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Internet marketing ROI realized through non-traditional Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Internet marketing goals can typically be tied back to conversions, otherwise known as desired actions that website visitors take that enable Internet marketers to realize a pre-defined business goal. Typical conversions evaluated by marketers include measuring when users:

• Click through on links from search results
• Subscribe to RSS and e-mail
• Click through on links posted on social networks
• Shares on social networks, blogs, websites
• Purchase something and become customer (for ecommerce)
• Sign-up for a free or paid trial
• Download a white paper in exchange for providing information such as their email address
• Maintain customer information service subscription.

For traditional CRO, we know for instance that there is a relationship between click through rates in the search results and things like position/rank in the search results, search results that contain rich snippets and having sitelinks where a search result will include indented links to multiple pages on a website (see sitelinks example below).

Saratoga Fit sitelinks example

Typically these kinds of conversions and their conversion rates are associated with a number of factors that can be tested during traditional CRO. Testing typically includes changing the anchor text (clickable part of a text link) in links, changing graphical elements composition and position, colors, position of call to action buttons and a myriad of other factors. For a good tutorial on traditional CRO, along with a number of example tests and their results, check out the following video (runtime: 9 minutes, 29 seconds). It is fun to see if you can guess the outcome of the tests prior to the results being shared.

Beyond tradition CRO, there are a number of other more subtle factors that can come into play when influencing conversions. A good litmus test for uncovering these factors, proposed by Rand Fiskin of SEOMoz.org, are in these two simple questions:

1. Does the product or service or thing that you want me to do meet my needs?
2. Do I trust and like the brand and/or people behind the brand?

In the following SEOMoz.org Whiteboard Friday video (runtime: 17 mins 24 seconds), Rand Fishkin explores The Hidden Factors in Accomplishing Your Online Marketing Goals.

Rand looks at factors beyond the ones examined in traditional CRO. Most, if not all, can be mapped back to how those factors support or detract from a positive response to one of the two fundamental questions. These factors include things like:

• Page load time – Google penalty may be small compared to user perception and brand impact
• Forcing user to view ads prior to consuming content (pre-roll videos) – inhibits shares
• Pricing transparency – even if your prices are higher than competitors, studies have shown that conversion rates are positively impacted when pricing information is provided.
• Trust factors like known brand domains versus generic direct match domains which could feel spammy
• Brand perception in terms company, what it stands for and the people that represent it?
• Contact information easily accessible including phone, email and physical address
• Information about individuals and team members of the company
• Relationship of content relative to the company, product or service offerings
• Social proof which can be illustrated in a variety of ways including likes, shares by key industry influencers

So next time you are planning to perform CRO for an Internet marketing project, remember to think out of the box and ask yourself those 2 simple questions to uncover hidden factors that can greately impact yours or your client’s conversion rates and ultimately, the bottom line.

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The Mobile Marketing Opportunity is Huge

If the figures from the US are any indication, it’s big. Just like Internet advertising, eyeballs equal opportunities, and opportunities for mobile are immense.

In 2011, it was estimated that the global number of mobiles is around 5.6 billion handsets. The number of smartphones is minuscule by comparison, but has a massive up-side. Current estimates put smartphones at around 866 million worldwide. As a marketing opportunity both the SMS-enabled phones and the smartphones with robust browsers and app capabilities represents a huge opportunity for marketers looking to reach into their customers pockets (literally).

[source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mary_meeker_2011_web_20_summit_presentation.php]

Will mobile ad spend follow eyeballs?

At Web 2.0 Summit in 2011, Mary Meeker of KPCB showed an enlightening graph. Mobile media viewing times now EQUAL that of print. That means that a full 8% of the average American’s time is spent on mobile media consumption. Yet, only 0.5% of ad spend is in mobile, compared the 27% ad spend in print.

If the trend for spend follows where people are actually consuming media, then both Internet and mobile adds up to a pretty substantial opportunity that Meeker estimates at around $20 billion in the USA alone.

Google and mobile

Google has been pushing mobile through its mobile initiative howtogomo.com that is aimed at helping businesses, marketers and their agencies get into mobile marketing. Google even partnered with mobile website developers Mobify to ‘mobilize’ business in Mobile Alabama.

Why is Google doing this?

