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FUFISM EXPLAINED

#FUFISM   or Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media is a marketing philosophy where the social media is used as the primary communication tool  to bind all your marketing both online and offline into one single well managed and properly  integrated marketing effort.

This is no easy task  and requires many different people working in very diverse fields  to co-operate and work together as a team, sharing  a vast amount of data, in a variety of formats, so that those in each separate discipline can understand, interpret,  then make good use of the data supplied by the other disciplines in a manner that improves the many different  #SEOVI  (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) associated with their personal efforts, and allow for these SEOVI to be carried forward to other areas where a search engine may use these variables,  to determine the value of other connected and interrelated SEOVI.

It should be noted here, and remembered further that Google professes to use in excess of 250 different SEOVI when determining their SERP’s (Search Engine Results Pages) and that each of these many different SEOVI adds some value to your online work in the eyes of a search engine, and every tiny piece of value counts when you are dealing with highly  competitive search terms

Management issues associated with a FUFISM based marketing Strategy

A FUFISM based marketing strategy is no easy task and it requires a great deal of management of many diverse factors as well as a large team of professionals from a  variety of very different backgrounds. These professionals will all need to be re-educated as to the value of SEO and where SEO fits into the current online marketing world.

Many things changed when the Google Hummingbird algorithm was introduced in September / October 2013 and most marketing professionals have not yet been informed of the impact of these changes on the online search industry with most having no clue or very little knowledge of SEMANTIC SEARCH

This lack of knowledge about SEMANTIC search and the Google Hummingbird algorithm is a very big issue and I have personally found a great deal of resistance to the cooperative working environment where large volumes of  information that was previously held in separate *SILOS* by different company departments, now needs to be shared across all company departments in an open and transparent manner.

In the past most departments did their own research and the web site design team was often left out in the cold, doing their own  research into a number of different fields that was duplicated by

• the blogging team
• social media team
• print media team
• radio marketing team
• public relations management team
• product development team

When implementing a FUFISM based marketing Strategy,  the SEO team needs to be involved in all marketing strategies as the most important part of any SEO strategy is the large volume of #OPSEO or Off Page Search Engine Optimisation that takes place through many different channels where the social media is the one that has the highest levels of influence on your SERP's through the link building and associated semantic foot prints as well as the semantic linkages with their associated trust factors

The impact of copy writing on your SEO and SERP's

This blog post discusses some of the very many issues associated with your copy writing and getting Good SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) due to the associated #SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) that reach out from your in-page copy writing into your #OPSEO  (Off Page Search Engine Optimisation) through Good well manged social media marketing of your online content.  

The semantic foot print associated with your #FUFISM based marketing is the primary driver of the many semantically linked SEOVI (Search Engine Optimization Value Indicators) that benefit significantly from ensuring that your online content gets the necessary social media attention  as well as the required link building and associated relationship building attention.

This post came about due to a comment that I left on a post by +Michael Q Todd   which you can find here  

Copy writing is a very serious issue and needs to be done with your intended target audience in mind.

Your content should be laid out and written for your intended target audience and not a search engine. This does not mean that you should ignore the search engine, but that the interests of your intended target audience should come first, with user friendly in-page navigation and links (Call To Action Statements) to in-page book marks as well as off page points where the conversation and topics may be expanded further.

The SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) issues associated with copy writing are very complicated and need to be approached from a #FUFISM  perspective. The issues listed below need to be in place to assist the copy writer in laying out the content as well as putting the content into the correct perspective so that your *TOPIC TARGETING*  and related key word research can be used in the correct context for maximum impact, through the use of in-page book marks, as well as off page links that expand specific in-page topics, and keep the end user (your viewer) engaged and topic focused.

1. a document discussing  the purpose aims and objectives of the page in question
2. List of links to related pages that have already been published, along with the documented issues of

• who is the target audience of these pages, as they may be different from the page in question
• documented purpose, aims and objectives of these pages, as they may be very different from the page in question.
• documented key word research and associated demographics of intended target market for these pages as well as for the page in question so that these may be compared and any adjustments made with the connectivity between these pages as well as the social media marketing that would go along with the new page which is being evaluated for copy writing.
• list of page specific topics indicating topic targeted issues  to assist in key word research
• document discussing the sales / marketing funnel, clearly indicating at what point within the cycle the page in question is, as well as the primary landing page of the next step within the sales / marketing funnel.

These notes and associated documentation should later be available to the social media marketing team, so that they do not need to repeat any  research, but can take a little time to evaluate and make sensible use of this data when compiling their posts, and use the same TOPIC TARGETING as well as AUDIENCE TARGETING notes*

You do need to remember that SEO has two very separate components which are interconnected and intertwined in such a way that they are actually one single complex marketing issue.  These are  #IPSEO  (In Page Search Engine Optimisation) and  #OPSEO   (Off Page Search Engine Optimisation)

It is important to note that all social media marketing and link building as well as relationship building are directly connected to the IPSEO (In Page Search Engine Optimization) first, and then become part of the Off Page Search Engine Optimisation (OPSEO)

It is thus evident that the copy writing of a web page or blog post is an awful lot more important than most marketing folks actually realise, as all your social media and related off page marketing are based around the actual copy within the web page in question, and the issue of *TOPIC TARGETING* needs to be well documented and carried through from the copy writing of the IN PAGE CONTENT to the RELATED OPM (Off Page Marketing)   Your Off Page Marketing, also referenced to as OPSEO (Off Page Search Engine Optimisation) or content marketing in many contexts,  should include but not be limited to :

1) social media posts on all platforms that you choose to use for this particular marketing campaign
2) any blog posts that may be associated with the online marketing of the page in question
3) any marketing of the page in question in classified adds including both online techniques as well as all off  line marketing avenues, which may include, but is definitely not limited to:

•  any news paper advertising,
•  any magazine or other print media advertising 
•  any radio or  audio visual marketing such as YouTube  videos or HOA's (Hangout On Air) that may be associated with this page and related pages within your web site.

Your in page  copy should include  short sentences, with no more than five sentences in any one paragraph,  ensuring that there is adequate paragraph spacing as this is a very important signal that search engines (Google in particular) use as part of their algorithm which evaluates user friendly behavior. User experience within your pages is becoming an increasingly important  #SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicator) and readability is one of the major components here.  Short sentences and paragraph spacing are critical elements within the SEMANTIC SEARCH SPACE as well as user friendliness issues.

Any images that you may use  within the in-page layout should be topic related and contain well thought through in image META DATA such as

• key words list
• image description
• image title
• image alt text
• geo data if applicable
• image creator (photographer)
• publisher data
• other related meta data that may be applicable to these issues.

