Welcome to the Froggblog

From time to time, our clients will decide to take their entire digital marketing strategy, or perhaps certain activities, in-house. As an agency we have no problem with this. We accept that relationships built on transparency and trust will inevitably see some clients learn enough from our team, and develop the confidence, to eventually feel they can take things forward without the use of an agency.

Where this is the case, we like to help clients on their way by ensuring they fully understand the range of required skills, technology and resource to manage their online strategy to maximum effect. We do this by working with them to assess their capability and capacity through a series of questions, often with a workshop tagged on for good measure.

The agency vs in-house conundrum is one that you may well face at some stage. To help you decide whether in-house, outsourced or a combination of the two solutions is best for you, I thought I’d share a number of the questions we pose to our clients when they’re considering their options.

You’ll notice the questions tend to be more general than highly specific as responses will inevitably lead to further discussion. What we try and highlight to clients during this process is that search engine marketing has become increasingly complex over the years. This means a greater amount of expertise, experience and resource is needed than ever before if they are to maximise the effectiveness of their in-house efforts.

So with that in mind, here are 25 questions to help you assess whether you have the skills and resource to manage an integrated search, social media and content strategy in-house:

Search engine optimisation

1) What is your knowledge and understanding of search engine algorithms?

2) Are you aware of ‘blended search’, ‘personalised search’, ‘social search’ and ‘real-time search’, and what they mean for your search engine marketing efforts?

3) Do you know how to research and categorise search terms? What is your experience of incorporating these terms naturally into highly engaging web copy?

4) How will you be continuously building links to your website? What is your experience / knowledge of good practice in this area?

5) What knowledge do you have of user-experience and the impact this has on both search engine rankings and conversion rates?

6) Do you understand what needs to be considered when the time comes to redevelop your website, such as the choice of technology / content management system (CMS) and how to migrate from the old site to the new without negative impact?

7) What is your experience of using freely available tools, such as those in the Google Webmaster console and their role in analysing search engine performance?

Paid Search

8 What experience do you have in setting up and managing Paid Search campaigns?

9) Do you know how to analyse campaign data on an ongoing basis and optimise campaigns with a view to maximising ROI?

10) Do you have experience in landing page testing with the aim of improving conversion rates?

11) How much time can you dedicate each day to managing your Paid Search campaign?

Content

12) What provisions/plans/schedules do you have in place for creating content, on a regular basis, in formats, such as articles, press releases, blogs and video?

13) Do you know how to properly optimise all of the above formats?

14) Do you know how to most effectively distribute the above formats to maximise reach?

15) Do you know how to measure the impact of your content strategy?

Social Media

16) What research tools do you have to identify the websites, blogs, forums and communities where your target audience is most active?

17) Have you got a social media strategy in place based on this research?

18) Do you understand the ‘rules of engagement’ when it comes to using social media tools, such as Twitter?

19) How will you be monitoring where your brand is being talked about online?

20) Have you had experience in dealing with negative comments about your brand or service online?

21) Do you monitor buzz on your industry so you can proactively respond?

22) How will you monitor / measure the success of your social media efforts?

23) What efforts do you make to retain customers and develop advocates of your brand?

Measurement

24) How will you set and measure goals and objectives? Do you have the appropriate experience, tools and processes in place to measure the variables that really matter, such as conversions, cost per conversion, lifetime value of customer and ROI?

25) Do you have experience in studying web analytics to make informed decisions about your website aimed at improving conversion rates?

As well as the above questions we also recommend people consider how they are going to keep pace with latest trends and developments  i.e. how much time can they dedicate to reading, attending conferences and so on? This is an important, but often overlooked, aspect of managing things in-house.

One point I would like to highlight is that even though I operate agency side I do not automatically assume outsourced is the best solution. It is entirely dependent on the organisation in question. It is rare amongst SME’s in particular, that one solution is more effective than the other. Usually, companies will have certain in-house skills and a certain amount of capacity to look after aspects of their strategy. But an agency will usually have invested in technology and a team of people possessing a wide range of skills that can be brought to the table to complement those possessed in-house.

Another equally important point to consider is that even when outsourcing to an agency, your involvement in the project is integral to its success. Digital marketing is never 100% outsourced because to a certain degree the success of a project is dictated by you, the client. I’ll be exploring this in more detail next time around.

