I'm the CEO of Linkbuildr Marketing and the brains behind our branding and blog content. I specialize in effective marketing strategies for hotels, luxury brands and real estate. If your brand is in need of a boost then don't hesitate to contact me for a free proposal. Follow me on
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Well our Vancouver Canucks are in the Stanley Cup finals and Boston Pizza has decided to change its name to Vancouver Pizza…well, until the finals are over. I watch half the games at our local Boston Pizza here in Victoria BC, and they always put on a great show. I was pumped to hear this marketing ploy being executed because it’s quite unique and got my interest. It’s even funnier how we’re playing Boston except the Canadian pizza company has no real ties to that city.
While their marketing department is in Toronto, it’s great to see them not being bitter about having a crappy hockey club and promoting the last standing Canadian team. Who ever had this idea should get a big fat raise because it’s brilliant, and I can imagine it will do wonders for business. I’ll have to keep an ear to the ground and hopefully catch some data from them after the promotion is over.
As for the re-branding, every store has got new banners and promotions touting the Vancouver Pizza name. Apparently it cost not much more than $20,000 which even includes custom Canucks menus with unique products..still I doubt we’ll see some Orca meat on the menu(lolz). I’ll just stick to getting my perogie pizza which is so bloody yummy, and you cannot get it anywhere else.
Ecommerce link building can be a huge pain in the ass, and it’s either done with great care or as straight-up spam. The Linkbuildr team has helped countless clients in this area over the years, as well applying Ecommerce link building principles to our own shops in our spare time. Those of you with SEO companies, who want to last more than a couple years in the industry, are going to have to be squeaky clean in your approach to this topic. In this article, we’ll take a look at some tactics that we personally employ, as well things we’d do for an ecommerce link building campaign for a client. Keep in mind that our main goal with such a campaign is to build some solid trust with the search engines, as well as with customers.
I hope to bring some fresh ideas to the table here, and not bore you with the same old tactics you’ve see everywhere else. Establishing a legitimate online brand isn’t cheap, so I’d prepare a budget of $50,000-100,000 USD over the next couple of years for those starting up in a competitive niche. I’m not making those numbers up, either!
Online shops in general are usually boring as hell and don’t offer any reason to get links. Unless your product is viral enough to advertise itself, you’re going to need a good content strategy in place to succeed. Successful link building is going to take not just links, but also excellent social engagement, mobile apps, link bait, blogging, and PR as well.
Build Trust And They Will Come:
One of the most important factors to consider in your ecommerce campaign is making your customers feel safe while they’re shopping. This also has a couple of different meanings, so let me get into that and then follow it up with some trust-building buys you can get right bloody now:
1) Security Seals
The proper placement of a security seal can and will significantly increase the conversion rate an online store. You’ve all seen many of these before, such as the ubiquitous Verisign one, and they are worth every penny. We always recommend placing these where your customers will see them straight away, as well throwing one down on the checkout page if you can, just to provide your customers with added peace of mind as they are filling in their payment information. An added bonus of these seals is that they sometimes produce a link, as some of them have companies/partners listed from their website.
2) Social Communities
Say whaaaaat? Depending on your niche, there’s a real good chance there’s a relevant online community out there which you could and should join. A good example of this would be the various Ning communities, which offer opportunities to network with other users in your niche, and also provide you with a badge that states “I’m A Member Of ….” which provides some subtle advertising value in and of itself. Being an active participant in these kinds of communities is a must in my books, as it will invariably lead to better sales and business partnerships.
While these are the security partnerships we recommend most, there are many more out there which can be found using Google or by doing some first-hand research on the biggest online shops. It’s obviously not necessary to get all of those (that perhaps is a little too much), but definitely plan to register for one or more. I will quietly comment on how some of our shops have seen some almost unreal ranking boosts from being listed on a couple of these. It could be an anomaly, of course, but the lack of links the sites initially had, combined with how they’ve been ranking top 5 for over 6 months now, definitely has us thinking.
Do Your Payment Options Provide A Link Opportunity?
This link building tactic is not so much a tactic, as it is a unique opportunity that will only be available to the bigger and more well-established brands. That’s one of the reasons I feel comfortable publicly dropping this info without worrying that spammers will have a field day with it.
