ElementsDaily

Content, content and content.

As a business owner with a website I’m sure you’ve heard this chant a thousand times …

Content tells your audience about you, your company or organization. This mish-mash of text, graphics, photos and imagery is all “content,” in this post we’ll focus on text, the main type of content search engines find on your website.

Okay, enough with the small print, let’s break it down …

Relevant Content and Linking to Relevant Websites

Successful online marketing always begins with content that is highly relevant to your business or organization. Relevancy is one of the more important factors when writing your content. The textual content on your website should be focused around the topics that specifically describe your industry, your business, your local community and yourself. This content should be written to communicate to your human target audience, not for the benefit of search engines .

If written correctly, relevant content will contain a high density of keyword terms that your target audience can type into Google to bring up your web site in their search results. These keyword terms are very important to understand so you can make sure that your content is written to maximize relevancy.

Linking to other relevant website content is another way to help your target audience find relevant information. These links also help establish your website as a knowledge leader in providing relevant information and sources concerning your industry, your business, your local community and yourself.

The content you write and link to should ALWAYS be done in the best interest of your human audience. If you create this strong foundation of great relevant content your human and search engine audiences will both like your website.

Updating and Adding Content

Adding new content pages provide your users with up-to-date information about your products and services, your local community and your industry. None of these are static, so the information you provide on your website should not be static either. For example: every new customer changes your business just a little bit … the more of these customer testimonials you have, the better perception your audience will have of your products and services. Incorporating new content such as new testimonials will help Google will see more relevant content as well. For more one how search engines rank webpages …

Local Content

The reach of the Internet is huge … When you write content for your website, focus on the geographic location of your target audience. Your audience and search engines will have a much easier time finding your website if you provide City, County or State/Province information interlaced in your content. For example: case studies should talk about specific locations where services were rendered or products were successful. Content about local community activity with links to local community websites also enhances your ability to build trust for your business in the local community.

Quality Content

One thing is also certain, quality writing counts! The following are basic best practices for writing quality website content.

• Spelling and grammar: Few or no errors. No page had more than three misspelled words or four grammatical errors. Note: spelling and grammar errors were identified by using Microsoft Word’s check feature, and then ruling out words marked as mis-spellings that are either proper names or new words that are simply not in the dictionary. Does Google use SpellCheck? Keep in mind that no one really does know what the 100 factors in Google’s algorithm are. But whether the mechanism is SpellCheck or a better shot at link popularity thanks to great credibility, or something else entirely, the results remain the same.
• Paragraphs: Primarily brief (1-4 sentences). Few or no long blocks of text.
• Lists: Both bulleted and numbered form a large part of the text.
• Sentence length: Mostly brief (10 words or fewer). Medium-length and long sentences are sprinkled throughout the text rather than clumped together.
• Contextual relevance: Text contains numerous terms related to the keyword, as well as stem variations of the keyword. (thank you to webcredible)

Keep these concepts in mind when crafting your website content. Know your audience, make your content keyword dense, include local content and add to your site consistently. Keep your content focused and relevant will put you ahead of the competition…your site search engine results will benefit and your business will as well.

I can’t recall how many times I’ve sat in a discovery meeting with a client and it became clear that a design direction was very unclear. During those meetings, the client expressed they either didn’t have an existing website or their website wasn’t working for them for some reason or another. Yet there wasn’t an obvious “next step” solution (or even “first step”) in their mind — only that the client wanted to take a step toward a new site or an improved site. It is critical that an interactive agency provides that clarification and guides the client skillfully through this discovery process. Enter the Creative Brief.

The Creative Brief is a document addendum to the Project Brief (the other invaluable document outlining the entire scope of the new project) that clearly defines all design aspects of the project. Without it, a project can quickly become a mish-mash of random notes, lost communication and a game of they said/we said. None of this bodes well for a successful outcome!

I’ve recently revisited our own Discovery and Creative Brief protocols and revised them. I felt that even more details could be added and fleshed out in the discovery process. The more information we have from our clients at the beginning of the project, the better. But it’s not always obvious what questions to ask. A few topics we discuss with client that eventually make it into the Creative Brief include:

• ~ When someone visits your new website for the first time, what do you want their immediate reaction to be? What are words to describe that?
• ~ How would you characterize the personality and style of your new website?
• ~ What main colors would you use? What complementary colors?
• ~ What existing marketing materials do you have? Should the website emulate them?
• ~ What do your competitors websites look like? Do you like them? Why? or Why not?
• ~ What would your calls-to-action be? What is your primary message? What do you want your users to do?
• ~ What type of imagery will you be using? Photography, illustrations, etc? What flavor of imagery — people shots, kids; lifestyle, commercial; edgy styling, B/W, white space; certain ethnicities, professions, actions?
• ~ What type of navigation scheme do you want? Vertical, horizontal, graphic, text-based? Is there a sub-navigation?

When you get down to it, the website look and feel is much more than “I like this” or “I want it to look cool.” What’s cool needs a definition and needs to work in the scope of existing or new marketing goals, ease of use and navigation, industry best practices and a host of other considerations. A successful website project needs to be a well-defined and understood undertaking.

We recently surveyed 100+ franchise companies about local marketing and how they supported their local franchisees with local online marketing programs.

Online Local Marketing Survey Results

01. What’s your greatest challenge in generating local leads for your Franchisees?
(Please rank, 1-4, 1 being most important.)

• ~ 1.3 (average rank) Franchisees have limited time and budget to produce local marketing campaigns
• ~ 1.9 (average rank) Local franchisees have little expertise to effectively implement marketing campaigns.
• ~ 2.9 (average rank) Local marketing solutions rely on the franchisee to implement with little time & few resources.
• ~ 3.9 (average rank) Independent competitors are dominating the local lead generation sources.

02. How do you control your brand at the local Franchisee level?

• ~ 87.5% of surveyed franchisors have implemented a strict process with brand standards and approvals required for any locally generated marketing materials.
• ~ 62.5% of surveyed franchisors said that branding is controlled tightly at the national level with no ability for the Franchisees to customize any aspect of marketing for their local level.
• ~ 37.5% of surveyed franchisors allow franchisees to use approved brand assets, campaign programs and online tools to create customized, online local marketing campaigns.
• ~ 12.5% of surveyed franchisors have not implemented brand standards; franchisees target their own local markets.

03. How would your Franchisees rate their local online presence: 4.88 (average rating between 1 & 10)

• ~ 50% of surveyed franchisors responded that their franchisees were not represented online. (1-4)
• ~ 37.5% of surveyed franchisors responded that their franchisees had some representation online. (5-7)
• ~ 12.5% of surveyed franchisors responded that their franchisees were well-represented online. (8-10)

04. How are your Franchisees represented online now:

• ~ 98.6% of surveyed franchisors give each franchisee a page on the corporate website for local clients to find.
• ~ 28.6% of surveyed franchisors give each franchisees a 2- to 5-page micro-site that we list in the ”sponsored links” section of the search engines and the Franchisees pay for each lead that comes from their micro-site.
• ~ 42.9% of surveyed franchisors said Franchisees have their own website(s), domain(s) and email marketing which complies to brand guidelines, so Google ranks them very high in their local communities.
• ~ 14.3% of surveyed franchisors responded “none of the above.”

Based on these results, franchise companies are not taking full advantage of their national market segment and corporate branding by messaging in their local communities with targeted local online marketing strategies.

ELEMENTS Launches The Continental Group on ElementsConnect™ for website management.

San Luis Obispo, CA – August, 21 2008. Elements, an interactive agency, today announced that they have launched The Continental Group website on ElementsConnect. ElementsConnect is an online marketing and website management platform .

“The primary objective of the new website was enhancement of brand messaging, interactivity and design.  ELEMENTS provides real value through a combination of beautiful designs, great customer service and innovative technology solutions,” said Chip Sollins, Executive Vice President Marketing and Business Development at The Continental Group.  “We use their ElementsConnect software system to manage our website and have been very pleased with the ease of use and the functionality offered by the system.”

“The Continental Group is recognized as the leader in Community Association Management, we are excited to partner with Continental in providing online marketing and website management services,” said Michael Boyer, Vice President and CMO of ELEMENTS.

About ELEMENTS – www.elementsinc.net

ELEMENTS is an interactive marketing agency, we design and develop online business products and corporate web sites.  Our online business products provide industry-specific platforms, which enable our clients to harness the power of the internet to streamline their business. Our world-class interactive services provide marketing solutions for mid-market companies. From conception and strategy to design and implementation, we combine world-class creative services and proven technological expertise with forward-thinking business strategies. We deliver successful and elegant solutions for deployment of enterprise web initiatives.

About The Continental Group – www.thecontinentalgroupinc.com

Founded in 1990, The Continental Group’s corporate headquarters is located in Hollywood, Fla.  It also has regional offices in Kendall, West Palm Beach and Orlando.  The company is the largest manager of multifamily rental communities and condominium and homeowner associations in the state, and one of South Florida’s leading private sector employers.  Guided by its Florida focus, the company has grown to approximately $300 million in annual business with 6,200 full-time employees.  Today, The Continental Group manages and maintains more than 1,300 condominium and homeowner associations in Florida, representing over 310,000 residential units.

Editorial Contact
Michael Boyer
(805) 547-1160 x208
mboyer@elementsinc.net

Companies choose ELEMENTS as their Interactive marketing agency.

San Luis Obispo, CA – August 15, 2008. Elements, an interactive marketing agency, announced that business is booming with new clients and relationships. Frontier Technologies, Advantage Answering Plus, Cambria Community Services District, Fairfield County Community Foundation, KCBX, Underground Energy, Western Pacific Land Group, B&T Service Station Contractors, Wave Pilot, YSCAL and The Continental Group have all selected ELEMENTS as their partner in the production and management of their interactive marketing initiatives.

“Many regional and national companies are beginning to realize that diverse industry experience is a requirement when driving successful online marketing initiatives. The expertise we share and develop across the different industries of our clients provides continual self-improvement and fresh ideas for all of our clients,” commented Jeremy LaDuque, CEO of ELEMENTS.

One of our core values: “An unfolding interactive ecology”

Our world of innovation is by its nature a dynamic organism. It moves and churns towards an ever-evolving future, exploring, uncovering and discovering both itself and its own identity. At the same time everything in this interactive world is connected to something else. As we are a sustainable and relevant organism we are also a healthy and conscious organization. We move ourselves along an unfolding path leading our industry in the comprehension and use of a new ever-changing ecology. Our core belief is based on the values of the trust placed in our navigation of this shifting landscape, and it is our vision and connectivity to its movement that will yield our meaningful relevance, and our greatest result. When our world thinks of us, they feel our stewardship of this new ecology. Every journey is personal and every journey with our company is a personal expression of that faith in us — to guide that journey well, and to make it interactive, rewarding and sustainable. In this way our company is a living organism; its own ecosystem composed of its people, its philosophy and its actions. In sum, it is our brand.

About ELEMENTS – www.elementsinc.net

ELEMENTS is an interactive marketing agency, we design and develop online business applications and corporate web sites. Our online business applications provide industry specific platforms which enable companies to harness the power of the internet to streamline their business. Our world-class interactive services provide marketing solutions for mid-market and franchise companies. From conception and strategy to design and implementation we combine masterful creative services and proven technology expertise with forward-thinking business strategies to deliver a successful solution for deployment of enterprise web initiatives.