Until then…

Well, the day has finally arrived. I have a valid excuse to write about football and my job. These two cherished subjects were always going to collide at some point; similar to a Shawcross-Ramsey tackle, but instead breaking my silence.

My statto-like obsession with football over the years hasn’t just been with events that unravel on the pitch, I’ve been equally fascinated by the politics, scandals and commercial clout off it; however more recently it’s how all of the latter has become even more exposed within the game.

By exposed I don’t necessarily mean through the determination of investigative reporters, or name-and-shame tabloid sell outs; we are treated to stories on a daily basis about our favoured club’s affairs. What I mean is how social networking channels, more notably Twitter, has suddenly imparted footballers with a new kind of power, a power different to wealth and notoriety, but just as potent: real time communication with the outside world. Yes we all know footballers are only human and they make tumultuous mistakes like us mere mortals from time to time, but Twitter and Facebook now provide a fresh opportunity to ignite or dampen their careers – all in a single tweet.

Take Darren Bent, the then Tottenham Hotspur player, who released a candid but foul-mouthed message to his chairman about his seemingly slow transfer to Sunderland, posted on Twitter. Although he was very publicly excluded from Tottenham’s pre-season tour of China, his actions did however prompt hundreds of Sunderland fans to sign up to Twitter and convince the player to join their club (Sunderland FC has the seventh highest Twitter following out of all the Premiership clubs, but more on this shortly).

Not forgetting Ryan Babel, the Liverpool player, who announced on Twitter his disdain of being dropped from a game by tweeting “The Boss left me out. No explanation”. With no imminent club to go to, the striker not only felt the heat from his manager but from a large slice of the 66,000 Liverpool fans on Twitter (Liverpool FC currently has the most followers on Twitter in the Premiership).

In January this year, the mighty Manchester United were the first league club to ban its players from using Facebook and Twitter, resulting in Rooney and co having to cease their rather popular, highly exposed online profiles. The reason? Executives believed that such activity by key players could potentially compromise the clubs integrity, as well as increasing the likelihood of someone simply putting their foot in it. And who can blame them? Manchester United may be an historical football club, but it still operates as a global business and one that has the right to monitor and regulate what its personnel do and say. Although Twitter and Facebook create an exciting bridge between fan and player, it also creates an unnecessary headache for the club because they lose that control and authority. Putting a smart phone into the hands of most footballers is probably one of the stupidest (and potentially entertaining) things to do. A social experiment I would always relish!

So, if big name players are restricted in how they can raise their personal and commercial brands online, then surely their respective clubs are on the ball, right? Well, you’d think. After reading a great post by Rubber Republic recently on how Premiership clubs fared when looking at social media and reach, it was surprising to see the ‘league’ standings.

As you can see this table doesn’t reflect the actual league positioning of each club, however, the big guns are still conspicuously nestled in the top half. Manchester City, with their renewed ownership and wealth, are joint top with Chelsea, followed closely by Liverpool, Arsenal and Man U. It’s easy to think that Man City are buying their way to social media supremacy, but unlimited funds - as proven on the pitch too – doesn’t always guarantee success. A clear, astute and often inexpensive social media and content strategy is all it takes. In other words, they know where their fans (followers/influencers) are, and are satisfying them using a number of platforms.

Facebook and Twitter only works well for a football club if they have fans that actively use them of course, but even if they don’t, the top clubs are sharp enough to use multiple channels to interact with them. Although Man City has an impressive 64.5m blog subscribers, this total isn’t attributed to just one authoritative blog, say on their site (they don’t have a blog) – this number is spread across various independent fan sites; all providing relentless fresh content, news, brand awareness, and ultimately, an expansive loyal target audience.

Clever or just obvious? Well, many of the big clubs, bar Man U, have relatively poor figures in this area, so Man City are cleverly reaping the rewards of other people’s online legwork. They don’t need to manage and maintain a time consuming blog, not when several others are essentially doing it for them.

Liverpool particularly shine out for their Facebook and Twitter acumen, simply because they manage them properly, with regular updates and answering questions; meaning fans genuinely feel connected to their club. Unlike Ryan Babel, the marketers within Liverpool FC aren’t abusing these platforms, or misleading their avid fan base; the trick is to be accessible without being generic or too outspoken.