There are more and more unique online payment methods these days, and a lot of them can lead to a nice link. Everything from Paypal to Google Checkout and various mobile payment methods like to list their strategic partners. Even Visa and other credit cards link out to trusted stores online, and these are just the kind of juicy links you’re going to want in your search engine profile!
Verified By Visa Program:
This is an highly sought-after link that will only come to brands with the right connections and a large enough size. As you can see from the sites listed here, the Verified by Visa Program features only the biggest stores online, and I can say with confidence that we did manage to get one of our Fortune 500 clients on the list. Although it took a long time to do so, a link from such an exclusive list brings huge benefits.
Google Checkout Opportunities:
Google’s move against Paypal in the world of online payments was a welcome one, and when you dig deep, you’ll find a whole whack of link building opportunities with it. Here’s one example: GCOAccepted.com, a site which lists Google Checkout-friendly shops. Putting your Google search skills to the test will produce many similar websites, all of which are potential link sources if you use Google Checkout.
PayPal Opportunities:
This is where you’ll find a ton of unique link building opportunities, each of varying quality, but all at least somewhat useful. Everything from forum posts, to blogs, to Q/A sites, and all sorts of old-school link/resource pages as well, can be taken into account with PayPal. This is just a good place to start to nab a few miscellaneous links, all of which will do an OK job of diversifying your link profile.
So Many More Options:
There are other credit cards and other online payment gateways to consider, and you can be sure there will be more to come in the future. You’ll need to sniff around Google a bit, but I can tell you there is a month’s worth of link building in this area, so get to work!
Contests, Contests, Contests!
I know this tactic has been done to death, but it needs to be said again because I’m still seeing companies pass on it. As our company slogan says, “we build brands and not just links,” which means that building online relationships is the key to marketing success, not just mechanical links.In this vein, contests are a great way to build buzz, produce a stronger connection with your fans, and draw in viral-style links as well. The Facebook & Twitter contest option is my favorite tactic as of late, so be sure to make use of these platforms as part of your contest.
Your Own Contest:
This is a contest that you host, via your website, social media profiles, etc. It should be a big gift giveaway, hopefully a product which you sell, and it should be done quarterly. The most effective strategy we’ve seen is launching the contest from your Facebook page, and providing backup with your official site blog and Twitter profile to get maximum exposure. We’ve also helped launch Youtube contests for companies, which is another awesome way to go; you get tons of user-generated content, which makes giving away something expensive worthwhile.
Partner Contest:
If your social media following is weak like a 1-month-old site’s link profile, then it’s time to look at a strategic partnering. This means finding an established blog, popular Youtuber, or robust forum community within your industry and trying to get them on board. I like to call this “social surfing,” as we ride their wave of their followers. I think everyone wins in this scenario because they get to give away something awesome (make sure the prize is fantastic), and you get exposure.
Generating contest buzz is crucial to getting the most out of it, so beware that a lot of prep work is in order. There are dozens and dozens of places you can submit your contest link to: bug people on Twitter, bug people on Facebook, and so on. Sit down way before the contest starts and put together a plan of attack, then stick to it.I previously talked about contests in our 2011 Link Building post, so read that section if you want some more ideas on how to approach this topic.
Twitter Is Good For Building Relationships… And Customer Interaction:
Ecommerce shops online are embracing Twitter more than ever. It’s definitely seen as a handy tool, and my main love with it is building relationships. For an ecommerce store, Twitter lets you advertise your business while mixing in a little fun with your customers (and potential customers). That’s one thing we always remind our clients to do: don’t just drone on about the latest product sales, because that’s not what it’s all about. Write some funny or intriguing tweets to keep your fans engaged.
There’s not much more that I can say other than to get someone fun from your company to manage the account. We don’t really recommend hiring a social media ghost writer, even if they claim to be some rock star. They don’t care about your company, your product, or your reputation as much as you do, no matter how much you’re paying them. Keep this one in-house.
Product Partnerships:
This is another tip for big brands and up-and-coming big shots on the web. A lot of shops online push huge sales, which in return gives them some bargaining power with their suppliers. I’ll bring Zappos in as an example of this because you could make a positive example of them any day of the week.
Zappos stocks shoes galore, and they sell a s$#!load of product. You can see from either their link profile or Google that they’ve been listed on numerous supplier websites. These are my favorite kind of ecommerce links. I’ll throw you all a bone here and list the New Balance shop online page which gives a few power house online retailers a phat link.
Sniffing Out The Goods:
If you think your sales and brand are big enough to compete here, then start digging out your partnership opportunities. We regularly do this for clients and are usually shocked when they’ve never bothered to try, especially when these folks have company reps they could have spoken to. It doesn’t hurt to try or ask and even if you only get one link out of twenty, that’s better than nothing.
Hammering out link requests to suppliers is actually pretty easy to do. We recommend creating a spreadsheet and setting it up with supplier/contact/url-of-partner-page. Now comes the boring part. You’ll need to go to every supplier website and hunt around for their “Shop Online”, “Online Resellers”, “Buy Online”, “Online Partners”, “Online Retailers” sections, and so forth. Brand URL + those keywords in Google should do a quick and easy job of locating the desired pages. By all means, try out some other keyword combos, but those are the gems that will make you or your client’s life easier.
This is another topic I covered in our 2011 Link Building Tactics post, so please check there for more specific ideas and link building tips. The gist of it? If you sell wholesale to smaller shops or have an affiliate program, then you can build links. I know this isn’t the most authoritative link building secret, but it adds diversity as well as a chance to make some more money. And I’m all about making more money!
There are dozens of blogs and forums from which you can announce and manage your affiliate program. This will not only bring in links, but new business as well, which is even more valuable because it isn’t entirely Google-related. If you have a good, steady income coming in that isn’t from Google, then you’re on your way to lasting a long time. Those who are only getting their sales from Google are just 1 algorithm update away from waking up in serious pain.
Datafeed/Shopping Comparison Sites:
This is another must for shops online, mainly because newer sites cannot rank for difficult keywords. A lot of the shopping comparison sites already rank well for the keywords you’re targeting, and this can be used to your advantage. Some of the sites provide a proper link back, and it’s usually a deep link, which is nice for a change.
A lot of the comparison engines out there are free, but some charge PPC and others have PPS situations. Obviously, the paid ones will require your judgment after testing them out and seeing if they’re worth it. In our experience, most of the pay-per-click models are not worth a dime. I like the pay-per-sale option, and on our biggest shop we see a lot of good sales come through it, keeping in mind we’ll hopefully get more out of a return customer later on down the road.If not, then at least you’re benefiting from the brand exposure, even if the profit margins are embarrassing.
I love coupon marketing because it lets you benefit in so many ways. First of all you can utilize this marketing tactic to get more deep links to your product pages. Secondly, you’re doing more to build up your brand name and image. There isn’t a day that goes by that our personal shop doesn’t have a coupon or two out in the wild. We also encourage our clients to do at least one coupon per month.
Why? Well, you’ll start to bring in those people who won’t buy at full price, and are only there for the bargain. You might as well make some money from these folks if you can. Having an active coupon set also leads to your shop getting a link from a lot of the bigger coupon databases online. They’ll usually make a store page for you once you get big enough, are big enough, or simply do a lot of coupon marketing.
Social web apps have obviously dived right into social shopping, and there’s something for everyone here. I’m sure some of your products are found on the sites listed below; if not, you can usually add them as the store owner without feeling guilty. Also, a lot of these sites provide a link, and it’s a great opportunity to add more deep ones.
These social networks are also a great place to network with customers and show them the personal side of your company. There are a lot of these social shopping sites out there, so stick to just a few and build up a good following on them. I personally recommend Kaboodle, Pikaba and Shopr.com. They all have a huge user base, provide links, and feature product inclusion. If you can, write unique descriptions so that you don’t outrank yourself or cause more post-Panda product page issues.
Mobile Ecommerce:
Mobile shopping is huge in Asia and Europe, and it’s finally gaining stride in North America. Chances are good that your site isn’t setup or ready for it, so where do you begin?
Depending on your shop software, you either have a pre-built option ready to buy like with Magento Commerce, or you’ll need a programmer. For those looking to start out in the ecommerce realm, then check out Big Commerce which is my next choice for my next shop.
Whenever a big player in the industry jumps on board with this, then you know there are link building opportunities to be had. We recently got one of our big ecommerce clients interviewed about their new mobile shop on a few industry blogs which was a big hit. It’s just another interesting way to make money, build buzz and get some links along the way.
Social Ecommerce with Facebook:
The latest “in thing” to do when it comes to selling online is the whole social ecommerce angle. Sadly I have no real hard data to tell you if it’s worth putting a lot of money into, but I tend to think it’s going to be huge. How does this differ from the social shopping sites…is that what I’m talking about? Not quite!
What I’m talking about are the Facebook store fronts you can have built and market with. We’ve already blogged about Vending Box and I’ll definitely mention them here again. I really like the platform because they only take a cut of your sales via Facebook…really slick! I don’t see why you shouldn’t have this already setup and going and let me tell you why. Facebook most likely has one of the best time-on-site averages in the world, and it’s only going to stay that way. Making people shop from Facebook is the logical next step, so don’t get left behind.
The other social ecommerce platform to check is Social Igniter, and it’s a web app I’ve been meaning to cover. I think it looks and feels much much better than Vending Box and they already have a few big brands on board which you can see here. I’d really take a good look at both of these software suites and see which is a good fit for your brand. Take note that if you’re a big brand and you join their platform, I can imagine a link will be coming your way!
Join In On The Discussion!
There are thousands of discussions from real people going on all over the web and social arena, so get in on it! You can find almost word-for-word questions about a product you carry, and they’re quite easy to find. We employ this strategy as a deep linking tactic several times a month.
Using only a few tools, you could find enough social discussion work to keep one employee, per client, working on it full-time. That’s not to say you should or will do that, but the point is that there are a plethora of relevant social discussions out there just waiting to be turned into links. So what does our company use? The combination of Google Discussions and a wicked web app called Social Mention.
Google Discussions:
The method we reommend is coming up with a document full of questions related to your product line, such as “where can I buy xxx” and “where can I get xxx cheap?”. You can filter your results by forums and Q/A sites, or combine both for an overwhelming onslaught of direct marketing opportunities.
Google Alerts:
I’m sure half of you folks are already using Google Alerts, but if you’re not then it’s time to sit down for 30 minutes and set up your account. You have a whole range of options to choose from, but be sure to stick to the ones that will convert into money so you don’t wind up wasting your time. I have over 15 alerts coming at me in the morning that I try and finish up before the 9am hustle begins.
Social Mention:
This is my favorite free web application for getting social alerts from ALL over, and it’s aptly named Social Mention. I’ve gained so many links from using this tool in the past 6 months that it’s a shame I haven’t mentioned it earlier. As you can see from the list below, it tracks a whole lot more than Google Alerts!
Video Product Marketing:
Last year, we decided to heavily focus on video marketing efforts for our main shop and saw some amazing results. We used Animoto to create slide-show videos that showcased our products. These, of course, were placed on Youtube, and we made sure that the video description was unique and included a link to the product. We also set up tracking via Analytics to see how many sales came in through the video links. After one year, and over 200,000 video views (thanks to great rankings in the Google SERPs), we netted just over $15,000 in sales! That was a shocker to us, especially since we’re in a niche that isn’t the largest.
So for as little as $500(which factors in your time), you can have really decent-looking videos up and pimping your product. More views, more comments, and more ratings will all lead to better rankings for your videos. Make sure to advertise these videos via your Blog/Twitter/Facebook and whatever else you’re working with. We also noticed the videos getting auto-embedded through other online social media applications.
Brand Updates:
Why not? Let your customer see the face(s) behind the brand; this will lead to a more secure-feeling buyer. Connecting with your clientèle is the key to long-term success, and video is the easiest way to do this. We usually do 2-5 videos a year talking about company news, showcasing new products, or just doing something silly. It’s that simple, and it works!
Commercials:
Whether it be a professionally-done HD commercial, or the cheesiest piece of crap your digital camera can cobble together, give it a try! I know a lot of online shop owners who make some serious bank, yet they’ll usually never get around to dropping $10,000 on a really good commercial. You can hire very talented people within your city and keep everything on a tight budget.
