Pay-per-click vs. Organic Searches

January 24th, 2008

In one of the trade magazines that I get, there was recently a “debate” about which was better for internet advertising, pay-per-click or organic searches.  I say “debate” because it was really two columns written by people with divergent view points but there was no analysis and no common ground. 

Not surprisingly, the woman who owns a company that sets up pay-per-click advertising felt that ppc is absolutely the best way to go. While a web designer felt that organic is the only type of search that matters.  Personally, I think the reality is in the middle.  Yes, you need good organic searches.  But, I think you also need pay-per-click. 

The ratio of the two will vary by business and objective but I really think you are leaving money on the table if you don’t have both.  Building organic search status takes time.  Time is a premium that most companies don’t have. They can’t wait months (or in some cases years) to move up the organic rankings.  They need a return on their investment now.  That is where pay-per-click excels.  You can be a brand new company, with a brand new, poorly-optimized website and have just as much exposure in a pay-per-click campaign as a company that’s been in business for years with a perfectly optimized website. 

But, pay-per-click is costly and time-consuming.  If you rely exclusively on ppc, your ad budget will be much larger than it needs to be.  Organic searches, once you have the website optimized, are free.  It costs you no more to get one organic click than 1,000 or 100,000.  That’s obviously not the case with pay-per-click.  And, while organic page rankings will need to be tweaked as the market changes and key word searches change, that happens fairly slowly. 

On the pay-per-click side, changes happen hourly. And, you need to be on top of it.  If you can’t be, then you have to hire someone and that’s an additional expense. As I’ve noted in other blogs, Google pay-per-click, for all of it’s really good aspects can also be a brutal place to learn and very unforgiving of mistakes.  Organic searches are much more forgiving.

So, if you want to truly optimize your on-line advertising, you need to have both organic ranking and a pay-per-click campaign.  To learn more or to get help with optimizing your website for organic page rank or a pay-per-click campaign visit www.mohawklakes.com.
 

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Discrimination against certain customers

January 18th, 2008

I went on Ebay recently to purchase a birthday gift for my husband.  I was looking for something very unusual and I thought if any place would have it, Ebay would. I was right.  I found one seller offering it.  I didn’t have a choice of sellers so I was happy when I saw that this seller had a 98% rating.  I looked through the first few reviews and they all said something to the equivalent of “fast shipper, good Ebayer”.  So, I bought the item. 

I sent the seller the money within minutes via Ebay’s sister company Paypal.  I’ve had problems with Paypal in the past, many problems actually, so I contacted the buyer so make sure the money went through.  He confirmed it did. So, I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  After 10 days of waiting, I contacted the seller.  He sent me a reply the next day.  He’s “been sick” and would ship it out that day.  So, I waited.  And waited. 

And, while I was waiting, I did some investigation.  Even though I’ve been an Ebayer almost since the beginning, I only buy a thing or two every year or so.  I don’t have a lot of feedback.  And, what I discovered while investigating is that every person like me, that didn’t have a lot of feedback, this seller would delay shipping.  The cutoff seems to be 50.  People with over 50 feedback ratings rave about how fast the shipping is.  People with less than 50 complain that they wait weeks for the product.

But, here’s the interesting thing.  Only one of those people gave him a neutral rating.  Everyone else gave him a positive rating and then blasted him in their commentary.  Initially, I wondered about this. But, what I decided is that people with just a few ratings are unwilling to blast someone (even if it’s justified) at the risk that person will leave them a negative rating.  A negative rating affects someone with less than 50 feedbacks much more than it does someone with 500.  So, for whatever reason, this seller has a policy of holding onto the product of “Ebay newbies” for weeks while shipping the more experienced Ebay users’ orders right away.  And, I will emphasize, he’s had the money now for weeks. 

It made me decide that in the future, I will pay much closer attention to what all of the feedback says not just the first few. And, I will read what people say much closer instead of relying on the ranking of good, neutral or poor.  The product didn’t arrive until after my husband’s birthday.  And, no, a box with a piece of paper saying this is what you are getting is not nearly the same as actually getting it. 

