We have all used Google’s Street View feature at some point to zoom in on a city street or point of interest and “walk around” via our web browser like we were actually there. Google’s amazing 360 degree navigational technology links almost every place you’d ever want to be straight to your browser screen.

Well, Google has taken their panoramic technology one step further: inside local businesses. Now one can walk off the street, into an establishment, and see what is inside. Businesses can showcase their grand ballrooms, elegant dining areas, or extensive merchandise, and this new option applies to just about every business out there.

Google, as most people know, has high standards and therefore requires all photos used for this new opportunity to be taken by a Google Certified Photographer or Agency. These photographers must uphold Google’s standards by gaining their trust through a highly monitored approval process.

So, Why Would a Business Owner Find Google Business Photos Attractive?

As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words!” Let us imagine there is a business owner that has a perfect venue for almost any event. It could be a banquet hall, pavilion, restaurant, or landmark. Potential customers now have the ability to search on Google or Google Maps, jump to the street view, and walk right into the establishment. Immediately the person will get an idea of the space, and as they utilize the high-quality 360 degree panoramic imaging, they can get a virtual tour and admire the ambience and uniqueness of each location they look at.

Featured photos of menus, hours, payment methods, awards, ratings, and special features are also included. A wide variety of businesses can benefit from this technology, from car dealerships, salons, gyms, and stores to an array of other business categories. Business owners can benefit from increased visits to their site showcasing their products, atmosphere, and reputation.

Other Benefits Google Business Photos

According to multiple resources and testimonials, Google 360 Business Photos decreases the bounce rate on most sites. People spend more time navigating through your business, stay on the site longer, and therefore conversion rates tend to increase.

Another upside is more positive reviews on Google! Photos of your business may lead to increased numbers of visitors leaving reviews. In the wonderful world of the internet, we know each review can further enhance your presence on the web. These reviews exist to help potential customers see the advantages and disadvantages of a particular business, while helping the business owner understand what improvements may need to be made.

Finally, Google Business Photos does increase your rankings, which means more views from searchers. As stated before, there tends to be a higher click-through rate due to the visual stimuli of large photos, interior views, and a connection to Google Maps and Google Local. This feature has proven invaluable in increasing traffic and allowing businesses to expand their customer base.

These are just a few of the many advantages of Google 360 Business Photography. Whether for SEO purposes or otherwise, Business Photos can enhance your website, reputation, and your overall business presence on the web.

Digital Agency Chicago

Every client we work with has unique offerings that make them stand out from their competitors. We calls these “points of difference” or “unique selling propositions,” and part of our strategy is to spread these points via digital efforts. Video is a great way to do this. It’s real, unique, personal and most of all :: visual.

Standing Out In The Crowd

Points of difference aside, how else can you, as a local business, stand above your competitors? How can you gain the trust of your target audience besides just offering something others don’t? How about your national competitors who have more advertising money and resources – how can you stand above them in the process?

The answer is easy: be real, peel back the curtains, and give away your secrets.

Yup, you read that right – give it all away. Show consumers EVERYTHING you do, step-by step, and teach them how to do it themselves – on video, on YouTube, for all to see.

Stay with me now…

Let me introduce you to Drew Bussell of Drew’s Roofing & Home Repair in SouthPort, NC. I know about Drew because a good friend and fellow YouTuber, Steve Sherron told me about him a few years ago and said, “Watch this guy – he ranks for every ‘roofing and home improvement keyword’ anywhere around our area and further in some cases. He gets more work then you can imagine from YouTube, even during the down economy.”

Drew’s YouTube Success

Here are some of Drew’s local rankings: (these are his videos showing up in regular search)

“Southport NC Roofer” :: Positions #1-6 (yes, the top 6 are all his videos)
“Southport NC Home Repair” :: Positions #1-9 (yes, the top 9 are all his videos)
“Wilmington NC Roofer” :: Positions #1 and #2, and #4-10 (yes, all of these too)

Here are some of Drew’s stats: (as of 5/19/2013)

Joined YouTube :: July 2007
Videos Uploaded :: 558
Video Views :: 1,089,103
Subscribers :: 476

First Business Related Vid :: Deck Building Southport NC, January 2, 2008 :: 27,972 views
(Drew also uses the channel for personal videos)

Most Popular Business Related Vids:
How To Install A Skylight On Your Shingle Roof :: March 24, 2010 :: 47,451 views
Bathroom Mobile Home Repair Oak Island NC :: April 2, 2009 :: 41,758 views
Mobile Home Floor Repair :: January 6, 2012 :: 39,445 views
Leaking Roof, Roof Repairs Water Damage :: September 29, 2010 :: 36,479 views
How To Install A V-Lux Skylight Free :: September 22, 2010 :: 28,442 views

If you watch Drew’s vids, you’ll see that he is not a professional videographer :: he’s just a dude with a flip camera (and more recently a smart phone app). His video descriptions and titles don’t always follow SEO best practices either. So how is he getting this much attention?

