Presenting alongside Steve was Liz Denning, Marketing Director for Gamma Blast, a Nashville-based video production company. Liz shared some great facts and figures regarding the effectiveness of Online Video.

Since eBags deployed video for each of the products on its site, it has seen conversion lift by 50% among shoppers who simply “pressed play” and a 139% increase for shoppers that watched an entire video.

Videos use the combination of sight and sound to engage website visitors, creating powerful messages and often higher conversion among consumers, such as newsletter subscriptions, social media follows, or e-commerce purchases.

Constant Contact, the email marketing gurus, reported that screen grabs of video receive 5 times more clicks than text links.

Videos provide valuable content to consumers including tutorials, client testimonials, and information on services. They drive traffic to a website and promote visitors to interact with the brand.

Research firm eMarketer Inc. projects that by the end of 2011 more than 85% of the U.S. Internet population will watch Internet videos, up from 63% in 2006.

Video viewing continues to expand its audience. Video is an effective way to reach users of all demographics and industries, including both B2C and B2B.

Search engines pick up video more than pages without video. In addition, target audiences are more likely to click on the search result since the website has a video component.

Video is attractive to search engines. Relevant video content improves SEO and generates significant, measurable value by creating a quality user experience. The popularity and effectiveness of video makes it an integral part of any well-rounded web strategy.

For more on Video Marketing that Search Engines Love, check out a recap of our recent seminar on the topic.

Thank you to those who joined The Net Impact and Reel Impact for “Watch This”: Video Marketing That Search Engines Love. Adam Crosley and Steve Thomas presented some great video creating and video posting tips and we just couldn’t wait to share what we learned!

Key Takeaways from “Watch This”: Video Marketing That Search Engines Love

1. Video is an art form but it helps to think of it as a communication tool. Create with the end result in mind. What action, understanding or feeling do you want to communicate to the audience?

2. ONE good, clearly written communication objective is a great blueprint for a marketing video. Do not overwhelm your audience by trying to communicate too many things with one video.

3. There is no “magic, right length” for a video; the shorter the better. 44% of audiences abandon a video within the first 60 seconds  (Adam Crosley, Reel Impact).

4. Even with just a few views, a video can rank high on search engines when optimized properly.

5. Don’t just produce video; pass it around, search for it and use it to connect with your customers and potential customers via social media. Video is a great trust agent if created and shared properly, so be creative!!

We hope you join The Net Impact team for our next monthly seminar at the end of June. More details to come. Stay posted!

Watch the full podcast below:

We encourage you to link to Tariq on the web. Here are just a few suggestions of where to find him in cyber space:

Twitter: @tariq_ahmad
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tariqahmad1
Website: http://tariq.me
Link to Tariq’s SXSW presentation on Social Media and NBA
Participate in Tariq’s sports fans and location-based services survey

Liz: Hi and welcome to the first TNI podcast where we interview a fascinating web social media or interactive marketer. Today, we will be interviewing Tariq Ahmad. He is a Social Media and Sports Researcher currently pursuing his Doctorate in Sports Administration at the University of Northern Colorado. Tariq is currently looking at the NBA, studying and looking at their fans and the teams to see how they interact on social media and how they use social media. So, let’s welcome Tariq.

We know that you have been doing a deep dive into social media and the NBA. Can you just tell us a little bit about that project? How you got started? What you’ve been working on? What you are hoping to find out? Just kind out cover what you’ve been doing.

Tariq: Sure. Well, I’ve been working on the project for, say, about the last year or so. Last July of 2010, I conducted a survey on how NBA fans use social media, so specifically Facebook and Twitter to support their favorite teams through those mediums. I got interested in it probably a couple of months before. I am seeing how the NBA did such a great job with social media and that I like using social media.

So that way, I just decided to go ahead and put the both of them together. In general, there’s been a lot of research done on sports in general. But some social media is such a new entity coming up and becoming so popular in the last few years. Not a lot of research has been done on social media. So, I went ahead and decided to meet at the intersection of the NBA and social media, and do some research on this.

