So let’s break it down, shall we?

We all know Google has been trying mighty hard over the past few years to increase their use of SSL encryption for each of their web-based products. And normally that would be considered a good thing for users. On Tuesday, they announced this encryption was coming to their search service as well.

To be clear, here’s how this works in practice:

• A user is signed into their Google account (read: Gmail, Google+ or others),
• they decide to perform an organic search,
• they click on an organic keyword that directs them to your site,
• you will not be able to track which keyword they used to find your site,
• and you won’t be able to see any of their session information from Google Analytics that is associated with that particular keyword/phrase.

In essence, this means we can no longer track conversions based on organic search, for users that are logged into Google when they perform the search.

The reason for the change, from Google’s announcement:

“As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, we recognize the growing importance of protecting the personalized search results we deliver. As a result, we’re enhancing our default search experience for signed-in users.”

It is important to clarify though, that all is not lost. As it is currently being reported, this change does kill conversion data and keyword information, however we’ll still be able to track generic visitor information (visits, referral sources, etc).

As you can imagine, our client was dumbfounded by the response by IT. We were asked by her to help build a case for Macs. While Macs are cool and “creative,” this is not enough of a reason to justify a Mac or pay the Mac premium. Rather, we felt there were some very logical reasons for Macs having a home in client-side marketing departments:

Talent

The overwhelming majority of graphic designers have trained on and use Macs everyday. Sourcing talent to work in a PC environment will be much more challenging. Designers will lose the ability to use Mac commands and keyboard shortcuts which are vital. They will also lose access to their home Mac systems and software, which is a free value-add. This trend is not likely to be reversed, our creative team teaches in the leading advertising schools and the systems used are exclusively Mac.

Ecosystem

The Mac intensity of the entire creative community and ecosystem cannot be overstated and this ecosystem shows no signs of migrating to a PC or other environment. Their ability to share and manage projects with freelancers, tradeshow companies, printers, video producers would be imperiled if they no longer had the ability to work within the Mac system.

Printing

The entire prepress universe is Mac heavy. The first thing any prepress department is going to do is try and convert non Mac files to a Mac workflow. If they are successful, then the native files will be Mac from then on rendering them useless to any non Mac department. If they aren’t successful at converting the files then they will want to start over from a Mac dedicated program. Something like a small change to a file would be difficult for the client team to manage once a file has been converted to a Mac format.

Typography

Designers need access to large font families. Macs have great systems and resources for managing very large font libraries.

Video

Video is growing in importance exponentially. Mac software (Final Cut Pro etc.) is the overwhelming standard in video editing. Moving working files between in-house and outside resources would be much more difficult if working on different platforms. Finding talent and systems for in-house video projects would be incredibly challenging if they moved to a PC platform for editing.

Mobile

iPhones and iPads are leading platforms for mobile communications. It is necessary to emulate these platforms in order to build and test applications. PCs cannot be used to emulate iPhones or iPads which would make development for the iOS nearly impossible.

Readable by mobile apps using the phone’s camera and Internet connection, QR codes are typically used due to their ability to improve calls-to-action in all types of marketing.

Here are just a few successful & inspiring implementations:

Starbucks and Lady Gaga built an elaborate interactive digital scavenger hunt with QR Codes at various Starbucks locations as one of many promotions leading up to the release of her current album.
Source: Mashable.com

Tissot printed a variety of QR Codes on trade show displays and models that linked viewers to exclusive videos and music that could be viewed and purchased.
Source: TappIn YouTube Channel

Delta Airlines use QR Codes for their eBoarding pass allowing customers to receive a code on their smart phones to board their flight.
Source: Delta Marketing Group

Orville Redenbacher and other companies include them in their direct mail pieces providing coupons and other promotions.
Source: Blurring Edges

QR codes have rapidly changed how people socially interact with marketing – and we seem to just be seeing the beginning of it. How are you using or going to use them in your marketing? What’s your take on the QR craze?

Good question. Tricky answer.

I tend to follow the belief that social media works in three forms:

1. Socially – friend to friend
2. Promotionally -as a tool, in conjunction with an overarching promotional campaign
3. Proactively – a way to reach out, and build your brand

Let’s take a minute and go through each one of these, albeit at a high level.

Socially

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Essentially, social media works great for friends to connect with other friends, exchange notes, and share photo’s. At it’s root, this is what social media is all about. And it works brilliantly this way. The tricky part, is how does a brand insert itself into this picture, and leverage the potential opportunity successfully. Hopefully, that makes a little more sense in the next two points.

Promotionally

I think this is where social media really gets it’s best use, from a brand perspective. When used as a communication tool, in conjunction with online advertising and marketing initiatives – geared towards a given objective – social media provides a solid foundation to insert ourselves into our consumers’ lives (in an non-salesy way).

Proactively

Whether you’re a brand looking to field nasty “tweets” (a la Comcast), provide information (like Wachovia), or a sports figure looking to provide inside information to your fans (@martinhavlat), social media provides a bedrock of opportunity. You’ve got a quick way to access key segments of your target audience, and speak to them directly, in a casual environment.

