The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) announced the release of “E-mail Data Management Best Practices,” a document with a series of far-reaching privacy and data security recommendations intended for publishers, marketers and service providers.  

Focusing on protecting consumer privacy while improving effectiveness in e-mail marketing executions, the document was released at TARGUSinfo’s Online Lead Quality Summit. 

Some of the document’s key recommendations are: 

 √  Senders should send commercial e-mail only to individuals who have provided informed consent.

 √  A global unsubscribe mechanism should be implemented for all companies sending e-mails.Advertisers and marketers should authenticate their e-mails by publicly registering the domains from which they send the e-mail.

 √  A company cannot transfer a consumer’s permission to receive commercial e-mail to another company without the transfer being referenced in the new company’s e-mails. 

About the IAB 

Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau represents over 375 leading interactive companies that actively engage in and support the sale of interactive advertising. IAB members are responsible for selling over 86% of online advertising in the United States.

From my perspective, the IAB is a 'must-have' resource for any web marketer.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Google News is one of the top five visited news portals on the web - making it a very desirable place to get your web site AND business noticed.  

The benefits of listing at Google News are twofold; first, most visitors end up back at Google News if they subscribe to news alerts or RSS feeds. Secondly, there are numerous SEO benefits as other web sites or bloggers will link back to Google news articles increasing both link reciprocation and heightened traffic.   

How can you get your articles submitted to Google News? There are some fast and simple rules that Google News will use to consider your organization. They include: 

Original/Validated Content - Google News scrutinizes content for professionalism, relevance and authenticity. Organizations cannot submit repurposed content or content that is not from the originating web site organization.  

Authors and Editors - Google News looks to organizations with multiple authors (not bloggers) to qualify an organization. 

Evidence of Organization - Google News will need to validate the organization as an existing/operating entity. That is, Google News will look for a dedicated, templated 'news area' that clearly defines the industry that the organization is in. Google News tends to approve web sites with a minimum of 100 active/achrived articles. 

To apply to Google News, click here. 

Additional News Portals for Article Submission:

Yahoo News

Topix.net

Best,

Denice MacDonald

You cannot simply build a web site and wait for visitors to come. You need to market your site online – meaning you need to take action to make your site highly visible to search engines so it gets found by potential customers.

Here are some quick ideas on maximizing your web site through simple optimization.

Keyword research – where to begin? – There are a number of inexpensive keyword research tools that will help you find the keywords and keyword strings for a specific product or service.  My favorite tool has always been Google Keyword Tool - but, Wordtracker is also very popular and very effective. 

Aligning with competitors – Determine how many other sites will be vying for similar keywords or keyword strings. To validate findings, simply type the words into Google and review the number of results. That’s your competition. The higher the position within the result page, the more difficult it will be to rank on that keyword. If you are still having difficulty determining keywords, you can open your competitor’s web site and view their keywords by selecting “View” and then “Source” from the menu. The third line in the source code typically says “Keyword Content” and then lists the keywords used for that page.

Start small – If you are new to the game, it is always advisable to start with 1-2 keywords per page on your site. Reason simply, you want to find the right balance in search volume, review how you’re faring against the competition and grow your program based on sound statistics. Likewise, insure that the content that is written for the site contains an appropriate usage of the keywords.

Site structure – In order for any search engine optimization program to work and track, you’ll need to insure that the site structure is conducive for optimization. To rank higher in search results for your target audience, you must identify the most effective keywords and then place them in the right areas of your site’s content and HTML code including page titles, headers, meta-tags, links and page content.

Site updates – ‘Content is king’ philosophy still rings true for optimization success. Keep your site updated regularly. What is the rule of thumb?  Minimally, weekly!

Linking – I still believe that linking can effectively, and quickly, increase page rankings. If you have a lot of other web sites linking to your site, the search engine spiders will visit your site more frequently and find new content quickly. You can find out who links to you already by typing “Link: yourdomainname.com” in any major search engine.

Measure – It’s all about effectiveness and ongoing metrics. Let your initial search engine optimization initiative run for about 2-3 months. Track how your rankings change week-over-week or month-over-month, and then decide whether more words need to be added or eliminated. Use tools like Google Analytics for web site metrics and SeoDigger for wordtracking performance.

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

According to a recent e-Marketer report, more than six out of 10 CMOs and senior marketing professionals surveyed in the US said that digital tactics (including mobile, video, e-mail etc.) accounted for more than one-quarter of their agency marketing, according to a July 2008 study by Zoomerang for Sapient.  

