This is the second post in a four part series about marketing your small business online. We asked several marketing experts about what activities business owners should focus on in 2012 for maximum growth in their business. Today we’re spotlighting Allen Gibson‘s answers.

What Marketing Activities Should Small Business Owners Focus On?

Good question! And, of course, there’s no simple answer that will apply to everyone. Where to focus has to be a product of what am I trying to achieve, which needs to be broken down in to specific “what do I want them to do next” activities.

What Action Do You Want People to Take Next?

I tell my clients that generally, the most you can hope for from an ad is that the viewer takes ONE action; be that a click on a link, a like, a phone call, etc. And if that one action leads to a roadblock­ a dead link, a failed connection, a busy signal, then Sphhffft, your marketing just died.

Of course, that’s an extreme position to take. But I believe in today’s overcrowded, oversold, over-marketed world it’s a necessary position. So, if you are a reasonably successful company, with an established website and Facebook presence, the thing I would recommend you focus on in 2012 is this:

HOW DO WE MAKE THE CUSTOMER’S PATH TO PURCHASE EASIER, FASTER, MORE FUN, MORE EFFICIENT. BETTER?

Can we complete the sale with fewer clicks? Automate our quote process? Make saying “Yes” easier? How about offering an electronic signature process? Live customer service? Free gift with purchase?

Make Sure it’s Straight-Forward and Easy to Understand

I don’t know about you, but I find that if online shopping isn’t very straight-forward, simple to understand, and easy to complete the transaction, I go away! If I have to work to understand your path to purchase…I get annoyed.

And your marketing just died.

About Allen Gibson

Allen Gibson owns StarMedia Services, a marketing communications agency in Southern Alberta, Canada. You can also find Allen on Twitter @starmediaguy

NEXT: Facebook Expert Explains What’s New in 2012 and What Business Owners Should Focus On

Facebook will reach 143.4 million US users in 2012, up 8.2% from 132.5 million in 2011 according to HubSpot. Melanie Nelson, author of Facebook All-In-One for Dummies, answers what small business owners should focus on. Read more ›

This is the first in a four part series about marketing your small business online. We asked several experts about what activities business owners should focus on in 2012 for maximum growth in their business. Today we’re spotlighting Becky McCray’s answers.

1. Change your attitude. Talk less about you and more about them.

No matter what tools you’re using, no matter what you are doing with them, the best way to achieve growth is through better serving more people. And to serve people you need to talk about them: their needs, their accomplishments, their success stories. Found out what your customers find interesting, and talk more about it. Sounds easy enough, but if we looked at the last 20 things you put out online, how many would be about your business, and how many would be about your customers?

2. Do video. From the field. With your product in use, or with your people doing something.

You can put the video on any platform: your own website, your blog, your Facebook page, or YouTube. What matters is that you don’t do video of just you talking. Get your video camera out and shoot the action. Show your customers using your product. Teach them something. Heather Thomas shares 21 more ideas here: 21 Ways To Use Video For Your Small Business  Hint: none of them include you sitting in front of your computer talking to your webcam.

3. Go where the customers are.

Don’t trust me to tell you which networks to add, and don’t trust any other expert or guru. Before you add any new tool or platform, make sure it’s the one where your customers are. How do you find out? Ask them. No, really. Ask them what networks they use, where they spend their time online. For a bit more perspective, you can take your customer list (and their emails) to Gist.com. It will let you browse and see their other public profiles. That will help you get a better perspective.

About Becky McCray

Becky McCray has been featured in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Entrepreneur Magazine. She publishes the popular website, Small Biz Survival. She and Chicago entrepreneur, Barry Moltz, are writing the upcoming book, Small Town Rules. 