Research has been going good, like I said. Last July I focused on more of the fans, how the fans use social media to support their favorite teams. Now, probably coming up this summer I am going to flip the script and see how teams use it to connect with fans. Do the teams offer fans anything, any kind of specials, tangible or intangible benefits through social media?

How many people went with a social media team before each team thinks along those lines. I wanted to get more of the full picture because there is only two sides to a story. The fans might see it one way, but the teams see it a completely different way. So, I think this summer I am going to focus on the other side to try to get more of a complete picture on how social media NBA works with fans and teams and then teams and fans as well.

Liz: Great. That sounds real interesting. And, since you haven’t looked into like the team interaction, what have you found out about the fan interaction that’s most interesting?

Tariq: It’s been really good. I have actually found a lot of good information, like why people follow it and use social media to connect with teams. I would say the most interesting finding that came through research was probably one of the most unexpected findings. I had a couple of questions on my survey that asked: why do you follow specific players?

So, the choices were, the player is my favorite player, he plays on my favorite team, I enjoy status updates etc., etc. That one there, I enjoy status updates, like by far and away, everybody loved that one. I think it was like, 78% of people said that I enjoy reading player status updates. So, they want to hear Shaq saying, “Hey I am going to go get a sandwich” or they want to hear LeBron James saying, “Hey I am about to do laundry”, things like that. People just love things like that.

Liz: They want to know they’re real people.

Tariq: What’s that?

Liz: They want to know that their sports idols are real people.

Tariq: Exactly, yeah. I think people just love that. Not only for the fact that they’re more like an idol but also just to let them know they’re humans. Just that, you know, hey Shaq has to do laundry, also. LeBron had to eat. Chris Paul has to pick up his kids, or if he has kids. So, I think that’s the nice thing about social media is it really breaks down that medium between a fan and athlete.

Because before you would have the fan read about somebody, we’ll say Dwayne Wade. So, if you wanted to hear about Dwayne Wade, you would have to read a website article or watch him on TV or see him in a commercial to hear about Dwayne Wade. Now, with social media that middle part is broken down, and now you can directly contact Dwayne Wade through Facebook, through Twitter. And, you can get an inside perspective on his life even if it’s something mundane. It’s like, hey that’s cool that he’s sharing that with us for now. It’s almost like I am there with him, and now I have a new connection with that athlete.

So, I really think that’s why social media is so good because it really breaks down that middle barrier and allows for you to get closer to your favorite athletes.

Liz: That’s fascinating. Tariq, it was my impression that as part of this project you were looking at location based services. Am I correct? Have you done your research on location based services yet?

Tariq: I am actually currently doing that. It’s actually separate from the NBA study. I actually have a research survey out on that right now. I can go ahead and pass along the survey to you as well. This one’s going to be more specifically for sports fans in general on how they use LBF like Foursquare, Facebook Faces, Gowalla, things like that. Not only in general use but if they use it in connection with sports teams.

And I want to see: are they receiving any kind of benefits from checking in. Like, hey, are you checking the game you are getting 20% off the concession stand or free T-shirt.

Liz: Which would be a lot of money at the NBA event.

Tariq: Exactly, exactly. I’m looking at that to see how fans are using it. Why are they using it? And why they aren’t using it? And seeing if there is some way that we can give people a reason to check in. Because some people can be kind of on the fence about checking in, like why should I let you know where I am at? Hey, if you check into Madison Square Garden and we’re now giving you 25% off on the nachos, then more and more people may be likely to check in.

What I am wanting to see is people, why they check in or why they don’t check in? Are they receiving any rewards? And would they be more likely to check in if they receive some sort of reward? Not only a physical reward or a tangible reward, but parking discount, concessions but intangible discounts as well, such as meeting the players after the game or media access, locker room access, things like that.

So currently I have the study out. I should probably have the results here in the next two to three weeks as well. I will be sure to pass them along to you as well.

Liz: And one of the questions that came to mind when you are talking about that is: was there a specific reason that you decided to focus on the NBA? Or why you didn’t decide to focus on any of the other major leagues?

