Author Archive

Essential Web Marketing Terms and Acronyms

Posted by Christopher Long

Caffeine molecule

Good evening America. We’ve noticed a lot of esoteric acronyms and Web marketing terms being thrown around out there in the digital world so we thought we would do everyone a favor and get them all together under one roof.

If you see any that we missed, shoot us an email and we’ll give you credit and make the edit.

Thanks to the Capisco Marketing team and some friends of Capisco that lent a hand putting this all together. We’d also like to give an honorable mention to our dear friend caffeine.

 

Web Marketing Definitions

 

:: Acronyms ::

 

CMS – Content Management System. A system to manage, edit, modify and publish content for a website. Example: WordPress or Magento

CPA – Cost Per Acquisition / Action. The amount an advertiser or company is willing to pay for a predesignated action.

CPC – Cost Per Click. The average cost an advertiser or company is charged per click they receive.

CPL – Cost Per Lead. The amount an advertiser or company is willing to pay for a lead.

CPM – Cost Per 1000 Impressions. The 1000 comes from the Roman Numeral (M) which equals 1000.

CPS – Cost Per Sale. The amount an advertiser or company is willing to pay for a sale.

CRM – Client / Customer Relationship Management. A tool to manage communication and sales outreach. Example: Salesforce

CTR – Click Through Rate. The rate at which a person clicks on a specific ad, button, place or product. Clicks / Impressions = CTR

eCPC – Effective Cost Per Click. Calculated by multiplying the CPA by the conversion rate for an offer or advertisement.

PPC – Pay Per Click. The amount an advertiser is willing to pay per click.

SEM – Search Engine Marketing. When correctly used it refers to a SEO campaigned coupled with a paid search campaign. Often incorrectly understood to mean paid search marketing only.

SEO – Search Engine Optimization. The act of optimizing a website to increase its organic rankings for targeted keyword phrases.

SERP(s) – Search Engine Result Page. The page displayed on a search engine resulting from a search query that was entered.

SMM – Social Media Marketing. Marketing outreach through social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.

SMS – Short Message Service.  Text message advertisements of 160 characters or less that are sent to cell phones.

UX – User Experience. Refers to webpage elements that impact the site visitor’s / user’s experience such as design, layout, call to action, written copy, images and navigation.

 

:: Terms ::

 

Above the Fold / Below the Fold – A term used in the heydays of print advertising that has endured into the digital age. Originally referring to the fold of newspapers, above the fold refers to the area of a website immediately visible to the site visitor as soon as the page loads. Below the fold refers to any part of a webpage that a site visitor has to scroll down to view.

Action – Anytime a site visitor performs a certain act: fill out a lead form, buy a product, etc.

Ad Copy – Short & clickable text of a PPC or contextual ad.

Ad Platform – A place to buy media or traffic.

Affiliate Marketing – A type of marketing where businesses outsource a portion of their online advertising efforts through to affiliates who then arbitrage traffic sources to earn a commission.

Affiliate Networks – An entity that acts as a middleman, aggregating advertisements from businesses and offering them to affiliates / publishers to run traffic and earn a commission.

Arbitrage – Buying traffic or a product from one source and quickly selling it to another source for a profit.

Assets – All of the creative material necessary for an advertisement (copy, pictures, subject lines, links, promotion, logo, branding guidelines).

Backlinks – Inbound links from other websites that connect to your website.

Black Hat SEO – Optimization techniques that work to game the search algorithm to gain undeserved improvement to SERP rankings and can result in site ranking penalization by Google / Yahoo / Bing when discovered.

Bounce Rate (email) – The percent of recipients from an e-blast that fail to receive delivery of the email sent.

Bounce Rate (website) – The percent of site visitors that leave quickly, usually 15 seconds or less.

Call to Action – The desired act by consumers that a website / advertisement / post was designed to promote or orchestrate.

CAN-SPAM – Email marketing guidelines established by Congress in 2003 limiting spam and regulating marketing email distribution.

