Also, small pieces of advice such us clearly including contact information in HTML text and not in images helps with SEO as well as overall usability of the site. Search Engines will not be able to pull information from image’s containing contact information affecting the possibility of potential customers reaching your contact information.

Another piece of advice that Avocet consistently recommends is to not build a Web site entirely in Flash. This also affects the Search Engines ability to properly “site crawl” and organize content and information for a given site. Because of this, mixing element of Flash and HTML text are the best approach.

This can be incredibly difficult to measure and assign value to but as this media increases in top-of-mind for local and national advertisers, more tools will be built to measure this. Ultimately, integrating campaigns that drive on-site engagement and measurable results in store is the primary goal of all Social Media Marketing campaigns. Multiple touchpoints that drive coupon downloads, calls, and online purchases should be a focus of all SMM campaigns and building in initial strategy and systems to track this will be the way of the future.

Special Summer Issue: Cracking The Marketing Code
Estimated Reading Time: 60 Seconds

60 Second Articles:

1. Crack The Marketing Code By Answering These 10 Critical Questions
2. Look Who’s Talking — Not The Movie
3. The 60 Second Close: Is It Time For “Retro” Marketing?

Crack The Marketing Code By Answering These 10 Critical Questions

1. Does your company have a unique “story” to tell that makes it stand out from the competition?
2. Does your company offer a product, a service or an experience that is not only of value, but is memorable enough to break through the advertising clutter and be heard by your target audience?
3. Does your company employ a team of goodwill ambassadors who have a passion for the company’s culture, philosophy and the product?
4. Does your company understand what business it is really in? (Southwest Airlines in not in the airline business, but in the business of providing people a safe, fun and memorable way to get to their destination.)
5. Does your company understand the lifetime value of a customer and the exorbitant costs of gaining new customers versus retaining current customers? Does your company have a retention strategy?
6. Does your company know who its best customers are, not by demographics, but by their first name? How is your company rewarding the best customers for their valued loyalty?
7. Does your team have not only an intimate knowledge of your product and service, but an understanding of what’s most profitable — not in terms of percentages, but in real dollars and cents?
8. Do your company and team strive to make a difference in your community, where your customers live and work?
9. Does your company have a “face” – a personality, a CEO, a President or an owner to which customers can relate to and readily access?
10. While everyone loves first impressions, does your company leave an everlasting final impression with customers that creates memorable conversations and encourages repeat purchases?

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2. Look Who’s Talking – Not The Movie

• Here’s an instant and reliable way to find out if anyone’s talking about you or your company on Facebook or Twitter. It’s a new search engine called Kurrently, at www.Kurrently.com.
• Test it yourself by sending out a tweet and then go to Kurrently and do a search for a keyword within that tweet. Presto, you’ll be found. Now, test it with other keywords that are relevant to your business. It’s quite possible that people are talking about your product without you even knowing about it.

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3. The 60 Second Close: Is It Time For “Retro” Marketing?

• Incorporating TV, radio, print, direct mail and billboards into your advertising plan almost seems “retro” because no one talks about traditional advertising anymore. It’s not the “in-thing” and it just doesn’t seem glamorous like it used to be.
• Contrary to what the many pundits are saying, we strongly advocate that when targeted properly, “retro marketing” still works and it works even better once you’ve cracked the all-important marketing code.

Estimated Reading Time: 60 Seconds
60 Second Articles:

1. Google TV: It Will Dramatically Change The Way You Advertise
2. Facebook: We Have Met The Enemy And The Enemy Is …
3. The 60 Second Close: The Landscape Is About To Change. Are You Ready?

Google TV: It Will Dramatically Change The Way You Advertise

• The newly introduced Google TV (www.google.com/tv) will change the way you watch TV and change the way companies like yours advertise. In case you missed it, Google TV will allow you to integrate the Internet with the high-quality viewing experience of TV.
• In other words, instead of downloading a movie or a TV program from Hulu (www.hulu.com) and watching it on your small laptop screen, you’ll be able to watch it on your TV. Anything that’s available on the Internet, including your own photos and movies, will be available for viewing on your TV.
• With Google’s successful track record of “changing the world,” one can expect explosive industry-wide developments to occur in the near future that will affect your lifestyle, your purchasing decisions and the way you market your own business.

