Written on July 21, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: book, marketing, searchengineguide, seo
by Miriam Ellis
I couldn’t help him. After 45 seconds of conversation with a local business owner who phoned me out of the blue, his voice literally quivering with rage, I knew my words could bring scant balm to his personal inferno of a Gilead in which the negative review had been left and the whole world, he was sure, was laughing at him.
I never know what squirrely local search scenario I will find myself embroiled in when I pick up the receiver these days. This unfortunate gentleman had apparently come across a popular article I wrote last year that summarized business owners’ capabilities to edit, remove or respond to user reviews in the diverse top review entities. He wasn’t looking to hire me, he just wanted some advice and I’m usually game for that, though I like it better when it seems like the caller will actually take my advice after taking some of my time. My hopes were not strong for this when I hung up the phone.
The basic scenario was that the business owner had received a bad review on Google, was sure he knew who had left it, was convinced it was left out of personal vindictiveness and wanted the review demolished and the reviewer punished. A tall order. I gave him the best advice I could:
I have never been one to scorn emotions. In this case, the business owner was so upset, he sounded like he was barely able to keep from yelling - at me, a total stranger who had nothing to do with his situation. I began by sympathizing with him, sincerely. Criticism is hard to take, whether deserved or not, and perceived injustice is one of the bitterest pills of all to swallow.
I then brought up his Google Place Page and saw that he had very few reviews - less than ten, 80% of which were glowingly positive. I read the text of the offending review. I read it aloud to him in a dispassionate voice and he confirmed that this was the bad review and proceeded to launch into further angry details about how he knew who this person was and how this person was out to destroy his business. Strong words. It became evident that the negative reviewer was someone with whom the business owner had some type of personal problem - I didn’t ask what it was. I felt I needed to make an effort to bring this situation into perspective for this business owner who had so blown things out of proportion, that he literally felt his whole business future was threatened by this one negative review. This is what I told him:
1. My perusal of the review revealed what I consider typical of negative reviews - a disgruntled customer complaining. Nothing out of the ordinary. One person, in the midst of other satisfied people, claiming not to have received the services he paid for. To anyone not initiated into the dark details of whatever personal conflict was going on, this review was no worse than someone saying the food at a restaurant was blah, and certainly less bad than claims of food poisoning which are sitting on the local business profiles of thousands and thousands of eateries while doors remain open for business. And, nothing to compare to the absolutely nutty reputation management problem that Beth Haven Baptist Church may have to cope with, as was recently pointed out to me by my friend, Mike Blumenthal.
I made an effort to point out to the business owner that this review, which seemed to him to spell out doom, looked like just about every other negative review I’d ever read and that, in the mix of many positive reviews, it would seem like one crabby soul in a sea of contentment. He was genuinely surprised to hear this outsider’s viewpoint, I think, and I hope he was listening as I recommended that his company implement a staff-wide program for gathering positive reviews from happy customers to push down the bad review as time went by. I recommended he branch out and start getting reviews from other review sources, and that he meet this negative action with a deluge of positive effort.
2. The business owner’s hope was that the review could be deleted, but I had to point back to the article he’d read and remind him that, sadly, Google is infamous for their lack of accessibility. There is no one to phone, no one to email, nowhere to run to, nowhere to hide…Bottom line, you can’t get Google to remove a review because you can’t speak to anyone there.
Other review entities have taken a much more friendly stance on giving business owners, whose data they have, after all, co-opted, control over whether various reviews appear on their profiles. Google has made commendable recent strides towards enabling users to report problems to them via the Report A Problem link in Maps, but this link does not seem to be intended to cover review disputes, and so far, the only link I know of that you can click regarding this issue is the ‘flag as inappropriate’ link. To date, I’ve never heard a single case of that causing a bad review to disappear. If you have, please tell me about it! I told the business owner that I wouldn’t hold my breath about the flag link doing anything, but that it wouldn’t hurt to try.
The most proactive advice I could give him, in the absence of a way to have the review removed, was to claim his business listing (he hadn’t done so and had never even heard of doing so) and to refer back to point 1; start actively seeking positive reviews.