Click – A unique click on a link or advertisement that leads the view to a new webpage.

Collateral – Printed advertising material meant for distribution (business cards, pamphlets, menu cards, brochures).

Contextual Advertising – Advertising on space made available by users who download certain browser add-ons. These add-ons then display pop-up ads selected through an automated system based on the content the user is viewing.

Conversion Rate – The amount of site conversions divided by the amount of site visitors.

Copy – The written content of a website, newspaper, magazine or similar publication.

Creatives – The imagery, video and pictures used in an advertisement.

Display Marketing – Marketing through image-based ad displays on high traffic websites.

Double Opt-In – The act of a consumer agreeing a second time to receive marketing material from a specific source often used in email marketing as a requisite for white-listing.

Email Marketing – Marketing to consumers through newsletters or e-blasts.

Google Algorithm – A proprietary input function used in determining an indexed site’s relevance to certain search queries.

Grey Hat SEO – Optimization efforts that utilize both white hat and a moderate amount of black hat SEO techniques to improve SERP rankings while flying under the radar of the major search engines.

Hard Bounce (email) – An email message that is permanently undeliverable due to the message being sent to an invalid / nonexistent email address or to a server that has blocked the sending server.

Impression – Anytime an advertisement is displayed for viewing it is counted as 1 impression.

Incentivized Traffic – Web traffic that results from offering the consumer a benefit (monetary or otherwise) for performing a specific act.

Media Buy – Buying media space on an advertising platform: Television, PPC, Radio, Print Publications, Web Display Traffic, etc.

Mobile Traffic – Traffic resulting from advertisements shown on mobile devices.

Opt-In – The act of a consumer agreeing to receive marketing material from a certain source. Usually used in email and SMS marketing.

Organic Traffic – Traffic resulting from organic listings on SERP(s).

Page Conversion – The occurrence of a site visitor, or ad viewer, performing a certain desired act.

Pop-unders – A new browser window featuring promotions that pops underneath the content of a webpage.

Pop-ups – A new browser window featuring promotions that pops-up over the content of a webpage.

Re-Targeted Advertising – Specifically targeting site visitors with advertising related to a site they recently visited.

Search Traffic – Traffic resulting from PPC or organic search listings.

Soft Bounce (email) – An email message that has failed to be delivered due to the recipient’s mailbox being full, the receiving server being down or the message being too large to be received.

Suppression / Unsubscribe – The act of opting-out of receiving further marketing promotions from an advertiser or company. Email marketers have exactly 10 days to cease sending you advertisements from the day you unsubscribe or risk being in violation of the CAN-SPAM act of 2003.

Tracking Pixel – A portion of code that is place in a website to track which clicks or sources of traffic result in page conversions.

White Hat SEO – Proper and approved search engine optimization techniques used to improve a site’s SERP rankings for targeted keywords

White Listing – A status given to publishers / advertisement distributers who are approved to send unfiltered traffic to a source of consumers.

Wireframe  – The skeleton or layout detailing where all the creative elements and copy will be displayed on the design of a new website.

 

Native vs. Web Apps vs. Mobile Website

Posted by Christopher Long

Native App Vs Mobile - Rocky Vs ApolloWebsite Design and Development Trends

 

The days of sitting at one’s desktop computer to surf the web are long gone. With the advent of smartphones and tablets, people are accessing information in the palms of their hands at an alarming rate.  So what does this mean for smart businesses?  It means they need to be prepared to share their information on the mobile web.  This brings up another question: is it better to have a native app or a mobile-optimized website for your business?

 

Native Apps are faster, more interactive and can access your mobile device features.  They’re good for regular usage/personalization, with no connection required.  Native apps are built using programming language specific to the platform of a particular mobile device, so one native app can’t run on different mobile platforms and every platform needs to have its own native app.  Most of the games you play on your smartphone are native apps.

