Google is always making changes. So are Yahoo, Bing and every other search engine out there. These days the growth of the internet has spawned social and local search engines as well.
The big three don't want to lose market share so they have jumped on the local bandwagon too.
So what does that mean for your business. Essentially the world of B2C has been divided into three main categories. Local, National and Virtual.
So which are you? And what do you do to reach more potential new clients and keep connected with your existing clients?
Keeping connected with your existing clients means connecting with them in the way they want to be connected with. As hard as I have tried to automate my business, our clients still want phone calls and personal visits. E-mail newsletters do ok, but don't get referrals or upgrades done.
Getting new clients however is an open game with no rules. You can go after clients in any number of ways, the big question is which methods to use?
Trying more than two or three methods at once will spread any small to medium business way to thin. If you are in marketing at GM or Coke, this is the wrong blog, sorry.
If your business is local, the one method I am taking to all of my clients right now is referral management. This is a two part method. First you need to contact ALL of your existing clients and find out if they would be willing to sign a positive referral for you. Some businesses even let customers sign in to Yelp! or Foursquare using an iPad at the door.
The idea here is to get as many referrals and reviews online as possible. The reason is simple. The big three want to know your business exists and that it is good. Google doesn't want to send customers to a lousy Pizza place with flat beer and no parking when a great place is just two blocks over and has a great parking lot. Yes, even online you must earn business.
For local businesses, part of the changes at Google reflect favorably on businesses with a real location and great reviews. For a real estate agent that shares an office with 200 other agents, this can be a challenge. For a "virtual" or home based business, even more of a challenge. For a Pizza place at a great location serving great pies and cold beer, it could be the launchpad for a second location.
How are your reviews?
If your business has hit a wall and you are interested in getting it growing again, call The Bourquin Group for a free consultation.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
Headlines Matter
Yes, headlines matter. People are attracted to and will read a horrible story if it has a great headline. The same is true for online marketing and Pay Per Click or PPC ads.
The headlines matter. The reason to test ads on a regular basis and measure the outcome is to see what kind of headlines bring people to your business. A great headline will get their interest, not just their attention.
While I don't like being held hostage by PPC ads, they are the best and most cost effective headline testing tool ever invented. For under $100, you can find out if an ad works. If you were to print $100 in postcards and mail them out, you would never know.
For our clients we use rotating ad campaigns and use the Jack Welch method. The bottom performers are cut each month and new ads generated. We are always measuring and testing.
Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Bing and Linked In all have simple interfaces where you can see how often an add is shown and how often it is clicked and then how long the person stays on the site.
We like to see numbers above .5% Meaning for every 1000 views, 5 clicks happen. Our best campaign to date topped 4% for over six months and had a 24% call rate. At the same time it didn't yield enough high revenue customers for our client so we dropped the ad.
Advertising is about customer interest, increasing gross revenue, increasing profits and ideally increasing the profit ratio. What good is it to work twice as hard to make half as much per customer?
Great headlines peak the interest - Good landing pages get the calls or buys - Good followup increases the profit. If you measure two out of the three you might be wasting your time.
The headlines matter. The reason to test ads on a regular basis and measure the outcome is to see what kind of headlines bring people to your business. A great headline will get their interest, not just their attention.
While I don't like being held hostage by PPC ads, they are the best and most cost effective headline testing tool ever invented. For under $100, you can find out if an ad works. If you were to print $100 in postcards and mail them out, you would never know.
For our clients we use rotating ad campaigns and use the Jack Welch method. The bottom performers are cut each month and new ads generated. We are always measuring and testing.
Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Bing and Linked In all have simple interfaces where you can see how often an add is shown and how often it is clicked and then how long the person stays on the site.
We like to see numbers above .5% Meaning for every 1000 views, 5 clicks happen. Our best campaign to date topped 4% for over six months and had a 24% call rate. At the same time it didn't yield enough high revenue customers for our client so we dropped the ad.
Advertising is about customer interest, increasing gross revenue, increasing profits and ideally increasing the profit ratio. What good is it to work twice as hard to make half as much per customer?
Great headlines peak the interest - Good landing pages get the calls or buys - Good followup increases the profit. If you measure two out of the three you might be wasting your time.
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