Author Archive: Derek Edmond

As SEO becomes more involved in the marketing initiatives of the organization, search marketing professionals work in greater coordination with additional team members and departments. Last week our SEO team met with an organization’s marketing communications team. The goal being defining opportunities for outreach and understanding how we could assist in an effort to acquire high quality links.

It is interesting how our teams use different metrics in evaluating opportunities, but still seek to provide similar outcomes. We all want our clients and organizations to receive quality traffic, provide visibility in appropriate markets, and drive measurable results (leads, visitors, etc). As the KoMarketing Associates’ team reflected on why we chose specific sites and publications for outreach, we discussed the following criteria leading to our recommendations for link acquisition.  ... Read the full post

Content marketing is argued to be the “heartbeat” of many companies’ marketing efforts, without original intriguing content it is difficult for successful efforts to be delivered by a brand. There are many content marketing related infographics available to aid the understanding of its importance for today’s marketer.

Not only can an infographic explain the value of content marketing, but also illustrate tactical recommendations associated to the B2B marketers’ strategy with content development initiatives.

The following is a small compilation of graphics including insight into testing and building successful content, as well as some startling statistics related to content marketing initiatives. Feel free to use the list below to jump to various infographics of interest and make sure to check out our original compilation of content marketing infographics as well.  ... Read the full post

• Understanding the Content Marketing Explosion
• The Anatomy of Content Marketing: The Heart of Online Success
• How Do Colors Affect Purchases?
• Slideshare: The Quiet Giant of Content Marketing
• The Complete Guide to Successful Landing Pages
• Website Testing: Move Beyond the Landing Page
• 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue
• The History of Content Marketing | Corporate Storytelling is Not New

Earlier this year, we began putting together a strategic recommendation for our clients on Google+ Pages for Business.  This new solution blends elements of popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter with social sharing sites like Flickr and YouTube, integrating search engine optimization and marketing into the Google network of sites.

While they were new and trendy, Google+ Pages had several flaws. Most of the immediate flaws have since been addressed, including the ability to add multiple page managers and verification with site and organization. However even though Google claims 90 million Google Plus users and a 60% engagement rate, these numbers feel suspect.

 ... Read the full post

How important is mobile marketing to your B2B strategy? According to MarketingSherpa’s 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark report, mobile marketing has yet to hit even close to the top of the priorities list for B2B marketers.

Even still, we are seeing significantly increased mobile device usage percentages year over year and period over period for the majority of our clients. Through two recent client presentations, users accessing their websites via mobile devices had increased 50% and 33% respectively between Q4 2011 and Q1 2012.

The significance of the growth in mobile device adoption fueled my interest in attending and covering mobile marketing sessions this year at Search Engine Strategies New York. Here are four key takeaways from those sessions.  ... Read the full post

I had a great time speaking during a theater presentation with Matt Van Wagner, Greg Jarboe, and Dan Shure, who deserves a special thank you for putting everything together this week at Search Engine Strategies New York, on behalf of SEMNE.

Here is a copy of my part of the presentation panel on Landing Page Optimization.  ... Read the full post

According to The 2012 State of Inbound Marketing released in February by HubSpot, social media has become an important source of generating leads over the past six months.  The report is based on responses from 972 professionals, including marketers, business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives, who are familiar with their companies’ marketing strategies.  Seventy-two percent of respondents came from business-to-business (B2B) companies across a range of industries: retail, technology, professional services, and communications and media.  ... Read the full post

At the end of March, Facebook will be launching their new design for fan pages. This launch includes both visual and functional changes to the page, which B2B marketers need to become familiar with in the near future.

Over the course of the next few months, we plan on putting blog posts together emphasizing various aspects of the new Facebook fan page design, page recommendations and perspective, and examples of effective B2B organizations leveraging these changes. Today we’re writing about, and providing examples of, the Facebook Fan Page cover image.  ... Read the full post

Google’s Authorship program allows publishers to connect their authored content with a corresponding Google profile. From a search engine results perspective, an image of the author will appear alongside applicable web information. The end goal would be additional visibility to the author, both through impressions in search engine results and (ideally) click thru rates to applicable content.

B2B marketers should consider leveraging this opportunity, for applicable individuals of the organization, since thought leadership, public relations “buzz”, and marketing to a growing number of people involved in the buying process are B2B marketing goals.  ... Read the full post

Should B2B marketers be focused on a mobile marketing initiative? We don’t get that question as much as we should. I suspect part of that reason is the ever growing list of marketing responsibilities are clients have on their plate, satisfying short and long-term marketing goals. There is just not enough time in the day to map out this strategy.

That said, it is important to realize that internet marketing, search engine marketing, and social media marketing, are moving rapidly to browsers and applications on the mobile device. Last month I illustrated how mobile device usage was increasing in our clients’ web traffic reports. This trend is also happening across the third party platforms that drive traffic and leads to the organization.  ... Read the full post