It’s Official: We’re Open for Business

From ‘Private Beta’ to Available Now!

As of this moment, we’ve officially launched the new Yield Web Marketing Suite, a simplified way to drive new traffic and customer conversions at a low overall cost.  As part of our launch week activities, we’ll be demonstrating our browser-based system at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, which opens tonight and continues through April 3, 2009 at the Moscone West Convention Center.  And we’ve got to admit it: we’re all pretty darn proud of what we’ve accomplished and are really looking forward to showing it off!

The Yield Web Marketing Suite, which up until now was in private beta, is built with small and mid-size businesses in mind.  Primarily, our team has responded to the long-standing desire to make search marketing more simple and intuitive. By combining and automating…

Small Business Marketing Series: 10 Low-cost/ High-impact Marketing Strategies

Batten Down the Hatches

In these days of economic challenge, all businesses have their share of problems.  Small businesses, however, can hope to weather the storm precisely because of size, which often means lower overhead and a high ability to adapt to change.

A big portion of the folks we serve at Yield Software run small and growing businesses.  As a result, we see a lot of really smart, nimble and strategic companies in action.  So I thought it would be helpful to take what we’ve learned watching our own customers in action and share that with you – you know, a “rising tide lifts all ships” kind of thing.

Ten Low-cost / High-impact Marketing Strategies for Small Business

Strategy One: Publish your website on a blog platform like WordPress.  There are several benefits to publishing your website on…

Web Marketing 101 Series: 6 Steps to Creating Compelling Landing Pages

K.I.S.S.

Landing pages – the places on your site where people land after clicking on one of your sites links in the search engines – are often your first formal introduction to a new visitor to your website.  Landing pages can also have a huge impact on where you show up in natural and sponsored results on search engines like Google, Yahoo! Search, and Microsoft Live Search.

Landing pages can include your site’s homepage, but are usually pages within your website that are created specifically for people who click on links for your site that appear in sponsored or natural search results, and pertain to a specific offer, promotion or campaign.

Here at Yield Software, we often hear from our small and medium size business clients that they want better landing pages, but just don’t know what they…

Web Marketing 101 Series: Writing Effective PPC Ad Copy

ChaiSpice Cupcake, courtesy Just Desserts

Even You Can Write Great Ad Copy

A key stumbling block for many novice Web marketers is the task of writing compelling ad copy for a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign on Google’s AdSense, Yahoo’s Search Marketing or Microsoft’s adCenter. Web site owners and novice marketers who are not natural copywriters will find it difficult to zero in on the most right collection of words that inspire people to click on a link.

The good news? No one knows your site, your company or your products as well as you do.

Put that unique knowledge to work when following these few simple tips for creating excellent PPC campaign ad copy:

First, be sure you know the character limits for the advertising platform. Typically the title (the first line in the ad) is limited to 25 characters.  Ad…

Web Marketing 101 Series: Intro to Return-On-Investment (ROI) Measures for SEM

Simply put, return-on-investment (ROI) refers to what is returned in profit as a result of any given investment.  When applied to web marketing, ROI typically refers to the profits generated as a result of your marketing investment.  Within the larger marketing profession, web marketing has been growing in popularity since its introduction in the late 1990’s because of its very precise measurability.

Unlike outdoor advertising (i.e. billboards) or radio and television ads, where precise correlations to ROI can be elusive, search engine marketing (SEM) enables marketers to track interactions and behavior at every step of engagement.

Though a huge number of web marketing professionals employ display advertising on sites like NYTimes.com or FOXNews.com or Yahoo!, a growing share of marketing dollars are being directed to the search engines and specifically pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.  By buying the “Sponsored…

Web Marketing 101 Series: Intro to Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Let’s start with the toughest part: learning a whole new language.

One of the biggest challenges to embarking on a web marketing strategy is figuring out what all the acronyms mean. SEM, SEO, PPC, ROI, LPO, CPA… it’s an alphabet soup of new terms to learn.

But don’t let learning a few new terms and concepts deter you from undertaking what could be a very profitable way for you to move your business forward. Search engine marketing (SEM) is helping businesses of all sizes to achieve their core sales objectives, often at a much lower overall cost and with better results than alternative marketing strategies.

So let’s start with SEM: what does it mean and how does it work?

According to Wikipedia, SEM is defined as:

…a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility…

Web Marketing 101 Series: Intro to Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Marketing

Pay-per-click (PPC) search marketing is a form of web advertising in which advertisers pay the publisher (the site that displays the ad) when their ad is clicked.

When you view a search result page in Google, Yahoo! Search or Microsoft Live Search, you almost always see two kinds of results: sponsored links and natural search results.  On Google, for instance, sponsored links can be found on the top and right-hand sections of the page, while natural (or organic) search results can be found in the main section of the page.  At the bottom of the page, you’ll typically see that the page is one of many, many pages of results.

Google Search Result Page

Yahoo! Search Result Page

Microsoft Live Search Result Page

The way in which advertisers (you!) get into the sponsored links sections of those pages is through a…

Web Marketing 101 Series: Intro to Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process by which owners of websites make improvements to the content, HTML code and inbound links of their web pages to make it easier for search engines to index them, and to ensure their pages naturally appear in results for relevant searches.

When you view a search engine result page in Google, Yahoo! Search or Microsoft Live Search, you almost always see two kinds of results: Sponsored Links, which advertisers pay to place on the page, and natural search results.  On Google, for instance, sponsored links can be found on the top and right-hand sections of the page, while natural (or organic) search results can be found in the main section of the page.  At the bottom of the page, you’ll typically see that the page is one of many,…

Web Marketing 101 Series: Intro to Landing Page Optimization (LPO)

Landing pages are the locations on a website where people find themselves after clicking on a link, very often from a display ad in a website or a sponsored link on a search engine result page. Landing pages can be a website homepage; a specific page within your website, such as a product page; or specially-built promotional pages on your website with tailored messages or promotions for the people landing there.

When people do searches on Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft and click on links inside the search engine results page, they’re clicking on one of two kinds of links: Sponsored or Natural (also called organic).

Landing Page Optimization (LPO) is concerned with ensuring that once someone has landed on your site, they do what you hope they will do (i.e., buy your products!).

Simply put, LPO is the…

Web Marketing 101 Series: Intro to Return-On-Investment (ROI) Measures for SEM

Simply put, return-on-investment (ROI) refers to what is returned in profit as a result of any given investment.  When applied to web marketing, ROI typically refers to the profits generated as a result of your marketing investment.  Within the larger marketing profession, web marketing has been growing in popularity since its introduction in the late 1990’s because of its very precise measurability.

Unlike outdoor advertising (i.e. billboards) or radio and television ads, where precise correlations to ROI can be elusive, search engine marketing (SEM) enables marketers to track interactions and behavior at every step of engagement.

Though a huge number of web marketing professionals employ display advertising on sites like NYTimes.com or FOXNews.com or Yahoo!, a growing share of marketing dollars are being directed to the search engines and specifically pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.  By buying the “Sponsored Links” you…