3. So, at this point in the conversation, I had given the business owner the best advice I could: try to see the review as one unhappy blip on the radar that can be counteracted with other happy blips, and claim your listing so that you can begin to gain at least some control of your business data. Overall, I was advocating a positive mindset and actions that could be undertaken to positive effect. But this just wasn’t enough for this agitated business owner. I think what he really wanted was revenge for the humiliation he felt he was suffering as a result of his adversary’s actions. Frankly, I just can’t go there, but for the sake of example, let’s play that scenario out in two different ways.
“You’re a busy small business owner,” I pointed out. “You don’t really want to spend money and hours in court do you?”
“Yes! I don’t care. I’ll spend money. I’ll sit in court. I want to stop this person. He’s out to wreck my business,” he asserted, vehemently.
Well, it’s his dime and his time, but I can’t think of any worse outcome of a negative review than that the business owner would end up blowing money on a lawyer and spending hours sitting in a chilly, uncomfortable court room (if it came to that). What an inconvenience! And for what gain?
Let’s say he hires some lawyer to send some type of cease and desist letter, demanding that the offender remove his review. Well, Social Media and Internet Reputation Management have both been around long enough now for anyone who is paying the slightest attention to have noticed just how huge the reaction can be when a company decides to try to silence an unhappy customer and that unhappy customer happens to have a blog or an account on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. The company never, NEVER comes out looking good and more attention has been drawn to the negative situation than could ever have happened around the initial scenario of this single, bad review. Not a winning move, and I tried to tell the business owner this.
Let’s look at the second imaginable scenario. The offending reviewer is frightened off by the letter printed on scary legal stationery and the owner pays the lawyer’s fat fee. The reviewer removes his review, crawls away into a dark hole and is never heard from again. Hooray!!! But wait…what about that next guy? That next reviewer who got sand in his salad, a double charge on his credit card or a lousy auto repair job? When he leaves his bad review, do we start all over again, marching furiously back to our attorney’s office? Get out that scary letterhead again, we bark, rubbing our palms together in furor. Who cares if I can’t be on the job today, winning new clients, making money, running my business? At least I’ll get that guy!
To my mind, no one but the lawyer will stand to benefit from this merry-go-round of litigation over something as utterly common as an unhappy customer standing on his 50 pixel soap box, complaining of dissatisfaction.
“Reviews aren’t going away,” I advised the caller. “You have to learn to understand the game and play it with aplomb.”
In a rather combative tone, he told me that that this whole thing would go away if it ever happened to some famous politician or business. I felt it my duty to inform him that, in fact, some goofy friends of mine had actually experimented with hijacking the business profiles of Google, Microsoft and other quite large companies, and that while this had pointed out some of the weak spots in the system, the system had not gone away.
Reviews are not going to go away any time soon, and unlike my little red ball in the photo accompanying this article, you shouldn’t bury your head in the sand about this. If point of fact, it has been posited that a profile of all-positive reviews can look fake while a few bad ones add the leavening of reality and trustworthiness customers find believable. What I’m saying here is certainly not news, but it was news to this business owner who is representative of that very large segment of the business world which has still yet to hear about the basic functions of Local Search. No shame in this. My firm still gets calls from people who aren’t sure exactly what a website is, even now in 2010, so it’s small surprise that busy SMBs have yet to encounter so under-promoted an area of marketing as Local SEO.
But to ignore this extremely significant part of running a modern business would be foolish, indeed, once you know it exists, and the gut reaction of hiding from tough situations is not one you can sustain if you hope to succeed.
As I ended my call with the business owner who would not be mollified by my proactive, positively-slanted advice, he was still talking about getting that lawyer and making that guy pay. He was trying to ask me for legal advice and I had to tell him, politely, that I’m not in the business of making people pay…I’m in the business of making business pay off for my clients. And you don’t achieve that if you’re wasting time tilting at windmills. As embarrassing, hurtful or enraging as it can be to feel you’ve been unjustly accused, success is the best revenge.
