Search engines are sophisticated and can determine when a page has been “stuffed” with keyword rich content and “black hat methods” to try and trick a search engine. It is very hard for a new website to rank well in search engines, and approaching this correctly the first time will help prevent future pitfalls.

Seven ways to boost your on-site optimization:

• Use keyword(s) at least once in the H1 tags on your website.
• Write relevant and useful content using keyword(s) at least 3 times throughout the content body. Using the keywords in different phrase variations works best. Just make sure the content makes sense and doesn’t feel like you are “keyword stuffing.”
• Use the keyword in title tag of the web page (Notice how we use the term “premium” a lot?)
• Bold the keyword in the body text at least once
• Use images that relate to the keyword(s), and use an alt tag for the image description.
• The URL page structure should have all keywords in it.
• Place keyword links throughout content, navigation, footer, and anywhere else there is content that could be used to link to other pages with keyword anchors.

Question: What methods are you currently using to optimize your SEO on-site?

This post is second in a series on Premium SEO. See other posts on this topic here.

Secured distribution? Check.

Market Need? Check.

Competitive Position? Check.

Appropriate Price? Check.

Now what? Cue the first planning meeting….

Long Pause.

Well, definitely a website.

Yep, and we’ve got to have good sales collateral for the trade.

We won’t sell anything without some awareness. How ‘bout a TV spot! No, wait, radio is cheaper. Or maybe a billboard? Those digital ones might be cheap…

Yeah, yeah, let’s do that! But wait, it won’t look cheap, right? I mean, we’re more premium than the cheap stuff…

What about a sales promotion? Or a sponsorship of something cool. No, I’ve got it – a promotion that leverages a sponsorship of something cool.

Yeah, with a viral video so we don’t have to pay for it!

Yeah! You know all social media is free, so we should definitely get on Facebook and Twitter too.

But we’ve got to track everything back to sales. We can’t do that without paying for social media, can we…

If you’re reading this blog, you have probably been in that meeting more times than you can remember. The organization is ready to launch a new product, steal market share, increase margins, etc., so the marketing team gets together to brainstorm. Everything is ready to go, and everyone just has to figure out how to tell the market that we are here to serve its unmet need.

It’s exciting! The possibilities are endless, and we all know that during a brainstorm “there are no bad ideas.” It’s fun! No spreadsheets here—just a whiteboard, some unhealthy snacks, excessive caffeine intake and the group’s collective imagination. Often times several good ideas come from these sessions, and the group leaves excited about the possibilities of putting together our new campaign.

Then the questions begin:

• How much of this can we afford?
• Our brand is premium. Are we doing things that a premium brand would do?
• What will management think?
• How can we sell in the new ideas?
• What’s the ROI? Can we even measure that for everything in our plan?
• Are there other metrics besides ROI that are important this year?
• Will all of this really help us meet our objective? Really?

At Warren Douglas, our strategy team guides premium brands through a deceptively simple four step process to answer these types of questions and provide a roadmap that shows the path from objective to tactics. Without a lot of detail, the four steps are as follows:

1. Define the Core Objective
2. Identify Measurable Goals
3. Articulate Strategies
4. Align Tactics

Check back to hear how these four steps can help make a strategy work for a premium brand—perfect for the proactive brand manager.

Question of the day: What have you found to be effective in making sure tactical plans will ultimately support the larger corporate objective for the upcoming plan?

One example: the major Gap debacle. After years of promoting the classic Gap logo, corporate management underwent a re-branding effort complete with new logo. As a soft launch, the logo on their e-commerce site was nonchalantly replaced. Backlash ensued! Via Gap’s Facebook Fan Page, every comment from housewives to Creative Directors bashed the logo. Apparently, Gap didn’t know that their logo was so iconic! As a result, Gap tried to defend this move, but fans would have nothing of it. They wanted the classic logo back. Gap has now decided to stick with old faithful and save themselves millions in replacing name tags and other collateral—not to mention further public humiliation.

Another example can be found within Proctor & Gamble. In a New York Times article, Marc Pritchard, global marketing and chief branding officer states,”we are at the start of one of the most exciting eras in brand-building history.” P&G, which is the world’s largest marketer by spending and known for extensive product research with branding processes envied the world-over, is taking branding and marketing cues from regular people via social media. For example, commercials that “were almost pulled” by higher-ups, were saved solely by positive comments about the spot in their social media outlets!

