There is no bigger difference than the difference between being good and being great. It’s easy to go from being mediocre to being good, but going from good to great? That’s a huge jump.

It’s easy enough to be good at your job. A strong work ethic and dedication will get you pretty far in life; but to be great is something special.

I’ve been fortunate to meet many people who are great at their jobs. Luckier still, I get the chance to work with people every single day who are truly great digital marketers. I’ve often tried to put my finger on just what it is that makes these people great, and of course, it’s impossible. If greatness could be boiled down to a few characteristics and copied, everyone would be great, and we all know that is not the case. However, while there is always an undeniable “X Factor” that can’t be duplicated, great digital marketers do have many of the same traits in common.

Empathy

Good digital marketers know who the target audience is. Great digital marketers understand what they love, what they hate, what makes them scared and what motivates them.

Passion

Good digital marketers enjoy their jobs. Great digital marketers eat, sleep and breathe them. They wake up thinking about how to make campaigns better, and they go to sleep thinking about what else they can learn tomorrow.

A Creative + Analytical Mindset

Good digital marketers are creative. Great digital marketers understand that creativity is only the first step in a successful campaign. Every successful campaign is a combination of great inspiration backed by real data and insights.

Fearlessness

Good digital marketers try out new tactics. Great digital marketers create the new tactics. It’s hard to be fearless. Being comfortable is easy, but you will never become great by being comfortable. Great digital marketers disrupt.

Leadership

Good digital marketers are liked by their team. Great digital marketers are trusted and respected. If you are going to be fearless with your plans, you better have a team who believes in you. Great digital marketers have the unique ability to excite, motivate and rally a team. Even the greatest digital marketers are made better with a team.

Flexibility

Good digital marketers create amazing campaign plans. Great digital marketers know that nothing ever goes according to plan. They are able to roll with the punches and make smart decisions on the fly without affecting campaign performance.

Follow-Through

Good digital marketers can create an amazing strategy but often pass it off to a team to execute the details. Great digital marketers know they aren’t above anything. No matter if they’re a Specialist or a Director, great digital marketers know that it takes a village to launch a successful campaign. If someone on their team is overwhelmed, they step in to help. They back up their promises, and they get it done.

Vision

Good marketers can tell a story. Great marketers know why the story matters. They ask why. They understand the problems they are trying to solve and have the vision to create a plan to solve them.

When it comes down to it, being great isn’t easy. However, people aren’t born great; they become great with a lot of work. If you feel like you are good at what you do but not great, think about where you could improve. Be confident, work hard, think before you act, and always worry more about the why rather than the what.

Everyone wants to know what’s next for the ever-divisive Tim Tebow, who is now a free-agent after a disappointing and drama-filled season with the New York Jets. It seems like just yesterday that Tebow was launching an overtime touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas to beat the Steelers in the 2011 Wild Card playoff game. Now the poor guy can’t buy a roster spot.

Some say he’ll be scooped up by an NFL team before training camp. Others expect him to take a job in the CFL or Arena League or leave football behind all together and pursue a career with the church. As of this writing, Tebow remains in limbo while media around the country speculate as to whether their local teams should sign him. 

Those poor, poor Jaguars fans. It just never ends down there.

For the record, I don’t think there’s much speculation inside team front offices about Tebow. No one seems to want him. But the media debate persists, and what’s interesting about it is that it’s not a debate founded in Xs and Os. The question isn’t how much Tebow will help a football team (he won’t), it’s whether teams are going to be willing to adopt the hoards of crazed Tebow-maniacs in exchange for some extra publicity and a potential boost in ticket and jersey sales.

Is He Worth It?

At the beginning of the 2012 season after signing with the Jets, Tim Tebow skyrocketed to the top of the jersey sales charts. When it became apparent that he would not win the starting quarterback job in New York and would serve as a glorified clipboard carrier, his sales plummeted… all the way to number 8 (only 3 spots behind the all-mighty Tom Brady).

That has to be a record for a personal punt protector slash backup quarterback.

So, whether you think he’s a saint, con man, role model or an attention whore, the guy has fans. No question about it. And every team in the league could use a player with that kind of star power. So, signing him is a no-brainer, right?

Not so fast.

Here’s what most people don’t realize – merchandising revenue in the NFL is split evenly among the 32 teams. A Forbes article from this past winter noted that Tebow jersey sales would need to have grossed over $131 million in order to justify his Jets salary in 2012. (He sure as heck didn’t justify it with his play on the field.)

So sure, Tebow has legions of fans, but signing him means counting on a boost in ticket sales alone to justify the expense and inevitable negative PR.

It’s possible that he could help a team sell tickets, but that’s not a lasting strategy (most teams located outside of Florida and California don’t need help selling tickets anyway). Tebow fans won’t shell out money over the course of a season to see him ride the bench. If a team wants the ticket sales boost to last, they’d have to play him. And playing Tim Tebow isn’t much of a lasting strategy either. Not for GMs who want to keep their jobs.

So, here’s the real question. Would I want my team, the Ravens, to sign him?

No. No way. I think he’s a good guy, and that he has been a victim of his own hype to an extent, but that doesn’t matter. He can’t help the Ravens on the field so I don’t want him on the team. It’s as simple as that.

Would he help put a small market team like the Ravens in the national spotlight? Sure he would, especially when QB Joe Flacco has a bad game and hot-headed fans and analysts start calling for a change at the position. But I feel confident in speaking for Ravens fans everywhere when I say that it is not the kind of attention we want or need.

The Lesson

Short-term PR wins aren’t something you want. That’s why the bottom dwellers in sports (and business for that matter) are the bottom dwellers. They make short-sighted moves, shell out top dollar for big names, and generally prioritize ticket sales and PR over winning. The best franchises in the league tend to be the ones that win the most games and the most titles (shocking, I know). And that starts by putting a great product on the field for the fans. Not generating buzz.

It all ties back, as always, to adhering to a smart marketing philosophy. Tim Tebow is the NFL version of link building. Sure, he could boost a team’s “Page Rank” in the short-term, but what would they really be gaining? A bunch of bandwagon fans that will only stick around to see Tebow get in the game?

Long-term brand success comes from putting out a great product, building loyalty, and bringing in the right audience – not just the largest.

Our advice to brands? Leave the Tebows of the world alone – you’re better off without them.

1 billion people. 240 billion photos. 1 trillion connections.

Facebook helps us stay connected to the people, places and things we love. However, the social network is pushing us to open up our world and do more. It wants us to not only connect to our friends, but to use our personal stories and experiences to help us answer life’s most pressing questions, like:

Where can I find a vegan restaurant in Mobile, Alabama?