Mobile search volume increased by 4 times between 2010 and 2011 (source: Google howtogomo.com). You know it expects mobile search revenue to be a significant source of growth for the company.

Here are just a few of Google’s own stats that outline the size of the opportunities for mobile search marketing (source: Google http://www.howtogomo.com/):

• 4x growth in mobile search since 2010
• 95% of smartphone users have searched for local information
• 61% called the business after searching

Apps, ads and SMS

The marketing opportunities with the growth in smartphone ownership are staggering. While mobile advertising itself has grown since 2008, the exponential growth of the app market has taken everyone by surprise.

Mobile Content - The Exponential Growth of the App Market has Taken Everyone by Surprise

Added together, Meeker showed that mobile marketing across ads and apps has a 153% CAGR over the three years from 2008 to 2011, reaching around $12B globally by Q2 2011.

SMS is not discussed as much as the sexy apps and ads, but with almost all of the >5 billion handsets out there capable of receiving SMS messages, shrewd marketers are already finding a willing audience with mobile coupons, voucher codes and service messages leading the way.

When will the breakthrough happen?

It’s difficult to predict, but some estimates putt mobile ad spend outpacing outline somewhere around 2015. However, it could be ten years before that happens, and anyhow, as Razorfish points out, does it matter when the opportunities are so clearly available?

About the Author:

Pavel Webb is the affiliate manager at TextMagic, a bulk SMS gateway based in United Kingdom.

Social Media Sharing Can Increase Content Markleting Reach and ROI

What a lovely discovery this afternoon in our +Rick Noel stream. A new learning opportunity that some of you may have already happened upon. Whiteboard+, a new SEO (Search Engine Optimization) informational video, the 5th  video in Whiteboard+ series produced by SEOMoz.org, a world leader in SEO tools and thought leaders on SEO strategy.

The Whiteboard+ topic today is on developing and executing on a social sharing strategy. A link to the SEOMoz Whiteboard+ Social Sharing Video is provided for your SEO/Internet marketing learning enjoyment.

The social sharing strategy video runs 15 mins and 13 seconds, which, for those of us that suffer from Internet attention deficit disorder, is a lifetime. That said, Trust me when I tell you that this free video and its content is well worth every second invested in watching, will provide specific tools, techniques and tips and is more relevant than ever given some recent changes in Google’s Search algorithm, dubbed Google Search, Plus Your World.

This content is primarily targeted (and best suited) for Internet marketers, SEO agencies and Social Media marketing agencies, but can also be beneficial for any small business using or considering investing in Internet marketing tactics such as content marketing, search marketing including SEO and social media engagement.

In this Video, +Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz.org explains social sharing strategies providing specific, helpful examples with social media sharing tools, tips and techniques used to maximize the reach of your content marketing efforts while providing key performance indicators such as CTRs (Click Through Rates) by content by channel.

Social Sharing Strategy - Video Summary

Rand talks about building a social sharing strategy for Google+, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other sites based on your audience and where they are most engaging for the particular type of content that you are sharing. You can track these if you have the discipline along with using a specific shortened link for each piece of content by channel. Two of the social sharing tools mentioned include two URL (web address) shorteners called out by name: bit.ly, goo.gl. In addition, Rand mentioned two tools that can be used to track and measure some social metrics including OpenSiteExploer.org, an SEOMoz.org developed tool which can measure social engagement and link attributes and ShareCount.com which can measure integrated social engagement activities across social platforms for a particular web page URL.

In the Social Sharing Strategy Video, Rand elaborates and then answers the following questions:

1. What is content is worthy of sharing?
2. How should I distribute accounts across social platforms (agency vs. business vs. individual)
3. Which items (content) should I share on which social platforms (test and see which works best)
4. How do I prioritize promotion of social media accounts (on website, blog and other promotional platforms)

For eBiz ROI, we use a strategy where content we create and curate (e.g. the Social Sharing Strategy Video above) lives on our blog and then is shared, typically simultaneously across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.  As Rand points out in the video, this is often acceptable as the cross over between channels is minimal, especially with the nature of Twitter feeds where a few hours can be the life of when you share might get viewed.  In addition, you will note at the top of this post there are buttons for Facebook like, Google+1, Twitter and LinkedIn to make sharing content easy. eBiz ROI also uses the AddThis widget which allows for additional sharing options including a myriad of social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Reddit and many others, enabling viral sharing to increase content reach,

Rand also discusses some tools that can be used to evaluate audience and what social networks they are logged into while consuming content on your site. This requires the placement of some code on your site to be able to measure and track, but can provide useful insights when trying to prioritize your social media sharing and promotion strategies. There is a good post on Social Media Examiner that shows how to track Tweets, Facebook Likes and more with Google Analytics.

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UPDATE – SOPA and PIPA were dropped by Congress today – 20 Jan 2012 – see Press Release below

STOP SOPA PIPA Internet censorship - Don't let corporations control traffic flow

Often times things in Washington begin with great intentions (i.e. stop theft of US content) but end up with terrible unintended consequences (i.e. letting companies regulate what we can access online). Anyone that has worked in hi-tech, Internet marketing in particular, knows that legislation always lags technology as technology evolves much faster than bureaucracy.

Below is a video from PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo providing a good opposition viewpoint overview which is a viewpoint shared by most in the Internet industry, especially online marketers.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

It is probably not surprising that yesterday large companies like Wikipedia and Reddit went dark to demonstrate their opposition to SOPA/PIPA while others like Google protested by blacking out their infamous logo and provided a link to a petition managed by Google. To illustrate the amount of support Google organized by this seemingly small act, that according to Forbes, 4.5 Million People Signed Google’s Anti-SOPA Petition. I was one of them. Also, I’ve personally signed the petition at American Censorship, and if you agree with the SOPA/PIPA opposition point of view and want to take action to stand up and be counted, please consider this option also.

It is clear why the mainstream media does not cover the SOPA/PIPA legislation opposition views or even cover SOPA/PIPA legislation at all, especially given its potential to impact so many US Internet users. To their credit, PBS did do a piece yesterday on the PBS News Hour called For SOPA , Websites Threaten a Midnight Blackout  

Watch A World Without Wikipedia: For SOPA, Websites Threaten a Midnight Blackout on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

and then an article on PBS.org Need to Know How SOPA Would Change the Internet. This is a good and like most other PBS reporting, unbiased an informative article.

Most outside of the Internet industry had probably not even heard of SOPA/PIPA yesterday until they pointed their Internet browsers to Google or Wikipedia or any one of the myriad of others sites in opposition to SOPA, then scratched their heads saying what’s this? It’s not their fault as SOPA/PIPA media coverage has been limited for a piece of legislation of this magnitude. The reason that mainstream media is not adequately covering this regulation and related news story is that its opposition is counter to their financial interests since many of these media companies are owned by the very entertainment conglomerates that are lobbying Washington for passage of SOPA/PIPA.

The good news for US Internet users who enjoy the Internet in its current unfettered form is that Google, Wikipedia and other participants in the online SOPA/PIPA Protests have a combined reach and recency that can overshadow the mainstream media in many/most cases, especially with changing media consumption patterns.

Some countries, where the government has successfully censored the state-run media, are now struggling to suppress the massive, immediate reach and distribution of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In fact, some are trying to limit their domestic Internet access to a state sponsored/censored/controlled “Intranets.”

For instance, Iran is reported to be building a country-wide network as sort of a faux Internet for Iranian Internet users, effectively censoring and controlling ALL domestic Internet usage, especially around elections. Maybe they are concerned about the impact on free Internet usage and social media on domestic politics which has been credited for the success of multiple revolutions and resulting regime changes in the region. Maybe the US politicians are concerned as well!

“Tests for a countrywide network aimed at substituting services run through the world wide web have been carried out by Iran’s ministry of information and communication technology, according to a newspaper report. The move has prompted fears among its online community that Iran intends to withdraw from the global internet.”

For more on this, see Iran Clamps Down on Internet Use. By the way, the reference to what is going on in Iran is by no means a comparison of SOPA, the issue becomes, where do you draw the line when skiing down a slippery slope.

While many Americans would scoff at such measures in the US, they need to pay attention and get involved in order for this legislation (or its successor attempts assuming SOPA/PIPA are DOA), pushed by the entertainment lobby to fail passage. Passage of these kinds of legislation would have highly negative, albeit unintended, impacts to our recovering economy, where much of the growth is being driven by and through the Internet.

Yes, piracy is a huge problem for the entertainment and software industries both in the US and abroad, but lets not legislate our nose off to spite our face!