The META DATA included in your image needs to be well thought through by your graphic design team,  after consultation with the SEO manager, and be made available to the copywriter so as to ensure that  the context of the image is understood by both your target audience as well as the search engine algorithms which will use this meta data along with the associated semantic image issues,  which the search engine may have managed to extract from the image in terms of the new techniques used to identify individual in image entities and other image related semantics

This is also important from a SEMANTIC SEARCH  perspective as the in-image meta data is used along with each sentence, and the context of the paragraph where it is connected,  to form interconnected small key word chains,  that are evaluated by search engines to define and separate the individual entities within each separate sentence,  and then associate these unique identified digital entities with a variety of different entity specific  semantic foot prints.  These different digital entities and associated SEMANTIC FOOTPRINTS include but are not limited to

1. the author's semantic foot print if applicable as defined in the HTML code by the *REL = AUTHOR* tag
2. the registered publisher's semantic foot print as defined in the HTML code of the page through the *REL = PUBLISHER* tag
3. the semantic foot print of any blog as well as all individual blog posts that may be associated with the page in question or linked to this in-page content in some way.
4. the semantic foot print of any person, or identifiable digital entity  who  posts about this page with an embedded link to the page in their social media post, or shares a post that has an embedded link to the page in question.
5. the semantic foot print of any online community, with Google plus communities featuring better than most others,  where this page has an embedded link within a post that points to the web page in question, as well as any person, page or other digital entity who shares any such post.
6. the semantic foot print of any Google plus page which has a post that contains an embedded link to the page in question, as well as any digital entity who shares this post.
7. the semantic foot print of any web site or blog that has an embedded link to the page in question  which has come about as part of your link building efforts in terms of your SEO policies which may be in place.

These associated SEMANTIC FOOT PRINTS all form part and parcel of the SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) which are used by  search engines  in evaluating a search query, which makes them IMPORTANT from an SEO perspective.

Copy writing does not get the credit that it deserves within the SEO community, and the Google Humming bird algorithm needs to be better understood by you and all others who are working on your project. 

READ MORE HUMMING BIRD  HERE

The Google Humming Bird algorithm was basically a re-write of the entire Google code around semantic issues allowing for the identification of individual digital entities to be understood and compared to real life individual entities such as people, places, artifacts, tools, natural items, man made items and so many more.

The Google Humming Bird Algorithm was introduced so that search could be better implemented with the understanding of which real life entity the end user of a search engine desires to know more about, and how the search engine can identify exactly which  online resource would best satisfy the end users information request.

Online search is indeed a very complicated affair, and you do need to take advice from all quarters, and evaluate which SEO tactics you can implement your self, and which you need assistance with so that you may implement better Search Engine Optimisation policies and procedures to get the best possible SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)


Copy writing thus has a very significant impact on your SERP's from a variety of angles where the semantics identified within the content of your copy writing are extended to other digital entities, and then connected back to your web site, where the impacts can be seen on many different areas including, but not limited to

• your domain rank
• the site rank of individual sub domains
• page rank of individual pages
• author and publisher related metrics
• domain trust factors
• key word and long tail search related metrics
• actual SERP rankings (Search engine Results Pages)

 

This blog post was made to expand on my personal comment in this post by +Michael Q Todd 

IPSEO - Topic targeteting for SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is divided into two major sections the first is #IPSEO or In Page Search Engine Optimisation and the second is #OPSEO or Off Page Search Engine Optimisation.  These two sections are both important, with Off Page Search Engine Optimisation caring more weight than In page Search Engine Optimisation, how ever the In page stuff needs to be done first, and needs to be done correctly and with intent on ensuring that the correct set of key words and related information flow patterns around these selected key words is actually in-place, to suit the purpose, aims and objectives of the page in question.

Key word targeting is not an easy task, as there are so many surrounding issues that need to be considered, and the subject matter needs to be clearly understood along with where in the sales / marketing funnel the page in question is considered to be.  Here questions  around the following issues, amongst many others,   need to be addressed.  You will know what these other issues are once you take the time to document and understand the purpose, aims and objectives of the page in question.

• What is the purpose, aims and objectives of the page in question
• is this a general information page
• is this page near the top of the marketing / sales funnel
• is this page near the bottom end of the sales / marketing funnel
• how many in page CTA's (Call to action) are important for the sales / marketing funnel's next stage
• is this page connected to a Google community (or other social media community) information drive
• what is the theme of the page in question, and where does it sit in the total marketing strategy
• issues that come up during key word research and target market matching
• copy writing  issues connected to target market and keyword matching 
• Who are your target audience, and why is this group considered to be your target audience.
• is this page part of your network building strategy
• is this page part of your link building strategy, and if so how does this fit in with other in-page issues

 Key word targeting is subservient to the issues around topic targeting, which is determined by the purpose, aims and objectives of the page in question along with the marketing / sales funnel stage and related relationship building activities.  When a page has a clearly defined topic then key word selection is an awful lot easier, and copy writing will also be simpler.

Defining a topic for your page is not as easy as one would think, and there are many different issues that come to play, with copy-writing, and the core subject matter as well as the intentions of the page being a very big parts of the long term planning of every page in your site or blog.  Copy writing for a specific topic is an awful lot easier than writing for a whole bunch of different topics that have a similar focus area.

Understanding the intentions of the page in question will help in defining the topic for the page, and that will then define the criteria to be used for your key word selection process.  Topic targeting is not very well understood, as most people within the SEO industry only talk of keyword targeting, but do not inform people of the methods involved in determining the criteria that one has put in place, or *should have put in place* to manage your keyword selection process.  Selecting an appropriate topic that defines the intentions of the page in question is very helpful, and this should be considered when defining the tile of the page within the title tag in the head section.  The title tag in your head section should have a very clear and obvious connection to the topic of the page, as well as the description and key words listed in the meta tags of your page.

Many will tell you that the key words as well as titles and descriptions of your page are not needed in the meta tags of your page. Ignore these people, and use these very powerful #SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) which Google Humming bird uses within their semantic foot print and trust factor evaluations of your web site.  The META TAGS in the head section carry an awful lot more weight than most SEO practitioners will tell you, but many now ignore these powerful SEOVI because they have heard rumors that these tags are dead.

These very powerful meta tags that reside in the *HEAD SECTION* of your HTML 5 CODE should not be sneezed at, and you should be very weary and not easily trust those who tell you that these high level SEOVI are worthless.  They are used in many new places since the Google Humming Bird Algorithm has been introduced.  These SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) that are hidden within the *HEAD SECTION* of your web site or blog are an awful lot more powerful than you think, and they are directly connected to the in-page trust issues, so use them wisely and do not spam or misuse these great opportunities to get deeper penetration within the SERP's (Search Engine Optimisation Results pages)

Using the page title, page description or key words lists within the head section of your web site or blog to spam the search engines, or attempting to mislead the search engines through inappropriate use of these HTML 5 META TAGS will backfire and cause your page, as well as your domain some considerable harm.

