Ultimate Web Marketing Guide, The

Michael Miller has written more than 100 nonfiction how-to books over the past 20 years, including Que’s YouTube for Business, Using Google AdWords and AdSense, and The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Computer Basics. His other bestselling online marketing books include The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization (Alpha Books), Sams Teach Yourself Google Analytics in 10 Minutes (Sams), and Online Marketing Heroes (Wiley).  Mr. Miller has established a reputation for clearly explaining technical topics to nontechnical readers, and for offering useful real-world advice about complicated topics. More information can be found at the author’s website, located at www.molehillgroup.com.

• Introduction     1Part I: Web Marketing 1011 Revisiting Marketing Fundamentals     7Back to Basics: What Is Marketing?      7The New Basics: What Is Web Marketing?      9Essential Web Marketing Skills     10The Most Important Skill: Think Like the Customer     14The Bottom Line     162 Understanding the Components of Web Marketing     17Web Marketing Is Your Online Presence     17Web Marketing Is Search Engine Marketing     18Web Marketing Is Online Advertising     20Web Marketing Is Email Marketing     20Web Marketing Is Blog Marketing     22Web Marketing Is Social Media Marketing     22Web Marketing Is Online Public Relations     24Web Marketing Is Multimedia Marketing     25Web Marketing Is Mobile Marketing     25The Bottom Line     26Part II: Planning Your Online Activities3 Balancing and Budgeting Online Activities     29Creating an Effective Web Marketing Mix     29Coordinating Your Web Marketing Activities     35Setting Your Web Marketing Budget     36The Bottom Line     404 Integrating Online and Traditional Marketing     43Splitting Your Budget     43Online and Traditional Analogs     44Which Activities Can You Eliminate?      47Coordinating Web Marketing and Traditional Marketing     49The Bottom Line     505 Online Research and Analysis     53Quantitative Versus Qualitative Research     53Researching Traffic Patterns with Web Analytics     56Researching Customer Opinions with Polls and Surveys      58Researching Customer Behavior with Comment Analysis     59Researching the Competition     60Researching Virtually Anything with Web Search     62Other Sources of Online Research     63The Bottom Line     636 Creating a Web Marketing Plan     65Why You Need a Web Marketing Plan.      65Understanding the Elements of a Marketing Plan     66Writing Your Marketing Plan     71The Bottom Line     73Part III: Website Presence7 Designing an Effective Website     75Creating Your First Website     75Website Design: Keep It Simple.      79Be Wary of Technology--and Design     81Content Matters     82Navigating Your Site     84Website Look and Feel     89Consider Color     91Creating Unique Landing Pages     93The Bottom Line     938 Creating an Ecommerce Website     97Different Ways to Sell     97What Goes Into an Ecommerce Website?      98Promoting Your Site     101Utilizing Search Engine Marketing and Shopping Directories     102The Bottom Line     1049 Tracking Website Analytics     107Understanding Web Analytics     107Who Uses Web Analytics?      108How Web Analytics Works     108Key Web Analytics Metrics     109What to Look For     110Web Analytics Tools     113Getting to Know Google Analytics     114The Bottom Line.      116Part IV: Search Engine Marketing10 Understanding Search Engine Marketing     119Search Engine Marketing Explained     119How Search Engines Work     122Examining the Major Search Engines     126The Bottom Line     13111 Essential Search Engine Optimization     133What Search Engines Look For 133Optimizing Your Site's Content 136Optimizing Your Site's Keywords 139Optimizing Your Site's HTML Tags 142TITLE Tags 142Optimizing Your Site's Design and Organization 146Optimizing Inbound Links 148Optimizing Images 152The Bottom Line 15412 Advanced SEO Techniques157Submitting Your Site to the Search Engines 157Creating a Sitemap 160SEO for Local Search 163SEO for Mobile Search 166SEO for Blogs 167SEO Tools 170The Bottom Line 17113 Tracking Search Performance173Why It Pays to Improve Your Performance 173What to Look For 174Tracking Site Traffic with Web Analytics 175The Ultimate Metric: Search Engine Rank 176Tracking Individual Search Engine Performance 177Third-Party Tracking Tools 181Tracking Your Competitors 182The Bottom Line 183Part V: Online Advertising14 Understanding Online Advertising185How Online Advertising Differs from Traditional Advertising 185Different Payment Models 187Types of Online Ads 190Online Ad Technologies 197Affiliate Marketing 198Getting to Know the Big Players 199Trends in Online Advertising 200The Bottom Line 20215 Pay-per-Click Advertising205Understanding Pay-per-Click and Contextual Advertising 205Choosing the Right Keywords 211Bidding the Right Price 215Writing Effective Ad Copy 220Creating PPC Image Ads 225Maximizing Conversion with a Custom Landing Page 226Choosing a PPC Ad Network 229Other Sites for PPC Advertising 232The Bottom Line 23616 Display Advertising239Are Display Ads Effective? 239When to Employ Display Advertising 241Choosing a Payment Model 241Setting a Display Ad Budget 242Examining Rich Media Ads 242Choosing a Display Ad Format 245Best Practices: Creating Effective Display Ads 247Where to Purchase Web Display Ads 252The Bottom Line 25317 Tracking Ad Performance257Using Tracking Tools 257Evaluating Key Metrics 260Testing and Tracking Ad Strategies 264The Bottom Line 265Part VI: Email Marketing18 Understanding Email Marketing267Email Marketing Is Big Business 267Email Marketing Is Effective 268Email Marketing Is Direct Marketing 268Email Marketing Is Customer Retention Marketing 270Email Marketing Is One-to-One Marketing 270Email Marketing Is Database Marketing 271Email Marketing Is Permission Marketing 272Email Marketing Is Frequent Marketing 273Email Marketing Is Inexpensive Marketing 275Email Marketing Is Trackable Marketing. 276The Bottom Line 27619 Building Email Mailing Lists279Creating an Email List 279Purchasing or Renting Names 284Managing Your Lists 285Avoiding Spamming--by Asking Permission 288Who Does the Work? 289The Bottom Line 29020 Developing an Email Marketing Campaign293Deciding What--and When--to Promote 293Constructing the Promotional Message 298Personalizing Your Mailings 305What Not to Do 306The Bottom Line 30721 Tracking Email Marketing Performance309Determining Key Metrics 309Tracking Email Data 312The Bottom Line 313Part VII: Blog Marketing22 Understanding Blog Marketing315Getting to Know the Blogosphere 315What Are Company Blogs Good For? 317Running Your Own Blog 320Marketing to Other Blogs 321The Bottom Line 32223 Creating a Company or Product Blog325Why Create a Company Blog? 325Where Should the Blog Reside? 329Building the Blog 330Designing Your Blog 332Allowing Comments--or Not. 334Determining Who Contributes to the Blog 335Deciding What to Write About 336Writing Blog Posts 337Optimizing Your Blog for Search 340Common Corporate Blogging Mistakes 340Promoting Your Blog 341The Bottom Line 34224 Marketing to the Blogosphere345Why Blogs--and Bloggers--Are Important 345How to Get Bloggers to Notice and Mention You 346Giving Bloggers Everything They Need 348Buying Blog Placements 349The Bottom Line 35125 Tracking Blog Marketing Performance353Tracking the Performance of Your Company Blog 353Tracking the Effectiveness of Your Blog PR Efforts 356The Bottom Line 357Part VIII: Social Media Marketing26 Understanding Social Media359Inside the World of Social Media 359The History of Social Media 360Examining Different Types of Social Media 362Why Social Media Matters to Marketers 368Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy 370The Bottom Line 37227 Participating in Social Networking373What Goes On in a Social Network 373Becoming Part of the Community 376Monitoring Social Media 378Responding to Online Comments 380The Bottom Line 38228 Marketing on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter385Marketing via a Facebook Fan Page 385Marketing via a Facebook Application. 