Facebook’s new Graph Search will help us do just that by using our friends’ likes and interests to personalize search results. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve probably heard of Graph Search but, unless you’re one of the lucky few who made it into the product’s beta testing, you probably haven’t used it.

We’ve created a breakdown to outline how Graph Search works based on information we received from Facebook Project Manager, Loren Cheng, along with some recent developments we’ve learned about since the product launched early this year.

What It’s About 

Facebook considers itself to have three pillars:

• Newsfeed – The page we visit to see what our friends and the brands we follow are saying and sharing.
• Timeline – Our homebase on Facebook, where we curate our own experiences, pictures, check-ins and photos to share with others
• Graph Search – ???

So, how does Graph Search fit into all this? Basically, it is a new way to search using all the information you and your friends have shared including photos, images, check-ins, likes and more. While other services index primarily public information, Facebook is able to answer the questions that others can’t by indexing things people share to help other users make decisions.

How is this different (or better) than searching on Google or Bing? It all boils down to reach and relevance. We benefit from the vast reach of Google and Bing, but have to sift through information to uncover relevance. However, Graph Search breaks this tradeoff by combining the two. We get to learn about restaurants, books and other things of interest in our area, while also getting the inside scoop from the experiences of those closest to us – helping us to determine whether something is a “yay” or a “nay.”

How It Works

Let’s say after finding that vegan restaurant, I need to see a dentist because I chipped a tooth on some overcooked tempeh. I could conduct a Google or Bing search to find a list of dentists in the area, then do my due diligence to identify the best options. Or, I could use Graph Search to find dentists my friends in Alabama like. Graph Search currently allows you to search by the following criteria:

• People – Our friends, friends of friends and people we follow
• Photos – Check-ins, captions and comments
• Places – Places we’ve checked into
• Pages – Pages we’ve liked
• Interests – Interests we’ve liked

Using natural language, we can type our query into graph search asking:

• Dentists liked by my friends
• Which dentists in Alabama are liked by my friends and have pictures
• Dentists in Alabama liked by my friends who like Mad Men 

Now, let’s say we don’t trust some of our friend’s judgment. Graph search lets us further define our results to exclude certain information.

Natural Language

In stark contrast to Google, Facebook Graph Search encourages the use of super long-tail search queries, emphasizing phrases and not keywords. This is because Facebook Graph Search responds to natural language. The developers felt that understanding semantics was key to making Graph Search work. By utilizing natural language patterns, Graph Search provides users the ability to ask almost anything. This also required a certain amount of re-education. We are trained by Google and other search engines to enter certain keywords and short, general queries. However, Graph Search works better if the query is more specific and complex. A sort of “anti-autocomplete,” Graph Search teases users with a “type-ahead” mechanism, which is used to encourage longer queries.

Results

Results aren’t a list, but specific “answers,”. Results are ranked based upon a number of factors, including:

• Page
• Engagement
• Check-ins
• And of course, friends

Results are tailored to exactly what we’re looking for. So, if Facebook thinks we’ve submitted a recruiting query, it will present facts about each candidate’s work history. If it thinks we’re looking for a hookup, we will see relationship status and location information. For now, Graph Search only allows you to search based upon people, photos, interests and pages. However, once it moves out of beta, people should be able to search based upon posts and language. In addition, it will be available in Open Graph and on mobile devices.

What It Means for Marketers

The big question for Graph Search is how companies will be able to use it to sell and market products.

Advertising

Graph Search originally allowed brands to purchase sponsored results in the drop down menu. However, Facebook is currently testing ads to a select group of users in beta. These ads aren’t based upon search queries, but are simply an extension of Facebook Exchange and Marketplace ads.

The first Graph Search ads are really just a new placement of their current ads. Facebook has put a premium on user experience, so at this time they’re probably skeptical about rolling out ads based on search queries.

Research Tool

While paid results may not be an actuality at this point, Graph Search could potentially serve as a tool for marketers to research their target audiences and their competitors, allowing them to created highly targeted campaigns. However, since results are personalized, brands and agencies will have to be careful with the information they gather.

Guilty by Association

Another thing marketers should be aware of is that they won’t be able to disassociate themselves from fans. For example, both the Air Force and McDonald’s come up when you search for employers of people who like “racism”. At this time, there are no plans for a disavow tool and no advice from Facebook to combat bad results. This opens the program up to Google Bombing type activities.

Going Local

Local businesses have the most to gain from Graph Search. Since people will be searching within their own social circles, results will primarily be based around their local area. For local businesses that are used to competing with large brands on Google, Facebook Graph presents an outstanding opportunity to engage with consumers and get discovered. This puts a premium on optimizing for local Facebook pages and Facebook’s search partner, Bing. Further, large brands with franchises will need to refocus their efforts to creating pages for individual locations instead of the main brand page. On another note, this presents a challenge to Yelp, Foursquare and other local social media networks. With so much information at it’s fingertips, it wouldn’t take much for Facebook to implement its own version of these networks.

Optimization

Optimizing Facebook Graph Search presents some unique opportunities and some not so unique challenges to marketers. Though Graph Search seems like some big, scary thing, many of the mechanics to be successful are inherent to most SEO best practices.

The Basics

Here are a few of the basic things every brand should have completed by now, no matter your business model. If you haven’t done it yet, we have to age our finger at you.

• Create a Facebook Page with all applicable profile information included.
• Create a page url that is direct, natural and relevant to your business.
• Include your business address and phone number in your profile.
• Invite Friends and customers to like your page.
• Include a link to your Facebook on your main website.

Content

We’ve all heard the cliché that content is king, and it is still very true for Facebook. Post photos, videos and other content regularly to your profile – stuff relevant to your business that people can will find valuable.

Engagement

If you want to increase your rankings on Graph Search, you’re going to have to do more than just have a page and post content occasionally. You’re going to have to regularly engage with your audience in relevant ways. Competitions and quizzes are just a few ways to do this. Find out what works for your business.

A Few Things to Note

Privacy

Online privacy is always a concern, especially on Facebook, which is the poster child for everything bad about online sharing, the same way McDonald’s is for the horrors of fast food. Because of past issues with privacy, Facebook has taken a very proactive stance with Graph Search. Facebook claims that every piece of content on Graph Search is under the same privacy guidelines on Facebook. Most content isn’t public. Anything you don’t want to share or include won’t be. Every piece of content has its own specific audience. Further, we can look forward to easier-to-use privacy settings. However, until more users are able to access Graph Search, the third pillar will continue to be scary and confusing.

