By Vincent Ma, the Product Guy

Even if you’ve never heard of APIs or web services, there is a good chance that you have benefited from them. If you ever posted a tweet from an iPhone app, used Google Maps outside of Google, or found a lost cow while playing FarmVille, you have used a service that takes advantage of APIs. Wikipedia defines an application programming interface (API) as “an interface that a software program implements to allow other software to interact with it.” An API is essentially a bridge that allows an authorized 3^rd party to programmatically interact with data and features of a particular web application.

Why would a company like Twitter want to provide API access to 3^rd party developers?

Having a good API is a great way to extend a company’s brand visibility, foster innovation, and ultimately drive underlying business success. APIs have been a major reason why companies like Twitter and Facebook have experienced such tremendous growth over the last few years. As documented by the programmableweb.com Twitter mash-up directory, there are at least 350 web applications that use the Twitter API. It is no wonder why more and more web applications are implementing APIs as a strategy to gain users and spur growth. Recent news of services like Foursquare (a location based social network and game) and Bump (a mobile data exchange application) announcing new APIs indicate that the trend isn’t going stop anytime soon.

Why should we as marketers be excited about this API trend?

APIs offer marketers and their agencies a quick and easy way to build and deliver compelling and engaging branding experiences and to integrate useful data/services/features into their existing websites or marketing campaigns. A great example is the partnership between Foursquare and Bravo where users of the television channel’s city guides app can access the “check-in” Foursquare feature through Bravo’s own mobile app and earn Bravo themed Foursquare badges.

In addition to opening up the creative possibilities for advertisers and their agencies, APIs also provide the plumbing required to connect, automate, and optimize campaigns across your multi-channel digital marketing strategy. For example, Red Bricks Media use many channel specific APIs in our suite of workflow and management tools, including promotion scheduling and automated SEO audits that allow our client teams to work more effectively and efficiently. Beyond the streamlining of marketing operations, APIs allow us to more easily collect, process, and act upon the mountain of data marketers receive on the weekly if not daily basis. Our marketing intelligence platform, Kunu, utilizes a host of APIs in order to provide the analytics and deep insights required by our clients and account teams. As more marketing technologies and platforms offer APIs, we’re getting closer and closer to the development of a centralized marketing engine for creating, managing and optimizing truly integrated marketing campaigns.

How can marketers leverage APIs to drive content sharing that takes less than an hour to implement?

If you regularly update your corporate blog, send out press releases or have marketing content that you would love to have shared across social media platforms, considering adding a content posting and sharing button (like the one you see at the bottom of this post) to make it easier for your readers and customers to share your content with their friends. Marketers can either add the sharing functionality provided directly by each social networking site or use 3^rd party providers, such as sharethis.com and addthis.com, which have packaged solutions that make it even easier to add sharing functionality across all the top social networking and social bookmarking sites. If you have another hour or two to spare, think about integrating commenting functionality from social media sites like Facebook to your content that will allow your customers to not only leave comments on your website that can be easily posted to their profiles but also discover content on your site filtered by your user’s social network.

As the digital worlds continue to integrate and move towards an integrated seamless experience, developers and marketers are challenged to create experiences and solutions that take advantage of this ever changing services landscape. It is an exciting time and I’m personally anxious to see (and use) the next great web service or mash-up to make the headlines. In the mean time, what are some of your favorite web services or mashups that you’ve come across? Feel free to leave a comment at our blog about your favorites.

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By Scott Neslund, CEO

I am in the middle of week 4 for my start at Red Bricks Media and the time is going by quickly. I have had over 20 review sessions with managers learning about client businesses and the different departments that make up the agency. I have also spent some time in the NY office getting to know our people there and our clients. Overall I am impressed on several fronts and think the agency has tremendous opportunity to grow. I want to share with you some of my early thinking and impressions about the agency:

· Great people: Agencies are powered by good people who work hard on client businesses to achieve success. I can tell we have people like this at Red Bricks and it has been a pleasure to get to know people across the agency. My goal is that we create an atmosphere and culture where people can do their best work and be rewarded for their performance.

