Privacy, Authenticity, Objectivity and Being "Real" Online...

Image by o5com via FlickrThe topic of online privacy has got a lot of attention in recent months and as a former community banker, the issue of privacy is something that I've always taken very seriously. Not only was I obligated as a banker from a regulatory and legal perspective to protect my customers' privacy, at a higher level it's just the "right thing" to do. We never sold our customer information to third parties for profit (unlike others), not because we didn't want the money, but because I believed doing so would be in direct violation of the trust they placed in me as their banker.

However, if you can voluntarily "give up" some of your information in exchange for a more customized and personalized online experience... would that be such a bad thing? It's already happening when you go on Facebook, as marketers can leverage the information YOU are providing. The ads that appear are not "coincidence", they are directly targeted at YOU based on information in your profile, what you're posting on your wall, who you are associated with, etc. While the companies behind the ads may not know my actual name, they do know that I...

• Am a college graduate (a couple of times over) and hail from historic Marshall, MI
• Love to bicycle and compete in triathlons
• Am someone that is interested in online marketing and all things digital
• Have two awesome golden retrievers
• Enjoy public speaking and teaching others about social tech

So, when I'm on Facebook I see ads for things like bicycles, fitness supplements, online marketing information, etc. You get the picture. But I've decided to be authentic in my information (I'm not telling the world that I'm a rocket scientist or interested in climbing Mt. Everest - even if that may be more exciting), which means that information and marketing messages are relevant. There's an interesting cartoon (from The New Yorker) where you have two dogs sitting at a computer and the one at the keyboard says to the other, "On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog." While the lure of anonymity may have been initially attractive to some, I propose you really have to be genuine and real to get the most out of this new, online social world.

Most everything that I put out on the 'net is not filtered or directed to a particular group or segment of my social graph. I know in Facebook you can set up groups and segment friends that may be more "business" related so you can restrict what they can (and cannot see). I also have several platforms that I use, and each has a bit different feel (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, for example). But, in most cases what goes out, just goes out and I'm not really that concerned about who reads it. Like it or not, this is "Eric Cook" and sooner or later people will figure me out.

For example, if someone is a "cat person" and I'm a "dog person" and that's going to cause a problem down the road, isn't it best to know that sooner than later and we both can go on our merry way? Granted, that may be a bit extreme, but you get the idea. So, are you being as "real" as you can online, or are you holding something back? I'm interested in your thoughts...

~Eric

Performance Based Advertising With PPC - WSI Local AdWorks

Recently, I launched a paid-search marketing campaign (also called PPC for "pay per click") for an attorney in a larger metropolitan area with WSI's Local AdWorks solution and wanted to share the results. To keep the campaign statistics "clean" I'm not going to reveal the location or legal focus of this attorney's advertisements, but suffice to say we've been getting some good results and even though I'm "in the business", I'm still amazed at how detailed the tracking reports are for my client.

One of the most interesting parts of this service is our ability to dynamically replace a business's phone number with a call-forwarding number that we provide for free. This gives us the ability to track if a phone call results from a click on the advertisement, since that's important to the overall ROI determination and knowing if the campaign is successful. Just last week my client's reporting system showed one phone call as a result of his campaign - but unfortunately for him it was someone looking for a job, not to hire him for her services. The good news, however, is that the call activity was captured and we knew exactly where it came from.

The other "standard" features of any paid search marketing campaign are also included with WSI Local AdWorks program. We track things like number of times the advertisement is displayed (sometimes referred to as "impressions"). Because this is truly performance-based, this number is important, but does not have an impact on the client's budget since the only time ad money is spent is when someone actually CLICKS on the advertisement and visits the client's website. Compare that to an ad in the newspaper and you pay regardless of whether someone reads your ad or it goes in their bird cage!

As you can imagine, we track the number of "clicks" that take place and can compare that to the impressions and get a click through rate (CTR) that gives us an idea of how successful (and relevant) the ad is doing. I often get asked "what's a good CTR" and that really depends on the industry and competition. If you can get in the 1-5% range, you're doing good, but the most important factor in all of this is if you are generating any sales ("conversions") out of your clicks. Think about it, wouldn't you much rather have a .5% click-through rate but know that everyone who visits your site is buying than a 10% click-through rate and not make a sale? Remember, you pay when someone clicks, so it's important that yo do your best to get them to do something when they visit your site (like sign up for your free newsletter).