Tariq: The reason I did NBA is because overall the NBA does the best jobs or one of the best jobs using social media. If you look at their numbers I think like, the NBA as a league has, I don’t know like over 11 million followers combined on Facebook and Twitter. If you take the NBA, NHL, and MLB combined, it doesn’t even equal the number of NBA followers. I think the NBA was not only a pioneer, but they are like really way ahead of the curve in social media as well.

I don’t know if you have seen that they have created an NBA Legend Game which is actually a Facebook game that you basically start off as a career, you start off as a rookie and then you build your way up throughout a career until you become an NBA legend. By building your team, by building strategy, by acquiring all these intangibles and that game is only available through Facebook. And NBA said they actually reached, I believe, they said that they’ve reached over one million users on that game only in a couple of months.

So, I think the NBA not only has the numbers, but they do things like that like creating Facebook only games that allows fans to use social media to connect with them.

Liz: And do you think that what you found could also apply if they ever did decide to get more involved in social media, that it could apply to the NFL, NHL, MLB or even college level sports teams?

Tariq: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. I think the thing is that, social media in general, like I said, is just a new way to connect with fans to connect with teams. Overall, the thing is like is it’s scalable and it’s definitely transferable. So, even if the research is done on the NBA, it’s definitely applicable to NFL, NHL, Major League Soccer, Major League Baseball, all these other sports.

Because there are certain things about social media, like to me engagement is a big thing. It’s great if you have a million fans on Facebook. But if you are not engaging with any of them, it doesn’t do you any good. Or you may take another team which has only 10,000 fans on Facebook, but they are engaging with the majority of them: hey, thanks for coming for the game, thanks for being a fan etc., etc. I think that’s the key. It’s important to engage with your fans and with your users, and that’s definitely applicable across any sport.

Because every sport and every team is going to have fans and the fans appreciate the team. But the team must let the fan know that they appreciate them as well. Social media is a good way to do that.

Liz: Great. Tariq, those are all the questions that we have for you today. We really appreciate you sharing your information with us. Is there anything else you want to add before we sign off?

Tariq: I think social media is a great tool. Really, it’s only been prominent for the last five years. I really think you are going to start seeing a lot more growth and a lot more trends going in the next five to ten years as it keeps growing. I really think there’s going to be a big emphasis on the location based services, allowing fans to check in.

I think there is going to be big push on mobile devices as well through social media and probably see some bigger trends and some more trends coming through. Those two specific ones among other social media entities in the next few years.

Definitely, we’re still scratching the surface of social media. But, I am definitely excited to see what teams and leagues and fans and athletes are going to be offering in the future.

Liz: And I guess it’ll give social media experts a new reason to get involved in professional basketball and watch the NBA.

Tariq: Exactly, exactly or any sport, any sport they want.

Liz: Great. Well, thank you so much. That concludes our interview with Tariq Ahmad, Social Media and Sports Researcher from the University of Northern Colorado. Thank you so much and keep looking for our podcasts as they come. We’ll talk to you soon.

Watch the Reel Impact Video Demo to learn more and if you’re interested in attending this FREE event, Sign up on The Net Impact website!  See you there!

The Net Impact has met Microsoft adExcellence’s eligibility criteria, which includes having three staff members that have been trained, tested and certified directly by Microsoft on their Pay Per click advertising products. The adExcellence program provides advertisers with the opportunity to become certified experts in Microsoft adCenter, Microsoft’s Pay Per Click advertising platform for Bing and their msn content network.

The Net Impact also became a Google AdWords Certified Partner in 2010. This globally recognized stamp of approval for Pay Per Click Consultants showcases The Net Impact’s knowledge of the latest AdWords tools and best practice techniques and positions the company as an expert in managing AdWords programs.

“Search Engine Marketing is a competitive space, and in order to excel, first rate training is crucial to success. The Net Impact recognizes this and has a steadfast focus on continued team training and testing. Achieving Microsoft adExcellence Company accreditation is in line with our efforts to continuously gain knowledge and skills that enable us to provide better service to our clients,” said Steve Thomas, President of The Net Impact.

