online strategy discussion primer

Online Strategy & Discussion Document

Marcus Stuart Vannini

Contents

Position Objectives, Priorities & Metrics

Appendix I: Online Acquisition Marketing

Appendix II: Email Marketing Strategies & Best Practices

A. Social Media MarketingB. Organic Search Engine OptimizationC. Display Advertising (Cost Per Impression)D. Cost Per Click AdvertisingE. Co-registration DealsF. Affiliate/CPA Marketing

A. Enhancing Email List Growth - Online & Offline AcquisitionB. Delivering More Emails to the Inbox – AKA DeliverabilityC. Achieving Higher Open RatesD. Improving Click-through RatesE. Increasing Conversion Rates

Review of Key ObjectivesReview of Key Objectives

General Objectives• Identify gaps and enhance site functionality across all sites

• Oversee enhancements in web development

• Interface with management, creative and web development teams

• Reduce development and design costs while keeping quality equal or greater

• Manage Member website, Prospect Website and Consumer Website

Online Marketing• Improve direct response & email collection features

• Coordinate email campaigns from collected emails

• Oversee SEO team and interface between SEO, Web Development and Management

• Analyze SEM-PPC campaigns and identify areas to improve Interface with SEM team and management Review statistics and analysis of SEM results

Review of Key ObjectivesReview of Key Objectives

e-Commerce & New Features / Sites• Launch and manage CMWL consumer store

• Develop subscription services and determine / manage resources needed

• Manage development of Corporate Wellness Website (brief available)

Content• Oversee development and management of CMS systems

• Oversee addition of content (and revolving content needs)

• Ensure addition of news articles

• Set up site to better accept and display content.

Develop web interface with Meal Delivery program and add this to CMWL

online consumer store

Target AudiencesTarget Audiences

• Physicians– Other Health professionals? Dieticians? Mental health practitioners?

• Patients / Consumers – Prospective Patients seeking care

– General consumers seeking nutritional products and weight-loss products

• Corporations / Corporate Wellness Programs

• Other?– General public seeking weight-loss, quality meals and health information

– Researchers

– Professional Development

– Community groups

– Patients / Physicians seeking trials?

Objectives & Key Priorities• Develop, enhance and manage all

web-sites

• Developing the required CMS, content and functionalities

• Improve direct response & email collection features

• Improve & drive better SEO and SEM-PPC results

• Launch and manage CMWL consumer store

• Oversee development and addition of content including revolving content needs and site changes

• Manage development of Corporate Wellness Website

Strategic InitiativesStrategic Initiatives

Strategic Initiative #1:e-Commerce & Subscription Growth / Services

Launch and manage CMWL consumer store with interface to Meal Delivery service. Refine and increase subscription services.

Strategic Initiative #1:e-Commerce & Subscription Growth / Services

Launch and manage CMWL consumer store with interface to Meal Delivery service. Refine and increase subscription services.

Strategic Initiative #2:Content and Functionalities

Develop Web site CMS, content and functionalities that are rich, timely and meet the needs of our target audiences.

Strategic Initiative #2:Content and Functionalities

Develop Web site CMS, content and functionalities that are rich, timely and meet the needs of our target audiences.

Strategic Initiative #3:Infrastructure Development

Develop the infrastructure necessary to implement, scale and maintain the defined strategy: staffing, policies, budget, etc.

Strategic Initiative #3:Infrastructure Development

Develop the infrastructure necessary to implement, scale and maintain the defined strategy: staffing, policies, budget, etc.

Strategic Initiative #4:Marketing and Promotion

Promote and position the sites to the identified key target audiences.

Strategic Initiative #4:Marketing and Promotion

Promote and position the sites to the identified key target audiences.

Strategic Initiative #5:Tracking and Evaluation

Develop and implement a process and benchmarks to track, easily monitor and communicate the Internet strategy across management.

Strategic Initiative #5:Tracking and Evaluation

Develop and implement a process and benchmarks to track, easily monitor and communicate the Internet strategy across management.

I boiled down the project description documents into five major Strategic Online Initiatives for ease in discussion and tracking.

Three Buckets of Metrics

Improved Relevance and Engagement,

Tailored Connections with Users,

New Revenue Potential,

Are All Here

External to Site

Performance, Audience, Control,

SEO

Internal to Site

MarketingManagement

Market Share & Rank

Common Tools for Each Bucket

External to Site

• ComScore• Nielsen/NetRatings• Alexa• Compete• HitWise• Nielsen Buzz Metrics• Socialmeter• TNS Media

Intelligence• IMS Web Spyder• Biz 360• Cymfony

Internal to Site

• Omniture• WebSideStory• Coremetrics• WebTrends• Google Analytics• Creative Good• Offermatica• Optimost• Google Optimizer• NetTracker• Clickdensity• EyeTracking, Inc.