UPDATE: 20 Jan 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT

Fight for the Future
Tiffiniy Cheng
Holmes Wilson
press@fightforthefuture.org
(614) 465-6371
(508) 474-5248
January 20, 2012

Fight for the Future, which ran the largest organizing sites for the recent SOPA protests (sopastrike.com and americancensorship.org), applauds the announcement that the Senate and House have postponed action on the proposed web censorship bills.

“We sent the MPAA back to the drawing board,” said Fight for the Future Co-founder Holmes Wilson, “But any law that lets the copyright lobby block our websites, censor our search results, or cut off our Paypal accounts–without even going through a judge–will be soundly defeated.”

“This was the largest online protest in history,” said Fight for the Future Co-founder Tiffiniy Cheng, “The MPAA was trying to quietly force this bill through Congress, but when internet users started paying attention, real democracy happened.  This is a watershed moment in the fight against lobbyists’ influence on politics.”

“The MPAA could have proposed a law to address copyright infringement,” said Holmes Wilson, “Instead, they proposed giving rightsholders veto power over online innovation and free expression.  At that point, it was just a matter of getting the public involved.”

• A timeline of the SOPA protests: http://sopastrike.com/timeline
• Statistics from the January 18 protest: http://sopastrike.com/numbers
• Statistics from the November 16 protest: http://americancensorship.org/infographic2.html

Original Press Release at: http://fightforthefuture.org

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Internet search is kind of like the Duey Decimal System of the Internet

Anybody that’s ever used he Internet is well acquainted with the concept of search engines. Search engines are to the Internet as the Dewey Decimal System is to any public library. Search engines provide us the free mechanism to find a virtual needle in a global haystack. While Internet users use search engines on a daily basis, they often take for granted the very critical task that they perform and the value that they add to our Internet experience. Whether it’s searching for information to perform a task, making a purchase from the convenience of our home or from our mobile phone on the go or just getting to a particular destination online, search engines get us there.

As an Internet marketer, search engine marketing is one of the most important tools we have at our disposal. In particular, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the discipline of ensuring client content shows up on the first page of search results for searches related to a business’s product or services or the problems they solve. This is sometimes referred to as driving natural search traffic to a website, which can have a great ROI (Return On Investment) as there is no incremental cost for each user that comes to your website via clicking on organic (non-paid) search results. Understanding how Internet search works will give us hints on how to perform SEO more effectively.

When you think about it for a moment, what search engines do and how fast they do it is really amazing. For instance, in sub-second response time, search engines search through their index of hundreds of billions or even trillions of web pages available on the Internet to find those few references that are most relevant to your particular search. That includes informational searches such as how to change a tire on automobile, transactional searches such as purchasing an electronic device over the Internet or navigational search, using a search to locate a particular company and branded website.

In the brief (3 min. and 15 second) YouTube video below, Matt Cutts, lead Engineer in charge of Google’s web search quality regarding spam, describes how search works in terms that most Internet marketers and users can understand. Obviously, the devil is always in the details and for those engineers with the time an inclination, much more hints can be found in the Google public patent filings.

Google is by far the most used search engine in the US with nearly 2/3 of the US search market share. Other search engines such as Bing, Yahoo! which is powered by Bing and others work in a manner similar to Google. Understanding how Google uses over 200 factors to determine relevancy and which factors are most important, will prepare an Internet marketer to think about how to create, edit and optimize web pages so that Google understands the content and can score its relevancy high relative to related search terms. The business goal is for Google, Yahoo!, Bing (insert your search engine of choice here) to return a reference to that page in the first page of the search results, which as many already know from experience, is often as far as many of us look before trying another search. That’s why being on the first page of the search results for phrases relative to our business is the holy grail from a search engine marketing standpoint, especially if when we don’t have to bid funds for the right for our link to show up there and pay for each incremental click and resulting visit to our webpage.

Hopefully this video has provided some insights into how search engines work and the role that they play in the Internet experience. If you found value in this post, please like eBiz ROI on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ebizroi(or click like button directly below) and Follow eBiz ROI on Twitter @eBizROI (or click the Twitter follow button directly below) to stay connected to the Terrific Time for Traffic series and other quality content for growing your business online while maximizing marketing ROI (Return on Investment).