NEXT: Getting Potential Customers to Take Action

Next up in this series, find out about online marketing activities that get action from Allen Gibson. When prospective clients take action, you’re on your way to success. Read more ›

Are you a small business owner looking for a plan to dominate your niche online next year? Here are twelve actions you can take for online success:

1. Define your prospects or online audience well. Create a persona. Then make sure all your online communications are created with your ideal clients in mind.
2. Create your online elevator speech. Tighten your online message so people can quickly catch your business promise. Put it on your website, blog and social media accounts
3. Start a company blog
4. Set-up social media accounts
5. Brainstorm at least 48 articles or blog post topics. Publish at least 4 per month to your blog in 2012
6. Add an email newsletter if you don’t already have one. Build your email subscriber list
7. Connect with local reporters on Twitter. Build a relationship with them
8. Plan at least one live local event with a portion of sales going to charity. Send online press releases. Promote through social media accounts and blog posts
9. Connect your website and blog to automatically post updates to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms
10. Create regularly scheduled social media activities
11. Plan and implement a social media contest to grow Facebook friends and Twitter followers
12. Promote local charities, local bloggers and causes in your community through social media

With all of the options available to market your business online today, small business owners can become overwhelmed. That’s why this list is important. Print it out. Use it as the groundwork for your online marketing plan.

Back when I sold IBM equipment, I used to pick the top sales guy’s brain all the time. The best advice he ever gave me was, “Plan your work. Work your plan.” The above list is a great place to start. But you have to work it.

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart
“Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys”

If You Like this Article, You Might Also Like:

• Converting Your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn Connections to Customers with Face-to-Face Events
• Blogging for Your Business: An Interview with Ann Handley 
• Website Redesign Checklist for Attracting New Business

Listen to this interview with Cheryl Lawson, an event planner and social media consultant, and you’ll find out how small business owners can create events to meet Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter contacts face-to-face.

Key points you’ll learn:

• How to use events and social media for better lead generation
• How to use events to reach large corporate prospects
• How to get your company seen as a larger player in your community
• Converting Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn connections to customers
• Inexpensive ways to create powerful events for your business

Click on the arrow below to listen:

Or to download the interview to your computer, click here >

ABOUT CHERYL LAWSON:

Cheryl Lawson is the owner and founder of an event planning and marketing firm, Party Aficionado. Party Aficionado helps companies develop social marketing strategies both online and Face to Face, using full event coordinating capabilities, and coaching to help companies cultivate their audience before, during, and after events.

I met Cheryl through the Tulsa, Oklahoma Social Media meetups. I encourage anyone in the Tulsa area interested in social media to attend one of our events. You’re able to find out more here, http://www.meetup.com/Social-Media-Tulsa

RESOURCES

Website and Blog:

• http://www.partyaficionado.com/
• http://partyaficionado.blogspot.com/

Facebook and Twitter:

• http://www.facebook.com/PartyAficionado
• http://twitter.com/partyaficionado

Did you like this interview? Tell us. Have questions about creating events for your small business? Ask. We want to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart

“Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!”

More Interviews on How to Dominate Your Space on the Web:

• Blogging for Your Business: An Interview with Ann Handley
• Printer Uses Blog to Generate More Leads for His Business: Interview with Blase Ciabaton
• Professional Photographer Grows Business with Blog and No Budget. Find Out How
• Interview with Troy Vossoller: Example of a Small Business Using Twitter Right
• How a NY Trailer Dealer’s Website Grew from 300 Visitors per Day to 1,096 Daily Visitors Last Month

Listen to this interview and you’ll find out how a local printing company in Naples, Florida uses a blog to generate more leads.

Key points you’ll learn:

• How prospective clients find your business better with a blog
• What to put on your small business blog
• How to establish yourself as the trusted expert in your niche
• How to repurpose your blog materials for other marketing materials

Click on the arrow below to listen:

Or to download the interview to your computer, click here >

ABOUT BLASE CIABATON:

Blase is VP of Sales & Marketing for Naples PrintSource. Blase has established himself as an expert in the field of direct mail & mailing list procurement. His passion for these topics led him to establish the company blog, www.TheDirectMailMan.com, which is devoted to addressing the most commonly asked questions by PR & Marketing professionals, nonprofits and small businesses.

Blase is sought after as a speaker for the topics of printing, direct mail marketing, and fundraising for nonprofits; he has presented to audiences at the Community Foundation of Collier County, the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, and the local chapter of PRSA (Public Relations Society of America), among others.  Blase also writes for The Bloggers’ Bulletin.

Did you like this interview? Tell us. Do you have questions about generating more leads with your small business blog? Ask. We want to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart

“Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!”

