TopRank Internet Marketing News

When should you start with Content Marketing?  Today’s online marketing is a race where the stakes are high, competition is tough and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to create a sustainable, competitive advantage. Consider these questions to help you answer, “When Content Marketing is right?” for you:

• What’s the right time to understand who your best customers are? Who are your “worst” customers?
• When is it a good time to know what your prospects and customers care about and why they buy?
• What triggers your prospects to discover, consume and engage with content that inspires sales, social shares and referrals?
• Does having no content plan really mean you’re planning to fail?
• If you don’t tie your SEO, Social Media and Online Public Relations efforts together in a way that’s “manageable” and efficient now, will you wait until your competition does?

As traditional and online public relations merge to become one all-encompassing PR landscape, the companies that dare to blaze new trails through this wilderness will have the most success. One such company is NewsUSA, a 20-year veteran in the media placement industry.

In 2009, NewsUSA worked to reinvent itself as a thought leading social syndication resource. With help from TopRank® Online Marketing, it built and broadcast its new brand identity to a burgeoning list of prospects in channels ranging from email to Twitter and social media. The results NewsUSA experienced with TopRank included double-digit percentage increases in content views and the attraction of more than 3,000 web influencers to its Twitter feed.

To ensure its brand continues to solidify in online channels, and in the minds of prospects, NewsUSA has recently renewed its program with TopRank.

With its renewed program, rooted in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and email marketing, NewsUSA will continue to:

Search engines like Google have become the newsstand of our time.  And as more and more readers turn to search engines to find the timeliest news, journalists are following suit.

According to a recent survey by TopRank® Online Marketing, nine out of ten journalists and editors indicate that they use search engines daily as part of their jobs. As such, today’s public relations programs must include an online component, and this component must adhere to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices to be successful.

This June 15th, join TopRank® Online Marketing CEO and online public relations leader Lee Odden for the PRSA sponsored webinar, Top 10 Search Engine Optimization Tactics for Public Relations Pros.  In just an hour, attendees will become armed with the SEO tools needed to succeed in the new online PR arena.

As loyalties shift away from traditional media as a preferred communications channel, there will be those who approach this evolution with fear and those who approach it with an embrace.

While many consumers embrace social media channels such as blogs and microcontent as legitimate sources of news and information, public relations professionals are oftentimes fearful to make a similar leap.  Those that brave the new online landscape, however, find they are able to significantly and positively influence the public relations goals of their clients or companies.

TopRank Account Manager & Social Media Pro Adam Singer

This June, TopRank® Online Marketing will be on-hand at SES Toronto to help PR professionals make the necessary change to succeed in the new social environment:

As traditional PR, social media and reputation management converge into an integrated stream of marketing communications, it is vital that marketing professionals develop a mastery of each element. The companies that do achieve this mastery will be those that uncover the most effective approaches to achieve business objectives.

This June, TopRank® Online Marketing CEO and online public relations expert Lee Odden will be presenting at the 2010 Vocus Users Conference. During his presentation, Odden will be sharing tips and tricks to help marketing and PR professionals write content designed for the web.

Attendees will walk away from this session with a thorough understanding of how online public relations strategies can:

• Drive more website traffic
• Increase media placements
• Boost online news exposure

Odden will be presenting during the PR Though Leadership Session, Friday June 11^th at 10:15 EST.

Suitably sticky social news headlines, crafted to help content resonate and burn throughout social media channels, is both an art and a science.  In a recent post to Online Marketing Blog, picked up by CRM Mastery, TopRank® Online Marketing Account Manager Adam Singer offers several tips to help readers craft compelling social headlines.

Below, find how two of the five tips offered by Singer have helped boost everything from search engine rankings to social media exposure for TopRank Clients.

• Leverage formulas which work for others
  ’16 Must-Read B2B Marketing Strategy Ebooks’ by Marketo

Smashing Magazine has made page one of Digg hundreds of times using the headline formula ‘number + adjective + sticky message.’  Of course, this formula only works if the headline directs to content that is equally compelling to the audience.

When small to midsized Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) search for products ranging from cable ties, to electrical connectors, to circuit breaker blades, they seek out Waytek, Inc.

To increase online referrals and organic search engine traffic, Waytek, Inc. recently engaged TopRank® Online Marketing to develop an Internet marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program.  In functioning as an online marketing consultant, TopRank will optimize the expanse of product pages existing on the Waytek, Inc. website, while deploying a full- scale search strategy.

“As our industry evolves, there is an ever increasing reliance on getting information from the web. Because of this, it is more important than ever that both new prospects and current customers can find us online, and that our website is compelling enough to encourage our prospects to take the next step towards ordering,” states John Larson, Waytek, Inc. “We have tried working with several other SEO firms, but TopRank has distinguished themselves by trying to understand our business and help us draft messages to speak to our customers.”

When the world’s foremost experts on social media, search marketing and online public relations gather to attend an event, the challenge to present compelling and actionable information is clearly on. Dating back to the beginning of this decade, the team at WebMasterWorld have met this challenge again and again with the PubCon series of conferences.

This November will be no different as WebMasterWorld hosts an elite collection of speakers and panelists at PubCon 2009: Social Media, Search, Affiliates in Las Vegas Nevada. Contributing to this event will be TopRank® Online Marketing, who will be represented on three panels by CEO Lee Odden and one by Account Manager Adam Singer.

Tuesday, November 10^th: 2:55-4:10pm
Experts on PR & Twitter
Can public relations 2.0 be summarized in 140 characters or less? Don’t let the character count lull you into complacency. To break through, today’s PR efforts must be powerful, targeted and, of course, concise. Singer and his panel of social media promotion experts will take you from mid-level public relations to advanced online PR and social promotions experts in no time.

Regardless of the state of the economy, many businesses are continuing to thrive.  In succeeding, these companies have found how to transform a blend of new media communication tactics, including online PR, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and social media into a cohesive public relations strategy.

This November, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) will help PR professionals from across the globe develop their own new strategies as they convene in San Diego and host their annual four-day International Conference.  Keynote speakers, including Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and former White House director of economic policy Todd Bucholz, will join a packed ensemble of speakers discussing topics including social media, crisis communications, branding and sustainability.

TopRank® Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden will be contributing a presentation, as well as participating in a panel session.

This fall, public relations professionals of all experience levels will be afforded the opportunity to take their game to a ‘whole new ballpark’, as the Minnesota chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) hosts its 2009 Professional Practices Conference.

Featuring keynotes from Kevin Smith, Executive Director of Public Affairs for the Minnesota Twins, and Mary T. Henige, Director of Social Media, Broadcast, Diversity & Consumer Communications for General Motors, this conference will help professionals step up their game by clearing the lines between online public relations, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and social media tactics.

Helping to clear these lines, by contributing to two panels and offering one presentation, will be TopRank® Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden.