By Meg Archer, Account Manager

When planning for your next email marketing program, think beyond the catchy subject line and “Welcome” email, consider ways to encourage your lead to take the next step.

You have tested email subject lines and have an intriguing one-liner nailed down, what comes next? According to Ryan Deutsch, vice president of Strategic Services at StrongMail, it is time to start planning an educational lead nurturing email campaign—or a “Welcome Program.”

A typical email marketing campaign begins when a potential lead subscribes to further communication from a company. In response, the company typically sends a “welcome” email. Deutsch argues that a single “welcome” message doesn’t cut it—there needs to be more communication and education for the program to be effective.

Let’s say you join a running club. You don’t say hello to your new running buddies and then never say another word—you chat.  In doing so, you build a relationship based on your common interest in running by sharing tips and personal stories. Deutsch suggests that the same must occur when designing an email marketing program. A subscriber should be coached and integrated with the brand through multiple communications.

By Meg Archer, SEM Specialist

When a site links to you, what do you do? 90 gives advice on how to create a linking strategy that is beneficial to your SEO plan as a whole.

To implement a strong SEO strategy, businesses must create a relevant linking strategy.  To be most effective, sometimes businesses or agencies must use another site to syndicate content. As is often the case with third-party listings, this relationship can get tricky. But, if you follow some simple rules, your site will reap the benefits of well planned and executed SEO and linking strategies.

Most obviously, if your content is syndicated on a partner site, ensure it links to your original article. Simon Heseltine, director of SEO at AOL Inc. and writer for Search Engine Watch, supports this recommendation. “This tells the search engines the location of the original, after they determine its duplicate content.” If the syndicate includes a link back to your original content, not simply your homepage, this will build credibility for your site.

However, it is important not to have a link to the syndication on your site because this creates reciprocal linking. We strongly recommend against reciprocal linking because it often comes from link farms, is inorganic and can negatively impact your site ranking in search results.

By Meg Archer, SEM Specialist

Don’t Discount the Power of E-mail Campaigns in Your Marketing Strategy

In a marketer’s toolbox, e-mail is a powerful tool. Last year, some experts speculated that 2011 would be the year e-mail campaigns died. Boy, were they wrong. There have been a few changes in the way e-mail campaigns are created and executed, but e-mail marketing campaigns still provide strong, measurable results. Here at 90octane, for example, we continue to see success in the quality of the conversions created by our current e-mail programs.

According to ClickZ, email campaigns that are integrated with social and mobile media create a stronger message, thus allowing customers to participate in a conversation about your brand, via the media channel of their choice. Customers may reply to an e-mail via Facebook, LinkedIn, a corporate blog or Twitter. Today, the busy B2B subscriber expects e-mails to contain pertinent information that allows them to seek out and engage with your brand via other media channels. Embedding “share with your network” (SWYN) links to e-mails has become a best practice, and according to ClickZ, is a good first step. It is also important to develop a deeper relationship with your B2B customer by understanding the business goals that drive their needs, and incorporating them into e-mail messaging. This is a critical step, and one that could significantly impact your marketing program.

Posted by: Meg Archer, Marketing Coordinator

There is so much buzz around social media and how helpful and even necessary it is for companies to have a strong social presence. Here at 90octane we already understand the importance of social media and have created strategies and manage programs for some clients.

One important element of a strong social strategy is the ability to measure the impact social efforts have on ROI.  comScore, GroupM and M80 released a report showing the positive impact search and social media have on one another. The data indicates searchers are more likely to remember a brand if they have seen a combination of paid search ads and social media. There is a 19% lift in searches on branded terms among users who saw some form of social media and a paid search ad relating to the brand, compared to users who where only exposed to a search advertisement.  Furthermore the researchers found a 13% lift among users exposed to direct branded social media.

Another interesting finding is that users who search for product terms are three times more likely to have been exposed to social media combined with paid search, compared to paid search alone.

These findings show that social media and key performance numbers are friends, good friends.

(Source for Graphs:  eMarketer.com )

Posted by: Meg Archer, Marketing Coordinator

Internet users are spending more time on contextual sites. Actually 45% of a user’s time on the web is spent on contextual sites, according to eMarketer. What does that mean for us here at 90octane? It means that we create a strategy for our clients that incorporates contextual advertising with the right mix of techniques to generate the most conversions possible. Here are four key techniques to keep in mind to produce successful contextual campaigns.

1. The Right Mix – You can’t use the same keywords and ads that you use for a PPC campaign and think they will convert on the content network. Your aim should be to grow and leverage the level of interest the content your ads are appearing next to, and then shift the reader’s focus to buying.
2. Keyword Planning – It is critical to have a well thought out keyword strategy. There is a difference when planning your keywords for PPC and contextual campaigns. Remember to put keywords in your strategy that are related to your product. Long tail keywords won’t generate much traffic, so generic, broad terms gain more importance at cheaper prices.
3. Bidding Techniques – Because ad space in contextual sites is limited, bidding to reach the top slots is key.
4. Optimize – The content on sites is always changing, so make sure you are regularly optimizing to ensure that traffic, clicks and conversions remain high.

Contextual advertising and PPC are very different. You are reaching out to prospects through destinations where they spend a majority of their time, but they aren’t specifically looking for your ad. Keep asking yourself what will grab the attention of users and draw them away from the content on the site to click on your ads.