———————-
Photo Credit: Amy McTigue
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The Local Business Owner Who Would Not Be Mollified
Tags: adversary ,attorney ,facebook ,google ,local ,local-search ,management ,microsoft ,outsider ,person ,time
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Written on February 11, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: Advertising, book, marketing, seo
Take a moment to think about, and count, the number of B2C social media success stories that pop into your head.
I’ll venture to guess that you could immediately name five to 10, if not many more. From Ford to Dell to Zappos to Best Buy, B2C social media winners – those organizations that caught on early and created a cult following of brand cheerleaders via the social web – are hard to miss.
But how about the B2B social media winners? I’m guessing these weren’t as easy to name.
And yet, there are just as many B2B organizations successfully conquering social media. While their stories might not be as well-known, we think these 5 B2B social media winners are doing a pretty doggone good job. Tell us if you agree.
1. American Express OPEN
American Express OPEN is the company’s division dedicated to helping small business owners succeed. It has based its marketing strategy around the social web, realizing that social media has become a priority for small business owners.
Since 2007, AMEX OPEN has relied on its OPEN Forum to provide business advice and insight. The social site includes a blog with frequently updated content, and a large collection of videos that users can rate and share via other social networking channels. In the site’s “Idea Hub,” forum members can network with one another and with industry experts, as well as customize topics to their specific interests.
The social site has been extremely successful, increasing unique visitors 525% over the past year – from 160,000 in December 2008 to nearly 1 million in December 2009.
2. HSBC
To target business entrepreneurs and provide them with an active forum to share and gain knowledge, HSBC has created The HSBC Business Network for both customers and non-customers.
It’s evident that the HSBC Business Network truly thrives on its members.
The site includes a network of blogs, and invites members to create their own blog to share their personal experiences with other entrepreneurs. Currently, the network is made up of 148 blogs from members.
The site’s homepage is populated with content from users: the most popular recent blog post, forum post and user profile.
3. Microsoft Advertising
Microsoft Advertising has been using social media as a vehicle to listen to, educate, support and market to their customers and potential customers since 2006. However, the past year has seen a distinct effort from Microsoft to reach customers through social web participation.
An AdCenter Community site as well as blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook presence, videos, photos and social media coverage of industry events along with proactive listening and community manager participation have been instrumental for growing the AdCenter community and providing customers with an opportunity to be involved with how Microsoft does business with them.
4. Archer
The social media strategy for Archer Technologies, provider of risk and compliance solutions, and a 2009 Forrester Groundswell Award winner for B2B social media, revolves around two components.
First, the Archer Community is an online social network that gives customers a forum to interact, share best practices and provide feedback to help drive Archer product development. The second component is the Archer Exchange (pictured above), an online marketplace that enables clients to download applications developed by other clients or by Archer.
The two social sites have been successful at driving website traffic and attracting new members: The Archer Community receives 20 new members, 4,000 unique visits and 400+ downloads every week, while the Archer Exchange boasts 17,000 unique visits, 90,000 page views and 1,200 downloads.
But the real benefit has been enhanced product development as a result of user feedback and sharing. Archer tells Forrester that its Archer Community directly helped form its Business Continuity Management, Mobile GRC and Data Feed Manager applications.
5. Cree
LED Manufacturer Cree is embracing social media to build awareness and promote the benefits of LED technology, rather than directly sell products.
At the center of its latest campaign, “LED Revolution,” is an interactive social website. On the site, visitors can submit their bad lighting photos (think bad 1980s office fluorescent lighting) to win LED recessed downlights. The site’s blog is posted to almost daily, and humorous videos encourage visitors to, “Break Your Fluorescent Shackles!”
Cree also leverages Facebook and Twitter in a push/pull approach for the website.
Hear from Ginny Skalski, Cree social media specialist — who happens to have a background in journalism and community management rather than marketing – in this video on the Social Media B2B blog.
Of course, these five B2B social media winners are only part of a much longer list of companies that are successfully interacting with customers, building brand awareness and driving traffic to their websites through the social web. What are your favorite B2B social media success stories?