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Your Search Results with your photos, your friends, your stuff …

Google Plus Update is the Marriage of Search with Social

On 11 January 2012, Google Announced Search, plus Your World, its new, transformational search update that will integrate Google+ content and social graph information into personalized search results. Google Search users will have to have Google+ profile and be signed into their Google+ account to experience the new search results.

Official Google Search, plus Your World Video

Google Search results will now include personal results and profiles of people who are in your Google+ social graph. Not completely unsurprising, the new Google Search, plus Your World will not currently use social graphs from information Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn for this latest Google Search update as Google is not granted unfettered access to this data like it is in Google+.

Google Search users will be able to locate and connect with other Google+ users related to a search they perform, right from the search box and corresponding search results. Note that this update is still being rolled out and will not be available to all Google Search users day 1, with no word as of yet from Goolge regarding implementation roll out schedule, at least that I have seen.

As you can see from Google Search, plus Your World Video, the Search, Plus Your World integrated search results will now include:

Google+ users who don’t want the personalization in their Google Search results have the option to disable Google+ content from showing up in their integrated search results.

What Others in the Industry are Saying about this Development

CNN referred to the latest Google Search update as most radical transformation ever. Though this is a bold statement, it is clearly not far off the mark in a move that is intended to position Google+ as a more prominent player in the social networking market whlie gaining  user base and mind share.

This latest Google Search Plus Your World update is a development that Twitter spoke out against the same day its releease was announced. Here what Chris Crum of WebPro News had to say in Google Search, Plus Your World: Twitter Not Happy.  The Google public response to Twitter’s comments was makde via their most radical change ever.

While there are wide spectrum of opinions from current Google and Facebook users (see Google Merges Search and Google+ Into Social Media Juggernaut) where Pete Cashmore, CEO and Founder of Mashable, refers to this update as “a HUGE move” in the article comments. While many of the other 104 (at the time of this writing) comments are dissenting, methinks that Pete is right!

Regardless of your predications of Google success with this new update and how it will further deepen their play into the Social Networking marketing and whether or not you think it will impact Facebook use and market share, given Google dominance in search and share of voice for Internet usage, Internet marketers will be well-served to pay attention.

Look for more on the Search, plus Your World coming to one of the hundreds of millions of Google searches per day near you!

VIDEO Update from Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, on does “Google Plus Your World” favor Google+ too much?

What do you think? We would love to hear your perspective in the comments section. All comments that add to the conversion will be published, roughly translated as no spam please

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Seven SEO Tips for Anchor Text

The following Whiteboard Friday video from Rand Fishkin, CEO & Co-founder of SEOMoz, highlights the subtle nuances of anchor text (clickable part of a text link on a webpage), its position within a web page and the efficacy of different strategies to maximize a websites sites ranking in the search results, which can have a profound impact on the amount of visitors originating from search engine users. The great thing about Rand and SEOMoz is that they are SEO industry through leaders who take a data driven approach to their tool development and training videos.

All About Anchor Text Whiteboard Friday Video

 (running time: (9 minutes, 35 seconds)

1. Multiple anchors from the same page do NOT provide additional value
2. Diversity of the anchor text link provides the strongest value
3. Fluctuating the anchor text itself is debatable, though many will use this tactic to mask search engine spam and search results manipulation
4. The first anchor text in the HTML of a page is what Google counts
5. Internal anchor text helps a tiny bit (funny presentation of definition of tiny, both in the video and comments following it)
6. If a link uses an image, then the alt attribute of the image tag usually, but not always, becomes the anchor text.
7. Surrounding text is likely used as a signal, especially when the anchor text itself does not have much content or value (e.g. click here)

Understanding these seven anchor text tips and how to apply them to your SEO campaigns, both on-page and off-page, can help the optimized site achieve a high ROI (Return On Investment) for search engine optimization initiatives while helping to drive targeted, sustained, qualified traffic.

If you found value in this video, I strongly suggest that you check out the actual All About Anchor Text Whiteboard Friday as there were 103 comments from the video from a highly experienced, engaged, SEO community, many of which ask insightful questions or add experience that in some cases supports Rand’s points, while others offer a competing perspective and food for thought. The video, which was release last Fri, 6 Jan, and today, 10 Jan, has 4,737 views with 76% watched on average (how far into the video on average viewers watched). For online video, these stats are impressive and indicative of the value of these Whiteboard Friday videos. You can always get up to date stats by clicking the video stats button just below the video player. If you are an SEO, do yourself a favor and add these to your Friday agenda. Remember, free to watch + no registration required = no brainner!