· Growth opportunities: As I work with different agency teams and participate in meetings I can tell we have opportunities to grow the business with current clients as well as with new business. In order to achieve this we will need to perfect our positioning as an agency and be clear on what we stand for and what we do. I am working with the managers on our new positioning and we will build on the work we started at the agency offsite. I also believe that new technologies will play a key role in how we grow the company.

· Potential with clients: I have met with or spoken to almost all of our key clients and there is significant potential for us to become strategic and creative thought leaders on their businesses. Clients today need significant help to navigate the digital landscape and RBM is positioned with the right people, tools and services to offer that leadership.

I came to Red Bricks because I believed there was opportunity to grow the agency and take it to the next level. During the past few weeks I have seen this is true on several fronts and I am looking forward to working with the managers to move the agency forward.

I know I am still the new guy in town and I hope to change that soon so people look at me as a natural “Brickster.” I am in the process of locking down my apartment in San Francisco which will allow me to spend more time here. I like to ski so I am hoping to take advantage of the season before the winter comes to an end. I am also looking for place where I can pick up playing tennis again. My partner Todd is coming out to San Francisco every now and then so we can take advantage of everything the area has to offer.

I like to go out for drinks with people from the agency and socialize outside the office so please don’t hesitate to let me know when you are going out and wouldn’t mind me tagging along. I want to get to know everyone at Red Bricks.

I also forgot to mention the number one thing I have learned since joining Red Bricks.

I suck at Go-Kart racing!

Scott

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By Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Search Strategist

As any other marketing channel, search engine optimization must be taken to a new level for international campaigns in order to properly optimize a site across one or many international websites. A cookie cutter approach to internationalization may work in some cases, but without a proper foundation of international SEO, this will most likely lead to an array of SEO issues further on.

Stay Consistent

Setting the ground work for sub-domains or separate domains requires consistency across all international sites as mixing and matching can often lead to confusion and tracking problems. Even then, prepare for potential problems in advance where some domain names may already have been purchased or where specific countries (such as China) prefer acquiring a domain hosted within that country.

Consider who controls each international SEO area in order to avoid problems with delegation of authority. At the same time, establish some baselines of allowed practices so that inconsistencies are not brought to light negatively such as Google Japan’s use of paid blogs that violated Google’s own SEO guidelines.

Provide Flexibility

A strict policy guideline or best practice for international SEO will quickly fail as Google does not dominate every market, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Even Google’s algorithm is not universal where certain tactics long-since forgotten in the United States is alive and well abroad.

Avoid Duplicating Duplications

More than likely the main domestic website already includes numerous amounts of duplicate content that is in the pipeline to be fixed. Keep in mind that those issues will be compounded if not planned for out of the gate for international campaigns. Search engines will be particularly confused which website to rank in which country if content is exactly the same across the US, the UK, Ireland, etc. Create new content and custom-tailor it to the specific geographic area.

Translate

Even with English as language of commerce, many countries primary online language is something other than English. Many countries in Europe have more than two languages as the national language, so be prepared to have multiple same-country websites in multiple languages in order to satisfy both the user and the search engines for searchers’ preferences. Furthermore, find a good translation for your business name and products in order to avoid horrible conversions such as when Chevy went into the Mexico car market with a brand product called Nova (translated as “no go”).

Localise the Language

Even if your website is launching in another English-speaking country, this does not mean that the same spelling, words, or meanings are going to equate. Optimizing a website for a common spelling in the US and exporting that to the UK may result in one’s SEO being optimized for a misspelling. The same goes for any other languages (Spain vs. Venezuela vs. Mexico vs. Columbia, etc.) and optimizing a website on the wrong keyword phrase or spelling can result in a perceived poor quality from both visitors and search engines.