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Tags: a-priority-for ,archer ,b2b ,exchange ,google ,management ,marketing ,media ,microsoft ,mobile ,seo ,social ,social media
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Written on February 2, 2010 by admin
Filed Under: marketing, searchengineguide
by Mike Moran
When I see the same issue coming up for so many clients, it makes me think that something more is at work. My latest issue that seems to crop up with nearly every client is tracking offline sales back to Web activity. I mean, I know it isn’t easy, but it’s amazing how rarely I run into a client who feels able to take on the task, much less has a system in place already.
It’s not that they’ve lost interest in ringing the cash register. No, if anything, they are under more pressure than ever in that regard. I think somehow that tracking customer activity is so alien to them that they don’t feel up to it.
Not all companies are like this. If they already have a direct marketing department, and have been tracking catalog sales for years, they know exactly what I am talking about. But most companies don’t have such a background. They know how to count the money in the register, but they don’t know how to attribute the marketing credit for what put it there.
They are willing to track things, yes, but only Web things. They’ll happily report the number of search referrals, popular keywords, page views, sure, but they can’t make the leap from what happens online to what happens offline.
In Las Vegas, they say “what happens here, stays here,” but Las Vegas ain’t got nothin’ on the Web. For most companies, what happens on the Web stays there. Then, a miracle occurs and someone buys something offline.
Now, it depends on your business what you need to do about this. Consumer product companies might need to use coupons for retails stores. Other companies might need to use a phone number they publish only on their Web site. Still another company might want a request for quote button that enters the lead into their Customer Relationship Management System.
I don’t know what you should do, but do something. Until you do, no one will know what the Web is worth and that means you are under-investing.
Check out our small business news site.
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Are You Undervaluing Your Web Site?
Tags: check-out-our ,companies-might ,conversions ,depends-on-your ,direct-marketing ,flickr ,management ,marketing ,marketing and advertising ,money ,most-companies ,post ,searchengineguide ,what-happens
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Written on December 11, 2009 by admin
Filed Under: book, marketing, seo
For many companies, an ideal world involving Search Engine Optimization would be simple, quick and a one-time task to check off a list. An organization would create a website, optimize its content for target keywords and promote the site. Soon, the website would acquire a strong number of inbound links and start ranking for those target keywords. End of story.
Unfortunately, that’s just not the case. In reality, SEO isn’t just about adding keywords and linking. SEO is increasingly social and sits at the intersection of multiple business functions outside of marketing including public relations, customer service, recuitment and branding.
Ongoing SEO consulting is an important part of any internet marketing mix. Truly good consultants save companies significant expenses and contribute to increased leads and sales by providing unique expertise and insight into the technical, creative and increasingly social sides of internet marketing.
Back in 2007, Lee pinpointed 5 Advantages of Ongoing SEO Consulting. As we near the start of 2010, I think it’s the perfect time to revisit those points to see if they hold just as much weight today as they did 3 years ago:
1. Ongoing search marketing consulting is important because a large percentage of organizations fail to implement the recommendations provided to them by their SEO consultants.
There are many reasons companies do not implement the advice they’re paying for. In difficult economic times, some companies aren’t able to justify the expense of making major changes to their content management systems or devote significant resources to content creation. Many web development or copy writing staff are overbooked and SEO implementation requests never make it to the “done” checklist. The best optimization recommendations in the world can be given, but if they aren’t implemented properly or at all, then they’re useless.
An experienced search marketing consultant can lend a hand in implementing recommendations at once, in phases over time or provide quality control oversight of client side implementation on an ongoing basis. Ongoing SEO helps companies avoid costly mistakes in situation such as when SEO work is overwritten or implemented in a way that actually hurts search engine spider interaction rather than facilitate it.
For one B2B e-commerce site that TopRank has worked with for several years, SEO oversight over time has been instrumental at achieving compounded search traffic. Because the company’s web site encompasses a vast number of product pages – and because product focuses change over time – ongoing attention to keyword glossaries, on page optimization, anchor text and link sources has been vital.
