Netconcepts

Web 2.0 for Publishers

Netconcepts — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:41:11 +0000

In this presentation to The Wisconsin Publishers’ Production Club’s (WPPC) Catalog Innovations meeting in January, Netconcepts’ Director of E-Business, Hershel Reese explains how Web 2.0 has great implications for catalogers and publishers online.

RSS feeds are changing the way people are consuming their media. You need to stay on top of this channel in order to remain competitive online.

Web 2.0 is also changing the way people interact with web properties. The user generated content phenomena is helping site owners to actively engage an audience and build community online.

This presentation will also discuss how one online publisher, www.dmnews.com, is leveraging the Web 2.0 tool kit.

Social Media Sites are emerging as a channel to be reckoned with online. If you are not participating in these communities you are missing opportunities for increased brand recognition and traffic to your sites.

You Will Discover:

Best practices for RSS usage
The benefits of user generated content
Why tagging matters for website owners
How industry leaders are leveraging Web 2.0
How social media can bump up your traffic and impressions

This presentation was originally held on Tuesday, January 30, 2007 at The Country Springs Hotel in Pewaukee, WI.

EXPORTING MARKETING: Global Naivety?

Netconcepts — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 21:06:59 +0000

In this article written by Patricia Moore, author for NZ Marketing Magazine, Netconcepts makes the public scene, not for SEO, but for their marketing success.

Moore discusses how companies have had remarkable success in the competitive New Zealand export market. How are companies succeeding in this market? What or, perhaps more importantly, who should companies turn to in order to fuel their global success.

Netconcepts’ Chief Executive Officer, Nigel Varcoe shares his success story as a major player in the United States SEO market. “We are well aware there are large companies waiting in the wings who would be more than happy to take business from us. Many of those companies are well resourced so we have to punch above our weight and constantly be on the ball so as not to be beaten by the opposition.” says Varcoe.

Read this entire article and more about how NZ companies are competing in the Global market, marketing tactics that work, and more.

Beyond the Banner: New Ways to Brand in the Online Channel

Stephan Spencer — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

Branding campaigns appear in many forms online besides the ubiquitous banner ad. There are blogs, RSS feeds, paid search ads (e.g. Google AdWords), contextual ads, natural (organic) search listings, text link ads, microsites, and podcasts, to name a few.

Gain an understanding of each of these channel’s unique benefits and where each fit in your brand strategy
Learn best practice techniques applicable to these new channels, with numerous examples

Leveraging digital communication technology - new opportunities

Stephan Spencer — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 00:00:00 +0000

New digital communication technology has drastically changed the landscape of possibilities in reaching your audiences. Find out what the latest technology trends are, and how they can be utilised to add value to your brand.

New communication channels and their use
Using technology effectively
Viral marketing trends
Emerging PR tools - RSS, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks, social tags, search engines

Case Study: Carter Center

Netconcepts — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:00:00 +0000

The Carter Center was founded by former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jimmy Carter and his wife, former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
The not-for-profit organization’s mission is to wage peace, fight disease and build hope.

Problem:

The CarterCenter.org site was almost completely invisible to Google, with only perhaps a dozen Web pages indexed, and a smattering of PDF documents. This is due primarily to the search engine-unfriendly URL structure. The use of Javascript-based pull-down lists as navigation within parts of the site, and reliance on Flash for navigation within parts of the site, also contributed.

In addition to their search engine visibility problems, The Carter Center was also looking for guidance on innovative online marketing strategies: ways they could get noticed online and generate interest in their organization.

Solution:

To solve the Carter Center’s search visibility problem, Netconcepts implemented URL rewriting on their server and recoded the URLs across the site to use the new, search engine-friendly URL structure.

With regard to online marketing, we came up with an idea for President Carter, and that was to start a blog*. Back in 2003 when we first suggested this idea, it was a really “out there” idea for the Carter Center to consider.

Blogging since then has become quite a bit more mainstream. During one of President Carter’s trips to West Africa he blogged for a total of eight days; not very long from a blogger’s viewpoint, but certainly long enough to generate a significant amount of buzz in the blogosphere and PR.

Results:

Within a month the Carter Center site shot up to over 2500 pages in Google — their entire library of content. This yielded significant traffic increases. As of yet, the pages are not optimized to “sing” to the search engines, but just getting them indexed has been a huge help to their traffic and visibllity.

As for the blogging, it has been hugely successful, as Connie Nelson in the Office of Public Information at The Carter Center attests:

“We are grateful to Stephan for planting the seed for one of the most successful Web projects The Carter Center has undertaken to-date.”