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By Craig Hordlow, Co-Founder and Chief Search Strategist

The Apple iPad, introduced by Steve Jobs in San Francisco on January 27, 2010, is unusual for Apple products in that the media knew most everything about it before Jobs’ presentation, and could only speculate for whom the device is meant and why they would use it.

The iPad is not filling any pressing unmet need, nor is it introducing us to any new technologies.  The iPad is an evolutionary step towards device integration.  If this step had been made by a less significant company, like Sanyo or Casio, it would have received little attention.  But Apple’s brand capital creates media fanfare, and its cultish following provides a forgiving consumer base.

There is speculation that the iPad will compete with e-readers. But the iPad has a computer screen that is hard on the eyes and while its portability may make reading easier, it is simply not an e-reader.

Apple knows that many people use computers primarily for getting on the internet and sending emails, and it streamlined this device for those people. The $700 price tag is welcoming but nothing more than that, especially in this economy. The virtual keyboard, while meant to simplify the device, is unorthodox, meaning it will be met with everything from confusion and frustration to satisfaction and joy. 

The risk that Apple runs with the iPad is cannibalization of its own products.  In his keynote address, Jobs said that “netbooks aren’t better than anything”, which was his inspiration for the iPad.  But having little more functionality than the iPhone, Seth Jayson (Senior Technology Analyst of The Motley Fool) quipped that the device reminded him of pictures in The Onion a year ago with Jobs telling his faithful following, “You must buy a large iPhone.”  The iPad, being something of a cross between a netbook and an iPod Touch, is not positioned to convert any segment of the consumer base to its theocracy.

Despite all of this, marketers and advertisers must be alert because anything Apple introduces to consumers has the potential to be a game-changer or at the very least, another opportunity to market to Apple’s faithful following.  The iPad will host the next generation of Apple-approved applications.  While the iPad has more processing power and memory than the iPhone, one might think that the next wave of apps will consequently be more robust.  The problem with that logic is that iPhone apps are either designed to be streamlined for the very limited capabilities of the iPhone, or for the mobile, location-aware attributes of the device.  Therefore it is difficult to imagine why a new catalog of iPad applications will be a game-changer.

If the iPad doesn’t sell an impressive number of devices, marketers and developers may dutifully build iPad apps for consumers who feel entitled by the explosion of them on the iPhone. The absence of a clear, de facto sense of purpose for the iPad among industry analysts has created confusion where excitement was expected.  Unless Apple can create a large customer base, marketers and advertisers will curb their enthusiasm, waiting for either another evolutionary step (such as a comparable Google product) or mass adoption of the device.

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Be Human. Get Personal with your Customers

Take time to get close to your customer base, because in 2010 customers will continue to dictate your marketing efforts. Take care to polish up your company’s blog and social media channels, like facebook and twitter, and keep them healthy by posting regularly. If your communications are sparse, users won’t respect you as an authority. It is necessary to participate in conversation and contribute valuable content to be respected in your marketplace. Providing direct and timely responses to customer feedback is a powerful and effective marketing tool.

Follow the Search Funnel

In-depth conversion tracking and analysis can shed light onto the profitability of search campaigns. Just as some keywords or ads may provide a great number of clicks but low conversion levels, high-converting keywords and ads provide different levels of customer engagement and revenue over longer periods of time. These sorts of ‘deep dives’ into conversion tracking will provide more customization, optimization, and ROI in the long term.

Analyze and Synthesize

Research and invest in new tracking technologies and tools in the marketplace which will benefit your marketing campaigns. Social media tracking, for example, gives concrete insights into what your customers are saying about your brand. This newfound ability to listen to and adapt to customer trends in real-time is a valuable resource. Likewise, a comprehensive and properly configured analytics platform is probably the most important tool that a marketing team can have. If your marketing data isn’t interpretable and actionable, it isn’t useful.