Product Reviews:
We always highly recommend that our clients see who’s got the gift of gab on Youtube within their industry. Just like the contest partnering idea, you should give a product or two away to people with an audience. You can get a great review in (or a bad one), but at least you know your brand/product is going to be seen by a lot of people. To expand on that idea even more, do a video product review contest and get more people to make you content for free.
Niche Forum Marketing:
Ok, I know what you’re thinking… Let’s go spam some forums for a signature and/or profile link. Wrong! I’m talking about establishing yourself on a few targeted forums that are active, and very on-topic to your brand. Be very upfront about it and treat it as a social media marketing extension. Be there to provide brand support, chat with like-minded people, and build your brand up to be respected within its community.
We worked on a company that sold $20,000-$300,000 USD watches, and the owners all happened to be exotic car owners. A few of the Ferrari, Porsche and Maserati forums had watch sections, as well as users who had bought from them before, but most importantly they were thrilled to have reps on the forum. This has lead to so many sales it’s not even funny, and it has also lead to friends being made in both business and in real life.
The opportunity for spam is obviously there, but be forewarned that this can lead to brand disaster. We even email forum owners before signing up, or just after signing up, to let them know who we are and that we’re there to participate.
Content Marketing Strategies For Ecommerce:
A lot of people say article marketing is a dying tactic, and while we agree on some levels, you just have to be creative. Stick to the best content sites that don’t allow junk, such as Infobarrel.com, Suite101, Associated Content, and so forth. Develop content that isn’t a run-of-the-mill article, get creative, and have some friggin’ fun with it! Do not, I repeat do not, re-use the same content anywhere else.
Take advantage of guest blogging opportunities on good niche-related blogs, and benefit from the link efforts there. Stay far away from bloggers that look like they’re selling links, and that means blog content as well.
As with anything else mentioned here, don’t employ this as your sole link building technique. Lasting a long time in the SERPs means having a diverse link profile, and anything overly unnatural looking can (and usually will) lead to trouble down the road.
Need Help? Hire us!
We specialize in unique link building and social media marketing campaigns for ecommerce. If you’re looking to extend your marketing department with a team that actually care about your brand, then get in touch. We work with only a handful of clients at any given time to ensure your needs are being met. Our team is here to help execute a high-quality marketing strategy that will drive sales and build brand buzz.
The one thing I know well besides marketing and branding online is coffee shops. I spend a great deal at Starbucks, other chains and the local independent stores and have seen it all. One of the smaller coffee shops here in Victoria asked me for some help after getting to know the owner over the course of the last six months. I decided to make a deal/bet with the owner that if I could increase sales a certain amount, I’d win free drip coffee for a year. That was a deal for drugs I was ready to commit to. There were a lot of obvious first steps to take, those I won’t go into here as it’s pointless, but rather share with you some of the more unique strategies I put in place with little effort. The results were rather fantastic!
While not many people use search engines to find a local coffee shop as they’re everywhere, so we didn’t worry about ranking for a specific term here. Instead, I took on some unique social media methods that would drive a lot of customers and hopefully turn them into returning ones. Tapping into the local community played a huge role here and it turned out to be a game changer for this local business. So let’s get into the inbound marketing strategies and even a couple link building ones. One last thing, I’m happily enjoying my free coffee as I write this post!
Attracting Links:
Like I stated, the link building aspect wasn’t really a focus here but we did nab some links that would come in handy down the road. The other part of the social media marketing also netted the company a few links, so all in all it worked out nicely nicely. In their case we just focused on links from;
– local business directories within the area only
– links from the local bakery website they got their goods from
– links from the company that supplies their beans
– links from a few coffee shop directories
So nothing hardcore, just general link building that should be applied in almost every scenario like this. This alone did manage to bump them to the first page for their local area. This was not unexpected but the links combined with a few on page SEO changes did the trick no problem. This should be noted by other coffee shop owners trying to achieve this…chances are good that there is no real competition.
