A Hodgepodge of eMarketing enhancement tips
I thought it would be a good idea to summarize a few tips and tricks that can help optimize eMarketing performance or enhance tactics. I preach optimizing the “micro” elements of an entire eMarketing strategy. These are just little items, but nevertheless can be helpful in your strategy. So here we go:
Pay-Per-Click
- Geotargeting: If you’re geotargeting a certain area of a market, I encourage local advertisers to also test a new campaign targeting the entire market (DMA). Reason? Many of your prospects surf at work. Depending on your product/service, you may wish to test a geotargeted campaign two ways: 1. Before 8a, after 5p, and weekends in your preferred market area, and 2. DMA between 8a-5p.
- Mobile: Start taking advantage of mobile marketing by utilizing Google’s Click-to-call feature. Create a mobile ad, utilize one key phone number, and when people do mobile searches, you ad would appear if you sponsor the keyword. Phone extensions will appear as clickable phone numbers beneath the main text ad, and will be visible to high-end mobile device users who access Google.com search, Voice search, Google Mobile App or Google Maps for Mobile from their phone. When the mobile device user clicks on the phone number, you will be charged the same as for a standard click on the ad.
Search Engine Optimization
- Metatags: When search engines index your site, the spiders and bots look at your page title tags (which carry the most weight) and page descriptions (metatags). The title tag is the name of each page on your site that you see in the browser’s title bar. The first 60 characters are the most important, so please include important keywords early in your title. Remember you want to be found for important keyword queries. Keywords before company name in title tags please.
- Domains: Best seo practice is to get at least one of your primary keywords in domain or sub domain name of your website. You can use hyphens (-) to separate multiple keywords.
- Keywords: Choose precise keywords; look for those keywords that have a decent traffic count, yet lesser competition. This task needs an SEO pro to analyze which keywords have a number of competitors. For example if you’re a business coach, choose keywords like “executive coach” “leadership coaching”, etc. Specific “long-tail” keywords give you a better shot at getting on that treasured first page.
Google Analytics
Event Tracking: Suppose you have a white paper PDF to download on your site, a webinar, a podcast, or some sort of activity that requires more than just a page view. Well, we can track those events. Typical Google Analytics data tracks page activity. To track specific page events, we need to add additional code to the pages where the event may occur: The syntax for the _trackEvent() method is:_trackEvent(category, action, label). Additionally, when you create an event, you give each specific a value so you can weight key metrics. So not to lose anyone here, Google provides good detail on this important feature. Here are examples of events that can be tracked using this tool using examples for categories, actions, and labels:
1. View a video: Category: Video, Actions: Play, Pause, Stop. Label: Widget Demo
2. Specs for a new car: Category: Car Configuration, Action: Color, Label: White, Yellow, Pink
3. Download a specific white paper from a page with multiple downloads: Category: Download, Action: Click, Label: Widget Whitepaper
It certainly takes some planning and help with a webmaster to determine the specific events, parameters, and values that need to be coded within your web pages.
I found this one recently. Regarding Fan pages, Your default landing page is the Wall page. It doesn’t have to be- if you wish to focus on a special tab with offers or perhaps your Info page, just change the setting-”Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else”:
I like the search features. Whether you search for a keyword “marketing”, or a hashtag phrase #marketing, save the searches, and add those saved searches into your RSS feeds. I for one read my Google reader first thing every morning, and it’s nice to have important twitter searches complement my blog feeds. Here are my hashtag keyword saves:
Lead Capture
Web forms: Whether it be using Marketing Automation or an email program, please use short web forms and capture the data that’s essential. You can capture additional data later if those prospects have the opportunity to download more content. Giving phone numbers or email addresses as contact methods limits your ability to capture contacts for database marketing. At the very least, use fields NAME, EMAIL, PHONE NUMBER, FIRM. Then consider TITLE, and if necessary, a radio-button or drop-down box to select INDUSTRY or COMPANY SIZE. I’m not a fan of the MESSAGE free form field because you can’t initially segment audiences from that. MESSAGE is good for a general inquiry, but not needed for a request for specific information or a download from a landing page.
The focus of this blog post was just to highlight some tips and tricks; future blog posts will cover these eMarketing tactics in more detail. More tips another day!
Optimizing Google AdWords & Pay-Per-Click, Part 2
Advertising on Google or other search engines can be a very productive way to generate immediate leads to your website.
First, think about your website. How much did you spend on it? Do you have a marketing plan for it? I’m a big believer in pay-per-click advertising (Google has made billions on it) only because it is the only online medium where you can target “warm leads” with promotional messages. The key is to be as relevant as possible to a searcher, then make sure message stand out. Consider other Internet “marketing” tactics.
a. Search Engine Optimization. It’s essential to be optimized so your websites and landing pages have the best chances of showing high on search engines. Why have a website if you can’t be found easily? So once you’re optimized, your page description is compelling with keywords, and informational in nature; but not promotional.
b. Social Media. Blogging, discussions, Twitter, LinkedIn; all can be an effective way to build brand and trust, but not promotional.
c. Banner Ad Campaigns, LinkedIn ads, Facebook ads. These can be purchased through pay-per-click or cost-per-thousand models. These channels can be effective in their on right, and ARE promotional, but you target demographics and interests.
