Sitewire

Sitewire Proud Recipient of Two Prestigious Awards
- Lacey French

September 2005 marked a month of great excitement and celebration for Sitewire. Within one week, Sitewire was recognized both locally and nationally for its individuality, innovation and business achievements. FORTUNE Small Business and Winning Workplaces named Sitewire co-founders Bret Giles and Margie Traylor as recipients of the 2005 "Best Bosses" award at its September 21st ceremony held in Chicago. At Sitewire, we are well-known for our ability to maintain a vibrant workplace and have fun while achieving business goals, constantly surpassing previous accomplishments. Most of this is attributed to the fact that when creating Sitewire, Giles and Traylor had a specific vision in mind centered on integrity and ownership and strive to build a team that shares this vision.

The Sitewire co-founders foster a creative work environment built upon tangible metrics by which employees are gauged and nurture both the personal and professional growth of each employee. "Teambuilding and growth are embedded attributes of our culture," reflects Giles, Sitewire President. Sitewire boasts an employee engagement program called "Culture Club," whereby employees and owners alike participate in quarterly off-site outings, broomball competitions with clients, blockbuster movie premieres and monthly pizza luncheons celebrating employee milestones.

In addition to the FORTUNE Small Business Award, Sitewire is humbled and honored to be chosen as the inaugural recipient of the Entrepreneur ASU Alumni Award sponsored by Monster at the annual Spirit of Enterprise awards held on September 27th, 2005. The award was created to recognize innovative companies founded by Arizona State University graduates; Traylor and Giles both graduated from the W.P. Carey School of Business at ASU with degrees in accountancy and marketing, respectively.

This award hit very close to home for both co-founders, who continue to have strong ties to the University. In fact, Traylor and Giles created the original Sitewire business plan on the campus of Arizona State University and chose Sitewire's downtown Tempe location due to its strong educational presence so that it could tap into the talent pool at the University when building upon the Sitewire Team. Since its founding in 1999, Sitewire has grown to include 26 employees, 60 percent whom are ASU alumni. Additionally, Sitewire continues to employ ASU students on a yearly basis who are enrolled in the internship program.

For more information on the FORTUNE Small Business and Winning Workplaces Best Bosses Award, please click here and to find out more about the ASU Spirit of Enterprise award, please click here.

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So what's the Plan, Stan?
- Josh Yeager

Regardless of your industry, your marketing strategy is the backbone of your marketing efforts throughout the year. One absolute of that strategy is your media-mix.

Your grandmother probably told you not to "put all of your eggs in one basket" and this holds true for your marketing strategy as well. Just as web marketing is most likely one component of your overall marketing strategy, there are many different methods of marketing online. While banners, emails and paid search are established web standards, new and burgeoning techniques hit the scene seemingly every month. The fluid, evolving nature of the internet is what keeps this realm exciting, engaging and profitable.

In August, JupiterResearch forecasted that spending for online display ads would reach $5.1 billion this year, up around 25 percent from last year's $4.1 billion. Goldman Sachs predicted that overall online advertising (including search) would soar by 28 percent for the year. And that's just 2005! While you're probably already invested in some form of SEM (Search Engine Marketing), the intricacies of managing and maximizing SEM are abundant and perennially developing. I'd like to put a bug in your ear about a lynchpin organic technique that's got me evangelizing these days -- the Optimized Press Release.

The organic ranking success of an optimized press release is a stellar strategy for quick organic turnaround. In the past, press releases were a tool limited to large corporations, Hollywood and Madison Ave-style agencies. With the public's voracious online consumption of news and "info-porn", press releases have moved out of the realm of Mr. Grant's office and into the broadband-saturated dens and offices of the world.

A press release aiding organic rankings, you ask? Consider this: during the Q4/04 holiday shopping season (when many keyword CPC's ballooned, and companies dumped millions of dollars into paid search campaigns vying for holiday dollars), a simple optimized press release about "Top 10 Gift Ideas" rose to a top position in Google's natural search results -- brilliantly visible in one of the most sought-after pieces of online real-estate.

A fluke perhaps? Take this to flight: Southwest Airlines sold $1.5 million in tickets in 90 days by strategically leveraging four optimized press releases, and every ticket sale was directly discerned from the ROI-rich releases.

While I wouldn't discourage anyone from engaging in the advantages of paid and natural web campaigns, a simple, cost-effective optimized press release, when properly executed, can be a copasetic compliment to your SEM mix.

Like the fastidious little squirrels outside, as we launch into Q4/05 to begin our 2006 planning and preparations, I invite you incorporate some dynamic power into your 2006 plans. Not sure what's best for you? Sitewire's whip-smart, award-winning team of marketing professionals is at your avail. We're more than happy to craft a custom proposal with you, keeping your 2006 business objectives at the forefront of our every step. That's what makes Sitewire -- The Customer Factory.

Josh Yeager, Director of Client Strategy
Josh joined Sitewire's Marketing Strategy team in August 2005, adding the value of 10 years online marketing expertise in servicing clients like CDNOW, The Lycos Network, The Price Is Right^TM, The Weekly World News, Cendant's; RCI, CheapTickets and Travellers Advantage, as well as the world's leading cruise lines.

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Who's Battling Google Now?
- Katie McNally

I recently read an article entitled "Europe Aims to Rival Google with Digital Library" posted on the Web site www.news.com.. Quite honestly, what pulled at my strings of curiosity was not the tale of a battle between Google, the company seemingly taking on the world, and Europe, a continent rich with history and experience. While this seems like an interesting story, I am just plain bored of hearing about everyone saddling up to battle Google. Yahoo! turns Overture paid search into Yahoo! Search solutions in an attempt to battle Google Adwords. MSN gets ready to launch their tool bar and shake Google to their core. Now Europe is taking Google on. It all sounds like old news. We know that Google is a major power to be reckoned with and we also know that everyone is trying to one up them and emulate them in one tide turning swoop. What actually seemed interesting to me about this article were the details regarding Europe's digital library.

