Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays from everyone at WDD.

Tis the Season... For Not Sharing

Well, more than just Christmas actually. A new study found that 71% of users will actually self-censor their own posts — they'll start composing or sharing, then cancel the action. In many cases, they find something that to them may seem useful, but then dismiss it within the context of "but will my friends?"

When crafting posts that aim to appeal to more than just your core audience, consider whether the content is something that you feel people will want to share and pass on. Is it just informational? Consider making it into a catchy graphic. Is the verbiage dry? Think about adding some humor.

And that's today's quick tip!

-Jeff

Odd Hours

It's the holiday season! If your facility has irregular hours that differ from your standard weekly opening and closing times, consider making an announcement via social media or email — and also be sure to note it boldly on your home page. Why? Many people use search browsers to find information about local businesses, and some like Google are only happy to help give out info right in the search results... and during special weeks like in late Christmas, this information may be incorrect.

It may be too late to correct Google for this year (though in a future blog entry we'll explain what can be done to ensure you don't get caught again), but by being proactive and making sure you've made every opportunity to specify what the true hours are across your media channels, you'll reduce complaints and maybe even get a few new customers!

-Jeff

Extreme Couponing

Your loyal customers sign up for your email list because they're not only looking for the latest news and information, they also want to know about deals.

10% off!

Buy one, get one!

$25 off for every $75 spent!

Hey.

One word. No in-depth meaning. No clues as to what comes next.

When 'The Interview' Goes Wrong

No, not the applying-for-a-new-job type interview, although what to do when one goes wrong would be another great blog post entirely.

Instead, I'm talking about today's latest fallout from the Sony Pictures hacking debacle — that their Christmas release of 'The Interview' would be pulled entirely after threats of violence convinced several theatre chains to drop it.

Details and full analysis of the situation belongs elsewhere; instead I'd like to remind readers of the importance of maintaining good security practices with their digital media.

Parting is Such Sweet Unfollow

Call me obsessive, but I'm always curious when someone unfriends me on Facebook or unfollows me on Twitter. What did I say? "WHY DON'T THEY LIKE ME?!" I scream.

Ok... maybe not quite so dramatic.

Yet every week I get an email from TweepsMap showing who started following me and perhaps more importantly, who stopped. (At least the service is nice about it — the button to view is labeled "Who showed poor judgment?")

So to satisfy my own curiosity, I review the list and find that nine times out of ten, the "unfollowers" typically fell into two categories:

SEO Isn't Just a Race, It's a Marathon

Starting the Santa Hustle at Cedar Point

Yesterday I donned some gloves, a heavy sweatshirt, and a santa hat as I prepared for the Santa Hustle half-marathon at Cedar Point. It was my third half-marathon, and since my first back in June I found that through training and perseverance I was able to shave over 25 minutes from my initial time. 

It'd be one thing to think that they're getting easier, but is running 13.1 miles ever really easy? In reality, the thing that changed was having more experience — especially knowing how to pace myself.

It got me thinking about how doing well-executed SEO is similar to doing a long run. Often in digital marketing there's a sense of immediacy, that once an update is made the results are quickly obvious. A problem that I find amongst many clients is that they perceive the same to occur with optimizing for search engines. 

Client Spotlight: Perry's Cave

During the warmer months in Northern Ohio, thousands of families flock to the Lake Erie shores and ferry over to a perennial favorite destination: Put-in-Bay. This charming island is famous for its food (it's THE place to go for Lobster Bisque), nightlife, and a variety of entertaining venues for both kids and adults alike.

One notable spot is Perry's Cave, named for the natural limestone cave that winds 52' underground and is listed as an Ohio Natural Landmark. The attraction also offers activities ranging from mini golf and rock climbing to gemstone mining and a walk-through butterfly house.

Mobile Mail

Fun fact of the day:

As of the 2nd quarter of 2014, 48% of total email opens occurred on a mobile device. (1)

We're Hosting a Webinar and You're Invited

Webinars are awesome. You get to sit back in your comfy chair, beverage of choice in hand, and just relax and listen as the hosts fill your head with bundles of knowledge. We won't judge, but you could probably even attend in your underwear — good luck trying that at an actual conference!

Well good news. Scott Brown — our illustrious and well-spoken Director of Business Development — and I will be headlining a webinar workshop on Wednesday, January 14 at 2:00 pm EST.

The topic? Figuring out what you need to do to get your 2015 digital marketing strategy in order.

The time commitment? About a half hour, maybe a bit more... plus some time for Q&A.

The results? Lots of specific ideas and action steps you can start taking that will give you an edge over your competition.

C'mon, it's a month away and we just know your calendar is empty that afternoon! Registering is easy — simply fill out this form and you'll be all set to listen in.

-Jeff

Redirection Misdirection

Relaunching a site is often cause for celebration — you get to debut a fresh new design, plus (hopefully) give your users a better experience through improved navigation and functionality.

Common to many relaunches is the changing of URLs. Perhaps directory structures changed, or you transitioned from using underscores between words to Google's preferred dashes. What used to be:

www.mysite.com/attractions/outdoor/mini_golf.html

May now be:

www.mysite.com/outdoor-attractions/mini-golf/

So what happens when the new site launches and a user who tries to find something via a search engine ends up on an old URL?

The dreaded 404 Not Found error.

Birthday Surprise

When I woke up this morning, I unlocked my smartphone, checked my email, and saw a flood of emails reminding me I was now a year older. *groan*

While the majority were from friends, there were also a bunch from a variety of businesses wishing me a happy birthday — not to mention including coupons and special offers in the message as well.

If you recall from a blog post last week, I'm not a huge fan of over-personalizing business emails with names and other info. In this case however... it works.

Is Your Engagement Off?

Not your marriage, hopefully! No, I'm talking about something even more drastic — social media engagement.

Are your Facebook posts collecting dust? Your tweets vaporizing into a black hole? Besides spending a small fortune for sponsored posts (which only guarantees more impressions, not necessarily engagement) your other major strategy should be to ensure your communication is fun and imaginative.

Creativity sparks creativity — by inspiring your followers to share, you're now reaching their friends. When they're inspired, they'll share with their friends, and so on. Behold, the amazing power of social media!

I saw an example this morning from Peter Shankman, an acclaimed speaker and social media celebrity in his own right. He simply asked on his own page, "Describe your week using only Facebook stickers. No words. Go."

Smart Analytics

As promised, the slides from my presentation "Smart Marketing: Using Online Analytics to Understand Your Guests" are now available: View Slides Here (PDF)

Be Dynamic!

Dynamically generated and interactive content is great — by creating HTML templates, we can extract information from databases to populate pages with customized copy, imagery and more.

In the majority of cases, content is accessed by modifying URL parameters. For instance, if I'm searching for pizza on Google Maps, this address would return results to me:

http://maps.google.com/?q=Pizza 

Don't be too personal when personalizing

Hi, {FIRST_NAME}! Hope you're enjoying this blog!

Personalization can be incredibly useful when sending out email blasts — chances are you may already have lots of information about your subscribers, and you may be tempted to insert all kinds of merge fields to make your message more appealing.

However...

Cyber Conversions

Happy Cyber Monday! Now that hopefully all of you readers enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, it's time to think about how to not only market your promotions more effectively but to also track customers through the buying process.

Having peeked at numerous others' Google Analytics accounts over the years, I can assert that most never set up goals — making it very difficult to check on the health of your marketing efforts. The good news is it's incredibly easy to set up; just log in to Google Analytics and follow along: