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I’ve been following Ian Lurie’s blog Conversation Marketing for some time. Ian founded Portent Interactive in 1995, the same year I started Newfangled. It’s rare to find Internet marketing experts with experience that goes back to the days before Netscape 1.0, but Portent is one of the few.
Before founding Portent, Ian held various positions most of which involved writing in one capacity or another (well maybe not the bicycle shop job). So it comes as no surprise that Portent’s core Internet marketing approach is driven by content. Portent’s staff is made up mostly of writers, strategists, technicians and a few creative folks. Their work is solidly focused in search (both SEM and SEO) and email marketing. This is right where it should be. Too many Internet marketing firms get caught up in the latest and greatest social media trends without mastering the fundamentals of content strategy and search marketing. Don’t get me wrong, Portent does integrate cutting edge practices like reputation monitoring and social media marketing but they always connect these efforts back to fundamental search-oriented strategies.
Portent is also a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant (and AdWords Qualified Company). This is something I always look for in an Internet marketing firm. It means they are going to be rigorous about measuring, evaluating, and optimizing every campaign they run for their clients.
Portent on SEO
Ian has a great philosophy about search engine optimization. If you’ve watched my videos on SEO you know how something as basic as optimizing your title tags on every page is one of the most common oversights in website optimization. In my conversation with Ian he mentioned that Portent’s advice is not to think so much about keywords phrases, but rather, keyword questions. This is a simple but powerful concept. Structuring keywords and title tags around the kinds of questions customers may have is much more likely to capture a visitor at the point of their intent. Wise advice from an expert who’s been around since the inception of the entire industry.
Portent on Email Marketing
In addition to SEM and SEO services Portent also focuses on email marketing. Not spammy, list buying, blast email, but rather house-list, CRM integrated email marketing campaigns. Email marketing may not be the most exciting new Internet marketing method, but like search, it’s still one of the most effective components of a web marketing strategy. Email may be common, but doing it well, with landing pages, testing, measurement and tracking is not easy and Portent’s expertise can maximize email marketing efforts.
Is Ian Irritable?
If you subscribe to Ian’s blog you’ll probably notice after reading a few posts that he likes to refer to himself as something of a curmudgeon. But don’t be fooled, he’s not so grumpy as he purports (sorry to blow your cover Ian). And if you catch him early enough in the morning he’s actually a very pleasant guy.
If you’re considering hiring portent keep in mind that, while they’ll may take on some smaller/shorter term engagements, they do their best work when engaged in larger/longer term relationships. This is absolutely the right philosophy. It’s very hard to make an impact when firing off sporadic random efforts rather than engaging in long term strategic initiatives that bear fruit over months, not weeks. It’s like getting a fly wheel moving. It may take some initial exertion to get the thing moving, but once it gains momentum it continues to spin with very little ongoing effort. Portent can get the thing going and keep it moving in the right direction.
Last May I addressed the topic of search engine marketing at the Highland Capital Partners Internet Marketing Summit. The May 2008 Web Smart newsletter “Search Engine Marketing: At the Corner of Context and Intent,” provides the substance of my talk. I highlighted three main principles for evaluating any online advertising opportunity; context, recommendation and intent.
I recently tagged an article on the Social Times called “How Long Can “Ad Supported” Last?” Nick O’Neill echoed my main point when he wrote, “Search is still the only thing that can measure intention [italics mine] and nobody has figured out a better way to reach people.” There is a lot of excitement about social media, and the explosion of web based applications, media, and services. Most all of these sites are advertising driven, yet the effectiveness of the ads in such contexts is not as great as advertisers would like.
It’s incredibly important for advertisers to be learning about and participating in the social media movement. But not so much to figure out where to best place their ads. Rather they need to be in tune with how it’s changing the nature of marketing and advertising all together–the effects of which we are just now beginning to feel. But this is not a post on social media’s impact on advertising, it’s a reference to my search engine marketing session and newsletter.
While search engine marketing (both optimization and advertising) is not the newest most exciting subject, it is still by far the most effective avenue for driving traffic. That’s because it meets us at the corner of context and intent. It’s in the act of searching, using various iterations of search phrases, that a search engine delivers it’s results. And it’s when we are searching as part of a purchasing process, contextual ads have their greatest effect. They not only reach us with the right message, but more importantly, at the right time.
So while social media is very important to brands and marketers, search is still the bread and butter of active, traffic-driving Internet advertising. Check out the newsletter to read more.
Web strategy is measurable. And unlike most other forms of marketing, it can be measured almost instantaneously. Website traffic can be viewed and analyzed in just about every conceivable way. Search traffic can be broken down by search engine and by search terms. Effectiveness of traffic (how “sticky” visits are) and goal conversions such as newsletter sign ups, downloads, or purchases are easily quantified. Website analytics packages like Google Analytics provide more reports and views than most people know what to do with.
EpikOne is a specialist in Google Analytics implementation and analysis. They also specialize in Urchin analytics, in fact this was their original specialty before Google bought Urchin. As a result of their previous close relationship with Urchin, they now have deep connections with the Urchin/Google Analytics team at Google.
EpikOne offers very affordable help with Google Analytics implementations and robust analysis of website traffic patters. They offer many training and educational opportunities through multi-day boot camps, seminars, and webinars.
As an agency resource EpikOne is a great fit. They work effectively as a “fear-free” agency choice since their tight focus on analytics will never threaten the agency/client relationship. EpikOne can also run SEO and SEM marketing campaigns. And with their emphasis on measurement and analysis you know their campaigns will be rigorously monitored and optimized.