About SEOMoz Whiteboard Fridays

SEOMoz Whiteboard Fridays is a learning series developed by SEOMoz available to those interested in learning SEO. No registration or membership is required to view, and for other content curators to embed these videos free of charge. This is not only good for SEOMoz exposure and brand distribution, but if done effectively by adding your own value to the content by commentary or analysis, it can be an effective tool to enhance search engine marketing. With 103 comments at the time of this publishing, that’s great crowdsourcing highly relevant, targeted content which is what Google rewards these days.

About SEOMoz

SEOMoz.org develops SEO software, conducts extensive studies using a mix of data from actual search results and sites, then combines that data with expert opinions from the worlds top SEOs. SEOMoz and hosts the web’s most vibrant SEO community of which, eBiz ROI is a member.

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facebook addiction or merely an obsession?

Are you addicted to facebook? Have you shared and liked yourself into obsession? A recent study by comScore, shows that social networking is one of the top online activities worldwide, with facebook dominating minutes of use.

The recent comScore report finds social networking accounts for 1 in 5 minutes spent online. Facebook dominates consuming 3 out of 4 social networking minutes. A complimentary copy of the report, is available from comScore at: http://www.comscore.com/it_is_a_social_world

According to the comScore study:

• One in every five minutes online minutes is spent on the social web
• Three out of every four minutes on the social web is spent on facebook
• Twitter grew by 59% over the past year in terms of number of users
• Twitter usage trends along with events of national significance or of pop culture interest
• People spent 35% more time on social networking sites this year (2011) than last year

“The emergence and widespread global adoption of social networks has vastly influenced human interaction on an individual, community and larger societal level, and underscores the convergence of the online and offline worlds,” said Linda Boland Abraham, comScore CMO and EVP of global development.”

“Regardless of geography, social networks are weaving themselves ever more intricately into the fabric of the digital experience, opening a world of new opportunity for business and technology.”

The most popular social networking site by a good margin was facebook, which was incredibly visited by over 50% of all web users in the world based on analysis of October data. Twitter now reaches about 10% of off web users worldwide.

Broad smartphone adoption is driving social activity online with the study citing nearly 40% of users access the social web via smartphone.

See video featuring Adam Faulk of Mashable reviewing some of the comScore study highlights:

UPDATE: 2 Jan 2012 – Relavent YouTube Video from 2009 with interviews from facebook addicts

Are you Addicted to Facebook?

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The building of Rohini Courts Complex

An Indian court in Delhi summoned 21 websites, including Facebook, Orkut, Google, YouTube and others this past Fri, 23 Dec, 2011, to answer to charges of criminal conspiracy. Other charges filed include “selling, publicly exhibiting and (circulating) obscene, lascivious content.”

See NewsX video below NewsX from India with news coverage on the 21 websites being summoned in Delhi:

Summary of NewsX Broadcast on Social Network Sites being charged in Delhi, India

The Delhi court order for the 21 named websites, including many popular social networks, came three days after a civil court ordered these same websites to remove content that " might offend religious sentiments." Only a subset the companies summons appear in the Rohini Court on Friday. Those present claimed they had not yet received a copy of the summons. According to the broadcast report, all 21 defendants have to submit a compliance report by Feb 6 in addition to being compelled to remove content deemed objectionable by the courts else face legal action.

The report includes a phone interview the Muslim Cleric Maulana Rashid who frames the issue in terms of "Freedom Vs. Responsibility" criticizing the named companies for using their resources to distribute offensive content. Websites in India are already restrained from webcasting "anti-religious" or "antisocial’ content".

The video also includes an interview with the Indian Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Kapil Sibal, who has warned Social Networking sites in the past that they are responsible for screening their content and maintaining compliance with current regulations on what is defined as allowable content. Kapil Sibal’s position is that defamatory content on social networking sites hurts public sentiment. In addition, obscene pictures and posts on politicians violates Indian law.

He states that the images and statements on the platforms naming "Google, Facebook and the like." the subject matter of which was so offensive.