To eulogise Man City once again, the reason they’re top of this table is due to a well thought out, researched and realistic integrated marketing strategy. Their offline efforts are complimented by what they do online, but more importantly, they aren’t solely reliant on social media to drive the brand forward. Poke London do deserve a lot of the credit for their part in the website redesign and its versatility, however, it’s the club’s overall multi-channelled strategy that has made them number one in this league, and probably will for some time – they just need to keep up the momentum.

That said, we all know they have the money, internal resources and time to make social media truly work for them compared to most of their Premiership rivals. Time, in particular, is something that Roberto Mancini probably wished he was blessed with too…

Last Thursday and Friday, I attended the Sheer B2B event in London; a marketing conference specifically for luxury and premium retailers. Like many of the companies in attendance, the event had a boutique feel to it with around 150 attendees on each day. With around 10 people each sat on a round tables the event lent itself to meeting lots of new people with time set aside for introductions and discussion around key topics.

Even as a seasoned digital marketer I found the vast majority of the talks very interesting. Day 1 began with a keynote speech from Neil Saunders from Verdict Research looking at the future of retail. Neil outlined how the retail boom is over. Our insatiable appetite for goods, serviced in the main by mounting debt, was not sustainable and so it has proved with consumers changing their purchasing habits in the last couple of years. We are now moving into a phase of ‘considered consumption’ where consumers are streamlining their lifestyles and seeking greater value. The good news for premium retailers is that value does not necessarily mean seeking cheaper alternatives; instead consumers will continue to invest in premium products but with much greater consideration. Self indulgence remains important but consumers are now more price aware, value driven and looking to avoid risk. In particular, consumers are making purchases driven by health and well-being. As a result retailers need to consider that the next 5 years will be concerned not with the organic growth in sales experienced in the past but instead on strategies aimed at stealing market share.

Next up was Kevin McSpadden from More2. He focused on the traits found in successful retailers. A man after my own heart he explained to the audience how having a competitive advantage is integral to building a successful brand. Retailers must focus on what it is that makes them unique, what it is they stand for and why customers should choose them. The mistake I see companies make time and time again is assuming that by having a website or throwing enough money at Google sales and growth in their business will just happen. Not so. In an increasingly competitive and complex marketplace companies must seek competitive advantaged to survive and prosper. Kevin reiterated my own views.

Other talks included Katie Lee, founder of Shiny Media discussing social media for retail brands and an entertaining introduction to customer feedback forum Feefo.

Day 2 started with a keynote speech from Michael Ross founder of eCommera and co-founder of Figleaves, looking again at the future of retail. He explained how we will continue to see the rise of online superstores such as Amazon and Tesco; big powerhouses continuously expanding their product range, which in turn makes them a growing threat to even the most niche of retailers. An added threat is that brand owners will sell direct, rethinking their wholesale and retail distribution channels, as well as retailers becoming brand owners with the likes of Boots and John Lewis marketing their own product lines. These developments were enough to strike fear into even the most resilient of premium retail brands but luckily Michael also sees a growing demand for niche specialists who can offer a level of service and expertise larger operations will find difficult to compete against.

Michael says that ‘proposition is the new location’ as consumers increasingly turn to the web instead of the high street. To compete online, niche brands must therefore ensure they have a compelling offer, a great website, strong marketing strategy and nimble operations. Competitive advantage can be gained in each of these areas.

Next up was Martijn Bertsen from Google who introduced the audience to a number of their free tools. With respect to Martin it felt a little too much like a sales pitch for Google’s many products, albeit free ones. However, there is always a feeling with Google that they are subtlety pointing you towards their cash cow, Adwords. I couldn’t help but feel a few people may go away to try Adwords off the back of the talk without the right level of planning and execution needed to make it work effectively.

Other highlights on day 2 included Julia Reynolds from Figleaves discussing various aspects of their online strategy; what has worked for them and what hasn’t. She finished by warning attendees to ‘mind the heroin’; in other words don’t become addicted to attention grabbing techniques such as Paid Search, that can all too easily suck budgets dry unless the right analysis and strategy is put in place.

David Smith, Director of Operations at IMRG and Russell Morris of Warehouse Express also provided an insightful look at how to expand retail operations internationally. I was blown away by just how much there is to consider when looking to target an overseas market; cultural, legal, technology, fulfilment, payment methods and marketing are just some of areas that need to be thoroughly investigated before committing to an international expansion strategy. An oversight on even the smallest detail can lead to disaster.