Social media is a great way to get your message in front of millions of consumers, but it also is a great way for consumers to get their message across to the brand. In this day and age, even after research, marketers still run the risk of alienating their consumers (Tropicana!). The value of immediate and substantial feedback from your most vocal brand advocates is almost priceless. Social media, though still very  much a buzz word, is beginning to prove that it has a place in legitimate marketing strategy—most of all among premium brands.

Who knew that eating anything with certain “alternative” ingredients could propagate the very cancer her hormone therapy was trying to prevent? These elements, or subsidiaries of, are in almost everything we consume, and it so happens that even digesting certain “healthy” ingredients activate estrogen-like hormones, which have been known to accelerate cancer growth. For example, even the vitamins my mom took to boost her blood count during chemo contained traces of these elements. Sure enough, the lump that had been removed a year ago came back in the exact same spot, and we can only speculate whether or not her diet had a part in her cancer’s re-occurrence. Since then, her oncologist has encouraged her to read labels and avoid many popular alternatives.

Off to the grocery aisle we all go, reading labels. As cheaper alternatives to many ingredients are prevalent in almost all products, the risk of slipping up is a costly one. My immediate family is now noticing that premium groceries, which were sometimes purchased because of taste superiority, are easier to rationalize due to imminent and preventative health concerns.

As breast cancer continues to have an impact on Americans, food manufacturers have the opportunity to respond to consumers’ willingness to pay more for products made from quality, healthy ingredients. Go premium!

I am not alone in my observation. According to Andrew Hampp, writing in a recent edition of Advertising Age, “brands and ad agencies are rediscovering the power of original tunes in advertising campaigns. Over the last decade the trend was to license famous pop songs from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, instead of creating an original branded melody. Now marketers want original music for their messages.”

This makes perfect sense to me, as I’m a custom jingle lover from way back. With a custom jingle crafted solely to sing the praises of a brand, you have the opportunity to ingrain your brand attributes and identity into the minds’ of the masses–in a way that can be both pleasing and entertaining.

Think about it. Who can forget the undeniable charm and sing-along-fun of such jingle gems as Oscar Meyer’s “My Bologna Has a First Name,” or Alka Seltzer’s “Plop Plop Fizz Fizz,” or Folgers “The Best Part of Waking Up?”  These pleasant little ditties are now a part of our collective conscience, instantly remembered and still fun to sing out loud.

Talk about brand recall!

That type of brand-centric popularity is far more of a premium for a brand than simply an association with a well-known song or recording artist.  When you allow the right melody and lyrics to showcase your brand, something very special can happen.

Just ask Oscar Meyer.

Outdoor has always been a favorite media of mine, due to it’s challenging creative canvas: you basically have room for 7 words or less to make an impression that lasts mere seconds as your audience zooms by on the way to work, shop, or play.  (Unfortunately, many creatives routinely break this 7 word rule,  thinking their message or design is better than some “arcane,” old-fashioned rule. Here’s my message to them: it’s not.  Your type’s too small, your idea’s too weak and your board will fail – period.)  But I digress…

My point today is that outdoor media, when executed properly, is hot for all shapes and sizes of brands. Whether playing a supporting role to a larger media vehicle like television or radio, or as the sole media driver for a brand’s effort, outdoor is still a larger-than-life premium canvas capable of informing, entertaining and persuading tens of thousands potential customers everyday.

Take our salad dressing client BRIANNAS, for example.  Sales were lackluster in the Miami market and they needed a fast, cost-effective boost.  Outdoor to the rescue! We crafted a special outdoor-centric campaign exclusively for the Miami audience and began scoring almost immediate recognition. Why? Because the boards followed all the creative rules of premium outdoor: they were succinct, clever, entertaining and memorable.  All for pennies on the dollar compared to a broadcast effort in a major market.

What’s more, new technology has entered the outdoor arena with the advent of bright, full-color digital display boards. These incredibly vivid billboards deliver maximum “pop” and are almost impossible to ignore.  What’s more, they’re highly cost effective because there’s no paper or vinyl to produce.

So the next time your brand is feeling the heat from new competition, shrinking share or stagnant sales, consider taking your message outside with some outdoor.   For many brands, it can be a hot pick to deliver even hotter results.  Just make sure your agency or production resource is capable of delivering the right creative message for this very tricky medium!

As the inventor and marketer of revolutionary Dyson Vacuums, Mr. Dyson has cornered the market on unconventional thinking for a very conventional task–vacuuming carpets and rugs. Mr. Dyson’s fresh, new approach to the technical aspect of dust removal and collection proved that if you can invent a better mousetrap, people will beat a nice, clean path to your door. The sales success Dyson has enjoyed speaks for itself, as does the premium effectiveness of his superior design.