He’s personable, believable, likeable and not afraid to show you EVERYTHING he does. On top of that, his content is uniquely from his professional perspective. In fact, in a couple of his videos, he shows “do-it-yourselfers” how to do their own roof installation and repair.

Why would he do that? Wouldn’t this lose him business?

Drew will tell you that he originally began posting videos because many of his customers were hiring him to work on their vacation homes many miles from where they lived, and prior to paying him, they needed to see the completed work. It’s not always convenient to drive 300-400 miles to your vacation home to check over work, so the quickest way to accomplish the goal was YouTube. Because of this, he had to be detailed in his videos – showing the client all the extra steps he took to ensure a long-lasting and quality installation.

After a while, he started getting calls from people who had found him through his videos and wanted to hire him. It was then that he realized the power of YouTube and began to post more and more. He did not, however, let up on the detail. In fact, he took that to another level, posting videos like this one where he shows DIYers exactly how to install a V-Lux Skylight.

So let’s break this down a bit here as this is really the crux of this post. In this video, Drew is showing us step-by-step exactly how to install this particular brand of skylight.
I consider myself a fairly handy home improvement type guy and feel like after watching this video, I could definitely do the job. So how does this video help Drew and his business?

Lift The Mystique, Reveal The Truth, Earn Trust

1) Teaching others how to do what you do builds trust. The term “Trust Agent” has been thrown around in relation to this concept online. Video builds trust, authority and influence online, 24/7/365. I doubt Drew has ever read the book or even heard the term, but he is living proof that it works. By showing you everything he does to install the skylight, you know he pays great attention to detail, ensuring a quality installation.

2) You get to know your contractor. Even though Drew is not in this video, you can hear him behind the camera complementing his employee as he does the job. To me, that reveals alot about his company – it seems like working for Drew is a rewarding experience. Happy employees will produce a better finished product :: it’s logical.

3) Doing a job like this is NOT easy, no matter what you see on HGTV, DIY Network or PBS. I know from my days in working in the landscape industry that this is true. So many times I see landscape retaining walls that crumble in the first year because some excited new homeowner saw a 30-minute show on TV that said “you can do this!”
I’ve also seen cooked lawns where the would-be homeowner grabbed the Round-Up to kill a few dandelions and ended up sterilizing his soil for 3-6 months.

So who do you call when you make a mistake in your landscape, lawn, or for that matter, when you get up on the roof to install a skylight and realize that an 8/12 pitched roof is scary as heck?

Or who do you call when you get the job all done and the first rainstorm reveals a major leak around said skylight? Well of course you call the guy who originally took the time to get you educated in the first place :: the guy you trust :: the nice fella who has great employees you saw working hard on video :: Drew!

Teach Them What They Can’t Do

You see folks, I’m a big proponent of “show them everything because they can’t do it as good as you anyway.”
This works for many types of businesses.

Auto Repair – show people how to change an alternator – go ahead. They’ll try but do they even have the right tools?

Real Estate – show people how to list their home “By Owner” – see what happens when their home doesn’t sell.

Insurance – teach people the in’s and out’s of insurance – educate them and see the time it saves you when they need it.

Dog Training – just watch that Caesar guy on TV and you’ll see why this is oftentimes best left to the pros. But go ahead and teach them how you do it anyway.

Photography – teach them everything from proper exposure to LightRoom effects :: have you ever tried to take a family portrait of your own family with you in the photo?

There are many more.

Now I’m not telling you to be foolish. If you own a restaurant, don’t give out the exact recipe of your award winning BBQ sauce. But, you certainly could show folks how to properly smoke ribs and then “take it up a notch” with your sauce. That certainly would make me want to taste what you been cookin’!

What About Nationwide Rankings?

Yeah, Drew ranks nationally quite often as well. You wouldn’t think that national rankings would help a local business like Drew’s, but they do. You see, he is located in a very popular vacation resort area and people all over the east coast own homes there. So it makes sense for him to rank outside of just the SouthPort area. Look at some of these impressive rankings.

Wouldn’t you expect the giants in the industry to show up here? … Maybe Home Depot or Lowe’s? This is just me guessing a bit (based on my past life in a big corporation), I can tell you that larger companies like Home Depot and Lowe’s have a lot more rules and regulations to follow before posting a video on YouTube. They have lawyers who review everything with a fine toothed comb. They also have multiple levels of vice presidents, marketing experts, consultants, c-level execs and a board of directors to answer to. If someone along these approval chains isn’t a believer or doesn’t approve of the message, the YouTube vids may never happen. And when they do actually make it through all of the approval levels, they’ve been “watered down” for fear of getting sued or giving off a message that conflicts with the corporate objectives.