Ensuring that the META TAGS within the HEAD SECTION of your web site reflect the*TOPIC OF YOUR PAGE* is essential for good SERP's and should be done as part of your basic SEO practices that you implement for your site.

Once again taking a #FUFISM based marketing view of things is very helpful, as this will give you the tools and thinking patterns needed to be able to select relevant topics, as well as page titles, page descriptions and related key words to be used in your copy writing. These issues associated with topic selection for your pages are not easy and require quite a bit of input from others in your team.  The topic of your page does need to be brainstormed by your marketing team, after everybody has read the marketing brief which should contain the intentions, purpose aims and objectives of the page in question.


This post has been written around a post by +Cyrus Shepard  of +Moz  Visiting this page will help you expand the ideas generated in this post.


http://moz.com/blog/on-page-topic-seo?utm_source=google_plus&utm_medium=social&utm_content=on_page_topic_targeting&utm_campaign=blog_post

Content Marketing Essentials

Content marketing is a complicated business that is mistakenly separated from the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) component of your online marketing strategy, which is a big mistake.  

Content marketing is a division of your SEO

 

Once you realise that Content Marketing is one of the primary components of your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and take this very seriously, then you are onto the right track and will begin to understand the essential components of content marketing.  The biggest issue is to define your intended target market audience, and determine how best to write for this group in a manner that best suits your intended purpose of the content that you wish to put in front of their eyes.

Those who tell you that content marketing is not a sub division of your SEO need to be treated with caution.

Many SEO experts will try to convince you that content marketing does not fall under the management umbrella of your Search Engine Optimisation manager, but these people are very mistaken, and in my personal opinion need to be shown the way to your back door, then asked to leave very quietly, and told to never set foot in your office again.  Take a minute or two and think about content marketing and the purpose that you as an individual  would want to do any content marketing.  Next do the same for SEO and write down (document these issues clearly)  the similarities and differences.  compare this then evaluate your decision to separate SEO and Content marketing or keep them connected.

Usually the purpose of content marketing is to ensure that your content gets better traction with your target audience, but every business will have a slightly different perspective of the purpose of content marketing.  With out a clear well defined purpose for your content marketing you have no way of understanding the potential impacts of content marketing, or even  the intended aims and objectives of your content marketing.

Content marketing is not an add on issue, but is something that needs to be considered early in the content design stages. 

 

When defining the purpose of your content marketing you should be using the following documents as guide lines and references.

1. the purpose of your online marketing
2. the aims and objectives of your  online marketing plan
3. the aims and objectives of you web site if you have one
4. the aims and objectives of your blog if you have one
5. the aims and objectives of your social media policy if you have one
6. the purpose, aims and objectives  of the specific content that you will be marketing

These documents along with the documentation supplied discussing the intended target market groups, as well as related marketing campaigns that have already been run and those that are either currently being run or planned for the near future will dictate the way forward within any specific content marketing campaign.

Your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)  has the same identical target audience but is mostly focused on ensuring that

1) your content is located within the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)
2) your target audience will select your link in the SERP's
3) those who clicked on your result in the SERP's actually clicks on a CTA (Call To Action) within the page that they chose to open.  (note that links in your navigation structure are also considered as CTA's)

If your content marketing was poorly done, then step (2) and (3) in the above list of essential steps may perhaps  not  be completed, as your viewers may be expecting different information or not be pleased at what they are exposed to within the page, because they have been mislead by your content marketing.  It thus follows that content marketing is a very essential and critical part of the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) process, and that your content marketing needs to be aligned with, and integrated into your SEO process.

Failure here will lead to many interconnected and related issues that impact on your over all success within your online marketing efforts. Things like BOUNCE RATES, conversion rates,  market share retention,  customer satisfaction as well as many others are at stake.  This means that CONTENT MARKETING is a very big issue and that you need to pay careful attention to detail during this process.

The essential elements that need to be considered when doing content marketing are

1. target market research and understanding the various target market groups needs, desires and aspirations as well as cultural and language  issues
2. product / service research
3.  platform research
4. key word and general information management
5. content management issues specific to platform
6. co-operation with other marketing divisions including but not limited to:

• SEO team
• copy writing team
• image development team
• blogging team
• web site design team
• print media team
• digital media team
• social media teams for each platform
• public relations team

Content marketing can not be done in isolation as many content marketing folks are currently trying to do, purely because they do not understand that content marketing is subservient to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).  Once one takes the #FUFISM (Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media) approach to online marketing then the many different #SEOVI  ( Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) that need to be considered will be included within the content marketing stages of preparing your online content.

FUFISM or Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media is a new marketing philosophy where the social media forms the core communication element that binds all your marketing both online and off line into one single well balance marketing effort.

This article was written after reading articles by    +Ryan Hanley     
see   1) http://www.ryanhanley.com/7-ways-to-fail-at-content-marketing/  
2) http://www.ryanhanley.com/does-content-marketing-work/

These articles did not stress that content marketing is subservient to your SEO but I am sure that Ryan understands this, as he is very involved within the SEO industry.  Ryan is one of the few guys that is upfront and blunt when he describes what it is that you need to know, and why he believes that this is important.

Please leave a comment below...

Is great content enough to get good SERP's?

   This Post has been written in response to a comment on this Google plus post

+Rand Fishkin  of +Moz  posed the question : Is It Possible to Have Good SEO Simply by Having Great Content and there were many comments on the post in question.  How ever many questions were left un-answered because of the individuals involved specific agendas.  see the post and follow the link there for a deeper understanding of the issues discussed here.

First we need to remind those who know, and inform those who have not heard, that #FUFISM is a new marketing term which is an acronym for Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media  which every person who does any form of online marketing needs to understand and put into practice.

 Read more about +fufism  as discussed in this blog  or in our web pages here

Engagement within the social media, in most cases,  involves some form of passive link building, as you offer links to your web pages, blog or other online resource, and hope that your target audience and those who have an interest, share your social media posts further, and most of these have links that are useful or offer your target audience specific information relating to your online discussion, or where to find more information on an item that has been requested in the ongoing social media conversation.

Link building is a very delicate affair, and building your social audience is directly linked to your social media policy, especially where your social media policy discusses link building and related issues that need to be avoided such as  inadvertently spamming your influencers with requests to share your posts further.



