Search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) has been on the top of advertisers' priority lists for a while now. These have historically been the primary and least expensive ways to drive traffic to a Web site. But what if you're among the top search results and the traffic doesn't come? Microsoft's new Bing "Decision Engine" is starting to change the landscape for search engines. It's goal is to push relevant, quality content directly through to the user, keeping traffic from clicking off.

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Given the ever-declining response rates from e-mail marketing initiatives, e-mail list management is a top priority for retailers. Consumers who opt-in to receive e-mail from a retailer will hold that brand personally responsible for how it uses e-mail. When they unsubscribe, they expect to do it once. Having a central system for list management simplifies the process, ensuring unsubscribe requests take effect system-wide. Further, a centralized list management system can help ensure compliance with CAN-SPAM and reduce SPAM scores by improving the quality of the messages.

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Content Optimization

Knowing how to optimize your content means knowing your audience. What key phrases do they type in when looking for your products or services? What language do they use? Your audience conduct queries using their own vocabulary, so plain spoken content rich with these specific phrases is always the way to go. Avoid using industry jargon or clever turns of phrase. Headlines are the most important pieces of content on the page to optimize linguistically...

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Strategic Versatility

The beauty of Internet marketing is that you can adjust strategy based on performance. If you're attracting a good amount of traffic for certain phrases, you can easily look at how that traffic is behaving and adjust your strategy accordingly.

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The Rewards of Research

The first step in any search campaign is research. Build lists of keywords and phrases to target, bucket them into groups such as audience segments and employ a tool to accurately forecast your results based on budget.

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There's paid search and organic search. Too many companies see these as separate animals. But really, search is search. They work together or they don't work. When a new Web site launches, the organic rankings won't be instantly strong. It takes time to grow in popularity-meaning it will be a while before other, more reputable sites will link themselves to you in a process called back linking.

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Landing pages are lazy pages. They're used by people who don't want to take the time to integrate a campaign into their overall marketing efforts. Your home page is your best landing page. It can be versioned for different offers and will convey a much deeper experience of your business, leaving prospects with a balanced understanding of who you are.

There are four main reasons not to use landing pages:

1. They lack context.
2. They bounce enough traffic to beat rubber balls.
3. They turn people off.
4. Your home page should be your best converting page.

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