In order to maintain search momentum and integrity to target keywords and audiences, the SEO team revisits optimized content to ensure keywords are still relevant and that pages retain their ability to pull search traffic. Since 2007, top 10 search engine rankings for this site have increased by more than 150%. While the value of “rankings” can be argued with Google’s new personalized search for everyone, ongoing measurements using consistent means can provide a relative measure over time. The end result has been a significant increase in relevant search traffic over time, despite changes in keywords and target audiences.
2. Search marketing consultants can help organizations proactively build links over time.
Link building continues to be one of the most common victims of a neglected search marketing program. Yet ongoing link building is still one of the most critical factors in determining page relevancy, crawling and rankings.
From content marketing on social networks to optimized press releases to link bait, search marketing consultants can help organizations acquire links that drive traffic directly and influence better search visibility, which also drives traffic. SEO Consultants can even assist in more passive link building efforts such as directory submissions, bookmarking, widgets and operationalizing the link opportunities that exist with other types of online content such as job listings, events and public relations efforts.
For one retail SEO client, TopRank has provided ongoing search marketing consulting – ongoing link building, in particular – that has resulted in over 80% of all web site traffic coming from natural search. On any given month, the site receives anywhere from a handful to several hundreds of new inbound links from relevant sources. Since an ongoing effort to acquire links was started, the website and blog have increased unique visitors by 214%.
3. Ongoing search marketing consulting is necessary because the search engine industry changes often.
This point may be more relevant today than ever before. The major search engines are constantly fine-tuning and the search engine landscape continues to change. Bing didn’t exist 3 years ago and who could have imagined that Yahoo and Microsoft would actually be working together let alone Google achieving 70% market share?
As an example, in just a little more than a year, Google has completely revamped the way it crawls and indexes Adobe Flash files. Before summer 2008, it was virtually impossible for a Flash-based website to gain search engine rankings. Today, many of the rules for optimizing on-page text can apply to text in Flash files.
More importantly are the impact of personalized search for everyone, the influence of social media and real-time search. The implications for SEO with these recent developments are profound and consultants that are on top of such changes provide invaluable advice to their clients, saving time, money and increasing competitive advantage.
Keeping up with the changes can put a strain on companies’ IT and marketing departments. In a win-win scenario for the client, search marketing consultants stay on top of these constant changes and consult on the implications for individual client online marketing efforts. Not only will the client’s site continue to reap the benefits of SEO, but as Lee noted in his post, he or she can “look like a rock star to their management team.”
4. Companies have thinly spread employees; ongoing search marketing consulting acts as “more hands on deck”.
Now, more than ever before, employees are wearing multiple hats within their organizations. A company’s web development staff, copywriters or other marketing personnel might be tasked with SEO in addition to all of their other responsibilities. Compounding the issue, the person responsible for ongoing SEO might not even have previous experience in search marketing.
Having a search marketing consultant on board gives the people tasked with SEO with useful resource so they can focus more attention on core responsibilities.
For example, TopRank acts as a partner with a B2B distributor of industrial products for all of their online marketing activities, including content optimization, blogging and PPC management. With a capable internet marketing team as a resource, the client is able to focus its in-house employees on making sales. As a result of their top 10 rankings on important keyword phrases increasing by 125% since the beginning of the year, search traffic has also improved significantly. More qualified traffic = more qualified prospects for this B2B company.
5. Many companies don’t actively or effectively use analytics on their own.
From measuring SEO performance to mining new keyword opportunities, Analytics are as important as ever. This is especially true as organizations are increasingly demanding proof that their marketing budgets are being put to good use. Marketers must definitively prove marketing ROI and tie efforts back to corporate goals. Concerns about effectively measuring web site ROI have given way to questions about measuring social media ROI.
Qualified SEO consultants have the necessary experience in monitoring keyword traffic, referral trends, time spent on sites, visitor interaction, social media conversations and other vital metrics to enable companies to make smarter decisions about what’s working and what’s not. The increasingly social and real-time nature of search brings new opportunities for on-demand SEO tactics that would be lost without proper analytics oversight.