 

Mobile sites are easier to navigate, instantly available, easy and inexpensive to build and update, compatible across all devices, can be found more easily, and have broader reach.  If a mobile site is developed for one’s business, a responsive design is the best way to go.  A responsive design adjusts to the device it is being viewed on, whether it’s a PC, tablet or smartphone.

 

Mobile Web Apps can function across all platforms from any mobile device.  They can only partially use features of a mobile phone, i.e., the GPS but not the camera. They are not available in an app store, so they don’t require any approval process. Web apps can be used without having to be downloaded and installed onto a mobile device.  An example of a web app is Google Calendar.

 

Mobile Websites

1. Accessed by smartphone and tablets through the web browser

2. Static, navigational user interface

3. Requires connection

4. Somewhat limited features

5. Speed – Fast

6. Development cost – Reasonable

7. App store – Not necessary

8. Approval process – none

 

Native App

1. Accessed after being installed from app store onto mobile device

2. Specifically designed to work only on the operating system of the device downloading the app

3. Interactive user interface

4. Available offline

5. Can access phone features like GPS, camera, etc.

6. Speed – Very fast

7. Development cost – Expensive

8. App store – Available

9. Approval process – sometimes mandatory

10. Require periodic updates in order to continue working properly

 

Native apps offer a superior experience in the context of today’s technology. They leverage components of their native operating system so they look and feel more polished, run faster, and are thoroughly integrated with the mobile device.  Native apps are only as good as the present technology so as technology continues to evolve, native apps are likely to become obsolete.

 

Mobile Web App

1. App store or marketplace not needed to download and install web app

2. Specifically designed to work only on the device’s OS

3. Interactive user interface

4. Accessed through the mobile device’s web browser

5. Cannot make use of all phone features like camera, stored photos, etc.

6. Speed – fast

7. Development cost – Reasonable

8. Not available for purchase from app store; as such, it can be harder for users to find your app

9. Approval process – none

10. No need for updates: the most current version is loaded each time a web app is opened.

 

A web app is typically coded in HTML combined with JavaScript.  While fundamental differences will likely remain between a native and web app for some time, the user experiences provided by both interfaces are increasingly indistinct, as most native apps utilize real-time web connectivity and web apps provide offline modes that can be accessed without network connectivity.  As a result, some of these apps are now referred to as hybrid apps.

 

It comes down to the goal of your site or business and budget.  If your objective is to offer mobile-friendly content, reach a broader audience, offer immediate access to your business, the ability to make frequent updates, and you have a limited budget, then a mobile site is probably best for you.  If you want to offer an interactive experience to your user, add personalization to your service/business, allow users to access their mobile device functions (GPS, camera, contacts, etc), and give the user access to your site without being online, then a native app might be your solution.  Ultimately, mobile users want ease of access, a fast connection, and a smooth look and feel.  Looking ahead to trends in the coming year, smart businesses are likely to embrace the strengths and differences of all development options, even including the use of web-native hybrid apps in addition to mobile websites.  This varied approach challenges us to stay on top of tumultuous trends, new technology and anticipate consumer demand.

2012 Web Development Wrap Up

Posted by Christopher Long

On this, the last day of the year, it’s time to take a second and reflect on a huge year in the Web Development realm.  Phrases like ‘Responsive Design’ and ‘Content Strategy’ entered our vocabulary. Words like ‘Flash’ and ‘Splash Page’ are exiting or, in some circles, are considered cuss words.  Here are my top 10 favorite things that happened in 2012:

1. Responsive Design: Responsive Design is a new paradigm in Web design that, through coding objects to appear at relative distances from other objects, websites are rendered extremely amicable towards the various sizes of smart devices. Responsive web design determines the resolution of the device that’s accessing the site. It is then sizes accordingly to fit the screen. Though it all started late last year, it is rapidly becoming a Web standard…designers out there best pay heed. Bridging the gap between mobile sites, WAPs & corporate websites, businesses can now service all these needs with one malleable core website.  Everyone is talking about Responsive Design, don’t be late to the table – Ethan Marcotte is a damn genius.