Angela Trokey, Lauren Williamson and Lauren Pesko have all passed the adExcellence certification exam and are accredited members of the adExcellence program.  Our Pay Per Click specialists assist each new client in developing strong marketing messages to invite prospective customers to the website, optimize landing pages to connect with customer needs and determine the appropriate action for customers to engage in on the website.

Read the Press Release to Learn More!

Last Wednesday, The Net Impact Internet Marketing team opened their office doors to clients and friends for their presentation: “5 Emerging Internet Marketing Trends to Boost Business in 2011”. The presentations highlighted valuable information learned at Search Engine Strategies San Francisco 2010 - the leading SEM and social media marketing event.

In this ever-changing industry it is vital to stay on top of the latest trends and technologies. Our team always returns from the SES conferences enthusiastic about implementing and sharing new information learned! We have found in the past that the SES conferences have provided our team with proven strategies that garner results for clients today, while ensuring they stay ahead of the competition tomorrow. Topics covered at the Internet marketing informational night included: local search, social media marketing, mobile marketing, writing compelling content, press release optimization and more.

In case you missed  it, here is a quick overview of the five presentations … 
 

The best way to harness local search – The presentations kicked off with a discussion on the importance of local search from Web Account Manager, Lauren Williamson. Did you know 61% of all local searches result in purchases? With statistics like this one learned at SES San Francisco, it is important businesses are positioned to reach the top of Google Map Results. Lauren covered seven important factors to take into consideration in order to excel in local search results.

Modern search trends in social media - With four billion plus mobile phones in use today, compared to 1.2 billion PCs, Project Manager, Mandy Christanell’s presentation, “Getting Mobilized”, could not have covered a more important marketing industry topic. Mandy’s presentation focused on the fact that consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices for search-related activities, and it is vital to have your website displayed and search engine optimized properly to make an impact in the mobile search market.

Developing modern online content for the search engines -Web Marketing Account Manager, Sonya Sawall, explained how to leverage great content as an SEO strategy. She focused on the importance of unique content as well as user-generated content. Take away from the presentation: When content development is detailed, but when you do it right, it’s powerful.

How optimized press releases will introduce your business to new audiences –“The world of PR is changing, and it is not coming back”- SES 2010. As Internal Marketing Associate, Lauren Pesko, said in her presentation, today’s PR is optimized, publicized and socialized. With 65% of journalists using social media sites for story sources and 100% using Google for story research, your press release needs to be optimized in order to gain the strongest visibility by search engines, target audiences and the media!

Modern search trends in social media- As social media expert and Web Account Manager at The Net Impact, Angela Trokey, said in her presentation – “while social media can be overwhelming, it doesn’t have to be.” In order for your social media campaigns to prove effective is important to find your target audience and attract, integrate social media channels and measure results.
 

A few thoughts–

“The presentation by The Net Impact on upcoming Internet marketing trends was insightful and well prepared. The presentation gave me several new strategic ideas for the upcoming year.”- Danielle Boenisch, E-Marketing Assistant at The ROHO Group

“Thank you for a very informative and helpful program.  Your team is really impressive.  Smart, savvy group that shares their insights and ideas.  I appreciate the opportunity to participate in your SES updates.”- SES attendee, GeGe Mix.  

“The one constant in the world of  Internet Marketing is that it is always changing.  I feel privileged to be a part of a company that places continued education and staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends as a priority. Attending the SES conference was very rewarding experience and I believe TNI’s enthusiasm, techniques and ideas brought back from San Francisco set  The Net Impact apart from the competition.” - said Presenter Lauren Pesko, Internal Marketing and Public Relations at The Net Impact.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our Internet Marketing Seminar! Check out more great photos and videos from the event and keep a look out for future events at The Net Impact!

On September 29th The Net Impact team gathered at the Starlight Roof at the Chase Park Plaza, turned circus -themed extravaganza, for their first appearance at the TAM Awards Showcase. The Targeted Advertising & Marketing (TAM) awards party showcased the best B2B advertising, marketing, corporate and professional communications in the St. Louis region and honored the agencies, companies and individuals who created them.  The Net Impact proudly took home six TAM awards this year and swept the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards in the Social Media Marketing Initiative Category.

