The Most Obvious Choice Might Not Be the Best One

Google Adwords is normally the first name that comes to mind when most people think of Pay-Per-Click advertising or online display networks.

This is more than understandable. Google is the undisputed king of the internet (especially in terms of search volume and users).

Most established small businesses looking to “branch out” into online advertising look to advertise on Google first. However, their “search” usually begins and ends there once they hit their ad budget (and usually doing so very quickly) and are confused as to the next best option.

In terms of reaching the most eyeballs, Google is still #1 by far. There are other very effective display networks other than the Silicon Valley giant out there though. When determining which one is actually the best choice for your business, Google isn’t always the default choice.

Below are some of the pros and cons of the three biggest display networks you can advertise on:

Google Adwords

Pros:

• Most popular search engine (by far) accounting for 67% of all online searches
• Younger, savvier internet users (in general)
• Biggest content network & more ad extension (for adding business contact details, etc.)
• More intuitive interface and easier to set up

Cons:

• Most expensive (also by far)
• Less affluent searchers (when compared to Bing / Yahoo)
• Slightly lower conversion rates (also when compared to Bing / Yahoo)
• Very unforgiving if your account gets suspended
• Lower quality scores for sites with affiliate links

Marketing your business on a tight budget.

If you’re a small business or a new company starting out, chances are you have a pretty limited budget for marketing your brand, products, and services. Yet, the fact that you’ve at least thought about doing marketing to promote your business, means you understand the importance and value of using marketing services and tools to help boost your company - so congratulations on taking that first key step!

Now that you understand the need to market your company, it’s time to decide how to spend your money in the most efficient and strategic way to increase your odds of attracting new leads and clients. In today’s complex Internet marketing world, there are hundreds of different ways to promote your company and solutions, thousands of tools to help you do it yourself, and thousands of marketing agencies to help you along the way.

Yet, the question of where to start and how to allocate your money still remains. To help you, we’ll share with you what our marketing strategy team shares with our existing clients when faced with this question.

Things to consider before following our tips:

Before we jump into exactly what services you should consider, it’s important to note that not every business will need the same services as every business is different, has different goals, different target markets, budgets, etc. Thus, the following list of services is not meant to help every company, but only those who’d benefit from marketing their products or services to a target audience that can be defined through online marketing services with a wide range of people.

Top 5 marketing services to consider when promoting your business online:

Note: Items are listed in order of importance, with number one being the most important. Depending on your exact marketing budget, you may or may not have enough money to invest in all five services listed. When that is the case, we suggest that you invest in the most important ones first.

1. A Business Website
2. Online Advertising
3. Social Media Presence
4. E-mail Marketing
5. Content Marketing, Blogs, and SEO

Related post: How to take your business online - 5 must have digital tools

Curiosity.

To sum it all up in one word, the #1 thing that drives people to click on an ad is curiosity. Not benefits. Not a unique or original feature. Curiosity.

You cannot sell a product in 40 characters. You cannot even differentiate your company from the rest of the pack in that short window. You can, however, spark curiosity in that brief of an instant.

Curiosity is a fundamental human emotion. It burrows way deeper than any logic-based purchasing emotion. In your prospect’s mind, it no longer is a question of how this product can benefit me. They forget they are even trying to buy something and the issue becomes: “I need to know the answer to this or it will eat at me for the rest of eternity.”

It’s funny when you put it that way but it’s true. Everybody has ADD online. You really only waste 2 seconds of your life if you land on a page that doesn’t fit your fancy, so people are pretty open to clicking on something if it looks even mildly interesting. 

Make 2015 Count for Your Small Business

Can you believe the end of 2014 is here?!

Many people treat the dawning of a new year as an opportunity to reflect on the previous year, identify goals for the months ahead, and create action steps they can use to make things happen.

With that in mind, here’s 5 ways to make 2015 a year that counts for your small business…

1. Review your end-of-year monthly and quarterly performance.

How did performance compare to where you were when you started the year? Were you able to increase your business’ bottom line as 2014 came to a close? Do you have a larger social media following or more leads on your email list?

If you aren’t ending the year where you wanted to be, see if you can identify one to three actions, derived directly from your performance numbers, that you can put into practice to make sure you see growth in 2015.

Example: If your website lost sessions and unique visitors as you moved from August to December, and you know it’s because a certain referrer wasn’t performing well, your action step could be to improve referral performance or even invest that time in an alternate referrer.

2. Identify weak areas.

Even if 2014 was a booming year for your small business, there are always areas that can be improved. Use a critical - but not harsh! - eye to look at all aspects of your business. There might be something that can be better optimized.

Example: Is it easy for you to drive traffic to your website but difficult for you to convert those visitors into leads? Take some time in 2015 to assess your landing pages and optimize.

3. Assess your 2014 goals and create new ones for 2015.

What is Online Marketing Automation?

Throughout the history of mankind and our existence, humans have constantly been in the pursuit of making life easier. In most cases, this has been achieved by developing new tools and technologies that help achieve things faster, easier and more efficiently.

Today’s modern online marketing tools are no different, as they allow the modern digital marketer to achieve many tasks faster, with less effort and more efficiently overall. Let’s explore what Internet marketing automation is all about.

