Pinterest 101.

Pinterest, launched in March 2010, is a social site where you can “pin” your favorite images or videos on various “pinboards” (categories). This could include new recipes, dream destinations, wedding ideas, home decor, and more. Used as an image based bookmarking meets scrapbooking platform, users have described the popular site to be a combination of Twitter meets Flickr, meets Google. Getting started is easy and options are endless…

1. Request an invite or have a current Pinterest user send you an invite.
2. Set up your profile and categorize your pinboards (Recipes, Style, Seasonal Fun, etc.)
3. Connect to friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter or search based on interests.
4. Follow any users pins or just one of their pinboards that you may find interesting.
5. Search pins based on specific keywords, categories, videos, popular, gifts by price range, or by the pinners you follow.
6. You can ‘Pin”,  ‘Like’, or ‘Comment’ on any image or video that is pinned.
7. Have your friends contribute to a project, help plan a trip, or pin ideas for a wedding (There is an option to have pinboards that allow identified users to pin to your boards.)
8. Search for specific items or just browse, you may be inspired!

Images pulled from www.pinterest.com

The Pinterest Difference: What Pinners Have to Say.

Via Communications Conversations

“Pinterest isn’t as specifically social as other channels like Twitter or Facebook, or at least it’s social in a different way. You don’t have the “real-time” urgency like on Twitter and it’s not as personal as Facebook.” -Mikinzie Stuart

“For me, it’s like thumbing through magazines and ripping out all the pages that inspire me–x 1000! It’s a great way to relax and get inspired.” -Laura Scholz

“If a story can be told with visuals, it has more impact right now. Pinterest offers that story-telling capability using different boards that many other social networks don’t exclusively offer.” -Drew Hawkins

How to get started: My Business Profile.

1. Users and Pinterest alike, deter self promotion – intentions should be to inspire and share creative ideas with others.
2. Add a “Pin It” button to your site if there are images or videos users can pin (similar to a share button for Facebook and Twitter.)
3. Follow trends – if your target market incorporates women or, more specifically, the Pinterest demographic, you can follow users with interests in your industry, learn what users  like, what they don’t like, and watch their pins evolve over time.
4. Get creative – Make your pinboards more exciting! Categorize images that will catch users’ eyes when browsing.
5. Track – you can view what users are pinning from your site by visiting www.pinterest.com/source/sitename (Insert your website at sitename.)

Advantages for Businesses.

1. Web Traffic – Links from images and videos will automatically brings users to your site to explore.
2. SEO – Each image or video that is pinned (and hopefully repinned), creates a backlink, hence, enhanced SEO.
3. Social – Become an influencer. Pinterest is used for inspiration and ideas, whether your business or your competitor brings this to users is up to you!
4. Your Brand – Build your recognition by becoming a player in the social sharing market. Users will definitely show and tell!
5. Fun – Similar to other social media outlets, Pinterest allows a look inside the business; a fun lunch room, not just the board room.

Inspiring Pinterest Business Pages.

Nordstrom

Land’s End Canvas (And their campaign, “Pin It to Win It”)

The Travel Channel

Whole Foods

Michaels Craft Store

Better Homes & Gardens

The Today Show

Watch List.

Pinterest look-a-like born a little over a month ago-Juxtapost.
Another similar platform that allows more video content sources is 20Blinks.

A Social Sharing World.

Whether Pinterest turns out to be “just another social media network”, or “the next big thing”, using social marketing appropriately gives your business the opportunity to interact, engage, build a relationships, and ultimately foster loyalty and advocacy with your customers.

Share with us – have you joined Pinterest yet, for personal use or business?

A Missed Opportunity

Is the lack of personality and creativity on the “About Us” or “Our Team” page of your company’s website hurting your business? Probably.

Most businesses overlook, or pay minimum attention to, their “About Us” pages. They’re more focused on outbound marketing like tv and radio, creating interior pages for their new products and services, publishing through social media, networking – yet all of these things never reach their full potential because of a lackluster “About Us” page on their website.

