as allowing the consumers to select some brands and do a side by side comparison. With this, a high level of interest and relevance is maintained.

In a conversion site, traffic resulting from a PPC campaign on a search network needs to be guided. Imagine someone comes up to you and says he wants to buy an iPod. You bring him to the entrance of your shop and drop him off there and say ‘Feel free to browse around’. ???

Guide them around. Create informational paths within the site that has a purpose in mind – conversion. From the landing page where you have shown that your service and product is great, bring them to the next page to reinforce that buying decision. I called this the Influencing Page. In this page, contents are created to reinforce buying decisions. It could be testimonials, it could be a summary of USPs, it could be a promotion to create the need to ‘buy now’.

Remember – in a conversion site, it is important to craft contents that are relevant to the search objective, guide them through the site, reinforce buying decision and then convert. The process should be sharp and sweet.

How to get more fans for your Facebook page

June 19th, 2009 | 0 comments

So you’ve got yourself a snazzy looking fan page and you are now ready to connect, share and build relationships with your customers. That’s fantastic but, you have few or no fans. What can you do? Here are a few tips for getting more traffic and more fans for your brand’s Facebook page.

Develop a strategy for your Facebook page
The page has to be a valuable resource to your fans. Nobody joins social networking communities to be advertised to. People don’t really always care about your products or services. They want to be able to benefit from being a fan – whether it’s the first to know about certain promotions or learning more about a certain topic.

Good, relevant content will give people a good reason to come to your page. Use the page to post links to valuable articles, post helpful and interesting videos, photos and other fun updates. Do also join other Facebook pages and groups similar to yours. This allows you to see what others are doing and see what works and what doesn’t. Taking part in these communities (i.e.: by contributing to discussions, answering questions, and sharing information) will also give your page more visibility and credibility.

Initiative your staff.
Get everyone in the company to chip in! Share the goals and plans for the page with your colleagues and then encourage your colleagues to support the page.

Staff can use their own Facebook accounts (or start a Facebook profile, if they don’t have one) and become fans of the page. It’ll help to start the momentum by being fans and then sending out invitations to their friends and family to be fans as well. This starts the viral effect. People will be more than happy to support the efforts of a company where their friends and family are employed at.

Give reasons for people in Facebook to join and come back to the page.
Do a bit of research each week and post resources in your field. Publish interesting and relevant content like links to articles and videos that offer good advice and tips. Remember – posting on your wall will cause an update to feed into your fans newsfeed on their home page. You can also send regular fan updates so the existing fans would have a reason to come back to the page. In doing this, you will also begin to attract more fans. Explore the various promotional ways you can leverage on your fans’ news feed to reach out to a greater audience. An example is to offer contests that involve users to change their profile picture to one of your logo or posting a single promotional liner in their status and then giving out attractive prizes. Exclusive discounts can be given to Facebook users as well. There are many ways to do this. Explore and go wild!

Exhaust every opportunity to promote your Facebook page.
That means making use of avenues like, posting a link in your email signature (just think of all the people who read your emails everyday), asking your staff to post a link back to your Facebook page and posting a link back to your Facebook page on your company’s website and blog! Another important aspect of this is to connect all your social media platforms by making sure people can have easy access to your social media touch points just like what Victoria’s Secret Pink has done. They have links on their VS Pink landing page to their Facebook Fan page – making it a hub for all their online presence.

Posting media such as photos and video and tagging them with relevant keywords has also been proven to attract new visitors.

And Facebook ads? An ad campaign to promote your Facebook page through targeted advertising. This will bring visitors to your Facebook page as well, though do note that although it is a great way to jump start a fan page, organic growth can help build a more engaged group.

For your facebook page to be successful, it requires careful planning, dedication and hard work to build your own online community. Hey, but the more effort you put into it, the better the result! Build great content, make it easy for people to share, let people know about it and over time, the community will grow.

Do you have some ideas to share with us on this topic? We look forward to your comments below!

Top 10 SEO Tips/Techniques

June 8th, 2009 | 0 comments

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a hot topic these days. How do you increase your Search Engine Rankings? Here are top 10 simple things to remember when building a site optimized for search engine:

1. Title and Meta Description tags
Every page in your site should have a title with the site name and a short description of the page. Include keywords (see point 8 below). Remember that the page title and description is what appears in search results, so it should give users a good reason to click on it.

2. Social Media
This is not technically SEO, but Social Media is undeniably a growing factor in getting your web site noticed – hence an important element of SEO. In Social Media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Delicious and so on, there is a lot of relationship building involved. All these platforms are opportunities to reach out to your audience. Each of these platforms have their own pros and cons, but all will help drive traffic to your site and result in link backs when used wisely.
Do read up on this article on Will Social Media Marketing replace Search Engine Marketing?

3. Have a Site Map
Make sure you have a site map. This is an xml file that describes the structure of your page. These XML sitemaps will help search engines to index your site (i.e.: find and link all content of your site).

4. Content content content!
Having good content on your site is probably one of the most important aspects of SEO. Users search for content and if your site doesn’t have content they want, no one will stay long at your site. So, update your site with unique content (which is keyword–rich, see point 8 below) on a regular basis.

5. Link appropriately
The more relevant the links are to your site, the more findable the page becomes. If you page is focused on Businesses in Singapore, a link to an article on “How the global financial crisis is affecting business in Singapore: will boost your SEO. A link to “Tourist attractions in Singapore” will not.

6. Alt Attributes on Images
Putting a brief descriptive alt attribute along with your image means additional relevant text to your source code that the search engines can see when indexing your site. Relevant text = Higher search engine rankings.

7. Get Linked by other sites!
There isn’t really a fool-proof way of doing this except for, providing good content. Incoming links are important for SEO and are probably the most difficult to implement successfully.

8. Keywords are important.
Do up a list of keywords or phrases that potential visitors will use to find your site. Use them and words related to them. Weave them into your website copy, meta tags and page titles where possible. This will naturally help with your search engine rankings especially if the use of the keywords are appropriate.

9. Build good internal links.
Not every visitor will start at your home page. Make sure to check that each page on your site is linked to others. This will also help the search engine spiders to index your site properly.

10. Beware of Flash and Java.
Your website may look great with all that flash and java but unfortunately, search engine spiders do not see your content if it’s embedded into a flash web site – especially all flash web sites. So if the search engine spiders can’t see your content, a good chunk of potential visitors will miss out on your site as well. There are some technical ways to go around this – your interactive agency should and will overcome for you.

This list is definitely not exhaustive. If you have any tips/techniques you want to share, we’ll be happy to hear from you below.