Archive for the 'Internet Marketing' Category

08
May

Using Local Search to Generate Sales Leads

By david 0 Comments
Categories: Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization

Think of it as an upgrade from the often pricey, frequently overlooked, and increasingly outdated YellowPages ad. Since many small companies do not have the resources to track clicks and would prefer to create sales leads in person or via telemarketing, local search engines offer a more practical option than Google’s AdWords and Yahoo’s AdSense.

Individuals in the 18-35 age range are several times more likely to turn to the Web for information on their surroundings than they are the YellowPages or even 411 information providers. That demographic is widening daily as folks of all ages are going online more than ever before. With the rising popularity of handheld PDAs, it’s probable that local search engines will soon become the most relied upon providers of information on local businesses.

While it is not necessary for a company to have a website in order to take advantage of local search, some businesses invest in basic websites consisting of just one to five pages and list them in the local search engines. For example, let’s say you own a hair salon in White Plains, NY. In an effort to increase business, you decide to have a template website created that provides some background information about your salon, its services, hours of operation, and some pictures of your salon and examples of your work.

Once your website is complete, you list it with a few of the leading local search engines. The benefit is that when someone visits one of these sites looking for a “hair salon in White Plains NY” the person will find your website, have the ability to see what kind of services you offer and other important information about your business, and will hopefully follow up with a visit or phone call your establishment.

Several local search engines have popped up during the past couple years, with the most prominent being Yahoo! Local, Overture Local Match, Ask Jeeves Local, and AOL Local Search. Other sites like CitySearch and AOL’s Digital City have been in on this action for well over a decade now.

Overture’s Local Match allows advertisers to target customers in specific regions or local areas. They can select a geographic area surrounding their business (a radius ranging from 0.5 to 100 miles) and bid on keyword phrases relating to their products and services. The payment structure for Local Match is on a cost-per-click basis. In other words, the advertiser pays the bid amount after a prospect clicks on the advertiser’s listing. In addition to Yahoo Local’s free listings, they also offer Enhanced Listings that allow advertisers to pay a monthly fee in order to provide additional information such as the company’s tagline, a business description, promotional offers, photos, and testimonials.

Local search is especially helpful for those who do research online and plan to buy offline. Searchers have the ability to gather the information they need to visit local businesses for the product or service they are interested in. In addition, for those companies that have intricate e-commerce websites, local search caters to the individual who wishes to shop online, but wants to know that the business they are dealing with is nearby in the event they need to return an item or have a customer service issue.

An estimated 10-20% of searches contain local modifiers that can be interpreted as the user seeking some type of local information. When bidding on local search terms, it is important to understand the user’s intent. The goal is to provide the user with highly relevant results, in this case geographically targeted and pertaining to their specific key word or phrase.

04
Apr

You Have an Online Reputation to Uphold

By david 0 Comments
Categories: Internet Marketing

Do you know what your customers, ex-employees, and competitors are saying about you? The Internet allows information to travel faster than the speed of sound, so it’s important that you’re paying attention to online conversations about your company. Anything posted on the Internet about you can have a huge impact on how people view your organization.

When it comes to establishing and preserving your company’s online image, a good, quality website is just the beginning. A great beginning no doubt, but there are a wide range of other things to consider.

Today’s smart consumers use the web to make buying decisions. They do this by first researching a brand by reading reviews and getting opinions from other people who have purchased your product or service. With the explosion of blogs, forums, and message boards, consumers have easy access to posting and reading free information on the web. Without spending a dime, they have the ability to sound off about essentially anything they feel like, and people are reading. All you have to do is enter a search term about a brand and you’ll likely come up with pages of results.

Why not try searching your own brand? Look beyond your own website listings and find out what others are saying about you. Are there any negative listings saying bad things about your brand or your company? Listening to what they say gives you an opportunity to perform damage control so that you can ensure a positive web presence for your business.

Here are some steps you can take to uphold your company’s online reputation.

Step 1. Monitor what’s being said about you.

Assign someone at your company to be in charge of performing regular Internet searches for your company. It can be difficult to continuously monitor everything that is being said on the web, so you need to establish an early warning system to alert you of all news relating to your brand. You can set up free Google and Yahoo Alerts to catch the use of your company’s name in the news. In addition, you can use sites such as Feedster and Technorati to see what’s being said about you in blogs. The person in charge of this important task should track for all names associated with your business, including brand names, company names, product names, and key employee names.

In addition to self-tracking, you should look at other information such as competing brands and organizations, industry terms, as well as general industry news. If your company has an individual in charge of public relations, he or she is the ideal person to handle this online reputation management. However if you do not and cannot afford to hire a PR professional, assign the task to another trustworthy individual.

Step 2. Participate in the discussion.

You have the power to influence online conversations by becoming actively involved in them. Your participation will give you the opportunity to improve the perception of your brand. Take an active part in your industry conversation by becoming a regular contributor to blogs and forums within your industry. Besides blogs, you can lead the conversation about your brand on forums, consumer opinion sites, consumer complaint sites, and social network sites. By being honest and responding directly to critics, you’ll build trust in your audience, even if the truth is negative. If a blog or forum includes inaccuracies about your brand you should send them clarifying evidence and ask them to remove the error.

Step 3. Develop your online assets.

First, make sure your corporate website is fully search engine optimized and appears at the top of results lists for your name and your brand. Also consider creating a corporate blog if you do not already have one. There are many benefits to this kind of forward thinking.

It is important that you publish all of your company’s corporate communications on your website. This type of information can include press releases, articles, testimonials, case studies, and white papers. Optimize these pages for the search engines as well. Submit your press releases to online wire service to ensure maximum visibility, and optimize the releases for your company name and brand.

If you do not already have a paid search campaign in place, it is a good idea to start taking advantage of Pay-per-Click advertising. Include a listing for your company name and/or brand. The combination of high organic listings and PPC ad presence will help you to dominate your search engine space and counter the efforts of competitors who try to infringe on your trademark.

A note about PPC ads and trademark infringement: If you take advantage of Pay-per-Click advertising, you should be aware of the dangers of trademark infringement. 20% of all online searches are for actual brands. Companies often bid on the brand names of their competitors. So if a searcher types in your brand name in a search engine, they could get results that include ads for your competitors. They might click on your competitor’s ad thinking it’s related to your website, which is a form of bait and switch. You can control this when advertising on Yahoo and MSN, as they offer you the opportunity to prohibit others from bidding on your trademarked search terms. At this time Google does not offer this option. It is highly recommended that you perform regular searches of your brand name and report violators to the appropriate search engine.

The key to managing your online reputation is persistence. You must constantly monitor and take the appropriate action to uphold your company’s image. Only you have the power to prevent the loss of business and ensure the ongoing success of your organization.

12
Mar

Web 2.0 for Businesses

By lillian 0 Comments
Categories: Internet Marketing

With the explosion of online social networks during the past couple of years, it was only a matter of time before businesses got in on the action. More and more small businesses today are bypassing conventional methods of advertising and setting up their profiles on social networking sites like MySpace and LinkedIn.

Social networking websites are especially attractive to businesses because these forums provide free advertising that has the potential of reaching an audience of millions. Local concert halls, restaurants, coffee houses, radio stations, publications, retailers, and car dealerships are just a handful of the types of companies that are taking advantage of the vast access to the younger demographic that these sites provide.

An exact membership total is not possible because the number grows by the second, but approximately 40 million members worldwide call MySpace home. In fact, MySpace is so popular that it receives more traffic than Google. LinkedIn, while currently less popular, is growing quickly with a membership of approximately 10 million. Facebook and Flixster are also part of the phenomenon, along with dozens of others.

