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Business Blogging – a few examples

Is blogging right for your business? If you’re considering adding a blog to your business website, Marketing Moves to the Blogosphere from the Washington Post is worth a read. It includes information from Bill Marriot’s blog for Marriot International and the blog for Viget Labs.

“It’s a phenomenal promotion vehicle for a company, or a great crisis tool or a great customer service tool,” said Geoff Livingston, a public relations strategist and social media expert.- Washington Post – Marketing Moves to the Blogosphere

Matt Cuts, who works for Google, also has 3 Tips for “company blogging”.

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PPC Advertising

PPC or pay per click advertising is an Internet advertising model where advertisers only pay when visitors click on their ads.  These types of ads are typically found in search engine sponsored listings such as Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN adCenter, but can also be found in many advertising networks as well as content networks for the search engines.  Here are some terms and concepts you should be aware of if you’re considering PPC advertising:

  • keyword bidding – Many ad networks and search engines use keyword bidding to help decide which ads should be shown for a particular keyword.  Usually you can set a maximum bid for what you are willing to spend.
  • CPC (Cost per Click) – How much it will cost per click.  Set either through keyword bidding or a rate card.
  • Clicks – How many times your ad has been clicked on.  Visitors clicking on your ad should go to a landing page (see below).
  • Impressions – How many times your ad has been viewed.  Impressions also have value since there is some branding effect so make sure you include your company or product name in the ad.
  • CTR (Click Through Rate) – The percentage of clicks you are getting related to the number of times your ad is viewed (impressions).
  • click fraud – Abusive clicks by competitors or others intended to drive up the cost of the ad in question.  Most PPC ad vendors have sophisticated anti-click fraud systems in place, but this is something you should verify before advertising with any vendor.
  • Content targeting or Contextual Ad – PPC ads also show up on websites near content (a content network).  Ads which relate to content being seen are more likely to be clicked upon.
  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – Attempts to increase the visibility of a website on search engines through multiple methods, including search engine optimization (SEO) and paid inclusion (PPC).
  • Landing Page – To run an effective PPC campaign, you need to send the traffic from the ad to a landing page which has all the information the visitor needs (make sure you cover what was in the ad), as well as some sort of call to action (this is where you offer them something free in return for their contact information – lead or directly to a sale page).  Your landing page needs to be specifically tailored to the ad in question, don’t just dump people to your homepage – they’ll quickly leave and you’ll be paying for it.

Did we miss anything? Please submit any terms or concepts we missed in the comments.  Thanks!

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Business Marketing Fast Fixes

These are somewhat scary times at some B2Bs.  Despite expert advice about becoming more aggressive in a downturn (some of it summarized in our posting “B2B Marketing in a Recession”), their top management is more inclined to be cutting marketing expense than approving increased spending.  Leads are harder to come by and taking noticeably longer to close. – B2B Web Strategy – Fast fixes for B2B marketing in a sour economy

The slow economy may have given you a little bit of extra time on your hands.  Now is a great time to take a look at your business marketing plan and procedures and do some housecleaning.  B2B Web Strategy has some good information to get started, which can apply to both B2B and B2C companies.  Here are some more suggestions:

  • Measurement – Take a look at your analytics and sales measurement tools and make sure you are getting the information you need to make good decisions.
  • Advertising – Re-evaluate any advertising you’re doing – display, print, AdWords, etc.  What’s working well and what’s not?  Are the ways to improve what isn’t working as well?
  • Customer List – Spring clean your CRM or customer list.  Are there some customers/potential customers who should be moved to the bottom shelf?  Are there customers you should be spending more time with?
  • Lead Generation – Are your lead generation processes working well? Are there improvements you can make to increase leads or the quality of leads?
  • Sales Funnel – Once you get qualified leads, are they becoming sales?  What can be improved to increase the percentage of leads that convert to sales?

Remember that to increase sales on your website (and in general), you need to increase traffic to your site (and keep the same conversion percentage) or increase the conversion percentage (for the same amount of traffic) or both.  Periodically re-evaluating your business marketing plan and how well it is working can help you achieve whichever goal you choose.

What fast fixes work for your business marketing?

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