389Cross-Marketing with a Facebook Like Button 391Utilizing More Facebook Social Plugins 393Marketing on MySpace 395Marketing with Twitter 397Sharing and Bookmarking via Social Media 403Constructing an Effective Social Media Campaign 404Advertising on Social Media 406Integrating Your Efforts Across Multiple Social Media 411The Bottom Line 41429 Tracking Social Media Marketing Performance417Tracking Hard Performance Metrics 417Evaluating Social Media Performance Subjectively 419Different Metrics for Different Social Media 421The Bottom Line 423Part IX: Online PR30 Understanding Online PR425What Is Online PR--and How Does It Differ from Traditional PR? 425Using the New Technology 428The Benefits of Online PR 430The Bottom Line 43131 Developing New Sources and Techniques433Developing New Online Sources 433Skills and Techniques for Online PR 437Learning the Art of Online Press Releases 438The Bottom Line 44132 Creating an Online Press Room443Why Do You Need a Press Room on Your Website? 443Stocking Your Online Press Room 445Locating Your Online Press Room 450Organizing Your Online Press Room 451Informing Journalists of New News 452The Bottom Line 45333 Tracking Online PR Performance455Tracking Placements 455Tracking Traffic and Conversions 456The Bottom Line 458Part X: Multimedia Marketing34 Understanding Multimedia Marketing461What Is Multimedia Marketing? 461Understanding Podcasts 462Understanding Web Videos 464Incorporating Multimedia into Your Marketing Mix 465The Bottom Line 46635 Podcast Marketing469Creating a Podcast: The Technical Details 469Creating a Podcast: The Marketing Strategy 471Distributing Your Podcast 472Promoting Your Podcasts 475The Bottom Line 47536 Video Marketing477Is Web Video Right for Your Business? 477Welcome to YouTube 478How YouTube Works 480What Kinds of Videos Work Best? 481Creating a YouTube Video 485Creating Compelling Content 489Driving Viewers to Your Website 492Promoting Your YouTube Videos--Organically 495Advertising Your YouTube Videos 500The Bottom Line 50437 Tracking Multimedia Marketing Performance507Tracking Podcast Performance 507Tracking Video Performance 509The Bottom Line. 512Part XI: Mobile Marketing38 Understanding Mobile Marketing515What Is Mobile Marketing--and Why Is It Important? 515How Mobile Marketing Differs from Traditional Web Marketing 518Exploiting Mobile Search 520Developing a Mobile Marketing Strategy 521The Bottom Line 52139 Designing a Mobile-Friendly Website523Why You Need a Mobile Website 523Creating a Mobile Website 525Options: How to Host Your Mobile Site 532The Bottom Line 53440 Advertising on Mobile Devices537How Important Is Mobile Advertising? 537Determining What Type of Advertising to Do--and Where to Do It 538Creating a Mobile Ad 541Targeting the Mobile Customer 542The Bottom Line 54341 Marketing via Mobile Apps545What Is a Mobile App--and Why Should You Care? 545Building an Effective Mobile App 547Marketing Your Mobile App 553The Bottom Line 55442 Tracking Mobile Marketing Performance557Tracking the Performance of Your Mobile Website 557Tracking the Performance of Your Mobile Advertising 561Tracking the Performance of Your Mobile Apps 562The Bottom Line 563Part XII: Online Marketing Management43 Managing Your Web Marketing Activities565Managing Your Web Marketing Mix 565Managing Your Staff 568Managing Your Budget 569Managing Results 570Managing Change 571Managing Management 572Managing Your Time. 573The Bottom Line 57444 Looking to the Future577Email Is Dying 577Blogs Are Fading 578Social Networking Is Taking Over 579Mobility Matters 580Narrowcasting Gets Big 580All Marketing Is Local--and Global 581Embracing Change 582The Bottom Line 583A Glossary585Index 595