2. Grid Systems: A fundamental tool of efficiency, grid systems standardizes the various size metrics that a designer and developer will work within to fabricate a website. It allows flexibility and encourages correlation between web page elements, eases the integration of photos and text, and reduces significant coding errors. Saving time in communication and redesign specs, grid systems are an excellent complement to Responsive Design.  The two I’ve been tinkering with are Twitter Bootstrap coded with Less and Foundation with Sass.  At this moment, I’m leaning more towards Sass.  So would have to pick Foundation.

3. Parallax: Parallax has been used in the video game world for quite some time but is just now spilling over into the Web development world. Think back to the old scrolling Mario games of your ill-spent youth and you’ll have an idea of what Parallax is. Although the Parallax fuse has only recently been lit in the Web dev world, it is spreading like wildfire. By adding a level of perspective and dimension to a website, intriguing effects engage site visitors and encourage them to longer duration stays.   I have a feeling 2013 is going to push the envelope on what a website should look like…we are going to be seeing some sick sites.

4. Real Rockstars: Just like having your favorite bands, we all have our rockstar developers who we love to stalk. Paul Irish and Chris Coyier are my 2 top faves.  You might wanna think about stalking them yourself, but get in line.   With these guys leading with new ideas that push the possibilities and sharing it all with the rest of us…if you think about it, our dev community is pretty phenomenal.  Thanks, guys!

5. GitHub: GitHub is a code sharing and publishing service as well as a social networking site for programmers. It manages and stores revisions of projects.  Version Control never felt so good.

6. Circles in design: Lots of circles going on in Web design these days.  CSS3 makes it easy to trick out a site and make entrancing, eye-catching round frames.  I see a lot of agency sites exploiting this trend.  Even Basecamp is doing the circle dance.

7. Open Sans: A huge chunk of my clients mid-year started using Open Sans.  It’s a Google Webfont and probably one of the more decent ones they are rolling.   Open Sans is a clean and modern sans-serif typeface designed by Steve Matteson and commissioned by Google. It is especially designed for legibility across print, web, and mobile interfaces.  It also comes default in the Foundation WP theme.

8. WordPress 3.5: The WP community is so impressive.  I’ve never seen so much pride taken in a product.  The new 3.5 has a much improved media uploader and the default theme that is responsive.   I need an “I Heart WP” shirt, stat.

9. WP Plugins: Plugins that I can’t live without this year are – ACF, Custom Post Type UI, Gravity Forms, and WC Total Cache.  Did I mention I love WP?

10. Online School:  Lynda.com has been around for a long time now and finally we are starting to see some new players in the online training realm.  CodeSchool.com is my new fave.  You actually get to apply what you learn and take coding challenges.  Treehouse.com is another good go-to.  Also check out generalassemb.ly.

Lots of killer ideas hit in 2012.  In 2013, I see a lot of refinement on those ideas and the inevitable shift toward a more tailored device driven user experience (my grandma has an iPad for goodness sakes).   In short, 2013 is going to be frickin awesome.

Happy New Year, everyone!

An Introduction Into Search Marketing

Posted by Christopher Long

Magnifying glass imageAuthor’s Note: This article is meant only as an introduction into search marketing and is the first of a series on Internet marketing. Please check back weekly for updates. The terms capitalized and noted with an asterisk (*) have been defined at the bottom of the article for the reader’s convenience. It is highly suggested that readers continue their research at length, confine themselves to a small budget or seek professional assistance before beginning any SEM campaign(s).

– Search Engine Marketing –

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is arguably the most powerful marketing tool for any business. It is the method used to derive the highest quality of traffic on the Web. But, because the best traffic comes from search engines, the world of SEM is highly competitive.

