On any given web site (which includes all the processes that goes on behind the scenes), there are always pages that could be monetized or get a marketing message across. Very often, these are what I call utility pages. Stuff that aren’t part of your regular content like blog posts or product description pages, but they exist because you need to confirm an action that the customer or visitor has taken, like the thank you page after subscribing to your newsletter. Many marketers are already aware of the value of this page and have taken steps to insert a message there. But there are other pages that are also overlooked.
No matter how you communicate with your online business, to potential and existing customers, words are always the cornerstone and more to the point, the written word.
Today’s online business owners are moving into other forms of media like video and audio to market to their prospects. But, in this arena, it is the words that you pen which will have the greatest impact.
When speaking of the written word, did you know:
Your headlines (composed of written words) are what catch the reader’s attention. Multi-media tools use headlines to catch and grab the attention of the audience so they will “tune in.”
Written content is just about universal. A large majority of the public can access a piece of written content, even when they can’t audio or video. Think about your mobile users and those in rural areas with slower connections. Words are easily accessible.
The written word is the most effective form of communication to keep your customers satisfied. If you provide online customer service (as opposed to telephone support), you’re going to be relying on the written word to decipher your customer’s issue and to resolve them.
You can’t send an email without words. No subject line or no explanation means no response. You use words to get your subscribers to open your emails AND to click to view a video, listen to your audio, etc.
Social networking needs written words Everyone seems to be connected through some social network. Think of the ever popular Twitter which is a system of short texts. MySpace and Facebook rely on words to communicate information, even with other forms of multi-media tools at their disposal.
People surf the Web for information. Giving them an article or review they can read or a step-by-step how-to that they can follow requires you to use words – everywhere.
The truth of the matter is that words will always be big part of marketing your business online – and it’s worth learning how to do it well. The Internet runs on words. Even though some envision a television-type experience sometime in the distant future (personally, I don‘t buy it – we don‘t need another TV…we want the Internet!), words will still play a big role. The Internet is a user-controlled experience and through words, people can easily find what they need and utilize it.
Google maps, Google.com and Google local are powerful tools to find all kinds of products and services. This you already know.
For those businesses who are FOUND it’s an even better tool as Google is one of the most powerful forces (online or offline) to help businesses connect with the customers look for what they sell.
Taking things a step further, wouldn’t it be great to know more information about HOW customers are finding you on Google, what search tools they’re using and more.
Using Google Local you can already have your store hours, a menu and other information about your local store.
What’s new is that with Google Local Business you can get statistics on the traffic to your Google local page.
By Craig Kerr, VP of Marketing at iPost, an email marketing services company
The carefree days of email marketing’s youth were spent blasting emails to as many people as possible. What a party that was – sort of a combination of pledge week and Spring Break. Email was and is cheap to send. And in the past, email campaigns just seemed to make money, no matter how poor the methodology, and that sure looked good compared to the other marketing channels.
But, just like those fresh off Spring Break kids who must suddenly contemplate life after college, email marketers in 2009 should be considering a more practical and, dare we say it, sound business approach if they want to continue receiving a paycheck. Let’s take a look at why – now, more than ever – you should segment your email list, protect against opt-outs and spam complaints, and which segmentation approach is the most practical.
Why should you segment? To avoid disaster
We don’t live in a one size fits all world. Different groups or segments of customers have different needs, buying patterns, and preferences for how and how often they want to interact with a company.
Relevancy is crucial. If you blast emails constantly to someone for a product category that they’re not interested in, they will likely opt-out or flag your brand as a spammer. Bombarding customers, who are not engaged with your brand or who want only occasional contact, with email after email will not convince them to buy your product. Bombardment – no matter how nice the creative – will more likely cause customers to take negative actions, like report you as a spammer or opt-out.
Where do the eyes of most desk bound office workers go during the day?
Looking at their web browsers
Looking at their email
Insanely pecking on their BlackBerries
Besides meetings (and looking at boring Power Point slides) many business people’s eyeballs are glued to a computer screen, and most of the time the computer screen has a web browser opened.
What are we doing? Searching for things on the Internet, shopping, reading the news of the day, working on corporate hosted applications, checking our Facebook pages and more.
While email marketing, blogs, cost per click, and search engine optimization are good strategies for attracting and keeping customers, there’s one more thing you might not have considered: Creating your own browser tool bar.
Conduit, a 3 year old company with headquarters in Israel and Silicon Valley, enables online publishers and retailers to create their own tool bars, which are integrated into Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox. Imagine that every time your customer (or reader) uses their browser your message and branding is in front of their eyes.
“Our toolbar works best for us when we think of it as a community-builder. We now view our customers as potential community members and so we use our toolbar to share specials and promotions that we think will appeal to their interest in our brand and the golf industry – not just what they might want to buy next”, said Gary Colabuono, marketing director, Incredible Technologies. “To that end, we put our Golden Blab customer forum and user game stats on the toolbar. We also put the Golden Tee YouTube channel on it where users can post video of their best golf shots.”