Spam

Facebook Graph Search doesn’t have a separate spam control team. However, the algorithm was developed with spam protection in place. We can only hope the protections in place will be enough.

API

Currently Graph Search does not have an API. But it might be coming.

The Future of Search

Facebook claims it isn’t aiming to own a segment of search, but instead, to become part of the “search fabric.” You don’t like books on Facebook, you go to Goodreads.com to see what people are reading. You visit Yelp to learn more about a restaurant from customer reviews. Though this sounds all well and good, this statement still feels pretty dubious. It’s mostly likely just a continuation of Facebook and Google’s said / unsaid secret war for eyeballs and user interest.

What isn’t a secret is that the next frontier of search will be based around social and local, which is the type of information Facebook has in abundance. People have been wondering for years when Facebook would take advantage of its search potential, with tons of information that no one else can access and Google sitting in fear of the inevitable. However, is Graph Search ultimately much ado about nothing?

Obviously, Facebook is really banking on this product being a game changer, listing it as one of its core pillars. How successful Facebook will be remains to be seen. In the meantime, we’ll be working on finding out how ridiculously complex we can make our search queries.

Deep in the bowels of The University of Oxford among miles of shelving in the Bodleian Library, sits a dusty old tome recounting the secret history of the Oxford comma. To no one’s surprise who opens it, it’s a tale of quibbling editors and journalism students with unmerited senses of superiority.

It begins in a 1915 Oxford dorm with the first recorded argument over the Oxford comma—an event that every such argument in the subsequent century has followed precisely. The confrontation started when roommates Aldous Huxley and J. R. R. Tolkien were writing home to their parents that they needed money for “pizza, booze[,] and rubbers.”

Huxley, a telecomm major and staunch AP Stylebook defender, threw his dog-eared copy at Tolkien, citing the oft-referenced punctuation section. Tolkien, being more radical and prone to drug use, was all for the extra comma. He retorted that this was the same guide that still spelled it “e-mail” and the same guide that suggested the capital of West Virginia be written “Charleston, W. Va.” He then showed Huxley this cartoon that he thought proved his point while also being “totally hilarious.”

So the argument went, and so went every argument enumerated in the book up until the one that took place in the Nebo office on Thursday, March 7, 2013. That’s the day I decided I would no longer participate in these asinine quarrels while so many commas went spliced and dates unpunctuated.

People love to throw their hat in the ring when this topic comes up because they feel like it’s a grammar subject they might actually have a tenuous grasp on; but the same people who see fit to bicker over the use of an Oxford comma, a style choice, are probably guilty of breaking many of the hard-and-fast rules of comma use, some of which will be discussed later. But first:

Eschew Obfuscation

Never before has so much ink been spilled over such an unworthy, diminutive thing as the Oxford comma. Now more than ever, I advise against it as the digital world is putting character count at a premium in Tweets, text ads and tiny display ads. However, trifling prevails and arguments persist. Here’s why you should never join in.

Let’s take another look at that cartoon. I must admit that it’s pretty accurate. I believe that’s exactly where an Oxford comma belongs: in the tawdry trappings of a sentence about strippers, a Communist and a married man who cavorted around with Marilyn Monroe. The only problem is that it doesn’t prove anything.

Make it a singular stripper; then you’ve got, “We invited the stripper, JFK, and Stalin.” Now your Oxford comma has made our first Catholic president a stripper whereas without it (“We invited the stripper, JFK and Stalin”), you would have avoided ambiguity for the exact same reason omitting the Oxford comma created ambiguity with plural strippers. Either way, the second item in the list could be mistaken for an appositive.

I didn’t take the time to find out who created that little web gem about the strippers, but I too can engage in reductio ad absurdum. Behold.

Look upon your works, ye Oxford comma proponents, and despair. You’ve turned one of the most well-groomed sentences of all time into an unkempt monstrosity. The point is simply to write clearly or, as the old fumblerule goes, “Eschew obfuscation. Espouse elucidation.” If one comma or lack thereof creates ambiguity in your writing, then you lack either the imagination or ambition to change your syntax.

The Real Problem

The comma wears many hats, and none of them has anything to do with where you think there’s a natural break when you read a sentence to yourself. The comma exists to separate elements of a sentence and aid the writer in his or her pursuit of clarity. However, it’s been showing up in increasingly strange places these days.

I blame this on the Internet, a place with seemingly billions of publishers and maybe two or three editors. The same has been happening with the comma’s cousin from above the mean line, the apostrophe (we use apostrophe’s everywhere in the 2010’s). Like the Dukes of Hazzard, the comma is always finding itself in sticky situations in which it has no business being.

Take the time to absorb the following rules. Your copy or prose will gain credibility, and you will avoid the rolling eyes of pedants. Let’s begin with perhaps the most common unnecessary comma use.

The Compound Predicate

This issue is rarely talked about but is exceedingly common. Note the punctuation of the previous sentence. Many writers will insert a comma after “about” so that the sentence reads, “This issue is rarely talked about, but is exceedingly common.” The phrase “but is exceedingly common” is the second part of the single predicate “is rarely talked about but is exceedingly common,” both referring to “this issue.” Subject–predicate. If you remember your language arts, that constitutes a simple sentence.

Using a comma in these situations could arise from a fear of creating a run-on sentence. Just count your independent clauses. If there’s only one, then you can’t have a run-on.

Subordinating Conjunctions

These are words such as “because,” “when,” “while” and “as” that set off dependent clauses. Dependent clauses are not complete thoughts, and sentences with them do not need them to make sense.

“I sweat because it’s hot in here.” “I sweat” is an independent clause, capable of standing alone. “Because it’s hot in here” is a dependent clause, “because” being the subordinating conjunction. When it comes after the independent clause, dependent clauses beginning with subordinating conjunctions don’t need commas preceding them. Some people become more inclined to insert a comma there as the sentence gets longer (I held on to the firework too long and burned my hand[,] though I tried not to), but it’s still not necessary.

The Easy Stuff

I consider the easy stuff things that might stand out to you or things for which you feel like there’s a rule. This could include placing commas in addresses, dates, quotes or instances of direct address. In these cases, having a stylebook or doing a simple Google search can be really useful. However, we can knock some of them out right here and now.

• Dates: It took place Thursday, May 8, 2013, on Marietta Street. It took place in May 2013.
• Places: Our office is located at 1031 Marietta St. NW, Atlanta, Georgia.
• Quotes: She said, “You are pedantic.” She said that I was “pedantic.”