Utilizing Their Local Sub Reddit:
I’m a 4 year long Reddit veteran and a huge fan of my local subreddits. We decided to just let everyone know there that they’d get free refills on their coffee and tea if they just mentioned Reddit. We also put out an open ended invitation to host any Reddit meet-up events they had as well provide discounts that night on everything in the shop. This strategy was received quite well and has been providing them with more and more return visits. We nerds love our coffee, and if you have a unique shop with quality product, then you’re going to be a hit for sure. Just make sure you don’t come off as spammy or pushy with this route, and don’t expect great results every time.
Marketing With Meetup.com:
Meetup.com provides tons of amazing networking and marketing methods, and restaurants are always benefiting huge from it. Some of the events I go to in Vancouver attract over 100 people, and the bar we go to makes some serious bank that night. Almost every event lists where the meeting will take place, and usually this leads to a link.
We got in touch with half a dozen groups and offered the place out to the group, even after hours for a few of the late night crowds. The coffee shop now hosts nearly 4 Meetup events a month and it has done wonderful things for their sales.
Daily & Group Deal Sites (Groupon Etc):
You all knew this was coming, and it’s a no-brainer. A lot of local businesses complain that the cost of running a daily/group deal is not worth it. I had to remind them here that it’s more about branding and buzz in hopes those customers will return. If you can provide them with an amazing experience, your chances are really good that you’ve nailed down a new customer. Another interesting feature of some of these deal sites is that they provide a vendor link, and those are natural quality links you’re going to want in your profile.
Foursquare Mayor Deals:
Foursquare is still blowing up all over the world and it’s a great way to attract new and old customers. Your vendor page can net a worthy link, and your customers can fight over the mayor deal you offer. This coffee shop owner had never heard of Foursquare and that’s no surprise as it’s targeted at a much younger generation.
We made sure to get the check-in sticker on the door, a mayor deal on the web and added a few tips to add more depth to his venue page. The more geo-located tips from other users the better. These will pop up on your screen if someone has checked in near your business, and this can be worth it…it’s bloody free folks!
The Result?
Obviously the coffee shop had seen an explosion in sales compared to the previous 3 months. Obviously doing something over nothing would have a positive impact, especially how easy it all was to do. I spent no more than 20 hours setting everything up and I’m now going to be enjoying a lot of free coffee. Now I’d love to hear from other coffee shop owners who’ve either tried some of this out, or are going to now. Let us all know how it works out!
I was really impressed with the work Hyundai did with their latest car when it came to branding, marketing and just the overall product in general. This definitely will be the year that more and more mobile app’s for your car will be driven out, so let’s take a look at the future that’s already here. Besides having your entire Hyundai car manual at your finger tips, this iPad app has a whole slough of features to assist you in your travels.
This app, as I mentioned, has the manual with every bit of help and information and then some. Perhaps the second most hand features is that it can locate the nearest Hyundai dealer and schedule a service session! The marketing team behind Hyundai also made sure you can browse other vehicles from their line up..very smart! Now enough of my blabbing and finally let’s look at the app.
I thought the Vibram FiveFinger shoe would be an interesting product to blog on mainly for its viral aspect. I know in our ecommerce marketing experience that we rarely see a product that does half the work. Vibrams has created a product that is naturally getting interest because it’s crazy unique, and that can lead to a lot of marketing opportunities with half the effort. So hopefully you don’t mind me blabbing about another product and show off just how social media, links and the web is treating Vibrams. I’ll also note, that when I write about a company, they’re in no way a client or even know I’m doing it…so just a little of a disclaimer in case you think I’m selling out!
Not only are those insanely unique looking shoes, they’re apparently also very useful when it come to certain sports like running. Whether or not that’s true, I feel the urge to open my wallet and order a pair just to try it out. As I’ve mentioned before on here, that is something I don’t do very often so all the more reason to look at the magic behind the product. So the effect on other people has apparently taken hold, and I even started to notice a lot more joggers here in Victoria BC taking the plunge. I run 3 days a week on Dallas Road and that’s where I first started to notice the trend. The last straw was when I heard from a friend on Facebook that their sport store was barely able to keep them on the shelf.
