Internet Marketing Strategy
Thanks to our friends over at WordStream, we have this great infographic which explains the whole Google AdWords auction process. By they way, WordStream has some great AdWords tools, some of which are free.
How much does each new customer cost your business? Businesses love to dump money into Google AdWords campaigns, but then they ignore what the results are telling them. A lot of companies are spending more on a acquiring a new customer than that customer is giving them in return. Cost per acquisition is a valuable statistic for understanding whether you’re actually getting something for all the money spent in advertising.
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WordStream offers a paid keyword and seo tool, which they’ve recently updated with some new features (integration with Google Analytics and their free keyword tool, analysis based on different traffic sources). I’m taking a look at the paid keyword tool for a separate review (and to see if we want to use it), but WordStream also released a free keyword tool back in September that I thought I would take a look at. I mostly use Google AdWord’s tools currently.
Targeted advertising, or advertising directly to the people you want to reach is one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to reach potential customers. A great place to buy targeted advertising is from websites which already have the audience you’re trying to reach. Sites such as industry publications, blogs, associations, forums and groups may offer advertising that you should consider. If you’re looking at advertising on one of these sites, here are some things to consider:
There’s been a lot of talk lately about whether companies should advertise using Facebook ads or Google ads. I think that, as with any marketing or advertising decision, it depends. It depends on who you’re trying to reach with what message and what marketing objective.
As you may be aware – I hate loyalty cards. I think they’re a pain in the butt and offer way more reward to the company than to me. I don’t mind loyalty programs, but I want the burden to be on the company to keep track of what I’ve purchased and my rewards. This may be what led to the development of Tetherball, which is a service that connects mobile advertising & marketing directly with individual consumers via a small rfid chip on their mobile devices. Marketers and advertisers seem to be estatic about the possibilities, but to me, it sounds a thousand times worse than loyalty cards.
Security Issues
While it sounds convenient to have a sticker on your mobile device that can interact with devices at a store, there’s usually very little security in current rfid technology. This means that anyone with the proper device can read the information that’s stored on the rfid chip. There’s no way for the owner of the mobile phone to turn off the rfid or control what information is on it or who can access it. There’s also nothing to stop the store that gave you the chip from tracking you in places you may not know about.
Awareness Issues
I wonder just how much people who are using these rfid devices understand how the company is using their information. Are they aware of the possible security and privacy risks? Are the companies devulging any of these possible issues?
Scaling Issues
Even if you like the idea of a rfid chip for a loyalty program, how is it going to work when all the loyalty programs start doing it? Is your mobile device going to be covered in stickers? Just think about how many loyalty cards many people carry – watch the next lady with a big purse shuffle through a card deck looking for the proper card. Will the companies be able to access the information on the other chips?
Transferability Issues
What happens when you get a new mobile device? Will you be able to transfer the sticker to the new device? Probably not. So you’ll have to go through some sort of new sticker transfer process. What if you have multiple devices? Depending on how the technology is implemented, there may be issues with controlling who is actually using the loyalty chip.
Less Invasive Technology
It seems like there would be less invasive ways to use mobile technology for loyalty programs. Many new phones are smartphones – or Internet enabled, which means they’re able to connect to an Internet website. Many also have the ability to connect to wireless hotspots. As the price for these devices comes down, more people will have them. A company could use their wireless network in-store to easily create the same sort of loyalty programs without having the issues presented above in an rfid chip.
What Would You Do?
Is there a company you trust enough to put a rfid chip on your phone? Are you concerned about your privacy and security of your information? What do you think?
(photo by grey pumpkin @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: tetherball, loyalty programs, mobile, marketing, mobile advertising, business, reward programs
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Many businesses run pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns in order to increase traffic and sales to to their websites. However, many are not looking at how effective those campaigns are. I’ve run across several websites which thought they were doing ok with their PPC campaigns, but upon closer examination, we found they were spending more than they were getting out of the advertising.
Conversions
A conversion is when an action that you’re advertising is actually taken on your website. So if you’re advertising a product, it’s when someone actually purchases that product. This is usually tracked by putting a script tag from your PPC ad on your thank you page that happens after a purchase is made. Conversions are the whole reason you’re advertising, so they are very important to track.
Cost Per Conversion
For the number of conversions you get in any time period, how much are you spending on advertising? Taking the total amount spent and dividing it by the number of conversions will give you how much you’re spending per conversion – or cost per conversion. This metric is extremely important for knowing whether you’re spending too much on your advertising for what you’re getting out of it. If this number is too high, it’s time to look at optimizing your ads, website and landing pages. (As an aside, sometimes people will click on an ad and purchase a product much later – days or weeks – this is not tracked with this metric).
Conversion Rate
How many clicks do you have to get before someone purchases from you? How effective is the path the visitor takes to purchase the product? The number of conversions divided by the number of ad clicks gives you the conversion rate.
Clicks
How many times people are clicking on your ad- how much interest and traffic it is generating. If you are using advertising for branding or just for traffic, and are not tracking conversions or sales, this is an important metric.
Cost Per Click
How much each click costs – or how much you’re paying for each person that your ad brings to your website. Taking the total amount spent and dividing it by the number of clicks will give you this metric.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
How effective your ad is – in message and targeting (keywords, placements, etc.) Measured by the number of clicks on an ad divided by the number of impressions (number of times it is shown). A low CTR can indicate poor messaging or targeting (keywords, placements, etc.).
(photo by The Ancient Brit @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: pay-per-click advertising, internet advertising, internet marketing, search engine marketing, business, SEM, SEO, PPC, marketing
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Avinash Kaushik had a great post this morning about the different types of keywords visitors use to reach your site, what their intentions are, and how to measure keyword effectiveness based on where customers are in the sales funnel. This got me thinking about metrics in general. I often hear people complain that they are not getting enough hits to their website (which is a very outdated metric in any case). But when you ask them what goal/objective they are trying to measure, they usually cannot tie the two together.
From both a business and sanity point of view, it is imperative that you use metrics that will give you the information you need. For example, if you are trying to measure whether or not your website is giving you leads, the number of hits isn’t the right number. You need a way to collect leads from your website, or some way to tell if people were there (an offer unique to the website) to measure lead generation from your website.
So before you start pouring over your web and advertising statistics, take a moment to figure out exactly what it is that you’re trying to find out. Then decide what metric will help you answer that question. Matching up metrics and goals/questions/objectives will give you much more reliable informaton – saving time and resources and allowing you to focus on efforts that are actually working for your business.
(photo by aussiegall @ Flickr CC)
Technorati Tags: analytics, statistics, internet marketing, metrics, business, marketing
I think a lot of companies get all bound up in the need to advertise, advertise, advertise, which is great, but successful companies understand that marketing is so much more than advertising. Marketing is intimately tied to business objectives, strategy, and customer relationships – how they inter-relate and how to tie them together to reach the business’ goals.
Take a look inside
The first step to good marketing is to take few minutes for some introspection. Who are you as a company? What do you do better than anyone else? What is your goal? By understanding exactly who you are as a company, you’ll be able to develop marketing that accurately depicts your corporate image and works towards your goal.
How do you want to get there?
There are many different strategies that may help you achieve your goal. How do you want your company to be perceived? What is important to you in terms of image and ethics? Are there certain strategies that you aren’t comfortable with or that don’t fit your ethics or image? Setting guidelines for what your company stands for will help you avoid missteps along the way.
What are you offering?
What benefits are you offering to your customers? Why should they choose your products? What type of relationship are you offering to them? Customers can be very selfish, especially at the beginning of a relationship, so you need to make sure you are accurately representing your product benefits to them.
Use advertising as one of many tools
Advertising can be a vital tool in your aresenal for reaching your business goal, but keep in mind that there are many steps before you start implementing tactics. Taking the time to work up to advertising will increase your return on investment by more accurately targeting your customers.
(photo by leeroy09481 @ Flickr CC)
Technorati Tags: advertising, marketing strategy, internet marketing, internet advertising, business, marketing
One of the most common problems we see with our clients is landing pages that are not converting website visitors into customers. Many clients will spend quite a bit of money on advertising, but fail to complete the transaction on their landing pages. Often visitors will be just directed to a home page, which is a bit like dropping your 5 year old off at the mall and expecting them to be able to buy their own tennis shoes.
When you’re designing your landing pages, you need to put yourself into your customer’s shoes. What information would you need to make a purchase decision? A landing page needs to have all the information that a customer would need to make a purchase decision – ideally it also lets them make a purchase right there.
If you have a wide range of products, you’ll need to have multiple landing pages which target each one. The same for multiple target audiences and advertising. Think of a landing page as a one page print ad – you really need to engage the customer, entice them with your offer, and get them to take action.
It may take a bit of time to get a landing page that you’re happy with. Make changes and then give them some time to work. Take a look at your statistics and see what’s working and what’s not. Good landing pages will be well worth the effort (with a side benefit of a bit of seo juice).
(photo by egmb757lover @ Flickr CC)
Technorati Tags: landing page, seo, advertising, ads, marketing strategy, internet marketing, internet advertising, business, marketing
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