Internet Marketing, Social Media, Business | StuckInTheFunnel

5 Common PPC Mistakes to Avoid

This post was originally written for the blog Raleigh Web Insights.

Depending on your organization’s marketing budget, you may opt to manage your PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns in-house. While this can save you money on management fees, you run the risk of losing dollars if your campaign is not maintained correctly. Over the years, we have heard countless stories of under performing PPC campaigns from our current and prospective clients.

Here are 5 Common PPC Mistakes to Avoid:

1. Focusing on Budget and Not ROI – Many marketing managers view a PPC budget as another line item on a marketing report. This is common with small businesses. Unlike traditional media campaigns such as Television, Print or Radio, Paid Search Campaigns provide the opportunity for detailed analysis and analytics. Make sure you constantly track and refine your campaigns so you get the most out of your ad spend.
2. Sending All Traffic to Your Home Page – Your ads are ranked by a number of factors, including the relevancy of your destination URL. If you send your visitors to relevant landing pages, it will increase your ad position and your visitors will be more likely to convert.
3. Forgetting About Negative Keywords – Negative keywords are a great way to qualify traffic and avoid wasted clicks. Make sure you omit keywords from your campaigns that are not relevant to your brand, product or service. For example: if you sell Ferraris, do not include the search term “cheap” in your campaigns.
4. Not Checking the Competition – While you do not have to stalk your competitors, checking their ads and landing pages periodically will provide you with competitive insight. This knowledge gained can be used in your differentiation strategy.
5. Not Paying Attention to Ad Text – Be sure to include one or more of your keywords within your ad text and include a call to action. A good call to action will guide the visitor in the right direction after they enter your site. Placing keywords that are relevant to the search term in your ad text will also increase your ad’s relevancy and Click Through Rate (CTR) which will also help your ad positions.

How to Get Started With Email Marketing Software

This post was originally written for the blog Raleigh Web Insights.

Many of our new customers ask us about email marketing software and rightfully so. No matter how great your copy and call to action is, if no one sees the message your hard work will be in vain. It’s important to choose a reputable tool that will get the message delivered.

Here are a few guidelines to follow when selecting your Email Marketing software provider:

• Make sure the company does not allow it’s customers to market to purchased lists.
• Select a tool that can handle your subscription list. If you are a larger organization, you may have to get a custom quote.
• Look for a company that conforms to all authentication standards including Sender ID and SPF and DKIM which are used to prevent SPAM activity.
• Find a provider that provides live help and support, especially if you are new to email marketing.

There are a lot of products out there, but take the time to choose one that is a good fit for your business.

How to Delegate Web Publishing Effectively

This post was originally written for the blog Raleigh Web Insights.

If your organization has more than one employee or you have outside parties contribute to your website’s content, you can benefit from workflow and access right features if you have the right Content Management System. However, many organizations fail to get the most out of this feature. This is generally do to improper training on the subject.

Here are Some Tips for Getting Started With Access Rights and Workflow:

Define and create admin groups for the different departments in your organization. For instance, define a marketing, sales and support group.

1. Create roles for each user in admin group such as publisher and contributor so senior staff can review content before it is posted on your website.
2. If your CMS allows it, restrict each admin group to the specific sections/functions of your CMS. For example do not provide your support staff with access to a page like “Message from the President”, but do give them access to the “FAQ” section.
3. Enable publishing history and event logs so you can keep track of who modified what and when. This will increase your staff’s sense of accountability.
4. Build your content from within the CMS. Do not start in a text editor like MS Word if you can avoid it. This will increase your collaboration efficiency within the CMS and centralize your content repository. Additionally, this will save time since pasting from MS Word often causes loss of formatting fidelity.
5. Enable approval reminders so your senior staff will be notified of actions they need to take even when they are not logged into the CMS application.

Taking the time to set up your access rights and workflow will improve your operational efficiency and save your organization time, allowing staff to spend time on more tasks that drive business.