Respondents also said digital marketing was growing in importance. Nearly one-half (45%) of those polled had either switched agencies or planned to switch during the next 12 months to gain access to more digital expertise. Almost eight out of 10 said that agencies' interactive and digital aptitude was important or very important.  

What is digital marketing and what does it mean for marketers? 

According to Wikipedia, digital marketing is defined as the practice of promoting products and services using digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, relevant, personal and cost-effective manner. By doing so, marketers realize the following benefits: 

Brand-advantage – typically in the past, marketing and any digital initiatives were handled separately or were non-existent. With the use of digital technology, marketing professionals have an opportunity to enhance messaging and bring cohesiveness to their brand. 

Larger reach – digital initiatives allow marketers to expand their campaigns beyond one single effort leveraging several channels to optimize budget dollars and reach. 

Personalization – with digital initiatives, messages are highly targeted and specific allowing marketers to not only track how many people saw their message but also specific information about each user. 

As marketers, digital tactics allow for many opportunities that can be tracked measured and refined. To learn more about digital marketing and tactics, consider accessing the following resources: 

• The McKinsey Quarterly – Digital Marketing
• NetImperative – Digital Marketing News and Events
• MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer

Best

Denice MacDonald

Communities are about delivering game-changing results - from increasing customer revenue, to introducing product and solutions, communities aid in increasing overall brand effectiveness while decreasing costs. 

How do we know this? Well, recently, Beeline Labs, Deloitte and the Society of New Communications Research have produced a compelling study: "The 2008 Tribalization of Business study" which focuses on the early experiences of more than 140 organizations on how they’re managing communities, measuring success, and reaping business benefits. 

Great Take-away - Lessons Learned 

When asked for the most important advice they had for others starting communities, survey respondents had many good tips to share. Two of the eight "Best Practices" that emerged from the research: 

Keep it simple and intuitive: “Focus on the least common denominator first. Keep it easy to navigate with simple tools to use.” People are busy; they need information in brief, easy-to-scan bits s they can quickly choose what is interesting to them and go right to it.  

Keep it fresh and active: “Keep activity levels up, constantly add new content.” “ Think of how to create ‘events’ – what can you do to excite people and get them to share in the community.” “Update regularly, find topics for discussion’ “Content is king” 

To access the results of the study through an interactive slideshare, go here.  

More Great Resources:

The Long-tail Effectiveness of Business Communities  

Understanding the power of communities - even when you do not have a critical mass of users

Best

Denice MacDonald 

Anyone who has a vested interest in a corporate or personal blog knows it takes time and effort to produce a great blog. I personally belong to a dozen blogs and try to read them each day. From a personal standpoint, I can tell you what keeps me clicking back and what I look for in other blogs.

Recently I wrote a blog on several of my favorite bloggers and received several e-mails asking what I thought made a great blog.  Here are my 'must-haves' for a successful blog.

Blogger shows enthusiasm for his/her blog. If it's written to fill space, I can tell. I’m only interested in blogs that surprise, delight, amuse and inform.

The blog is well written. I read certain blogs because I not only enjoy reading them, but I’m truly getting information that is important to me – in a style of writing that is more conversational and with the bloggers point of view (good or bad) in mind.

The blog has links to other blogs, newsfeeds or other relevant information. I want to know that this blog is going to get me the next relevant click of information. I love resources, links back to other blogs and creditable information so that I can understand the bloggers opinion or slant.

The blog is updated regularly. There’s nothing worse than finding a great blog only to find out that the blogger blogs on a sporadic basis. I want a blog to be committed to me, the reader, by providing ongoing, updated content – especially if I have subscribed to their feeds.

The blog embraces comments and feedback. I welcome an opportunity to comment on content and provide my opinion on topics. More sophisticated blogs allows sign in and the ability to post comments making the blog very interactive and viral in nature.

The blog is properly tagged and categorized. Make it easy for me to move around your blog, clicking on other categories or relevant tags.

More Great Bloggers:

The Rules Behind Creating a Great Blog by Tom Hung, ProBlogger

27 Tips for Building a Kick-ass Blog by Ahmed Bilal

What Makes a Great Company Blog by Mack Collier

Best

Denice MacDonald

Those of us who have recently started blogging had to take a cue from someone - fortunately there are great bloggers out there to emulate. 

In a recent LinkedIn question set, a subscriber asked if any of us knew of great bloggers - that is, what makes certain bloggers so great, and what business people can learn from them. In my industry, I've come to learn that there are many bloggers out there who can slam out a well written techy-blog. BUT, there are few out there who can really capture the essence of a topic - giving it life and relevance to us 'day-to-day' business types. 