These are not bad things necessarily – but they do slow or stop progress in an online world that is constantly changing. Meanwhile, the local guy with his flip camera and a trustworthy demeanor keeps plugging along, well past 1 million views and counting.

How Does Google Choose What Videos To Rank In Search?

First off, when you see videos showing up very high in regular search results like we do here, it’s because of two reasons.

• There are no regular web pages that Google has determined answer the question properly when compared to the vids.
• In some cases, Google has determined that no matter how many other quality search results there are (written or otherwise) video will tell the story better anyway.

In addition – Google is very good at understanding videos that offer unique info, and is getting better and better at separating them from ones that are “generally available or basic information.” (the watered down ones)

Google knows:
1) How a person arrived at your video (through a search, a share or a related video, etc) and

2) Can measure user engagement (how far into the vid did they watch, did they ‘like’ or ‘share?’)
Here is a screenshot from inside my own YouTube account – last 30 days (I obviously can’t see inside Drew’s stats) – notice the engagement that is tracked? (I only have 22 videos so my stats are not quite as impressive as his but the tracking points are the same.)

In my next blog post I will dive further into YouTube stats and what they mean.

3) Google also knows where the user/viewer is located – and can tie this into where the video was recorded and geocoded as well as any geo-signal keywords. (in YouTube you can specify manually where a video was recorded, but many of today’s smart phone apps do this for you)

4) What did the user do after viewing the vid? (watch other related vids? re-watch yours? Grab a link? Watch others of yours? Subscribe? Leave a comment? Send you a message?)

5) What device were they viewing the video on? What device to they typically view on? Where do they typically view? (office or home?)

6) What other videos and web history does the person have in their personal results and how do those relate to #1-4

7) What do other viewers with a similar demographic do in relation to #1-5? What about viewers who are connected to them on Google Plus?

8) Did you know that Google can also read the spoken words in your videos? It’s not perfect (as you can see in the attached screenshot) but it’s getting better and better.

So just for fun, here are just 3 national searches that Drew’s vids rank very well for:

How To Install A Skylight:
Ranks #2 and #3 (two different vids)

How To Fix Mobile Home Floor
Ranks #1 and #3 (two different vids)

Mobile Home Rubber Roofing
Ranks #1

YouTube Video Ranking Takeaways & Nuggets

So are you ready to rank a bunch of videos for key terms in your area and see the leads start pouring in? It can happen, but not overnight.
The keys are:

1) Put out more and better information than your competition and present it in a believable and authentic manner. Giveaway your skill and secrets knowing that 99% of viewers can’t do the work as well as you, if at all – thus you win the trust.

2) First to the party often wins! Part of Drew’s success came in that he was the first to make videos about roofing in his area – he got ahead and has stayed ahead.

3) Put yourself “out there.” If you are the owner or manager of the business, put yourself in front and behind the camera. Show that your business is really about you and your people – gain trust – become a Trust Agent.

4) Big views are not the only success indicator – just because one video makes it big, don’t discount the others.. One thing we didn’t mention here is that the majority of Drew’s videos have under 100 views. However, those 100 views are very targeted to consumers in his area. The big videos with over 30,000 views are important, but so are the other 500 videos with less than 100.

5) Be consistent – just like anything on the internet, there is a “freshness bonus” that comes with producing quality videos often.

6) Respond to comments – make YouTube interactive. User generated content in the form of comments signals to Google that your stuff is good and when you reply you add human signals into the mix.

7) Be a good community member. Don’t just throw up videos and walk away. It’s important to participate in the community at large. Comment on similar vids, share them, like them, and subscribe to channels you like. All of this activity will also relate back to your Google Plus author profile bringing dividends into the future.

8) Have fun and take a risk. Sometimes being “out there” can be risky – if you feel that way, you are probably on the right track – just go for it!

I hope you’ve picked up a few good ideas here. If you’re interested in exploring this strategy a little further for your particular business, please give me a call at the office and I’ll set up a road map to success for you! We’ll brainstorm, plan, execute and measure – let’s get started!

Digital Agency Chicago

2013 Agency Reports Paint Digital Video Advertising as an Industry in Flux

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a TV in your living room — but you don’t use it for watching cable television. Together my Samsung Flatscreen, Playstation3, and desktop computer work in concert to achieve an awkward and stupidly-overpriced Netflix and HBOGO machine, which apart from Sunday nights, goes mostly untouched.

This approach to home entertainment baffles my parents. The notion that I wouldn’t simply get cable and be done with it seems completely alien to them — little do they know me and my stubborn tangle of wires are so commonplace, we’re now officially a demographic.

Migration to Web Video

In their Cross-Platform Report for Q4 2012, consumer reporting juggernaut Nielsen announced in an unprecedented special report that from now on they will be measuring the behavior of what they termed “Zero-TV” households: people who’ve stopped watching broadcast television altogether in favor of internet-based video content.