More Interviews on How to Dominate Your Space on the Web:

• Growing Your Small Town Business on the Web: Interview with Becky McCray
• The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business: Interview with Bob Phibbs
• Growing Your Small Business Using Social Media and PR: Interview with Mandy Vavrinak
• Interview with Troy Vossoller: Example of a Small Business Using Twitter Right
• How a NY Trailer Dealer’s Website Grew from 300 Visitors per Day to 1,096 Daily Visitors Last Month

The checklist below is for small business owners who want more leads and new clients from their website. If you want something other than more business from your website, this isn’t for you. But if you’re a business owner focused on growth, you’ll want to print this checklist. Then use it. I guarantee you’ll be happy with the new business your website delivers.

Ready to begin?

1. Make a list of measurable results you want from your new website.

How many more leads do you want a month from your online marketing efforts? How many more phone calls? How many new customers?

You want a goal to shoot for. You want to measure whether your website redesign is successful or not.

Web designers will tell you that they can’t guarantee you will hit these numbers. They’re right. They can’t and that’s OK. But they will do their best to make your updated website a lead generating machine if you tell them it’s the focus of your website redesign. If you tell them you’re measuring the success of the redesign based on increasing the number of leads, phone calls, etc.

As a business owner you can work on improving your website after your initial re-launch. You can keep working to improve your internet marketing activities until you hit the numbers you want.

2. Who do you want your website to talk to? Who are your ideal prospects?

When a prospective client lands on your updated website you want them to know that your website is designed for them. You want them to know that your website offers solutions designed specifically with them in mind. By defining your ideal prospect well, your website designer will be able to create a website that really “speaks” to your ideal prospects.

That is why I recommend making up a character or a  customer persona that represents your ideal client. Name them. Write down if they play golf, if they’re married. Do they have kids? Do they go to church? What is their job title? How old are they? Do they live in a small town? Do they live in the suburbs? What magazines or TV shows do they like?

The more details you can create about your imaginary ideal prospect, the better information you can share with your website designer. You’re able to find out more information about creating a customer or prospect persona here.

3. Besides your product or service, what do your customers get when they do business with you?

This is your website’s elevator pitch. You want this on your home page. If you were in an elevator with a big prospective customer, you only have a few seconds to tell the customer why they should do business with you. Your website’s home page is your opportunity to communicate in a few seconds why they should stay on your website. You have to tell them why your website benefits them. Grab your prospects with your elevator pitch, or they will leave your website in seconds.  

4. List the other benefits of doing business with you

Make sure you put together a good solid list of benefits of doing business with you. People usually look at several websites before choosing one company to buy from. By putting together a more comprehensive list of benefits than your competitors, you have a better chance of being chosen as the best company to buy from.

5. Plan your website and blog as the “hub” of your online selling and marketing program

Most small business owners think that if they can get to the top of the search engines with certain keywords, they’ re golden. Nothing wrong with getting to the top of the search engines. But because of  iPhones and Blackberrys peoples habits have changed. Now people spend more time on Facebook than on search engines.

Besides getting listed at the top of the search engines, you have to reach people on their mobile phones, Facebook and other social media. You want your website to be a hub or home base for your online marketing materials. Then “push” your information to the spokes, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

6. Include a blog in your redesign plans.

Search engines love blogs. Matt Cutts, Google’s spokesperson on search engine strategy, recommends WordPress blogs because they automatically create web pages that the search engines like.

Social media loves blogs. Blogs are an easy way to “push” your content to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media. Blogs help you reach prospects who aren’t actively searching for your product or service. It also helps keep your company in front of prospects before the have a need to do business with you.

If you want to hear more about what Matt Cutts recommends, watch this video.

7. List what your prospect does online at each stage of the buying process.

In a previous blog post I went into the details of this process. You want to create web content that helps potential clients at each of the 5 stages of the buying process.

8. What do you want people to do next?

Plan a baby step to bring prospects closer to doing business with you once they get to your website. A baby step could be signing up for a free report or white paper. It could be signing up for a free conference call. But create a baby step. Make it easy for people to start a conversation with your business.

9. After a prospect makes that initial contact, have the next step in the communication process already set-up

Once a prospect takes a baby step to start the conversation with you, put them on your e-mail newsletter list. Put them on your mailing list or e-mail them 10 tips e-mailed over a period of time. Grow your list of prospects and keep communicating with them. Develop a level of trust by delivering quality information.