If you keep an eye out for it, then you’ll start noticing misused commas everywhere, and those Oxford commas will start to look increasingly inconsequential. All I ask for is consistency. As Stephen Colbert says, “Pick a side. We’re at war.” If I’m editing the work of someone who uses the Oxford comma but forgets it one time, I see that as a green light to remove them all. The war we’re in is one of both attrition and description.

The Oxford comma argument is a subject for the interloper grammarian. If your goal is to sound smart or professional, then don’t participate in one of these arguments; Huxley and Tolkien eventually got over it, and they went on to be moderately successful. Instead, try to appreciate the comma, your companion in the battle for clarity, for his entire skillset. Your skillset as a writer will grow because of it.

2007 was supposed to be the “Year of Mobile.” Then later that year it was said 2008 was “really” going to be the “Year of Mobile.” Then, 2009, 2010, etc. Each year predicts the same thing about the next, but the truth is we need to stop sitting around waiting for mobile to take off and start realizing that we’ve been in the Age of Mobile this whole time.

Last year, 30 percent of all web traffic occurred on mobile devices, and that number is expected to reach 50 percent by next year. In fact, in some industries that percentage is higher. Take your pick of statistics:

• There was a 40 percent increase in mobile purchases in 2012.
• 70% of mobile searches lead to an action within 1 hour.
• Soon, mobile devices will outnumber people—an 18-fold increase from 2011 to 2016.
• Americans spend more than two hours per day on mobile (nearly equaling television with just over 2.5 hours).

Every quarter the stats pour in, and it becomes clearer that the marketers, developers and digital agencies that aren’t devoting an equivalent portion of resources to mobile will quickly fall behind. So when crafting a mobile strategy, make sure it’s truly ready for the mobile age by considering how the following apply to your audience.

Content

When deciding on mobile content, there are a couple questions that should come to mind. How much of the same content from your main site should you make available on the mobile site? How much content, if any, should be unique to your mobile efforts?

The answers to these questions come from mapping out your customer’s buyer journey. Maybe the content you offer on mobile is the same; maybe it’s just what the user needs on the mobile device; and maybe it’s different content altogether to complement your non-mobile content. It’s all about providing the right content at the right time to your users, not necessarily all the content all the time.

Remember, you’re telling a story with all your content. Decide what parts of the story occur on mobile and plan accordingly. Also, make it count. Remember, seventy percent of mobile searches lead to an action within an hour. Without the right content, it could be an action in your competitor’s favor.

Apps versus Mobile Sites

The issue of apps versus mobile sites isn’t a question of either/or; you should always consider both.

While a mobile presence should always include either a responsive or mobile site, think about what an app could offer your audience if you’ve got the resources to build one. Again, this is contingent on your audience’s buyer journey and what part of that occurs on mobile.

An important factor in this is frequency; that is, how often people are purchasing your product or service. No one is going to use an app for something like a mattress that you buy once every decade or so unless you offer something beyond a mobile ecommerce platform. A branded utility app for picking the right size mattress or adjusting the mattress settings, if there are any, might not lead directly to a conversion but could help the user along the path to purchase by offering a unique selling point or useful tool that will increase awareness.

Likewise, frequency might be greater for B2B users, such as a mattress wholesaler. In that case, a mobile app geared toward them could be as useful as a B2C app is for a product with a short buying cycle. Again, make sure you’re giving the right users the right content at the right time in the right place.

Measuring Mobile

We’ve talked about it before—you have to go beyond last click attribution. In the digital, mobile age, all the data is readily available to see not only how your audience is purchasing on mobile, but also how mobile is assisting in purchases elsewhere. Forty percent of online purchases use 3 channels or more in the buying journey. Do you know what percentages make up your buyer journey? Find out with the right metrics and optimize accordingly.

If most of your business occurs offline, your mobile presence should always provide opportunities for offline actions (e.g. “Click To Call” buttons); there could not be a simpler way to measure your mobile impact than by measuring conversions like these. Other calls to action to measure besides online purchases could include:

• Adding a product to a cart/wish list on an app or mobile site, which leads to a conversion elsewhere
• Using a coupon code integrated with a point of sale
• Scanning a QR code for discounts or unique content (Okay, we’re not particularly big fans of QR codes, and the audience using them might not be the hippest, but at least they’re taking an action)
• An app/branded utility leading to an in-store purchase

These are all readily available call to action and measurement opportunities to see how well you’re tying together online and offline, mobile and non-mobile. The opportunities are endless.

Take, for instance, “buzzed mobile” marketing. Some companies found that their audiences are more likely to take actions after 9:00 p.m. (presumably when they’ve had a little to drink) and send them email offers at such times, which they immediately see on their mobile device. They’ve had great success, and it’s all thanks to the power of analytics and alcohol!

Responsive Pros and Cons

For a great mobile experience that’s not tied to a specific device or screen size, a well thought out and well executed responsive design is often the best and most comprehensive solution. If done right, you can prioritize what people see on what screen size according to the screen size and device, and where they’re at in the buyer journey.

Find out what information users need when they’re looking on a tablet and give them exactly what they need in that resolution—no more, no less; then, do the same for smartphone resolutions. And remember, this isn’t just about screen size and/or reprioritizing the layout, but also including touch-based gestures where appropriate and expected.

I know there are people that hate responsive and will push for apps only. Others will argue for separate mobiles sites (e.g. m.yoursite.com).

In my opinion the only way you can really justify creating an m.yoursite.com site is if you’re providing content that is unique to mobile users. Not just layout or IA differences, but truly unique content. The rational isn’t just based on the user experience for the mobile audience, but how developers code responsive sites. If the content is truly unique, responsive would make for a clunky and inefficient solution.

Like I mentioned previously, it’s not a question of app versus mobile site, or app versus responsive. What’s certain is that whatever you do, you can’t skimp. Your site either has to be responsive or has to redirect to an “m.yoursite.com” experience. Forty percent of mobile users will opt for a different site if yours isn’t mobile friendly.

Checkout and Payments

While many of the choices you make for your mobile presence have a good deal of gray area, this one is pretty straightforward: alternative payments, at least for now, are the way to go for mobile checkout. ShopVisible finds that 78 percent of mobile transactions are conducted via alternative payment (e.g. PayPal rather than credit card). However, alternative mobile transactions can take a variety of forms.

The most successful at this point is direct carrier billing. That is, one-time, usually small purchases that go directly to the mobile carrier bill or mobile account. Is your end product an app or ringtone? This is you, and this makes up most mobile transactions. Like we mentioned when considering frequency of purchase: the more expensive a product or service, the longer the sales cycle and the more likely mobile is to assist in conversions as opposed to make up the conversion itself.

Mobile transactions can also be closely linked to offline. An increasing number of in-store customers are using mobile as their payment platform (tap and go technology such as Google Wallet) while an increasing number of offline merchants are using mobile as the point of sale (mobile credit card processing such as Square). But there’s also an emerging trend of companies choosing to build their own mobile in-store payment platforms (essentially, customers telling merchants, “Put it on my tab,” via a mobile app). Consider that the Starbucks mobile payment platform did 3 million transactions in its first month.

Showrooming

This issue constitutes a line that must be drawn in the sand. For offline retailers, you must either fight it or embrace it. Don’t be mad that someone does a mobile search for your product in-store and opts for a better deal elsewhere. The impetus is on you to give them a reason to stay.

Don’t see it as a negative. See it for the positive that it is: an opportunity to be fun and creative, to add value and create genuine experiences that tell your story better than the best ad copy could. The great ones will speak for themselves.

It doesn’t all have to be some contrived mobile stunt that lets you keep your customers, though. It could be something as simple as having a conscience. One of our favorite subjects and favorite clients, P.L.A.Y., makes eco-friendly designer pet beds.

However, that’s not all people are buying from them. Ecommerce is boring. Retail is boring. Having purpose, standing for something bigger than revenue, and taking a stand builds brands and drives customer loyalty. P.L.A.Y. did just that through their Warm Bellies Initiative. By donating chill pads to shelter dogs with every designer bed purchase, P.L.A.Y. transformed a purchase action into a cause and being a member in a community. They’re offering the chance to make a needy dog happy, to join a community of like-minded animal advocates. Don’t complain that showrooming is syphoning off your business. Take action. Think. Plan. Offer value. Engage and become better.

Redefining Mobile

The most important thing you can do, the thing that should shape your entire approach to mobile, is to evolve your idea of what mobile means. You might think mobile is just location, but it’s not. Location isn’t mobile. Location is just data. Mobile is, rather, location-based.

Asif Khan, President of the Location Based Marketing Association, said at a recent event that location-based means an intersection of people, places and media. If that sounds like a broad definition, that’s because everything is location-based. Broaden your idea of location and you unlock limitless opportunities to reach your audience. Cars are a location. WiFi hotspots are locations. Mobile apps are locations.

Location-based data is seeing exponential growth in the Age of Mobile. Eighty-five percent of data collected on users has a location element to it, and the reasons aren’t hard to see. Push notifications have six times the response rate when using geo-targeting. The inclusion of a location or city name in mobile ads improves click-through rate 200 percent.

Remember that the ultimate goal is everything—social, PPC, mobile browsing—converging on one person at one time in one place to give that user exactly what he or she needs. In the end, it will be quality, targeted content, not coupons or discounts, that truly offers value to the user and legitimizes your mobile strategy.

At the end of the day, Google is a for-profit company. Over time, a misconception has somehow arisen that Google’s mission is providing the best search results possible out of the goodness of their heart. Not so; in reality, excellent search results provide two things: 1) a vast and continual source of information about consumers and 2) a built-in base of ad viewers. In fact, despite some diversification, AdWords remains Google’s main source of revenue, with $42.5 billion in 2012 advertising revenues.

With so much money on the table, it comes as no surprise that Google has been subject to significant legal controversy over the years. One of the most hotly contested issues Google faces with the AdWords program is trademark infringement. The pivotal determination for trademark infringement is use of the trademark in commerce. Unfortunately, case law remains ambiguous on the point of if buying and selling trademarks as keywords for advertising constitutes “trademark use.”

Part of the ambiguity derives from Google’s tendency to throw money at the problem, resulting in most cases settling out of court without a judgment, and part to conflicting opinions in different jurisdictions. Without a clear precedent delineating if bidding on trademarks will be considered illegal, Google has attempted to preemptively absolve liability through their Terms of Service Agreement. However, while the Terms may protect Google, marketers may be increasingly exposed to liability for trademark infringement they may not even be aware is occurring.

What Is Google’s Policy on Trademarks?

First, an understanding of what exactly Google allows is necessary. In 2004, Google updated its trademark policy to allow bidding on keywords containing third party trademarks while blocking all trademark use in ad text at the request of the trademark owner. The 2004 policy shift also marked the beginning of Google’s refusal to investigate complaints of trademark misuse with keywords and a move to include trademarked terms as suggestions in the Keyword Tool. However, Google clearly dictated that unauthorized trademark use in ad text would result in deauthorization of the ad. In 2009, Google expanded third party trademark use in ad text to allow for four specific conditions.

1. When the trademark is used in a descriptive or generic way; “No, no, no, I’m not talking about Fish Fri. I’m talking about frying fish.”
2. Where the advertiser sells or clearly facilitates the sale of goods and services corresponding to the trademarked term; “We’re a reseller!”
3. Where the advertiser sells replacement parts or compatible products relating to the trademarked term; “Is your LG™ Monitor broken? We have the parts to fix it.”
4. Where the primary purpose of the landing page of the ad is to provide informative details about goods or services of the corresponding trademark term; “Reviews!”

Finally, Google will not investigate and restrict use of the trademark in display URLs because it claims the presence of trademarked term within a URL may not necessarily constitute trademark use, such as in the case of post-domain paths or subdomains. The URL issue was further addressed when Google updated policies requiring that display URLs match the domain of the destination URL, preventing misdirection by using trademarked URLs. Google advises trademark owners to contact the advertiser directly regarding any concerns about display URLs.

How Claims Are Brought

The vast majority of claims for trademark infringement through AdWords are brought under the Lanham Act with the doctrine of direct confusion. Put simply, trademark owners allege that unauthorized advertisers were trying to confuse consumers into thinking the 3rd party is the source of the trademarked goods or services.

For a claim under the Lanham Act to be successful, the trademark must be “used in commerce.” It is important to note that courts have been split on whether or not bidding on keywords constitutes a use or not, so claims may only be brought in some jurisdictions.

In 2008-2009, many claims were allowed on the basis that if a use in commerce did occur, there was also probably a likelihood of confusion on the part of the consumer. Some courts found a likelihood of confusion even if users did not see the trademark material on the landing page, and the trademark was only used as a keyword to trigger the 3rd party ad being displayed. In legal terms, summary judgment on behalf of the Defendant was denied due to a finding of material fact as to if a likelihood of confusion existed in ad copy or landing pages.

