How can you increase sales when your Lemonade Stand is in the breakdown lane of the information super highway?

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Jeff Demers

Within the past 10 years, nearly everything about the way we do business has changed.  Advancements in technology have opened new markets, brought people closer, blurred the lines between home and office along with giving new businesses the ability to been seen and heard at levels previously only reserved for the most established and deep pocketed organizations.

While these advancements have offered the most savvy of entrepreneurs a way to hyper grow properly run and ambitious start-up businesses, adoption and the embracing of online advertising have been a slower role for certain established businesses and business leaders.  Given that our model is a consultative one- the sales process for a new client is heavily consultative.  During this process, you learn quite a bit about the prospective client’s business model, aspirations, sales goals and ultimately, what led them to seek us out for support.

The biggest challenge in the sales process for Search Engine Marketing services is to educate the client that the concept of the Yellow Pages, Trade Show, Chamber of Commerce and most everything else that they have been brought up to believe will enhance their business is trumped by the potential of online advertising.  Change can be positive, but the beginnings of any change and in this case a fundamental paradigm shift in the way you sell and view marketing can be painful.

The benefits of a properly run online marketing strategy are many, and the ways to achieve those benefits continue to evolve (seemingly) daily.  Whether you are a beginner to online marketing and expert or somewhere in the middle, here are some of the major items to consider when you begin to assess where your organization fits relative to a holistic marketing strategy.

  • How am I currently selling?  Do I have an inside sales force calling off of lists or do I have an outside sales team knocking on doors?  How you currently sell has more to do with your online marketing strategy than you think.  Unlike more traditional marketing strategies which focus on brand and brand recognition, the success of online marketing is specifically tied to conversions or sales.  It is more analytical and ROI driven than it’s ever been and when done right, it can help augment a sales force in ways never before imagined.
  • How do I want to sell and how effective is my strategy?  Given the various “traditional” ways organizations approach business development, there may be ways to direct budget to the effort of creating more inbound traffic/leads etc. as opposed to filling the streets with an army of company branded polo wearing, khaki sporting outside sales professionals that are experiencing limited results.
  • Who am I selling to and do I have any idea what resonates with my target market(s)?  Historically, organizations have been forced to rely on surveys, hearsay, research firms or focus groups to provide direction on which aspects of a service or product offering resonates with the audience at large.  With the advances in Google Analytics, Marketing Automation, Paid Campaigns and Tracking Methods, organizations can receive feedback from actual visitors in real time to better understand how they are reacting to various ad campaigns, messaging and calls to action.  A/B testing, offers and the ability to show certain content to targeted subsections of visitors enhance the ability to test messaging in a fraction of the time.  The world where marketing decisions no longer happen in a vacuum is the world we live in today and the organizations who let their customer’s vote with their clicks are the organizations who will continue to lead the charge while others trail behind.
  • I’ve led the horse to water- why isn’t it drinking?  Probably because your website is lacking.  The days of a website being the proverbial online business card are over.  Today’s public have incredibly high standards, shrinking budgets and a marked lack of patience.  If your website is not engaging, looks antiquated, hasn’t been updated in two years or is not interactive- all of the money and advertising in the world will not compensate.

The Good News:  Websites are not as expensive as they once were.  If your organization wants a fully functional, interactive website and does not require a great deal of back end custom development, you should be able to get one for the neighborhood of $40,000.  For the cost of a booth at a trade show in Vegas you can have a website that touts your services, products and abilities 24/7/365.

The Bad News:  It’s the Wild West out there and just like in the olden days, for every firm who can help you build their business there are three that say they can and cannot.  The operations of a successful web design are similar from firm to firm and the platforms that sites are built on vary, but most functions are assumed.  When vetting an agency, look at how they view web design in the larger context, and by larger context I mean, “How will this increase my sales?”

  • Who, what, when, where, why (and sometimes) how?  The more quickly you realize that you are not an online marketing professional, the better.  You wouldn’t pull your own tooth, don’t try to manage your online presence alone.   The ability for a business leader to enhance their strengths by leveraging a firm who specializes in online marketing is a huge advantage over organizations who devote a portion of someone’s time to these efforts.  The ability to drive inbound traffic and convert them to sales is just one aspect of a successful strategy- the ability to understand the who, what, when why… and act on that data is what separates the adults from the children.
  • If you have a $100 to invest- lottery tickets probably aren’t the best idea… A good online marketing firm is one that understand the needs, wants and resources of the client and maximizes that budget.  There are countless ways to skin the cat and understanding what resources we have at our disposal is the best way to formulate a strategy.  If you are called by an online marketing firm looking to “sell” you a service, hang up.  The needs of your business will explicitly dictate what is “sold” to you, nothing more.

