What's the most effective web marketing tactic you've seen or used that very few people know about?
-
I wanted to start a thread to share some of the really cool marketing tactics I've seen on the web that I think few folks are using, AND ask the community here what you've seen, too!
Some of my favorite undiscovered or less-used tactics include:
-
Making smart use of bios for conferences, events, interviews, etc. where folks ask you or your team members for a "bio" and you get to control the links, link targets, and anchor text. This is super powerful in my experience, so long as you have a moderately strong profile or regular participation in this type of stuff.
-
Price anchoring on conversion pages, e.g. http://www.trackur.com/options - note how they start with the highest price to help "anchor" the audience to bigger numbers. A great principle of psychology in action.
-
Using re-marketing to draw people to content rather than just purchase/conversion pages. The effectiveness of these is, I've heard, dramatically higher than the usual re-marketing campaigns that take you to a squeeze or purchase page. I can't share the example I'm thinking of, unfortunately, but I'd urge you to try it!
-
Get more social shares and clicks by SHARING MORE THAN ONCE! A lot of folks feel like they are burdening their audience on Twitter/Facebook/G+ or frustrating them if they post multiple times, when in fact, very, very few of your followers are online at any given time. I've tested this myself and I get almost no negative feedback but can triple or more the number of shares/+1s/likes/visits/etc I get just by sharing 2-3X! The key is not to be too repetitive or annoying, and to acknowledge past shares (at least for me). e.g. I'll say "my blog post from last night on XYZ" and get a ton more clicks.
What are your favorites? Please share!
-
-
This post is deleted! -
This post is deleted! -
I work with lots of photographers that have their own Flickr account.
For Local Search it is very effective to have the photographer add in the exif of the images their NAP. Flickr will pull out this info and post in the "meta" page. That creates a new citation in Flickr for every photo posted.
That works with photographers but in any image you can add the Creator exif and post it to Flickr.
-
I call this the "authority interview."
This is a great landing page strategy. Add long tail FAQ's to landing pages using Skype recordings. So if you have a client (or you can do this solo):
- Use Suggest, Quora, http://www.soovle.com or http://ubersuggest.org to fins FAQ's relate to your focus keyword
- document theseFAQ's for every landing/target page
- record a Skype call in interview format using http://www.ecamm.com/mac/callrecorder/ (or use Live Hangouts to create YouTube video)
- pay $10 for a transcript using Fiverr or Speechpad
- post the interview and text on your blog
- syndicate to social and bookmarking sites using OnlyWire and Hootsuite
- Syndicate the video to major video sites
- Make sure you have a video sitemap
- measure organic traffic for short and long tail keywords
- address low performing landing pages and re-syndicate popular ones!
-
I find mixing the seo ppc and social disciplines to be amazing - ie create a infographic and then run a contest based on it to improve interaction with it and then run email marketing and retargeting to promote it. Works even better if you have a co-sponsor in it to help promote it.
(You can even do cheap ppc on the topic the infographic talks about)
-
good one- i did a post on it last year you can read more about here http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/retargeting-hack-for-the-buying-cycle
-
Dave,
That is one thing I did not think about. Excellent point! Cool.
Thanks a ton,
Robert
-
Right on...Thanks again Robert!
-
Excellent
No, the number in the meta description should not affect the NAP (and we have not seen it do so - yes we are watching for a stray to show up in a cite) due to the meta description not being a part of the algorithm and due to the number in no way appearing on the site.
In cases where we want a secondary number on a site/page and we do not want it to affect the NAP, we use an image of the number without the number in alt text. We keep the actual NAP # in the footer for Local cite purposes on that page.
Hope that helps. Great point!
-
Hi Robert,
I totally agree with your comment above. I did have a thought though. With Google's emphasis on NAP data for local search - would hard coding the false, trackable number in the meta description affect the way they verify the accuracy of this data?
-
I like it. Getting video testimonials is so hard! Swiffer is sort of "cheating" check it out:
http://www.swiffer.com/reviews
“Disclaimer: This consumer received rewards from expotv.com for providing their opinion of this product.”
Paying for reviews in any way is unethical, but at least they're saying it in the disclaimer.