• DART• iProspect• Bruce Clay, Inc.• 24/7 Real Media• IMPAQT• ValueClick• ContextWeb• Tacoda Systems• Click Fraud Network• ValidClick• Media Ratings

Council• IAB• SEMPO

Market Share & Rank, Usage Across Sites

and Advertisers

Performance, Control, SEO, Profiling,

Usability,Testing

Marketing Management:SEM, Ad Networks, Ad & E-mail Mgmt,

Click Fraud

How are Analytics Currently Used?

Reporting and Tracking

Drives Online Operational

Improvements

Leads Way to New Users and New

Revenue

Majority of Companies

Has Become the New Goal

Still RareToday

• % increase or decrease in unique visits

• Change in page rank - i.e. a list of the top ten most popular areas and how it has changed in the last week

• Click-Depth Index: Percent of visitor sessions of "n" or more pages

• Recency Index: Percent of visitor sessions occurring in the last "small n" weeks

• Duration Index: Percent of visitor sessions of "n" or more minutes

• Brand Index: Percent of visitor sessions originating directly, from links or originating from search

• Blog Index: Ratio of blog reading sessions to all sessions

• Conversion Index: In this case, % of visitors that become a subscriber or order-based conversion

• % of visitors that come back for more than 5 sessions

• % of visitors that download something from the site

• % of visitors that provide an email address

Key Web & Engagement MetricsKey Web & Engagement Metrics

Engagement is an estimate of the degree and depth of visitor interaction on the site against a clearly defined set of goals.

Quick-hits & Food for Thought

• Microsites and blogs

• RSS Feeds, simple widgets

• Sponsorship and advertising revenues

• Social network dedicated to medical weight loss, weight loss products and we should be on all major social networking sites

• Toolbar and widgets

• Email marketing newsletters (weekly), daily consumer tips

• Podcasts

• Long-term mobile strategy

• Social bookmarking links added to content

• Radio / Media tour in future to promote communities and medical weight loss vs. other programs

• Surveys to find out what other services and products members want

Contents






Appendix I:Online Acquisition Marketing

Contents

A. Social Media Marketing

B. Organic Search Engine Optimization

C. Display Advertising (Cost Per Impression)

D. Cost Per Click Advertising

E. Co-registration Deals

F. Affiliate/CPA Marketing

Section A. Social Media Marketing

Social Networks

• Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Hi5, Orkut, Multiply, Ning

Content Aggregators

• Digg, Reddit, Propeller, Newsvine

Content Networks

• Squidoo

Blogging Tools

• Blogger, Typepad, Wordpress, MyBlogLog, Technorati

Social Search/Bookmarking Tools

• StumbleUpon, Mahalo, FreeIQ, Wikimedia, Del.icio.us

Video Tools

• YouTube, MetaCafe, Vimeo, Viddler

SMO is a great way to drive convertible traffic and future-proof SEO investments

eMarketer estimates by 2011 one-half of all Internet users will use social networking regularly.

• $0-budget YouTube videos about Barack Obama were seen by 120 times the audience of Hilary Clinton’s “largest town hall meeting in US history” that cost millions

• IBM receives more leads, sales and exposure from a $500 podcast than it does from an ad

Social Media Primer

• Social Media Optimization (SMO) is defined as a way to augment a website so that it can be easily connected, linked to, or interlaced with social media.

– SMO is a stand-alone service that when implemented correctly can not only drive traffic in a guerilla marketing fashion but can also serve to multiply and future proof your investment in SEO.

• Social Media is an umbrella term referring to media usually delivered through a Social Network or UGC.

– Further Defined: the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers (social).

– Examples: discussion forums, messages boards, blogs, music sharing, Wikis, Podcasts

• User Generated Content A.K.A. Consumer Generated Media (CGM) is media content that is publicly available and produced by end-users (user).

– Usually supported by a social network such as YouTube video, Flickr photos, Blog comments, LinkedIn discussions, Wiki content, Facebook wall posts, even Second Life objects

• Social Bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata.

• Relevance and value is determined by the community; The more people who bookmark a piece of content, the more value it is determined to have.

• Examples: Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, and Reddit

Weight Loss & Social Networks

Medical Weight Loss & Facebook – Open Territory

Surgical Weight Loss Community Site (UK)

Top Weight Loss & Health Social Networks

Top Weight Loss & Health Social NetworksSparkPeople was voted best online health site in Business Week's 2006, 2007 and 2008 "Best of the Web" awards.