LinkedIn is a network that connects businesses and professionals by industry, functions, geography and areas of interest. Since it is more conservative than the often-controversial MySpace, many professionals and business owners find it more beneficial to join LinkedIn. Plus, its sole purpose is to connect businesses for the purpose of advancement, so it’s basically a no-brainer.

Other business-oriented social networking sites that are growing in popularity include Ryze, Orkut, Ecademy, and NetParty. Although different from one another, what these networks have in common is that they all act as a customer relationship management tool for companies selling products and services. Companies can also use social networks for advertising in the form of banners and text ads.

Another very effective way for businesses to take advantage of Web 2.0 is by setting up a company blog. This presents a very user-friendly way for potential customers to find information about your service offerings. The idea is to post articles or short entries that provide useful information to visitors on your area(s) of expertise. For instance, if you own a home inspection business, you might want to blog about valuable do-it-yourself tips for homeowners. Blog-frequenters become just that because they appreciate the fact that they can leave feedback on blog entries. This interactive exchange of information is quickly becoming the norm amongst most of the top companies on the Web.

With customer satisfaction rates at an all time low, blogs and social networking sites present an opportunity for a prospective customer or prospective member to easily facilitate a real, human-level connection with individuals within an organization. This enables genuine business relationships to form and puts an authentic human face on the interaction, changing the external perception of an organization from a sterile, faceless behemoth into a collection of individuals who are ready to help.

While online social networks may be somewhat new to business, the so-called MySpace generation has grown up with them. That means that by the time these individuals enter the workforce, online social networking will be a major part of everyday business, and the organizations that have determined how to best integrate them into their operations will be the ones that are most successful.

16
Feb

9 Steps to Improving Your PPC Results

By lillian 0 Comments
Categories: Internet Marketing and PPC Campaign

When paid search is done correctly, it can deliver the best results for your advertising dollar. However, it can be quite challenging and requires careful selection of keywords and phrases, expert copywriting for ads and landing pages, and in-depth analysis and testing of results.

Mistakes can cost your company dearly in bottom line profits, so it is important to employ a series of best practices when developing pay per click campaigns. Here are nine steps you can take to vastly improve your PPC results:

