Author Archive
Google Tweaks its AdWords Algorithm
A slew of companies rely on Google’s AdWords system to bring users to their sites. But in an attempt to improve the quality of AdWords, Google will unveil a new judging
system in the next few days that could have a major impact on current AdWords users.
The most important change the company announced Monday has to do with how it calculates the AdWords Quality Score, which helps determine the order of each ad for a given keyword. Google said that it now calculates quality in real-time as a Google user performs a search, along with its current practice of analyzing click-through rates, and landing page quality is evaluated less frequently.
Google is also eliminating its “inactive for search’ moniker for those keywords that would yield few (if any) impressions. The company said that all keywords are now available on Google.com and although the company said those keywords will probably still yield less than ideal results, they may add some impressions for those sites using them.
Finally, and perhaps the most controversial, Google announced that it will replace “minimum bid” prices with “first page bid estimates,” which will probably see rates go up. According to Google, on those keywords that have few advertisers bidding for placement, the new bid estimate should be close to the old minimum bid. But for those companies that want first-page placement on keywords that are more popular among advertisers, the cost could be “significantly higher.”
Google didn’t give any word on exactly when the new system will be rolled out, but it should happen over the next few days.
Reposted from http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/15/adwords-quality-judging-on-its-way/
What the Election Teaches Us About Marketing
This is from Seth Godins blog. he makes some extremely valid points.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/marketing-lesso.html
Marketing Tips-Social Networks
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to go over with you the research I’ve been doing on Social Networks, namely LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com and Facebook (www.facebook.com). I started this in January and now in April wanted to share this with you.
As I’ve mentioned before, an analysis of my income over the last several years made me realize that word of mouth marketing has been my most successful action.
For whatever reason, I have greater success with referrals than with gaining new customers from scratch so to speak.
Now, that doesn’t mean that I don’t use the services I sell to others to gain leads, just that half the job is done when we are referred.
About three weeks ago, I picked up this book called Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Black book of Connections—6.5 Assets for Networking Your Way to RICH relationships and it actually was applicable to what I was endeavoring. (It’s an easy and interesting read, and I suggest it for you.)
Keeping that in mind, I joined Linked In and Facebook. First of all, Facebook is a blast. I did get back in touch with friends and old business associates I hadn’t been in touch with in years.
Facebook is much more personal. You post your own picture, bio, interests, and can interact by sending messages, playing a game, or giving virtual drinks, gifts and my personal favorite, throwing a sheep at someone…
Now, you’d think this wouldn’t have much of a business application, but I found out differently.
Thru my associations on Facebook, I gained the following:
A connection to old business associates,
A connection to three extremely influential marketers that I previously read their books, but never met,
Two clients and
I was booked as the moderator of the online retailing panel at Winter Music Conference http://www.wintermusicconference.com/events/schedule/index.php .
I just spent the week in Miami at the conference and then personally met over 100 people.
As far as Linked In goes, I again, found some business associates I hadn’t been in touch with in a while. I noticed that there is a function where you can answer questions in an area that you are expert and decided to answer some of these questions.
Well, as far as I can tell, this is the Holy Grail for business development. I have people e-mailing me, joining my network and I was asked to be a guest speaker on a webinar on Social Networking on April 17 not to mention the EVP for Marketing and Sales for a large corporation that I wouldn’t have been able to connect with without it.
If you are interested in attending this seminar, please go to Conference Call University and register using this link:
http://www.myeasyonlinestore.com/app/?Clk=2341074 . There is a nominal cost to attend, but the subject matter is about social networking for business.
Now, this is the kind of networking you can’t outsource. You need to be in the trenches yourself spending an hour or so a day developing these relationships. The other thing to note, (and info I got from Mr. Gitomer’s book) is that you need to add value to your connections and not approach this medium with what can they do for me. Now, I know we are looking for new business, but the fact is, you’ll get new business by being helpful in your chosen field. As a result you’ll start to be considered an expert and then you’ll get more business.
In addition to all that I have two blogs that are about business, life, etc. and people get a sense of who I am. People are much more likely to do business with someone they know. You might want to check out my blogs at www.laurabetterly.blogspot.com or www.laurabetterly.com to see what I’m talking about.
Anyway, that’s what I’ve discovered and wanted you to be able to do this too.
Shameless self promotion below:
PS. Do keep us in mind for all your marketing needs. We’ll give you a consultation on your current marketing strategy and in most cases we improve results dramatically. On one recent client we cut their lead cost in half, doubled their traffic and increased their conversion rate between 100-300% (e-mail me to get the case study.)
Marketing Tips: Recession
Hi Everyone,
I know a lot of you are worried about the recession. What does it mean to me? Will I be able to support my family? Why is the price of gas so high that I have now used vacation budget just to get to work? Am I going to make it?
Well, there are no easy answers. In an economic downturn, most people will economize and not buy things they don’t see as a necessity. You need to remember, though, that there are still customers out there and in fact, the slowing economy is an opportunity. Opportunity? Yes, opportunity. You see, a lot of businesses are not going to stay in business. It’s a shame, but it’s true. The businesses that survive this economy will not have as much competition once it all shakes out and they will be stronger.