 

An earlier post discussing link building can be found here

 Influencer marketing (new terminology for public relations management activity)   is also directly linked to your link building strategies and should be discussed in your social media policy statements which every employee needs to be aware of.   This awareness should be done through   your own in-house workshops where you ensure that your staff are knowledgeable of your company or organisational social media policies, and what impact their social media activities will have on your total online marketing effort.

If you have more than 5 people working on your online marketing then this is a very critical issue.  failure here can and will lead to many issues where your online marketing will have a negative impact on your SERP's through errors that are made by your staff  which could easily have been avoided through proper communication.  This is where #FUFISM based marketing strategies come into their own, and ensure better co-operation between the various different departments who each play a different role and have a different impact on your toatal marketing strategies.

Things like a junior member of the team, or a new employee making use of a link farm, because he / she thinks that this will help, but is not aware of the impact of this type of marketing.

Other issues are when people within your online marketing use different structures for their NAT issues (NAT= Name Address and Phone Number)   A set NAT format that should be used across all platforms, especially within the link building activities on social media, as this  is a very sneaky and devious issue, which  comes to play with Google Humming Bird and Google pigeon as well as a few other un-named algorithms.

SEO is an aful lot more than doing inpage coding, and involves many off page activities, some of which are even off line, such as adverts in the news paper, adverts on the radio or even television advertising, all of which influence how your target market searches for your info online and which words they type into the search engine. 

Are your pages optimized for these specific words used in your offline marketing?

Things like   industry specific words which you push out there into the public space (cyberspace) hoping to influence your target markets choice of words when searching online are also part of the SEO industries problems, and link building around these specific sets of terminology are of extreme importance, especially the passive type of link building where these words are used in the social media posts that are put out there with links to pages in your online resources that expand on the conversation around your hash tags and other industry specific terminology.

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a vastly complex issue that has three criteria that need to be met

1) your pages must be found within the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)

2) Your intended target market must click on your link in the SERP's

3) Those who found your listing in the SERP's and then selected your link there must either click on a CTA (Call Ta Action) within the page  or stay on page long enough to satisfy the search engine that they benefited from the information on that page

If any one of these criteria are not met then your SEO has failed.  poor link building, especially that of the passive kind, leads to poor conversion rates and has a very big impact on increasing the bounce rate for your pages, as those who have been mislead by your social media posts that have been shared by your influencers, will not stay on page long enough to satisfy a search engine that they have gained any benifit from your content within that specific page.   This is where CO or Content Optimisation becomes one of the most critical elements of your SEO efforts.  

YES YOU READ RIGHT CONTENT OPTIMISATION (CO) IS A SUB SET OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION and any body that tells you different should in my opinion never be trusted with your SEO, or any other part of your online marketing in any way.

Your bounce rate is a very critical issue and all search engines are now looking at ways to use this as a tool to push pages with poor bounce rates lower down the SERP's over time, and lift those which have better bounce rates higher up the SERP's.  Google's Humming Bird algo is very active here, and those who do not take this seriously will soon discover that their rankings are slipping and they may not be able to fix this untill they fix their Content Optimisation.  Your link building, and especially your link building within the social media plays a very critical role in your Conversion Optimisation (CO) as this leads to an expectation of what the viewer will find when they land on your page, and if their expectations which have been developed within your social media marketing are not met when they land on your page, you will not get any clicks and the end user (your intended target market) will depart in a very short time.

Your bounce rate is a very important #SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicator) that you need to keep under control. This is not an easy task as there are so many factors involved, and your link building through the social media is one of the primary areas that need your attention, as the impact on your CO (Conversion Optimisation) coming from your social media link building activities, both active and passive are extreme in nature.

The CTA's (Call To Action) statements within your online content must match the expectations of your intended target market which you have created within your social media marketing, through your link building and influence marketing tactics, which should all be included within your company social media policies and directives issued to your staff.  

It thus follows that what +Rand Fishkin  discussed in this WHITE BOARD FRIDAY is very important and you need to watch closely, and listen clearly because he talks around this issue with great care not to offend those who have niche markets such as CO (Content Optimisation) , CM (Content Marketing) SEM (Search Engine Marketers) as well as many others, all of which in my humble opinion are sub sections of Search Engine Optimisation.

Many thanx for reading this post. please leave a comment as this is a very controversial matter and the more people that discuss this the better for all.

The value of Conversion Optimisation from a FUFISM perspective

Because we are looking at Conversion Optimisation from a #FUFISM perspective we firstly need to remind you what we mean by the term +fufism   

FUFISM is an acronym for Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media and also a marketing philosophy where SEO and your target market research are two of the primary areas that need to be integrated into your total marketing strategy through effective and properly  managed use of the social media

Next we need to describe what we mean when we talk about Conversion optimisation, and how this works

 

In internet marketing, conversion optimization, or conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the method of creating an experience for a website or landing page visitor with the goal of increasing the percentage of visitors that convert into customers. It is also commonly referred to as CRO.

Conversion Rate Optimization is the process of increasing website leads and sales without spending money on attracting more visitors by reducing your visitor "bounce rate". A conversion rate is defined as the percentage of visitors who complete a goal, as set by the site owner. Some test methods, such as split testing or A/B testing, enable one to monitor which headlines, images and content help one convert more visitors into customers.

There are several approaches to conversion optimization with two main schools of thought prevailing in the last few years. One school is more focused on testing as an approach to discover the best way to increase a website, a campaign or a landing page conversion rates. The other school is focused more on the pretesting stage of the optimization process. In this second approach, the optimization company will invest a considerable amount of time understanding the audience and then creating a targeted message that appeals to that particular audience. Only then would it be willing to deploy testing mechanisms to increase conversion rates.

Next we need to understand the term BOUNCE RATE

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Bounce rate (sometimes confused with exit rate is an Internet marketing term used in web traffic analysis. It represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and "bounce" (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site. Bounce rate is a measure of the effectiveness of a website in encouraging visitors to continue with their visit. It is expressed as a percentage and represents the proportion of visits that end on the first page of the website that the visitor sees

Search engines also use this, but they have a timed version where a user is allocated a time to click on a call to action statement within the page, and if this time exceeds the predetermined time then a bounce is recorded. This time factor is set by the search engines, and us as site owners and marketing professionals have zero input to determine this time factor.  We also have no clue as to what this time factor is. 

From my research it appears that partial bounce rates do exist (at least for Google)  and that the time is not set in stone, and may vary according to the complexity of the search term as well as the polarity of the search term.

Next we  need to understand the term CTA or Call to action,

 In terms of online marketing a CALL TO ACTION is a reference to a link within the content which the marketing team has placed strategically to entice the end user (your target market) to click on so that they may proceed to the next stage of the conversion funnel.