Because the courts are leaning toward allowing claims to proceed, simply bidding on a 3rd party’s trademark can be a risky prospect. Even without the trademark appearing in ad text or on the landing page, bidding on trademarked terms could at least invite a lawsuit that could proceed through discovery and to trial on the likelihood of confusion issue.

What Should We Do?

Bidding on trademarks is a risky proposition. It’s important to know that U.S. internet law differs significantly from Europe, China, and other countries.  What may be perfectly acceptable in the U.S. could result in legal action elsewhere. In the U.S., while it is still unlikely that bidding on trademarked terms alone will result in a judgment against a 3rd party trademark infringer, it may still result in pricey legal fees. Including further use of the trademark in ad text or landing page copy exacerbates the possibility of liability. Although Google has provisioned for trademark use in its Terms of Service, advertisers should not be confused or believe that adhering to the Terms of Service will protect them from trademark infringement. The only entity protected by Google’s Terms of Service is Google, not any advertiser or 3rd party.

You probably work with a lot of “good” people. They know how to do their job and do a fine job of it. No complaints. However, if you’re lucky, a few of the people you work with are truly great. The basics of doing the job—knowing the programming language, being able to write a coherent email, getting stuff done on time—are present in any decent developer. And, while some developers know more languages and others are faster at completing tasks, what makes a truly great developers goes far beyond the technical knowledge needed to do a job.

Integrity

Do you write clean code, even when no one else is reviewing it? Do you take the time to solve those lingering bugs that you’ve noticed but no one has reported (yet)?

Great developers know that shortcuts might save time now, but will cost the team down the road. They take the time to write code that will be understandable in a year and solve problems before they start.

Fearlessness

It’s easier to say “no” than it is to say “yes”. No, that awesome design you created can’t be built. No, the new functionality you dreamed up is just too hard. Fearlessness means you’re willing to try things that you haven’t tried before. It’s an attitude of “yes” instead of “no”.

It’s pushing yourself to learn more, do more, be better and tackle a project even when you don’t know how you’re going to accomplish it. You’re fearless, but smart about it—not recklessly saying “yes” to unreasonable deadlines, but saying “yes” when it will push you to be better and produce better projects.

Curiosity

Do you view-source on every interactive Google Doodle just to see how it was built? Do you download new libraries and toolkits just to see what they can do and then convince others to do the same?

Curiosity is what helps us expand the field of web development and lets us build better sites than we did last year. It expands our arsenal of tools and grows our own skill set, too.

Empathy

You can’t work in isolation. You’re part of a team. At Nebo, our development team works closely with both our design and strategy teams. That means talking to people who don’t know how to code (horror, I know) and understanding why they want to do things a certain way.

It requires thinking outside of the development box—not saying no because a feature would be hard to build, but instead thinking about the feature from the user’s perspective. A feature that will take a site from “meh” to “wow” might be technically difficult, but ultimately building a website isn’t about taking the easiest path, but rather, it’s about pushing ourselves as a team to make it the best we can.

More than Just Another Code Monkey

Have you noticed something about these traits? None of them have anything to do with technical knowledge. You can teach someone new programming languages, but it is a lot to ask to teach someone to be curious. I’d much rather hire someone who is curious and fearless and has integrity than someone who knows every programming language inside and out.

We know you. You love analytics. You love the graphs and charts and statistics. But often too much of our time in Google Analytics is spent pulling up reports, debugging and testing implementations.

The following are some browser tools and Google Analytics features that will save you time when reporting, troubleshooting, auditing and testing GA implementations. After all, the less time we spend doing this stuff, the more time we’ll have to spend on what’s really important: analyzing data and taking action.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Instead of opening the Date Range box every time you need to set up a time frame, use the Date Range Keyboard Shortcuts to set up the date ranges that we (web analysts) use the most: today (dt), yesterday (dy), last week (dw) and last month (dm).

Regarding date comparisons, Google Analytics launched in late 2012 a ‘Compare to’ function on the Date Range box, where you can choose to compare to Previous Period, Previous Year, or to a Custom date range. Even though this made comparisons quick, I recommend using Date Range keyboard Shortcuts as it makes it even quicker. For example, to compare March 2013 month over month and year over year, all you need to do is:

1. Hit dm to set the date range to March 2013
2. Hit dc to compare to previous period
3. Hit dx to compare to previous year

See? Much quicker than opening the Date Range box to set 1 & 2, hitting Apply and then going back to the Date Range box to set 3 and hitting apply.

Report Shortcuts

If there are reports you visit periodically that require some sort of customization, you can start using Shortcuts to save time.

To give an example, I frequently had to visit a certain report, and to do so, I had to get to the Paid Search report (a couple of clicks), then go to the Ecommerce Tab, set Source as the Primary dimension, then set Campaign as the secondary dimension, and then change Show Rows to be able to see all of the rows available. Finally, I could hit Export to manipulate the data in Excel.

However, it’s possible to set the customized report to be readily available as a Shortcut on the Home tab. So the next time you need to navigate to it, you won’t have to take all the above-mentioned steps; you’ll only have to click on Shortcuts to access it and it will have the exact configuration you needed.

To set a report to be available as a Shortcut, simply configure the report just as you need it (advanced segments, sorting, primary/secondary dimensions, show rows etc.), hit the Shortcut link on the top navigation and name the Shortcut. The report will be available every time you access the profile on the Shortcuts list (however, it is only visible to the user that created it).

Custom Reports

Custom reports are a great way to save time if you know the data you want to focus on and the key performance indicators that fit your business goals. With custom reports, you can create reports with exactly the dimensions and metrics you need by accessing the Customization feature.

To make it easier and more straightforward for users to create custom reports, last month Google Analytics launched a feature with the possibility to customize a standard report or, in other words, create a custom report by editing the configuration of the standard report (add or delete metrics, groups of metrics, dimension drilldowns and filters).

When using custom reports, however, beware of sampling. When you request a custom report from Google Analytics, you are requesting an ad hoc query (requests outside of the standard, pre-aggregated reports). In these cases, Google has to go back to the raw data to process it. If visits within that data range exceed 500,000, GA will take a daily random sample that adds up to 500,000. Additionally, it will process a maximum of 1,000,000 unique dimension combinations for any type of query. For big accounts, these limits can be reached quickly and you can end up with reports based on as little as 3% of your data.

To avoid this, try reducing the date range (for example, run weekly reports and then aggregate them externally to get a monthly report), reducing the number of metrics and avoiding the application of secondary dimensions. If sampling is still an issue, then you are better off looking at multiple standard reports and using Shortcuts, rather than creating a custom report.