All of this made me think of the age old problem of discrimination of buyers in all forms.  The jewelry stores and car dealerships that only talk to customers who look like they can afford the expensive stuff.  Racial discrimination.  Sexual discrimination both in the form of not dealing with one sex and with taking advantage of one sex.  Stores who target young people whose employees don’t help people over 30.  People who are being discriminated against know it.  It doesn’t matter what form the discrimination comes in whether it’s overt or more subtle, it’s bad for business.  It’s bad for the business that does it.  It’s bad for the other businesses as well.  Because even though this was one seller, I now look at all sellers on Ebay a little differently.  You’re most likely a company that doesn’t discriminate.  But, if your competitors do, it could reflect poorly on you.  Something to think about as your next customer walks in the door.

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Where do your new customers come from?

January 11th, 2008

I know a real estate agent who handles high-end properties.  Several years ago we were talking about his business when he mentioned that he needs to have a very personable receptionist with a great voice because he spends $500 to get each new client to call or walk in the door. 

Initially I was impressed that he knew this. But, when I questioned him further, I realized he had no idea which of his marketing dollars brought the customers in.  He advertises in high-end magazines.  He sponsors events.  He runs ads in real esate brochures.  All of this costs him $X each year.  And at the end of each year, he tallies the number of new clients who have called or walked in the door and divides $X by that number.  He is usually around $500 per new client.  With the commissions on the homes he is selling, he can afford $500 per new customer. 

Most of us don’t have that luxury so we have to pay closer attention to where and how we spend our money.  What amazes me about this real estate agent is that he could very easily find out which of the areas he spends money on brings him the clients.  All he has to do is have his receptionist ask a very simple question, “May I ask how you heard about us?”  Some people might give you a useless answer such as “I don’t know”.  But, most people are perfectly willing to tell you. 

To me, this is especially important in industries like real estate where word of mouth is so powerful.  If, by asking everyone where they heard about him, the real estate agent finds out that 75% of his new customers are referrals, he can drastically cut back on his marketing budget.  Or, maybe he’ll find out that most new clients found his name by driving by a house for sale and seeing his sign. This costs the agent nothing.  Even if he finds out that the customers he is getting are coming from his marketing budget, he’ll be able to better use that budget if he knows what percentage of people find him in which places.  If 50% of people find him in the magazines, spend more money there. 

Maybe you own a business where you don’t speak to your customers directly.  Maybe they buy from your website.  You can still get this very important information from them.  Sometime during the checkout process, have a mandatory dropdown question that asks how the person found your website.  On dropdown questions, you will get a percentage of people who will leave it at the default (the equivalent of “I don’t know or care to tell you”) but most people will answer honestly.  That will help you to wisely spend your marketing dollars in the places where it is most effective.  For more thoughts on running a small business, visit www.mohawklakes.com

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Landing pages to track response rates

December 7th, 2007

As I said in my previous blog, landing pages are important and cost effective ways to track response rates for direct mail, advertising and pay-per-click campaigns.  

Setting up a landing page is a simple thing to do if you know a little bit of html and can upload it to your website.  If not, you can have your web designer do it. A landing page is a page that has a unique address that only certain people will know and will visit.  The purpose of a landing page is to track visits tied to a specific marketing campaign. 

Visits to your home page can increase for many different reasons. When you spend money on marketing and advertising, you want to make sure you are getting a return on your investment so you use landing pages to separate the increase in traffic due to your campaign vs. increases due to something else.  You can have as many landing pages as you want. 

A landing page can be exactly the same as your home page or it can be tailored to the specific campaign you are running. It is important to have a landing page for each successive campaign.

What makes a landing page a landing page is the address. The only people who will have that address are the people you are targeting. So, if your homepage is mohawklakes.com, your landing page could be mohawklakes.com/1 or mohawklakes.com/promo or whatever you want it to be. It helps if you make the extension after the .com something easy for people to remember or logical to what you are trying to achieve. So, if you are trying to get people to register for something, you might use mohawklakes.com/register.  If you are trying to get people to request a sample, it might be mohawklakes.com/sample. 