How I view a website for the first time

• The Home Page - it’s the first stop on the web-surfing tour. I’ll get a general idea of your company, and make immediate assumptions about how good you are at what you do based on the quality of your design, your copywriting, and the overall User Experience.  Bad website? Bad impression. If you’re a quality company, my apologies – I just don’t know any better. I only know what I see on your website.
•  The About Us Page – Who works here? What are they like? Do I want to meet them, would I feel comfortable doing business with them? People buy from people they trust, and people they like. Give your management team, and even your junior staff, a name. A face. A bio. We all know that the best business comes from referrals. Make sure that when a visitor comes to your website, they get a sense of who you are, and what you’re all about.
• Blog – What are these people talking about? Do they have current content? Are they providing thought leadership, and value to me right away?
• Products/Services Pages – Now that I’ve vetted these people, and know a little bit about what they’re all about, can they help me? Do they seem to offer a solution to fit my needs?

When I’m ready, here’s why I call one company over another. 

I have a sense of who these people are, and their place in the market. I see how they are structured, their leadership, and what they’re talking about. I feel comfortable that they might be the solution I’m looking for. So I pick up the phone, and talk to someone on the other end to schedule a consultation, or phone call with a person that can address my needs. Maybe – just maybe – I already know who I should talk to because of their informative bio on the “About Us” page.

Allowing users to get to know you and acknowledge that there are real people behind the virtual business front, builds relationships and develops trust before an initial meeting.

“About Us” – the #2 most viewed page at www.BaltimoreMediaGroup.com

Statistics from our site show that even before our video bios were added, our “About Us” page and “About Our Team” page is in the top five pages visited. We’ll be watching to see if having video on our “About Us” page keeps visitors around longer, and increases conversions. We’ll be sure to come back and share the results, but common sense tells us we’re headed in the right direction!

It’s Personal

It is important that users understand how your business became what it is today, and that involves a pretty unique story. Yes, people want to know what your business can offer, what your business does, and what sets you apart. Ultimately they are not going to choose you based on your business capabilities alone, but because they want to know you, they trust that you can help them, and they like you. Business doesn’t happen in a vacuum – it’s a relationship between real people, with real personalities, families, likes, and dislikes.

Share Your Thoughts

What do you look for on an “About Us” page? What do you think makes this page interesting or one you skip over?

Have you seen “Charlie bit my finger”, watched Lady Gaga’s latest music video, taken a guitar lesson, or looked up a how-to for your latest home project – online? I’m betting you’ve hit up Youtube for at least one of these in the past week. Youtube is currently the second largest search engine behind Google, reaching over 171 Million users (81.9% of the U.S. population) in April 2011 alone.

What Youtube Offers SMB’s in Baltimore

Over the last year, we’ve been launching geo-targeted online video ad campaigns for small businesses in Baltimore on places including Youtube. If Baltimore businesses are using online video to attract new customers, it’s usually a company overview embedded on their home page, or maybe even a series of videos on their own Youtube Channel. These are both great strategies, and things small businesses should be doing. But – they should also be looking into the advertising opportunities that Youtube offers – such as Featured Videos, and in-stream advertising.

15-second Pre-Roll Ads

We’re using Youtube to help our small businesses with limited budgets. For one client, we’re targeting viewers that are located 3 miles surrounding their locations in Pikesville and Perry Hall. For another client, we’re targeting several key zip codes in Towson where they have a competitor coming into the market in the next 6 months, in combination with a direct mail campaign. And for another, we’re targeting an audience within a 30-mile radius of their medical practice.

What Youtube Offers Small Businesses in Baltimore:

1. Attractive Cost-Per-Thousand (CPM) and Cost-Per-Click (CPC) compared to other internet marketing outlets
2. Allows geo-targeting–specific zip codes, cities, states, or within 5 miles of your location
3. Provides direct link from ad to website
4. Actually make an “Impression” – people that have to sit through a :15 ad actually see the content, as opposed to an “Impression” measured from a Search Engine Results Page
5. Follow the big boys: 94 of Ad Age’s 100 top advertisers have run Youtube campaigns this year
6. Nearly 2 billion Youtube views a day: more than double the prime-time audience of the 3 major U.S. broadcast networks combined
7. U.S. online video ad spending is expected to grow from 13.4% t0 35.9% by 2014
8. Internet users spent an average of 14.9 hours watching online video in April 2011