Using the above definition, we must assume that every navigational link on the page is also a CTA. These navigational links may not necessarily be part of the sales  or conversion funnel, but they are never the less important CTA's which allow your end user (your target audience) to move between pages and gather the information that they are looking for.

Next issue to confront is what is a #SERP

A SERP is basically the result that a search engine returns when an end user types a query into the search box and either clicks on search or presses the return key.  This result is mostly pre-calculated by a search engine after your pages are indexed, using a host of different criteria, such as  but not limited to:

• page rank, 
• domain rank, 
• your key words in page,
•  your inbound marketing, 
• your social media marketing, 
• your content marketing,
•  your SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
• The semantics relating to your in-page content
• All your other SEO efforts, both #IPSEO (Inpage Search Engine Optimisation) and #OPSEO (Off Page Search Engine Optimisation)

Now that we have an understanding of the terminology used here, lets get to grips with  the value of Conversion Optimisation in terms of the bounce rate, and as such your SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)  If an end user does not stay on a page long enough (in terms of the search engines perspective) to gain any value from their visit to the page then this will have a negative impact on the bounce rate from the Search engines perspective.  One way to eliminate this negative perspective from a search engine is to have the end user click on any CTA within the page.  The search engine does not care of your perceived value of this click in terms of your sales funnel  or conversion funnel, and NO CLICK = bad news for bounce rates

Bounce rates are currently (October 2014) one of the primary signals being used by many search engines including Google as SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) to determine their SERP's

It thus follows that CO or Conversion Optimisation is a key element in your SEO strategy,  and if not done properly, the damage to your online marketing can and will be considerable.  What most SEO practitioners forget to tell you is that any bad bonce rates have a culminate impact on your domain rank, your page rank, your site's trust factor issues and some other ares that are critical to getting top notch SERP's

My advice to you is thus that you should monitor all your bounce rate issues, and ensure that any pages with a high bounce rate be evaluated in terms of your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and CO (Conversion Optimisation) policies and that you rectify these as soon as you can




Sources of research for this article

THIS LIST IS NOT EXHAUSTIVE  AND EXCLUDES ALL INTERNAL SOURCE AT INFO4U

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_Rate_Optimization
2_ http://www.meteorsite.com/search-engine-optimization-seo
3) http://www.meteorsite.com/conversion-optimization
4) http://www.meteorsite.com/blog`
5)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounce_rate
6) http://www.web1marketing.com/glossary.php?term=bounce+rate
7) http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/bounce_rate.html
8) https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en
9) http://www.epower.com/google-analytics-glossary.php


J also evaluated many Google plus posts and conversations  mainly with these profiles but also many others  +fufism +David Amerland +Eric Enge +Joshua Berg +Jaana Nyström +Plus Your Business! +John Dietrich  +SEO  +SEO on Google+ - Search Engine Optimization  +ReelSEO +Mark Robertson +Jeff Huber  +Ammon Johns +Rand Fishkin 

What link building tactics do you use?

Is link building  dead?

in short link building is not dead, and will not die any time soon!

That being said we do need to understand the many issues that surround link building, and the implications of your personal link building strategies.  In the past when things in search first started out links were the primary SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicator) and links were gamed to the extent that Google and other search engines started showing very distorted and poor SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)

see previous post discussing the value of a link in 2014

The search engines thus introduced algorithms that started to look for patterns that these so called BLACK HAT search engine optimisation practitioners were using, and started penalizing those who they thought were cheating or gaming the system.  Google now has a number of NAMED ALGORITHMS , as well as many un-named algorithms,  that look into these matters and related matters where Search Engine Optimisation Technical staff and online marketing practitioners SPAM the search engines in a variety of different ways using many different techniques.

Some of these named algorithms include :

>>  PANDA

>>  PENGUIN

>>  HUMMING BIRD

>>  PIGEON

These algorithms help to improve the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) and some are punitive, while others add value to the work of those who apply recommended tactics that are rather technical and difficult to implement, such as Google's author and publisher programs that are connected to Google plus.

This short video below will help you understand why I say that link building will not die any time soon, but link building has changed and it is now necessary to selectively screen out bad links and focus exclusively on high quality links from reputable sources when ever possible.  The question asked was does Google have a version of search where back links are excluded.  listen to what  +Matt Cutts had to say then evaluate your own situation.

The question thus becomes  What is link building and why is it important?

In short links, some times called HYPERLINKS are the tools that you use to allow  the end user, or your audience to move from one place on the internet to another, and are the only tool that search engines have of locating your online content.  If there are no links pointing to your page, then a search engine has no means of locating your page, and it will thus never be found in search.  In the past the more inbound links a page had the better it did in search results.

Link building is the process that you follow to ensure that your web pages or blog posts acquire in bound links, be they internally from   pages within your own web site /  blog or externally from some other online resource.

Today, due to the amount of SPAM generated by so called BLACK HAT SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION this is no longer true, and Google as well as all other search engines now use the quality of links more than the quantity of links.  Then  within Google search there is the issue of PANDA and PENGUIN  which both have negative or punitive tools that tackle SPAM and bad quality web pages

It is thus important that you understand the  need to have a link building policy in place, and that this link building policy needs to be well documented and shared with every person who has anything to do with your total marketing plan.  Bad links can come from a number of sources, and those who do not know about these issues can very inadvertently make use of a link building farm or some other bad tactic, thinking that they are helping your marketing efforts.   New employees or  junior marketers who have not been exposed to the impacts of bad links may not understand what a link farm is, and believe they are being helpful in getting traffic to your pages.

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF BAD LINKS TO SINK YOUR ONLINE MARKETING EFFORTS,  BE CAREFUL WHEN DEVELOPING YOUR LINK BUILDING POLICY

The social media is currently a very big source of links to your online content, and as such you do need to have a social media policy in place to deal with these issues. Once again Your social media policy needs to be well documented and shared with everybody who has anything to do with your marketing, be it online or not.  You need to remember that all your offline marketing has a very big impact on your online marketing in many ways, especially when it comes to issues around search. You will need to include your link building policy within your social media marketing policy,as they are very interconnected.

Off line marketing has strange impacts on your intended target audience, and this is where you should use terminology and language that is specific to your business interests.  Your target audience will be induced to use the words and language in your off line marketing to search online to discover more about your company, your products or your services, and you need to be aware of this in your online marketing, especially in your social media marketing, as this is where you will have direct one on one conversations with your target audience as well as many others who may or may not have a direct interest in your product, service or business proposition.

The people who you have conversations with online within the social media space, may or may not decide to place links within their posts to your web pages or blogs, and as such you need to influence these OUT SIDERS in a positive manner so that any links that they may place within their social media posts are positive and  relevant to pages within your web site or blog.

