…And Now I’m Caught in the Web of Internet Marketing

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Kelly McClure

The week has finally come: my last week of undergraduate classes ever. It feels as though the light at the end of the tunnel has appeared out of nowhere, and now I’m left to reflect on not only this semester’s courses, but the college experience
as a whole. Although I have learned so much at JMU, and about so many drastically different courses, I am realizing that
I learned the most helpful information for my future aviation marketing career in my senior year College of Business marketing courses. In particular, one course I feel I am taking the most away from is Dr. Clarke’s Strategic Internet Marketing.

Google Analytics

Over the course of the semester, my website, which was my first, did fairly well in terms of visits and pageviews, with 130
unique visitors with a total of 189 website visits. The majority of these visitors were from the US, and Harrisonburg in particular, although I did manage to attract people from 10 different international cities. Direct traffic constitutes nearly 65% of my traffic sources, with referral traffic holding second with 25%, and search traffic third with 9%. My homepage
garnered the most popularity, with 318 of my overall 687 pageviews, and my bounce rate was lower than I had anticipated at 11.64%.

MKTG 470 After the Fact

We have also learned many different marketing techniques, but more importantly, we have actually performed many of them. Not many classes are able to interact so directly with the content being lectured, but Dr. Clarke’s connections and savvy teaching style granted us the opportunity to try our hands at Internet Marketing and learn in a hands on, interactive way. It is hard to pinpoint just a few areas that I learned the most about, but if I had to select a few it would be how to create a website that is user-friendly and popular with search engines and how to use social media to your professional advantage. I feel much more capable in the diverse world of Internet Marketing than I would have if I hadn’t taken the course, and I give Dr. Clarke’s interactive teaching methods credit for this transformation.

For the Future

As I leave JMU and go into the “real world” I expect to use many of the techniques learned in MKTG 470, but in particular I will take away the importance of social media in today’s world of online marketing. I learned so much about the benefits of being connected, and I expect to work with it more in the future as a young marketing professional at Textron, especially within the trade show, event, and sales realms.

Categories: Advice, Internet Marketing, Uncategorized, WordPress | Leave a comment

Search Engine Popularity: Learning SEO from the Sideline

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Kelly McClure

 

Over the course of the semester, this blog has highlighted some assignments that I have completed for Strategic Internet Marketing with Dr. Clarke. Along the way, I have felt fairly confident with all of the tasks that we have been asked to
complete, with the exception of one: Search Engine Optimization.

 

For this assignment, we were asked to optimize one page on our sites using the phrase “love JMU,” so naturally I selected my JMU page. Because the page includes “JMU” in the title and throughout the content, I thought that the page would do well on SERPs.

 

 

Although I followed the guidelines of SEO, I fell short when it came to frequent updates of relevant keywords and the website itself. At the beginning of the semester we took a baseline analysis of our websites with WebsiteGrader to compare with data measured now, at the end of the semester. Based on the analysis given, my website could have been improved with the creation of more pages and updating content more often. My rating was acceptable overall, with a 71 out of 100, but to really be noticed by search engines, my page should have used the phrase “love JMU” more effectively.

Crawler FX offered more in depth information as to my SEO performance, and came up with similar suggestions.  I received a poor rating, with a dismal score of 24 out of 100, due to issues with organic keywords, my Google AdWords campaign, and with the minimal use of exposure methods such as inbound links and social media.

The next time I attempt an SEO campaign I will make sure to be more in tune with my progress during the campaign, and update content regularly. I believe that had I been more in tune with the SEO process along the way, I could have had better results in the end.

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Learning the Ropes of Email Marketing with Emma

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Kelly McClure

One of the last major assignments for my Strategic Internet Marketing course, taught by Dr. Clarke, was to create an email marketing campaign through Emma with our blog partners. Emma was kind enough to grant us a trial period to experiment sending emails to market our blogs to other members of the class, so Sarah Carpenter and I used the opportunity to send out a newsletter including our favorite stories from the semester. It gave us the opportunity to select what we wanted our audience to hear specifically, and invite others to engage in our websites.

It was interesting learning how to best format the email and how to select items to advertise in an interesting way for recipients to read. Sarah and I decided that putting our pictures on the left gave an easy-to-read starting point for readers to then scan the stories on the right. Photos give the newsletter a more approachable and readable layout, and overall I’m very happy with the outcome of the email.

Creating the email was made even easier with the help of Emma. The website was incredibly user-friendly, and Sarah and I found that we could use the website both together and on our own time to complete the assignment effectively. Information was never hidden or confusing, so the email was simple to produce.

