You therefore need motivation and a carefully orchestrated experience to get the results you desire. Here are my 10 best practices for running successful surveys:

1. Incentives

The single best way to increase survey responses is to offer an incentive. Here are three options:

Valuable Learning:
For many B-to-B audiences, an effective incentive is the promise to carefully analyze the results and share them ONLY with those who participate. For this to work, the information must be beneficial to them and their businesses.

Sweepstakes:
Offering a chance to win a valuable prize can entice many survey respondents. This can be anything from a hot device such as a new iPad, to tickets to a premier event, to an advertising opportunity for high-level exposure. Be sure to set a fixed budget for the prizes, and consider offering multiple items to demonstrate greater chances to win.

Discount:
Another option is to provide a discount on one of your products or services that is of value to the audience. This is most effective when everyone who takes the survey receives the discount, so be sure to budget appropriately.

9 additional best practices for successful surveys

2. Display the survey on a clean, uncluttered page that identifies each stage to completion
3. Keep it short (less than five minutes), and state upfront how little time will be needed
4. Make sure the audience understands the purpose, value, and use of the survey results
5. Make it instantly clear what company is asking the questions
6. Clearly state your privacy policy and how you intend to share the participants’ information
7. Take close consideration of the order of the questions, and make the first few very easy
8. Write clear concise questions that get to the root of the information you seek, and include only one item per question
9. Where possible, asked closed-ended questions
10. Make sure the survey is presented only to your specific audience so that results are not skewed.

I hope this helps you improve the participation rate and feedback quality of future surveys. For additional information, please visit our marketing consulting services page.

Well, what if you were told that your company’s message could be put in front of people actively searching for your products or services, that you could pick and choose your audience by location, gender, and age, and that you could even control what time of day and device type they found you on? Would it sound too good to be true?

And yet there’s more. Imagine this advertising tool allowed you to simultaneously test multiple ad messaging, didn’t require costly and time-consuming ad production, and could take affect almost immediately. And, unlike traditional advertising, you could measure everything – conversion rates, conversion costs, ROI, and what keywords or ads result directly in a lead.

Before you think the catch is that this must be super expensive, consider that you can set a fixed advertising budget as low as $50 a month, and only get charged if a prospect actually visits your online page.

This marketer’s dream is called Paid Search, often referred to as Search Engine Marketing (SEM). It’s real; I’ve been using it to grow my business since this tactic’s beginnings, then offered via the “GoTo” platform. I’ve kept pace with this evolving advertising method and have leveraged it to help grow my clients’ businesses, too. Regardless of the size of the company and the budget, Paid Search is one of the most efficient and effective tactics for generating leads, driving traffic, and growing a business.

Our team believes in Paid Search so much so that we now offer an end-to-end solution for this affordable advertising. We call it Managed SEM Programs. In short, our expert SEM managers identify clients’ goals; conduct extensive keyword, competitor, and bid rate research; develop optimized landing pages; and leverage sophisticated software to run campaigns across multiple search engines, monitor and analyze performance daily, and provide detailed reporting.

So if your company needs a boost of new customers, use the powerful and cost-effective channel of Paid Search. And if you prefer to let the professionals handle it, inquire about our Managed SEM Program to get even better results without having to shoulder all the efforts. Click here to request a free Search Engine Marketing analysis.

Sound familiar? Too often the copy for websites, brochures, ads, and other marketing materials is the same nonspecific message for every company across every industry.

“We make the best thing in the shortest amount of time for the lowest price.”

It’s time you stood out from your ocean of competitors. You may in fact be the best at what you do, but simply saying it won’t get anyone to believe it. Quite the opposite, actually: the more you say you’re the best, the more potential consumers won’t trust you.

So what can you do?

Show that you’re the best
Have you won any awards in your industry? Are there any stellar reviews of your product or service? Is there a positive news story about your latest release? Highlight all of that on your website and in other marketing materials, in an easily scannable format that displays the logos and icons.