A Snapshot: The Stats

One of our clients is a small business in Baltimore that is in a highly competitive industry. They don’t have a huge budget, but they want to grow their business.  They started by launching a Google Adwords Search Engine Marketing Campaign, targeting key zip codes in Baltimore. They have a lot of competitors both locally and nationally bidding on the top keywords in this area, which is driving up the average Cost-Per-Click to close to $20 – not cheap. We ran a small A/B test looking at the results between Search and Youtube. While Search Engine Marketing offers local advertisers a direct link to people interested in their products and services in real time, we think Search and Youtube working together provide an awesome combination of branding, impressions, lead generation, and an increase in web traffic that will ultimately get local businesses the best bang for their buck. Here’s the stats:

May 1- May 31 2011

We think the numbers that Youtube drove (and the actual leads) make a lot of sense, and we would also make the argument that an impression from a video is worth far more than an “impression” from a text ad on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) that you may or may not actually see.

The internet marketing landscape is always changing, and our job is to evaluate new opportunities to get the best results for our clients. For many of of B2C, we think Youtube is cost effective, engaging and innovative, pushing it up there on our current favorites list. But remember – even the perfect ad outlet can fall flat if you don’t have the right messaging. Make sure that your video ads are engaging, informative, and leave the viewer wanting more.

So don’t be surprised the next time you’re looking for an educational, funny, or entertaining clip on Youtube and you see an ad for one of our clients! Be sure to check them out too – we work with some really awesome local businesses here in Baltimore.

The Situation:

Meadowbrook Aquatic and Fitness Center is an exceptional swim club and fitness center in the Mount Washington area of Baltimore.  Built back in 1930, Meadowbrook doesn’t suffer from a lack of name recognition in this area, and has been called home to Olympians including Michael Phelps and more. Recently, the club was purchased by Michael Phelps and coach Bob Bowman, renovated, and has made some changes in their fitness classes and pricing to adjust to consumer demand. Meadowbrook wanted to launch a small marketing campaign to attract new members for their summer swim season, and increase the number of year-round members as well.

We had seen positive results over the past few years from small campaigns on WBAL Radio, but we wanted to do more with this campaign. A Baltimore Living Social rep had approached Meadowbrook about participating in one of their daily deals, but we had some concerns, and wanted to make sure we approached this campaign the right way. We also wanted to include video in our campaign, but TV seemed too expensive.

What We Did:

Radio – We launched our radio campaign in early February across two stations that had proven themselves in the past, WBAL Radio and WRBS-FM. The message included a call to action to sign up for summer, information about the changes and improvements at Meadowbrook, and featured the voice of the well-known General Manager from Meadowbrook.

Living Social –  We gave something away that had real value – a 6-week family membership to Meadowbrook. We protected Meadowbrook, and their current customers, by making the offer good for 6 weeks leading into summer, but making sure it expired before the summer session started. We priced that 6-week membership at only $20 – we wanted as many people as possible to be able to take advantage and come into Meadowbrook for the first time, and hopefully sign on as year-round members once their Living Social ran out. Also – they originally had us set to launch on President’s Day, February 21. We worked with Living Social to push our Deal back until the 28th, knowing that a lot of people might not check their email that morning because of the holiday.

Youtube – We couldn’t afford TV advertising on our small budget, but we COULD afford video production and Youtube ads. We’ve been using Youtube video advertising for many of our clients to reach targeted audiences using video with a limited budget. We targeted specific zip codes within close proximity to Meadowbrook, enticing people who lived and worked nearby to find out more about what Meadowbrook had to offer. You can check one of the versions of our :15 Youtube ad here. For a budget of around $1,000, over 220,000 people saw their video ad online, and over 4,000 clicked-through and visited their website in just a few months.

The Twist – We decided to use our radio ads on WBAL and WRBS to promote our living social offering. Daily Deals sites, while they can provide a lot of exposure, last just 24 hours. We wanted to be sure we got the most leverage possible for our daily deal, so we told people about it for two weeks in advance on the radio, encouraging them to sign up for Living Social and watch for the Meadowbrook offer on February 28th.

Living Social Results

Why did it work this time?