Diversify and Integrate

Your many marketing channels should be working as one. Integrated campaigns consistently perform better than campaigns running separately. When insights are shared among functional marketing teams, a comprehensive strategy may then be developed which incorporates findings and best practices from each marketing channel.

Audit and Update

Everything has a ‘Best By’ date, and your website and marketing collateral are no exception. Consumer tastes change as quickly as the seasons, and the images and copy which will generate positive responses need to be refreshed frequently as well. Update your paid search ad copy – revamp your homepage! Optimization of imagery and messaging are often overlooked, but the results are valuable marketing assets.

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Former Mindshare CEO Take Reins of One of the Fastest-Growing Agencies In Country as Major Advertisers Turn to Independent Digital Shops For Thought Leadership; Marks Enhanced Significance of New York Office

SAN FRANCISCO (January 11, 2010)

Scott Neslund, who has been CEO of WPP Group’s Mindshare and President of Publicis Groupe/Starcom MediaVest Group’s StarLink, has been named Chief Executive Officer of Red Bricks Media, one of the fastest-growing independent agencies in the country, with over 600% revenue growth from 2005 through 2009 based largely on its highly successful search marketing operations.

Mr. Neslund will split time between the company’s San Francisco headquarters and its fast-growing New York office. He comes aboard the agency as both a significant equity holder and a member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Neslund replaces Red Bricks Media’s cofounder Elliott Easterling, who becomes Chairman of the Board.

“Scott is an experienced media and marketing leader with a substantial background in agency management having led media agencies in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia,” says Mr. Easterling. “He has a proven track record in leading digital communications and growing revenue. We are very pleased to tap into Scott’s media innovation and ability to successfully communicate a vision and manage people. He is exactly who I need to hand the baton off to in order to lead Red Bricks Media into its next great phase of success.”

“As a next career step I was looking for opportunities purely in the digital space and an entrepreneurial environment that could capitalize on the change occurring in the industry right now. Red Bricks Media provides me with that opportunity and it will allow me to merge my media agency background with the cutting edge advances in today’s digital marketing world,” says Mr. Neslund. “There is an industry trend of major advertisers starting to turn to independent digital shops for thought leadership on their business.  Red Bricks Media represents the kind of digital leadership advertisers are looking for in this constantly changing media environment where consumers are searching for what they want versus accepting the traditional ads that are being placed in front of them.” 

“Red Bricks Media is a great example of a digital agency that is taking its business to the next level by hiring a known leader who has helped build a Madison Avenue media agency. It is clear they intend to direct strategy beyond the digital marketing realm. says Sarah Fay, the former CEO of Carat NA. “I think this is a great move for both Scott and for Red Bricks.”

From 2005 to 2009, Mr. Neslund was with WPP Group’s Mindshare North America mostly recently as CEO (New York) since 2007, and before that, Managing Director Mindshare (Chicago). As CEO, he led all agency activities in the U.S. and Canada including five regional offices, 800 employees and approximately $10 billion in media billings. Mr. Neslund launched a reinvention program to transform the agency from a basic media buying and planning operation to a full service marketing partner for advertisers by establishing business planning, content development and consolidated implementation services. During this time Mr. Neslund integrated the agency’s digital capabilities with its traditional media services and expanded Mindshare’s search business. He restructured regional office leadership and WPP agency partnerships which led to $500 million in new business account wins and an increase in organic growth from current clients within 12 months.

When Mr. Neslund was Managing Director of Mindshare (Chicago) from 2005 to 2007, he turned around a business decline within 12 months by restructuring the office to better compete for new business, delivering  diversified  media services to clients and introducing  a proprietary planning model to create more innovative and effective media plans .

As President of Publicis Groupe Starcom MediaVest Group’s StarLink, (Chicago) from (2003 to 2005), Mr. Neslund re-launched the agency positioning and capabilities to better capitalize on the growing mid-size media marketplace which resulted in a doubling of agency revenues in two years. Earlier he served extensively overseas including as Senior Vice President, Managing Director for Starcom (Toronto) and before that Vice President, International Media Director for Leo Burnett (Tokyo) from 1997 to 1999. Prior to that, he was AOR Media Director for Leo Burnett (Milan). Mr. Neslund began his career in the media department of Leo Burnett U.S.A., (Chicago) first as a Media Buyer/Planner and later as a Media Supervisor.