So to honor those great bloggers in my network - I've assembled a few of my favorites so that you can benefit from their wit, intelligence and content to make your business successful.

Jeremiah Owyang - describes himself as a Web Strategist who strives to define and deliver user and community needs, business goals, and web technology to craft and deliver long term successful web programs for companies. Jerimiah provides current insight into technology, technology use and delivery.  Take a look at his blog and decide for yourself.

August ("Augie") Ray - provides articles and insights about the way marketers craft experiences, both online and in the real world, and how these experiences shape consumers' relationships to brands. Augie provides colorful dialogue about business experiences in a way that helps guide us through our own brand issues.  His blog is a delight to read.

Social Media Today - has several established authors and is a moderated online business community for social media, bloggers, marketers, PR and media professionals. It provides the greatest depth in social media today - suffice the name. BTW - Augie blogs on this one too along with Charlene Li who co-authored "Groundswell" - winning in a world transformed by social technologies.

To find blogs in your industry to emulate - check out these award sites:

The Best of Blogs

Bloggers Choice Awards

The Weblog Awards

Best

Denice MacDonald

Believe it or not, you may be a SuperTron – a technology enthusiast considered part of the early adopters phenomenon.   

In his book "Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters", author Bill Tancer emphasizes the critical role that SuperTrons play. Specifically, the author analyzes the new generation of consumerism in a way no other has before, showing how we use the Internet, and how those trends provide a wealth of market research nearly as vast as the Internet itself in attracting and using SuperTrons as a defined segment to market to. 

Why does this all matter? 

The insight into the new media habits of an early adopter consumer will be valuable for media companies, tech firms and cable and satellite operations that want to reach this segment but also tap mainstream as well.   

An excellent example of a web site that resonates with early adopters is the recent launch of “Nat Geo” music service. National Geographic tapped the behavior that drives SuperTrons to ‘get the word out’ thereby pushing their web site to the mainstream.

Resources

Early Adopters - Defined

National Geographic Music Site

Buy Bill Tancer's Book

The release of Apple’s iPhone revolutionized mobile phone technology and web browsing with its ease of use. One of the most talked-about features of the iPhone has been its ability to use Safari to browse the “real” Internet.  

However, until recently, this idea has proven to be less than rewarding because the larger pixels used by most web sites designed to display information on a full screen did not translate well to the iPhone’s different shape and size.  

Because of that, the iPhone’s ability to see and access data and pictures on most web sites was plagued by problems and content which was hard to read and interact with - until now. 

We’re beginning to see the arrival of web sites formatted specifically to fit the iPhone’s small screen and unique configuration. In addition, we’re seeing techniques developed that make iPhone compatible web sites capable of visually displaying and selling products, over secure satellite connections, and accessed by mobile phones from anywhere in the world.

Those interested in learning how to develop compatible iPhone microsites will find a full tutorial section here that includes:

1. Great examples of optimization, design and usability.
2. Steps to ensure your visitors a great mobile experience.
3. Examples, news and articles.
4. Downloadable samples of how to create content for iPhone’s MobileSafari browser.
5. Resources and links to code and source files.
6. Information on how enhancing your website will bring better experiences to your iPhone customers and increase sales. 

Resources

• Microsite Mobile
• iPhone Microsite Tutorials

Best

Denice MacDonald

You probably know that building links into your site is one of the most important things you can do in your efforts to improve your site's ranking.

A lot of people struggle with this process, especially at the beginning. Many questions also arise as to where the link should be placed on the site you are trying to get linked from, along with what kind of sites should you get links from, and what those links should look like.  Linking is no longer a passing fancy, it is a strategy that is relevant and necessary. Consder the following link building strategies:

Social Media: By submitting your site and content to social media aggregators such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon and other niche social news sharing and bookmarking sites, you introduce their audience to your site and build high authority links to your organization.

Advertising: Text Links which are sold or purchased with the intention of advertising a relevant site or service to the audience of the site which is serving the link ads. These links are valued and treated as authority inbound links by the major search engines.

Editorial: Editorial links are links which are earned via relationships with journalists, bloggers or site publishers. By informing writers about your site and services, you persuade them to write about you.

Directory: Web directories classify sites into organized subjects and listings while also sending search traffic to those sites. Directories are a way to increase search rankings and site traffic.