  1. Develop more 3, 4, & 5 word keyphrases.
    A good keyword program has a mix of single keywords as well as multiple work keyphrases. The reason for this is that single keywords are often less profitable because they cost more and have lower conversion rates. It is therefore crucial that you incorporate multiple keyword phrases that are less costly and higher in conversion. Although the exact percentage varies from industry to industry, you should aim to have at least 60% of your search traffic emanate from multiple word keyphrases. Also be wary of the higher priced and less relevant terms resulting from broad matching. Broad matching tactics are not a substitution for keyword development.
  2. Write qualifying descriptive copy.
    Successful ads feature copy that brings qualified buyers to their landing pages. For example, if you run a high-end clothing boutique, your ad should target clients that are prepared to pay the high price associated with such luxury. An ad that includes general copy such as “wide selection of women’s clothing” leading to a site selling high-priced clothing most people cannot afford would be misleading. Instead you should say, “Shop designer women’s fashions,” or some variation. Your ad copy should accomplish two things: a) encourage qualified customers to click on your ad, and b) discourage those who are not interested in your product or service. Keep in mind that you only pay the search engines when someone clicks on your ad, so make the click worth its price by using qualifying copy that results in conversion.
  3. Send searchers to a relevant landing page.
    Today’s experienced Internet users expect to find exactly what they want when they click on an ad. If they are taken to a website’s home page, a broad category page, or worse, a totally unrelated page, they are likely to leave your site as quickly as they arrived. Analyze each keyphrase you are using and determine the best landing page your site has to offer the searcher. Regularly test all SEM links to ensure that they are bringing users to the appropriate web page. Make it your business to deliver a top-notch user experience to website visitors, which includes having well-designed, easy-to-navigate landing pages that communicate a clear call to action.
  4. Don’t rely too heavily on automated bid management strategies.
    Technology alone cannot bring you sales. Human intervention is imperative in the creation of a successful PPC campaign. You’ll achieve the best results by using a bid management tool combined with the careful analysis and qualitative research that can only be performed by humans. Technology can be used to retrieve information, crunch numbers, and sort data. People should then analyze that information and data and make bidding decisions based on a clear understanding of the business.
  5. Don’t allow affiliates to bid on your branded products and company trademarks.
    If your company has branded products and trademarked items, allowing affiliates and resellers to bid on these terms can be a huge mistake. It can negatively impact your performance, raise marketing costs, and even reduce your sales. Instead you should make your affiliates sign a Rules of Engagement document that states they can bid on everything except branded terms. Then assign someone to monitor your branded search terms on all engines to ensure compliance.
  6. Accept that the top listing is not always the best.
    Most companies assume that the top search engine position is always the best. However, it is more profitable to determine the position that yields the best volume and profitability. Top positions are the most expensive, and might not deliver the best ROI for you. If you can obtain the top position without paying through the nose, by all means grab it. But it is important to realize that other factors are involved here. Perhaps your product and pricing are better than that of the competitor listed above you. If that is the case your target audience will realize that regardless of your position.
  7. Analyze what your competitors are doing.
    It is important to keep in mind that the actions of your competitors can directly impact your SEM performance. Identify who your competitors are and then devise a plan to monitor their search activities. Choose the top keywords that account for 80% of your PPC budget and closely monitor those every day. Then adjust your bidding strategy accordingly, taking advantage of bidding gaps and more aggressive opportunities.
  8. Understand the differences between the major search engines.
    Not all search engines work the same way, and it is very important that you realize this when putting together a PPC campaign. For example, Yahoo treats the singular and plural forms of keywords as one, but Google requires you to submit keywords in both the singular and plural format in order to have visibility for each. In addition, some search engines have an open auction environment that allows you to bid into each position, but others have invisible bidding forums wherein your position and click price are determined via a relevancy score algorithm. Another major difference that exists is the set of copywriting rules that each search engine enforces. Each has its own unique character limitations and word restrictions that must be followed.
  9. Watch out for click fraud!
    It’s time to face reality. Click fraud is real, it can happen to you, and you should have a plan in place to deal with it. Search engines are constantly working to improve this situation, but the bottom line is that you must take steps to protect yourself against fake impressions, fraudulent clicks, “click pimping,” and attacks by competitors. Put safeguards in place using reporting and analysis to uncover data that may suggest fraud is occurring. If you discover that you are the victim of click fraud, present your case to the search engine provider and be persistent in demanding refunds.
12
Feb

The Highest ROI for Your Marketing Dollar

By tim 0 Comments
Categories: Internet Marketing

Business owners are constantly looking for the most successful and cost-effective ways to grow their businesses and boost their bottom lines. So why are some businesses still not taking advantage of email marketing?

Studies show that the majority of adults who use the Internet have a positive attitude toward receiving email marketing communications, as long as they are from a familiar source. Most consumers look to email communications for special discounts and offers as well as informative articles relating to their specific lifestyle.

In fact, as proactive, educated consumers, many Internet users have come to rely on these email promotions to help them get the best deals possible. Once commonly viewed as SPAM, email marketing has evolved over the years, and is now considered one of the most effective ways to market.

If you have been reluctant to institute an email marketing program for your business before, there is certainly enough evidence to position this form of marketing as a valuable tool for any business to take advantage of. Consider these remarkable facts:

  • In the US alone, 88% of adult Internet users have personal email accounts.
  • Another 46% have email access at work.
  • Added together, that’s an estimated 147 million people across the country using email every day.