Social Media Automation – What's Good and Bad About It?

This post was originally written for the blog Raleigh Web Insights.

When discussing the topic of Social Media with our current or prospective customers we often get the response “I don’t have time for that”. While Social Media is a labor intensive form of marketing, it does provide the personal touch your audience is looking for. Many businesses are unaware that you can actually automate a good portion of your Social Media Marketing.

With a little planning, you can syndicate your online content and reduce the time it takes you to spread your message across all of your social pipelines.

Here are a few tools that can help you do this:

• Tweet Deck (update Twitter and Facebook simultaneously).
• Word Press Twitter Plugin (Display your Tweets on a Word Press Blog)
• Twitter Feed (Automatically feed your blog and other RSS content to Twitter)
• Hoot Suite (for scheduled Tweets and other workflow)
• Posterous - (Allows you to email content and have it distributed to multiple Social Networks Simultaneously. )

Benefits of Social Media Automation:

• Allows marketing staff to spend less time on copying/pasting so they can focus on generating original content and other critical business tasks
• Keeps your content/brand consistent across all social networks.

Negatives of Social Media Automation:

• Can result in neglecting social networks. Make sure you continue to login and build up your following and relationships.
• It may cause you to get labeled as a Spammer or robot. It’s important to comment on the content created by others. Don’t just send your content into the pipeline without participating in other discussions.

Social Media automation can improve your business processes, but remember to use the tools available ethically and build your audience organically.

Internet Marketing VS Traditional – What You Should Know

This post was originally written for the blog Raleigh Web Insights.

Digital marketing spending will increase 17% in 2010 as marketers move dollars away from TV, print and radio advertising to social media, mobile, search and e-mail marketing according to a February report from e-mail service provider ExactTarget and Internet marketing and e-commerce consulting firm Econsultancy.

You may have heard the buzz about Internet Marketing and it’s increasing popularity, but you might not now why the buzz is there. The fact is, Internet marketing provides some significant advantages over traditional marketing.

Advantages of Web Marketing Over Traditional Marketing:

1. Outreach – Internet Marketing allows you to target specific locations on a global scale with ease.
2. Conversion Tracking – Detailed conversion tracking and other metrics such as impressions, clicks, click through rates and cost per acquisition are readily available with Internet Marketing. This data is more difficult to obtain with say a newspaper or print ad.
3. Cost of Entry – With Paid Search or Banner Ads, you can spend as little or as much as you like and can adjust your daily budget at any time.
4. Ease of Deployment – With Internet Marketing, you can deploy your campaign as soon as you are ready and do not have to wait for the next print circulation.
5. Consumer Interest – When you present an ad to someone searching for a product or service, you are catching them in “Buying Mode” which is more conducive to producing a sale or lead.

Offline branding is important, but if you do not consider the Internet as part of your marketing mix, you will miss out on potential customers that your competition may already be capturing.

Choosing the Right Web Content Management System (CMS)

As the Internet evolves, more industry verticals have recognized the web as channel that can generate additional revenue, reduce operational costs, develop a deeper relationship with customers and broaden the reach of a brand.

The foundation of any strong web presence is a solid Content Management System (CMS). With the myriad of different solutions available, it can be difficult to select the right platform. Many companies have discovered that choosing the wrong CMS can result in a site that delivers results below expectations.

Guidelines for the Most Common CMS Decisions:

Open Source V.S. Commercial:

• Choosing an open source or commercial platform is usually the first decision that needs to be made.
• If your organization is considering Open Source and has limited experience in this area, it is important to keep the following in mind:
• Open Source does not necessarily mean “free”. There may not be any license costs, but there will be costs for systems integration, development and maintenance. These costs are often substantially higher with open source implementations as well.
• Open Source implementers generally consider a project to be “cash and carry” and do not offer commercial training, support and enhancements.
• The fact that anyone can contribute to an open source platform means that these systems may not deliver the security, performance, reliability and functionality of a commercial system.

