Out of the Fog Marketing

Read a great article on B2B Marketing discussing how the traditional press release has changed from a vehicle for media to a vehicle for online marketing.

Labels: online public relations, press releases., public relations, SEO press release

A number of respected SEO experts have lately been somewhat negative on the use of press releases as part of internet marketing campaigns. Press releases with keyword-rich titles do work - a little better on Yahoo! than Google, but they work.
Here's an example... if you type "michigan marketing firm" into Yahoo! Search you'll see the Clarity Quest website at #2. However, check out #1 - it's a PR Web link to a press release we issued back in June 2007!
Now I don't recommend you fabricate topics for a release or issue junk releases. There should be an actual news story as the basis for the releases. But completely ignoring SEO PR as part of your internet marketing strategy is a mistake.

Labels: Internet marketing, link building for SEO, press releases., SEO press release, web marketing

Get High Quality Links to Rank Well On Search Engines

Developing and maintaining high quality links to your web site is essential to ranking high on search engines. Google ranks web pages based on the number and the quality of incoming links if more than one web page is optimized for the same keyword.

Here are a few tips for building quality links:

1) So get listed on respected directories such as dmoz.org or Google Maps.
2) Issue quality press releases to get online publications to cover your story and link to your site.
3) Post blog comments with a user profile that also contains a link to your site.

Labels: Google ranking, Michigan SEO, SEO press release

Greetings. I've finally taken the leap and commit to getting a few zany and hopefully useful marketing thoughts out of my head each week.

Why "Out of the Fog"? Well despite moving our headquarters from Seattle to Ann Arbor, Michigan last July, my blog title refers not to leaving the mist of Seattle behind, but rather the fog of marketing options a small or even medium-sized business must cut through. Even as an marketing professional, I feel overwhelmed with the number of new marketing, advertising and public relations avenues and technologies being created every day. Rich media, social networking, SEO press releases, viral marketing...the average small business but has little to no idea on how to best use these tactics or if they should even use them at all. In this blog I will offer thoughts and advice on marketing strategies and tactics that have worked or failed for small businesses and startups in the 7 years we've been providing outsource marketing services.

Our first piece of advice: take just 15 minutes each day to read something about marketing online or in print. MarketingSherpa is one great area for news, articles, and blogs all related to online marketing. When you come across an interesting topic, don't rush to implement it for your company but dwell on it a little and then enlist the advice of an objective marketing specialist.

The path to successfully marketing your business gets wilder and more interesting every day. I hope you enjoy taking the journey with me. Thanks for reading.

Labels: marketing, Michigan marketing, SEO press release, small business, virtual marketing firm