Have other people say that you’re the best
Create a Web page or marketing piece for client testimonials (use video when possible). Consider reserving a sidebar of your site for rotating positive quotes. When other people talk about how you helped solve a problem of theirs, it lends credibility and gives customers ideas of how you could help them.

Explain why you’re the best
Be specific in your language. What is it about your unique process or patented materials or intensive training that makes your product or service or people superior? Don’t simply provide empty boasts of being creative or unique or innovative — explain the details of your operation and how those details are different, interesting, better.

Always make it about them
Everything you talk about must be focused on the customer. Even your testimonials aren’t about you, they’re about how you solved a problem for someone else. When you write your copy, don’t just write about how long you’ve been in business or how many important companies you serve — explain how this experience and expertise results in a better outcome for the consumer.

When your marketing materials make blanket statements that you’re the best at what you do, you sound like everyone else in your space, who all make the same unsubstantiated claim. Stand out, and prove to customers that you really are the best choice for their needs, by highlighting what it is that makes you special. You are unique, and your marketing copy should reflect that.

Keyword Research informs all of your SEO efforts. It serves as the basis for all performance tracking. It is, in fact, the key to an entire optimization effort.

But how do you do it? How do you choose the right phrases for your goals?  What even makes a good keyword in the first place?

Let’s try to simplify.

Think of Keyword Research like this: the Search query (the keyword) is the connective tissue between the Searcher and a website. To make the Searcher connect to your website, you need to consider three key elements.

Relevancy

What is your website about? What are your webpages about? Start jotting down the key terms that you want to appear in the search results for and then check to see if you have the content to support them. And if you don’t, well, you better start writing! When you hear about relevancy, this is in essence what is means: is your site relevant for the terms you want to rank for?

Search Volume

In addition to relevancy, you’ll need to get a handle on what keywords are most frequently used in searches. Search Volume is Google’s measurement of how often a particular keyword is queried, and you can find it by using a free tool like the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

Competitive Analysis

Being relevant for a highly searched keyword means nothing, however, if you can’t make a dent in the rankings. Perhaps there’s a site (or 10) that are more relevant than yours for a given keyword. You’ll need to start examining the competition, and that means evaluating the webpages that already rank for your preferred keyword(s). What does their content look like? Do you think you can displace their listings? If not, consider optimizing for a similar keyword with less competition for short-term growth while optimizing for the hyper-competitive keyword over the long-term.

Relevancy, popularity and attainability should guide all of your decisions when deciding which keywords to target.

Now, go do some keyword research and get your optimization efforts started!

Related Services:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Developed in partnership with Philadelphia-based marketing and communications firm Vault Communications and Arc Intermedia, PestWorld.org is a comprehensive pest control resource for consumers, professionals, educators, and the media.

The site provides an exhaustive list of pest-related information, resources and tools, including:

• A zip code locator to find certified professionals near you
• Detailed pest guides to help you identify and handle pests you may encounter
• A video channel with educational and entertaining content (Pest TV
• Interactive games, crafts and learning tools for kids (PestQuest and Critter Craft)
• Blogs and articles from pest control experts
• Information and advice on health issues related to pests
• Resources for media professionals
• Extremely high-quality photography

Arc Intermedia was tasked with Web design and Web development of the new PestWorld.org site. Based on the direction of the NPMA and Vault, the company created the front-end look-and-feel, built the full website and implemented all the functionality.

“We are proud to support the efforts of the NPMA with this powerful website,” says David Sonn, president of Arc Intermedia. “Our goal was to develop a consumer-focused tool that leveraged usability and the latest technologies while underscoring the value of pest control professionals.”

So far, the response from the NPMA’s extensive and dedicated community indicates this goal has been achieved.

Continues Sonn, “And if we can help just one family rid its house of bed bugs or properly handle a wasp sting, we’ll feel like we did our job.”