Landing pages will generally have links back to the home page and the rest of your site. But, if you are trying to keep them separate for some reason, you don’t have to include those links.  Your link page can be a replica of your home page but at a different address. That would assist in branding.  Everyone who visits your site gets the same experience regardless of how they got there. Or, if you are running a specific campaign, you can make the page match your campaign.  If you are trying to sell roses on a site that normally doesn’t sell them, you can send out a direct mail piece that has a rose logo, a landing page of mohawklakes.com/roses and when people land on the page, they see the rose logo instead of your usual one.  If you are running a pay-per-click campaign with certain keywords in the ads, you may have a page that uses those specific keywords.  Or, if you are offering people who visit your site due to the campaign a special price or promotion, you want to be sure that it is mentioned in the landing page. For instance, if they get a 5% discount on the purchase, make sure that is mentioned on the landing page. 

If you are doing a campaign that has 6 mailings, you can keep the same landing page for all six mailings in order to get a response rate for the entire campaign. Or, if you want to track the response to each individual mailing, you can set up six different landing pages.

The thing about landing pages is that you want to keep them around. Don’t tear them down because that may be the only address people have for you.  You don’t want to spend money developing a customer and then have them get a “page not found” error the next time they visit you.  If you want to see landing pages in action, watch the TV or look at ads.  Almost every ad will send you to a landing page.  If the big guys are doing it, shouldn’t you too, especially since it gives you such great feedback?  Visit www.mohawklakes.com for help with landing pages, direct mail campaigns and other marketing campaigns.

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Return on Your Marketing Investment

November 27th, 2007

Yesterday’s USA Today had a snapshot survey that showed the percentage of small businesses who see a direct uptick of business due to marketing and advertising.  The numbers shocked me. 

According to their statistics, only 46% see an increase.  45% do not and 9% don’t know.  It has a margin of error of 4% which means that it could be as much as 49% don’t see an increase or up to 13% don’t know whether or not they see an increase. 

This tells me that a lot of small companies are wasting a lot of money.  Why are 45% of small businesses spending money on marketing that isn’t working for them? How do 9% (potentially up to 13%) of small business owners continue to budget marketing money if they don’t even know what they are getting from it? 

If you are going to spend money on marketing, you absolutely need to know whether or not you are getting a return.  Without knowing that, you won’t know how to improve your marketing campaign and you might as well be tossing money out the window.  And, if you are spending money and not seeing a return (as apparently 45% of the small business owners feel), you need to make some changes. 

Unlike some costs of running a business, marketing is not supposed to be money you throw away never to be seen again.  It’s designed to grow your business.  If it’s not doing that, don’t spend the money or find another way to market that does bring a return on your investment.

If you are part of the 9% that doesn’t know if you are getting a return on your marketing dollars or not, how do you find out?  I will spend the next few blogs giving you ideas. 

But, first things first. As with any type of marketing campaign, you have to ask yourself what do you hope to accomplish?  Name recognition? Brand building?  Increase in sales?  Increased traffic to your website?  Once you know what your goal is, you can tailor the campaign to track response. 

For instance, say your goal is to drive traffic to your website.  How you do that is up to you and will depend on your business model.  You could be placing ads in magazines or newspapers.  You could launch a targeted direct mail campaign.  You could have a pay-per-click campaign. You could be putting your website in front of people in other ways.  But, the important thing is, how are you going to measure what is new traffic vs. what traffic would have come anyway.

The best and easiest way to do this is to set up a landing page just for that campaign.  If your website has been around for awhile you should (hopefully) have a good feel for the number of visitors you get in any given time period.  You obviously hope that with your new campaign, that number will increase. But, the problem with sending everyone to your home page is that if suddenly your home page link turns up on a great website and you get lot of new clicks, you could end up thinking it was from your marketing campaign and not realize it’s from the link on the other website. That’s why the landing page works so well. 

A landing page is a page with a distinct address that can be tracked because the only people who will know the address are people who are targeted in your campaign. In another blog I will discuss how to set up a landing page but for now the important thing to remember is that you should have one. 