When customers are looking to buy something, right now. Or when they just browsing for information – one of the items that catch their eye on the search engines is the cost per click (paid) advertising on the sides of the search engine results. Online advertising is great for broad based advertising but it’s even more powerful when combined with local advertising. That person looking for a wood rocking chair in Des Moines, Iowa. Or that person looking for died leather computer cases in Seattle, Washington.
Placing these advertisement is not difficult. You just bid for the cost of the key word(s) and then place the advertisements. However to place quality advertisements that result in paying customers takes a bit more skills. There are several services that specialize not only in placing advertisements but that also help you reach local customers.
39% of small businesses are using text. This is definitely a growth from previous years. What does this mean for your own business? This means it’s time to at least seriously consider reaching more customers via text message and not just email, blogs, web sites or traditional mail.
There are dozens (if not more) of services you can use to deliver text messages to your customers. It’s time you, your consultant or you in-house geek read up on text messaging and marketing.
Warrillow writes that some distinct advantages of texting include + Speed to customer: Marketing through text messaging carries a nearly instantaneous delivery time vs. the delays in email or direct mail channels.
+ High open rates: While open rates are much harder to track on an individual campaign basis, telecom industry studies suggest read rates in excess of 90% for text messages vs. 20% to 40% for a typical email campaign.
+ Ease of deployment: If you have your customers’ mobile numbers, you’re ready to start. There are a host of text providers (for example Clickatell or MOVO) ready to assist you with off-the-shelf solutions.
If you aren’t actively marketing for local search prospects, you are missing out big time.
With close to 300 million searches per day, there is no denying that people use search engines. But do they use them when looking for local products and services?
There is an abundance of public data suggesting that as high as 80% of potential prospects turn to the internet first when looking for a local product or service.
The yellow pages are a thing of the past. The new yellow pages are local internet directories and a new medium called Pay Per Click advertising. If you don’t believe me ask yourself when was the last time you picked up your local yellow pages to find a vendor or to do research.
I know it, Google knows it (the majority of their stock price is a reflection of their anticipated growth from advertising) and if you resist it, there is a good chance your business may a thing of the past too. Microsoft knows it too, for this very reason; Microsoft is attempting to purchase Yahoo.
WHY USE PAY PER CLICK (PPC)
There are many reasons why, as a small business owner, you should consider allocating part of your marketing budget to local search marketing strategies, here are just a few:
Highly Targeted-Unlike direct marketing and other forms of advertising your ad will only be served (appear) when a prospect is actively searching for your type of business (typed into your pre-selected “keywordsâ€)
Tracking-there is an old marketing adage that says “I know I am wasting 50% of my marketing budget, but I don’t know which halfâ€. You can’t improve what you can’t measure and Pay Per Click advertising is very easy to measure. With search engine marketing (SEM), you are able to track every aspect of your campaign-keywords, Ad groups, Ads ect. All four major search engines, Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK provide a piece of script that you can put on your websites that give you very important visitor information (that will be covered in an upcoming article), all available in report form.
Testing-You can quickly and easily run A/B testing for both Ads (to drive leads) and different landing pages (to convert prospects).
Performance based-It is the only advertising available that you only get charged if a prospect actually takes action (clicks on your ad). This actually is a second form of qualifying. The prospect not only is actively searching for your type of business, but actually liked your ad enough to click on it.
HOW IT WORKS
Choose your search engine to advertise on. Google, Yahoo, MSN and ASK.com account for 90% of all searches. Each search engine has different demographics for their typical users, so do some research.
Choose your keywords and key search phrases. In other words, when do you want your ad to appear? For example: if you were to look for an accountant in your area, what would be your search phrase? “Las Vegas accountantâ€, “cpa in las vegasâ€, “irs audit cpa las vegasâ€.
Choose a monthly Pay Per Click (PPC) budget. Many of the pay per click search engines allow you to manage budgets based on a set dollar amount or by daily or monthly limitations. Choose the PPC budget management tool which best suits your needs.
A word of caution before you run off and start pouring money into your PPC campaigns. Though, there is no denying that, when executed correctly, PPC can be a leading sales driver and profit builder, it can also drain your marketing budget if you aren’t careful.
Read and study as much as you can about Pay Per click and how it works. I would also recommend you start out small and learn what works and what doesn’t and then scale up your budget when you begin to get the hang of it. Be prepared though, Yahoo! anticipates the average advertiser spends nearly 17 hours per month managing their accounts. And that’s just Yahoo!. Add to that Google, MSN and Ask.com and it can quickly become a full time job.
If you believe that Pay Per Click can benefit your company but you don’t have the time, energy or desire to tackle this project on your own, there are many companies that will manage your search campaigns for you- my company being one of them. For more information on how to attract more clients using Pay Per Click (PPC) go to www.stickymarketingsystems.com
Email marketing service Constant Contact did a survey recently of more than 2,000 U.S. small business owners which showed that the majority of respondents (53 percent) are concerned about competition from large retailers; yet they’re still optimistic, with 63 percent of them anticipating strong sales this holiday season.