While the advances in Marketing continue to evolve, there is still time for your organization to reap the benefits of early adoption.  Just as there are three Charlatans for every one legitimate online marketing firm, there are three of your competitors who will be slower than you to adapt to the changing marketplace.  There is still a power and market share vacuum to the filled by those who leverage the intense power of a properly run online marketing plan.

It is possible and you don’t have to do it alone. Call Wakefly today, we are happy to help!

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Creating the Right Mobile Strategy for Your Business

Posted on May 11, 2012 by ewaskevich

With more users than ever surfing the web on smart phones, tablets, and internet-connected gaming devices, it is imperative for businesses to have a website that can create a positive experience for those mobile users.  But where would one even begin?  These four key tips below will help lay the foundation for devising a strong mobile strategy to better reach these users.

1.       Set Your Expectations.

According to an Internet Retailer study, mobile traffic accounts for about 10% of overall site traffic—but only 1-2% of overall sales.  Research suggests that users tend to do research on their mobile devices, but then complete the purchase from a desktop computer or in a brick and mortar location. Although it may not appear that the mobile channel is not driving a significant amount of sales, your mobile efforts will enhance the shopping process on your main website and assist in earning the trust and loyalty of the customer earlier in the sales cycle.

There is more good news, too:  according to a study published by Forrester research, mobile shopping has been on the rise and its growth is expected to continue to increase.  In 2010, mobile users accounted for about $3.5 billion dollars in sales or about 1% of total ecommerce sales. However, that number is projected to swell to $31 billion and 7% of total e-commerce sales by 2016.  Although you may initially be underwhelmed by your mobile activity, testing methods and defining your mobile strategy early will allow you to scale your mobile growth as adoption and engagement rates rise in the coming years.

2.       Know Your Audience.

Knowing your audience is a key element to your mobile strategy.  What is your key demographic?  If your core demographic is small business owners over 50, your mobile strategy will differ greatly from a business that caters to high school and college-aged athletes.

One of the best ways to get started on devising a mobile strategy is to ask yourself the following question: “Why would users be visiting my site on a mobile device?” If you sell computer hardware, a user might visit your mobile site to compare prices as they are in a brick and mortar store; if you own a bed and breakfast, users might be visiting your mobile site to find contact information and directions; if you run a bank, users probably want to check their account balance.  Anticipating what action the user intends to take on a mobile site rather than on a desktop site should guide your design strategy.

3.       Optimize For All Devices

Just because your website is not built in Flash does not mean it is “mobile ready!”  Users will generally have a less than ideal user experience if your “mobile website” is just your regular website on a smaller screen.  Similarly, the display on an iPhone is different than that of a Blackberry or an Android device, so designing a website for iPhone could alienate users who own other devices.  According to the most recent quarterly report from ComScore, Android devices make up 51% of the mobile market share, followed by iPhone(30%) and RIM/ Blackberry(12%).  Ensure that in designing your website, you account for all of these formats in an attempt to not alienate one or more particular types of mobile users.

4.       Mobile Site vs. Mobile App

A mobile site should always be the first step into mobile for a business with an online presence.  While many might use search engines to navigate the mobile web or browse on their mobile devices, most users do not seek to download an app published by every website they have visited.  Mobile websites, on the other hand, recall the web experience and do not expect the level of commitment that an app download might.  A mobile website ensures an optimal experience for all mobile traffic, not just those in the significantly smaller group who owns an iPhone and has downloaded the app. If you’re unsure about adoption rates or how best to market your app, it might also make more financial sense than having a custom-created app designed.

Many mobile apps have achieved success, but it is important to remember that mobile apps are only successful if they add value.  If they do not add value, downloads will remain low and users will eventually abandon use of the app.  Ask yourself, “What is my app seeking to accomplish?” If you do have a mobile app, it is recommended that you feature an option to download that app on your mobile site.

Did you know Wakefly can create mobile websites? Contact your Wakefly representative today to learn more!

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The Benefits to Adding an Interactive Billboard to your Homepage

Posted on May 2, 2012 by cklipfel

Redesigning your website’s homepage can certainly be a daunting task. You want to ensure that prospective clients are presented with relevant information about your products or services that will help convince them to do business with you in the future. You might also need to address your stakeholder’s need for data regarding your company’s financial standing. It is more than likely you will need to address a myriad of various visitors coming to your website(s). But how can you possibly target these visitors when they all have such diverse needs? A suitable solution is to implement an interactive billboard on your homepage.