Mr. Neslund has been recognized as an industry leader in media innovation being named as a 2008 AdAge Media Maven; to 2008 Min Magazine’s Most Intriguing People; and to the 2008 AdAge Agency A-List. He served on the 2009 Effie Grand Jury, the 2007 Cannes Media Jury, the 2008 Young Media Lions Juries and on the 4A’s Media Policy Committee from 2007 through 2009. He holds an MBA with a double major Marketing and International Business from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and an undergraduate BA in Telecommunications and Marketing from Indiana University.

Red Bricks Media (www.redbricksmedia.com) is a full-service global performance marketing agency specializing in search engine marketing, interactive media planning, email campaign management, award-winning creative services and emerging forms of media including buzz and social marketing.  One of the fastest-growing agencies in the country, Red Bricks Media has worked with over 100 major brands including Academy of Art University, Scottrade, Hearst Corporation, Microsoft, THQ, Sunset Magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York, and Hong Kong, the independent agency with more than seventy employees, was founded in 2004 by Elliott Easterling and Craig Hordlow.  In 2009 Red Bricks Media earned the ranking of #354 on Inc. Magazine’s annual Inc. 500 listing by achieving 698% revenue growth from 2005 through 2008. The agency also ranked #33 in the advertising and marketing category.

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Your name, sir?

Kelly Olson.

And what is it that you do here, at Red Bricks Media?

I am the COO and CFO at Red Bricks. The CFO side is pretty self-explanatory. I deal with all the company finances and make sure we have money in the bank. On the COO side, I work with all of our service lines and functional managers in a supporting role as well as working closely with The West Coast Client Services group to help manage client relationships as best as possible.

It’s not common that you run into someone with the dual roles of CFO and COO. Some might call you a Superman as you seem to be tasked with a Herculean degree of responsibility. Do you see yourself as Super?

Well, if I had to choose a superpower, it would be the ability to not have to sleep, because you could always be spending more time on the business to improve things. But no, I don’t view myself as a Superman and I couldn’t do what I do without having a solid management team in place, which I’m glad to say we do.

If you weren’t doing this job, at this company, at this time in history, what different career path could you see yourself in?

The things that would most interest me would be teaching and coaching, which I think would be pretty attainable. [At this point in the interview, Kelly launches in to his world famous football metaphors. I never know what he is talking about when he does this, so I have stricken it from the record.] And the other path that has always interested me has been film directing.

Interesting indeed. I was not aware you had a bit of the old creative yearning. Nice one. Desert island, three films, go!

‘The 3^rd Man’. I’m a big Orson Welles fan. ‘Rear Window’ or pretty much any Hitchcock film for that matter. And ‘Fargo’, a Coen Brothers masterpiece.

Wow. Who knew? Okay one last work-related question: How would you describe the aesthetic style of your office?

Pretty poor.

I completely agree. I might even go so far as to call it awful. Moving on, can you describe an ideal Saturday for Kelly Olson?

Hit a local college football game. Do some tailgating before hand. Head home for a nap afterwards. Meet up with friends for a good meal in the evening and then if I’m up for it, maybe hit a club or two and do a little dancing.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you describe yourself as a dancer?

A 5 or a 6.

How modest of you. Will we be seeing you and your stylistic moves at this year’s holiday party?

There is a definite possibility of that happening. However, I can tell you with complete certainty that you won’t be witnessing any pole dancing.

Will you save a dance for me?

Only if it’s a slow one.

As told to Russell Bongard, RBM Creative Director - 2009

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New service offers complex, comprehensive performance assessment and monitoring solutions.