All in all, it was a conference very different to others I have attended. Smaller and highly focused made it much more valuable to attendees compared to larger, less personal events. Oh, and the sandwiches were great too!

I met some great people and look forward to speaking with them again in the future. Next time, I hope Leapfrogg to be more actively involved in the event. Watch this space.

Just before Christmas I had the honour of being best man to one of my life long friends. Of course with that honour came an equal measure of paralysing fear as I considered how I would deliver a best mans speech to remember; fear that was compounded further by an earlier showing as best man a few years ago where I still to this day cringe at just how much I fluffed it.

You’ll be happy to hear, however, that this time around I absolutely stormed it (if I can be so bold to say!). And you know what made the difference? Well, it really came down to one factor; preparation. A few years back, as a younger man (with a slight air of arrogance about me), I felt I could deliver a knock out speech with little planning and even less practice. As an older, and hopefully wiser man, I realised that research, planning and practice were essential components to a successful speech.

Where am I going with this? Well, preparation is equally important to the success of your digital marketing efforts. However, time and time again companies throw money and resource online with very little research or planning. It seems many of the basic principles that people apply to offline marketing campaigns are too easily forgotten when it comes to the implementation of online strategies. Instead, there is often a misguided notion that by throwing enough money at Google Adwords, sticking a keyword or two into a title tag or setting up a Twitter profile, a pot of gold will be waiting at the end of the rainbow.

It’s just not that easy I’m afraid. With increasing competition online and growing sophistication in how search engines display their results, research and planning is absolutely paramount to a successful online strategy. The introduction of blended search, personalised search, social search and real-time search demand a much more holistic approach to search engine optimisation (SEO); an approach that combines traditional activities, such as keyword selection and link building, with more contemporary tactics in social media and content marketing.

But a more holistic and sophisticated approach to SEO in turn demands a greater focus on research and planning. Research is essential in providing insight, focus and direction for your digital marketing strategy. Planning ensures your digital strategy is aligned with your objectives, internal time and resource, offline marketing and budget.

So with this in mind, what do we suggest you look at as part of a detailed research and planning phase? Well, here’s an insight into a few of the things we focus on during the first few weeks of a new project, and review at regular intervals thereafter:

Competitor analysis

For any new project, we ask a client who they consider to be the their key competitors. We then analyse the online marketing activity of these competitors, including SEO efforts, Paid Search campaigns, content and social media. By carrying out analysis of your competitors it provides insight, focus and direction for your own online efforts. Have you ever heard the saying, ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer?’ That’s why you need to analyse the competitive space and know exactly what you’re up against before you get started.

Prospects and customers

A number of sophisticated tools allow you to discover where your prospects and customers spend their time online, what they talk about and how they interact with one another, as well as who influences their purchasing decisions. This research allows you to create a community map; a visual representation of the websites, blogs, forums and social networks where your target audience is most active. In turn, this map dictates where you need to be pushing content along with the social media tools, such as Twitter, that you need to use to engage with your prospects, customers and those people who influence them.

It’s also well worth scouring the web for published research, reports and studies on the audience you are targeting. For example, if you’re market is 17-25 year olds there is bound to be some freely available research that provides insight their use of the Internet, such as the social networks they frequent most regularly. If not, you may even consider commissioning your own research!

Content brainstorming

The research that goes into creating a community map will highlight the problems, issues and concerns faced by your target audience. Analysing a number of your key competitors will also highlight where you can gain an advantage by creating content they may not have considered or by bettering what they are already doing. It is therefore important to audit the content you already have (digital assets) and then brainstorm new content ideas that may include additional resources on your website, articles, press releases, blog posts, images, video and audio. Creating and marketing content on an ongoing basis is essential in making your website a stronger resource, building authority and in entering social spaces with something of real value to the target audience.

Site architecture planning

One of the most important elements of creating a great website is information architecture. A site that is well organised and intuitive will set the foundations for search engine rankings, as well as benefiting visitors to your website with a clear and intuitive path to the point of conversion.