Since they’re so popular, and clearly still in the new product phase of glory that customers are able to tell their story, and it convinces me! This is a great feature they’ve showcased which should do a superb job in convincing their would-be customers as well. This also leads me into the next bit of what’s awesome, and that of course is the power of Youtube. They have thousands of videos, mostly of customers using their Fiverfingers for all sorts of activities, including product reviews. These are some of the best free marketing strategies a company can put forth out there, and they don’t even have to do much! For example;
Video Product Review via Wired.com
Like I said, there are thousands of videos already driving branding buzz Vibrams way, but that’s not just all they’re doing socially. A quick look at their Twitter profile also shows nearly 14,000 followers…not too shabby folks! The Vibrams company has also been rocking Facebook hard and their brand page has nearly 135,000 followers! The one common theme I see for both social accounts is that their customer engagement is very active. This is due to a good product and loyal fan base who loves them right back. This right here is not easy to do, and sadly a lot of businesses just don’t get it.
Their Link Profile:
It doesn’t get much better than theirs! I highly recommend checking it out because it’s actually rare to see one so clean these days(lolz). When you have something this interesting, the links will come pouring in from all different sources, and this is the key to survival in Google. I’m seeing magazine links, blog links, social media links, tons of forums where people are talking and linking and running resource pages. This has resulted in thousands of high quality links that is driving them a lot of traffic.
I know the Vibram Fivefingers have been around for a couple of years now, but I mentioned that I’ve noticed them a lot more lately. With social media exploding for them it seems the end result is a huge buzz around the product, so let’s back that up with some online metrics;
So that’s all I can really say about Vibram and their cool as a cucumber product. Just like the rest of these posts I do, I hope they inspire your company to do a better job. If you’re marketing a unique product online, take note of how things are done and put some of that work into your brand. If you need the help, then get in touch with us because this is what we do.
Luxury hotels and resorts seem to be a little slow and pokey to embrace social, and sometimes it’s hard to get them in a groove as a client. I wanted to showcase a luxury resort we are not affiliate with, and hopefully inspire your team to get caught up. What I liked about the Miramonte, besides its location and amenities, was it’s social media efforts on a plethora of social platforms. I also wanted to get across that not everything needs to be viral or link bait, but just solid content that gets your message across. Hopefully the folks who run the Miramonte don’t mind me using them as an example, but I couldn’t resist as they’re doing a damn fine job.
When you’re a luxury resort of sorts, you’re already a sought after experience that hopefully alone is enough to get a viral effect going. Strutting your stuff across a few of the top social media platforms should be a kick start to an easy social marketing campaign. Your pictures, HD video, deals and celebrity visits are all bases you should have covered. The Miramonte has a great thing going on with their social media efforts, and while it may not be of rock star status yet, they’re heading down the right path. Let’s take a look at just some of the efforts that are driving them businesses through social interaction.
The Blog:
Of course a good blog is in order and the Miramonte is doing an ok job on their blog. While I think a good dosing of images and video could be added to make it more vibrant, they’re getting in solid content for the search spiders. It seems their Facebook Page is getting all the pictures, videos and social interaction and that’s a trend we’ll see more of down the road. We all know more people spend their time on Facebook than any other site, so this may be a sign of the times for blogs (in certain industries).
What they do different than almost all other resorts we’ve seen or worked on is offer people to guest blog. This was a nifty feature to have found and I think it’s a brilliant step to better selling their service. Just imagine your blog getting free great content from the people who pay to stay…just awesome!
Youtube:
Just about any luxury resort is worthy of video marketing mainly because each place is usually stunning. The Miramonte has a crazy nice location just two hours outside of LA, and they took advantage of this with a great mini video. You’ll see below that it’s nothing crazy, just shows off what they’re all about and even some summer deals. This kind of video marketing should lead to a lot of sales if they keep it up! This one was done by Point 7 West.
Twitter:
A lot of people struggle with Twitter, especially if they don’t have a dedicated marketing team. I can see how people don’t get involved, but in the hotel world that can be a huge mistake. The more social you can be the better off your business will be as well. The folks at the Miramonte have definitely been active here and what I liked especially about their Twitter stream was the direct interaction. Most companies just stick to tweeting their latest blog post or a deal, both of which there is nothing wrong with, just don’t make this your bread and Twitter butter.
Twitter is a great way to bridge the gap with your customers, both potential and past. It’s also a great way to get people to return by constantly being in their brain. We’ve even had a lot of success by firing off special deals and coupons to individual Twitter users…and it bloody works!
