
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Custom Facebook Page Design

Tuesday, August 3, 2010
3rd Party eDM Strategy
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Digital Strategy & The Advertising Contract
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Google Retargeting: How to use it properly
Retargeting follows individuals as they surf the Internet, by placing a tracking beacon (known as a cookie) on their Internet browser. To place this cookie, a specific code is placed within a webpage (on a specific or common page) and after users have viewed that page, the tracking beacon is automatically attached to their browser until cookies are cleared.
An example to help explain; a dog food company places a tracking cookie on the checkout page of their website. When the user surfs the net thereafter, every time they access a website that allows Google ads to be served, the tracking beacon recognises the user and allows the specific ads from the dog food company to be served. As we know that only people who were on the dog food checkout page (and code can be programmed to only target those that didn’t complete the process) have been exposed to this specific code, we can serve up text and banners ads that remind the customer to go back and complete their purchase. Thus closing the loop.
Although a logical assumption, the statistics and anecdotal evidence show that the Internet is a convenience store; consumers will leave what they are doing at the drop of a hat for a multitude of reasons, a phone call for example. Google retargeting allows marketers to get a second bite at the cherry for a mere couple dollar investment.
The most important application of retargeting is to keep the brand front of mind. The dog food company for example could have separate tracking cookies on each of the separate pages for each of the dog food brands they sell. Ads specific to each of those brands can then be served up keeping the supplier top of mind. This serves two applications, firstly it reminds them to make an additional purchase, and secondly, it builds the brand through constant exposure to the customer, stimulating conversations and brand advocacy. If a user of the brand (even for very small companies) is constantly hounded by banner ads every time they use the Internet, they can’t help but be aware of the constant onslaught of brand messaging. From a data insights perspective as well, it allows advertisers to build up a clear picture of the Internet browsing habits of their cliental, providing unprecedented levels of consumer insight.
The Advertising Contract & The Internet
The ongoing but unwritten contract between advertisers and consumers has always been the delivery of value after advertising. That is to say, ads are seen as a form of compensation to cover the costs of producing a show/product/value. As an example of this, when watching free to air television we accept advertisements mixed into broadcasts as a form of compensation for watching a ‘free’ program, these advertising dollars are then reinvested in delivering additional content and thus the cycle continues. The Internet is no different and the acid test for advertisers is how their placements compensate or add value to the users Internet experience.
Josh Strawczynski’s Opinion: I would not go as far as to suggest that poor placement of banner ads (for example) will do irreparable damage to a corporate identity, but advertising efficiency and the return on investment should certainly be taken into consideration. Where an ad placement is high targeted and relevant to the consumer, we will always see a better return than the less targeted alternative.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
How Good Content Toppled The Government

Wednesday, July 7, 2010
The Basics For Getting Found on Google
Keywords are what the blog will be found for on Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. No doubt you can already see in your analytics people finding you for a few terms, but ideally we want to rank for thousands of different terms. Think of each article you write as the ability to rank for 2 terms. Google reads each article and looks for the words that you mention over and over and the general theme, then summerises it and say... "that articles was about timmothy taylor", then ranks you accordingly.
To start with, simply writing beer profiles would be a great way to get this up and going. To work out the priority, you can use the Google keyword tool. This free Google application shows you how many people are searching each month for a specific word or phrase. So obviously, if a certain beer has 10,000 searches a month, compared to another that is only 1,000, then try to work towards the phrases with high volume. You are focusing on niches in the market, so run with that and use terms that only people who are really beer savvy would use. For the more generic terms, work on phrases like "boutique beer samples" "beer sample packs" "beer lovers gifts" and this sort of thing.
Technically there are lots of small things we can do, but to start with, it is important to work on content and keywords. I can help with the Google language further down the track.