Once someone is on your site as a result of the "click" (which you paid for), our system also tracks what key pages they visit. So, if you want to know if someone visits your "About Us" page, we can tell you. If you want to know if someone fills out your "Contact Us" form, we can tell you that too. Not every time will someone take action when they are on your site, but it's also nice to know what they look at when they visit. This can also give us some ideas on ways that we can make improvements to your pages and help increase the chance someone will interact with you in the future.

If you're interested in learning more, I'd suggest you check out our instructional video that helps explain WSI Local AdWorks in more detail. If you're interested in learning more or seeing how this can be a good solution for your business, give me a ring at (269) 841-5007 and let's chat. I'd love to help get you more customers and introduce you to performance-based advertising!

Eric

Another Bank Website and Internet Marketing Strategy Completed!

Well, my niche in the banking industry continues to evolve and I just launched the third major bank project for 2008 with Citizens National Bank of Cheboygan, Michigan. Their website had become outdated and somewhat difficult to manage - so we partnered up and they hired me to help them get a new look.

We used our new eFusion online business system to build the site and it's amazing at just how easy it is to manage site content, upload pictures and perform all the other necessary things that a good website should do. We've been getting some nice comments from visitors complimenting the bank on the new look and feel, which is always good to hear.

So, in addition to Wolverine Bank (a WMA award-winning site) and Isabella Bank (a WSI WebAward nominee), Citizens National Bank's site is another great addition to my "banking stable". The best news is that I'm already talking to several other banking "prospects" for 2009 and have at least four more community banks (and possibly a credit union) that will move forward with me for their Internet efforts!

While I loved being a banker, I am really enjoying "this side of the table" and working with banks on the strategic side of the Internet. I'm also pleased to say that in 2009 I'll be bringing in several other partners that can help in other areas for my banking clients with things like "phishing" protection, business customer satisfaction and non-interest income generation, online hack scan testing and even data loss prevention and file-level encryption. I know, a lot of "big words" there, but my goal is to be a resource to my clients for not only their websites and Internet efforts, but to help them identify solutions for a variety of other areas in their organization.

Ok, enough about business... We've got snow!!!!! Alicia and I have been out xc skiing behind the house already and I must say, it's some of the BEST SNOW we've had in the five years we've been in our new home. We're going to get the pooches out later this week when it warms up a bit, but they've got their booties ready to go and are excited about joining "mommy and daddy" for some time on the trail.

Here's hoping you have a wonderful holiday season. We're headed north for a bit to get in some more xc skiing (on groomed trails) and spend time with family. I'm also planning a special surprise evening for Alicia over New Year's Eve and am looking forward to the look on her face when she finds out what we're doing. I'd tell you, but with any luck she's also reading my blog and I don't want to ruin the surprise!

Eric

Internet Marketing for Community Banks (YouTube Test)

Greetings everyone. I recently posted a blurb via my Ping.fm account about getting to #1 in Google out of over 550,000 search results for the term "Internet Marketing for Community Banks". I did a YouTube video* (a pretty poor one, actually, but I was in "training" and kind of rushed through it), yesterday and optimized it for this phrase long tail keyword phrase. I took a screen shot yesterday before submitting the video and doing some "behind the scenes" social bookmarking activities and, as expected, I was nowhere to be found.

Well, after uploading my video and completing the social bookmarking process, I was amazed to find that my video had been picked up by AOL Video and was in the #1 position for the keywords I optimized. Amazing! Granted, the video could have been a LOT better (the audio wasn't even working) and some of the screen resolution was not allowing for all the text on the slides to be seen. But, the thing to take out of this is that it WORKED and was able to get to the #1 spot.

Now, given the quality of the video I suspect that I won't last long in the #1 spot, which is fine. However, if I had taken more time to actually put some effort into the video, making sure the audio was playing and the resolution settings and it would likely stick around for a while.

So, as you can see, video is a pretty powerful way to enhance the effectiveness of search engine optimization (SEO). So, when I return from training and have a bit more time to play around with the power that I have learned, I'm looking forward to what the possibilities are for not only my business personally, but my clients as well. I already have a few that have approached me about using video on their sites and how it can help to connect them with their customers. What they are not even thinking of is the powerful "organic" search results that can result.

Until next time.
Eric Cook

*I uploaded another video to my YouTube channel that I think you'll enjoy more than the test one that I did yesterday. While I'm not expecting this new video to reach #1 Google status, (it's one of Ryder when he was a pup playing with his litter mates and a potbelly pig), I suspect you'll enjoy it.

Ryder and Potbelly Pig