Blogger Reviews: Similar to editorial links, blogger reviews are when you pay bloggers to take the time and write an honest review about your product, business or site - and link to you. Not only will your link be seen by search engines, but also by the readers and subscribers of these high level bloggers.

Privately Solicited Links: Contact site owners and negotiate private linking deals with your business goals in mind.

Blog Comment Participation: By intelligently adding to blog comment conversations, you build your online reputation along with inbound links to your site.

Resources:

• 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Web Site by Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall
• Link Building - Web Site Resource

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Whether you are a well-known non-profit or a highly regarded ivy-league college, fundraising is a dubious task. Simply tapping into a focused, well affluent rolodex or connecting via the university’s alumni simply is not enough. With economic barriers commonplace, asking and getting monies for your organization is going to be tough, if not down-right impossible. 

Here are a few quick ideas that may work – offering less barriers, longer shelf-life and definitely measurement for future initiatives. 

You’re Not Alone – Joint Fundraising:   

Joint fundraising can offer many advantages. From more comprehensive, coordinated efforts to increasing organizational credibility, joint fundraising can give funders ‘more bang for the buck’ offering double the value in leads, monies captured and visibility. Joint fundraising should include both online initiatives and event fundraising. 

Reach a Broader Audience – Online Fundraising Auctions: 

With the help of the Internet, online auctions break the barriers of time and geography and allow organizations to reach a broader audience and increase their fundraising potential. Online auctions offer a more reputable and quantifiable value to donors and sponsors. They also dramatically expand the marketing reach for organizations as a whole, creating a greater awareness of the cause and a greater fundraising capability. 

Use Name Recognition – Online Mall: 

The great thing about creating an online mall is that shoppers are actually shopping directly at the site owned by the store of their choice so they know their experience is safe and secure. Big name brands like Target and Nike have fundraising programs that are quite lucrative and offer visitors numerous choices. The online mall can work independently or in unison with other fundraising initiatives. 

Lastly, fundraising requires a well branded web presence – here are a few great examples: 

• Fundraising using celebrity and a great themed-cause: "Make It Right Nola"  
• Fundraising using great online tactics and themed-cause: "Nothing But Nets" 
• Great Non-profit: "Idealist"
• Great University – UW-Madison using great brand for fundraising efforts: Great people.Great place. Fundraising Initiative Built Around Campus’s Top Priorities   

Before starting your fundraising initiative, consider the following valuable resource: 

• Complete listing of Fundraising Books, Periodicals and White Papers located at UW-Madison, WI

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Before Web 2.0, organizations would take old brochure copy, poor graphics, a couple of cheesy widgets and off they go to build a web site in bad html code. With today’s user expectations, web sites have to be a bit more sophisticated, offering the best-of-breed in user experience and delivery.

To truly build a great web site presence, compete on a level playing field and convert customers, organizations must do a bit of homework before developing their web site.

Review competitors – in order to compete, organizations need to see how they fare against the competition. A comprehensive competitor’s analysis will allow the organization to provide a similar interactive experience when vying for customers to their products or services.

Know your audience – most web sites try to cater to a broad-base audience using a ‘hit or miss’ approach. With today’s web savvy user, web sites need to address exactly who their customers are. In most cases, audiences are looking to be entertained, informed or persuaded - but knowing specific industry focus, generational disposition and online behavior will go a long way in getting your audience to engage, drill down and act.

Create relevant content – with the growth of social communities, blogs and rich video media, content can be served up in many formats. Key to the use of these great Web 2.0 applications is providing relevant content to users.  Similar to ‘knowing your audience’, organizations must segment content based upon visitor types.

Enhance the experience – the visitor experience relates to ease of use, access to relevant content and tools that will help engage, connect and convert customers. Reviewing appropriate navigation, Flash or graphics, web tools or gadgets as well as call-to-action scenarios will enhance the experience and have the visitor coming back for more.

Integrate online and offline strategies – successful organizations have realized that integrating online and offline marketing strategies is the best way to tap into a large customer base and get customers to spend more. Moreover, when an integrated strategic plan is executed for online and offline simultaneously, customers get a single, unified message from the organization that reflects a cohesive brand.

Best

Denice MacDonald 

You can trace your family roots, get a daily shot of football or redecorate your apartment. Vote for your favorite web sites and see where they rank on the list: 

Vote Now!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Here are the Top 10 Essential Web Sites we can't live without:

View Now!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

My pic > SearchMe

View Internet search results through a new lens at SearchMe, an engine that displays results not in the usual text-list format (that's so Google), but as a slick image gallery of actual web pages you can flip through and filter results by topic. A query on Montana, for example, lets you narrow results into categories like real estate, lodgings, weather and fishing. SearchMe isn't the only visual search engine — rivals include the meta-search site KartOO and newcomer Viewzi (which was still in private beta as of June 2008) — but its clean, intuitive interface sets it apart.