Sibal’s four part justification for censorship of Social Networks in India:

1. May hurt religious sentiment
2. May Social Tension
3. Violent content on social media
4. Danger to National Security

Sibal goes on to say that he is concerned about peace and harmony in India.

Depending on the legal outcome of these actions, Social Networks operating in India and other countries outside of their homeland, these large companies will no doubt be required invest in further operational zing enforcement of country-specific content regulations and censorship on a global basis will be challenging. For India and China, given the large populations and market size, the stakes are huge!

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Landing Page Optimization is a Huge Marketing ROI Lever

The webinar, recording runs just over 53 minutes and is well worth the investment to view in its entirety. Lunch and learn maybe?

The webinar sponsor, ion interactive, offers LiveBall, a landing page optimization and management platform along with landing page optimization services, enabling marketing organizations to design, implement, test and optimize landing pages without the need for direct IT support.

The concepts presented by Anna are broadly applicable and go beyond the ion interactive LiveBall platform. Based on the brands represented in the ion interactive Portfolio, clearly the company and presenter have credibility. eBiz ROI currently has no affiliation with ion interactive or their LiveBall platform, but wanted to share this video to introduce Internet marketers to a view of what is possible in scalable, agile landing page technology, especially as it relates to mobile, which continues to experience explosive growth.

Webinar twitter hash tag:#ion2012 by @ioninteractive

The 12 Tips presented during this Landing Page Optimization webinar include:

1. User Interactivity – including user interactivity on a landing page such as sliders, dynamic images and user controls can users provide access to lots of content on a single page and have been shown to enhance landing page conversion rates.
2. Mobile Ready - providing landing pages that are specifically targeted and ready for mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets which are becoming increasingly popular for users on the go. This will become even more important as smart phone adoption accelerates in global markets.
3. Social – integrating social media into landing pages in a way that does not distract from or negatively impact conversion rates, for example allowing a post-conversion tweet initiated by a user who just converted.
4. Progressive – meaning progressive multistep conversions that can lower the perceived barrier of a conversion to an end-user. Progressive conversion techniques can be particularly effective for complex conversions that may require the user to fill out multiple form fields.
5. Local – providing localize versions of landing pages that can be triggered by factors such as the users browser language preferences, Geo targeting based on user IP address, and asking the user for the information to customize and localize content based on user input.
6. Dynamic – providing dynamic content on landing pages such as rotating images and other dynamic design elements can help increase conversion rates. Dynamic landing pages can often be driven by using some of the progressive techniques and having data entered by the user in a multistep conversion be propagated to subsequent steps in the conversion process (i.e. number of employees in a payroll lead form entered in the first step driving content in the second step).
7. Relevant – the relevancy of landing page content relative to source of visit (e.g. display, PPC, social, print, other) can have dramatic impacts on conversion rates. This is especially true in pay per click advertising where the ad copy and its relevancy to the landing page are very important.
8. Disposable – the concept of disposable landing pages is presented in the context of not over investing in building landing pages that may or may not test positively and therefore may be discarded in place of landing pages up performed better during testing. This is where a landing page optimization and management platform can pay large dividends.
9. Integrated – the concept of integrated means taking advantage of multiple platforms used by sales and marketing such as CRM (customer relationship management) systems, marketing automation, lead scoring, demand generation systems and website analytics to name just a few. Using the data produced and consumed by these various systems to optimize your landing pages is a great technique.
10. Optimized – continually testing new creative and copy then optimizing landing pages based on test results to ensure landing page updates are best positioned to drive higher conversion rates.
11. Data mining – includes mining for actionable data based on historical information measured and tracked by a variety of systems including CRM, website analytics, social metrics, marketing automation, lead scoring and more to find opportunities to increase landing page conversion rates
12. QR pages – using QR codes in a very designed and deliberate manner making sure to drive targeted traffic from media to landing pages that share the same context as the media with the QR code is placed. The QR code placement context relevancy to the landing page will have a dramatic impact on conversion rates. Common mistakes include linking QR codes to landing pages that irrelevant to the source from which the QR code was scanned or linking to non-existent pages.

Nothing can provide a larger impact to Internet marketing efforts than landing page optimization. If you found value from this content and other content on this blog valuable, please join eBiz ROI on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our Newsletter to receive more valuable content on various Internet marketing topics. Thanks for visiting our blog and we welcome your comments and feedback.

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