While we “Zero-TV”ers might be a little more ascetic than most, there’s no question that online audiences can’t be ignored even by old-media giants: digital analytics reporting company comScore revealed in their latest Media Metrix Video Rankings Report that Americans watched 39.3 billion online videos in March of 2013 alone. We even viewed an all-time high of 13.2 billion advertising videos *** — no surprise when we consider that according to the annual Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Report released last month, in 2012 digital video advertising dollars topped the $1 billion-mark for the first time.

With more video content and advertising dollars rolling in to create a new and improved web-television experience, from the looks of it we “Zero-TV”ers will have the last laugh.

Right?

*** Though I feel comScore’s “view” data is flawed in its methodology — any one second viewing of a clip counts as a view — it’s still useful to see the widening range of video “impressions”. Engagement with advertising videos will be addressed below.

The Video Fizzle

The only problem is there aren’t that many of us “Zero-TV” households (Nielsen estimates only about 5 million nationwide), and the pace of online video consumption has actually slowed. We love to watch videos more than ever, but the latest round of reporting suggests, as crazy as it sounds, we’re actually beginning to saturate the internet marketplace.

As Chris Johnston at ReelSEO correctly points out in comScore’s accompanying Year-Over-Year reporting, both the number of unique online viewers and minutes per viewer have nearly flatlined; it looks like the majority of the people who want to watch video online, are already doing it. This coincides with FreeWheel’s 2012 Video Monetization Report, which warns that video advertising is overtaking created content with a monumental YOY increase in volume of 47%, compared to the 23% YOY increase in total video views.

Video advertising trends :: what that means is all of us are seeing a lot more video ads — not because we’ve found new YouTube channels or we’re spending more time watching videos, but because advertisers are turning up the heat. The weird thing is we don’t seem to mind.

The Primetime Effect

The juiciest nugget in the newest FreeWheel reporting data is that YOY, the percentage of viewers that watch ads through to completion are up across the board. If a video is ‘long-form’ (>20 minutes), 93% of viewers will watch every ad all the way through; 81% of ads in ‘mid-form’ videos (5–20 minutes) get complete views. To those naysayers insisting that the data is skewed from the ‘forced view’ tactics of Hulu and VEVO, etc., 68% of ads from ‘short-form’ videos (

It’s as if our living room habits have migrated to our browsers: we’re okay with our viewing experience getting interrupted — after all, we usually only have to deal with one meager pre-roll/mid-roll video at each break in the content — and with the majority of ads being only 15–30s long, internet audiences still get a way better bargain than tuning in for the barrage of commercials at primetime. Even though I can’t avoid ads (assuming I avoid certain disreputable peg-legged internet practices), my style of streaming Hulu through my living room still feels like I’m cheating the system.

Welcome to OldTube

…Which we all know doesn’t last for long. The main takeaway here is that if the 2013 data continues its current trends, our web video experience is probably going transition radically to the familiar. With the number of new viewers beginning to level-out, advertisers have to find new ways to expand their messaging. Because the ads themselves don’t appear to be deal-breakers — especially for web-based television programming — expect to see more 30-second ads during your mid-roll breaks. Just like regular commercials.

Also because the explosive growth of new viewers is finally subsided, a way for content owners to turn a quick buck is to expand where they syndicate: I expect we’ll start to see channels that used to be YouTube- or Hulu-exclusives start appearing just about everywhere to take advantage of those extra ad dollars. By the same token, savvy content providers will find new ways to create additional options for syndication (I’m looking at you, newly-added YouTube Paid Channels) — or try and lock down their most popular content and start demanding subscription fees. Just like television networks.

Commercials. Television networks. With advertising and analytics companies striving to find ways to migrate old broadcast television best-practices to the internet, OldTube is coming fast. The only improvement over traditional broadcast TV is that the online advertising we’ll encounter will always be relevant to your interests, thanks to browsing privacy becoming a thing of the past. So the future of online video looks, well, a lot like TV, with a little interactivity and creepiness thrown in for spice.
…
Maybe it’s time I just call the cable guy.

Digital Agency Chicago

Genesis Therapy Center now has a brand new website built by Launch Digital Marketing! The Oak Forest-based organization has provided support, counseling, therapy, and assessment services for individuals, couples, organizations, and families since it was founded in 1987.

The new website makes it easy for users to get information on each of the programs the organization provides, along with therapist profiles, information on upcoming seminars and events, and an easy-reference list of all their office locations.

“We were very happy with how easy Launch is to work with, how creative their team is, and how responsive to customer issues they are. It has been a pleasure,” said Catherine Fairfield, Executive Director at Genesis Therapy.