• As an example, in the near future your company will be able to buy TV spots that reach just your immediate neighborhood, where possibly 80 percent of your prime prospects live, rather than “wasting” the message on the whole city.

• And, imagine the viewers who are interested in your message being able to click on their remotes and automatically sign up to get more information. They could also make an instantaneous reservation or appointment, or find out if your product is immediately available and then be able to purchase it right away. Get ready. The TV revolution starts this fall.

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2. Facebook: We Have Met The Enemy And The Enemy Is …

• Facebook continues to be under attack for its lax privacy rules. Although the hugely popular networking site will continue to make refinements to satisfy its users, the reality is simply to know that in this age of the Internet, privacy is now a thing of the past. There’s no getting away with what Facebook says you did or what Google’s search results says you are.
  
• But who’s really to blame? All along, participation has been a choice — play the game or sit on the sidelines. And while there’s a tendency to place the full blame on Facebook, MySpace and even Google, they may not really be the true enemy. It just may be us.

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3. The 60 Second Close: The Landscape Is About To Change. Are You Ready?

• The advertising landscape is about to change right in front of our eyes. While there will be both winners and losers, we’ll all be the beneficiaries of changes that will give businesses more effective and targeted opportunities to increase sales, no matter which industry sector you are in.

Currently, there are three hard-hitting battles being engaged — the telecom giants are slugging it out for mobile supremacy, the iPhone, Blackberry and Android platforms for “app” and smartphone supremacy and starting in the fall, the new TV revolution. Will the traditional networks allow Google TV to take revenue and viewing time away from them? How will the cable and satellite companies react?

Estimated Reading Time: 60 Seconds
60 Second Articles:

1. Competitive Intelligence: With One Click, Follow Your Competitors Online
2. Risky Business: Unleashing Innovation
3. The 60 Second Close: How To Get An Injection Of Innovation

1. Competitive Intelligence: With One Click, Follow Your Competitors Online

• We want to be the first to let you know about a new and free software program – so new that it’s still in beta version – that will help you keep track of the online activities of your competitors, vendors, customers and prospects in real time.
• Want to know when one of your competitors introduces a new product? Or, when one of your prospects blogs or tweets about needing a specific product or vendor?

• The software program is called WorkStreamer – www.WorkStreamer.com. Give it a try and stay informed. Knowledge is power.

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2. Risky Business: Unleashing Innovation

• Innovation is the central nervous system of any business. Innovation leads to improved products, a better way of conducting your business and more profits. Although innovation is crucial to a company’s long-term success, there still remain pockets that are comfortable with the status quo in any company.
  
• So how do you unleash the innovative spirit? Eliminate “tried and true” from your vocabulary and implement a series of “what ifs.” Just because one company is doing something, doesn’t mean that it’s right for you.
  
• For example, why does a bank always have to look like a bank? Imagine a bank that looks like a coffee shop, with customers enjoying a latte while conducting their financial transactions
• Or, for an online perspective, what if your website didn’t look like a website, but instead featured a series of short video vignettes about your team and how fun it would be to work with your company.
• Innovation is risky, but it moves your business forward and can give you a great story to tell. We say, “Go for it.”

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3. The 60 Second Close: How To Get An Injection Of Innovation

• Innovation also applies to your marketing efforts. Are you doing the same things over and over and expecting different results? If so, you’re in need of an injection of innovation.

Estimated Reading Time: 60 Seconds
60 Second Articles:

1. There’s An App For That. Should Your Business Have One?
2. How To Get Sales Leads From Twitter
3. The 60 Second Close: One Quarter Down, Three More To Go

1. There’s An App For That. Should Your Business Have One?

• A few years ago, getting a frequency reward card into a customer’s wallet or onto a keychain was a strong barometer of their loyalty to your business. Now, whether you’re in the retail, professional services or manufacturing sectors, those cards, and the loyalties that go along with them, are quickly being replaced by smartphone apps.
• By offering an app to your customers and prospects, your business gets a strong visual presence on their smartphone screens. In addition, you show your customers that your company is “tech savvy” – now a key component in whether a customer continues to do business with you.