“The TAM Awards are a great benchmark for defining excellence in advertising and marketing in the St. Louis area, and I am very proud of The Net Impact‘s accomplishments in this competitive market.  These awards are a great reinforcement of our clients and our teams truly integrated, best-in-class work,” said Steve Thomas, President of The Net Impact. 

The Net Impact team took home the following awards at the 2010 TAM Awards:

• Gold –Social Media Marketing Initiative
Entry Title:  Go HomeBuyer! Custom Designed Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/GoHomebuyer)
Category Name: Social Media Marketing Initiative
Target Audience:  First Time Homebuyers
Single Most Important Objective: To provide easy access to Go Hombuyer!’s tools and information offered, as well as drive targeted traffic to their website through a strong social media presence.
Results Achieved: The custom designed Facebook page increased brand awareness and website traffic. In addition, vendors became more aware of Go Homebuyer!’s wide variety of services and sponsorship interest increased.

• Silver –Social Media Marketing Initiative

Entry Title:  The City of Wentzville (www.facebook.com/Wentzville)
Category Name:  Social Media Marketing Initiative
Target Audience: Current Residents, Business Owners, Prospective Residents
Single Most Important Objective: To improve the communication among the City of Wentzville’s community.
Results Achieved: The visually appealing Facebook page serves as a platform for Wentzville’s community to share valuable information about their city. This information includes: resident services, business services, economic development, things to do in the city and garage sales.

• Bronze –Website Development E-Commerce

Entry Title:  Bausch & Lomb Storzeye (http://www.storzeye.com/)
Target Audience: Hospital Administrators/ Buyers, Medical Equipment Buyers and Doctors
Single Most Important Objective:  To showcase their high quality products in order to increase sales.
Results Achieved:  The new website design includes enhancements to the ways in which products are displayed and indexed on the sites. Website visitors can now search for instruments, set-up a wish list and add products to an online shopping cart. In addition, the website increases user engagement by including improved product detail with “click to enlarge” functionality on all product images and product videos.

• Bronze –Electronic Direct Email                                                                                                                          

Entry Title:  Sensient Email/Landing Page (http://www.sensientfusionatift.com/)
Category Name:  Electronic Direct Marketing / Product or Service, Business Meeting or Conference
Target Audience: ITF Conference Attendees, Entire Sensient Client Base and Sensient’s Food Colors division
Single Most Important Objective: Appeal to two different target audiences in order to announce Sensient’s presence at the IFT Annual Conference and to build awareness around Sensient’s new product, Fusion.
Results Achieved: Two different email marketing blasts were created in order to appeal to two different audiences. The email campaign drove targeted traffic to the landing page http://www.sensientfusionatift.com/, which showcased Sensient’s new product and included details regarding their upcoming presence at the tradeshow.
 

• Bronze –Website Developement – Landing Page

Entry Title:  Sensient (http://www.sensientfusionatift.com/)
Category Name: Website Development; Landing Page
Target Audience: ITF Conference Attendees, Entire Sensient Client Base and Sensient’s Food Colors division
Single Most Important Objective:  To place focus on introducing Sensient’s new product line and announcing their participation at the upcoming Expo.
Results Achieved: In addition to increasing awareness surrounding Sensient’s new product and their presence at the tradeshow, the landing page provided the opportunity for visitors to request further information on their company and included a link to Sensient’s home page.

• Bronze –Social Media Marketing Initiative

Entry Title:  Roho Custom Designed Facebook Page/Landing Page (http://www.facebook.com/therohogroup#!/therohogroup?v=app_6009294086)
Category Name: Social Media Marketing Initiative
Target Audience: Medical Professionals and Wheelchair Users
Single Most Important Objective: To encourage fans to sign up for their online newsletter in order to increase sales.
Results Achieved: Drove traffic to the ROHO Group’s landing page, intheknow.therohogroup.com, to entice people to sign up for their online newsletter which offers information on new products, promotions, events, ROHO updates, Indsutry news and more.

Congratulations to Kayle Mclean, Angela Trokey, Randy Verbeck, Dave Poninski, Sean Enzwiler, Derek Bemis and Mandy Christanell for all of your hard work this year at TNI!