Based in Chicago, Launch Digital Marketing provides clients with customized web solutions ranging from website optimization to complete redesigns. Other specialties include SEO, SEM, advanced analytics, conversion optimization, and social strategies. Launch also creates marketing plans to assist businesses in achieving their desired results, as well as helping them to increase their online presence.

Be sure to take a look at the new Genesis Therapy Center website, and also check out all of the other satisfied clients that have gotten new websites from Launch Digital Marketing.

Digital Agency Chicago

No matter what field you work in, one of the struggles of maintaining an active web presence can be continuously coming up with new and fresh ideas for your blog. While it’s always great to write about what you know—whether it’s the latest hybrid vehicle coming out, an answer to a common question you get from customers, or commentary on industry trends—it’s only a matter of time before even the most informed and creative of us hit writer’s block.

When managing a blog presence for multiple clients across multiple industries, it becomes even more important to make sure you’re staying up to date not only on the latest news in each field, but also on what’s being talked about in the relevant, associated online communities. Below are some of my favorite tools and strategies for compiling blog content ideas and staying in touch with what topics are important to potential readers.

Content Strategy Generator From SEOgadget

An obvious answer to the question of how to ensure that your site or blog is always part of the larger discussions on trending topics would be “follow the news sources related to your field”—however, this is easier said than done. With so much content and so many sources of information on the internet, it’s impossible to be tapped into them all at all times, and it’s often difficult just to keep up with even the major authorities.

That’s where SEOgadget’s Content Strategy Generator comes in handy. The tool pulls results related to any keyword(s) you enter from a wide variety of sources and delivers all of this information in a condensed, easily navigated Google Docs spreadsheet. It’s a great way to get specific ideas flowing about a more general or undefined topic you’re interested in.

For example, enter “Kia” and it will deliver the latest results about the automaker from Google News and Bing News, which is a great, quick way to stay aware of new announcements and jump quickly to stories that are relevant to you for research. Results from sources like Yahoo Answers and How Stuff Works can help by showing you the sorts of questions people are asking about your topic, even if they aren’t always news-focused. For instance, seeing an active Yahoo Answers thread on the question “Is a used Kia a good buy for a college student?” may prompt a blog about why Kia is a great value for young drivers and which models are best for kids going off to college.

It also gives you an insight into what’s being shared and discussed socially by returning the top related results from Digg, Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Once you’ve gotten a general overview of the latest news, questions, and discussions involving your initial keyword, you can perform new searches with more specific options pulled from these results. This makes the Content Strategy Generator a great tool not only for spurring ideas, but also for gathering information and research to turn those ideas into unique content.

Pulse.me

While nowhere near as comprehensive as the SEOgadget tool, Pulse.me is a great alternative when you want a simple, attractive newsfeed to deliver you the latest stories in a particular field or category. Pulling from a pre-selected group of news sources determined by the category you choose (categories range from “Business” and “Technology” to “Fun & Humor”) your customizable Pulse channel will arrange stories as pictures with headlines in a number of easily skimmable formats.

You can also import your Google Reader feeds into your Pulse channel, which will be good news for users looking for an alternative when Google ends their service on July 1.

Write to Address Social Followers

While the first two items above are specific tools you can use to consolidate a lot of information into a single source, it’s important not to forget the importance of doing your own primary research, and your social channels are a great place to start. After all, what better way to know what kinds of topics or information are valuable to your readers than to consult them directly?

See what kinds of Facebook posts get the most interaction or which Tweets are getting retweeted, and use that information to create content that has a higher chance of shares and engagement. You can also write content that directly addresses a question someone has posed, and then link to that blog as a response.

Case in point: An automotive client’s Facebook account was getting a lot of engagement on posts that provided an image of a small section of an older model vehicle, with the question posed to fans “Can you identify this old ____ model?” Since there were a good number of people responding to these posts, we decided to create some content on a model that was just announced and due in showrooms this summer—then we posted a question with a similarly obscured picture of the new model, tagging the original responders and linking to our blog content for the answer. The result was good, newsworthy content and a boost in page views, many of which were from readers who we already knew were likely to share the post.

Google Trends

Google Trends is a great source once you’ve already done some initial brainstorming about your topic(s). Not only will it give you insights into the growing or declining popularity of search terms (which can help you forecast what types of blogs or pages you may be able to get a head start on), but it can sometimes even offer predictions for future search volumes. When applicable, Trends will point to select news headlines associated with peaks in the search term’s popularity, which can double as a good jumping off point for additional research.

Having a blog that speaks to current news and issues that your readers are actively engaged with not only shows that you are an authority in your field, but can also help you attract organic traffic from people looking for information on these topics. These are certainly not the only tools at your disposal for brainstorming and researching trending blog ideas, but they should offer good starting points, whether you just want to skim news on the automotive or technology markets or want to dig deeper into potential interest in specific vehicle models or products.