Dove isn't paying for the review they're just helping the customer make it happen, which is brilliant.
I wonder if restaurant customers would be willing to fill out a review on an ipad right after their meal. maybe even a video review?
-
Nice tip. I've been using this one for a while as well. In some cases, the meta description phone number will be clickable on a mobile device too.
-
Thanks Andy,
That is a reasonable consideration, but you have to ask the question: "Whose CTR are you affecting, your own, or the ones on the page without a number?" Yes, I think its both. But if you are lower (6 to 10) I think you take the higher traffic somewhat.
Then, say 10% of those who would have clicked through, called instead and you lost 10% of that traffic. Would you rather have ten click throughs or ten calls where you talk with a potential customer? For my money, I want to talk with the potential buyer.
Best,
-
Awesome! I actually proposed this idea for a client last week and was wondering if it had a history of success. Thanks for posting.
-
Yes this is a great technique. Splitting up remarketing lists in segments in general is a great idea.
Curious, do you have a certain strategy working you would advise for display network (not remarketing)?
For me, the section I use heaviest in display network is the exclusions (any really).
-
Like it, but id bear in mind though its widely believed that CTR is a ranking factor. Encouraging non click behaviour may negatively affect your positioning although I do widely see numbers in PPC ads actually increase CTR.
-
Have been putting phone in various other tags for ages, but somehow your obvious "extension" to put it in of that never hit me. Thanks!
-
I mostly work in analytics, so as you'll see, my focus is much more on the research side as opposed to the implementation side.
Your client is New Airline X. They want both link and social shares.
- Pick a few competitors – Delta, AA, etc.
- Get an export of their Twitter followers.
- Get an export of their inbound links.
- Look at who follows your client, has a website and doesn't link to them. That's one target list.
- Look at who follows multiple of the competitors, but not your client. That's another target list.
- Look at who links to multiple of the competitors, but not your client. That's another list.
- Crawl the competitor websites and find where people are linking to broken/nonexistent pages on their sites. Cross-reference with the Twitter export, and you've got a list for broken link building with built in social media information.
If you have access to a large list vendor, you can cross-reference your Twitter list with theirs to see if you can automagically get email addresses for these people so that you don't have to hunt for them, but honestly, I generally prefer not to do that because I don't like the idea of working with list vendors, and too much of their data is just not good.
You can do something similar to the process above with Author Crawler & G+, but I find that it's not as easy to work with, so I rarely go through that additional process.
-
Using all applicable Adwords extensions. They can make such a difference to campaigns. Some of my client ads look like they're on steroids compared to the competition
-
Thanks for sharing this! Fantastic idea.
-
Using remarketing on thankyou page for quote requests. Goal is to improve quote to sale ratio.
The advertising says thank you for considering us. We want to be your best choice in price, quality and service whatever it takes. So do contact us if you feel we can do better.
(freely translated from Dutch)
We noticed decrease in quote to sale ratio's for one client and the above is our response as of this month.
First results show quote to sale percentage has improved from 30% to 36% but again do note this is our first month of testing this strategy.
Thank you for the remarketing to content pages idea. Will give it a shot for sure.
About hidden psychology in pricing, why don't you give round numbers a shot in a conversion test (ie. $100 instead of $99 or $97)... Nobody is doing this anymore and Dutch biggest supermarket is getting surprising results now testing it (them testing it in itself is nice to know).
-
tsolber1
I like this a lot. Good one.
Robert
-
Our company, Influitive, believes in the power of mobilizing advocates to improve marketing. The idea being that customers trust other customers and are not interested in talking with marketing or sales persons until their decision is made Here is an excellent case study by SMARTTech on how they effectively mobilized their advocates to market their product.
-
Great idea.
-
Either live-blogging or writing a summary blog post of a speech given by a featured speaker at an event. While this is time-consuming to do, it creates quality content, engages with a speaker who may have a strong built in audience of fans, and the speaker will likely be grateful for the write up.
You also have a built in audience for consumption of your post in the event attendees who were more interested in the speech than taking notes.
-
Excellent question Rand, and ...
... I was going to keep this hidden away, but love the moz.