These issues are also confounded and confused when marketers say that you should not be doing any link building at all.  Link building as a term is also a very difficult term to come to grips with in the current scenario where past link building practices have destroyed web sites through their spam attacks and the use of link farms.  Link building has definitely changed a great deal over the last few years, and is now a very delicate art that is not properly understood.  On the one hand an online resource must have inbound links, these links need to be of high quality and carry some authority to have any success in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) and on the other hand excessive links as well as links of low quality can cause a web site or blog some serious damage within the SERP's.

The guys at +Moz recently published an article called The beginners guide to link building   which I have found very helpful, and shared with my audience in other places.  The G+ post embedded below is actually what inspired this post, as I commented there  and had an interesting conversation with both  +Mike Gracia and +William Rock   Take some time and read the comments as I believe they will help you to understand the great difficulties that we as online marketers have in dealing with the changes in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) issues as well as how different people interpret the terminology within the  search engine optimisation world.  Please remember that these are sensitive issues, and need great care, so ask for second and third opinions, then apply your own mind and be aware of those who are willing to game the system.
  

THERE IS LOTS OF BAD ADVICE OUT THERE 

Why Should people connect with you?

Why Should people connect with you?

This is a very powerful and important question that all business owners need to answer, and they do need to be honest to the point of being brutal when they answer this question.

Online marketing is a very complicated affair, and there are so many different aspects that one needs to get under control, that it is very scary for all small business owners. There is so much help online for each segment, that it boggles the mind, and confuses the issue even more.

So where does one start with these issues?

Start with documenting your business purpose, aims and objectives, then evaluate these and compare them with your current marketing efforts, and understand what this means for your target audience.  Are you chasing the numbers, or are you trying to have a conversation with your audience?

If you are chasing the numbers then your audience will see this and ignore you, how ever if you are trying to have a conversation with your audience, they will interpret this and respond appropriately.

People will connect with you if you give them the opportunity, and respond appropriately when they take up your offer. Its kind of like walking down the street, if you avoid eye contact with every body and look the other way,  why should they stop and speak about the weather.  On the other hand if you look at people and greet them, then perhaps you may be able to strike up a conversation and discuss the weather,  a local event or some other common issue.  If you are all salesy and just push your self onto people and start talking about a product you want to sell, asking then to buy your stuff, then most will also ignore you and walk on past, or even worse call some back up and get you chased out of their space, and if you are in a shopping mall call security and get you turfed out of the building.

 

Being online is no different to life in the real world when it comes to behavioral issues, and trying to connect  online has the same principals and issues as trying to connect with people in real life as this short video (just under half an hour) with +Jason T. Wiser  and +Yifat Cohen explains quite well

This video is part of Jasons HOA's that he holds to promote his business interests, actually  highlights some of the related issues.   Watch the video and enjoy the feeling that you get when things fall into place so that you have a better understanding of why your target audience would want to connect with you.

Once again #FUFISM or Functional User Friendly Integrated Social Media is all about using the social media as a communication tool to integrate all your marketing into one solid well oiled marketing machine, so think carefully about why your target audience should connect with you within the social media space and do what needs to be done so that your target audience feels comfortable connecting with you within the platforms that you make available to them, and that you respond to the attempts that your audience makes to interact with you.

FUFISM INFOGRAPHIC discussing impact on SERP's

This infographic discusses how #FUFISM impacts on your SERP's and shows some of the many different aspects of SEO that need to work together  in a collaborative effort to generate meaningful Search Engine results pages for your intended target market audience.

FUFISM is a marketing philosophy where the social media is the core communication tool that allows the different sections of your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) team to collaborate and share information,  in a manner that binds all your marketing, both online and off line into one single super marketing campaign.

It should be remembered that the purpose of SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is to ensure that your intended target market complete the call to action statements embedded in your online content after discovering your online content through using a search engine.

See  (http://4ubrand.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html) for a definition of SEO
See (http://4ubrand.blogspot.com/p/fufism-functional-user-firendly.html) for a definition of #FUFISM

What is the VALUE of a link in 2014?

The question around the value of a link in 2014 is a complicated affair, and needs some careful evaluation from a variety of different angles.  Before we can discuss the value of a link we need to define what a link is and how many types of links there actually are.

We use the term Link very liberally in conversations these days as if every body actually knows what they are and how they behave in all the senses of the word, but this is very far from the truth.

The word LINK is an abbreviation of the term HYPER-LINK.  There are many different types of links, but all do the same thing, they act as transfer points to transfer the viewers attention from what is currently displayed on screen to a new screen with different information (read content).  A link is usually indicated by a visual change of the mouse pointer from an arrow to a hand,as the mouse pointer moves across the screen from an inactive area to an active area.   Different browsers or platforms and different operating systems have slight variations of the same theme, where the mouse pointer or activity indicator moves around on the screen under the control of (you) the end user, in many new mobile devices this is not so evident, as these devices use touch screens and the presence of an active spot may be indicated in a number of different ways, and is even some times not indicated at all but purely presumed to be an active image or link icon.

An active area is defined as the space where the hyper link is active and will function when the end user (you the viewer) clicks on the active space whilst the mouse pointer is in the active mode, or in the case of a touch screen  when you  (the end user) tap or double tap on the active area of the screen.


Links come in two basic disguises, a text link and an image link.  A text link is usually indicated by a change in the colour of the text, and may or may not have associated pop up alerts that inform the viewer (you) more about the link in the form of a text box.  In some cases you may also receive an on screen indication of some sort, informing you where the link will take you, but this is usually not present on mobile devices.

Example of a text link What is FUFISM 

Notice that the question What is FUFISM above  is a different colour to the rest of the text on the page and that when you hover your mouse pointer over the coloured text a popup box informs you more about the link in question.

On the left is an image link, and when you click on this image you will be taken to a page (in this blog) that discusses hash tag marketing .

 So there are basically only two varieties of links  at text link and an image link.  You can use both of these in a variety of different ways, but at the end of the day there are only two distinct types of links. 

The first thing that needs to be considered is the total number of links that are generated every day, and how this vast number will in fact dilute the value of each link.  lets look at it from the perspective of a pie-chart, where each web site that has inbound links is a slice of the pie.

How many slices will there be, and just how thin would each slice be?   what would determine the thickness of each slice, would it be the number of inbound links, would it be the quality of these inbound links, would it be the age of the inbound link or would it be a calculated combination of all these plus many other factors?

The answer is that the thickness of each slice of the pie would be a combination of many different SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) some which we have control over and some which are totally out of our control, and some which we may influence, but not have any real control over.