So how do you become one of the guys that stay in business? Drum roll please…The businesses that will survive are the ones that continue to promote despite every reason they think they shouldn’t.
You must lower costs and streamline your activities so that you are still making more than you’re spending. Most important for you to know is that you cannot forget how important your own promotion and marketing are to the future of your business. If you don’t think enough of yourself to let others know you are there and what business you’re in, how would you expect your customers to find you? OK, so there are fewer customers in an economic downturn, but there are customers, and the only way you will stay in business is if they find YOU. So the answer as crazy as it sounds it to promote MORE and not less. You also need to promote smarter. You need to know your customers, what they need and want and communicate to them in a way that let’s them know you’re the right company for their business.
Regardless, these are trying times and I wish you all great success.
Please call or e-mail me if we can be of any help to you.
AN EXAMPLE OF SOMEONE WHO IS MARKETING SMARTER:
Retailer Case Study: Moo Shoes
Moo Shoes is a shoe retailer with a twist- They sell shoes but only shoes that are non leather and don’t involve animals in any way, in other words, vegan shoes. They had a very small budget and had to make it work more efficiently.
We did an analysis of their account and were able to optimize them for their particular niche by rapidly testing more effective ad copy, and using our normal optimization techniques to get them the same volume of clicks, for half the cost.
RESULTS:
* Budget unchanged.
* Traffic virtually unchanged.
* Cost per click cut in half.
* Overall 107% efficiency increase.
Laura Betterly on Website Conversions
Hi Everyone,
Hope you are all doing well.
I thought I’d spend a few minutes going over an interesting discovery with regarding website conversions.
As you probably know, we almost always suggest putting a lead form on all websites. We also suggest that a phone number is prominently displayed on the site.
In addition, we add statistic tracking to the site so we can see what specific keywords brought the person to the site and which of those keywords were the most effective for gaining a lead or sale.
Now, most of you know how paid search works. You do some research on how people are searching and what competitors are doing, place some ads and if your research and ad are done right, you will get a percentage of the people clicking on to the target website.
That is the first threshold of what needs to be cracked so to speak in order to get an efficient campaign.
Now, what if you’re getting traffic and you are not getting leads or sales?
There are a few potential reasons for this:
–Your website is not designed for conversions. Some sites, although aesthetic, are really designed for PR purposes, not to sell.
–There wasn’t enough market research done in the first place so that certain elements such as price point are not right.
–There was no optimization done (split testing, and work done on these specific pages designed to make them convert.)
–There is no market for your product (which would have been known if market research was indeed done.)
–The site is really is converting and you didn’t know it…Huh? How could that be? You might be thinking, I have my tracking set up correctly, so how could I be missing conversions? Simple, when you omit the phone calls that came in as a result of your web promotion, you are painting a false picture on your conversion tracking.
This is not hard to see when you realize that your most interested people will CALL and not fill out a lead form. So, how do you figure out which calls are a result of your web promotion? Well, you could ask everyone who calls religiously where they found out about you, but in reality, not many organizations will do that when really busy.
We found a great resource for doing this, an online telephone center that gives you a toll free number. Not only does it give you reports of who called and when, it gives you the ability to forward to any phone (including your cell) in essence creating a virtual office.
When we started to add this to our conversions we found out we were way more successful than we realized. In some cases as much as eight calls to one lead form.
So, the lesson for today, is to really monitor your conversions, you need to make sure that the calls in are accounted for.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if we can be of help to you in your marketing needs.
Till next week.
Organic Listings VS Pay Per Click What’s the big deal??
Good question. Having a website is great. It truely is your storefront, but what’s the point if it can’t be found? It’s like having the very best prices for designer footwear but your storefont is a fifth floor walk up in Harlem near some drug dealers. Noone will find you.
There are many companies that will tell you that they can get you on the front page of Google. Some of these guys are not quite ethical. Ask them what key word(s) will you come up on. It was a common practice some of these guys do is optimize for obscure keywods that no one searches for which begs the question, how do you know the right keywords to optimize for?
Glad you asked. The smart thing to do if you are going to optimize your website would to do a pay per click campaign first. You would then know the keywords that were actually giving you traffic, leads and sales.
So, the rule of thumb is this, run a pay per click campaign, really get the keywords correct, then optimize. You can only optimize for about 25 keywords so if you have many more than that that are bringing you traffic, you would still continue to run a pay per click campaign.
Let us know if you’d like us to evaluate your account or do a feasibilty report on your website.
Until Next time,
Laura Betterly
President
Yada Yada Marketing Inc.
727-442-5888
You get what you pay for!
Hi Everyone,
I was talking to a colleague of mine yesterday and you know, we were commiserating about client experiences we have had, where we have done a great job, no not great, but beyond great job and the client then went and offered us a fee that was practically insulting.