Email is also healthier for your bottom line than any other marketing application. Here’s how it compares to traditional marketing methods:

  • Email ROI per $1 spent: $51.45
  • Print catalogs: $7.20
  • Non-email Internet marketing: $21.08

Virtually any type of business has the ability to effectively market through email. Retailers, professional service providers, publications, learning institutions, and promoters are just a few of the business sectors that successfully market via this medium. Whether you are looking to generate sales, deepen your relationship with your clients or prospects, publicize an event, create buzz, or increase brand awareness, email marketing can work for you.

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of email marketing is its measurability. While it can be very difficult to measure the success of most types of marketing and advertising, a good email marketing program allows you to monitor your marketing campaign with up to the minute data for every email you send. You can see the number of emails sent, emails opened, bounce backs, unsubscribes, click-through rates, and more. All of this useful information can help you send highly targeted campaigns to the individuals most likely to respond to your offer, thus improving your future results.

The fact that email marketing is fast and convenient is just the icing on the cake. The bottom line is that in the present business climate, any company not taking advantage of this valuable marketing tool is missing out on considerable revenue.

05
Feb

The Panamazation of Paid Search

By david 0 Comments
Categories: Internet Marketing

First announced in April 2006, Yahoo’s “Project Panama” promised a revamped paid search engine marketing platform that would eliminate its “open auction” structure in favor of the invisible bidding format already in use by Google, MSN, and Ask. Yahoo began Panama’s launch in December and plans to have all of its clients utilizing the new platform by the end of February.

We understand why Yahoo had to remodel its search platform. And it sounds like they’ve made some nice improvements. The comprehensive dashboard, practically instant ad activation, testing capabilities, ad grouping, and scheduling features are just a few of the many new additions Yahoo has made to its platform. However the jury is still out, as many of Panama’s new features have generated mixed reviews thus far. Here are the major changes Yahoo’s PPC clients will face:

Account Dashboard - Although shocking at first, Yahoo’s new account dashboard promises easier management and better visibility and control over your campaigns. Your new dashboard will feature a performance overview complete with graphs and a customized “watch” list of your top campaigns.

Ad Activation - In what might be the most attractive new feature for Yahoo’s PPC clients, ads will go live within three to five minutes instead of three to five business days as was standard on Yahoo’s old platform.

Ad Testing - Advertisers on Yahoo will now have the ability to test drive their advertising messages in order to improve the quality of their ads. This means you can easily determine which messages perform best with your target audience.

Geo-Targeting - Yahoo now allows advertisers to target by location, narrowing ad distribution to cities and surrounding areas. When done correctly, this can help improve your ROI.

Campaign Scheduling - With the promise that you’ll more efficiently manage your ad spending, Yahoo now offers users the ability to control the timing of their campaigns with optional date scheduling.

Ranking - In the same way that Google’s AdWords works, Yahoo will now factor in the ad’s quality as well as the bid amount. The old system awarded the highest position to whomever paid the most for it. Now they will consider how well the ad actually performs along with actual bid amount for each ad.

Ad Groups - Keywords can now be grouped according to a common subject, so that keywords in groups can now be served with multiple ads. Hopefully Yahoo is right and this will save advertisers time setting up and monitoring their campaigns.

Reporting - Instead of pre-defined reports, Yahoo now offers reports that are customizable in order to deliver marketers more information that really matters to them.

After a rough go in 2006, obviously Yahoo’s intent is to make their pay per click advertising program more attractive and easier to use for advertisers, thereby retaining its current client base and attracting new ones. Panama’s initial announcement pleased investors, but is it enough to pull Yahoo out of the woods? We’ll just have to see what the outcome of 2007’s transition period brings.

19
Jan

The 80/20 Rule of Search

By david 0 Comments
Categories: Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimization

There is a new concept being talked about in the web marketing industry. This new paradigm, dubbed the 80/20 rule of search, has sprung out of the realization that many of the earlier beliefs about search engine marketing are no longer true, or perhaps were never true in the first place.

