LinkMotion Social, LLC July 2012

An online marketing campaign utilizes six major components to increase online visibility. While each of these need to be built independently, their power is cumulatively larger when integrated with one another.

Online Marketing Campaign

SEO

Blog

Website

Email

Social Media

Mobile

The initial process for assessing, analyzing, and executing an online marketing campaign incorporates each step relatively simultaneously. The following summarizes the set up process:

Develop Keyword Strategy. Implement Keywords Into Code

of Each Website Page. Add Analytic Tools to Each

Website Page. Create Blog Strategy. Link Blog to Auto-Post Software. Assess Inbound and Outbound

Hyperlinks. Set Up Social Media Accounts. Building Tone-of-Voice and

Content Guides for Third-Party Social Sharing.

Brand Email Campaign. Launch PPC Campaigns.

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, at its most basic level, is using website programming to increase the likelihood of being displayed higher by a search engine (e.g. Google) when a search is made for something related to Portus’ services, photographers, and clients.

With the depreciation of the yellow pages, increasing online visibility has now become necessary for business. Using commonly searched keywords allows Portus to be seen by a greater audience. Unfortunately, the more common the keyword, the more competition to be higher when searched. Using less common keywords gives way to less competition, and increases the target market, but results in less overall page views. Using a combination is the most effective form of SEO, for example: Photo, Photography, Retouch, Retouching, Composing, Composition, Boutique Composition, etc…

Add Word Content. Search Engines can’t see images, and therefore don’t know how relevant they are to people searching. While I can add image descriptions in the code, using our keywords in the word content will increase the overall SEO.

Auto-Posting to Twitter. A study released on 7/16/12 by Hubspot, an online marketing authority, showed that auto-posting to social media generates 50% more client leads.

Social Sharing Buttons. Allowing blog readers to easily share the Portus blog with their friends and colleagues increases readership, and ultimately website visitors, who already have an interest in retouching.

The Portus blog looks great, but from an SEO perspective, each post should also contain word content, utilizing a list of keywords that I will create. Creating unique titles that do not include “Portus” will increase search engine ranking (e.g. Nike, Carlos Serrao, Heineken) I was not able to determine how often posts are being made. Although not necessarily aesthetically pleasing, dating posts will increase Portus’ search engine ranking. Best practice is 2-3 posts per week. I also recommend the following changes:

Coding. Search engines read alt tags (picture descriptions) and meta tags, including descriptions and keywords, on websites to determine two things; relevancy and authority.

Inbound Links. Developing a strategy to generate inbound links includes SEO-streamlining the blog, social media conversations, link swapping with other industry websites, and editorial links through press releases.

Outbound Links. Not as effective as inbound links, outbound links are taken into account when search engine robots are reading through the website. Because of this, it is still important to make sure everything possible is hyperlinked.

The two most important aspects of “on-page” SEO are coding and inbound links. Outbound links do increase ranking, but not to the same degree. The coding aspect includes inserting keywords into the website code after we determine which ones we’ll use. Inbound links are normal hyperlinks coming from other websites to Portus. The higher the other page ranks with search engines, the more it increases the Portus ranking.

The Portus website is certainly gorgeous, but like the blog, adding social media buttons will increase traffic through social sharing. Incorporating analytic software into the code will allow us to track visitors, demographics, what pages people are visiting, for how long, and more.

The highest percentage of lead conversions online come from email marketing. Although it is important to have an easily accessible email link on the website, Portus isn’t focused on quantity of clients. Because of this, my opinion is that pursuing a full-blown email marketing campaign would not be cost-effective. Rather, focusing on specific, targeted, and personalized emails will yield wanted results.

Around 2/3 of web users will use social media networks in 2012. Developing relationships with customers and potential clients is quickly becoming the status quo in terms of generating leads and conversions. Social media is the most effective way to do this. Creating a dialog both positions Portus as an authority in the industry, and builds trust from clients and prospects.

From content sharing to customer support, using social media is a dynamic marketing outlet. Creating content and tone-of-voice guides will allow Portus to have clear branding without relying on first-hand comments, posts, etc. Some best practices include:

Sharing Knowledge. This provides the opportunity to let people know that Portus is an authority in the industry.

Commenting. Discussing techniques also positions you as an authority. Commenting also establishes brand re-enforcement through what Portus considers interesting.

Customer Support. While email is still the most productive means for customer support, social media provides a platform for more casual conversation about services, photographers, and clients.

Foursquare. This location-based app can still be used by “checking in” with the Portus account to industry related locations, as well as leaving tips for relevant businesses.

Mobile Pay-Per-Click Advertising. There are now mobile-specific advertising campaigns. After determining the effectiveness of a non-mobile PPC campaign from our metrics, we can explore this potential opportunity.

Marketing to smartphones requires complex strategies, and is most effective when a business profits by selling products or services in quantity. That being said, a mobile or mobile-optimized website is a must in this age of smartphones. I don’t suggest pursuing a mobile marketing campaign, especially without a brick-and-mortar establishment, but there are aspects we can take advantage of.

Pay-Per-Click, or PPC, advertising uses individual search history in order to advertise directly to those who have a greater chance of using Portus services. Developing a campaign is similar to on-page SEO, identifying keywords and regularly honing to reach the target audience.

Common platforms include Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, and Microsoft/Bing Ads.

Clicking on the ad sends a person directly to the website.

The most common way to pay for the ads is through credits that are deducted based on how many times the ad is actually clicked through to the website.

Online directories are a sure-fire way to be seen by search engine indexes. They also speed up the website page rank by not having to wait for robots to find the site. An added benefit of listing with directories is that it creates inbound links to the website, which will increase the page ranking.

Developing a “voice” for Portus is an online marketing priority. We accomplish this through assessing the Portus Mission Statement, and integrating the Portus purpose into the campaign. Using the following methods, we will create a digital understanding of who and what Portus is.

Identifying Tone of Voice

Targeting Keywords Social Media

Conversations Blog What Sets Portus Apart

from Competitors Color Scheme Images

While there are many components of any online marketing campaign, the most important is the Portus return on investment. I’ll provide analytic reports as we progress detailing many metrics, but our priority is acquiring new clients.

Portus’ overall online marketing presence scored 22 out of 100. We’ll see this rise significantly after the on-page SEO is complete.

Using on-page analytics, we will determine where traffic is originating and continually reassess our campaign.

Online marketing is a building process, so while we will see some immediate results, truly running an effective campaign is an ongoing process.