Check out more great pictures from the 2010 TAM Awards!

The subjects covered at SES included: SEO, PPC management, social media, keyword research, local advertising, mobile engagement, link building, duplicate content, online video, site optimization, usability, and high-level strategy. The conference also featured an exhibition hall with over 100 companies, networking events and parties. The Net Impact team attended various informational sessions including: Search, PR and the Social Butterfly, Secrets of Top-Converting Websites, SEO through Blogs & Feeds, How to Become a Link Magnet, Mobile Marketing Strategies, and more.

“One of the most interesting things I learned was about the importance of citations in Google’s new organic caffeine algorithm,” said Lauren Pesko, Internal Marketing Associate at The Net Impact. “Google is now looking quite a bit at social networking sites and how many times your website or blog has been mentioned or linked to. This is really great to learn from an SEO standpoint. The speakers emphasized the importance of adding feeds to your “static” website and turning it into a blog. This can have an SEO benefit because Google’s new caffeine algorithm is giving weight to blogs due to the fact that they offer up to date information – caffeine is all about the real time.”

The first and perhaps the most memorable part of the week was keynote speaker – Jeffrey Hayzlett, Celebrity CMO, Best Selling Author & Former Eastman Kodak CMO. Jeff discussed the changes in the world of marketing and changes his former company, Kodak, had to undergo in order to compete with its competition and adapt to the growth of technology. To achieve this, Kodak’s brand image had to shift from an “old” and trustworthy to a more “modern” brand, while not abandoning their core values. Kodak was actually the first company to hire a Chief Listening Officer. Kodak tweets in 12 different languages over 120 countries, while monitoring all online communication surrounding their brand name. Jeff preached that “passion is not a substitute for planning” and that “creative people should never compromise what they do, or how they do it.” 

“Jeff’s presentation really resonated with me and was a motivating beginning  to our week at SES. His underlying message of the importance of keeping creative people engaged, challenged and free to make mistakes in order to implement positive change is a concept that people from all professions and organizations, large and small, should take into account,” said Web Account Mangager at The Net Impact, Angela Trokey.

The Net Impact Internet marketing team is looking forward to putting together an informational session to share with clients and friends what they learned at SES this September!

“This has been an exciting year for the ever-changing Internet marketing industry,” said Project Manager at The Net Impact, Mandy Christanell. “At SES we learned how to implement proven techniques for transforming tactics into proven strategies that garner results for our clients today, while ensuring they stay ahead of the competition tomorrow.”

Let’s  say you have just launched a new website.  Your marketing team loves the web design.  Your IT team is thrilled with the security and efficiency and the C class folks are all lining up to salute.  It’s perfect right?  Maybe, maybe not.  What about taking that quantum leap and testing your site with your intended audience, your customers?  Or, as The Net Impact recently determined for the City of Wentzville MO, why not test the site from the perspective of your citizens?

When it comes to a municipality website, the usability of the site by its citizens is a necessary condition for performance.  If the  website is difficult to navigate, people leave. If a landing page fails to clearly state what the municipality offers and what users can do on that page, people leave. If users do not like the access to pertinent informationof the website, they leave. If a website’s information is hard to find or doesn’t answer their questions, the visitors will be left hanging or will  soon be clicking away to a differetn website. Notice a pattern here?

So how do you determine if your website is user-friendly? User testing allows you to roleplay how citizens will navigate your site. At the same time, you record their comments and responses to their efforts to navigate and move through the site in order to accomplish a designed task.  Sound complicated?  It’s really not.   

For an excellent example of  usability testing review the  recent case study conducted by The Net Impact for the City of Wentzville’s website.  After The Net Impact  launched the  The City of Wentzville’s new website, the city worked with our Web marketing team to conduct a series of usability tests to gauge how user-friendly the website’s navigation and overall experience was for visitors and to get a better idea of ideal traffic flow for visitor satisfaction. We created a series of scenarios and tasks for testers to complete on the City of Wentzville’s website.  These tasks were specifically designed to take testers through the navigation pathways of the site and to recreate the experience of a typical visitor to the website.  An impartial  third party service was enlisted to select a broad sample of testers.  A random sampling of testers, with diverse backgrounds including gender, age,  income level, and computer skill level, was determined.  This group best represented the  profiles of actual visitors to the site. As testers performed each task, their mouse movements, clicks and live feedback were all recorded.