Hosted Solution V.S. Custom Solution

• If your organization is considering a Hosted Solution, instead of a one-off solution, consider the following:
• Hosted Solutions generally do not permit custom functionality or integration to be built into your CMS, since you are sharing the same system with other organizations.
• The vendor owns the core code, so migrating your functionality to a new provider is virtually impossible.

Java V.S. Microsoft.net

• If you do not go the open source route, your technology choice will likely be between Microsoft.net or Java. When making this selection, take the following into account:
• Microsoft’s .Net Framework is considered a more modern version of the earlier Java technology which was developed primarily for Unix systems.
• Think about the future of your company’s technology and invest in one core focus, not 2. Products accommodating Java and .Net often result in either product deficiencies or far greater overhead.

Choosing the right CMS can be a daunting task, but given the prominence of the web in business nowadays, it’s crucial that you take the time to research diligently and decide on a platform that will be an integral part of your business for years to come.

Design for Conversion and Increase Your Sales

This post was originally written for the blog Raleigh Web Insights.

PPC or SEO – What is Right for Your Business?

This post was originally written for the blog Raleigh Web Insights.

According to a 2009 study conducted by Nielsen and Pew Internet concluded that 82% of consumers perform a search on the internet before purchasing a product or service.

More of our new and existing clients are beginning to realize this and often ask us whether they should consider SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or PPC (Pay Per Click Advertising).

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A Case in Conversion: Dave Ramsey ELP (Endorsed Local Providers)

Now that I’ve gotten to the age where my liabilities and responsibilities seem to be increasing, I have started to search for a financial advisor to direct and handle my investments.

 While listening to Dave Ramsey on talk radio the other day, he made mention of the “Endorsed Local Providers” on his website. Although I have not taken Ramsey’s classes or read any of his books, I have enjoyed his practical insights on the radio. This already established trust led me to his website in a search for CFP talent.

 After submitting the obligatory “Locate an Advisor form”, I was officially captured as a viable prospect and my journey through the conversion funnel continued.

 This Conversion Funnel portrays my quest for a financial planner:

The ELP was straightforward during our meeting. I even blatantly asked him about the agreement he had with the Dave Ramsey organization and he answered honestly.

 So will I choose Dave Ramsey’s local provider as my financial planner? Not yet. Given my thorough nature, I have asked a friend with a financial background to take a look at the services and fees provided to me at the meeting. Based on his recommendations, I will see whether or not I exit this conversion funnel.

 What you can learn from this experience:

1. Celebrity endorsements still hold water and can help your digital persuasion.
2. Radio advertising is still a viable medium to include in your marketing mix. If tailored correctly, in can assist it increasing your online conversions.
3. Endorsements can help increase your prospect count, but don’t rely on that alone. You will still have to sell yourself well, especially in today’s market.

pleaserobme.com – Philanthropy or Viral Marketing at it’s Finest?

ForTheHack launched http://pleaserobme.com/today – a site that essentially filters and displays a stream of Tweets that link to a user’s real time location via the 4 Square Website.

 It also let’s you search for people based on their location and Twitter username.

 When you really break it down the site does not really provide anything outside of what 4square already offers (especially considering the stream links out to the 4square website.) It should also be noted that it does not actually list the empty home’s address despite the site’s claim.

 So why did they do it?

 The site creators claim:

The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home. It gets even worse if you have “friends” who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the internet.. Now you know what to do when people reach for their phone as soon as they enter your home. That’s right, slap them across the face.

The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc.

I think there might be a little more to it than that…

The obviously controversial/humorous context of the site has already caused a stir on Twitter and the blogosphere. The creators of the site will wake up tomorrow to a wealth of inbound links from bloggers (they are already are on Tech Crunch), tweeters and disgruntled 4square users. They may even collect some revenue off of that obligatory Google Adsense ad…

As an internet marketing and social media enthusiast, I commend the guys over at ForTheHack for coming up with such a clever marketing tactic and raising some awareness about the possible dangers of location-based services.