Once you have a landing page set up, you will be able to easily track the response rate. So, if you sent out a postcard and asked people to visit the website, the day that the postcards arrive in the mail boxes, you should start to see visits to that page.  Depending on your analytics, you may even get a breakdown of unique visitors vs. visitors.  If you send out 10,000 postcards and get 400 unique visitors, you have a response rate of 4%.  If your goal is to get a 3% response rate, than you have exceeded it and your campaign is a success.  If you need help setting up a landing page or with your marketing campaigns, visit www.mohawklakes.com

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Thanksgiving

November 20th, 2007

I’m taking a break this week from my normal business advice blog to reflect on what I have to be thankful for.  It’s something I’ve always done this time of year. 

After I think of all of the things I’m thankful for, I assess what I’ve accomplished for the year, what I’ve fallen short on and what I need to accomplish next year.  It’s my way to end one year and begin another. 

I’m thankful for many things, but as it relates to business, the thing I am most thankful for is that I have the great fortune to be an American citizen, and to have an American attitude.

There are few countries in the world where someone can be an entrepreneur and be successful.  The US is one of them. And, of the short list, the US is definitely at the top. 

It’s an amazing country to be a woman. Granted, on the employment front there is still a ways to go to equal pay for equal work but we are far, far ahead of most of the world. And, women here always have the option of opting out of the pay parity fight by starting their own business.  Many do. 

Americans get to choose their career path.  That can’t be said for every, or even most countries. We don’t have a rigid class structure so you can be born a farmer’s child and end up running a company, or in the Senate, or be a doctor, or anything else you want.  It’s all a matter of how much you want it. 

It was and still is the land of opportunity.  The streets aren’t paved with gold but we have all of the resources necessary to make a very successful life for yourself if  you have the desire.  As my dad used to say, you can be the brightest person in a tiny village in Bangladesh as a kid and you’ll probably be the brightest person in a tiny village in Bangladesh when you die.  If you’re the brightest person in a tiny town in the US, you can go anywhere you want.

I’m also thankful that I have an “American” attitude. We are eternal optimists. We believe there isn’t anything that can’t be done, no problem that can’t be solved, with a little elbow grease and creativity. We are most often right.  And we are right because of our attitude. 

I am thankful that I work for myself. I am thankful that I do what I love every day.  And, I am most thankful to live in a place that allows that to happen. 

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The need for TV ads that work without sound

November 13th, 2007

I’m a business geek.  I admit it.  I pay attention to things that most people don’t even notice.  So, it didn’t really surprise me when I was recently sitting in a sports bar at a resort and my eyes gravitated to the TV.  Not to the sports but to the ads.  It makes me think that companies making most ads are going about it the wrong way.  Here was an entire bar full of people paying close attention to the multiple TVs throughout the bar.  Except for the commercials.

Because the bar was very loud, all of the sports programs had closed captioning on the bottom so people could read what was being said. The ads didn’t have that.  You just had a talking head, or a car zooming around, or even worse, some product with a voice over no one can hear. So, all of those people missed out on the ads. 

I recently read an article about how advertisers are upset with DVRs because people zoom past ads when replaying something they’ve recorded.  Again, I think the advertisers are going about it the wrong way.  And, they can solve both the sports bar problem and the DVR problem the same way. 

Don’t get upset that people are speeding past your ads or can’t hear them in a loud bar, make ads that convey a message even when they are being sped past and can’t be heard.  In the past ads were a time for biological breaks, getting another beer, letting the dog outside and any other tasks that were quick. So, people didn’t suddenly stop watching ads with the invention of DVRs.  Actually, I argue they are watching more now.  Because while they are fast-forwarding, they are watching the ad to make sure they don’t go past the return of their show. 

So, make an ad that works without the sound and at fast forward speed.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be Oscar quality.  Just something that has meaning without the sound.  You can put more words in the ad and keep them up longer.  A word that appears on the screen for just a few seconds gets lost when you are speeding past. 