Web analytics are certainly more present in most company online marketing programs with the introduction and acceptance of Google Analytics, but even there, constant innovation on the part of Google creates competitive advantages for those companies that stay current. SEO consultants providing ongoing web and social media analytics insight can reveal long term trends, cyclicality and the effect of the many changes mentioned above to an organization’s ability to attract new business and manage it’s reputation online.
Conclusion:
Organizations that invest in ongoing search marketing consulting are putting themselves a giant step ahead of the competition by allowing the company to focus on its core skills and relying on the SEO agency either completely, strategically or to fill in where needed. Do what you do best and outsource the rest.
Companies that hire and manage in-house SEO teams continue to leverage the expertise and strategic advice of competent SEO agencies to provide insight that proves highly valuable in staying competitive, reducing online marketing costs and increasing bottom line sales.
What are your thoughts on the value provided from ongoing SEO consulting? Do you think SEO can be handled in-house all the time, some of the time or never? If you’re a company considering SEO, what are some of your major concerns with outsourcing on an ongoing basis?
Tags: facebook ,flash ,google ,management ,marketing ,online ,people ,person ,post ,recommendations ,search-engine ,seo ,seo tips ,site ,thoughts
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Written on October 14, 2009 by admin
Filed Under: book, seo
Posted by Sam Niccolls
To identify the most linked to pages on some of the world’s most popular sites, we used SEOmoz’s Linkscape powered Top Pages Tool and compiled a list of the most linked to pages on the web.
The results, broken out by website and by category, are not all what you might expect. From Google to GaGa the internet’s most linked to pages offer a look at your favorite domains that will leave you both scratching your head and laughing.
Tags: barack-obama ,book ,celebrities ,development ,internet ,lindsay-lohan ,management ,movie ,obama- ,post ,recipes ,search-engine ,seo
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Written on October 12, 2009 by admin
Filed Under: Advertising, Object, book, marketing, seo
“A person will work for a living, but they’ll die for recognition.” I’m not sure who I heard that from first, but it’s just as true for agencies and companies as it is for individuals. One common way to recognize excellence is through awards. There are awards for just about every industry from software to design to public relations. What about search marketing?
Awards are like lists. They’re valuable in part, because they include, but mostly exclude. The motivation for organizations to run award programs varies greatly from being a source of revenue from entry and sponsorship fees to seeking to advance the industry by recognizing it’s finest to something in between. Many SEM awards focus on paid search and attract large agencies in that space. Others offer a variety of categories.
Here are 10 awards opportunities for in-house and agency professionals in the Search Engine Marketing industry.
DMA International ECHO Awards > Search Marketing Category
The Search Marketing Award recognizes the most creative and strategic use of Internet search technology to achieve a direct marketing objective. Includes Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
- Entry fee: $225 to $350 depending on date of entry
- Note: (Disclosure: TopRank has been a judge for several years)
- Next call for entries: Approximately April 2010
OMMA Awards > Online Advertising Creativity Category > Search Marketing
OMMA Awards recognize the year’s best ads, promotions, campaigns and websites in online media, marketing and advertising with 28 award categories for Online Advertising Creativity, one of which is Search Marketing.
- Entry fee: $195 per single ad/execution entry and $325 per campaign or website entry
- Note: Award site is in Flash, no dedicated page for SEM you can point to.
- Next call for entries: Approximately August 2010
IAB MIXX Awards > Search Marketing Category
As part of Advertising Week, the MIXX Awards stats that it is the only international interactive awards competition judged by an all-star panel representing the entire interactive advertising ecosystem—brand marketers with direct control over many of the largest advertising budgets in the country, major media company executives and advertising agency experts who create campaigns for the world’s most powerful brands.
- Entry fee: $295 per campaign and includes entry into one category; the entry fee is $150 for each additional category.
- Note: There are two phases, screening and finals.
- Next call for entries: Approximately July 2010
ad:tech Awards > Search Marketing Category
For more than a decade, the ad:tech awards program has recognized talented visual and technology designers who demonstrate excellence in interactive marketing with submissions in the following categories: Interactive Ads, Interactive Campaigns, Optimization/Search Strategy and Web Sites.
- Entry fee: $255.00/category for each ad or campaign
- Note: Award site is in Flash, no dedicated page for SEM you can point to.
