aimClear® Search Marketing Blog

Unless you’ve got a time machine, it’s not always realistic to achieve a sustainable CPA (cost per action) by way of paid cost-per-click online marketing channels alone. This post offers a pragmatic multi-channel scenario to prove the significant financial benefits of SEO, social media, and public relations for CPA-pumping traffic and conversion.  Read the rest of this entry »

The St. Paul Art Crawl in downtown St. Paul started with a flourish and ended in a bang. Excited art crawlers marauded the streets of the city and wandered through the participating buildings, anxious to bask in the excitement of seeing the work of new and established artists alike. aimClear was thrilled to contribute to the event by hosting the work of several artists in our St. Paul office. Read on for more! Read the rest of this entry »

OK, PR pros, it’s confession time. How many of you have clients that have asked, “Why aren’t we showing up in Google Alerts?” Or how about this gem: “We started a blog, but no one’s reading it. What should we do?” If you were like me several years ago, you probably responded with some shifty non-answer like, “Google Alerts don’t matter; they don’t result in more sales,” or, “Your readership will grow with time.” Is this a not-in-my-job-description situation or a sign it’s time to get back in the classroom? Read the rest of this entry »

Did I just lose a contact, or does it seem like the lines between public-relations practitioner and online marketer are blurring? An increasing number of SEOs seem to think so (I happen to agree), but their perceptions of the role PR pros play in the SEM sandbox range from toy-sharer to sand-village slave.

Recently, I read a Search Engine Watch article by Jeremy Bencken that focused on the link-building benefits of PR. The post shared some sweet tips that any PR practitioner should implement, but some advice centered on PR primarily as a link-building tactic, neglecting the fact that PR is a strategy in and of itself: to drive the awareness that leads to the search. In other words, a story placed through media-relations efforts might not include a link, but if it led a reader to search for more information, it did its job. More on this concept after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Day 1 of #BlueglassFL in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While 9AM is hardly “butt-crack” early, many a search marketer were visibly feeling the effects of last night’s… networking event. For the conference attendees struggling to hoist peeper lids up over their pupils, a straight shot of espresso was top priority before taking seats in the first session on the BlueGlass agenda. Turns out Online PR – The Art of Getting Your Business Talked About was a healthy surge of awesome on its own– heavy with memorable sound bytes and on-point suggestions all from stellar panelists Lisa Buyer, Brian Clark and Peter Shankman. Loren Baker, smart as he is tall, moderated the session in an open discussion format.

The conversation revolved around what it takes to position an online marketing campaign for “needle moving” PR successes. aimClear live-tweeted gems from this inspiring dialog…read on for a condensed version of the discussion packed with speakers’ key takeaways & unforgettable nuggets of advice. Read the rest of this entry »