Only with search engine marketing can you target those searchers most likely looking for you, and you’re providing their answer with a promotional message. Pay-per-click seems to have a certain stigma with regard to effectiveness, but it does take work, effort, and perhaps using a professional to optimize your campaign.
If anything you should take away, it’s this:
This is the most important concept and affects all other AdWords tasks. The statement above does start with Ad Content for a reason. When setting up an AdWords campaign, what you want to say comes first- that’s why Google calls them Ad Groups and not Keyword Groups! By doing the ad first, it makes keyword research easier to categorize. Keywords need to align with the ad content and if certain keywords do not, either they are not relevant, or you need to create a new Ad Group that will align with those keywords. SEO focuses on keyword research first, so I understand that emphasis, but for pay-per-click on Google, ads come first.
So next comes keyword research, right? Well, no. When ads are written, they have to be linked to an appropriate web page or landing page. By appropriate I mean aligned by theme and ad content. Remember, once a searcher enters a query, and your ad answers that query with a short promotional message, the landing page better answer that query with more detail answering the search query, or the searcher will leave feeling your website doesn’t have the answer. (That’s called a bounce)
Now the keyword research starts. I won’t go into detail on the “how” in this post because Google AdWords help sections does a good job of explaining that, as well as the multitude of blogs and books. However, since you already (I assume) have your Ad Groups set by specific category or theme, and your landing pages align with your Ad Group themes, keyword research and organizing those keywords by Ad Group should be a little easier and more focused. This research should also include “negative” keyword research as well, or those keywords or phrases that you don’t want your ad to show when a searcher does a query. Why? Because of the Google Quality Score. Read more about this important element here: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=10215
Simply, Quality Score is an algorithm that combines Ad click-though-rate, ad and query relevancy, and landing page quality. If any of these segments are not optimized, your quality score goes down, and that means your ad positioning suffers, and your cost-per-click increases. Google rewards relevancy with better positioning at lower cost- remember that. Negative keywords can be entered onto the Google platform as well as selected positive keywords.
OK here is an example of a good and bad execution:
Bad:
- Query: “Hotel Marketing Services”
- Keyword you sponsor: “Marketing Services”
- Ad Content Theme: “Utilize us for your marketing needs”
- Landing Page: Generic Home Page covering your services
Comment: The marketing firm doesn’t do marketing for the hospitality industry, so the firm will receive many wasted impressions that include the word “hotel” and who knows what other industries. The ad is generic, and so is the landing page. Clicks will be limited here; click-through-rate will be low; quality score will be low; ads won’t appear often, cost-per-click will be higher than it should be. The word “hotel” should be entered as a negative.
Good:
- Query: “Software Marketing Services”
- Keyword you sponsor: “software marketing”
- Ad Content Theme: “Specialists in Software marketing”
- Landing Page: Discusses software marketing services, benefits of your firm, and a strong call-to-action with web form
Comment: See how each element is aligned? You may have less impressions than the generic “marketing services”, but your ad aligns with the query, meaning more clicks, better click-through-rate, higher quality score, higher ad positioning, and lower cost-per-click.
AD COPY
I touched on ad copy in my last post; and poor ad copy is a pet peeve of mine. Folks, this is advertising. You need to stand out; obtain that precious click. You’re competing with other advertisers, optimized listings, images, videos, blog posts and tweets that appear on Google’s first page. You need to raise your hand- “pick me!” Remember searchers are scanning for a message that attracts their attention and easily communicates a solution to their problem. Here’s my approach to effective ads:
1. Headline: You have only 25 characters to grab someone’s attention. This is an AD headline- it’s not your company name. The headline is usually the best place to put an important keyword or ad content theme. Let’s continue to use “Hotel Marketing Services” as an example of a query.
- Bad: Travel Marketing; Marketing Pros (not relevant);
- Good: Hotel Marketing Experts; Better Hotel Marketing?
2. Second Line: Is there a key feature that separates you from competition? What makes your firm special? (Please, no outstanding service; it’s overused). Make a list. Remember you can test a couple of approaches; you’re not stuck on one ad. Second lines can be emotional or informational.
- Bad: Hotel Marketing Services; Internet Marketing Experts; Hotel Marketing Agency. (Folks, we’re not duplicating SEO listings- this is advertising, let’s stand out)
- Good: We Focus on Hospitality; Targeted Marketing Planning; Increase Occupancy Rates; Our hotel clients have grown
3. Third Line: In 35 characters the goal is to combine a key benefit with a call-to-action. Alternatively, utilize a special offer and action words. Offers can be limited time; ads can be changed any time. Are you having a sale? Promote it! Again, make a list and test approaches.
- Bad: Hotel Solutions for You; We Focus on Service; Serving Hotels for 35 years (so?)