Digital Agency Chicago

I recently took an eager co-worker of mine, Matt, to the airfield to ride along with me while I conducted training to acquire my pilot’s license. For those that haven’t had the opportunity to do so, flying a plane is complicated. It takes years to learn what all of the controls in the cockpit do, and just as long to learn all the rules and how to read the instruments correctly so that you and your passengers get where you want to go safely. After landing and stowing the plane, I realized how similar flying and the world of website design and SEO really are.

Pre-Flight

When Flying, Make Sure You Have the Proper Head wear

Before you take off, you’ll want to know what the weather is like, which runways are active, and any flying restrictions in the area in which you wish to travel. Likewise, in the SEO world you’ll want to spend time gathering information on your target demographic in order to design a website that works for them before you build it. For example, if your target demographic is senior citizens, you will want to make a website with larger fonts and simpler navigation, as that group tends to be less tech savvy.

Additionally, you’ll need to find out what your audience is searching for by doing some keyword research. Google’s AdWords Keyword Research Tool is free and well-suited for the job. In addition to all of that research, you’ll have to keep current with what the best SEO practices are to know how to employ these keywords on your site. Things change over time, so what worked last month might actually hurt you this month.

Before you even start your aircraft, you need do a thorough examination of the plane and all of its components to make sure nothing is broken and everything is working as it should. Altimeter setting? Check. Radios? Check. Flaps? Check. This isn’t much different than using a checklist to go over your website before a launch. Before you go live with your new site, you’ll need to make sure all of the links and navigation options go where they should, and that all of your content has been proofread and laid out properly. Do all of your images have the proper alt text? Has your meta been formatted correctly? Are your contact forms and other interfaces sending information to the correct places? Remember, getting people to visit your site is only part of the battle — the rest is getting them to complete a conversion by filling out a form or visiting certain pages you’ve set up.

Clear for Takeoff
Once you’ve run through your checklist and made sure everything is set just the way you need it to be, you can ask the control tower for takeoff clearance. For a web developer, this might mean checking with the client to see if the site lives up to their expectations and design ideas. OK, so the client likes it? Clear for takeoff… Wind 117 @10… Mixture…Rich. Throttle…Full.

Now, just because you’re in the air doesn’t mean you’re done. There’s still plenty of work to do. You should always be listening to communications from other pilots and controllers and making a note of the environment. This is just like working in web development, where you need to be in communication with your clients about their intentions as well as ever-changing styles and trends. Whenever the wind and weather changes, you’ll need to adjust your content strategy to account for competition, changes in the industry and of course, changes to the way search engines operate. Failure to be be attentive to any or all of these things can blow you off course.

Keep Your Focus On Your Goals…Or Risk Crashing!

Read Your Instruments
How do you know when you’re off course? Hopefully if you’ve gathered all your information, applied it correctly, and made all the necessary adjustments, you should be lined up perfectly with the runway. If you’ve read all of your instruments correctly, then they should indicate that you’ve made all the right decisions to reach your goal.

In this analogy, Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools can be considered your “instruments.” They tell you if what you are doing is working and how well. Check them regularly to see if your pages are ranking the way you want them too, and if they are driving traffic to the right place as well as from the right places. You can also use Webmaster Tools to check for crawl errors and other problems that Google may find with your website.

Bringing your aircraft in for a 3 point landing is what every pilot aims to do, and by following checklists and using time tested strategies and guidelines you can do the same for your clients!  Frequency change approved, so long!

Digital Agency Chicago

Here at Launch we spend a lot of time studying trends and the best ways to do things. You probably know that video content is hot right now, and it’s easy to see why — costs of online video production are affordable and costs of distribution are nearly free. Last year, 182 million viewers watched 457 million content videos and 105 billion video ads. Mobile video viewing quickly rose in 2012, with 50% of tablet users and 20% of smartphone users watching video content. We expect these numbers to continue to grow in 2013.

If you haven’t thought of adding video to your marketing mix, you should. And if you are already using video, we want to help you do it better. So here are three things to think about when planning your video content.

Keep it Entertaining

When people are entertained by what they are in the market to buy, you have a win-win situation. Entertaining videos are one of the best ways to build brand recognition — just think about Red Bull. Red Bull has built itself up as an adventurous brand, in large part through the videos it produces. Its YouTube channel has over 1,400,000 subscribers, and producing a large amount of relevant videos shows a commitment from Red Bull to give its viewers what they want. Remember last fall when Felix Baumgartner skydived from the stratosphere? Red Bull streamed it live, and since then 2,800,000 people have watched the video. Not bad for a company that started by sponsoring local break dance competitions.

Another example of highly entertaining videos are the BMW car chase scenes on YouTube. These successful videos build brand recognition by showcasing how the car handles itself in high-speed chases. And yes, the good guy always wins.