10. Automate your follow-up program

Use services like MailChimp, aWeber, RSS feeds, or Networked Blogs to automatically share your information across the web. You can also use services like HootSuite and TweetDeck to send timed tweets throughout a week or month. Personally, I use TweetDeck.

11. Gather testimonials, certificates, awards and other badges of trust

Because anyone can have a website built, you have to include as many “badges” of third party endorsements as possible on your website. These badges aren’t the primary focus of any of your web pages. But you want to wow prospective clients with third party proof that your business is trustworthy. Putting the right badges or “flare” on your pages can increase your conversion rates 10% – 40%. 

12. Put together a list of your clients (especially well known companies or people)

Birds of a feather flock together, right? People want to know if you understand their industry. People want to know if you have a history of doing great work. Listing clients, especially famous clients or well respected clients in a specific industry or niche, helps more people want to do business with you.

13. Create ideas for linkbait

Links to your website from other websites have value. Search engines give websites with more incoming links  (also called backlinks) more authority. If important websites link to your website, but they don’t link to your competitors’ websites, you have more authority. Therefore you get higher search engine rankings.

When you create something on your website with the goal of getting a lot of people linking to it, that’s called creating linkbait. You’ve probably seen lists of the top 100 cities ranked for the best places to start a business or something similar. That’s linkbait.

The main idea is to create compelling content for your website that people will want to link to. On a mortgage lending website, I added mortgage calculators and I also gave away the code or script so other websites could easily put calculators on their websites. It worked very well. We also had a link back to our website in the code. Thousands of websites put our calculators on their websites which automatically linked back to us. That’s a good example of linkbait.

You’re able to find out more about linkbait here.

14. Make sure your website redesign includes tools for easily updating your own website

There are several software platforms now that make it easy for you to update your own website. WordPress, Drupal, Joomla!, DotNetNuke are some of the most popular. You should find website designers who will build your website using these platforms.  

15. Gather photos and bios of people in your organization

People want to do business with other people. They also want to know that the people they’re doing business with are experts and will do a great job for them. They want to know that they’re working with a real company qualified to serve them well. By adding photos and biographies of your key personnel, you’ll prove that you’re a business they can trust.

16. Put together your logo graphics, brochures, product photos (if needed), past advertising samples and other collateral materials

Once you’ve completed this checklist, you’re now prepared to hire a website redesign company. You will know what you want. You’ll have everything a good website design company needs to do a good job for you.

If you have any questions, ask us. If you have any experiences with the web redesign process, we’d like to hear from you. 

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart

“Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!”

Photograph by Erin Conrad

Find out how Erin Conrad, a professional photographer, grows her business armed with only a blog and no budget. 

Key points you’ll learn from this interview:

• How Erin gets new clients without worrying about competitors’ prices
• How Erin gets repeat business
• Why Erin doesn’t have to use traditional selling tactics to “close” the sale

Click on the arrow below to listen:

Or to download the interview to your computer, click here >

RESOURCES:

Erin’s blog:

http://www.erinconrad.com

Get started blogging:

• http://www.blogger.com
• http://www.wordpress.com
• http://www.typepad.com

Did you like this interview? Tell us. Have questions about starting your own blog? Ask. We want to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart

“Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!”

More Interviews on How to Dominate Your Space on the Web:

• Interview with Troy Vossoller: Example of a Small Business Using Twitter Right
• How a NY Trailer Dealer’s Website Grew from 300 Visitors per Day to 1,096 Daily Visitors Last Month
• Holiday Facebook Ad Doubles Traffic to Website. Listen to the Interview Here

I built my first website back in 1998. Back then I worked for an IBM Business Partner selling printers. As a commissioned salesperson good quality leads were extremely important to me. And the company’s website wasn’t bringing in any leads. No one could find the company website on the search engines – until I built and promoted a website for them.

That first website ranked high on all the search engines and brought in a bunch of leads every week. Soon my first client wanted more. So I built 4 more websites for my first client. All of them brought in a lot of leads. This was my first taste of helping a business dominate their space on the web.

In the beginning I believed I could help a few clients and make a good living. I was wrong.

I worked very hard for a few small businesses. Several clients told me that hiring me was the best thing they ever did. I wrote copy for the websites. I did search engine optimization for the websites. I updated the websites. I designed them. I did everything.

But I wasn’t making a good living with my handful of clients. So I decided we needed more clients. Clients who didn’t need all the personal attention I was giving those first clients.

We would build websites like other website design firms. I wouldn’t spend all my time writing and personally getting them to the top of the search engines. And I hired other people to help me.

Here’s what happened when we started writing our own software –

We created our own search engine friendly e-commerce software. We built our own lead management software to manage leads from multiple websites. We created our own software to give customers the ability to update their own websites.

I still wasn’t making much money. I was putting all the company profits into building software. We’d get the software right. Then it would get hacked. Or customers would find more bugs. I still poured more profits into the software. My wife and I were fighting. I wasn’t very happy.

My marriage finally ended. I lost all of my help. I was burned out. I didn’t want to help my customers anymore. Many of my clients left. That brings us to 2009 . . . a little over 10 years later.

That’s when I decided to get back to doing what I enjoyed.  

I would help business owners dominate their niche online again. But I would help more than just a handful of people. I would help a lot of business owners dominate their space on the web. That’s the purpose of this blog.

I will give you everything I can to help you succeed online. But I won’t do the work for you. You’ll have to do it. Or you’ll have to hire people to do the work for you.

I’ll recommend people and resources. I’ll give you tools and training. But in the end, you’ll be responsible for dominating your space on the web. If you win or lose, it won’t be because I did the work for you. But I will be right here fighting for you.

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart

“Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!”

EXAMPLE #1. Shoebox.com gave 2 flip mino’s away in February of 2009. In exchange they got 2,000 new Twitter followers in 2 days. A Flip UltraHD Camcorderis only $139 on Amazon. Would you invest less than $300 to get 2,000 new Twitter followers? It worked for Shoemoney.com.

Here are three reasons why this contest worked:

1 – Twitter users are usually technically savvy. They want the newest gadgets available. Offering a hot new “toy” makes perfect sense.

2 - When someone tweets about your contest, all their followers see the “Tweet” and the link to your contest page. Which gets more and more and more people finding out about you very quickly. 

3 - People watch the trending topics on Twitter. In fact, you can go to http://www.twitscoop.com/ and find all the trending topics. If enough people tweet about your contest, it becomes a trending topic. This can cause an avalanche of tweets.

Here are more details about the contest:

http://www.shoemoney.com/2009/01/15/twitter-viral-contest/

EXAMPLE #2. Sumer, LLC Gives Away a Free Workshop to People Who Tweet, Blog or Mention their workshop on Facebook 

Here’s how the Sumer contest worked:

1 – If you comment on the contest page, you’re entered in the contest

2 – Tweet, Facebook, or blog about the workshop and you could win a free workshop.

Here are the reasons this contest was an all around winner:

First, only people who are your prospects enter the contest. They want whatever services you offer, or they wouldn’t enter the contest in the first place. This keeps your list “clean.”

Second, since “birds of a feather flock together,”  the contestants’ friends will be good prospects too. Not all of them, but enough.

Third, by having contestants, Tweet, blog or Facebook about the event you’re exposing prospects multiple times to your contest.

See the actual blog post announcing the contest here, http://writtenbysumer.com/blog/?p=2722.

Twitter Official Guidelines for Contests

Before you create your next contest, review Twitter’s guidelines here:

http://help.twitter.com/forums/26810/entries/68877

Did you find this post helpful? Would you like more blog posts like this one? Type in the “Leave a Reply” space below. Tell me what you think.

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart

“Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!”

You may also like:

• Yahoo Adds Twitter to Search Results (blogs.wsj.com)
• Facebook introduces a real-time Live Feed (vator.tv)
• #newsrw: How to put news:rewired on your own blog (blogs.journalism.co.uk)

In order to dominate your space on the web, your internet marketing strategy should address each five steps of the sales process.

SALES PROCESS STEP 1: Buyer Becomes Aware of a Need

If you sell equipment, when an older machine starts breaking down and needs repairs are you there? Have you thought about creating an online replacement guide or online upgrade guide? Do you have web pages or a mini website in place helping people address problems maintaining older equipment or machinery? Or a guide showing them when it’s time to replace their equipment with new equipment?