But instead of going back to basics, many companies are getting far too cleaver with their ads and I think they are missing a lot of their potential market.  Go back to basics and the ad can sell to people sitting at home watching TV, sitting in a bar with a 100 other people or zooming past it on the DVR.

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Writing business blogs

November 7th, 2007

I hear it all the time, “I think I should be blogging.”

Lots of people wonder if they should be blogging for their businesses.  But, they don’t really know why.  Nor do they know what blogging can do for them.  And, they wonder, if they do blog, what do they write about?  And, how often do they need to write them? The answers to these questions are below but first you need to understand all of the things a blog can do for your business.

Blogs are important to businesses for many reasons. 

First, it helps build relationships between you and your customers and potential customers.  Communicating with your customers is very important in today’s business environment.  A blog can be a way to explain things; for instance the need for a price increase or changes in policy that effect customers.   It can also be a way to solicit feedback on new products, things customers  would like for you to do or sell.

Second, if it is attached to your website and written correctly, it helps you with natural search position with the search engines.

Third, it can be another form of advertising.

Fourth, it can be a way to gauge your customers’ thoughts on new products, new ideas, even a new website. 

Fifth, it can be a way to cross sell items.  As well as a way to close the purchase. 

Sixth, it can be a way to establish yourself (or your company) as an expert in the industry to help build credibility.

There are many other things a blog can be but this is just a starting point so you can envision how having a blog can help your company.

No matter what it is, the blog must be a reflection of the company.  You want it to continue to build your brand like all of your other communications.  You can write the blog yourself.  Or, if you have talented people in your company,  you can have them do it.  Or, you can hire it out. I write blogs for several companies.  (For more information visit www.mohawklakes.com) 

Your blogs need to be relevant, and consistent.  But, other than that, the content is up to you.  What do you want to write about?  What do you think your customers and potential customers would like to read about?  To start, I would recommend brain-storming different topics.  Give yourself a period of time.  Jot every idea you have on a piece of paper without consideration as to how important or relevant something is.  Then, after the time is over, go back and review your list.  Take the most interesting topics, the ones you’d most like to write about and use those first.  If you have employees, you can solicit ideas from them.  A freelance writer such as myself can also be an excellent source of topics and written material.

You need to write blogs regularly to keep people coming back and wanting more.  But, how frequently is up to you.  You may not have time for daily blogs (few people do) but you may have time for once a week, once every other week or some other regular interval. 

Once recommendation I have, even though it will take time, is that you screen all of the blog comments you  receive. The reason for that is that blog comments are the new way to spam.  For every legitimate comment, you will get several selling weigh-loss drugs and other get-rich schemes.  You don’t want to screen to get rid of comments, just to get rid of spam.

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More on postcard campaigns

November 1st, 2007

Postcards don’t always need to show the product to be successful.

You’ve introduced yourself to your new potential customers. You’ve gotten some great product shots and sent those out. Now what? Well, maybe show them something different. Maybe don’t show them your product at all.

Some of the best postcards I’ve ever sent did not show the product. Of course, this assumes that your customers know who you are. So, don’t do this on your first, or even second, mailing.

But, here’s what I did. I was doing a postcard campaign for Insect-Out (chemical-free mosquito shirts www.insectout.com). After we did several postcards showing the product, we then did a postcard that showed a leg with a giant, red mosquito bite. That was the most successful postcard of the campaign. People already knew who Insect-Out was and what they sell so the mosquito bite was a reminder of what could happen without the product.

I worked on a campaign for a company that made helmet covers for ski and snowboard helmets. After introducing the company to potential customers and sending out three postcards with incredibly cute kids (always a good seller) wearing the product, I suggested something different. We did shot of snow. At the bottom it said, “Ready for winter?” Again, the customers already knew who the company was and what they sell. The reminder that winter was coming was enough to make it the most successful postcard of that campaign.

So, when you are planning your campaign, don’t restrict yourself to your products. Think of fun and creative ways to remind people of your product without actually showing it. If it’s fun and creative, you’ll likely catch their attention. And, if you catch their attention, you’re more likely to sell. 