1. Fine print reads valid use between March 1, 2011 and May 30, 2011
2. Allows trial during slow time, shifting to paying customers during peak season
3. Limit 2 per person-additional as gifts (Bringing your friends to the pool!)
4. Facebook: at least 61 people shared this–social media conversation (Present and future)
5. Traditional media (Radio) used two weeks prior to ad premiere

For our client, the combination of advertising with their daily deal was a success and worthwhile. The client was able to make enough money to cover their advertising and video production costs, bring over 900 new people to Meadowbrook, and convert at least 30 of those into full-time members, with many more waiting until fall to join for the winter to swim indoors.

What do you think?

Choosing Living Social or Groupon is up to you—but deciding whether to say yes or no to a daily deal requires research, number crunching, and careful planning. Incorporating traditional media can still be successful when executed properly; ultimately making sure your small business is reaping full benefits of your integrated campaign. With the right plan, a Daily Deal offering could be one of the best marketing decisions your company makes this year.

We have been putting together process documents for our growing team at BMG—so I guess we should add “Earthquake Escape Plan” after today. It would probably look something like this:

1. If you feel the building shaking (as we are on the third floor at the ETC)– stop moving
2. If it is still shaking and it is not the AC kicking on, look up at the exposed pipes
3. If they are shaking and dust is falling it is probably an earthquake (I know east coast, that’ what I was thinking, I am really out of it today)
4. Panic may set in at this point and you may start trembling yourself
5. If this happens stay calm and don’t stand in the doorway (that won’t save you if the building collapses)
6. You also need to be calm because you have to grab your iPhone and bourbon so when you evacuate via the concrete stairway and make it alive outside you can at least have some fun
7. It may be alright to go back inside after a bit only when verified through Twitter

Spas, restaurants, art, cupcakes, skydiving, wine tasting, Mexico getaway – not a day goes by that most of us don’t view some sort of “Daily Deal”. Whether you are a Groupon or Living Social fanatic, I’m sure you have been exposed to the daily deal frenzy in one way or another. Many small businesses are drooling over the idea of getting hundreds of customers in the door by offering a significant discount for a day, with no up-front costs.

A local plastic surgery practice came to us desperately wanting to participate in this glorified marketing strategy they have been hearing everyone talk about. With no up-front costs, spectacular discounts for the customer and increased traffic for business, isn’t this a tremendous win-win? What’s not to like?

Here’s what we had to say —

Groupon, the biggest player in the daily deals arena, has been catching some negative feedback lately, especially from small business owners. One small business owner called Groupon, “The single worst decision I have made as a business owner.” She also wrote a blog on her business page to share her lessons learned and apologize to one of her very loyal customers. Is Groupon the right approach when it comes to small businesses?

We sat down with our client to see what we should do—

Problem:

They’re an hour away from both Baltimore and Washington D.C., and their community doesn’t yet offer a Groupon or Living Social – based on past experience, we may have difficulty even getting these companies to give us a shot at a deal. There just may not be enough people in their community signed up to receive daily deals.

But wait – while investigating our options, we found that their local newspaper had started a daily deals program, and the client thought this was an ideal solution. So we started to run the numbers:

Here’s how it would work:

• Normal Cost: $350
• Offered discount price: $175
• Local “Deals” company keeps: $87.50
• Product Hard Cost: $70
• What’s left: $17.50

Overall, the practice would “profit” just $17.50 just with no other costs accounted for – doctor and staff salaries, office space, taxes, energy bills – this deal was starting to look less and less like a home run.

Some of our bigger concerns…Are We:

1. Lowering the price in marketplace (Will consumers expect to see this price year-round? Will they wait, expecting another daily deal?
2. Attracting the wrong customers (Those only interested in free, or really, really cheap?)
3. Sending the wrong message (What about those customers that bought at full price, your loyal customers? Will they feel ripped off?)

So we said No. 

In the end, the numbers just didn’t add up. The potential long-term damage to the business, and to their pricing, outweighed the possible gains we might see from new customers responding to a “daily deals” offering. But we still needed a solution – how could we capitalize on a market that’s used to seeing these types of deals, but in a way that made sense for the business?

Here’s what we did:

We developed a 6-month customer loyalty/deals campaign focused on marketing to current customers and attracting new customers through email marketing, social media, Youtube ads, and a small, targeted tv campaign. And we did it without a huge budget. With this strategy in place, we’ll be able to:

1. Offer (and promote) deals for two weeks instead of one day.
2. Control all of the messaging and timing surrounding the offer.
3. Offer great discounts (30-50%) without having to split the revenue with a deals company
4. Educate the market about ALL of the products and services over the next 6 months, instead of just offering 24 hours to make a decision about one offering.
5. Ultimately be able to track the effectiveness of each ad outlet in order to trim ad costs while increasing response.

Better strategy or not? We think it is. Yes, we chose not to take advantage of Groupon or Living Social this go around, but has it worked for any of our other local small businesses?  The answer to this – heck yes!  Look for part two of this blog coming soon to see how.

Organic Search Fact:

1. 42% of clicks on a search page go to the #1 organic listing, according to a leaked report in 2006 from AOL, as reported in the New York Times.

So Should You Care About Organic Search, and SEO?
We hope you said yes.

Example:
If you’re a surgeon focusing on Lasik Eye procedures, let’s say you charge $2,500/eye for a Lasik procedure. Now say there are 10,000 searches/month for “Lasik eye surgery” in your market.

If you’re #1, you’ll get 42% – 4,200 – visits to your site. If you convert 2% of those visitors into patients, that’s 84 patients per month, resulting in $420,000 in revenue – that month.

Paid (PPC Marketing) vs. Organic (SEO)?

How Search Engines Rank Web Sites

Search Engines are a phenomenal tool, and we ask a lot of them. Say we start by going to Google (many people’s home page) and run a quick search for “Baltimore Heating and Cooling”. Google instantly plugs that exact phrase into it’s own set of rules, or algorithm, that they use to rank web sites.

Google Only Knows What’s on the Web

Remember that all Google has to go on is what you have on the web – they no nothing about how long you’ve been in business, what kind of work you do, how big your company is, and who your big-name clients are – unless it’s on the web.

Using their algorithm, Google sorts through all of the content on all of web pages it knows about, looking for those pages that are the most relevant to your word or phrase from your initial search. If you have pages within your site dedicated to the topic that someone searched for, with lots of good, relevant content, and Google sees that by your title tags, keyword density within those pages, and layout, then you will be ranked higher than someone that just has a mention of that topic on their home page and nothing else.

SEO Unplugged

Here’s the straight answer on what SEO really consists of – Search Engine Optimization for local businesses.

1. Create good, relevant content. If you only have at 5-10 page website, and your competitors have 30, how can your expect to outrank them? This is simple – you need someone who can write for the web to create content for you.
2. Create new content. Search engines, and people, see your commitment. If you haven’t had anything to say in 6 months, and your competitors are adding pages every month or two, who do you think they’ll rank as being the most relevant in 2011?
3. Keyword Research. Part of being a good copywriter is knowing what to write about. Combine free research from Google Insights for Search along with intuition on what customers in your market are searching for, and you’ll do well.
4. Inbound Links. Inbound links are like referrals from other websites. Avoid link farms and content factories, like those that got JC Penney in trouble, as reported by the New York Times. A good SEO strategy makes sure you do this right. Outdated SEO firms have no idea what they’re doing and can actually get you penalized by the likes of Google, costing you thousands in missed revenue.
5. Structure your site correctly. We see a lot of local sites that haven’t done the basic – title tags, meta tags, local business listings. There are plenty of tools out there that can help.

These are a few key points that local businesses can address easily, with a little bit of help. For a complete list of Search Engine Ranking Factors, check out this list from SEOmoz from 2009.

Need local SEO support? Interview us by Phone or in Person. See if we’re a good fit for your business.

Talking Head/Profile Piece

This type of video will consist of one person, usually looking off-camera, assisted by other b-roll footage and some graphics, text, and/or images.

:30 TV Commercial

Video Tutorials/Animation

This type of video is common when showing the capabilities of a particular product or service. These videos can be short, quick overviews or longer pieces.

How Can We Help? Let’s Get Your Project Started!