An interactive billboard provides you with the ability to display varied information without cluttering your homepage and confusing your audiences as to what your company is about. As per Wakefly’s most common work, the billboard or rotating banner as per its name will rotate indefinitely through a series of four to six panels. Within your content management system, you can have the ability to update your panels as frequently as you’d like with a title, short description, a corresponding image and a URL of an interior web page. It is suggested that your panels link to another page within your website to drive traffic into your site to learn more about a topic of interest. Once the visitor is on your site, the last thing you want to do is drive them off your site.

The aforementioned homepage billboard is a basic example of the billboards we design here at Wakefly. For examples of our more complex banners and other client work, please visit our Flickr account.

Interactive homepage billboards can do more than simply allowing you the flexibility to display various types of information on your homepage. Wakefly highly recommends incorporating rotating banners on your homepage because they:

  1. Create a wide encompassing first impression of your business and the types of services you provide or the clients you serve without forcing visitors to navigate through your site to find what they need.
  2. Drive traffic into your site to learn more about the information displayed on the panels through the use of interior page links.
  3. Decrease the probability of your visitors missing valuable information. When placed purposefully on your homepage, the panels will be the first thing visitors see when they land on your homepage, ensuring visitors cannot possibly miss the information embedded in the panels.
  4. Capture a visitor’s attention through the use of a variety of sales driven imagery and content, not to mention the motion of the banners rotating.
  5. If implemented using JQuery as opposed to Flash, this feature will be compatible with mobile devices including iPhones and iPads.
  6. You can have the ability to update the content and imagery used on your rotating panels without having to enlist in the help of an agency.

To take your homepage to the next level, contact Wakefly at 508-616-2042 or visit our website to learn more!

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Google Authorship

Posted on April 30, 2012 by cklipfel

Google Authorship is an application recently implemented by Google, which gives authors the ability to distinguish and validate web content they have written within Google search results. By utilizing this application, authors are now able to display content they have written while assigning a face and a name to content they have created.  Along with several other benefits, Google Authorship helps writers and authors achieve higher visibility in search results.

How Authorship is Achieved

Google provides a simple how-to process for achieving Authorship in search results.  If they haven’t already, authors must create a Google+ Profile. Upon doing so, authors will then have to upload a high quality headshot and fill some basic profile information.

From there, authors or writers will need to verify authorship of their content by associating it with their Google+ profiles. This can be done 2 different ways.

Option 1. Add your name and email to your content.

Option 2.  Link content you have written to your Google+ profile and link back to your content.

Linking content is a two-step process which involves adding a link from your website or page to your Google Profile. Following this, go back to your Google+ profile and add a link back to your site. You can find more information on linking content here.

Benefits of Google Authorship

There are several benefits in incorporating Google Authorship. The most immediate and obvious benefit is branding. The more often an author’s image is displayed next to their content over time, the more likely that their click-through-rates will improve. Other benefits include:

  • Separating your content from duplicate content
  • Claim ownership of content written
  • Ability to establish yourself as an authority writer of content within a given field
  • Ability to have people connect with you via Google+
  • Garner more clicks from search results, which could potentially increase site traffic and sales
  • Allowing readers the ability to connect with authors via Google+

 

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The Benefits of Testimonials

Posted on April 25, 2012 by cklipfel

Customer testimonials can be a key factor in promoting new business or attracting new customers. They present an honest, unbiased voice about your product and company, which allows potential customers to establish an air of trust.  According to research firm Gartner, a potential customer is 2.5 times more likely to purchase your product or contact your company when you can articulate your message with a reference or story from a happy customer.