Now Mr. Dyson has trained his engineering curiosity and skill on another household basic–the lowly air-circulating fan. He believes a better solution exists, a premium solution if you will, to more effectively move air and cool a room. His new design doesn’t use blades. Instead it moves air via something called an “air multiplier.” Like his daring vacuum cleaner, the Dyson fan has an unconventional look and unique technological approach. And, also like a Dyson vacuum, his new fan carries a premium price tag.

Time will tell if this distinctive new direction in air movement will be a sales success. But one thing is already very clear:
exciting innovations can happen when a premium approach is applied to even the most mundane objects in our lives.

But few brands impress or excite me more than my favorite place for gasoline and sundries—QuikTrip. Do you have QuikTrips in your area, and if so, have you visited one lately? If not, you owe it to yourself to do so.

QuikTrip has single-handedly redefined the whole notion of “convenience store,” and turned it into a polished, modern pantheon of premium convenient service.

Gone are the days of cramped, dingy little stores offering a haphazard collection of questionable goods poorly displayed, and operated by a sullen, cynical clerk. At QuikTrip, you’ll now find a sparkling, perfectly organized gem of a retail operation, staffed by uniformed clerks so polite and efficient you’d think you were shopping at Nordstroms. From the carefully arranged candy wall to the new fresh food deli section and enormous fountain drink area, QuikTrip has made the transition from a simple little convenience store to a premium destination for just about everything. Even the gasoline they sell is rated “Best” by consumer groups.

QuickTrip serves as a textbook case of a brand raising its own bar to a premium level. And, they stand as an excellent example to other brands that, no matter your offering, you can achieve a premium status through consistent presentation, impeccable service and quality merchandise.

Even if that merchandise is a bag of Gummi Worms and a cherry Slurpee.

What am I talking about? Well, unbeknownst to civilians outside the car and bike hobby, the Holy Grail for most die-hard enthusiasts are OEM parts and NOS parts. These acronyms stand for Original Equipment Manufacturer and New Old Stock. When you’re restoring an old Mustang or Honda CB750 or Mini-Trail, the most desirable way to go is as original as possible. So obviously, nothing is more original than parts made by the manufacturer specifically for their machines. That original, “Real McCoy” Ford trim piece or Honda tail light are premium finds. And what use to take weeks or months of prowling swap meets and classified ads are now just a click or two away on eBay auctions, thanks to the wonderful Internet.

What’s my point? It’s that brands which stay true to their original principles of quality, function and performance continue to grow in premium status. So what was once considered just a simple brand name spare part, over time, becomes more and more desirable—more and more premium. And that all solid brands, no matter what their category, should maintain their reputation to rightfully achieve their spot in premium posterity as being a “Real McCoy.”

Take cars, for example. We all know that dozens of options exists that can deliver all the rational benefits: engine size, price range, fuel efficiency, horsepower, and amenities like navigation or premium sound. While I may have many rational reasons for buying a car, the emotional benefits play a huge role in helping me choose one model over another: the look, the way it handles, how safe I feel, etc. Which benefits, though, should be touted in marketing to convince the target audience to buy? Rational benefits might actually have a stronger play in helping sell a premium or luxury car, after realizing that the emotional benefits are obvious. Here’s where consumer context too often gets left out of the mix.

The question marketers ought to ask is this: How does the consumer want to feel about purchasing this product? Our research suggests that certain verticals make big mistakes by telling consumers how they should feel about their brand. A low-interest category like residential electricity, for example, might misfire by trying to differentiate its brand based on emotional benefits, because consumers don’t want to feel loyal to a utility company. Understanding the way your target wants to feel about your brand will help in deciphering which RTBs make their way into your marketing message. Another low-interest category like insurance, however, must lead with emotional benefits if it’s not differentiating on price; the consumers who will pay more for insurance are doing so because of the way they want to feel about their choice: like they’re “in good hands.” While the rational benefits are relevant for insurance, they’re secondary for premium brands of insurance, but primary for low-cost competitors, simply because the consumer context drives different RTBs within this particular category. Marketers of premium brands need to understand that, in order to convince consumers that you’re worth more, having a real understanding of want your target wants to be told is critical to influence purchase.

I know this: My wife doesn’t like it if I tell her, “Don’t be upset,” or “You should be happy about this.” My experience is that consumers don’t like it, either. And I think I’m premium, by the way.