• One of the biggest reasons your business should consider offering an app is simply to have one before your competition does. If your competitor beats you to it, they may become your customers’ first choice in loyalty and making purchasing decisions.

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2. How To Get Sales Leads From Twitter

• While the world is in a Facebook frenzy, Twitter is quickly becoming a player in generating sales leads for companies. It takes some patience to dig through the thousands of innocuous posts, but the “gold” is there. There are many tools available that search through tweets and allow you to drill down to a specific topic or even a specific geographic location.
  
• How do you do it? Test drive a variety of Twitter search programs to find the one you are most comfortable with. Our favorites are TweetDeck (www.TweetDeck.com), HootSuite (www.HootSuite.com) and Monitter (www.Monitter.com).
• Each program allows you to select various keyword phrases and see who’s tweeting about that phrase. Select a phrase that’s relevant to your business category and then tweet that person back. That conversation could be the start of a big sale!
• Also, try out some of the Twitter alert services. Programs like Tweet Beep (www.TweetBeep.com) will send you alerts whenever someone tweets about a specific phrase that have pre-selected.
• When people are tweeting about a topic or category that you have an expertise in, you’ve got a great chance to jump in on the conversation. And, what could be the biggest benefit of all, there’s no gatekeeper to screen you!

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3. The 60 Second Close: One Quarter Down, Three More To Go

The first quarter is over. What’s the score? Are you winning and can you hold onto the lead? Are you behind? If so, what’s it going to take to gain that lead?

Estimated Reading Time: 60 Seconds
60 Second Articles:

1. How Important Is It To Be Listed On Google’s First Page?
2. The Super Bowl Revisited: Do You Remember Any Of The Ads?
3. The 60 Second Close: Putting The Package Together

1. How Important Is It To To Be Listed On Google’s First Page?

• It’s quite an accomplishment if you’ve been fortunate enough to have your Web site land a spot on the first page of Google’s search results. You’ve likely beat out thousands of other sites, all competing for that coveted top 10.
• It’s well known that most users trust Google’s ability to provide accurate search results and, as a result, spend more time clicking on the sites on the first page of the results. Most users don’t visit the subsequent pages of search results.
• If your company isn’t on the first page of the search results, you have to ask, “How important is it to my company to be listed in the top 10 and how much money is my company potentially losing on a daily basis by not being there?”
• All of this leads to the importance of search engine optimization for your Web site. Although SEO plays an integral role in landing a top position, the implementation of SEO must include other components such as blogs and articles, in order to be truly effective.

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2. The Super Bowl Revisited: Do You Remember Any Of The Ads?

• It’s been more than a month since the big game and here’s the million-dollar question: “Do you remember any of the ads?”  Maybe you recall the Snickers ad with Betty White. But what about the others?
  
• The Super Bowl advertisers created great brand awareness, but at the same time, they lost a huge opportunity to increase their market share.
• It was strange that only a few sponsors mentioned their Web sites and virtually none encouraged viewers to sign up as Facebook fans or Twitter followers, or took advantage of lucrative mobile opportunities.
• These companies missed out on sales-building opportunities. They could have collected names, e-mail addresses or mobile phone numbers of their fans and followed up with promotional events throughout the year.
• Make sure you don’t miss out on golden opportunities to collect information about your customers so you can continue to connect with them and develop long-term relationships.

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3. The 60 Second Close: Putting The Package Together

• No one marketing element works as effectively as integrating and packaging several of them. Every message that you develop should refer to a Web site, an email sign-up page, a Facebook page or a Twitter profile. It’s the only way you can stay in touch with your customers on a regular and cost-effective basis.

• It’s our responsibility to make sure that your messages resonate on a variety of online channels so you can develop long-term relationships with your customers. It’s part of our “fast forward” strategy.