He told me a story about a doctor who saved a patients life and sent the patient a bill for $100,000.00. The patient was upset because he only spent 15 minutes with him and asked for an itemized bill. What he got was this:
Hospital Stay: $ 5,000.00
Supplies: 2,000.00
Knowing where to cut: 93,000.00
Now, I know this is just a story, but it does illustrate a point. We each have our area of expertise and should be well compensated for it. If you do something better than others, there is a value that doesn’t equate to how many hours put into a project, but the value of the completed project.
So, today’s tip really has more to do with knowing your value. If you undersell your service, you are actually setting yourself up for a loss. Your clients will know they are not properly compensating you and will actually not treat you well.
Don’t be afraid to ask for what you are worth!
Now, of course, if you do need my help with marketing and PR, do let me know.
Till next week.
Best,
Laura Betterly
President
www.yadayadamarketing.com
727-442-5888
Another Success:
We did a head to head test with Reach Local and had 517% better results than them!
Six Marketing Tips
Hi Everyone,
In talking to a lot of people who have their own businesses I often hear I know everything about my business, but the phone isn’t ringing. What’s wrong?
It’s a problem that almost everyone in business that isn’t a marketing expert faces. You can be the best plumber, tax accountant, or doctor in the world, but if you don’t know how to get the word out–how to market your product or service–there’s no way you can get the customers you need.
Here are six essential steps to follow to get great marketing that doesn’t cost a fortune.
1. Define your market.
Decide who your main customers are. Find out all you can about them. Look at your past sales and see any commonality and don’t be afraid to ask them questions to find out more about what you can do to help them and find similar prospects.
2. Find out what media your target market uses.
Is it TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines or the Internet?
3. Limit the media you use to what you can afford to use consistently.
The key to effective marketing is consistency. You have to hit the audience with your message again, and again, and again.
Don’t blow your entire marketing budget on a one-shot try. Choose a less expensive type of media that you can afford to use week after week. That’s how you get marketing success.
4. Sell the main benefit of your product or service. Make your marketing geared to your clients.
How does your product or service improve your customer’s life? Talk to your customer from their own perspective.
5. If you don’t have a big budget, use FREE mediums such as Social Networks. If you have a good public interest piece or newsworthy, call your local news editor and try to get them to interview you.
6. You have information that is unique to you and your business. Give some of it away as newsletters or white papers. This will let people know you are real and knowledgeable. Even if they won’t buy from you today, they’ll remember you tomorrow.
As always, please contact me if we can be of any help to you in your marketing efforts.
Best,
Laura Betterly
President
Yada Yada Marketing, Inc.
Laura Betterly: More on Social Networks
Hi Everyone,
I apologize for not getting this to you earlier this week, but I suspect the tools I want to tell you about will give you something to do over the weekend if you’re like me.
First off, I think you know my view on social networks. I love them. I’ve found www.linkedin.com and www.facebook.com very valuable to building business. Here’s a link to a list of over 300 social networks http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/social-networking-god/ where you can end up finding like minded people based in your niche.
A new network that just popped up is http://www.e-factor.biz/ . This network is for entrepreneurs and potential investors.
There are other networking resources for business. You can create your own social network at www.ning.com . No mess, no fuss, you can be up and running in minutes.
Then there is www.bebo.com that is a combination of a blog and social network.
Other authority sites for businesses and individuals www.namyz.com and www.ryze.com .
If you want to know what is being said about you on the net you can buy a report and possibly get unwanted information eradicated by going to http://www.reputationdefender.com/ .
If you want to get your name on the first page of a web search, set up a blog at www.wordpress.com . Other free blogs can be made at www.blogger.com and http://www.typepad.com/. Some integrate with sites like www.digg.com so all you have to do is find an article that you like on Digg and with one button, post to your blog and share it with your audience.
Another interesting resource is http://www.guerrillamail.com/ where you can get a temporary e-mail address that expires in fifteen minutes. It’s great if you have to give out your address in order to check something out, but really don’t want to get a ton of mail from the user.
Lastly for giggles go to http://www.bureauofcommunication.com/ or http://www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/ and send some fun e-mails to your friends and family
I think that all these web 2.0 applications are what are going to make the difference between ok and great results. By being involved in social networks and by blogging, you are allowing others to get to know you. Since we know that word of mouth is the best form of marketing, this really will pay off. Think of it as sweat equity as opposed to paying someone like me to do it. It truly is the most economical way to go.
Now, of course, if you do need my help with marketing and PR, do let me know.
Till next week.
Here’s another recommendation:
I had the pleasure to first meet Laura while I was at Live365 while she was running PC DJ. I loved the software and thought she did a great job getting the message out about the product and company. After she left PC DJ, Laura took her marketing skills and put them to use starting her own operations. She has a solid grasp of the Internet, how to reach an audience and is never afraid to try something new. She is a solid marketer and a wonderful person to have in your corner - especially when you need results oriented marketing.
A. W.
Tags: marketing, social networks Posted in