When they were first introduced to search engine marketing (SEM), many marketers believed that with this innovative new concept, web marketing could be handled solely through the use of technology, and that human interaction wasn’t necessary in producing successful online campaigns. However, after results fell short time and again, these marketers were forced to take a second look at their original ideas.

Marketers are now learning that words like “autopilot” and “set it and forget it” are no more than advertising ploys used by companies that simply don’t understand what it takes to manage search effectively.

The new belief is that for SEM to live up to its promise, it is time for a completely new model - the 80/20 rule of search. The idea behind this rule is that:

  • 20% of the success of a paid search program is rooted in technology; and
  • 80% of the success of a paid search program is derived from a human component.

20% - Technology’s Role in the Process

There are three areas where technology is crucial in search engine marketing:

  1. Gathering and sorting huge amounts of data from numerous engines. This includes information on impressions, clicks, number of conversions, and dollar value of conversions. All of this gives us the ability to capture information for every keyword/search engine combination.
  2. Calculating important ROI metrics based on the data collected such as ROAS (Return On Advertising Spend); CTA (Cost To Acquire); CPL (Cost Per Lead); and CPO (Cost Per Order).
  3. Producing a wide range of reports, including top-level summary reports, detailed trend analysis, grouped keyword analysis, and individual keywords.

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The Other 80% - The Role of Human Intelligence

The 80% human component in the equation consists of marketers who interpret data and market conditions to make the best possible bidding decisions. These qualitative contributions involve developing expansive and relevant keyword sets as well as call-to-action marketing communications. They also include creating succinct landing pages that meet the expectations of search engine users and set consumers on the conversion path.

Keyword Development
Automated tools can certainly offer ideas for keyword development, but intuitive thinking is an essential factor in developing a robust keyword list. Just a few of the various issues to consider are product and brand names, synonyms, misspellings, singular and plural forms, features, benefits, and competitors.

Search Term Copywriting
Writing ads for search engines involves a combination of art and science that cannot be emulated by technology. One must adhere to the strict rules enforced by search engines while still drawing the reader in with a tempting promotion. Successful ads accomplish two goals: 1) encourage customers to click on your ad rather than your competitors’ ads, and 2) discourage non-qualified consumers who are not interested in your product or service. This task is not easy given that it must be achieved with three lines of text and no graphics.

When the proper marketing communication strategy is applied, the highest quality site traffic is delivered to your website with the greatest likelihood of conversion.

Destination Page Analysis
One of the biggest and most frequent errors made by companies in paid search engine marketing is consistently sending all searches to their home page or to pages that are totally irrelevant to the search term. Today’s web-users expect relevant information when they click on an ad, and when they do not receive it they quickly move on to their next option, which is usually your competition.

Review of Multiple Variables When Making Bidding Decisions
Each company must establish its own complex set of rules in making bid and position decisions. It is important to remember that being #1 isn’t always the right choice; often times dropping down in position makes more sense. Bid setting is not just about price, it’s more about relevant position. There are multiple variables that must be reviewed prior to making bidding decisions. Marketers must analyze the types of competitors listed above and below them on a search engine, the various marketing messages of competitors, the ROI effects of raising bids and conversely, of lowering bids, they must perform a historical position analysis, and they must consider the impact of affiliates, resellers and other third parties.

Conclusion
While the all-technology solution for paid search is clearly enticing because it involves less work and seems more cost-effective, the reality is that today’s technology is only capable of covering 20% of the requirement for an effective campaign. Technology is limited because it relies solely on quantitative factors and is unable to consider qualitative factors such as consumer search intentions, marketing copy triggers, and irrelevant landing page content.

That’s why it is imperative that the other 80% of a successful SEM program includes the human element. The result is a powerful combination of the complex intelligence of the human brain and cutting-edge technology. Apply this rule in your online marketing endeavors and you’ll soon benefit from the truly extraordinary power of the web.

January 2009
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