Physician Social Networks Are Proliferating

Doctornetworking.com

Additional MD Social Networks

• http://www.socialmd.com/

• DoctorsHangout.com: DoctorsHangout.com social network can help you maintain existing personal and professional relationships and establish new ones by reaching out to Doctors you’ve never met before

• Ozmosis: a new community, currently in private beta, created by physicians for physicians. Members have to be verified during the registration process (more).

• Sermo: We are a practicing community of 65,000 physicians who exchange clinical insights, observations, and review cases in real time — all the time.

• Tiromed: Ask a mentor or become a mentor. Upload your CV and find collaborators from around the world, or find a job via this community

• Doc2doc: doc2doc has a range of tools to help you network with other doctors on a professional and social level.

• Doctrs.com: It’s an exclusive social net for physicians that was founded by Michael Kamleitner and Lukas Zinnagl in 2008, according to the FAQ page.

• PHYZOOM: you can find the physicians in your community who are staying on top of the latest health trends, products and services. In addition, your search options are much more dynamic than your average physician directory available from your local hospitals and health systems.

• Web of Medicine: it was created for busy clinicians who want to build and join professional networks of medical colleagues. Users have expressed a clear requirement to connect with colleagues in their own practices and hospitals but also nationally and internationally.

Weight Loss Programs Gaining Traction on Twitter

More on Twitter…

Diabetes Social Networks

TuDiabetes.com - “MySpace on Insulin”Awarded 2nd place for Niche Social Network 2008 Web 2.0 Awards.

WebMD the B2C Juggernaut – Above the Fold Content

WebMD – Below the Fold Content

Diet.com

The Looking Glass

• Open integration and greater consolidation of social media companies

• Better user interface & experience, more efficient

• Higher adoption and higher ROI

• Extensive worldwide industry growth

• Use of SMM to solve global and individual issues

• The services you are connected to are connecting with each other.

• Watch for the OpenSocial API Standard

• Watch for more mobile integration

What does the future hold for widgets, gadgets and social apps in the online weight-loss community?

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Online Pyramid of Needs

Self Actualization

Esteem

Social

Safety

Express Influence

Connect, Interact, andCommunicate

Trust, Safety, Security

Online actualization Discover, Fulfill

Access, storage, organize,Basic commerce, news,

InformationPhysiological

Medical Social Networks Will Evolve

Consumer Social Networks

Collegiate Social Networks

Sharing

Conversing

Problem Solving

Crowdsourcing

Professional Social Networks

Enterprise Networks

Source: Outsell, Inc.© 2008 Outsell, Inc. Reproduction strictly prohibited.

Social Media Best Practices

• Attempt to leverage an existing social networks.– Examples: Facebook: Weightwatchers 20k+ members, Facebook: RedBullU, Facebook NBA

• Avoid creating your own network surrounding your brand, focus on an existing community or market segment:

• Experiment with creating networks catering to specific audiences or special interests, again not brands:

– Examples: Diabetes, Care2, CareSeek,

• Leverage Social Video Search Engines are Huge and the fastest growing Social Media

• Listen and study the community before you enter the discussion

• Converse, don’t oversell and don’t shout

• Be prepared to relinquish control of the brand

• Be honest and transparent about your involvement

• Learn through experimentation

Considerations on SEM / PPC vs. SEO…

• Only 27.7% of Google Users will click on a sponsored PPC link.

• 72.3% of Google’s users choose a natural (SEO) result rather than a PPC result

• 1.3 Billion People Online1

• 99% of all searches in English in the US occur on Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and Ask (or websites empowered by these search companies)2

• Less than 3% ever go past page two of results 3

Don’t forget Long Tail Marketing - Less popular phrases in greater quantities are more effective than a few blockbuster phrases.

Sources:

1 Computer Industry Almanac

2 GregOutlaw.com

3 comScore Media Metrix

Section B. Organic Search Optimization

Basics for Developing an SEO Strategy

• Set Goals• Optimize the Site

– Optimize for “conversions”– Optimize for search

• “Pull” Traffic– Linking strategy & PR– Advertising, including paid search– Email

• Constantly Measure and Adapt– Constantly changing environment

Google’s Algorithm Simplified

• 65% Links– 50% Links from Authority Websites (Directories, Trusted Sites, Press Releases, etc)

– 50% Topical Links (Non-Reciprocal Links from topically relevant websites)

• 35% On Page Factors– Web Design and Internal Structure.