Once the user tests were complete, our team of Internet marketing specialist analyzed videos and tester feedback to generate a recommendation report and next steps in order to improve the user experience. From the results we concluded that overall the testers were impressed by the amount of information provided.  Several commented that they wished their own city provided this information and thought this site set the bar high for other municipalities.  However, there were still ample comments from  testers reflecting confusion and difficulty in  finding information .

The Net Impact’s recommendations included consolidating menus, eliminating redundant information and making links to highly requested information more obvious. Some of the tester’s comments also regarded  web design.  The majority of the testers found the site aesthetically pleasing.  Many liked the colors and the rotating photos, but wanted to see more pictures of the city. In addition to suggesting Wentzville add more images to display the character of the  city, The Net Impact suggested different options for the city to make other tools, such as their community calendar easier to find and more simple for visitors to use. – Read more TNI  Case Studies

In conclusion, based on the invaluable feedback from the user testing, our team continues to work with the City of Wentzville to revise aspects of their website to in order to continue to increase effectiveness and functionality. 

Bottom line: User testing is an important aspect of any Internet marketing campaign. The Net Impact employs usability testing as part of our analytics methodology in order to construct  complete online marketing strategies. Remember as well that website testing is an ongoing process, but when managed properly it will drive your efforts and help visitorsrealize a greater satisfaction with your municipal website. Contact The Net Impact today to learn how we can help you find the most effective way to make your website visitors take action.

Let’s admit it, as a startup you desire to compete with the big boys in your space. Let’s talk about how that applies to Internet assets. They have a 200 page website and so you think you should have a 200 page website. They are already positioned with online distribution partners and you feel the same need. The big boys do online seminars and great drip nurturing email marketing campaigns and you think you need to do the same. The problem is, they have a staff to handle all of this that includes C level management and legions of marketing folks. You have… yourself… and maybe a partner or two and a spouse who would prefer not to be involved, make that REALLY prefer not to be involved. How in the world can you compete? Truth is, you can’t. That is you can’t if you try to do combat with them head to head in web marketing or in other marketing and sales arenas where they have the advantages of cash and people.

So what alternatives can you apply to your approach that can come into play prior  to that big venture round? A place to start planning your online strategy may be by exposing your product or services to the masses thereby creating a loyal community of followers who will help you get the word out. How do you do that?

A good case study may be the launch Zhu Zhu Pets by Cepia LLC. This small firm cornered the “hot toy” market during Holiday sales for 2009 based upon some very fundamental execution of great marketing basics. I recently attended a presentation given by the Vice President of Marketing at Cepia, the company that makes the toy, 24-year-old Natalie Hornsby. She has been the driving force behind the marketing and branding of Zhu Zhu Pets. While she, too, is simply stunned by the meteoric rise of the toy, she has worked very hard over the last seven months to raise the visibility of the brand. While she led the campaign to market the toy by using traditional methods, she has also utilized more contemporary methods, like zeroing in on social media marketing, such as ”mommy-bloggers” online to promote the brand.

Their product launch included house parties directed by mommy-bloggers who were then encouraged to write about the product. They set up display tables at baseball parks all around America and let the electronic hamsters do their thing. They broadcasted all of this through less expensive social media marketing using Facebook, optimized press releases and Twitter. They leveraged the resulting groundswell into testimonials and product tests with major retailers. Then came the TV commercials and other traditional marketing. Today their concerns are not focused as much on customer acceptance as they are product line extension and production. That’s what you call a success!

The big expensive website, the huge marketing staff and the large traditional media budget can all wait! If you have the “better idea” in the marketplace, maybe you can build a community! Let these social  recruits be your marketing staff. After the results start coming in, you will have the big boys in your industry thinking they need a little of your magic.