If you sell services, you probably know the symptoms potential customers face when they need your service. Do you have a downloadable case study or report giving information to help people address these symptoms? Do you have something helping potential buyers move to the next steps in the sales process?

ACTION ITEM: Identify pain points potential buyers go through BEFORE they start searching for your product or service. Put together helpful online materials addressing these issues. Put these materials in a downloadable report, case study or guide. Then give it away in exchange for them signing up for your newsletter.

SALES PROCESS STEP 2: Buyer Searches for Information on Solving Problem or Satisfying Need

Most business owners work hard at this stage. It’s one of the most obvious places to begin your internet marketing strategy. This is where everyone is competing for the same keywords on the search engines. You and your competition are already fighting for the top search engine spots.

SALES PROCESS STEP 3: Buyer Evaluates Alternatives

Have you done everything to be one of the top 3 choices? When people start comparing alternatives, are you there? Are you listed on the review websites? Do you have a chart comparing your product features with competitors? What are you doing to be a top buying choice online?

ACTION ITEM: Create a downloadable Adobe Acrobat file that people are able to share with other people involved in making purchasing decisions. Add a faxable quote form at the end of the document. People download and share these files when coming to a purchasing decision. This ensures you’re included in the top 3 choices. Make sure your contact information is on all the pages of the file. 

SALES PROCESS STEP 4: Buyer Decides What to Purchase

Sometimes a potential customer has chosen to buy from you, but issues prevent them. Issues like:

• Out of stock
• High shipping charges
• Difficult online ordering process

Are you doing everything you can to make it easy to complete this part of the buying process with you?

SALES PROCESS STEP 5: Buyer Uses Product or Service for the First Time

If you know a competitor has certain issues that show up AFTER a purchase, do you have a plan in place to help that customer return the bad purchase and replace with the right purchase? 

Do you have informational pages showing how to resolve known issues? On these pages do you tell people about your product or service and how it doesn’t have the same problems?

To Dominate Your Space on the Web, Help Potential Buyers at All Five Steps of the Sales Process

I’ve helped small business owners with their internet marketing strategies since 1998. I rarely see anyone with plans in place to be the top dog at each of these 5 steps. The winners, the top dogs always go beyond what everyone else does. If you want to truly dominate your space online, take the time to be “the company” helping potential buyers in each of these steps of the sales process. Take your rightful place at the top of the food chain for your niche online.

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart

“Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!”

Related articles:

• How To Get Organic Traffic From Videos (wealthyways4you.com)
• Web Marketing and Business Improvement in the Thinking Organization (socialmediatoday.com)

If you aren’t a mathematician or an engineer, don’t worry. You’re able to master Google AdWords without maxing out your business credit cards using these 7 simple tips: 

TIP #1: Reduce the Number of Keywords Per Ad Campaign

Many first time AdWords users try Google’s keyword tool and put a large string of keywords in an ad campaign. This works against you and drives your costs up. You want to tighten the focus of your ad to match a very small number of keywords. 

When you tighten your ad’s focus and reduce the number of keywords per ad, a larger percentage of the people viewing the ad will click on it. Google likes that and rewards you by showing your ad more often. Plus your costs per click will go down.

TIP # 2: Use Keyword Phrase Matching.

Put the keyword phrases you bid on in quotes.  This tells Google to only show your ads when people type your phrase in a search. You will get higher click through rates and more qualified people visiting your website using this tip.

COMMENT: This tip is only for people who don’t want to spend a bunch of time working with AdWords. The experts will tell you something different. But they’re talking to people who want to “scientifically” dive into the details of AdWords. This is for people who want quick results without spending hours analyzing your AdWords campaigns. 

TIP # 3: Use Negative Keywords.

Even if you use the quote technique above, sometimes Google shows your ad to people searching for something that isn’t right for you. Here’s an example.

One of my clients sells printers to businesses. They don’t want people looking for inkjet printers going to their website. So they put the minus sign in front of keywords relating to inkjet printers in their AdWords campaign.

TIP # 4: Create a Separate Ad Campaign for Google’s Content Network and a Separate Ad Campaign for Google’s Search Network.