Rand Fishkin had quite a bit to say about this issue in his whiteboard chat where he discussed whether links were losing SEO value or not and what SEO's ( Search Engine Optimisation Practitioners) should be doing

Links are very important for all search engines to find your pages and then index them, so if nobody links to a page in your web site and you have no internal links to that particular page then it will never be indexed by a search engine and thus never found by your intended  target market audience, unless you

• send them the link to this page by email,
• mention the link in a radio advert, 
• publish the link to this page in some print media advertising or 
• use some other advertising medium to get the link in front of the eyes of your intended target audience.

It is my personal opinion that links still have great value for search engines, and will do so well into the foreseeable future.  How we acquire, then manage  these recommended  links is an issue that needs very careful consideration, as there are issues that can cause some considerable damage to our web sites reputation and value in the eyes of search engines.   

There are issues such as GOOGLE's PANDA, PENGUIN and HUMMING BIRD ALGORITHMs as well as many others which need to be considered here, so take your time to understand the many diverse issues that impact on your web sites inbound and out bound linking policy.

Be sure to inform your social media team, as well as all others who work on your online marketing of these issues and get their buy in to your linking policies.  Link building is still a very important part of the OFF PAGE SEO  work that you need to manage, so take care and do things in a well managed and properly documented fashion so that you can later use this to evaluate your success or failures and work out what you need to change when things do not go according to plan, and your SERP's are not what you would like them to be.

Now before you get all philosophical and say what does the social media team have to do with these issues understand this...

SOCIAL SIGNALS ARE LINKS THAT CARRY SPECIAL SEOVI (search engine optimisation value indicators) WHICH LINK INDIVIDUALS TO ONLINE CONTENT IN WAYS THAT SEARCH ENGINES CAN DEVELOP TRUST FACTORS FOR BOTH AUTHORS OF ONLINE CONTENT AND INDIVIDUAL ENTITIES SUCH AS 

• PEOPLE, 
• G+ PAGES,
• G+ COMMUNITIES
• FACEBOOK PAGES
• PINTEREST PROFILES
• TWITTER PROFILES
• INSTAGRAM PROFILES
• WEB SITES
• BLOGS
• OTHER ONLINE ENTITIES

 So social signals are just special links that need special attention from an SEO perspective as these are becoming more and more important from a SEOVI (Search Engine Optimization Value Indicator) point of view and thus need attention within your marketing strategies that focus on online content.

So to answer  the question "What is the value of a link in 2014" I put forward the opinion that the value of a link in 2014 is an awful lot more important than most SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) consultants will tell you, so make sure that you understand what a link is, and where you should be focusing your OFF PAGE SEO EFFORTS so that the value of the inbound links to your web site / blog or other online resource can be optimized through your social media strategies in ways that align with your online marketing policies.

Google plus engaement issues from a #FUFISM perspective

Google plus is a great platform for a variety of reasons, with the primary one being that you will have a foot in the door as far as Google Search is concerned.  Google has many indexing issues with other social media platforms, and the walled garden effect is often very serious, with all non public posts being excluded from Google's sphere of influence.

Getting traction within any specific market is an ongoing issue that needs due diligence and proper interpretation of your target market audience, and when using the social media you need to ensure that those who follow you, or are within your social network form part of your target market audience. This means that you need to do true, in-depth target market research, and have a very clear understanding of who your target audience is and how you are going to interact with them in a manner that allows you to place your call to action statements. Google plus has specific options for you to do this via specialist business pages that are directly linked to your personal profile and associated page.

You do need to separate your personal life from your business life when doing any social media marketing. Failure to do this will lead to poor branding and mixed signals to your target audience.  You personal profile should be used as a platform to brand yourself as an ambassador for your business and community related pages within all social media platforms, and you should never be salesy or pushy within your personal profile page.  This sounds very easy, but is infact a really difficult thing to do.

You personal profile page describes you as an individual, and is where your personality and industry specific knowledge will shine through and allow others to interact and engage with you on a personal level.  once you have a personal connection then you may, if appropriate, lead this person down the conversion path to become a client, customer or fellow activist in your cause.

You should have a business page in place,  where you do business related stuff and push you business opportunities through links to your web site, your blog and other online resources.  You should also have a community page in place where your business issues are discussed in depth and you mange various sectors of your business opportunities, through different categories within the community,  informing those who have taken the time to join your community of your services, products, events and other areas of interest.

As an individual you should also be a member of  various communities that have links to your business model, your products, your services or the events that you handle. This is industry specific, and you will need to choose these after studying your intended target audience and their social media habits, so that you can lead them to your business page or your community without being pushy or obnoxious in any way.

Your entire marketing team needs to be up to speed with he various platforms and different sections of each platform that you, as an individual are using, so that your personal and business profiles can be used to the best advantage to interact with your
target audience in the most appropriate manner.

A post by +curator Circle  discussing some of these related issues within Google plus itself.

Social media issues and SERP's

 I was following this conversation https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RandFishkin/posts/4keiQ5C4BF4 started by +Rand Fishkin of +Moz and replied to a comment, then thoght   hey this is almost a full blog post, so coppied it and pasted that comment here.

 I have made a few adjustments so that the information flow within my comment makes sense without reading the whole conversation, which evolved around SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and related marketing issues, where a big brand's SERP's were discussed, with the question being

Why did their face book page appear above their web site in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages) 

My response....

These are very tricky issues, and great care needs to be taken when creating content to ensure that links are functional, and that you do not always link to the same page within your blog or web site.

Linking to a home page only does not do very much good, as any single page within a single domain, can only carry so much domain value value, and the page rank value of any page is limited through an algorithm, so that it can not exceed any page within the entire domain by more than a fixed percentage difference of the domain value.  This keeps very small web sites out of the picture, and rewards the big brands with big sites considerably, as they can build a sizable domain rank value an awful lot easier than a small web site would, how ever there are other issues at play which mitigate this a little or considerably depending on who you talk to..

Getting the inbound links is one issue, but getting inbound links to a number of different pages is a lot more difficult, and this takes some serious effort on the part of your management team to ensure that all parties are on the same page in the company marketing strategy book.

In theory your social media  posts should link to different pages of your web site or blog, and discuss the content of that page, or at least be semantically linked to the page that the post links to.  Your web site should be set up so that a brand page on G+ is the registered publisher, and your authors should also have G+ profiles that are accredited as authors of specified pages within your web site or blog.

If you use the Google author and Google publisher methods to gain trust from Google your online work will do better in the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)

Problem is that people have got a *FRIGHT ATTACK* and now fear using links due to the associated penalties of *PANDA and PENGUIN* because they have not been properly informed by their SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) team on the issues related to PANDA and PENGUIN.  