Dashboards

Dashboards are also a great tool to quickly monitor your business KPIs and online marketing efforts. With Google Analytics, you can build up to 20 dashboards per profile with up to 12 widgets per dashboard. This month, Google Analytics launched Real Time Widgets, so now widgets that are part of your dashboard can have real time information.

If you aren’t sure about the information you should be setting up on your dashboard, or if you want to get new widget ideas, I recommend the Google Analytics solution gallery. It’s a great place to find useful dashboards (it also provides great custom reports and advanced segments) according to your business and the SEM effort you want to monitor. You’ll be able to download the dashboard you want to try and immediately import it into your Google Analytics account! How great is that?!

The list of available dashboards, advanced segments and custom reports is always growing, so I recommend you visit it frequently.

Tag Assistant (Chrome)

When troubleshooting or auditing implementations, instead of going through the Page Source View to look for tags on a page, use this Chrome tool. To use it, just navigate to the page you want to evaluate and click on the Tag Assistant icon.

This tool will save you time as it lets you know the Google Analytics, Google AdWords (conversion and remarketing tags), Google Tag Manager and DoubleClick Floodlight tags that the page has. It will also evaluate each tag and determine if it is working (coded as green), if the tag can be improved and how (coded as blue), if there are minor or critical implementation issues with the tag (yellow and red respectively), or if there are no tags on the page (the Google Assistant icon appears grey and displays an X).

By clicking on a specific tag, you’ll see more useful details. For a Google Analytics tag, for example, you’ll see the web property ID (UA-#), the code version that is being used and if there are any improvements that can be made (if the code is on the incorrect place or if there are any deprecated methods being used, for example). You can also click to see the code snippet.

Google Analytics Debug Tool (Chrome)

When troubleshooting, auditing and testing Google Analytics implementations, use this Chrome tool. Turn the tool on by clicking on the envelope icon.

Open the console by hitting Command+Option+J for Macs or Control-Shift-J for computers running on Windows. Refresh the page you want to evaluate

The console tab will show you what information is being sent to Google Analytics once someone hits a specific page on your website. Therefore, this tool provides a quick and reliable way to test Google Analytics implementations without having to wait for the data to appear on the Google Analytics user interface.

You can immediately see if the tracking snippet is working, if campaigns are properly tagged, if ecommerce tracking is set up properly and sending the correct transaction information, if onClick events are firing when they are supposed to and if cross-domain tracking is working and sharing cookie information across domains/subdomains, for example.

Search & Recently Viewed Reports

To save time (if you need to get to the Organic traffic report, for example), instead of going to Traffic Sources-> Sources-> Search-> Organic, you can simply use the search box located at the top of the left navigation bar to quickly access this report. By clicking on the search box, Google will also display a list of recently viewed reports.

Recent Profiles

Instead of having to go through the account list to find a client and then finding the correct profile to open, look at the bottom of the account panel where you’ll now find quick links to the profiles that you recently viewed.

Becoming fast takes time, but hopefully you were able to learn some new techniques to help you along the way. There is always room for improvement in analytics, and being more efficient with your time is easy with the tools available to you today.

The thought of celebrating anything, even something as innocuous as Earth Day, seems inconceivable in the wake of recent tragedies. However, since the inaugural Earth day in 1970, the movement has been utilized as a tool to draw together opposing parties, organize protests against senseless injustices, and foment change in a population all too accustomed to the status quo.

It is with that spirit in mind that Nebo has decided to challenge our team this year. We want to move beyond the, “Oh yeah. That’s today,” mentality and take time to reflect on what it really means to live in a world where we’re inexorably moving toward a future where the life we enjoy now will be changed forever.

The truth is that climate change is not an isolated incident. It’s not something that affects one nationality, one region, or one person. The challenges created by fluctuating climates are problems that will impact every person on this planet of ours. To illustrate our point, this year we have dared our team to join the Earth Day movement and to become the face of opposition to climate change.

From fuel costs that dominate our monthly income to escalating food prices and super viruses generated from new species coming in contact with each other, the ramifications of climate change go far beyond a few temperature fluctuations. Because climate change is a global problem, the solutions are too. The Nebo team is assessing how we can take steps in every area of our lives to effect change, such as switching to energy efficient light bulbs or walking instead of driving. Every contribution has an effect. Every person must become a steward of the planet and take the steps they can to prevent climate change from creating a planet on which no one would want to live.

Please consider taking a moment to realize how climate change can impact you and if there’s even one small step you can take to reduce your impact. We did it. You can too.

Check out Nebo’s Faces of Climate Change album on Facebook and join the movement!

Anyone that knows me knows that my dog, Cami, is the most important thing in the world to me. Cami is incredibly smart and super sweet. She’s also very spoiled and thinks that she’s a person. As you can see in the picture below, she’s quite comfortable on the couch. Hence, it was time to get her a dog bed of her own.  Of course given her sophisticated tastes, I needed to find a dog bed that matched her lifestyle and worldview: stylish yet eco-friendly. Yes, she’s environmentally conscious as well as quite charitable. But, where to begin??

Naturally, a quick Google search for “dog bed” was a good starting point, but I wasn’t about to pull the trigger until I’d done some more research. Next, I started looking for forums or lists of good dog beds with a “best dog beds” search. That led to searches for specific brands and expert opinions. However, it still wasn’t enough.

I wanted friends and family to validate my choice, plus I wanted to know that the brand’s personality truly fit Cami’s. So I took to social media, talking to friends and checking out Tweets from dog bed brands before finally deciding to go with beloved dog bed producer P.L.A.Y. Full disclosure: P.L.A.Y. is actually also one of our beloved clients.

This is just one of an infinite number of paths that could have led me to my purchase, but one thing is for sure: no one in the history of ecommerce has searched for a general phrase like “dog bed” and bought the first thing that popped up. There are many touch points involved, and none is more important than another.

This is the new search marketing. Even buying processes that still occur offline now have huge search and digital components to them. But before we expound on the new search marketing, let’s get a few things straight.

What It Is & What It’s Not

Search marketing is not keyword stuffing website copy and meta titles; it’s about providing quality, relevant content to users. It’s not link building; it’s a marriage of SEO, PR and social. It’s not an auction; the marketers who succeed won’t buy their way there. It’s not a way to game the system; Google is too smart for that. It’s not a short-term solution; it’s strategy level insights for long-term success.