For me the most underutilized and proven technique in our shop (not sure for every industry, but certainly for B2C) is having a phone number in the meta description for important pages. We usually have 5 to 10 per client that are distinct and trackable. We use an outside service (IfByPhone) to purchase numbers and their platform.
Each important page for ranking and where we are at least in the top 20 of SERP's, has its own distinct number and we are able to generate calls from there. (Remember don't put them on the site other than in the meta description).
The belief is that some people want the convenience of being able to get the answer now. By having a number where others do not, you can be ranked 6th and "steal" clicks from those higher.
So, if the meta answers the query and there is a number, we see people call without ever clicking through. If they do click through, that's good too.
Thanks,
Robert
-
Brilliant! Had never thought of that
-
This is along similar lines to the bio's but for companies that have industry body membership or sponsorship. Many industry bodies allow you to post news and have detailed descriptions where you get a lot of control. These sites are usually authorities on your subject too. I have used these to good effect.
-
I like the idea of giving an example of price anchoring... Looked, liked, yet to convert...
Good sly marketing tactic, complimentary markets!
-
Hi Rand,
I'd like to add amateur video testimonials to the list. Dove started the trend offline by getting actual customers to review the product in their ads and the same concept seems to work quite well online. One of our clients mailed out disposable cameras to their clients and had them record testimonials which were then used in a variety of campaigns including landing pages, email marketing and on their site. Led to an increased engagement as the clients themselves shared the website link where their testimonial was hosted with their friends/acquaintances. Not sure if this qualifies in the "very few people know of" category however i thought I'd still share it.
Cheers,
-
Great thread, Rand!
One of my favourites - Using delayed remarketing, e.g. for oil changes. Set the remarketing cookie on the thank you page when someone signs up for the oil change service, and then hold the remarketing for 90 days to remind them to come in again.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Should Mobile Header Design Use Big White Area for Large Male Thumbs when 65% + of Visitors are Male?
About 65% of our visitors are male. Consultant "A" produced design "A" (see attached). This design incorporates large white areas so there there is sufficient space for male visitors with larger fingers. Consultant "A" also was of the opinion that the menu "hamburger" bar should have the word "menu" under it and that displaying it would increase conversions. Consultant "B" is of the opinion that displaying as much content above the fold is key to maximizing conversions. They believe that we don't have to use so much space between elements and that the word "Menu" is not necessary to display beneath the hamburger. I have enclosed design "B" from consultant "B". Personally I prefer the 2nd design, however I understand that conversion is down to a science and there are certain accepted protocols and standards that serve to increase conversions. Does anyone have opinion as to which of the 2 attached designs would work best for conversions? Thanks,
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan1
Alan UOf1rKo eQRWToZ0 -
Meta Descriptions - Does Cutt's comment still hold true?
When looking through my old research on Meta's came across this article on Search Engine Land where Matt Cutt's stated... "In fact, Matt said for his own blog, he doesn’t bother to make meta descriptions for his own site. In short, it is better to let Google auto-create snippets for your pages versus having duplicate meta descriptions."(http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-dont-duplicate-your-meta-descriptions-177706) Recently, I have seen Google continuously play around with my metas, pulling from some really weird places on the page, discrediting the meta that I have there..and more-or-less really f them up.. Does the community think that maybe what Matt said in 2013 still holds weight and we are just wasting time with metas since Google does what they want in that space anyways?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | GoAbroadKP2 -
Keywords: Anybody know how to find which keywords your competitors are converting?