Intro to Internet Marketing Automation

In today’s digital marketing world, marketing automation refers to the ability to program, schedule, or automate one or more tasks to make a marketer’s work more effective.

Marketing automation comes in various shapes and sizes. It can range from a task as small as scheduling a social media post, to a very complex automated marketing and sales funnel that includes web user tracking, e-mail sign-up forms, lead scoring, e-mail open & click rates that help trigger specific emails, printed mail pieces, scheduling a rep to call a lead, and much more.

Types of Marketing Automation Tools

As the Internet continues to evolve, there’s a constant flow of innovation that bring to life new, better and different types of online marketing automation tools. Some of these tools are stand-alone applications and work independent of other software, some work only as add-ons or extensions to other applications and some as a combination of both.

Within the various automation tools, some solutions target specific online marketing niches - such as E-mail or online ADs only, others offer a complete solution of various pre-integrated marketing tools, while others offer the ability to easily connect independent web-based tools with each other to add automation capabilities without the need of complex custom-made programming.

Tools by Service Type - Full details below

1. E-mail Marketing
2. Social Media Management
3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) 
4. All-in-one Sales & Marketing Software
5. Online Advertising
6. Integration and Syncing 
   
   

How Does it Help Increase Sales? 

It’s noisy out there.

And I’m not just talking about on the street.

I mean online. There is so much action every time we dial up (hopefully you’re not still actually using dial-up) that it can be almost overwhelming to keep your sights straight.

It’s even more overwhelming when you are one of those businesses adding to the noise. Don’t get me wrong, you definitely should be. The jury’s out as to the impact of an online presence (for those late to the game the answer is a resounding YES). The internet is a great way to get your message heard. Be loud and proud. A lot of people will hear.

But you might be asking yourself what an online presence exactly entails? There’s a lot to do and see on the internet. Where should I focus my attention?

Is it on having a professional website? Maybe it’s Facebook? Or perhaps I should post more consistently to my blog?

Those are all important. In fact, you should have at least one foot in each one of those doors. But there exists an older and arguably much simpler answer to this puzzle. An answer that today seems to get ignored by many businesses but realistically could generate more leads than all those other options combined.

That answer is email.

Marketing is Changing

Marketing has evolved from the days of Mad Men. The key to marketing success in the 21st century is not flash and glamour, but engagement.

Engagement is building and fostering long-term relationships with customers through continual contact.

And email is the best way to build engagement. 

How many social media posts do you really read word for word? What makes you stop your scrolling and take notice?

Make sure you include compelling social media copy in all of your posts - even if you’re posting to share a video, photo, or link. Even though Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ will make your post look appealing by providing a video, photo, or link embed, you’ll miss an opportunity to engage your reader if you don’t include a relevant caption.

Keep It Simple

Think again about how you browse social media. You probably skim posts, right? Make sure your copy is easy to understand even at a glance. Unless your social media audience is primarily made up of professionals who are well-versed in and expect high-level content, you probably want to write simple, easy-to-read copy, using a tone of voice that’s consistent with your branding, that includes clear headlines and calls-to-action.

You don’t know who makes up the majority of your audience and what they expect? Read on…

It’s easy and free to get your company started on social media. After just a few minutes’ worth of set-up, you’ll have your accounts up and running! But how do you know if your social media activity is actually helping out your business?

You should spend the majority of your time running your business — not worrying whether social media is a waste of time! Put your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to work with our tips. And if you’re in the San Diego, CA area, make sure to join us for our upcoming workshop on content and social media on November 19!. 

Social media should be the first step on your customer’s journey — NOT their final destination!

It’s exceptionally gratifying to see your follower counts go up as you spend time online. Are those followers converting into paying customers, though?

Keep in mind that social media is at its most valuable when it refers prospective customers to your eCommerce website or your brick-and-mortar location.

Provide thoughtful opportunities for customers to visit your website, learn about your services, and take the next step towards converting. But make sure that these opportunities are written with your audience’s motivators and needs in mind! They’ll be more likely to click through to your site if they believe you’ll be able to provide personal value to them.

Already have a professional business website?

If your business already has a website, then you’re on the right path to generating more money through the amazing benefits of promoting your company online. On the other hand, if your company still doesn’t have a professional website, then many could argue it doesn’t exist. Well, it might physically exist, but if it’s not a click away on the Internet in today’s digital era then it basically doesn’t exist in the eyes of most people. Agree?

Having a professionally designed business website is the first step in ensuring that your company can succeed in today’s online world. Want to learn more? Read about the Top 5 must-have digital tools to take your business online.

From this point forward, let’s just assume you already have a business website. Great! “Now what?” you may ask yourself, “How can I make money from my website and generate leads?” That’s exactly what I’d like to help you with, so let’s get to it.

Intro To Website And Email Marketing Lead Generation

The five basic steps for generating leads are as follows:

1) Create landing pages on your website, 2) Drive traffic to your website, 3) Attract your online visitors by offering them valuable information & tips to help them solve their problems, 4) Capture their information (convert them into leads), and 5) Follow-up with them via automated e-mails. 

Take a look at these great tips and statistics on the importance of not only doing online marketing but on focusing on inbound marketing techniques to allow users to find your company naturally online. 

5 Steps to get started: