Monday, December 15, 2008

New Stats for Morris Animal Foundation

Today we reported the latest numbers for the Morris Animal Foundation. Since we launched the search engine friendly site, traffic has gone up 36%. That's just in one month since the launch. Here are other key stats:

  • Traffic nearly tripled (up 171%) compared to this time last year
  • Search Engine Visibility, Total Search Engine Traffic up 458.36% compared to this time last year (More traffic from this source indicates better organic rankings and higher ad click-through rates) and is up 51% compared to October
  • Google Adwords Grant CTR Performance up 80% compared to last month. We achieved significant improvements through optimization of both keywords and ad copy in individual campaigns and as a result we more than doubled the amount of traffic from this source
Contact Fusionbox, a Denver advertising agency, to see how we can drive sales and leads through search engine marketing and usability improvements.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Fusionbox Adds Staff

Denver, Colorado, December 14, 2008 - Fusionbox, a Denver advertising agency, with offices in New Orleans, Louisiana is proud to announce two additions to our design and account management teams.

Fusionbox continues to grow and expands its services and client list. To manage new business, Fusionbox has added Lindsey Jamieson as to the team as an account manager. Lindsey comes from now defunct Denver advertising agency, McClain Finlon. “Lindsey came very highly recommended from our contacts at McClain Finlon,” said Ivy Hastings, Account Manager at Fusionbox. “Lindsey was one of the star project managers there and has the upbeat and caring personality we look for in Account Managers.” Lindsey holds a degree in Marketing and Advertising from Colorado State University.

More and more clients have been coming to Fusionbox as a full service advertising agency. “Our focus has always been interactive, but we are seeing clients use print advertising and direct mail to drive clients to the web for conversion,” said Ivy Hastings. “We've been really effective in using print and email for lead generation programs.” To add to our services, Fusionbox hired Casey McAllister to the New Orleans team. Casey is a longtime resident of New Orleans and has developed branding for New Orleans institutions like the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Casey is a natural addition to our team. He brings many years of branding and print design as well as web design to our team.

Fusionbox is thrilled to welcome Lindsey and Casey to our growing teams in Denver and New Orleans. Fusionbox team members are among the brightest in the advertising and interactive industry in Denver and New Orleans and is a key factor in Fusionbox's continuing growth and success in the Denver advertising, web design, web development and search engine marketing industry.


About Fusionbox: Fusionbox, a Denver advertising agency, has helped companies create brand awareness, increase sales, and optimize operations through their websites since 2001. Our work results in a direct and measurable financial impact on your business. We were founded and built by a business strategist and a programmer. That combination makes our work technically superior and gives us the expertise needed to solve your business challenges and increase revenues instead of just focusing on design. Fusionbox services include search engine marketing, web development, web design, and RIA development. We have offices in San Francisco, Denver and New Orleans. For more information, call 303-952-7490 or visit www.fusionbox.com.


CONTACT:
Ivy Hastings
Fusionbox
www.fusionbox.com
303-952-7490
ihastings (at) fusionbox.com

Monday, December 08, 2008

How We Increased Donations for a Non Profit in a Down Market

In June of this year, Fusionbox took over the management of the Morris Animal Foundation's site from Morris' ad agency. The Morris Animal Foundation funds research to protect, treat and cure animal disease. The agency was not getting results from a pay-per-click campaign that they launched. (CTR was .003%) This was just not the agency's expertise so they referred Morris to us.

Since we have been managing the site, traffic has increased by a whopping 50% over last year and continues to go up by an average of 10% a month. Donations in October were 15% higher than they were last year despite news about the economy.

Here's how we did it:

Our brilliant pay-per-click expert took the list of keywords that the agency had created and cut it down dramatically. That list had hundreds of keyword that were related to obscure animal diseases that were getting no search volume-- no clicks ever. We cut them out. Further, the list of keywords did not include donation-related keywords like, "saving animals", "donate to save animals", etc. Our SEO developed several different campaigns around the key performance indicators that we established with the client. (All of the KPIs tied to the non-profits mission and vision.) One of the campaigns was used to test different donation-related keywords with different messaging. The click-through rate started going up and up. As we monitored the campaign, we gathered data on what worked and what did not and kept refining the messaging and the keyword list. As of October, the click-through rate is at an impressive 1.78%.

One of our goals were to increase awareness with a younger generation. In order to do this, Fusionbox created a social media marketing campaign. The campaign included a Facebook cause and page, a YouTube channel, and a presence on MySpace. Influential bloggers also played a role by posting about the Morris cause and targeted advertising on Facebook rounded out the effort.

We still had one problem, though: organic search engine placement. The Morris site was ranking better for some keywords but our organic rank was not what we wanted it to be. The site that the original developers created used a content management system to control the whole site. (Warning to anyone looking to redo a site: Do not create a site that is 100% controlled by a CMS unless you can change titles and tags for EVERY page.) Because of the way the site was created, it was impossible to write metadata for every page.

So, what did we do? We recreated the entire site to be search-engine friendly from the start. Our strategy included:

Rewriting content to include keywords
Developing seo-friendly code
Creating titles and tags for every page
Developing internal links of keywords
Renaming pages with keywords
Optimizing digital assets
Creating content management for sections of the site that would change
Refreshing the website design to be more modern
Fixing usability issues in the navigation
Creating more calls-to-action to donate
Simplified the donation process
Creating measurable conversion goals

One of the most important aspects of the site was to redo all of the donation forms to measure our efforts. Our Search Engine Marketing team can now determine what keywords are converting best in order to use up our entire Google Grant. Our process has always been to design, measure and refine and now we could walk the talk

The site has been live for about a couple of weeks now and so far, the response is very good. It will take a few months to see the full impact of redoing the site in terms of organic search position, but we're very confident that donations will continue to go up as the economy tanks-- not an easy task.

Lessons learned:
Create your focused keyword list with your goals top of mind
Don't hire an ad agency to do an interactive agency's job. SEO, usability, and web design is a specialized field.
Combine paid, organic and social media tactics for maximum results.
Always design, measure and refine.

Hit me up if you want to discuss how we might help you. All this stuff works for businesses too. Now is the time to shift ad dollars away from traditional advertising to interactive.

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Fusionbox Launches New Site for Morris Animal Foundation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Morris Animal Foundation Works with Denver Interactive Agency to Launch Happy Healthy Cat Website

Denver, Colorado, December 02, 2008 - On behalf of the more than 80 million cats in America, Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) embarked on a mission to provide felines with their share of health care and research. The Healthy Happy Cat Campaign, launched Monday, Nov. 17, aims to help stop suffering and premature death in cats. MAF worked with their Denver web design agency, Fusionbox, to complete the new website.

There are more than 82 million cats in U.S. homes, making them America’s No. 1 pet. However, cats get less veterinary care and research than dogs. There’s also too few scientists studying feline health issues, according to the foundation.

The focus of the new campaign is to raise pet-owner awareness of feline health issues and increase funding for research and scientist training. To achieve this goal, MAF created a dedicated online resource with information on feline diseases and symptoms. Additional features include interactive blog entries and quizzes, MAF research success stories and resources for cat owners.

The foundation previously has funded projects in areas of feline health including diabetes, kidney and heart disease, cancer, urinary disorders, hyperthyroidism and infectious diseases.

Patricia Olson, DVM, Ph.D., MAF president and CEO, said that a tremendous amount of cat health research remains to be done. “Our goal is that the Happy Healthy Cat Campaign will give veterinarians the tools they need to dramatically improve the health and well-being of all cats,” she said in a statement.

Hill’s Pet Nutrition donated $1 million to the campaign in addition to a genetic database of research information to help scientists worldwide develop diagnostics and treatments for the most serious feline diseases.

About Morris Animal Foundation: Morris Animal Foundation, established in 1948, is dedicated to funding animal health research that protects, treats and cures companion animals, horses, and wildlife. MAF has been at the forefront of funding breakthrough research studies benefiting animals on all seven continents. MAF has its headquarters in Denver. Charity Navigator ranks MAF as a four-star charity, the highest rating. MAF is a BBB Wise Giving Alliance Charity Seal Holder. For more information, call 800.243.2345 or visit MorrisAnimalFoundation.org.

About Fusionbox: Fusionbox, a Denver web development company, has helped companies create brand awareness, increase sales, and optimize operations through their websites since 2001. Our work results in a direct and measurable financial impact on your business. We were founded and built by a business strategist and a programmer. That combination makes our work technically superior and gives us the expertise needed to solve your business challenges and increase revenues instead of just focusing on design. Fusionbox services include search engine marketing, Denver web development, web design, and RIA development. We have offices in San Francisco, Denver and New Orleans. For more information, call 303-952-7490 or visit the Fusionbox website at www.fusionbox.com.


CONTACT:
Ivy Hastings
Fusionbox
www.fusionbox.com
303-952-7490
ihastings (at) fusionbox.com

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

"I could give a rat's ass about design."

I met with a new agency partner today to talk about redoing their site. It was the first time we had met with a Denver advertising agency that was focused on results and were willing to be a model for their own clients on what they could achieve with a website that works.

I gave my speech about how being at the top of the search engines was key to getting new business. After that, the site should include a solid lead generation program, be usable, and establish thought leadership. Design is last on the list of priorities. The site should have a decent design, but the focus of the site should not be on design , it should be on bringing in leads.

After my speech, the President of the company said, "I could give a rat's ass about design, as long as it brings results." That was the point when I knew we were entering into a great relationship with an agency that is run by executives who sincerely want to get results for their clients and not pat themselves on the back for their great design or creative work.

Google makes Life magazine photo archives available to the public online | Media | guardian.co.uk

Google makes Life magazine photo archives available to the public online | Media | guardian.co.uk

Google is going to create an archive of all the Life magazine images online for the public. Just another reason why we love you, Google!

Fusionbox Adds Staff

Fusionbox is thrilled to announce the addition of Lindsey Jamieson to our Denver Interactive Team. Lindsey was one of the rising stars at McClain Finlon and she brings project management and account management experience to the table. We love her because she is smart as a whip, super energetic, and wins people over instantly.

From Search Engine Low Down

Couldn't have said it better myself...

From Jeremy at Search Engine Lowdown:

SEL: "Top 8 Most Important Things I’ve Learned About Interactive Marketing

It’s been my honor to follow Andy’s and Garrett’s lead for the last year. These were incredibly large shoes to fill, and moderating this blog is not something that I have taken lightly. My hope was that I’ve done it justice. And unless THK decides to generously give this blog to me, this will be my last post as I leave MSA today.

In the meanwhile, below are what I think are the most important tidbits of information that I’ve picked up about interactive marketing over the years. Some of them are pretty obvious, but then again:

1. Never forget that it is interactive. There is nothing more essential for conversion than a site that responds to the needs of the target market.

2. SEO never ends because it is a mindset, not a project.

3. The best way to have a search engine friendly site is to have clear and concise performance goals before the first line is coded. Your goals should affect the brand, the tone, the products, the pricing and the overall architecture. Retrofitting a site for SEO is almost always second best.

4. If you are not committing yourself to understanding and immersing yourself in your Web site’s analytics, you are in the wrong business.

5. PPC will never get less expensive. Success should be determined by overall conversion"

Dave Gannon :: Denver Freelance Web Designer + Print Designer + Information Architect Blog

Thank you to my friend, Dave Gannon, who did some digging and found out who was behind Obama's design and site dev. Glad to hear Obama went with local talent.

(Dave's a great freelancer!)

Dave Gannon :: Denver Freelance Web Designer + Print Designer + Information Architect Blog: "Here's who built Barack Obama's website and Logo
Monday, November 3

I did some research - code digging, and found out some info on who was responsible for the amazing campaign design/logo/website of presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

It looks like Barack kept it local by hiring all Chicago, IL designers/programmers.
Sol Sender: Obama Logo Design
Simple Scott: Obama Website Design/Coding/Creative Direction
Walker Hamilton: Obama CSS Coding/Design"

Monday, November 17, 2008

YouTube to test video ID with Time Warner, Disney | Technology | Reuters

YouTube to test video ID with Time Warner, Disney | Technology | Reuters

It'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. One would think that media companies would want to capitalize on the reposting of their content.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Fusionbox Web Site Design and Development


Blogging to Create Thought Leadership

With Web 2.0 and new media, many companies embraced blogging. But only a few are doing it right.

When executed correctly with a strategic and credible approach, blogging can build thought leadership online and foster dialog between customers and brands.

In this post, I'll discuss some of the ways you can use blogging to reach these business goals. But first, what are most companies doing wrong?

The biggest mistakes I see are corporate blogs created merely for the sake of doing so. "Other companies are blogging, so we should too" (even if we have nothing to say). And then there are the blogs that function as thinly veiled undercover marketing tools, fake blogs or "flogs."

In the blogosphere, there is nothing more important than credibility. What's more, social media communities will turn quickly upon disingenuous and self-serving attempts at blogging. Worse, they won't forgive and they won't forget, so don't shoot your blog in its digital foot.

So how should you blog if you want to create thought leadership? Corporate and executive blogs are communication platforms, and to get noticed and stand out writers need to share provocative ideas. Whether that means new perspectives on industry issues or discussing strategic concerns, thought leadership happens when you post original and relevant ideas.

Still, having great ideas is only half of the equation. With no attention or readers, your ideas will fall on deaf ears no matter how revolutionary they are.

In order to maximize your visibility and reach, start by researching the most popular bloggers in whatever vertical your going to be writing about. Then, comment on their posts and start a conversation. This helps you get your foot in the door and gain credibility by association. Chances are they'll link to your blog too, which is a big help from a what marketers call an "influencer."

As you write, make sure your posts utilize search-engine friendly titles, keywords, and links. A little SEO can go a long way propelling your blog to the top of the rankings, which lends further credibility to your words.

Add video and sound to your blog as well. Studies show that blogs with interactive media, especially video and podcasts, capture more returning visitors and offer a "stickier" user experience.

Don't overlook social media channels either. By adding social bookmarking buttons, readers can digg, del.i.cio.us, Facebook, etc. your content and expose it to their networks. Again, being connected to these key influencers is a proven and effective method to build thought leadership.

None of this will happen overnight, however. It may take months of blogging before you start to build readership and gain recognition. Monitoring your blog with web analytics will provide further insight into your efforts while showing you what content is the most popular with readers.

Remember that a corporate or executive blog must create dialog between management, customers, and readers. Companies and brands can leverage blogs successfully to share information that otherwise would remain internal. Blogs humanize companies by giving a face to an organization, and well-written content can create loyal brand supporters. Always enable comments on your blog to foster conversation.

Allocate the resources for your blog before you start writing. If it's a company blog, make sure you or whomever manages the blog has time to update it frequently, ideally posting new content every two or three days. Nothing looks worse than a blog that hasn't been updated in three months.

Creating thought leadership online is tricky business. As you can see, many companies are prone to the mistakes and mishaps that arise when their blogs are used for the wrong reasons. In the blogosphere, credibility is paramount.

Developing thought leadership is about gaining credibility with readers and establishing yourself as the authority on whatever topic you write about. Do this and you'll become one of the "influencers" I mentioned above. Key influencers are, by definition, thought leaders.

Fusionbox Web Site Design and Development

Fusionbox Web Site Design and Development: "Search Marketing Boosts Brand Awareness"

Fusionbox is going on seven years as a Denver web design, Denver web development and Denver search engine marketing firm. When I tell people where I work, they almost always say they have heard of Fusionbox. This is true despite the fact that we have never done any traditional advertising. I'm convinced this is true because we dominate the organic rank for many of our keywords. And doing this creates brand awareness.

I spend quite a bit of time talking to clients about the tremendous return on investment that organic search engine marketing can bring. Most clients know that seo means getting to the top of Google, but not every client knows that a search engine marketing initiative can have the same benefits as a traditional PR campaign.

Here's a quote from Enquiro that illustrates this point:

"In a first-of-its-kind online study commissioned by Google, researchers discovered a significant correlation between companies in the top organic and sponsored ad placements and consumer brand affinity, brand recall and purchase intent." - Enquiro Research - www.enquiro.com.

Contact Fusionbox to find out how internet marketing can spread your brand awareness and effect your bottom line.

Denver Interactive Marketing News from Fusionbox – Colorado's Premier Interactive Agency

Denver Interactive Marketing News from Fusionbox – Colorado's Premier Interactive Agency: "Fusionbox has just completed and launched a redesign of the Morris Animal Foundation website in order to make the code search engine friendly and to fix usability issues, and limitations of their current CMS.

Fusionbox has quite a bit of success with the Morris Animal Foundation site whose donations are up 23% over last year despite the economy because of our search engine marketing efforts.

We've also created a new site for Morris for their Happy Healthy Cat Campaign. We'll be launching a search engine marketing and social media marketing campaign to get the word out on this great cause."

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Card Sorting for Information Architecture

Many of our clients ask us what method we use in determining the best information architecture for their users. One effective and easy way to accomplish this is by using a technique called card sorting. The beauty of this technique is that you don't need an Information Architect in order to do it and it's effective in understanding how users categorize information.

To perform a card sorting exercise, grab a bunch of index cards and write each section of the site on a card. For example, Home, About Us, Contact Us, Services, Careers, Products, etc. Make sure that you capture every section that you want to have on the site. This process often helps you discover what sections you need.

The next step is to put the cards in piles of subjects you think belong together. You might group together About Us, History, Executive Bios, and Board of Directors sections. Once you've done this, record what sections go in which pile. Just make a list of each section.

If your site is complicated and deep, and you are concerned about
usability, it makes sense to go through this process with different user types. Get volunteers from your company to create their own piles of content. This often reveals that users might expect a certain section to appear in a place that you did not previously think of. That's okay. In fact, that's good. You are not going to accommodate everyone's expectations, but you will start seeing patterns in the way different user types organize content. You may also discover that some content sections belong in two categories. You can also treat these kinds of expectations by using cross links.

Sometimes you will find that you have sections that don't seem to fit into any pile. Sometimes these oddball categories suggest an important user path. When that is the case, use a call to action directly on your homepage (above the fold, of course, or consistently across your site.

Your information architecture, while it should be intuitive, is not going to account for every way a user will get to the information they need. You need to consider many paths to the same information whether it's by using internal links, calls to action, or a search tool. The most important aspect of information architecture is to make sure that users can get to the information they want easily. You'll also want to direct them to the information that you want them to see. This is called key user paths. Whenever you can, make sure that your key user paths consist of three clicks or less.

This simple exercise can reveal patterns of user preferences that you may not have considered-- especially if you are really close to the project. Card sorting is easy to do, doesn't take much time, and reveals a lot about key user paths and expectations. Perform this exercise and no one will even notice your information architecture, or forbid the worst, have to learn how to move through you'll site. The benefits of this are better usability which, in the end, means more sales, leads, or user loyalty for you.

Ivy Hastings is a Project Manager at Fusionbox, a Denver Web Development company. Ivy is a graduate of UC Berkeley and a member of the Board of Directors for Arts Street, a Denver, Colorado non-profit that teaches kids job skills in the Arts.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Fusionbox Opens New Orleans Advertising Agency

October 23, 2008 – New Orleans, Louisiana – Following seven years of successful growth in Colorado, Fusionbox, a leading Denver interactive agency specializing in web design, development, and search engine optimization (SEO), announced the opening of a new office in New Orleans, Louisiana.

As a leading Denver and New Orleans interactive agency with clients from across the nation, Louisiana was an ideal place for Fusionbox to expand. The company will be able to interact personally with local clients while offering expert SEO and web development services.

Fusionbox offers the New Orleans business community an agency that caters to the interactive needs of evolving companies. Strategic, usable web design and search engine marketing are complemented with an emphasis on web analytics.

With a growing client base throughout Louisiana, especially within the oil and gas industry, Fusionbox recognized the opportunity to expand while maintaining the focus on client service the company was built upon. Fusionbox will remain committed to search engine friendly web design, open source web development, and results-proven search engine marketing services.

Fusionbox President Alexander Groth said “New Orleans is seeing a renaissance after the devastation of Katrina. The city seems focused on the future, and we’re very excited to be here now during these important first steps of technological growth.”

The new Fusionbox office will be located in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter. With this expansion, Fusionbox also hopes to help the New Orleans community thrive in its continuing recovery from Katrina. Fusionbox will aid in this recovery by bringing jobs to the city and offering assistance through community service and involvement like the company does in Colorado with non-profit organizations like Arts Street.

To learn more about our move to New Orleans, contact Ivy Hastings at 504.307.3447

Interactive Agencies are Getting all the New Business

Interactive agencies in Denver and elsewhere are taking business from traditional agencies because those they continue to struggle with their interactive services. We see it all the time. Many agencies are focused solely on design and don’t consider usability, search engine marketing or even conversion rates.


Case in point. We helped a Denver advertising agency cut up and program their site. I asked them what their goals were as they related to the new website design. They said they wanted to use the site as a lead generation tool. This was ironic since they had placed the “Contact Us” link at the very bottom left of the site in tiny font where no one would see it because they did not like “how it looked” in the top navigation.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Information about Fusionbox

Here's some info on Fusionbox that not everyone knows:

Fusionbox is a Denver interactive agency with offices in Denver, Colorado and New Orleans, Louisiana. We've helped companies create brand awareness, increase sales, and optimize operations through their websites since 2001. Our work results in a direct and measurable financial impact on your business. We are unlike many interactive agencies, because we were founded by a programmer and a business strategist, not a designer. That combination makes our work technically superior and gives us the expertise needed to solve your business challenges and increase revenues. Our list of achievements is long. Here are a couple of highlights from recent years:

- Fusionbox had been ranked as one of the top five fastest -growing small companies in Colorado by the Denver Business Journal two years in a row.
- Fusionbox was ranked as one of the top national interactive agencies by BtoB Magazine.
- Fusionbox has earned numerous local and national awards for its work.
- Fusionbox has been recognized as one of the top Denver interactive agencies by the Denver Business Journal for three years in a row.

Fusionbox is a profitable, debt-free, private organization with over seven years of operation in Denver and New Orleans. Fusionbox was initially incorporated in 2001 and has enjoyed persistent and stable growth since its inception. We employ a dedicated team whom we have hand-picked from among the top talent in the industry.

In addition to working with clients, we firmly believe in giving back to the community. Fusionbox works actively to support Arts Street--a Denver non-profit that helps young people pursue creative careers. Arts Street mostly employs at-risk youth who are talented but may not learn well in a traditional environment. The organization matches youth up with programs where they can cultivate their creative and job skills in an encouraging and safe environment. Arts Street graduates go on to have successful careers in many industries. Arts Streets provides Fusionbox with a steady stream of bright young interns interested in web design and development, many of whom go on to have successful careers in the industry. Ivy Hastings sits on the Board of Directors of this organization.

The Future of Copywriting

It's no secret that the art of copywriting is changing with the evolution of the web. Fueled by a fast-paced desire to digest information, users no longer read, they scan. Many of the old copywriting "rules" no longer make sense in an online atmosphere.

Changing trends are the future of online copywriting. So how can you make sure users read your content instead of ignoring it? Follow these suggestions to increase user engagement and "stickiness."

- Know your audience. The better you understand your target audience, the better you can connect with user motivations. You must emphasize unique advantages about whatever you're offering and convey this message free of fluff.

- Readers will stop reading when they encounter marketing speak, so don't give them a reason to leave. There's a 5 second rule (that's quickly becoming 3 seconds) in which a user must find what they want. If they don't, they'll abandon the page and add to your "bounce rate." Highlight benefits immediately and address a pain point and it's solution.

- Adopt a more conversational tone with less formality. As online advertising shifts to more alternative media, connecting with readers grows more difficult, especially younger audiences. This demographic values honesty and lacks patience, so a conversational tone is much more effective. Rarely are chances in this world given twice. In an online atmosphere, once you lose the trust of a reader, you can't get it back. Instead, offer the promise of action and cater to Web 2.0 readers' desire for immediate results.

- This translates to formatting as well. Don't write in thick verbose paragraphs. Instead, utilize short sentences and bullet points. Always leave a healthy amount of negative space so you don't overwhelm readers with text.

- Test and test some more. Multivariate testing can reveal what type of copy readers respond best to. A quick test can point you in the right direction and boost your site's conversion rate. Use web site analytics to look at the bounce rate and time on site/page before and after reformatting.

Follow these copywriting guidelines and your words will get noticed in a Web 2.0 atmosphere.

contributed by Nick Yorchak

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

My Total Pet Peeve


Most of my co-workers know that I'm not a big proponent of email marketing. Organic SEO just shows such a higher ROI. It is an on-demand world we live in, after all. But, if you are going to send me email blast spam, at least make it effective. If I open this message in Outlook, it's all blocked images. Don't tell me that email marketers don't know about Outlook blocking images. Please, guys, include just a little text to grab the users attention.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Search Engine Marketing Builds Brand Awareness

Fusionbox is going on seven years as a Denver web design, web development and search engine marketing firm. When I tell people where I work, they almost always say they have heard of Fusionbox. This is true despite the fact that we have never done any traditional advertising. I'm convinced this is true because we dominate the organic rank for many of our keywords. And doing this creates brand awareness.

I spend quite a bit of time talking to clients about the tremendous return on investment that organic search engine marketing can bring. Most clients know that seo means getting to the top of Google, but not every client knows that a search engine marketing initiative can have the same benefits as a solid PR campaign.

So, how do we go about elevating a brand? We create online buzz. First, we make sure that our clients show up in the top organic ranking in Google. Take Adolfson & Peterson, a national construction company, for example. They aren't as big as some of their competitors, but they want to be, so we make sure that when users search for national construction companies, they show up with the big players. Once a potential client clicks through, they position themselves as being just as experienced as their competitors who might be bigger.

Next, we'll create what we call Thought Leadership. Adolfson & Peterson is a leader in green construction. Everyone at the company is aware of this, but most potential clients are not. We change perception by essentially launching an online PR campaign around this subject. We'll write and distribute content about Green building to blogs, industry publications, groups, and even social media outlets. Now, we have developed online buzz around one of A&P's key value propositions.

Then, we'll make sure that A&P is on all the directories, lists, and sites that cover the green building industry. We're not just building inbound links as most of our competitors are. Sure, we are helping positioning, but we are also creating brand awareness and controlling perception at the same time.

“In a first-of-its-kind online study commissioned by Google, researchers discovered a significant correlation between companies in the top organic and sponsored ad placements and consumer brand affinity, brand recall and purchase intent. “ - Enquiro Research – www.enquiro.com.

Contact Fusionbox to find out how internet marketing can effect your bottom line.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

What is Digital PR?

  • “In a first-of-its-kind online study commissioned by Google , researchers discovered a significant correlation between companies in the top organic and sponsored ad placements and consumer brand affinity, brand recall and purchase intent. “ - Enquiro Research – www.enquiro.com

Online PR allows brands to:

  • Control their online message by engaging in online conversations

  • Build brand awareness by coming up higher in more and varied searches

  • Online PR allows companies to position themselves as Thought Leaders in designated areas. This increases brand awareness, traffic, awareness, and loyalty

The list of benefits goes on and on. Here are some of the tactics we employ:

    • Creating keyword-heavy content to attract searches of all different types

    • Developing links to the site from authority sites

    • Getting on directories, lists, blogs, finance discussions and talking about Superior

    • Creating and submitting press releases to online press distributors

    • Developing content and getting published on online industry sites

For more information on social media and online PR, visit our Denver Internet Marketing site at: http://seo.fusionbox.com.