Source:

GregOutlaw.com

Proper SEO is like Football – “a Battle of Inches”

SEO Best Practices – On Page Factors

• Website platform • Website design & content• Meta keywords• Website description• Page titles• Alt tags• Same site hyperlinks• Site map

SEO Best Practices – Site Platform Factors

• ASP.Net, PHP, HTML SEO friendly• Flash, ColdFusion… not SEO friendly• Must be linear• Must be scalable• Content Managed System (CMS)• w3c standards

SEO Best Practices – Site Design Factors

• Targeted to audience• Key information above-the-fold• Easy to navigate- user friendly• Fast loading• Minimal clicks• Add Video• Creates an overall feel without calling too much

attention to itself• Enables visitors to easily perform tasks• Reinforce brand without seeming like an ad

• Pay attention to keywords• Cover Short and Long tail - Words that describe your business,

products & services• Use consistent wording• Use benefit text and offers• Use call-to-action (CTA) verbs• Add Thematic Content: Add 20-30 articles to your web site about

topics related to your keyphrase.• Place CTA’s where eye-path ends• Use text hyperlinks• Keep it clean – don’t overdo hyperlinks• Use Arial or other “web safe” typeface

SEO Best Practices – Content Factors

Short Keyword

High search volume

Increased visibility

Less qualified traffic

Lower conversion rate

Potential higher cost

Long Tail Keyword

Highly qualified traffic

Higher conversion rate

Lower cost

Low search volume

Identifying right keywords

Short vs. Long Tail Keywords

Following & Refining SEO Best Practices

– Provides a better customer experience– Drives brand consistency & awareness– Makes you more connected– Brings in more customers– Drives subscriber growth

Ad Servers• DoubleClick (Google), Atlas (Microsoft), Zedo, or Open Adstream• MediaVisor, RFPs, IOs

Ad Networks• Tribal Fusion• Advertising.com• Tacoda• AdBrite• 24/7 Real Media• aQuantive• Blue Lithium• Casale Media• Revenue Science• DrivePM• Value Click

Section C. Display Advertising

Section D. Cost Per Click Advertising

Major Networks (90%)

• Google Adwords (65%)

• Yahoo Panama (17%)

• Microsoft AdCenter (8%)

All Other Networks (10%)• Kanoodle• Miva• Findwhat• 7Search• Zango

Section E. Co-Registration Deals

Co-Registration networks

• Opt-intelligence

• Q Interactive

• Lead Point

• CoregMedia

Co-registration is the practice of collecting opt-ins for multiple organizations, and sometimes

for types of products or services, on a website's registration page or on a paper subscription

form. An individual provides registration information once, but then opts in (via checkboxes) to

receive marketing communications from multiple companies.

Section F. Affiliate/CPA Marketing

Affiliate Networks/Programs• CommissionJunction• LinkShare• Share A Sale• 1 ShoppingCart• MyAffiliateProgram

CPA Offer Networks (Primarily for Consumer Offers)• Primary Ads• AzoogleLeads• CPA Empire• HydraNetwork• ClickBooth• Value Click Media

Contents






Enhancing Email List Growth (Online & Offline Acquisition)

The average cost of an email order is less than $7

– Shop.org, 2008

Email marketing is expected to generate $43 in revenue for each $1 spent in 2009

– DMA, 2008

50 million people will check email at least 5 times today

– ClickZ, 2008

55% of marketers surveyed expect ROI from email to be higher than any other channel

– Datran Media, 2008

Online Email Acquisition - Best Practices

• Provide a benefit-oriented reason to subscribe - offer an incentive, specify benefits to your target audience!

• Include a privacy statement/link• Simple email address field to start process is best• Put field in a prominent place - above the fold• Ideally, include on most pages of website• Data requested should be driven by and cater to our market

segments• Minimizing fields maximizes sign-ups

LESSON: Thoughts become things

Online Email Acquisition: Best Practice Form Illustration

LESSON: Thoughts become things

Email Acquisition – Always Be Building!

Delivering More Emails to the Inbox (Deliverability)

Key Factor Determine Campaign Inbox Deliverability

• Authentication– Confirming that your email headers match your SPF (Sender Policy Framework) record!!– Ask your subscribers to add your email address to their address book– Use SpamCheck to ensure your message doesn’t have any trigger words or trigger elements

• Content of the email– Filters like SpamAssassin assign values to words, formats and other things that seem

“spammy”– Don’t use trigger words in your subject lines– Use consistent from names– Use the same from address every time

• HTML Code– If it’s not perfect, you may be blocked– You are more likely to be filtered for code than for content

• Reputation– Spam reports and blacklists– Make sure your Email Service Provider is whitelisted with AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, and Hotmail

• Speed of send– Sending too fast will get you blocked

Email Service Providers (ESPs) Typically Improve Deliverability

• Moving to an ESP often results in greater deliverability and significant lifts in key metrics– 93% lift in open rate

– 171% increase in click-through rate

– 13% increase in conversion rates

Key Features to Look for with ESPs:

Best Practice: Continually Investigate Ongoing Deliverability

• Monitor appearance on blacklists– www.SenderBase.org– www.BlackListMonitor.com

• Check feedback loops– Unique to each ISP – Detailed information on deliverability provided to “white hat” senders

• Deliverability audits– Habeus, Return Path, etc.