If you’re looking to improve your website’s Search performance but are just getting started with SEO, my new series of SEO 101 articles may be able to help. Over the course of this series, I’ll explain some of the finer points of SEO — providing background as to what search engine’s factor into their ranking algorithms and how you can use these factors to increase site traffic. Let’s start with the element I’m most frequently asked about: linking.

In the field of search engine optimization (SEO), nothing is more mystifying to the uninitiated than the concept of link building. The idea of securing new connections for some ethereal search engine benefit is not exactly as straightforward as, say, editing your on-page content. But linking is an important factor for how Google evaluates your site’s relevancy for certain keywords. Here’s how it works:

Links are a visual representation of your connections and relationships with other brands and websites. Google values these links because it helps to establish patterns of how others view and refer to your site. They serve as an indicator that you are trusted by other Web properties, and the nature of how the link occurs tells search engines all types of information about how your site is perceived and what it may be about.

For instance, if your site sells spare auto parts and has links from various local auto body shops, Google will note the connections from relevant websites in the auto repair industry. Better still, these links could contain beneficial anchor text, like “Volvo engine parts” or “Ford F150 timing belt,” that provides a relevant description of the linked page. This supplies Google with a direct keyword-to-page connection against which it can evaluate and determine keyword ranking.

Link building is a misleading name for this SEO tactic; it’s actually relationship building. And one way to get started is to begin thinking about your existing relationships and how they can translate into online connections. If you’re starting your linking from square one, remember to look near before you look far. By starting with your real world connections, you can build a backlink profile that’s high in quality rather than just quantity. Maintaining this level of quality will require an adaptive external strategy for attracting the right links, and that’s when you’ll truly start seeing results.

Thanks to our 11-month-old daughter’s sleep schedule, we weren’t able to attend this year’s shindig. But that didn’t mean we had to be excluded from perhaps the most engaging component of it.

The Oscar pool.

I love selecting who I think will win and comparing it to what others think. And thanks to technology, I was able to do that this year with those at my in-laws’ house, even though I was miles away from them on my own couch.

The Academy and ABC created a mobile app and website that included an interactive Oscar ballot tied into Facebook, along with exclusive behind-the-scenes cameras, interviews, and information that made the user more connected to the event than ever before.

This fostered increased conversation on Twitter and Facebook, and motivated more people to tune in and feel invested. By developing this app, the Academy got people to engage more deeply with their broadcast, to share it with others, and, perhaps most importantly for them, to view their aging brand as something suddenly cool and cutting-edge.

What does this mean for you?
Many of us lament that more and more people are burying their faces in phones and tablets. So meet them there.

When the Academy saw reports that tablet and smartphone users tend to use their devices while watching TV, they used that to their advantage. Is there a similar opportunity in your industry? Can you provide information, advice, or fun tied into your product or service without making it a direct sales pitch?

If a stodgy organization that can’t even figure out how many movies it should nominate for its top prize can get it right, I know you can.

And just in case you’re curious, I may not have attended the party, but my presence was still felt: I won the Oscar pool for the fifth consecutive year.

As an online marketer, it’s my job to ferret out meaning from the various phrases you type to find information. And I like to think I’m pretty good at it.

My name is Ron Sansone, and I’m Director of Search & Online Marketing for Arc Intermedia — the latest addition to the team, in fact.

My role is to interpret the semantics behind what you and others do and say in order to match the right business to the right audience online. It’s this focus that has led me to dive headlong into search engine optimization (SEO), paid search or search engine marketing (SEM), social media, and online public relations. Think of it as a sociological quest for meaning: I’m here to help you (1) find your audience, (2) learn what they desire, and (3) discover how best to meet their needs.

This philosophy fuels the strategies behind all marketing initiatives, and it’s no easy task online. Growing into this role required me to study the ins and outs of search engines, immerse myself in social ethnography, pour through analytics data, and read more lines of code than I care to count. But I do it because I have a unique, nagging interest in communication and the many ways in which it flows.