In your AdWords campaign settings you’re able to choose whether you want your campaigns to just be on the search engines or on other websites where Google ads are shown. When you set-up separate campaigns for just the search engine network and one for their content network, your campaigns on the search network will have very high click through rates. Google will reward your whole account for increased click through rates.

TIP # 5: Create Landing Pages for Each AdWords Ad Group.

When people click on your link, you want whatever is on your web page to match the ad they clicked. If your ad says, “imported virgin olive oil,” your landing page needs to talk about “imported virgin olive oil.” There are exceptions to this rule. But you have only a few seconds to keep their attention. If you send them to your website’s home page and the link to “imported virgin olive oil” isn’t easy to find, then your prospects will leave your website and go to your competitors’ websites.

TIP # 6: Split Test Your Ads

Google AdWords makes it easy to test one ad against another. You’ll find one ad will bring you a lot more quality leads versus another ad. You’re able to test several against each other until you find your winning ad.

TIP # 7: Use Conversion Tracking

Google helps you track how many people actually buy something or request information from each ad. All you do is copy and paste their tracking code on a “Thank You” page. ”Thank You” pages are the web pages shown after someone orders or after someone completes an online form. This is extremely easy for your web master to do for you. It only takes a couple of minutes to set-up. With this tracking feature installed you’re able to known which ads work and which ads don’t. Then stop the bad ads and lower your cost per new customer.

Why These Tips Are So Effective: Google AdWords Plays Favorites

Here’s the big secret. Google AdWords likes the ads that get the most clicks best. The ads that get more clicks are shown more often. The ads that get more clicks get ranked higher. The ads that get more clicks cost less per click. Here’s an example. An ad with a $2 bid-per-click that gets clicked 50 times out of every 100 views will get higher placement on Google than an ad for the same keyword with the same $2 bid but only getting clicked 25 times out of every 100 views.

Google charges you less if you’re getting a better “click thru rate” than your competition.

The reason? The ad that gets clicked more often serves their customers better. Plus Google makes more money on ads that get more clicks (even if they charge less per click).

If you’ve been putting off advertising with Google AdWords, now’s the time to get started. If you’ve tried AdWords before, but got burned, it’s time to start again. You’ll be glad you did. 

Sincerely,

 Doug Stewart 

“Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!”

"Are You Talkin' to Me?"

INGREDIENT #1: FOCUS ON YOUR AUDIENCE

“Are you talking to me?”   How many times have you gone to a corporate website and thought “Where is the stuff for me?” Are you making potential new customers “guess” if your website is for them? 

You might think, “Isn’t it obvious our website is for people who need _________.” It might be obvious to your employees. But we’re in the land of information overload. You have to spell it out for them.

HERE’S WHAT YOU DO: At the top of your web page, put “This website is for…” Just tell everybody who your website is for. Simple. But effective.

In fact, I guarantee your leads will go up dramatically after making this one simple change.

INGREDIENT #2: FOCUS ON ONE MAIN TOPIC

Most business websites are made to showcase their specific business. And that’s great if people type your company name in the search engines.

But what if someone is looking for a solution to a problem? Or if someone is looking for a specific product or service? A website with the main topic being the “company” will be hard to find on that kind of search.

You have a better chance of getting to the top of the search engines if your website is all about the “XY Widget” instead of the “XY Company.” When people search using the keywords associated with your topic, they’ll find your website. Plus your website visitors will know immediately that you have what they’re searching for.

TOOL: You can find out what keywords people are using on Google, here. It’s a great way to find the specific topics for future websites.

You’ll also want a domain name with your main topic or keywords in it. More on this topic in future blog posts. So stay tuned…

INGREDIENT #3: FOCUS ON THE ACTION YOU WANT VISITORS TO TAKE

Think back to the last time you went to a website. Think about reading an article or skimming down a web page. 

Once you read what you found interesting. Or skimmed what you were going to skim. You stopped. Then you made a decision about what you were going to do next, right?

Please Sir, I Want Some More

You clicked a button. You went to another website. Or you turned off your computer. All of these decisions are very small. You’re probably not conscious of making these decisions.

That’s why you as a website owner should help potential clients make the next decision. Help them make the decision before their eyes rest. Tell them to sign-up for your newsletter. Tell them to download your report. Tell them to take an action. Otherwise, they might make a decision to take an action you don’t like.