Businesses battle one another every day to establish a dominant Web presence and to claim the valuable streams of search traffic for their own. Some wage a war of arbitrage through strategic paid listings on the major search engines. This is known as Paid Per Click or PPC marketing. Other businesses might focus their efforts to achieve a high Organic Ranking* on Google, Yahoo or Bing. This is known as SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Some businesses take the holistic approach and combine these efforts. This would be a complete SEM campaign.

– Search Engine Optimization –

SEO is the acronym that stands for search engine optimization and refers to the various efforts involved with ranking a website well on a search engine’s organic listings. Just as the aesthetics and functionality of a website markets to the eye of a human, the Coding*, Content* and Reach* of a website markets to the digital eye of the search engines.

Crawlers, Spiders or Robots* from each search engine are constantly Crawling* each website on the Internet, endlessly trying to determine what that website is about and relevant to. The more Google, Yahoo or Bing rate a site relevant to a search query, the higher a site will rank for that specific search query.

In general, SEO is broken-up into two parts: On-page optimization and Off-page optimization.

On-page optimization is related to anything done local to the website that is meant to improve the page’s rank. This would include tweaks in coding (header tags, image names, title tags, meta tags…) as well as the addition of any new pages or changes to content.

Off-page optimization refers to all things done off a website to improve its rank. This is principally done through a series of techniques to entice other relevant websites to link into the website that is being optimized. Also known as a backlinking campaign, this includes: Web directory submissions, blogs, forum posts, social media, press releases, etc. If successful, the site will begin to receive inbound links and a secondary effort will be made to ensure the referring links are refined to be Keyword* specific.

But, before any of this can begin, an analysis must be done to figure out what keywords will be targeted.

– Analysis –

All optimization campaigns must start with an in-depth keyword analysis to target relevant traffic for the site being optimized. An extensive review of a company’s business model and the target demographics of its clientele are essential for selecting the proper keywords to be researched.

Keyword research is done through a series of steps often beginning at Google Adwords* or Bing Ads*. Each Ad Platform offers a treasure trove of statistics and insight into a keyword’s estimated traffic, the competitiveness for rankings and even suggests alternative keywords to target.

Additional steps are also taken to review competing websites, what backlinks those sites have, and how best compete against them or possibly around them.

– PPC –

Pay Per Click advertising (PPC) is another form of search traffic that, while still outstanding, is considered of slightly less quality than organic search traffic. Though it requires paying a search engine for a favorable listing position with the cost tallied for each unique click your site receives through that listing, it can be an excellent way of circumventing the competition’s entrenched organic rankings as well as providing instantaneous traffic relief for a website. Where an SEO campaign can take three to six months for traction to take hold, a PPC campaign can deliver traffic within moments of going live.

PPC traffic is easily identified as the listings on the far right column of a Search Engine Result Page* (SERP) as well as the first few listings with a lightly shaded background in the center column. The cost of a targeted keyword is determined by the competitiveness, frequency and desired positioning related to that keyword. As these determining metrics vary daily, so too does the cost of PPC traffic on a related keyword. It is for that reason that PPC campaigns must be monitored daily to avoid an extended negative ROI.

Well, that about sums it up. Be sure to check back for more articles every week. Email chris@capiscomarketing.com if there are any specific subjects you would like treated and we’ll try to address them in our blog series or email you back directly. Thanks for reading!

– Defined Terms –

Organic Ranking: The non-paid ordinal SERP listing based upon a website’s relevancy to the specific search term queried

Coding: All programming that allows a website to function (HTML, CSS, C++, Python…)

Content: Images, video, written copy; all media that might engage the visitor of a website

Reach (website): Reach refers to a website’s ripple effect on the Internet; reposts of content, discussions about a website or its products, backlinking, 3rd party sharing of information, are all aspects of a site’s reach.

Crawlers, Spiders and Robots: Terms for search engine computers used to scan websites for indexing

Keyword: A single word or phrase targeted for search traffic

Google Adwords / Bing Ads: Search Engine Ad Platforms used to buy Search or Display traffic

Search Engine Results Page (SERP): The page displayed on a search engine after a search query has been entered.