San Francisco, CA – November 3, 2009 – Red Bricks Media, a full-service digital marketing agency, announced its new Analytics & Insights practice. Offerings will help clients better utilize marketing and website data to make more intelligent business decisions.

In order to meet the increasing and varied demands of digital marketers, Analytics & Insights will provide solutions that are both highly customized and platform independent. From defining analytics requirements to ad-hoc report development to generating robust data visualizations, the new service focuses on providing the data needed to make informed marketing decisions on budget and resource allocations.

“While a lot of agencies offer one-size-fits-all reports, our solutions focus on determining exactly what drives the success and failures of our clients’ digital marketing campaigns,” said CEO Elliott Easterling. “Whether we are analyzing the performance of a single channel or pulling together complex information from multiple campaigns, our goal is to provide custom, data-driven recommendations that will improve performance.”

The first offerings within the new practice will address the core elements digital marketers need to get analytics configured and intelligence uncovered:

• Analytics Platform Implementation Consulting
• Customized Reporting Solutions
• Deep Dive Analyses
• Cross-Platform Analysis Tools

For more complete information please visit www.redbricksmedia.com.

About Red Bricks Media:

Red Bricks Media is a full-service global marketing agency headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York and Hong Kong. Since 2003, they have offered services in search engine marketing, interactive media planning, email campaign management, creative, web design, and social media marketing. Their client list includes top brands like Microsoft, Hearst Magazines, THQ and the Los Angeles Times. To learn more about Red Bricks Media’s Web Analytics practice, please contact sales@redbricksmedia.com.

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By Andrew Leinicke, Senior Director and Joe Van Remortel, Vice President

Chances are good that your search engine marketing program is an underachiever. The growing complexity of search engine marketing can often result in higher costs and lower conversions. If your paid search campaigns have not accounted for the 20-25 variables that influence results they are likely candidates for reassessment.

Deciphering the root causes of search engine marketing performance is not easy. In fact, many seasoned search engine marketers miss opportunities for campaign improvement because they stray away from core performance-enhancing principles and fail to migrate campaigns through the dynamics of efficiency and volume.

Performance Enhancing Principles

The upshot is that marketers can boost the performance of their search engine marketing and PPC campaigns by 30%-50% or more by acting on four fundamental tenets of PPC advertising.

1. Simplify the Inherent Complexity of Search Engine Marketing

Search engine algorithms, policies and functionality are in a continuous state of evolution. And with 20-25 variables (such as match type, messaging relevancy, bid strategy) influencing search campaign performance, your PPC program becomes a complex, dynamic system that requires insightful management. Success is earned through finding the unique set of performance variables that drive efficiency and volume.

2. Iterative Campaign Management Influences Performance

There is no magic wand to wave over a search campaign to generate immediate, breakthrough success. A common pitfall in search engine marketing is an over-reliance on technology and automation. Automation can create process efficiencies, but too often campaigns are auto-piloted right into mediocrity, as the value of insightful human intellect is discounted. Cultivating new opportunities are what sophisticated PPC strategists do. Keyword universe segmentation as well as testing and landing page optimization are never complete.

 3. Messaging Relavancy is a Critical Performance Factor

In the beginning, there was keyword research: a means to build a semantic foundation for your PPC campaign. Visitor quality and conversion rates are directly correlated to the consistency of the relationship among keywords, queries, ads and landing pages. Thus, “messaging relevancy” greatly influences conversions, ROI and quality score. Get control of your messaging relevancy and you will go a long way to improving performance. 

4. Focus on Relative Value to Optimize Yields

Don’t become mesmerized by the most obvious metrics. Develop a portfolio of high-yield campaigns based not on click-through rates, but on customer value generation. Measure and optimize the highest order campaign metrics—customer acquisition, revenue, cost savings to make true ROI optimization decisions. Investigate relative campaign performance at the adgroup level, and then apply a performance-tiering approach to restructure the campaign to give you more control over feeding the winners and starving the losers.