Amp Up the Engagement

The original Harlem Shake video uploaded on YouTube in January racked up 3 million views in two weeks. By mid-February, over 12,000 Harlem Shake videos had been uploaded (see the Harlem Shake video produced by Launch client Headquarter Honda). This type of engagement is exactly what the music promoters and record label wanted when they decided to promote the original video with tweets and other social messaging. You may not realize what a marketing success the Harlem Shake was until you start to think about how many players made money from it: Google, because searches and views on YouTube equals dollars; the investors in the record label that produced the music; and the studio that produced the recording (to name just a few).

Video Recommendations & Social Media

Personalization is something you’ll be hearing more about, and it will help with engagement as consumers are served more targeted, relevant content. Facebook recently introduced “Graph Search,” a new feature that allows users to search within their friends list for more relevant, targeted content. For example, “show my friends who like to travel” could also return a video you produced about your line of suitcases, backpacks, and travel gear. As technology allows us to learn more about consumer behavior and interests, we’ll be able to continually refine and present personalized content.

(Need an entertainment break? Check out this video that shows what happens when Siri gets a little too personalized!)

What are some other quick ways to increase engagement? Experiment with the annotation tools in YouTube. Did you know that you can turn your video into a video game? And make sure you share your video on your social sites — Likes, comments and shares will increase your video’s popularity.

Last, don’t forget about a call to action in your video. A call to action encourages users to engage with your product and brand after they’ve watched your video content. For example, end your video by asking viewers to visit your luggage website to check out the latest spring colors.

Don’t Forget About SEO!

You may think that SEO isn’t necessary for video, because without text, there’s nothing for Google to crawl. This isn’t quite true, as you still want to optimize your videos to make it easier for people to find them. There are a few good ways to do this. First, put some thought (along with a few keywords) into your title. Use the free Google Adwords Keyword Tool to help you generate relevant keywords. Once you’ve identified your keywords, keep them toward the front of your title, and keep your title under 70 characters in length.

Next, if your video will be on a blog page, consider including a transcription of the audio. If your video will be on a page where you don’t want all that text, such as a main landing page, you may want to create a short paragraph that incorporates your keywords in order to persuade people to view the video.

Lastly, think about where your video should live. A lot of people think they should house videos on YouTube (or YouTube competitor Vimeo), with the hope being that they will rank higher because YouTube is so popular. However, if you want to drive more traffic to your website, you may want to house your video there instead. One idea is to put your video in both places — just be sure to give it different titles (otherwise the video on YouTube will most likely always rank higher), and make sure to help out the video on your site by giving it a title rich with keywords.

I hope the ideas presented here will inspire you to go shoot some fantastic, fun videos!
*2012 video Infographic

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Last week Google rocked the Analytics community with the release of the long anticipated Universal Analytics. Universal Analytics is complex in implementation but enables marketers to track virtually any interaction either online or offline. This is big news!

The big difference between traditional Google Analytics and Universal Analytics is that the new version allows developers to programmatically send the platform any event they want. With the old Analytics platform it was only feasible to send data on browser page loads.

So what can we do with this new platform?

Below are the top five most exciting uses of Universal Analytics that the Launch Digital Marketing team is talking about. (Each of these are in the very early stages of development)

Product check-in

Now that developers can send Universal Analytics any data event they can think of, we now have the ability to track information about product use itself. This means if the product is a car, it is now possible to track (with a customer’s permission!) when the vehicle has been driven 3,000 miles and needs an oil change. With this data, the dealership can use personal e-mail marketing to send the user three available appointment times.

Physical Point Tracking

It is now easier to tie specific events to specific people. With the new improvements in Analytics is now easy to assign a unique identifier to an offline user (i.e. a license plate number) and associate it with their online activity (i.e. an IP address).

Imagine noting (again with customer’s permissions) the license plate number of every car that goes in and out of a dealership lot (this is possible today using OCR technology). This information could then be tied to a specific user record and be used to show how a user interacts with the dealership online, on the phone and in-person. Finally we as marketers are getting closer to the full picture.

Product Activation and Usage

A customer might buy a product but are they actually using it? With the today’s analytics it is possible to track the purchase of a new XM radio and actually tell if the customer is using it. This could help marketers figure out which demographics are more likely to buy and USE specific products.

Everywhere Becomes a Point of Sale

Instead of sales happening only at traditional computer or brick and mortar facility, it is now possible through mobile implementations for customers to buy from anywhere. This happens today with car owners through iTunes and Spotify but could be expanded to physical products going forward. Imagine a customer buying a new tire automatically the moment they get a flat.

Customer geo-location and demographics

The new version of Analytics can also be used to bolster traditional advertising efforts. Imagine tracking radio stations listened to, billboards passed and TV stations watched. This information could be used to radically optimize current advertisements campaigns.

Plus One More (Setting this up today is probably unfeasible but won’t be in the future)

Since it is now possible to track essentially any online or offline event, it has also become possible to react to this data.

Personalization

Collecting data is not enough. It is only helpful if it is used. Universal Analytics helps with the first part but it is up to marketers and developers to implement the latter half. Luckily we are getting close.

Imagine knowing based on stored data, the moment a previous customer walks into a dealership and having their vehicle information and personal preferences automatically being loaded onto the dealer computers and in-store displays.

Take this a step further and you could in theory apply it to any advertising. (Remarketing taken offline!) Billboards could now have the ability to become smart and localized. This include changing ads based on who’s driving or walking by at any given time.

While these systems are not easy to set up today, they are now possible. Rest assured that the team at Launch and marketers all over the world are working to simplify these data collection tactics and hope to be using them to make marketing efforts even more effective going forward.

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What is the holy grail of marketing your business online? Think about it :: what type of marketing strategy would increase your bottom line the most?

Direct Response Marketing Online

A direct response :: that’s what you want. You want the sale as quickly and with as few obstacles as possible. You want the “ready buyer.”
If an increase in direct responses is the goal (a lead submission, sale, phone call), we would then want to increase the amount of properly targeted traffic to the right pages on our site. We would also want to target our message to searchers even when they are not on our site – so when they are ready to make a decision – we are it!

That being the case, the question becomes: “how do we find these visitors and get them to see our message in an online space that is becoming ever more crowded and filled with noise?”

The Answer is Individual-Centric Marketing

This is the ultimate segmentation model that promises the highest rates of conversion, as long as you are able to answer the right questions at the right time.
Individual centric marketing is an attempt to optimize and coordinate a user’s personal digital experience across every channel on the web. (display advertising, email, websites of all kinds, mobile devices and tablets, and social networks.)

Did you know that Google is working very hard in order to make this a reality? In fact, we already have most of the tools needed to accomplish this, but the thinking and the infrastructure need to exist in order to launch it at scale.

Two recent developments from Google are the Universal Analytics beta and “Enhanced Campaigns” now available in AdWords. It is my opinion that they are intended as complementary products, but I have not seen a lot of literature yet reflecting this situation.

Enhanced Campaigns are basically the presupposition that mobile devices are not going away, or better put that Google’s public recognition of the fact that we now access the web via multiple devices every day. Capabilities for the deployment of advertising on these devices are now baked into the platform, without the need to select them separately. You may create different ads, extensions, and bids for mobile users with greater ease.

Universal Analytics is a move toward a more sophisticated measurement of cross-channel marketing efforts, very much necessitated by the golden treasures that Enhanced Campaigns promise us. Still, there are much more interesting implications such as the nudge toward server-side user tracking in lieu of the traditional cookie model that exists today. Besides this, we have the capability to customize the tracking code and apply it to many devices not traditionally included in analytics.

What could result from the combination of these two new powerful features from Google? I imagine the day when someone wearing Google Glass walks past a local business and receives an ad for a tailored offer being run – after they have expressed interest by previously searching online for that type of product or service. Imagine knowing a user’s intent while they are walking down the street nearby your store…

While we wait for that kind of tech to get legs, there will be executions of the strategy on mobile to be sure. The future is starting now. The new synergy of paid and organic search promises incredible possibilities for users and for marketers alike. In fact, it will make this relationship more fluid and more relevant as time goes on. Direct response marketing online will soon blend with offline behaviors, that is the future. Are you ready for the new Search Engine Marketing?

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The first time I wrote about effective email marketing, it was with some helpful tips on how to get people to open your emails. Now that you’ve mastered step 1, you’re probably wondering about step 2: ”How do I get people to click through to my site?”

Many people have asked me this question over the last few months. I’ve been looking at past campaigns and tracking stats, and one thing stands out the most… videos. That’s right, nothing like a quick informational video in your email to engage people to click through to your site or content.

Effective Email Marketing :: Getting The Click-Through With Video

Now with the world of digital advertising evolving every day, it was only a matter of time before we’d be able to embed full playing videos into email – but that isn’t the strategy here. Videos act as excellent calls to action. Out of the campaigns I’ve run, consumers are clicking on the videos 7-10 times more than any other link — incredible!

To drive people to the determined site however, I actually just create an image that looks like the video in my email campaign rather than embedding the video itself. That way, I can entice readers to click on what they think is an actual video, but instead bring them to the site where the video can be viewed. This helps site traffic immensely — once they’ve watched the video, they’re already on your site ready to look at any and all of the other cool things that you’re offering! (including a call to action!)

Now remember, when you create the image of the video, think of it like any other call to action in your campaign. You want the video to be clicked on!

It’s just that simple… Hopefully, this has helped you, and now you can continue creating awesome email campaigns to drive people to your site!

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