What Affects Google Search Rankings?

Google has published an interesting infographic that shows how a Google query travels 1,500 miles at nearly the speed of light to hit different data centers around the world, and how it ranks its results.

Google's algorithm looks at a query and uses 200 signals to decide which pages are most relevant. This includes freshness and quality of content, and social media activity - recommendations, number of other web sites linking to a page, and more.

http://mashable.com/2012/06/13/google-search-infographic-2/

An Edge on the Competition

By David Spratt

Short Message Service or SMS, is the technical name for what we all know as text messaging, or simply texting. A growing number of companies in certain industries have learned that text messaging can be valuable asset to their business. Many companies use text messaging for marketing purposes, which makes a lot of sense. It’s one of the most affordable and effective ways to promote a business ever invented. But there are other uses for text messaging as well such as general communications with customers, sending business alerts, checking availability, making reservations—the list goes on.

The text message industry is constantly evaluating its user base to determine how text messaging is being used, and how to make it more efficient. One recent and very interesting study by key industry players combined with several technology research firms including Gartner and Juniper, analyzed which industries were using SMS for various aspects of their business most effectively. The results were somewhat surprising.

Seventeen different industry sectors were analyzed and their SMS usage patterns analyzed as a percentage of the total volume sent. The industry that used SMS the most was the Venue Based Leisure Industry (theme parks, sports complexes, and so on) that accounted for 24.3% of the total volume. Recruitment firms (17.7%) and retailers (13.2%) also make good use of SMS.

The surprising statistic though concerns the industries that could substantially leverage SMS for business development and operational efficiencies. For example, restaurants can use SMS for many things. Text message marketing is one of the most valuable uses of SMS because it is so simple, fast and inexpensive to deploy. Restaurants can also support the reservation process with text messaging as well. And yet the industry accounts for only 1/10 of one percent of the total text message volume.

It’s interesting to note that real estate agencies (.8%) and beauty and hair salons (3.5%) use text messaging more effectively than restaurants, although both industries are still close to the bottom of the pack.

There’s a clear opportunity here, particularly for a business owner in those industries seeking to gain a competitive advantage. The advantage should be completely self-evident—implement text messaging into your business, particularly text message marketing.

There are two obvious reasons for this. First, if you’re in an industry that is largely ignoring one of the hottest and most powerful marketing tools ever devised, don’t follow the pack, set a trend. Differentiate yourself by leveraging text messaging to improve your marketing, simplify your business, and build strong customer relationships in the process.

The second reason to integrate text messaging into your business is that it works and it’s affordable. There is simply no better way to promote your products or services while opening up a bonded and dedicated line of communication with your customers or clients.

Marketing on Demand

By David Spratt

We live in a world of handheld devices. We have our cell phones, our smart phones, car GPS systems, our iPods and iPads, and arguably my favorite one of all—the cable remote. The reason I like the cable remote so much is the on-demand feature. I can watch movies, TV shows, and even missed sporting events whenever I want to, at my own leisure. All I need to do is to push the on-demand button on my handheld remote, and a world of content opens up for me.

In world of personal choice, nothing is better than being able to choose what content you want to enjoy or utilize whenever you want. The cable companies realize that by allowing their subscribers to view content on demand, they build a close and enduring relationship with those people. The cable companies further realize that these close, bonded relationships are essential to their bottom line.

As I thought about the power of content on demand, I realized that marketers could utilize the on-demand concept themselves. Marketing on demand is the latest trend for any business seeking to an increase sales and find new customers. Long gone are with the days of in-your-face marketing where companies bombard you with unwanted marketing messages, images, videos, commercials, and any other sort of marketing content imaginable.

Savvy marketers have learned that the way to a prospective customer's pocketbook is through that prospect’s own mind and thought process. You can no longer force somebody to buy something that they don't want. Instead you must satisfy the need for the content about your product or service that they so actively seek. Customers want to know whom they’re dealing with and what they are buying before actually dealing with anyone and buying something from them

This brings us to the concept of marketing on demand. The key to using this powerful marketing tool is to create a system where a potential customer can request information from your business whenever they want it and wherever they happen to be. The best way to do this is by using text message marketing.

Instead of bombarding your prospects with volumes of unwanted and unsolicited information, all you really need to do is provide is a simple keyword and a 6-digit shortcode to send it to. When that text is sent the customer receives in return the information that they specifically requested, along with web links to even more content. This process also establishes an opt in relationship with the prospect that can be used for an ongoing email relationship campaign.

It is a simple but infinitely powerful way to market a product or service, because once the customer opens up the line of communication, you already know that they are interested. That interest can be leveraged into a selling advantage.

Marketing on demand is the wave not only of the future, but of the present as well. Text message marketing with is a simple, affordable, exceptionally effective marketing solution that any business of any size can implement. If you understand the value of content on demand, you already understand the value of marketing on demand. If you're not already using it it's time to consider text message marketing.

QR Codes—The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

By  David Spratt

Many people are wondering these days what those ugly squares are that we are starting to see everywhere, from ads to labels and who knows where else. Many other people—all of whom rely on marketing in one form or another to make a living—know full well what those ugly things are.

They are called QR codes, where QR stands for Quick Response. A subsidiary of Toyota originally designed QR codes to track various parts used to make cars as they moved along the assembly line. A QR code is essentially a flat bar code—the kind we all see and use at the supermarket scanner—except that it contains a lot more information.