At first it sounds rather archaic in that we already have everything we need at our fingertips via the World Wide Web. Returning to a library format would seem like a step backwards. Yet, when I read on, it became clear that this "Digital Library" including books, film fragments, photographs, manuscripts, speeches and music is in fact a step forward in providing the context that is often missing on the Web. I began to think about the fact that this media is so young that we often feel overwhelmed with too much information. It can be difficult to create a context, background or put any order to what you are reading. When you query a search term via a search engine like Google and click through to read an article or a web site, you are simply thrown into cyber space. There is no explanation of where you are going, what web site you will land on or what biases the true author of that text may have. Just as television is a linear medium, I think of the World Wide Web as being four dimensional. There is neither beginning nor end. There is neither up nor down.

I see this digital library that Europe is working on as another step towards a more mature internet. While this example is specifically related to European culture and history, I think that we will begin to see such efforts popping up left and right with the onset of an American cultural history, a pop cultural history and music history. I am hesitant to even use the word history because that connotes the past; I think of these digital libraries as being more of a context so that World Wide Web users don't feel so lost in this four dimensional space. Europe's Digital library could very well be a glimpse into the future of the World Wide Web experience and how we market via that experience. I think it will become a must that ads are relevant, that marketers know the Web history of their users before they reach them and that messages be segmented and targeted. After all, how could the next stage of the internet not intertwine with the next stage of internet marketing?

To read the article that spawned my thoughts above, click here

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SPAM - Top 10 Compliance Checklist and Interesting Facts
- Scott Kaufmann

It's been 18 months since the CAN-SPAM law was passed. Has your SPAM decreased? If you are like the rest of us, the answer is probably not much, at least not because of the legislation. In fact, you may have even noticed an increase. While the legislation was intended to serve as a variable shrinking doorway to block the majority of large-scale Spamming, it has also delivered a legal definition of SPAM and thus provided a variety of loopholes and "gray area" that Spammers continue to use to exploit the system. I was on a conference call with one of the lead attorneys at the Federal Trade Commission last year just after the Act was enacted and heard first hand about many of the concerns and best practice recommendations. Interesting enough, even back then, that Attorney mentioned that he recognized area's of gray that would have to be addressed at some point in the future. Not everything is perfect the first time around.

Below are a few interesting SPAM-related facts for those of you that hate, like, or have a craving for unsolicited email and/or salty, low-cost meat products:

1. On July 24, 2005, one of the world's biggest Spammers Vardan Kushnir was brutally murdered in his Moscow Russia apartment. His death, however, apparently had nothing to do with his millions of spam messages sent daily. It was instead to do with a simple robbery. For more information, click here.
2. If all the cans of SPAM ever eaten were put end-to-end, they would circle the globe at least ten times. And in Korea, SPAM is sold in stylish presentation gift boxes of nine cans each. SPAM stolen from army PXs can be found on the Korean black market. And there are Korean imitations called Lo-Spam, Dak, Plumrose, and Tulip, to ensure that no one need go without.
3. When you get email SPAM you should forward it to spam@uce.gov. For tips about SPAM avoidance see the following FTC page about SPAM by clicking here.
4. Although fairly knowledgeable about email SPAM, I have actually never eaten the meat product SPAM or anything that resembled SPAM. Generally speaking, of course, I don't love canned meat products that list the main ingredient as "Chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added" and have 4,500mg of sodium in one 12 ounce can. That's enough to kill a salt water fish.

Below are my Top Ten best practice rules to follow for CAN-SPAM compliance. Print these out if you like and use them as a general guideline.

Until next time...I would recommend eating healthy if possible. But if not, then just go for it and enjoy every rubbery, salt-laden bite.

CAN-SPAM - Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003

1. Email header information must be accurate and not misleading. This is the information that shows where an email is originating and who it's from.
2. Subject lines must be clear, accurate and not misleading, in regards to the entire context of the email body.
3. All recipients on e-mail list should be "opt-in" only, although this is not expressly demanded in the law, which supersedes prior state legislation, it is highly recommended as a best practice by the FTC.
4. A functioning opt-out message must be displayed clearly on every commercial email communication. Opt-out requests must be honored within 10 business days after receipt of the request.
5. All email must include a valid postal address. There is some grey area in the law regarding the use of P.O. Boxes, but the FTC suggests, as a best practice measure, to put your physical street address on all email communications. Telephone numbers are not required, but can be a helpful safety measure.
6. The act prohibits mailing to any lists that were generated by "harvesting", "dictionary attacks" or "randomly generated" emails. If there is any reason to believe that any of your emails were generated this way, then it will be a good idea to audit your internal lists.
7. Relationship messages and sponsored newsletters are generally not affected. If you are not sure what is classified as a relationship message versus a commercial message, please reference the act literature.
8. Liability for email is on sender(s). This may include anyone who has crafted, adjusted or physically been involved in the creation or email sending process. This is not limited to third party senders, but the source of the email content as well as the sender.
9. Make immediate contract with any affiliates that may email on your behalf that they must follow all CAN-SPAM guidelines. If they do not follow these, even if you do not feel you are technically liable, sever your relationship with that affiliate immediately.
10. Maintain and use a company wide, opt-out list. All emails should be crossed checked against this list before you send them out.

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