Facebook:
I really really liked what they’re doing with their Facebook Page. It goes beyond the normal wall posts and they seem to be really embracing a lot of features. You’ll see from my amazing Photoshop skills on all the features they’re taking advantage of(such as Reviews, Book a room, Youtube, Photos, Blog, Active Wall). This is all really good stuff and this is an area I want our hotel clients to take note of, as well all you hoteliers reading this post.
Since I’ve never been in contact with them I have no idea how that Book A Room feature is working for them from the Facebook Page. I can safely say that not including this feature will leave you at a loss, even if you only make one sale a month. From what we’ve seen on our end with other clients, the direct social contact through Facebook leads to a way higher conversion rate.
Foursquare:
Last but not least on the list to mention is Foursquare, and I honestly didn’t expect to see the Miramonte so active on here. Bravo! Their hip clients are checking in at a very good rate here and that’s all you can really hope for. If I were to offer any advice here it would be to jump on the mayor deal marketing opportunity. Besides that you can get a link from your venue page so why not utilize that and add a little more diversity to that link profile?
Foursquare doesn’t take much effort and if your mayor deal is attractive enough, you can pretty much set it and forget it. Make sure you befriend people who check in as well which goes to show you’re a company with real people behind it, and that you actually care.
Well I hope this inspires, helps and encourages a lot of you folks out there. As always, I’d love to hear comments, suggestions and tips regarding anything talked about here. If anyone from Miramonte wants to pipe in then we’d be more than thrilled! For the rest of you folks who are near LA and need a pampering, then check out their spring specials and deals.
Here’s a goody but oldie from an Affiliate Summit back in 2009 that I just had to put up regardless of how late I am. Affiliate marketing is moving at a rapid pace throughout the social mediasphere and sometimes can be difficult to do it without being a spammer. I really enjoyed watching this keynote and it has a few gems of wisdom for affiliate marketer’s out there in the wild. You can also find the slideshare of this presentation here, and of course check out the next Affiliate Summit to get in on the latest action.
With the recent shenanigans with IMF director at the New York Sofitel, you’d wonder how bad is all this for business. I know it’s a touchy subject, this is why I have zero opinion on what happened, but more so one about how badly this will effect business for them…or if it were any hotel for that matter. The NY Sofitel has a long struggle ahead of them, but the press might eventually work out in the long run. I know it may be a little early to touch on the subject, but I thought it might be interesting to see how it’s already impacted them in both direct traffic, social media and of course the links.
I do put out my warmest regards to the Sofitel PR team, they are most likely sweating it right now trying to do damage control. If you’ve turned on a TV, read a newspaper or checked out your favorite blog you’ve most likely heard the story over and over. This is quite the scandal so some of the biggest sites on the web are out writing, linking and tweeting!
This definitely has shown to be driving some seriously hefty traffic Sofitel’s way, and most likely not for bookings at the moment! While this also might not be true for return client’s to the hotel chain because having stayed at a few Sofitel’s myself, I can say that loyalty to this hotel is something they don’t lack in. While I cannot get accurate traffic statistics, we’ll have to rely on Alexa and Compete for this post;
So how is bad press sometimes good press? Well I imagine down the road once no one cares about this in a week or two, all those thousands of links, social media mentions and branding will have gone a long way. According to my current SERPs (and checked with Scroogle), I’m seeing Sofitel just on the verge of the top 10 for “Luxury Hotel New York”. I’ll make sure to check back in on how they’re doing this a couple months down the road.
I’d really be interested to hear from them a month from now as well on how bookings are doing, but I imagine that information will never see the light of day…good or bad.
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– Truste
This link building tactic is not so much a tactic, as it is a unique opportunity that will only be available to the bigger and more well-established brands. That’s one of the reasons I feel comfortable publicly dropping this info without worrying that spammers will have a field day with it.
This is another must for shops online, mainly because newer sites cannot rank for difficult keywords. A lot of the shopping comparison sites already rank well for the keywords you’re targeting, and this can be used to your advantage. Some of the sites provide a proper link back, and it’s usually a deep link, which is nice for a change.