In researching new content ideas it is important to plan how this content will be integrated into your website. During the research and planning stage it is therefore a good idea to map out your existing website and then, on the basis of continually adding new content, also map out where you expect the site to be in say, 3, 6 and 12 months time. This helps to provide direction and a clear goal of what you are working towards, therefore forming the basis of a content schedule.

Link research

In-bound links to your website from other sites of relevance and quality is a crucial factor in determining how well your website ranks on the major search engines, as well as driving traffic and increasing online awareness of your business.

Activity in content marketing and social media will yield links to your website but it’s a good idea to spend time researching specific websites, such as directories, organisations and industry bodies that you would ideally like a link from. Once you have your list you can then figure out the best way of gaining a link, be it a direct request, the offer of content, product trials or dare we say it, hard cash!

Benchmarking and setting up of reporting/tracking solutions

Traffic driven to your website from search engines, social media activity and content marketing should be measured by its impact on revenue. Search engine rankings and traffic alone are not appropriate measures of success for your digital marketing efforts; instead focus on conversions to calculate ROI and therefore the impact on your bottom line. At the research and planning stage consider the tools you need to use to measure ROI before setting realistic benchmarks and targets based on the research you have carried out above.

In summary, what I am trying to demonstrate is that when it comes to implementing a successful digital marketing strategy you can’t just jump straight in. Research and careful planning will allow you to maximise your reach, targeted traffic, online conversion rates, levels of customer retention, as well as the number of brand advocates. In an increasingly complex and competitive online space, meeting these objectives doesn’t just happen. Don’t abandon the thinking and methods you would usually adopt when investing your budget offline because although many so called SEO agencies and ‘consultants’ will fall over themselves to tell you so, there are no magic formulas when it comes to achieving long term, sustained success online.

In part 1 I provided an introduction to social search and explained why it has been introduced. In part 2, I explain what it means for your digital marketing efforts.

To put it in simple terms, social search cements the need for companies to reach out to their target audience by increasing their use of, and therefore visibility across, social networking platforms. By being better ‘connected’ to your prospects and customers through a social network you stand a better chance of appearing in a user’s social search results. Creating and maintaining a Twitter account, a Facebook page and a decent blog for your company is of paramount importance. If these platforms are being utilised correctly then there is already a good chance that you are part of your audience’s social circle and therefore, in time, could feature in their social search results.

Another way of making your brand more discoverable in social search results is to create a Google profile. We recommend you create a Google profile not only for yourself, but also for your company and encourage your employees to each create one which works in part to improve brand awareness for the business. By actively encouraging your employees to create profiles and adopt social media tools, such as Twitter, you are extending the reach of your brand. (As a side note, the use of such tools should be backed up with a robust set of guidelines and policies to ensure consistency in messaging, etc.)

Going back to your Google profile, once it is created you will need to do the following:

• Add links to content you want to share, such as your blog or YouTube channel
• Publish additional web content and make sure it’s all linked to your Google profile
• Add your connections

You can see our profile here. It’s a work in progress but you get the idea!

(It is worth noting that when you add new links to your profile it may take a couple of weeks for your social search results to take new contacts and content into account.)

There is speculation that social search results from our social circle will start to be given a boost in the ‘normal’ search results for certain queries. This assumption is based on the logic that brands we follow on Twitter or are fans of on Facebook will be more relevant to us than brands not deemed to be part of our social circle.

In the last couple of weeks, Google have introduced Buzz, a new way of sharing information, such as photos, with your network of contacts (as determined by your Gmail account). For an introduction to Buzz, take a look at this video. It’s early days for Buzz so the implications on search engine results are still not entirely clear. However, what is obvious is that because your Gmail contacts are the first people listed in your “social circle” Google is very likely to draw content from them to populate social search results. And another move by Google into the world of social media reinforces how search and social media are increasingly converging making a holistic search strategy integral to the success of your business.

So, in summary it is important that you are making attempts to increase your followers on Twitter, subscribers to your blog and fans on Facebook to be in with a chance of appearing in the social search results being displayed to your target audience. Even though this extra effort will involve more internal resource, those that manage it are likely to reap the rewards not just in terms of search engine rankings but also extended reach, website traffic and ultimately, sales.

Hopefully this introductory guide to social search has cleared up any confusion you may have had and also helps turn your thoughts towards actions you need to take in order to ensure your brand makes the most of it.

Next time I’ll be looking at real time search. Until then…