President Carter’s blogging stint — the first presidential blog — garnered him a significant number of links from other blogs and websites, as can be seen, by searching Google for carter “west africa” blog -site:cartercenter.org — yielding over 27,000 pages that mention President Carter’s blog!

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* What is a blog?
A blog is “a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and web links” — a kind of hybrid diary/journal/guide site. And it’s a powerful marketing tool, when written by an authority on a particular subject.

Interactive Marketing: Reaching Customers in an On-Demand World

Stephan Spencer — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Technology continues to revolutionize the sales and marketing efforts of firms worldwide. Businesses must either adapt or put themselves at risk. Companies and customers communicate and interact with each other in substantially different ways than 10 or even 5 years ago. Direct and interactive marketing are converging, financial metrics are increasingly mainstream, and customers expect channel “silos” to be broken down. Learn how to benefit from the new tools and thinking in managing customer relations to increase sales, improve strategies, and reach online and offline markets.

Search engine marketing

Make your site “search engine friendly”
Explore “Pay-per-click” search advertising
Analyze benchmarking, competitive intelligence and ROI
Identify trends in contextual, behavioral and local advertising

Create a buzz - viral marketing

Explore blogs, RSS feeds, forums, wikis and more
Harness “word of mouse” to enhance your brand
Discover the “sneezers” who will spread your viral message

Emerging Technologies: How Direct Marketers Can Capitalize on Innovations

Stephan Spencer — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Is something missing in your marketing mix? New channels are opening doors to the increasingly, tech-savvy consumer. RSS feeds and alerts, blogging, mobile communications and “mapping and monitoring” online conversations are among the newest marketing tools available.

Understanding these new channels
Leveraging them for customer retention and acquisition
Building rapport with bloggers, and promote your products and company in the blogosphere
Personalizing the content in the RSS Feed to each subscriber
Tracking readership and response
Advertising on blogs and within RSS feeds
Podcasting (think: on-demand Internet pirate radio)
Distribution channels (RSS search engines, directories, Web-based aggregators, RSS news reader software)
Not just for bloggers and news sites — e-tailers embrace RSS as a channel

Moderators:
Stephan Spencer, Founder & President, Netconcepts
Marc Tramonte, Director of Integrated Marketing, Microsoft Corporation

Panelists:
Royal Farros, Chairman and CEO, MessageCast
Gard Gibson, Account Group Director,VML Inc.
Mark Goldstein, CEO, Loyalty Lab Inc.
Mark Grindeland, Co-founder, m-Qube
Dana Vandenheuvel, Director of Business Development, Pheedo
Debbie Weil, President, WordBiz

Alternative Marketing Case Study: What Happened When Etailers Dove into Blogs, Podcasting and RSS

Stephan Spencer — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000

See the results of actual trials and implementations of alternative marketing techniques used to drive online sales. Learn how online retailers eHobbies.com, Ice.com, and Steve Spangler Science have utilized alternative marketing tactics such as blogs and RSS feeds to expand their marketing reach and build customer loyalty. Panelists will share tips on executing a successful campaign, implementation costs, and how to measure the impact of these new marketing tactics. A must-attend session for retailers looking for alternatives to increasingly expensive online marketing tactics such as SEM. Retailers looking for alternatives to increasingly expensive online marketing tactics such as SEM must attend this session.

Moderator:
Stephan Spencer, President, Netconcepts

Speakers:
Pinny Gniwisch, EVP Marketing, Ice.com
Seth Greenberg, CEO, eHobbies
Steve Spangler, SteveSpanglerScience.com

Leveraging the Explosive New Blogging Trend in Your Integrated Marketing Mix

Stephan Spencer — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Blogs can be an immensely powerful marketing tool in the right hands, establishing the blogger as a widely-read, oft-quoted, trusted authority in their field of interest. Blogs can also wreck havoc on reputations (just ask Kryptonite) and careers (remember Dan Rather and “Rathergate”?). Welcome to the new, conversational Internet. It’s time to join the “blogosphere” - hopefully before your competitors do!”

Successful applications of blog and webfeed (RSS) technology
How blogs and RSS can and should fit into your marketing plan
Best practices to emulate, pitfalls to avoid
Case Studies and Examples: Lessons Learned

Interactive Marketing: Reaching Customers in an On-Demand World

Stephan Spencer — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Search engine marketing

Make your site “search engine friendly”
Explore “Pay-per-click” search advertising
Analyze benchmarking, competitive intelligence and ROI
Identify trends in contextual, behavioral and local advertising

Create a buzz - viral marketing

Explore blogs, RSS feeds, forums, wikis and more
Harness “word of mouse” to enhance your brand
Discover the “sneezers” who will spread your viral message