- Next call for entries: Approximately January 2010
PROMO Interactive Marketing Awards > Search Marketing Category
The program honors the best and brightest in effective interactive marketing—and recognizes the valuable role that interactive tactics play in motivating consumer response and creating strong, exciting brands.
- Entry fee: $200 per entry
- Note: For this magazine sponsored award program, you have to register to see the winners & register again to see the webinar announcing the winners.
- Next call for entries: January 1, 2010
Econsultancy Innovation Awards > PPC & SEO Categories
New in 2009, the Innovation Awards are a natural progression from our commitment to recognizing innovation in the industry, as demonstrated by our regularly updated Innovation Report and a chance to receive acclaim as an innovator, be recognized by your industry peers and stand out from the crowd.
- Entry fee: $195
- Note: While this is a new Awards program, Econsultancy has a community of 80,000 members worldwide.
- Next call for entries: Deadline 23 October 2009
Search Engine Watch Awards > Various Search Marketing Categories
The mission of the SEW Awards is to recognize excellence, as well as inspire innovation and encourage new ideas in search marketing. The SEW Awards honors 14 outstanding search marketers, search engines and technology providers.
- Entry fee: $145 per entry
- Note: (Disclosure: TopRank was a judge this year)
- Next call for entries: Approximately July 2010
Yahoo! Searchlight Award > Search Marketing
The Yahoo! Searchlight Award represents Yahoo!’s commitment to the best and most creative search advertising ideas and executions recognizing advertising agencies that develop search marketing applications outside of the tried and true direct response mindset.
- Entry fee: ?
- Note: It doesn’t say a Yahoo Paid Search campaign is required, but probably a great idea to include in your submission.
- Next call for entries: Early December 2009
ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards > Search Ad Management
ClickZ Marketing Excellence Awards recognize the technologies, and companies that made a positive difference in the online marketing industry.
- Entry fee: $49 per nomination
- Note: These awards are not for campaigns, but rather the technologies that enable best of breed online marketing execution in the areas of paid search, analytics, email, mobile and social media.
- Next call for entries: Approximately March to April 2010.
Business Marketing Association Pro-Comm > Search/Blog/Online Mindshare Campaign Category
Pro-Comm is ranked as one of the advertising industry’s premier award programs, drawing hundreds of entries annually from b-to-b marketing agencies and clients from all around the U.S.
- Entry fee: $150 – $225 depending on early bird rate and member/non-member
- Note: This award is specifically for BtoB marketing.
- Next call for entries: Approximately March 2010
There are also various regional awards programs from marketing related associations such as the EIMA (Excellence in Interactive Marketing Awards) run by the Dallas Ft Worth Interactive Marketing Association plus other kinds of awards such as the SEMMYs (TopRank is a judge), which recognizes the top search marketing blog posts each year and the Marketing Pilgrim Search Engine Marketing Scholarship (TopRank is a judge), which is a contest to create and promote quality SEM content.
Promotion World and a few other similar sites promote top SEO/SEM awards, but judging isn’t done by a panel of industry verterans as with the other awards programs listed above and without 3rd party scrutiny or detailed judging information.
Have we missed any? What influential Search Marketing Awards should we add to this list? Do you have experience with any of the above awards programs? Good or bad, our readers would love to learn more.
Tags: business ,facebook ,flash ,google ,industry ,interactive ,management ,marketing ,online ,online marketing ,search ,search marketing awards ,search-marketing ,seo
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Written on September 22, 2009 by admin
Filed Under: Object, marketing
Along with a new search format, Yahoo has rolled out a new “It’s You” marketing push with clever slogans like “The Internet Is Under New Management, Yours.” The company is holding a press conference shortly, and I’m here liveblogging it. Let’s do this.
We’re waiting. So are you.
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz up, welcoming people. Wishing it [...]
….
Read more:
Liveblogging The Yahoo “It’s You” Press Conference
Tags: carol ,ceo ,has-rolled ,internet ,management ,marketing ,press-conference ,slogans-like ,top news ,under ,welcoming-people- ,yours-
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