Because while the principles of marketing remain the same, interaction pathways have changed. We now exist in a public forum of democratized information where everything is logged and everyone has a voice. Any way you slice it, the online landscape is a tricky place to navigate – especially if you’ve got a product to move.

I’ve helped Fortune 100s and benevolent nonprofits alike navigate this space, and now I’m here to help you. Why? Because like information, I believe online marketing should be democratized, allowing the best offering to reach the right audience. The size of a company doesn’t matter online; only quality matters (well, that and ROI).

As part of the Arc team, I’m surrounded by like-minded colleagues who see the amazing potential not only within the new communication landscape but also within our clients. I’m excited to add my own insights to the holistic strategies of the agency – a challenge as rewarding for me as it is humbling. Matching the vision of Arc Intermedia takes a sharp focus… bringing me back to caffeine.

It’s Tuesday. You’re a mug in already, and you’re hoping the line at Starbucks isn’t stretching out the door. Am I in the ballpark?

Sansone comes to Arc Intermedia from a senior-level position within the national search practice of the global digital marketing agency Razorfish. There he managed the search content team and developed search and social media strategies for such high profile accounts as ABC, Victoria’s Secret, and Johnson & Johnson.

“We are thrilled to bolster our team with someone of Ron’s caliber,” says David Sonn (@davidsonn), president of Arc Intermedia.

“Our mission is to provide clients with effective lead generation, increased customer acquisition, and greater online visibility. Strategically managed SEO and SEM programs are critical tactics for achieving these objectives. Ron’s expertise and guidance makes us an even more powerful partner and is a huge win for our clients.”

Adding a human touch to SEO, Sansone approaches Search Marketing with eyes fixed beyond technical optimization. Along with his experience, a master’s degree in public relations and a bachelor’s degree in advertising have helped Sansone understand that effective online marketing communications must connect with the true interests of online audiences to secure strong returns for clients. He focuses on semantic differentiation within user queries to identify competitive language gaps and rising keyword-level trends.

As Arc’s Director of Search and Online Marketing, Sansone is charged with advancing the company’s integrated marketing programs and processes. This includes devising Paid and Organic Search best practices, incorporating new marketing technology tools and standardizing reporting methodologies. He will also serve as a client intelligence resource – analyzing client data sets, providing education/consultation, and keeping current with the online marketing landscape – to elevate clients’ marketing efforts.

Sansone’s integrated marketing duties further extend into social media, public relations, remarketing, and online advertising efforts – ensuring all of a client’s programs work together toward a primary goal.

To learn more about Ron, read his bio here.

As it turns out, Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson feels the same way about business leaders trying to emulate the legendary CEO.

In a fascinating book talk last night, Isaacson explained how people have been approaching him with statements like, “I’ve read your book, and now I’m going to be meaner to my employees, too, to get the same kind of greatness out of them that Steve Jobs got out of his people.”

Wrong tactic, Isaacson says. “To do that successfully, you have to have the same burning intensity and passionate charisma that Steve had.”

In fact, the running theme of the evening was, “The only way to be like Steve Jobs is to be Steve Jobs.”

He was a unique force in all aspects. Charming, vindictive, overly sensitive, and above all, a true genius. Identifying a few key traits from the biography and trying to mirror them in your own life won’t work. The reason Steve Jobs succeeded was because he possessed all of his traits, many in confusing conflict with one another.

Yes, he would often berate employees; curse them out and demean them. Yes, he would bend the truth to his whims. But employees put up with it because he was also the type of person they were desperate to make proud. And when he bent the truth, he often then tended to bend reality around it until what he said actually was true.

In addition to being a rare visionary, Steve Jobs was successful because he took careful consideration of his gifts and faults and uniquely shaped them into his own management style. If you want to emulate Steve Jobs, do it that way – analyze who you truly are (strengths and weaknesses), and develop your own style around that.

Let us know in the comments: Have you adjusted your business style based on Steve Jobs’s approach? What about the practices or teachings of other figures or books?