• Answer what’s it in for them• Open with a benefit or curiosity• Create a sense of urgency• Personalize it• Keep it under 35 characters

Best Practices for Email Subject Lines & Content

• Avoid CSS• Avoid Javascript• Avoid Forms• Avoid using ALL CAPS• Avoid using just an image with

no text• Avoid Big Red Lettering

Subject Lines Email Content Best Practices

Best Practices: Words to Avoid to Improve Deliverability

CAN-SPAM Provisions in Brief

Achieving High Open Rates

A good open rate is 20% A great open rate is anything

above 30%Note: Open Rates are usually underreported by 10-15% due to images being blocked by default in some email clients

Best Practices – The Sending Address

“Knowing and trusting the sender” was cited as a reason for opening by 56% of consumers

- Return Path, 2007

73% of those surveyed clicked “report spam” based on the from line

- Email Sender and Provider Coalition, 2007

Use Proper Sender Address!!

35%of consumers open messages based on what’s in the subject line

- JupiterResearch, 2006

69% of those surveyed clicked “report spam” based on the subject line

- Email Sender and Provider Coalition, 2007

Best Practices – The Subject Line

Best Practice: Transactional Messages

• Higher open rates and higher click-through rates

– Than other types of email

• Incorporate relevant promotional messages

– Even better: position as a benefit

Snippets and AutoPreview are standard in Gmail and Outlook Email Clients

Correcting this in the past for me led to a 48% lift in open rate

Best Practices – Cater to Snippets / Auto-Preview

Improving Click-through Rates

A good CTR is 2% A great CTR is anything above 4%

Design & Test Emails for Good Preview Pane Viewing

64% of web users offered preview panes use them as their default – MarketingSherpa 2007

Client success story: 220% lift in leads generated from preview pane test

Design Emails with Image Blocking in Mind

87% of users have email clients that block images by default

- EmailLabs, 2007

59% of those asked routinely block images in email

- Marketing-Sherpa, 2007

Increasing Conversion Rates

Best Practice: Segmentation & Timing

• Segmentation = Relevant to Your Reader

– Reported interests: information provided at opt-in– Observed behavior: click tracking, Web paths

• 57% of marketers reported that providing unique content by segment was “routinely justified by results”

• Only 6% reported that it was “not justified by results”

– MarketingSherpa, November 2007

•The best times to send an email to consumer addresses are: Tuesday through Thursday 6pm to 8pm and Sunday 7pm to 9pm.

•The best times to send an email to business addresses are: Tuesday through Thursday 9am to 11am, 1pm to 3pm.

Best Practice: Testing, Tracking & Reporting

• Landing page tests return an average lift of 40%; even better results were not unusual

– MarketingSherpa, 2007

• 34% of email marketers reported that creative optimization had the most impact on response

– Datran Media Research, 2007

• Test Strategically– A/B splits, multivariate testing

– Confirm the statistical significance of your results

• “Lack of accountability/measurement” was cited by only 6% of marketers as one of the biggest challenges to email marketing

– Source: MarketingSherpa, November 2007

• Think past the email– Bounces, opens, clicks are good

• Use industry benchmarks as a guide to areas of potential improvement

– Click-streams, sales, conversions are better • Usually require Web analytics

Don’t Forget Retention Marketing Online

Often times companies focus WAY

too much time and money on

acquiring new customers and not

nearly enough on converting existing

prospects and getting existing

customers to buy more.

Marcus Stuart [email protected] (1) 917.957.0690UK (44) 772.567.6646

USErin TaylorTen Post Office Square Boston MA 02109

Dan Defnall (Finance Director)661 Tahoe CircleAtlanta, GA 30083404.292.7008

UKMarcus Stuart Vannini4 Phillimore GardensLondon W8 7QD

Russian FederationAvi HershEmc319/10 Protopopovsky PereulokMoscow Russia7 917 599 5500

India (New Media & Development Operations)Parth GhandiRaheja Centre-Point294, C.S.T. RoadSantacruz (E) Mumbai(91) 22 6641 4141

online strategy discussion primer

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