You have probably heard over and over again that PPC Search Engine Marketing is a great way to get visitors to your site. What’s more important  to your bottom line is what they do once they arrive at your website. If that visitor doesn’t call, buy, or submit a contact  form once they get to your website, then those clicks hold little value.

We believe in using science, strategy, thoughtful design and optimized keywords to create the most effective PPC marketing campaign from click to conversion which will ultimately save you critical marketing dollars.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action. -  William Shakespeare

While Shakespeare certainly was not a search engine marketing guru, he must have known a thing or two about the importance of keywords. Relevant keywords. Dozens of obvious keywords easily come to mind within seconds when you think of your business right? That’s usually why businesses believe they are qualified to create their own keywords…but there is a fine line between too general and too specific. We know what works and what doesn’t. If a keyword is too general, you will likely get a ton of clicks but most of the clicks may not be from the right audience. On the other hand, keywords that are overly targeted will be more expensive and may not convert well. Relevant Keywords are essential in successful PPC marketing and we use the most relevant keywords as the building blocks of each and every one of your campaigns.

The Big Difference…

How most small businesses approach PPC marketing

• Open a Google Adwords Account.
• Pick a few very expensive, generic words or phrases.
• Geo target to an entire state or broad metro area without really  pin pointing  specific areas.
• Set it to run equally over  30 days .
• Fail to dedicate the necessary time it takes to create and maintain a successful campaign.

Conclusion: When conversions are low and costs are high, small business owners are not satisfied with their ROI and just assume its because PPC marketing doesn’t work for their business.

PPC Campaign Management by BMG

Account Creation
Account Set up on the three major search engines. (Google, Yahoo, Bing)

• Campaign Set up
• Comprehensive Keyword Research
• Targeted Geo Location Setup
• Ad Copy Creation
• Bidding Setup
• Ad Scheduling Setup
• Selecting and revamping Landing Page
• Implementation of Conversion tracking
• Implementation of all necessary Conversion tracking Codes
• Implementation of Google Analytics Code

PPC campaign maintenance

• Landing Page Optimization
• Work closely with you to create new landing pages
• Ongoing adjustments to ensure the most competitive ad copy
• Ongoing keyword adjustments
• Campaign comparative analysis to achieve the highest possible CTR
• Extensive Reporting, analysis and real-time Campaign Dashboard access.

• Email Marketing is the #2 Most Effective Medium for generating conversions, just behind SEO (reference).
• In 2011, 63% of businesses are going to increase their Email Marketing Budget – and 29% are keeping it the same – because it works! (Reference)

Email Marketing is simple, effective, and a great tool to grow your business. Using email marketing to communicate with your customers, vendors, friends and contacts keeps the conversation going. Here’s some tips on using Email Marketing for your business.

Don’t buy lists.

Just don’t do it. Build your list organically. It takes a plan, but it’s the right way to build a business and see results. If you’re not already, start getting email addresses from your customers. Depending on your business, you might include friends and family members. Add employees. Keep your list up to date with vendors and contacts you make at networking events. Actively ask customers/clients to opt-in to your email marketing newsletter – you’ll increase sales, stay top of mind, and most customers are happy to know what you’re up to.

Don’t send too often.

Monthly e-newsletters are great. e-blasts with coupons, event announcements, and specials are welcome too – but not too often. Send too often and people will start opting out, because you’re crowding up their inbox and always trying to sell them something.

Use free/cheap tools when you can.

Design a Custom Template.

Most of these have free templates you can use. But lots of times when companies try to pop in their logos and start adding content, their e-newsletter looks cheap. So don’t pinch pennies here. Have a designer put a couple of hours into designing an email template that is unique to you, and that you can use over and over again each month. Your customers will reward you with increased open rates, consuming more content, which will increase sales.

Get a life!

At the end of the day, these people are going to stay subscribers if they like what they see. So give them great content. Give them a window into you company, your people, your culture, and yes, your products. Have UNIQUE content. Give them a reason to buy. Ask them to follow you on Facebook and Twitter. Keep the conversation going.

Email marketing is just one aspect of a Marketing Campaign, but it’s an important one.

If you need help launching an email marketing campaign for your business, call us – we’ll come in, set it up, help you launch your first newsletter, and show you how to keep sending great emails on your own each and every month.

Call BMG at (410) 522-8706.