These two Google Search Algorithms carry punitive SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) and distribute them out to sites that they deem are cheating or pushing their luck in some way.

The fact that a disavow tool even exists has caused some panic in the ranks of marketing folks, and they have spread the word that links can be poisonous to your site or blog.

This misconception needs to be put to rest, but I will not be doing that, as this creates work for me.  Links are still the most important part of Google's algorithms, and they will be for some time to come.  Social signals are also links, but they carry different information than a standard hyperlink, and also have a hook that drags information about the source of the social signal (you when you clicked the like button) along for the ride, with instructions on how to get back home, and where to deliver the parcels that they are carrying when getting back home, so that counters can be updated and verified.

Inbound links to a page are the most vital SEOVI (Search Engine Optimisation Value Indicators) and carry the most weight of any signals for Google to determine  your SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages)  It is for this exact reason that you need to link to your blog posts and web pages from within your social media posts.





If your face book page has more inbound links than your web site, it may appear above your web site in the SERP's (Search Engine  Results Pages).  to solve this issue, be sure to link out to your web site or blog from your social media profile in post that you make an a regular basis.  Be sure to link to relevant landing pages where the content is semantically linked to your posts, and do this often. This will or at least should generate enough links to your web site, as these are carried along in the shares, and re-shares of your faceBook posts








hope you understood this and found this useful.  for more see http://4ubrand.blogspot.com

enjoy you day further

other links on this blog that are recomended reading for this issue
http://4ubrand.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html  (what is SEO)
http://4ubrand.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_4.html  (links and link building)
http://4ubrand.blogspot.com/p/fufism-functional-user-firendly.html  (What is #FUFISM)

The marketing benefits of a CATCH ALL email address?

MARKETING BENEFITS OF  USING A 

CATCH ALL EMAIL ADDRESS

CATCH ALL EMAIL ADDRESSES EXPLAINED

 A catch all email address is a very powerful marketing tool that comes along with owning your own domain, and as the name says, it catches all.  This is a very technical issue that is simple to implement and easy to use with just a little planning and an understanding of what a catch all email address can do.

An email address is divided into three distinct parts,

YOURNAME@DOMAIN

the first part (RED) is the user name on your mail server

The second part (BLUE) is the postal indicator

the third part (YELLOW) is your domain

To be able to use a catch all email address you will need to have access to the mail server for the domain in question.  If you own the domain then this is not an issue, how ever if you are doing marketing for a brand, product or service provider you will need to negotiate the use of a catch all email address with the IT or web section / division

Each active email address that a company uses is registered as a user with their mail server, and is set up by either the web design team, the internal IT division or a person appointed by the company to manage their email issues.     A catch all email address is a specific email address, which has been given special privileges and user rights on your mail server , and will as such receive all  emails that are addressed to any  non registered email user within your domain.

Many large email providers ensure that all unrouted emails are sent directly to the BLACK HOLE  (Deleted) as there would be an awful lot of unrouted emails. How ever most  companies that sell products and services to the public are small and have a low level of unrouted email.

So a catch all email address  is an email address that receives  all email addressed to  every unregistered username  on your company email server.



The next issue to consider once you have a catch all email address set up is,  how are you going to manage your catch all email address, and who will be responsible to ensure that all received emails are dealt with in the appropriate manner.

A catch all email address works best when you apply a #FUFISM based marketing strategy.

Your email service provider has already set up spam filters that will eliminate a large percentage of SPAM , and these include such things as the marketing of porn sites and the sale of VIAGRA  as well as some pay day loan offers that arrive by email.

You will need to set up filters to further sort out spam from customer interactions, automatically forwarding engagement emails to the correct employee's email address, then deleting detected spam, and following up with human inspection of the remaining emails to determine if they should be deleted or acted upon.

The marketing power of a catch all email address is not at first self evident, as it really comes to play in evaluating the ROI (Return On Investment) of individual marketing campaigns.  Imagine giving each marketing campaign it's own individual specific email address, and having stats on which email address  was used to convert prospects to customers, along with where each email address was displayed or used.

How to set up a marketing campaign using a catch all email address

 Create the content for your marketing campaign as per standard practice for your company / organisation .

In the call to action statement ensure that you are requesting a response by email.  Choose an email address that will have some meaning to your target market audience, and ensure that this email address is not registered with your email server as a user.

An example here would be seo4u2use@info4u.co.za if you were selling Search Engine Optimisation Services  and your domain was Info4u.co.za.

Be sure to  check with the person who reads the catch all email that they have re-routed (forwarded) the email address chosen for this campaign to the relevant person, and do a physical check by sending mail to the specified address and ensuring that it is received by the correct person before you allow your web design team,  your blogger or your social media staff to publish the content that you have created as part of this specific marketing campaign.

Once you have a few campaigns running you will soon be able to see which ones are working and which are not working by evaluating the information  flow patterns to each separate email address. The beauty of using this trick with a catch all email address is that you do not need to create a new user on your email server for each new campaign, then go through the rigmarole of  setting this email account up on an individuals PC or laptop.  All you need to do is ensure that the filters on the catch all email address are functioning correctly and that email sent to the campaign specific email address is re-routed (Forwarded) to the correct person, or persons within your team.

There are many other benefits that come along with a catch all email address, as it can be used in many ways to do a host of different Public relations things, like when you do an email survey, having the  email address read product.survey@info4u.co.za  where product.survey is relevant to the end user and their interests thus this  will elicit a trust factor and hopefully get better responses.

Another strange benefit of a catch all email address comes into play when people know your domain, but do not know any specific email address at your domain and they thus use a pot luck email address like help@info4u.co.za or ceo@info4u.co.za which your staff who manage the catch all email address will be able to re-route to the correct person within your company or organisation.

The marketing benefits of using a catch all email address are not easily recognized, as these are hidden in the  technical notes of the mail server architecture and the technical staff do not get along so well with the marketing staff at most places where I have worked.  This means that the technical details and marketing value of a catch all email address is not discussed with your marketing team, and thus most marketers that I have spoken to do not even know that such a thing as a catch all email address actually exists.

The ability to have many different email addresses that each refer to a position within your staff is a very powerful tool when used on the contact us page, as this creates the illusion that you are a  large, well structured and organised business. When a potential prospect takes the time to write to more than one member of your management team, as many people do, and gets personalised replies from each email that he / she sent the trust factor is elevated considerably.

Making use of a catch all email address is as simple as teaching a person how to set up a system to re-route emails to the correct person within your organisation, as well as establishing a set of filters  that automatically forward emails to designated email addresses to the correct active email address.