Source: http://gosmellthecoffee.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/snakeoil.png

Some of these huckster methods may have held sway years ago, but search has evolved to become all about the user; and in order to understand the user, we must first understand the buyer journey

How long does your target audience’s buyer journey last? How do they move from one stage to the next? How much of the journey takes places away from the desktop? One of our clients found, upon close inspection, that 70 percent of their traffic from search marketing was on mobiles and tablets. Even without a complete picture of the buyer journey, mapping out an approximation is critical to plotting your search marketing strategy. Below is a great example from UX Magazine. Yours doesn’t have to be this complex, but it gives you a good idea of how granular you can go.

Search marketing fits in at all stages of the buyer journey, and at every point there is an opportunity to retarget to users who have visited your site. Tools such as Google Remarketing, AdRoll, ReTargeter and FetchBack help marketers even when their audience’s buyer journey is non-linear and not completely understood.

Further down that journey, retargeting, social, SEO and all digital marketing avenues complement each other. The search marketing process is no longer keyword driven but is, rather, value driven. That means value for the user, and to provide that there’s something you must do.

Understand Your Audience

So often, digital marketers skip or underinvest in this crucial step. They’ll go straight to researching keywords without really attempting to get to know the people who will be searching for them. The methods employed to get audience insights vary, but however it’s done you can’t do it halfway.

For example, before executing a campaign, we’ll talk to existing clients and former clients while conducting original research to gauge a target audience. Additionally, there’s an incredible amount of tools out there to help plan your campaigns based on audience insights. Google Ad Planner and Consumer Survey provide great free services, as do LinkedIn and Facebook. One of our favorite things to do is use Facebook to see what interests complement people interested in your product or service, opening up new demographics to target. This all helps to understand two important aspects of your audience: motivation and intent.

Motivation

The key to understanding audience motivations is developing user personas. These are theoretical personalities that help you get to know the actual human searching for what you’re selling. User personas get into their hopes, fears and aspirations, essentially bringing it all home to mold your keyword campaigns and ads.

Intent

Intent differs from motivation in that while motivations are the internal driving force behind decisions made, intent is what a user is attempting to do at a given moment. Search engines are essentially tools to decipher user intent, and they’re fairly good at it. The buyer journey should be integrated into keyword maps, with longer tail (more specific) keywords appearing later in the journey. For instance:

However, intent research should go beyond just keywords. Some great tools to research user intent include UserReport, iPerceptions and Dial800.

Now that you understand your audience, it’s time to learn how to track them throughout their buying journey.

Attribution

For a campaign to be successful, it’s important to understand what’s happening at each stage once it’s in place. This involves tracking the different touch points of the buyer journey to conversions. It’s an element of search marketing that so often is sadly lagging behind. We’ve had to inform clients that their tracking is inadequate many times before. For your tracking to be up-to-date, make sure you are using the latest relevant methods.

Multi-Channel Tracking

Like the client with 70 percent traffic from mobile teaches us, the modern buying cycle exists on multiple platforms. Multi-channel attribution allows us to evaluate all mediums that contributed to a conversion, rather than attributing the conversion solely to the last click medium. By understanding what stages of the buying cycle occur in what medium, we can cater our search marketing efforts to optimize the entire conversion funnel and buying cycle.

With multi-channel tracking, we begin to see a complex system of assisted conversions. Take, for instance, the chart below. At first glance it might appear as though social marketing is not worth an investment, as it only drove $34,000 in last click conversions. However, taking into account assisted conversions, you can see that social was actually a driving factor in 20 percent of revenue.

Attribution Models

The old model of attribution was last click, and as we’ve mentioned before, last click is dead. Attributing a conversion to just the last touch point before it occurred provides an incomplete picture. Likewise, attributing it to the first touch point doesn’t give due credit to the others that helped the user along the buying cycle. Deciding how much weight to give different interactions in the buyer journey is key to a successful search marketing campaign.

We all know the analytics tools out there, but here’s our most recent comparison of two of the biggest platforms, Google Analytics and Adobe SiteCatalyst. There’s also Webtrends and IBM’s Coremetrics. Whichever platform you choose, tracking users throughout the buyer journey enables you to then tailor your campaign to maximize return through the following method.

Optimization

Once you put into place your business rules according to audience research, there is a litany of optimization tools you can use to fine-tune your campaign. While a hammer doesn’t define a carpenter, a good hammer can make a good carpenter even better; likewise, any search marketer can benefit from a good SEM optimization tool such as Kenshoo, Adobe AdLens, Raven, Marin and Ignition One.

There are also a number of good conversion optimization tools, such as Google Content Experiments, Mouseflow and Crazy Egg; however, Optimizely is an incredible option. The CEO and co-founder, Dan Siroker, used A/B test conversion optimization on things from the Obama campaign to optimizing donations to victims of the Haitian earthquake. Imagine what Optimizely could do for your campaign for fat burning pills.

Story

We’ve said it before: the most important tool—the most important thing—for search marketing and all of marketing is story. Story ads fuel to the fire. It’s what drives decisions for one brand over another throughout the entire buyer journey. P.L.A.Y. is eco-friendly. It’s hip. It’s stylish. However, it’s still just an ecommerce site, and ecommerce is inherently boring. So P.L.A.Y. created a story.

No one cares that the founders of P.L.A.Y. started making dog beds, but that’s not what P.L.A.Y. is about. They’re about changing the world for the better, and they were going to accomplish this through animal advocacy. Beginning with the Warm Bellies Initiative, which donates a bed to a shelter dog with every designer bed purchased, P.L.A.Y. established itself as a champion of animals in need everywhere. Having a brand that stands for something—having a story—helps in every aspect. It helps PPC convert at a higher rate. It builds brand and seeds the awareness stage of the buyer journey, as well as every other stage, and P.L.A.Y. saw this best in its next initiative, the Rescue Pledge.

P.L.A.Y. partnered with Petfinder and us to create a microsite dedicated to spreading awareness about shelter animals, creating a community for animal lovers with a strong social media presence. Within a few weeks of of launch, the Rescue Pledge had built and audience of over 30,000. More importantly It’s generated over 3 million social impressions and sparked 150,000 online conversations.

An example of story in action: we found a poem that touched our hearts and seemed to embody the exact sentiment of the rescue pledge. So we dropped it on a compelling visual and shared it on the Rescue Pledge Facebook page.

This one post generated hundreds of conversations and thousands of likes; but most importantly, it was shared over 20,000 times. That sort of reach greatly increases awareness of the Rescue Pledge and, therefore, P.L.A.Y. The P.L.A.Y. name tied to such a committed, vibrant community with such huge sharability bolsters its position in every single stage of the buyer journey.

More than anything else, story matters. We promise your search marketing campaigns will improve once you know what your story is. The user is creating his or her own story in the buyer journey, and so should you.