Many thanks to Emma for the opportunity to use their resources, and I believe that this will be a valuable lesson going into my professional life!

Categories: Internet Marketing | Leave a comment

Becoming a Google Webmaster

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Kelly McClure

For my Strategic Internet Marketing course at JMU, students not only created websites such as this one, but also monitored progress through uploading various tools to our WordPress sites. One of these was Google Webmaster Tools, a tool designed to provide detailed reports about a site’s visibility on the internet. We added this tool to our sites at the beginning of the semester, and were instructed to look at our progress after going through the majority of the semester.

What I Found:

After logging into my Google Webmaster account, I could immediately click on my website and land on a dashboard telling me the most important information about how my website is being seen on the internet. The first section I noticed was a box telling me the most common search queries used that would present my website as a result. Predictably, the most common search was my name, but after that came “JMU graduation” and “love JMU”. I would have guessed that an aviation term would present my website before searches for JMU, so as a webmaster, I can use that information to improve my SEO for aviation terms.

Other features I find to be  helpful on the site is the area where you can see what keywords are most common on my site, and the section that tells me what links have been used to forward a visitor to my site. The keywords that were most common on my site were “marketing”, “aviation”, and “JMU”, while Twitter.com and theresabclarke.com were the two pages that forwarded the most visitors to my page.

Google Webmaster Tools is an incredibly important tool for an online marketer to use because it informs a webmaster of overall performance on the search engines, and can be used to change the way a marketer approaches optimization of a website. I highly recommend the tool be used because after seeing my performance, I will tweak and add content of my website to be more aviation-oriented.

 

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Flying for Food: The 100 Dollar Breakfast

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Kelly McClure

In aviation, there is the age old joke of the elusive “$100 hamburger.” The hamburger, of course, doesn’t actually cost 100 dollars, but (exaggeratedly) you’re spending 100 dollars in gas in order to do what all pilots love to do: eat.

Now the stereotype of the typical pilot is a man, over the age of 45, who is carrying perhaps a little extra weight than he should. I, being the stereotype buster that I am, not only try to cut the overbearing male image in aviation, but I try to workout enough to fend off the numerous calories I consume, and when in doubt, I eat the salad. But there is one pilot tradition that I dare not give up, and that’s the greasy-spoon airport cafe breakfast.

I’ve been to my fair share of airports and airport cafes, but predictably I have found my favorites in the Massachusetts circuit. Plymouth Airport (PYM) hosts my favorite airport cafe to date, Plane Jane’s Place. Not only does Jane offer one of the largest menus I’ve seen on an airport, but she and her team always seem to deliver exactly what I’m looking for. Be it the “Biplane” which gives me all of my allotted daily calories in one meal or just the old go-to, eggs, toast, bacon, and homefries, I always leave full for the day and satisfied. And what’s better? She’s open year-round! You can always rely on Jane’s.

 

Here are some other favorites that top the list:

  • The Right Fork Diner, located on Martha’s Vineyard’s Katama Airport, not only offers some of the best French Toast on the island, but also a taxiway to beach-side parking. The atmosphere at Katama, with its grass runways and biplane rides, is  reason enough to stop through on a warm summer day. Breakfast or lunch is merely an added incentive! For a healthier option, try the European Style Yogurt.

  • Stop through Chatham Airport for The Flying Ace Cafe, which offers Belgian waffles good enough to satisfy any pilot’s breakfast craving.
  • Cranland’s Breakfast Fly-In, although not open everyday, is a must for any hungry aviator. The 3rd Sunday every month from April to October, the local EAA Chapter puts on a breakfast, where $6 will get you pancakes and an egg sandwich, with all you can drink coffee and orange juice. Fly out, test your skills on the 1845ft runway, watch others test their skills on the 1845ft runway, and visit with new and old friends alike! Not to mention check out some cool airplanes on the open grass.

© copyright Robert J MacDonald 2012

These are just some of my favorite spots, but don’t be afraid to get out there and fly to new destinations. You never know what hidden gems you might find!

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The Ultimate Dream(liner) of a Marketing Campaign

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Kelly McClure

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has made a splash in the world of aviation over the past few years, and in no doubt put aviation marketing into the mainstream. The buzz that has been created with the latest addition to the Boeing fleet has reached beyond its target market to just about anyone on the street. Even students in my International Affairs classes at JMU can name the 787 as the newest airliner to come out of the Boeing factory, which is not a commonality in today’s society, where aviation is so greatly taken for granted.

http://www.boeing.com/

So, What’s New?

The 787 has made significant progress to become more efficient in today’s quest for transportation that puts less strain on nonrenewable resources. Just to name a few, it offers the range of the larger jets with the size of a mid-sized liner, while delivering unparalleled performance. The Dreamliner uses 20% less fuel than similarly sized commercial liners while being able to reach speeds similar to wide-bodied aircraft at Mach 0.85. Half of the primary structure, including the fuselage and wing, is constructed from composite materials, and the engines, provided by GE and Rolls-Royce, are some of the quietest found on any passenger liner.

So What’s the Buzz About?

Even though the 787 has features that makes it the most environmentally friendly passenger jet on the market today, at the end of the day it is still a passenger jet. It will still be a workhorse for the airlines, flying thousands of miles every day, shuttling passengers around the world who are not in tune with the aviation industry. So why are so many people wanting to see the Dreamliner when in 10 years it will be as common as a 737? The marketing campaign has generated buzz that emphasizes not only its commitment to efficiency, but also its heightened passenger experience. Boeing has invited the public to take part in the 787′s development from the beginning, generating excitement through press events highlighting the sleek, modern design. Since the airline industry has become more utilitarian than luxurious, passengers are excited to see an aircraft that incorporates modern technology with ultimate comfort.

Will the Excitement Last?

Now that the first 787 has been delivered to All Nippon Airways, it will be interesting to see if Boeing can hold it’s excitement with airline consumers. As more Dreamliners are delivered with customized interiors for each airline, passengers will be reaping the benefits of the improved interiors for quite some time, and I believe it will be long before travelers tire of the 787 experience. Boeing is already showing the world, although subtly, that it will not rest from promoting its brand as much as it can. Only two weeks ago was this flight plan filed for one of the 787′s test flights:

From http://www.flightglobal.com/

Although Boeing may not be able to write their name in the stars, they are certainly trying to keep it in the skies!

Categories: Aviation | 1 Comment

Is Marketing the Answer to the Impending Pilot Shortage?

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Kelly McClure

One of the major issues aviation is facing today is undoubtedly the impending pilot shortage that many expect to happen within the next decade. According to the most recent statistics collected by the FAA, in 2010, out of the total number of 627,588 pilot certificates, the average age of pilots holding any kind of pilot certificate was 44.2. The average age of student pilots in the United States in the same year was 31.4. In order to lower these average ages, aviation needs to bring in new forms of marketing in order to reach new segments of people. This is not only important in terms of bringing in new generations to aviation, but also for aviation companies who are struggling to make profits and acquire new business opportunities.

Social Media’s Impact on the Aviation Industry

An article from Forbes online, titled Business Aviation and Social Media, hit the nail on the head when discussing the value of social media to the business aviation industry. Allen Howell, the author, explains  that social media had been the missing piece of the puzzle for the aviation industry to translate the value of aviation to a greater audience and get away from the misleading influence of the press. Often times, the public sees private aircraft as a luxury and something that CEOs and the wealthy use as toys rather than tools. Through social media, aircraft manufacturers and charter operators alike can communicate the value of general aviation beyond the common misconceptions. For example, Cessna Aircraft Company has used its Facebook and Twitter accounts to tell followers about its involvement with the Veterans Airlift Command mission. This mission does not transport the wealthy to their vacation destinations, but rather transports wounded veterans around the country in order to get the treatments and rehabilitation they need. Since many people would not necessarily associate philanthropy with private jets directly, social media has been able to bridge the gap between fact and negative assumption.

Recruiting for the Future

Since business aviation has been able to use social media outlets to reach new targets, aviation as a whole should orient itself to the younger sector of people using sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Personally, I have made efforts to provide valuable information for followers that might want to get involved in aviation, and I would encourage other aviation professionals to do the same. Lynda Meeks, the brains behind Girls With Wings, has done an incredible job of marketing towards young women, and I encourage those interested in this topic to look at her website and Twitter account. She shows that marketing does not have to be focused on making profits alone, but  rather more in order to spread the word about opportunities others may not know are out there. Aviation needs to target an entirely new generational audience, and the only way to do that is through social media marketing. The profits may not be monetary, but by saving a hobby with a new set of consumers, the outcomes are very much beneficial for the flying marketer.


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Advice For A Young Marketing Professional… There’s An iPad App For That?