In the manufacturing plant, a special reader scans the code and obtains all manner of information about the parts being tracked and the vehicles they’re being put into. That’s what highly sophisticated manufacturing is all about—generating solid, real-time information about the manufacturing process. It makes good business sense.

QR Codes made their way into the main stream when some marketing genius realized that you could cram a lot of marketing messages and other capabilities into those ugly, tiny squares. And that’s what marketing is all about—transferring information from a seller to a buyer, or a potential buyer. So from that perspective, the concept of the QR Code as a marketing tactic probably makes some sense. It’s a good way to use the concept—for some people.

But the QR Code is just that—a marketing tactic. It’s not the greatest invention known to marketing since the pen was first invented and used to deliver marketing messages. A QR code is just one more option that marketers have to ply their stock in trade.

For a QR Code to be usable as a marketing tool, two things need to be in place. First, a prospect or buyer needs to know what the code is and more importantly, how to use it. Second, they need an app on their smartphone to actually make it happen. And that’s the bad part—not everybody has that kind of smartphone and of those that do, many don’t have the app or worse, don’t know how to use.

The percentages decline rapidly here. There are approximately 235 million people (over the age of 13—yes, some kids younger than that have phones too) who own a mobile device in the U.S. Of those, only about a third—35%—have a smartphone. Now, just because they have a smartphone doesn’t mean they know how to use it. I know plenty of Baby Boomers who use their so-called smart phones for one thing and one thing only—to make phone calls. The rest I suppose is simply for show.

But even if all of those users know how to use their phones and have a QR app and choose to actually use it, it still means that two thirds of your prospects that own phones can’t access that aspect of your marketing. When it comes to marketing tactics, I think that that’s a really bad thing indeed. It probably even makes some people mad, knowing that there’s information there intended for public consumption, but they have no way of getting it. In some cases it might tick them off so much that they simply choose to go elsewhere.

That’s why I still believe that text message marketing is the best way to leverage those 235 million cell phones. Virtually every one of those phones, all 235 million, can send and receive text messages. And practically every one of those 235 million people not only knows how to send and receive text messages, but they do it every day.

In fact, text messaging is the most widely used form of communications on the planet. So why wouldn’t you use text message marketing as a primary tactic in your total marketing mix? There really is no good answer to that question, because it’s clear—to me at least—that text message marketing should be used by every business that wants to sell stuff. Which of course is every business.

My point is that QR Codes are ok for some businesses that want to reach some people, but text message marketing is better for every business that wants to reach a lot more people. Of course, you can use both if you so desire. But make sure that you leverage the huge popularity of text message marketing first.

Forgiveness Marketing

By David Spratt

As many corporate cubicle dwellers—and most children—know, sometimes it’s better to beg forgiveness after the fact instead of asking for permission beforehand. As long as the planned event is not too over-the-top, this approach allows the perpetrator the chance to do whatever it is they want to do immediately and without interference, while risking a potential scolding of some sort later on.

And since the scolding probably won’t be all that bad anyway, it’s a convenient and expeditious way to get things done. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

For many years, marketing pros did pretty much the same thing. Advertising has been around ever since people started selling things to other people. The whole process took on a new energy at the beginning of the 20th century, fueled by the explosion of the industrial revolution. And by the wild 60’s, guys like David Ogilvy were adding substance to form with their Big Ideas, while completely reinventing and reinvigorating modern advertising.

It was highly creative, very expensive, and occasionally effective. It was Forgiveness Marketing.

It’s a term you probably haven’t heard before, but that’s exactly what it was—and still is. Anytime you’re reading something, watching something, or listening to something and your train of thought is shattered by an ad, that’s forgiveness marketing.

And no, the advertiser doesn’t come begging forgiveness for interrupting your life. They simply assume that if you’re not interested in what they are pitching, you’ll just ignore it and move on. Which most of us do—it’s one reason why many ad dollars are simply wasted—except for the fact that the damage has already been done. We’ve already been interrupted.

The opposite of Forgiveness Marketing of course is Permission Marketing. As you might expect, Permission Marketing enables the consumer to choose what advertising messages they wish to consume. It’s not only a much more polite approach, but it’s also much more effective.

Just as people don’t like to be “sold” on something, they also don’t like to be force fed ad messages. People want to be able to choose what they read, watch and listen to, and commercial messages are no exception.

Today’s technology enables Permission Marketing to be implemented in many forms. The result is that today’s consumers come to the point of sale with a much better idea of what they want and what they plan to buy. Consumers are more educated about virtually every purchase they make because there is so much information available about those purchases—provided that they can get to it.

In Permission Marketing, that becomes the challenge—delivering information to prospects when—and only when—they want it. By offering as much information as possible about a product or service and then by making that information readily available to prospects, a business can fulfill the prospects need to be educated, while dramatically increasing sales.

Companies are finding that the best way to employ Permission Marketing combines the Internet with an integrated mobile marketing campaign. In it’s most efficient form, a prospect sends a text message—when they want to send it—which sets the entire information delivery process in motion.

A text message is fast, simple and inexpensive. Once the customer sends the first message, the business now has permission to respond with emails, PDF files and Internet links. This is the essence of Permission Marketing and it works.

Forgiveness Marketing is expensive and ineffective. If you are not already using Permission Marketing in your business, it’s clearly something to consider.