You are likely to be amazed at how well not showing what you sell sells things.

If you need help or ideas for your postcard campaign, visit www.mohawklakes.com.

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Postcard campaign basics

October 22nd, 2007

To have a successful postcard campaign, you need a number of things. 

First, you have to have a good mailing list.  Without a good, targeted list, you have no chance of having a successful campaign.  There are companies who sell lists. Ask around and do your research.  Not all lists and not all list companies are created equally. How much does each address cost?  This can vary wildly depending on how targeted your list is.  Do you also get telephone numbers?  Find out what you can expect as far as percentage bad addresses.  If your bad addresses are more than they guaranteed, what happens? Do they give you money back? Do they credit you on future list purchases?  Do they say, “too bad”?

Second, you need frequency.  You can’t send out a one-time mailing and expect it to be successful.  You need to remind people you are around.  Many people are so accustomed to junk mail that even if they are interested, they will throw things away thinking another will come soon enough.  You don’t want to be so frequent to annoy; but, frequent enough to remind them who you are. Also, as I explained in an earlier blog, the frequency will build a relationship.  The key to selling is building relationships with your potential customers. So, frequency is the key.  If you don’t have a large budget, scale back your mailing size so that you can increase your frequency. 

Third, your message is always important.  In a postcard, you have limited space.  Use it well.  Make sure it is targeted and well-written.  If writing isn’t your thing, give it to an employee with a talent or hire a freelance writer (www.mohawklakes.com).  Before you even start writing, ask yourself:

What do you hope to accomplish with the mailing? Is it a selling piece or an piece to introduce yourself to your customers? 

If it’s a selling piece, do you have a call to action? 

What do they get if they respond?  

Review your postcard and make sure it can accomplish your goals.  Make sure it is professional and presents the image of your company you want it to.  Keep your branding consistent.  Does your postcard do that?  Check the spelling. Check the grammar.  You don’t want to turn your clients off with poor grammar.  Finally, make sure your address, telephone number and website are all on the postcard.  It always amazes me how many postcards I get that don’t contain this vital information.

Four, choose your graphics wisely. The reason for doing a postcard is so that you can show something off.  Use all of the front of the postcard.  Don’t make the mistake many do of paying for space you aren’t using.  Check the graphics to make sure the dpi is correct (see my previous blog on this blunder).  This may sound obvious but make sure your photo is in focus. I get many postcards where the photos are blurry.  This makes you look unprofessional.  If you can afford it, color is best.  Color gets attention and when something gets attention it is less likely to end up in the circular file.

Five, choose your printer wisely.  Again, ask around and do your research.  Not all printers are created equally.  You will have a number of choices on types of paper, whether or not it is coated, whether it is personalized by the printer or not.  How quickly do you need it?  Some printers are faster than others. How many are you ordering? Some printers do better with small runs; others only accept large orders.  What size do you want?  Not all printers offer all sizes.  Generally, the bigger the piece, the more it will be noticed. But, bigger also means more postage which will increase the cost of your campaign.  Finally, some printers will do everything for you, design, print and mail.  Others just print.  What services do you want?

Six, When you do the mailing, consider whether it is worth your time to get the bulk mail rate. If you are a small mailer, it may not be.  If you have a small operation, it can cost you a lot of time to get everything just so in order to get the rate.  Your time and money might be better spent by paying the first class fee and getting your postcards in the mail.  People can’t respond to mailings that are sitting on your desk waiting to be sorted to Post Office standards.  You can avoid this dilemma if you have someone do your mailing for you (such as the company that prints it).  But, this will also increase your costs, sometimes dramatically. So, weigh your options carefully.

Finally, you can do a campaign on your own. But, be honest with yourself.  If this isn’t your strongest skillset, you are better off paying a professional.  By getting these basics wrong, it can cost you not only the budget you set aside for it but also goodwill and undermine all of the hard work you’ve done branding.

If you have questions on what you have read, or would like more information on professional postcard campaigns, visit www.mohawklakes.com

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