About a year ago, I was the project manager for a large client’s new website.  During the course of the specification phase, we asked the web services company about search optimization and search marketing.  “Oh,” the web services rep said, “It’s a really long-term, expensive endeavor...very complex and expensive.  And it must be based upon the client’s long-term strategic marketing plan.” Ultimately, we did just the basics of search and left it there.  Fast forward to this morning.  On a call with a new client, I hear several people describe search as something very expensive, very complex and something to add to their long-term marketing plan, but something which can’t be handled now, in a current project. 

Here is the news:  search isn’t any more expensive than writing, printing and storing brochures that nobody reads and that end up in the trash and the landfill.  It’s no more expensive than defining, designing and building the website in the first place.  Companies large and small, lethargic and ambitious - wake up and understand New Marketing.  Search is here to stay!  Your web brand needs to stay one step ahead of your market’s information-gathering routine and search needs to be part of that process.  Figure out the basics and put them in place as soon as you can.  Watch the data roll in.

Posted by Ellen in | (0) Comments | Permalink

Social Media is a term that has been getting a lot of attention lately. MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, not to mention countless others, are not just for teens anymore. I came across the website for the movie “The Bucket List” starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, and l noticed a call out for a FaceBook application ... “Create your own bucket list and share it with your friends”. “Share” is the important term here. That’s what all this Social Media is about. Dalton Marketing Group has a wholistic approach to marketing, and Social Media is only one approach, but it is a new and exciting one. Contact us today and find out how you can utilize Social Media and help Grow your business.

Posted by Bryan in • Web Marketing | (0) Comments | Permalink

In the past, when clients asked us to build a website, we would take a fairly traditional approach:  Define the audience(s), define the message(s), differentiate and then publish.  Over the last couple of years, with the help of early interactive marketing guru Teresa Caro, we’d add some keywords and think about page texts and tags.  Now it’s clear:  when a company creates a website, or adds to a pre-existing one, it has to consider its entire web brand.  A website has become a web brand journey, if you will, not just a stop on the brand train. 

Now, the creation of a new website includes all of the steps we USED to take in a full branding exercise.  Complete creative brief.  Competitive analysis.  More analysis on web search and competitive search positioning.  Even more analysis on past site analytics, user profiles, patterns, expectations.  If a client is considering employing us for search management—and there is no time like site construction to do it—the pre-work is even more complex.  And, if we’re considering customer communications, lead generation, social media and PR objectives, we take an even broader sweep through the foundation development step.  Even more reasons to have a marketing firm, not a web services company, manage your website project.  Because you wouldn’t have a web services company manage your brand, right? 

Posted by Ellen in • Web Marketing | (0) Comments | Permalink

We’ve been talking, listening and learning a lot about social media lately.  At a recent General Catalyst Marketing Summit for its portfolio companies, all the speakers were into or capitalizing on social media and its importance for start-up businesses.  A GC portfolio company, HubSpot, is doing a great job of blogging about the issues, the tools and some early success stories.  One, in particular, caught my eye, because a lot of DMG clients are starting search marketing, and trying to rationalize, and value, the results.  This The Importance of Google Page Rankshould help.

Posted by Ellen in • Web Marketing | (0) Comments | Permalink

Sneak into any top-notch event around the US and chances are that a Dalton Marketing Group client is center stage. Not talking business. Not pitching technology. But entertaining some of the country’s top sports, business and media stars. And thousands of other guests hosted at corporate and private events each year.

Dennis L. Smith Productions, with the help of DMG, launched 3 bands in the past 3 years, building upon a strong core brand and adding musical genre “product extensions” as market demand grew.
Channel marketing. Constant customer awareness. Innovative staging and costuming.

The result? National brand awareness among entertainment agents and meeting planners, market space carved for future revenue growth, and solid revenue streams.

Party on the Moon – created a “middle market” in a growing industry

Big Swing was a “product extension” meeting high demand

Higher Power further expanded the product suite

Check out Dennis L. Smith Productions’ success, as well as the success of other DMG clients

Posted by Bryan in • General Marketing | (0) Comments | Permalink

Climbing the social Web ladder by ZDNet‘s Dan Farber—Forrester analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff have published a report, “Social Technographics,” that identifies six levels of participation in the realm of social media or the social Web in the U.S. based on a recent survey.  It will be interesting to see how much these numbers will adjust within the next year. We’ll keep you posted. 

Posted by Bryan in • Web Marketing | (0) Comments | Permalink

Consumer behavior is changing - and we as marketing professionals need to stay out front!  As direct marketing relies increasingly on digital, on-demand mediums - AND the consumer / customer demands it, combining the use of video into your overall marketing mix is critical.  Creating more web exposure and building an online brand for your company or product or services - video web presence is a “must-have” in 2008.

Just to share some growing video stats with you:

Today: average person spends 5 minutes a day watching videos
By Next Year: average person will spend 45 minutes watching videos

Remember that many viewers watch videos for the “entertainment” value. Keep your videos short, light and relevant. 

Book mark our new DMG Blog to stay on top of these growing and evolving market trends.

Posted by Sandy in • Web Marketing | (0) Comments | Permalink

Some of you are familiar with LinkedIn and probably use it for personal networking purposes. However, now LinkedIn has launched “Company Profiles BETA”. Although some large corporations have already started using this service, like eBay, Google, Yahoo!, Oracle, etc.. , it’s not yet available for everyone else. LinkedIn states that soon companies will be able to:

- post targeted jobs, recruitment videos, and other promotional material for recruitment
- post information about products and services
- upload company images
- and more…

This is just another opportunity to get noticed in the ever growing arena of Social Media. Bookmark our new DMG Blog to keep up to date on new and exciting social media trends.

Read more information on LinkedIn’s company profile service.

Posted by Bryan in • Web Marketing | (0) Comments | Permalink