Efficiency-Volume Matrix

When working with existing campaigns, Red Bricks Media applies these methods through the looking glass of our Four Quadrant PPC Analysis™. This approach is designed to identify the core drivers of PPC success and develop strategies based on the advertiser’s industry and location on the Four Quadrant diagnostic grid. Our Four Quadrant methodology assesses PPC campaigns along two critical dimensions: efficiency (cost) and volume (conversions). All PPC campaigns strive to be in Quadrant 1 in the matrix below—a state of maximized volume and efficiency. Our diagnosis places each campaign in one of the four quadrants. Depending on its location in the matrix and campaign parameters, we prescribe a specific set of strategies and tactics aimed at migrating campaigns to Quadrant 1.  

For example, in the matrix above, a company in a highly competitive, mature sector—consumer banking, mobile phone services, or retail — is likely to have PPC campaigns constrained in Quadrant 4.  

As depicted, our approach uncovers the key performance drivers and inhibitors, and then conceives an improvement program built on moving the campaign to Quadrant 1, with expanded volume and improved efficiencies. One must first analyze past and current performance data in light of current inventory and CPC rates in order to properly locate a campaign on the grid. Experiential knowledge of PPC campaigns and rigorous testing and optimization scenarios expose the success drivers and inhibitors that power the migration to greater levels of success.

The benefits of this approach can be significant. In a recent case when Red Bricks Media adopted an existing search program for an entertainment client, we applied the methods described above. The program had been deemed optimized, but, in fact, was languishing in Quadrant 3. Within six months, the Red Bricks Media team reduced the cost-per-click from $1.24 to $0.19, while more than tripling campaign volume. In order to achieve such results under the old campaign regime, our client would have been required to invest an additional $2.8 million. That is found money.

Search engine marketing isn’t getting more simple, but rather more complex. The way to penetrate that complexity—and simplify campaign management—is to focus on the four principles described above. Structuring that analysis within the Four Quadrant model enables campaign strategists to identify a powerful set of performance-enhancing strategies and tactics that can turn the underachieving campaign into an overachieving success.

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Here is the full text of the press release we recently sent out, which describes Craig Hordlow’s session in greater detail. As a reminder, feel free to use the code SMXSpeakerto save $100 on your registration. We hope to see you there!

Red Bricks Media to Speak at SMX West 2009
Chief Strategist Craig Hordlow will share advanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques in a session on “Analyzing and Converting SEO Traffic.”

Performance marketing agency Red Bricks Media has been selected to share SEO insights at the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) West conference on February 11th in Santa Clara, CA.

The agency’s Chief Strategist Craig Hordlow will present in a session on “Analyzing and Converting SEO Traffic.” In his session, Hordlow will share advanced SEO website tuning techniques that draw upon the strengths of Google Analytics to gain valuable insight into a searcher’s motives and uncover missed marketing opportunities. This information can then be used to create unique, targeted content and attract a larger audience. Attendees will come away with a new understanding of how to use analytics and keyword research to improve their website’s traffic, conversions and search engine rankings.

Hordlow is an SEO veteran who has worked with clients including Adobe, Sony BMG, SanDisk, and American Express. His SEO strategy recommendations have resulted in triple digit traffic and conversion lifts for clients. Hordlow frequently runs search engine tests and experiments and posts the results on his Mostly Search blog, hosted on the Red Bricks Media website. He has been instrumental in developing Red Bricks Media’s unique SEO strategy and approach to search marketing.

“I’m very excited to speak at SMX West,” said Hordlow. “I believe one of the largest missed opportunities is a granular understanding of a searcher’s specific motives, and how to identify and analyze them. Without a precise understanding of motive, messaging is compromised at the expense of conversions.”

Hordlow has previously presented at Search Engine Strategies, the OMMA conference, and Adobe MAX. His session takes place at 3 pm on February 11th in the Santa Clara Convention Center.

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