- Good: Free white paper on ROI; 25% off Limited Time; Start growth today-learn more; Free Assessment-Call now; Time to increase Profit- Visit Us; Our Service Builds Hotel Revenue
Not to pound the point, but if you do any offer; that offer better be front and center on your landing page.
Well, this finished part 2. I look forward to your thoughts. My last post, http://www.nusparkmarketing.com/google-adwords-optimization-part-1/ discussed some advanced ways to optimize an AdWords campaign on Google. Stay tuned for future posts.
The importance of optimizing eMarketing; An Interview with a COO
The utmost importance of optimizing the entire “visitor-to-lead-to-sale” cycle as an eMarketing strategy cannot be questioned.
If you don’t pay attention to a specific micro element of an eMarketing plan, the entire strategy won’t work as well; you’ll lose leads and sales. We speak to a number of companies who have fancy-designed websites; but they can’t be found on search engines; they don’t convert visitors into leads, and once those leads are generated, they aren’t properly nurtured into sales.
To demonstrate the point, here’s an imaginary interview with John Doe, a COO of a large IT company.
Congratulations on your website; it’s designed nicely.
JD: Thank you; our creative team really made it look good. It’s been up for a year now.
I see. What specifically do you sell?
JD: We provide technology solutions to the healthcare industry; when they need to outsource specific tasks, we’ll be there to provide comprehensive solutions. Our solutions help healthcare providers improve patient safety, reduce costs, improve healthcare efficiency and better manage resources.
So if I need your service, I should be typing into Google “technology solutions?” If I really needed your services I’d most likely type “Computer consultants for hospitals” or “electronic health records” Bear with me, but despite your claims, websites should be written for the buyer. If I can’t easily figure out what those solutions are, I’m going to find someone else.
JD: Well, you just have to dig a little further.
The average person doesn’t have that time; only 8 seconds to scan your home page or landing page and determine if you can solve his need.
JD: Guess I need to review my website copy.
Looks like you have nice white papers on your site. You must have spent a lot of time and effort to produce it. How do you promote them?
JD: Not sure actually. I think we email our database.
You send to everyone? Like advertising, content should be distributed towards target audiences. Have you developed buyer personas?
JD: All we have is our database. We know who our buyers are?
Oh, do you have that research? Does your marketing plan support that research?
JD: Oh, we did some research 5 years ago.
Wow, things have changed; social media, the Internet, search engines. You really can’t market based on older assumptions. If you do, your mediums for marketing and messaging may fall short of expectations.
JD: You’re right.
On your website, even if I were interested in your new white paper, your website is not capturing any data; so how can you build a database of prospects?
JD: Well, we do allow people to contact us through a company email address and we ask them questions.
OK. Do you think it would be helpful if you at least captured a job title, and what a customer’s needs are automatically?
JD: Of course.
I’ll introduce you to Marketing Automation. By capturing data, from web form and website navigation behavior, you can easily tell what prospects are engaging with your website and content, and your salespeople can spend more time with those most likely to buy. Marketing Automation does much of this for you; determines who the most likely buyers are, and automatically sends those leads to your CRM.
JD: That kind of system would definitely help my sales team; they certainly spend too much time with tire-kickers.
Those tire-kickers may eventually become real leads if you nurture them with quality content, blog posts, written documents, or webinars. Like any advertising, if you continue to promote quality messages to target audiences, the prospect is more likely to buy.
JD: It sounds like a good way to promote our white papers.
Yes! Also social media. Do you have a social media plan?
JD: A plan? Well I think someone in PR tweets.
Well, that’s not a plan; that’s a tactic. Your potential buyers utilize a number of channels for research; and some of that is learning from blogs and discussing issues on LinkedIn. Need to have a plan, like any media strategy, to determine target audiences, channels, and proper messaging that’s relevant and engaging.
JD: Agreed. Hmm, you’re overwhelming me; I thought our site was compelling.
That’s the problem. Don’t think website strategy; think eMarketing strategy. Your website needs to do a better job of engaging audiences and becoming a lead generator. Your website can be your best salesperson!
JD: I didn’t think about it that way.
Mr. Doe, you’ll be fine if you really understand the importance of what I’m saying and perform some strategic changes to how you do business in today’s electronic world.
Here’s some things to think about:
1. Prospect needs a solution; goes to Internet; searches for what you really sell. You’re not there; leads go to competitors.
2. Prospect is a member of a LinkedIn group. Starts a discussion on a solution. A competitor responds, offers one of his/her blog posts. Prospect reads blog post, likes it, adds competitor’s RSS feed; starts to engage with competitor, eventually fills out webform, becomes a lead.
3. Prospect does get to your website; but is confused by navigation; not sure of his benefits, and leaves to go to competitor who has more engaging content.
I could go on, but I won’t.
JD: I get it. You’ve made great points. Time to rethink what we’re doing! Thank you.
Well, the above is somewhat exaggerated, but the point is, companies need to do a better job of optimizing all of the elements of eMarketing, and it all starts with an assessment on your value proposition, your uniqueness, and your target audiences- who they are, where they are, what makes them consider your products or services, and how they consume media and social media.