The Sophisticake is just emerging and thanks to Strategic Internet Marketing, it has developed an audience. While the class only last a couple months, the knowledge will benefit the blog well beyond the semester. Here’s a recap of all that’s occurred this semester…

Traffic

Since the introduction of The Sophisticake, 64% of traffic has been new traffic and 35% has been return visitors. Google Analytics reports that 40% of my visitors are direct and land on my home page first. Referral sources has generated 37% of my visitors and most of them come through Pinterest, The Pencil Jar, and my email signature. Given that I utilized organic search engine optimization and pay per click advertising, the SEO efforts proved to be the best source. Particularly, my post about Cranberry and White Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies because I pinned the recipe to Pinterest and generated 30 new visits in one afternoon; a bonus post strictly for fun.

BIG Take Away

This semester in Marketing 470 was packed with excellent information and, ultimately, it’s really hard to choose what was the most important. At the end of the semester I can say learning how to utilize and optimize Google Adwords has been the most beneficial. Toward the beginning of my career with ActionCOACH I was asked to manage our Adword campaigns but it was best suited for an outside source to manage. Now, if I were asked to set up and manage several campaigns I would know what I was doing and the best way to go about doing it.

Internet Marketing – what’s next?

Given a fantastic semester learning the surface (because there is far more to learn about the subject) of internet marketing, I’ve switched my job search to include social media marketing positions. I love managing my blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, as well as other social media tools, so why not look for a job where I can do it for a living? I’ve enjoyed the subject so much that I’ve considered some freelance work with small companies that could benefit from social media marketing. While the semester is over, my learning doesn’t stop here. This summer I plan on exploring personal branding through internet mediums as well as means to generate revenue through internet marketing.

Throughout this semester in Strategic Internet Marketing, we’ve been learning how to optimize a page based off of link building, paid advertising, and unique content. With one page in particular, the goal was to optimize off of the phrase ‘Love JMU.’ Dr. Clarke taught us several ways to do this and suggested we continually optimize throughout the semester to improve our overall results in search engines.

Overall, I focused on using the key phrase, ‘Love JMU,’ within the content of my JMU page. This required altering sentences, using headers, and adding it as the title. Also, the URL was originally thesophisticake.com/jmu, but was changed to thesophisticake.com/lovejmu to increase visibility within search engines.

Search Engine Optimization Diagnostic tests show that my efforts we not enough. At the beginning of the semester my page received a rating of 57 out of 100 from Hubspot’s Marketing Grader, and a 54 out of 100 at the end of the semester. However, initially my JMU page could not be found within the first ten pages of Google’s search results. Now my page is sitting comfortably on the third page when you search ‘Love JMU’ within Google.

To improve organic rankings I could work on posting a link to my JMU page on other websites that have relevant content, such as fellow Mktg 470 student’s blogs. I could also use hyperlinks on my page to link to JMU related sources. Something that I’ve started doing for blog posts, is pinning the blog’s image to Pinterest. This way I can drive traffic to my blog and expand my audience. This has proved to work for other posts such as my Guinness Cupcakes and Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies.

Google Webmaster Tools is designed to give the amateur blogger (or any website author) insight as to how their website is performing within Google’s search engine. The website has several sections that breaks down what Google Webmaster tracks. These categories include ‘Site Configuration,’ ‘Your site on the web,’ ‘+1 metrics,’ etc . After some exploring I found three intriguing features that I want to explore further…

[1] Site Configuration > Settings > Geographic target

When I first saw this feature I automatically thought about where I would find my audience. I’m located near DC and I highly doubt that any potential employers or connections would be looking for me outside of the area so I hoped I could set the location to areas surrounding DC. With no such luck, I did determine that it would be more useful to set the location to the United States than it would to just leave the setting blank.

[2] Your site on the web > Search queries > Top Queries

The Top Queries page provides great insight as to where The Sophisticake appears in various searches. Results showed obvious queries such as ‘Emily Crawford,’ and ‘Sophsiticake,’ however, there were unusual queries that I wouldn’t have suspected at first, such as ‘bow cupcakes,’ ‘warm color scheme,’ and ‘pastry box.’ By seeing this it dawned on me that the later three phrases pertained to my Google Adwords campaign that I generated site traffic from

[3] Your site on the web > Content keywords

Content keywords was a page that confused me. It’s a list of keywords pertaining to my blog and has a correlating gauge next to each word (see the picture below)…

What I don’t understand is are these keywords that occur the most within my blog or are they words that I should capitalize on within my blog or both?

It will take some more research to figure out the value that I can receive from Google Webmaster but I’m sure I will be able to figure it out with the help of Marketing 470.

Mrs. Lindsay Crone, James Madison University Graduate, completed her degree in marketing and wanted to focus on marketing for non-profit organizations. After a lengthy search and various twists and turns, she wound up working for The Search Agency as a Creative Editor. She focuses on several big name client’s online paid search campaigns. During her presentation to Dr. Clarke’s Strategic Internet Marketing Class, Mrs. Crone stressed three main points – focus, follow your passions, and the diversity in internet marketing.

1)      Focus – When undergoing the job search process and planning life after college, it is important to focus on what you want. These wants may change but to focus on one at a time is more efficient and beneficial to planning life.

2)      Follow your passions – It is easier to find success when you love what you do. It is also easier to persuade future employers that you’re the right fit for the job when you’re passionate about the position.

3)      Online Marketing is a diverse field –  Online Marketing is an extremely diverse field with several different aspects. This diversity opens up several different opportunities for new marketing graduates. As strategic internet marketing students we have an advantage because Dr. Clarke set up her curriculum to cover the majority of internet marketing.

Thank you, Mrs. Crone, for taking the time to share your experience after graduating from James Madison University. Your insight is quite valuable in a time where many of us have no clue what we will be doing in a month and a half!

A trend in online advertising has been targeting ads to consumers using items or sites that they have visited in the past. Marketing programs can use a consumer’s history and cookies to determine what they may be interested and then craft online ads to fit their interests. Some consider this an invasion of privacy, others are okay with this trend. Personally, I appreciate most retargeting ads because it takes the bookmarking out of most websites; I know that they will most likely appear as I browse other websites. Take a look at the picture below for an example…

Retargeting is an asset to the marketing world, given that it is used in an appropriate manner. Consumers using the web are consistently browsing but what they are browsing for can usually vary. By seeing hundreds of different things to buy, use or consume, consumers can get lost in the mix. Companies that employ retargeting advertising have an advantage over companies that do not utilize the tool. Of course, you can always have too much of a good thing.

Retargeting ads are useful when reminding a consumer that they have visited a certain site in the recent past. However, retargeting ads can become intimidating when they promote a particular product a consumer may have viewed. While many non-marketers would view this as an invasion of privacy and advertising going too far, consumers have the option to learn more about why they are being targeted. Consumers always have the option to be informed, and with the more information they know, the more they can control. By reading ‘Why am I seeing this ad?’, consumers can adjust advertising settings or clean their cookie files off of their computer. This will then alleviate some of the retargeted advertising.

As long as businesses can retargeting ads in a productive manner, not a harassing one, then the strategy has promise. In the long run the strategy could face trouble. With past marketing efforts, such as direct mail and telemarketing, have all seen their share of opposition by federal regulation. Telemarketing, for example, incurred the Do Not Call List, where consumers could register their number to prevent future telemarketing. Retargeting ads could see similar regulations pertaining to individuals’ IP addresses.