Hi Guys I'm ranking on page 1 for some pretty good keywords, in NZ and 1 for australia, slowing making it up the ranks for USA, however I can see that my competitors only use PPC, is there anyway I can see which keywords they are targeting and getting the most from? I'm now thinking perhaps I'm going for the wrong keywords: I don't have any access to SEM rush, and gathered that was one way to find these. Any ideas around this, or perhaps how to find which keywords I should be better targeting. Cheers
Conversion Rate Optimization | | edward-may0 -
Root or sub domain for my site? (I forgot which I used to target)
Hi there, I'm sorry for what is most likely a daft question with an easy answer. I have searched the web but whilst there are lots of answers about this generally, nothing seems to answer my specific problem. I have just begun relaunching my site - workingfirstaid.co.uk - but basically cannot remember if I used to try and get links pointing to www.work... or work... I know I have so few links already that it probably doesn't really matter, but I don't want to spend time pointing to the wrong version. My internal links point to the non www version, but searching google for [working first aid] brings up the www version. Thanks in advance for your time! Cord
Conversion Rate Optimization | | cordite0 -
Need Advice on Home page Conversion Rate Improvement - not much $$s
Anyone out there have some suggestions for how I can improve my home page and increase my lousy conversion rate? I've spent years on the content and SEO optimization of my site and very little time on making a home page that sells stuff. Caveat - I don't have the money to go to one of those fancy companies who do a complete makeover and charge in the tens of thousands. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Jean http://www.northwest-wine.com
Conversion Rate Optimization | | JeanYates0 -
Review Functionality Plugins for eCommerce. Which are the best and most cost effective?
Hi Mozzers! Let me give you a bit of background for my question. I currently look after two eCommerce sites and naturally I want to get them using reviews for products for customer interaction / content and rich snippets. I am basically looking for a cost effective plugin that can plugin to our CMS system that can give us review functionality and will be compatible with rich snippets. At the moment we use Disqus for the blog commenting system and i've heard this can be used for product reviews. Any ideas would be great. At the moment our client is holding back due to 'lack of funds' so the most cost effective measures would be appreciated. Cheers,
Conversion Rate Optimization | | SEOAndy0 -
Tips on marketing actual "Products" rather than "SEO Advice"?
First of all I just want to say that I love SEOMoz, it's by far the best no-BS resource for SEO and online marketing information in general on the entire Internet, and well worth the money. HOWEVER, one beef I am starting to have with it recently is... Most of the content being generated is becoming about "how to market to marketers" or "selling SEO" rather than actual advice or focus selling general products or services. By this I mean that all the new trends towards pumping out content based on research, making fancy infographics etc. etc. are all well and good for those who are trying to market their marketing or SEO talents in general but not THAT applicable to traditional online storefronts. I work for a fairly large company that sells tickets for theme parks/attractions/tours etc. and SEOMoz was a huge help initially for a recent site redesign, but now every time I log on to check for fresh content it's seemingly a repeat similar advice on how to get links or traffic for an SEO business. I don't mean this to come off as a whine because as I said SEOMoz is wonderful, but I've conducted endless site searches for (recent) information on traditional online marketing etc. and the ratio just seems to be...off. Anyone else feeling this way?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | ExperienceOz0 -
Google Adwords Quality Score Driving me I-N-S-A-N-E
Here's my issue, I have an Air Conditioning client for whom I've been managing their SEO and Adwords PPC for the past year. The SEO is going good, we are seeing tangible results every month will soon be on page 1 for their most competitive keyword. On the adwords side, we are having some major issues though and I'm racking my brain. We are somehow getting quality scores in the 2's and 3's on the regular. I've streamlined my campaigns down to the city and within those I've streamlined my keyword groups into the following groups: City (Campaign) - AIr Conditioning (keyword group) - AC Repair (keyword group) - Fix AC (keyword group) - Contractor (keyword group) - Air Conditioner (keyword group) Every keyword we're bidding on falls nicely into one of these keyword groups and we're putting about 10 key words in each. Landing pages have exact phrase match in page title, h1, bold words, contact form and a coupon image with all the meta tags indicating the image offer matches the offer in our ads. We are running 3-4 ads in each keyword and testing new ads almost daily. Still getting 2s and 3s on the highest trafficked keywords (air conditioning & ac repair). I've read everything out there, I signed up for wordstream which had some decent recommendations (basically break your ad groups into smaller verticals) which I've implemented to no avail. I'm beginning to think Google is just hustling all these companies in service industry who they know rely on adwords to get phone calls in the summer - especially the HVAC industry. I'm running out of ideas here other than just going to Vegas and putting all my client's on black at the roulette wheel. Seems like a much more fun way to piss away thousands of dollars and at least they'll give me some cocktails.
Conversion Rate Optimization | | BrianJGomez0