Enjoy!

Denice MacDonald

Many organizations are obsessed with volume – measuring success by how many web pages were viewed or how many people visited the site. In many cases, this type of information is meaningless as it is not directly linked to a web plan or strategy.

Whether its web site traffic analysis, search engine optimization or tracking business success metrics, you need to develop a web strategy ‘up front’ to support measurement objectives. This thought process seems so fundamental but rarely exercised. 

Why? A strategic plan for evaluating your website will help you:

1. Collect only the data you need to make informed, strategic decisions
2. Identify priority “action areas” for improvement, measure the impact of those actions; and keep your customers coming back
3. Determine benchmarks and performance goals you should aspire to, and the extent to which you’re achieving them
4. Determine whether you’re getting a return on the investment you’ve made to build, operate and maintain your web site(s)
5. Evaluate how well your web site is performing relative to competitors, your company's brand, mission statement or hiring criteria

How? Develop a plan – a strategy – and review and adjust it regularly by asking these questions:

• What do you need to measure?
• What are your requirements?
• How will you measure it?
• What tools will you use?
• What methodologies are needed to gather the data you need?
• What will you do with the results?
• How will the results help meet the goals for your web site and your company's mission?
• How does the plan fit with your company's overall strategic and performance plan?

Once armed with this process and validation, you will find that your ROI exceeds expectations!

Great Resources:

Coremetrics Web Metrics
Get powerful web site metrics with the leading provider

Web Measurement Data Fast
ClickTracks web measurement shows behavior, conversion, groups, SEO

WebTrends Analytics
Marketing Intelligence Solutions, leading analytic & metrics software

Web Analytics
Compare web analytics products and get a free report sample from CMS Watch

Best,

Denice MacDonald

You've spent a lot of time building up your reputation and image both online and off, so it's important to make sure that someone or something has not jeopardized your brand.

One of the simplest and easiest ways to track your reputation is to use Google Alerts. With this free service, you can search either all of Google's properties, or you can specify that only News, Blogs, Web, Video, or Groups is searched. You can then configure the Alerts results to be emailed to you either as it happens, once a day, or once a week. There is also a page where you can edit the alerts once they are created or delete them when they are no longer in use. 

If making a good name for yourself online is a priority, it's time to take a proactive approach to getting your name out there the way you want.  

BUSINESS SOCIAL NETWORKS – Complete your profile in its entirety and connect with key professionals in your network.

BLOGS – Consider a business blog and one that you contribute to – showing you are a thought leader will aid in elevating you or your products in your industry. Likewise, use blogs to amend or respond to bad hype.

WEB 2.0 PR – Get news interviews, podcasts, webinars with clients 'live' online. Third party testimonials by key constituents regarding your products and services will go a long way in building brand reputation.

LINKING – If you have a web site, consider carefully where and how inbound and outbound links are connected – bad links will reflect poorly on your brand.

SUB-DOMAINS - Add a sub-domain for careers, corporate and/or product info for little or no cost.  Not only will sub-domains elevate your search results but add depth to your reputation.

PPC/ONLINE ADVERTISING – This can only help protect your brand and will help influence visitors to see who is the real website that should be visited.

SEARCH - Take control of the visible results of any search related to your brand. By taking a coordinated approach to search engine optimization, you take greater control of the other nine slots.  

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Writing copy for the Web that grabs attention and gets the results you want takes special skill and attention.

Oftentimes, companies will forgo writing web copy and repurpose brochure copy. Writing copy for the web is remarkably different than writing copy for print. Here are a few tips to make sure your web content is spectacular and resonates with site visitors.

Before any web copy is written, the following information should be available to the web copywriter(s).

1. SEO/SEM Report or Findings – the web copywriter will use the report as a guide to segue words or phrases that will help ‘optimize’ the content web page.
2. Persona or Voice of Customer - understanding the attributes of customers that you want to engage at your content web page will help dictate the impact statements or ‘headings and sub heads’ for the section (different and distinct from navigation or menu).
3. Functional Web Page Elements – understanding what other functionality will appear on the page will help the web copywriter(s) craft content that will work collaboratively with feature boxes, call to action scenarios or other promotional items.  Having a layout or ‘wireframe’ of what will appear on the page will work well here.