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Kelly McClure

A few months ago, I got an iPad from my parents (who I will inevitably support once my career takes off) as a sort of reward for scoring my dream entry-level job.  I had half-jokingly asked for one for quite some time, but when I unwrapped it Christmas morning I nearly had a heart attack. After the shock subsided, I immediately took it out of its packaging, slipped it into my brand new purple moshi case, and explored the intimidatingly-large App Store for apps I thought would be great to play with. Ever since, I have added, then deleted, then added again, then deleted again scores of apps because they proved to be useless to me. This is where you come in.

Hushing the Noise

It’s easy to get caught up in the latest and greatest version of anything in the App Store just because it looks enticing, but what I’m looking for is something that will be useful in my marketing career, particularly in the aviation industry. Are there any apps that are recommended for productivity, organization, or anything that a company might like to use? My goal is to get accustomed to these apps so that when I arrive for my first day on the job, I am as prepared as I possibly can be. And also so that I have something on my iPad other than Solitaire, Facebook, and Twitter!

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Falling In Love With Twitter Before Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Kelly McClure

I have been on Twitter for awhile now, after my editor at Aerospace International recommended the social media site for networking and staying on top of news in the aerospace industry. It took me quite some time to get used to the 140 character rule and tweeting information that people might find useful for entertaining. Over the past few months, though, I have gotten more comfortable combining industry news with funny or interesting things I have found in my day to day life.

Twitter: LIVE! 

This evening I spent an hour on Twitter for my Strategic Internet Marketing course in order to familiarize myself with Twitter conduct and explore the benefits of the site. This assignment has come at a particularly good time, since today is the first day of the Singapore Airshow. With the time difference, I could see the live tweets pop up on my Twitter feed about what was going on at any given moment at the show, using the #SAG2012 hashtag. In the aviation industry, airshows are the major trade shows where companies roll out new products and generate buzz about innovations. This information coming to me live at my computer is an invaluable resource for a young soon-to-be graduate going into aviation marketing. I need to be just as informed about what is going on in the industry in order to be a valuable asset when I enter the workforce. With the help of Twitter, I hope to know enough to keep up during the first stage of my career.

Business Asset

Likewise, when a company generates buzz through Twitter, it gives it the edge among competitors in reaching target customers. People who are interested in the product will follow a company or PR firm that will communicate the news of that industry to the people most likely to consume that product directly. It is a free and immensely powerful tool that has changed how marketers think, conduct PR, and distribute advertisements in any industry.

For soon-to-be graduates, such as myself, Twitter is a must in social media knowledge. If I do not begin my career with Twitter-intensive duties I’ll be surprised, but prepared nonetheless.

Categories: Internet Marketing | 3 Comments

Changing My Theme To Be More Adventurous

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Kelly McClure

If you visited my blog before, you will notice that my theme has changed!  This theme, titled Adventure Journal by Contexture International, was perfect for my website because it conveys a traveling lifestyle without the obviousness of passports and baggage. The paper-clipped design with wrinkled paper is casual and journalistic, which is how I like to approach writing about my own adventures; on the go and raw! It looks as though someone is writing a journal and has it open to read on a desk. The layout is a little bit different than the WhiteHouse theme I had before, but Adventure Journal keeps the same essential features of having two columns with the content towards the left and widgets appearing on the right side of my pages.

Header

The theme itself came with a different header image, featuring a camel and pyramids, but I changed my header to be one of me with a C-46 Curtiss Commando, which was taken last June during a trip to California with my father. The place where the picture was taken, Camarillo Airport, was the first place I visited after being born, even before my home. So not only does the picture serve as an attention-grabbing header, but it also adds a personal touch!

Alternative Header

At first I could not decide whether I wanted to feature the C-46 as my header or this picture: 

I love this picture not only because of the great colors, but because these are the types of airplanes I fly!

Problems

My original cloud favicon was lost to the theme, as was my Twitter Feed widget. I installed a plugin from Web Geek Solution, called WGS Twitter Feeds, in order to continue to have my Twitter feed appear in the right hand column along with my Recent Posts and Links. The default colors that came with the widget were black and lime green, so using html color codes and the customizable features of the widget, I changed the colors to include a blue/grey background, black text, and pink links. I had trouble getting the widget to display my tweets at first, but since I have resolved the issue by deactivating and activating the widget again. Hopefully the problem does not persist!

I hope you enjoy the new theme as much as I do, and feel more adventurous too!

Categories: Internet Marketing, WordPress | 2 Comments