The point here, is that social media isn’t a tool to make money. Rather, it’s a tool that poses as a doorway into the lives of consumers. When used properly, as in the points mentioned above, it can prove to be a highly valuable piece, to a rather complex puzzle.

Or maybe we’re talking about social media campaigns, and worrying about the number of friends, or followers of our associated Twitter profiles, Facebook Fan pages, etc. We get so caught up in these numbers, that we forget one simple thing…

Those numbers are created by people just like us. In some cases, we’re one of those numbers being tabulated.

How do you respond to a banner ad? When was the last time you were wowed by an email campaign? What was the last website you visited that was simply intuitive, and gave you exactly what you wanted, while delivering a glowing user experience? That’s what I thought. What about what the user wants?

The facts say it all: less than 0.05% of banner ad are ever clicked, and email click rates measure in the low single digits. The moral? People don’t want to be spoken to, they want to be talked with.

Our goal, as marketers and advertisers alike, should be to engage our audience, excite them to act, and provide them with memorable experiences, rather than to gimmick them into our way of thinking, or hand out short-term incentives to complete a form. To be clear, my point isn’t that any of these methods – okay, aside from banners maybe – are bad, but that we need to approach them differently. We need to utilize them differently. And we need to measure their effectiveness differently.

Next time you take a look at these reports, pay attention to things like referrals, average time on site, requests for information, and social mentions. Take a look at organic site traffic, from people who are sharing you with their friends. Why these numbers? Because they represent engagement, traction, and stickiness. Just like us, our visitors/users/customers/guests want to be engaged, and rewarded for action. We should be looking for ways to do just that.

What does this mean to you?

It means that those fancy little meta-keywords you’ve used to increase search traffic and page rank is all for naught (officially). With Yahoo! throwing in the towel, none of the major search engines – such as Google, Bing, Ask, and Yahoo! – provide support for the tag anymore. Sites that have relied on meta-keywords, will in fact notice a slight drop in page rank, and perhaps a drop in new traffic from search engines. Since this has been a long-coming phase-out, the change shouldn’t be that dramatic. However, many firms that claim to provide SEO services, do in fact leverage this method more than any other.

How can you adapt?

Search engines use deep, ominous, unknown algorithms to determine what sites they’ll serve up when a query has been made by a user. While we don’t know all that they look for, we do know things they like. Some things you should start considering are:

• Site content: is the content on your site relevant to users? Is it rich in keywords, like the ones you would hope would display your site in search queries?
• Code/mark-up: is your site using clean, standards compliant code?
• Title tags: do the title tags on your site’s pages adequately explain what is on the page?
• Site maps: have you taken the time to submit XML site maps to all major search engines?
• URL’s: do the URL’s on your site contain unintelligible naming conventions, or are you using keyword-rich permalinks? Such as using www.yourdomain.com/who-we-are/our-team rather than www.yourdomain.com/services/?p=123

This should be a quick hit-list you can use to call up your current SEO firm and see exactly how adequately their search services are, and take necessary steps to rectify any potential issue you may encounter with these new changes. Of course there are many many other ways to improve SEO performance, however the bottom line in SEO is about text, links, popularity and reputation.

Advertisers and their agencies have long wondered whether current research methodologies, that focus on asking respondents questions about commercials or advertisements, force overly-logical, or critical responses, while neglecting emotional or sub-conscious responses.

Martin Lindstrum, author of “Buy-ology” and others, have attempted to look beyond the conscious brain into the actual electro-chemical activity within the brain/body to determine what really motivates human behavior. I’ve attached links to Lindstrum’s YouTube video and those of three other companies below. If you are interested in the role of emotion and the sub-conscious in advertising and brand decision-making, I think you’ll enjoy them.

Buy.ology by Martin Lindstrom

Michael Brammer, consultor in Neuromarketing

Coke “Heist” Commercial Analysis

However, with Bing and Yahoo! partnering up, the paid search landscape is changing. I, for one, am a fan of competition and the leverage it gives to the customer. Witness my customer service experience with XM/Sirius this week. I’ve been an XM subscriber for a number of years and needed an issue resolved. If I wasn’t going to get satisfaction, I was going to switch to Siri . . . wait a minute, what am I going to do if I don’t get my issue resolved? Return to terrestrial radio and morning DJs? I think not. And now I have no leverage. Nice.

Anyway, my point (and yes, I do have one) is that the impact of the Bing+Yahoo! partnership is going to mean some changes for the “Googlopoloy,” and how we plan our paid search programs. But, the partnership is reported to be pretty complicated and, thus, still a ways off.

Now, I wouldn’t say that it has ever felt like Google throws its weight around in the paid search area. But, a little competition has to be a good thing. Right?

Read more about the Microsoft / Yahoo! partnership by clicking here.

So, in my quest to educate the world (and myself) on SEO, I’ve been doing a lot of reading, looking for quality articles to pass along. Here are a couple of helpful articles I’ve found:

• Why SEO Takes Time and Effort
• How Do Search Engines Rank Websites