So while you’re here. Look at the comment form below. Tell me what actions you’re going to take after reading this blog post. Or ask me a question. But take a second and comment on this post. I’d appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart

Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!

Pay per click is undoubtedly THE advertising breakthrough of the 21st century. For the first time in history, you only show your ad to people already interested in what you’ve got to offer. And you only pay when they visit your “store”

But because the search engines charge advertisers less money for truly relevant ads which get plenty of clicks (and add a penalty to all the others). It’s also the first time in history that managing a single ad campaign has become a full time job!

You see, increasing competition, costs, and quality requirements imposed by the search engines make it VERY difficult for most people to get maximum profit from PPC.

Glenn Livingston is one of the most highly respected AdWords marketers in the United States. More importantly, he runs a large AdWords management agency and has seen literally hundreds of PPC accounts, so he really knows what works from a “dollars in vs. dollars out” vantage point. (Compare that to a lot of the self proclaimed gurus out there “talking theory”)

Click Here To Get Your Free AdWords Cheat Sheets, MP3s, and Videos Now

Glenn also actually has very strong business background consulting for dozens of companies like AT&T, Lipton, Novartis, Whirlpool, and many, many more. And, also unlike many of the gurus you may have followed, Glenn’s successfully built 17 of his own AdWords projects in markets having NOTHING TO DO with internet marketing.

And he’s endorsed by the authors of BOTH major AdWords books.

But the best thing is, Glenn’s marketing philosophy is to deliver real value BEFORE he asks for the sale. Which means he’s put a tremendous amount of blood, sweat, and tears into creating these Adwords Cheat Sheets, Videos, and MP3s.

So you really WILL get critically important AdWords insights about:

• Overcoming PPC Overwhelm –> Maximum Results in Minimum Time
• Sending Your Quality Score Demons Where They Belong
• Selecting Your Single Most Important Keyword
• Attracting Hyper-Responsive AdWords Visitors
• Optimizing the Content Network (the largest network in the world)
• Rolling Out to MSN, Yahoo, and Other PPC Engines
• Finding Your Single Most Important Competitor
• And much, much more.

I can’t recommend this highly enough … it’s one of the truly FREE resources on the internet that really does deliver value.

Click Here To Get Your Free AdWords Cheat Sheets, MP3s, and Videos Now

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart

Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!

“Every problem has a gift for you in its hands.” – Richard Bach

I got a new printer this week. One of my clients sent it to me. He’s been a client for close to 9 years now. He’s been a friend for 12.

After unpacking the printer, I hooked it up to my PC. I put in the toner cartridge. And proceeded to run a print test. Here is what the page looked like:

My first thought was, “the toner cartridge is bad.” So I replaced the toner cartridge with a backup. Same results.

Next I think it’s the printer driver. So I update the driver. Same results. Hmmm.

So I e-mailed my friend. He ships me a new printer within 24 hours. I opened the door where you put the toner and I found a loose part. I found the same loose part in the first printer.

Since these are refurbished printers, I thought whoever packed the first printer made a mistake. Now I know better.

So I shoot my friend another e-mail. He refers me to Thomas, their technical support guy. Thomas walks me through how to install the part. Now everything works perfect.

How does this help you dominate your space on the web?

Right after I got off the phone I thought, “they need to make a video on how to fix this and put it on their blog and on YouTube.”

Why you ask? Well if you keep reading, I’ll tell you…

First, if this happened to me twice you know it’s happened to almost anyone who’s bought this printer. You know my customer’s competitors shipped printers with this issue.

One of the first things I did when my printer didn’t work was Google my problem. I wanted to see if there was an easy solution online. I didn’t want to look like an idiot to my friend when I called about the printer not working.

If my customer had a video on YouTube and a blog entry about the issue, I would have found it. Solved the problem and eliminated a phone call. It would’ve eliminated the hassle and cost of shipping me a replacement a printer.

And here’s the kicker . . .

If a couple of competitors did this to their customers, do you think they would’ve resolved the issue as easily? What if the competitors’ customers found the solution and how easy it was to find my client’s business? Who do you think would be the “big dog” online after this experience?

You got it. Problems = Opportunity or “Probortunity”

Sincerely,

Doug Stewart

Giving You the Power to Fight the Big Boys!