When creating and providing customer testimonials on your website, there are a few considerations to keep in mind:

  1. Have testimonials that provide the user with specific product details that explain how the product satisfied a need, rather than a general positive recommendation. If you can isolate a specific set of needs and can address them each individually through testimonials, you can better present an understanding of your client base.
  2. Placement of the testimonials: Wakefly recommends creating a testimonials widget within the third or right hand column of a page. This way, you are allowing for the testimonial to be ever present in the eyes of the consumer, while not obstructing the main content of the page. This testimonial can either be static content or it can be built so that it changes when you refresh the page. Whatever you decide to do, this widget should also lead the user to a full page, which displays all of your current testimonials, giving them the opportunity to explore and understand your product better.
  3. In addition to sharing your current testimonials, we also recommend creating a short form in the same area, which will allow website users to send in their own thoughts about your product. Similar to the testimonials, this will create an open and honest dialog between you and your customers and aid you in assessing great feedback. Like the testimonials widget, this form should be accessible through a button within the right column area, making it simple for customers to access to form.
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Don’t Sleep On Yahoo

Posted on April 23, 2012 by ewaskevich

This week, Yahoo announced the greatest single round of layoffs in the 17 year history of the company.  2,000 employees will lose their jobs— that’s about 15% of the entire company.  The newest in the line of revolving door CEOs, Scott Thompson, says that the move is intended to vastly reduce costs and help create a more nimble company.  While the cuts are expected to save the company close to $375 million annually, it still remains to be seen if the former search engine giant will be nimble enough to keep up with its competitors.

Google and Facebook have out-smarted and out-innovated Yahoo for years, an eternity in the internet industry.  Users and revenue have grown almost exponentially for both of these internet giants since 2007.  Over that same time period, Yahoo’s revenue has dropped from $8 billion to under $5 billion.  Sure, the recession may have something to do with that, but why are Google and Facebook thriving when Yahoo is still one of the most visited web properties?

The answer lies with advertising– relevant advertising, to be specific.  No longer the search giant that it was in the 1990’s, Yahoo now hangs its hat on supplying top quality content to its users.  This content is some of the most popular on the internet.  Users regularly check Yahoo for everything from investment information to fantasy football statistics to the latest Hollywood gossip.  But providing popular content has proven to be an extremely difficult service to monetize in the internet age; just ask the New York Times.  How do you target relevant advertising to the millions of people who regularly check this content?  Can they base it on content theme?  Can they track the user’s internet history?  Yes, but these tactics have yet to be proven more than moderately successful.

Google and Facebook have a leg up over Yahoo on this front.  Google has figured out that they can get their users to tell them exactly which ads to target to them with by providing the most powerful search engine on the internet.  Facebook has realized that users will tell them all of their specific interests in the context of social sharing. This combination of sheer number of users and extremely targeted advertising has proven to be a gold mine for Google, Facebook and anyone who advertises with them.

But can Yahoo compete? It’s possible that they can; they have half of the puzzle solved.  In the summer of 2011, Yahoo had a similar number of unique monthly users world-wide as Facebook, hovering around the 700 million mark.  The users are there, now Yahoo must learn to effectively target users on the individual level. Don’t sleep on Yahoo just yet!

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Pinterest: The New Social Media Craze

Posted on April 3, 2012 by bagnitti@wakefly.com

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few months, Pinterest is the latest social media site that can’t be ignored by marketers. With more than 12 million users, and growing, Pinterest drove more traffic to websites than LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ and Reddit combined in January of 2012 alone.

Using images and videos instead of written content, users “pin” to virtual bulletin boards that they have created. These images can either be uploaded by the user or from a browser while surfing the net.

How to create an account

Pinterest is an invitation-only based site, but there are two ways to request an invite. If you have friends who already have a Pinterest account, you can have them send you a direct invite through their account – this is the quicker option of the two options. If you are one of the unfortunate few whose friends haven’t discovered all there is to love about Pinterest, you can go to the Pinterest home page and “Request an Invite.” Make sure to register your account using your business email address so that you can connect and share your pins through your Twitter account.

But how does this help with marketing? Pinterest adds a link to your website on the boards, which drives more highly targeted traffic to your site, increasing your leads and conversion rates.

Here are some tips to get started:

1. Take a picture from your website: Pin an image to one of your boards from your website. For example, if you own a yoga studio, take a picture of your favorite instructor or client and upload it to your site. Ask clients to pin from your site as well so the content isn’t coming from just you.

2. Follow the leaders: Find the most popular “pinners” and follow them. Like Twitter, they will most likely follow you back, increasing your chances of the masses ‘repinning’ your pins.

3. See who’s following you: If someone is following you, they already like you; follow them. Flattery goes a long way, and you can guarantee your images will be repinned!

4. Don’t just pin your products: While you are trying to market your product, you don’t want to overwhelm people with it. Pin information, tips and even other companies’ products.

5. Be creative: Pinterest is still developing and changing every day, so take the opportunity to try new things. Define your page the way you want to before conformity takes over the site.

Happy pinning!

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Survey Finds B2B Marketers Turning to PPC Advertising, Marketing Automation & Web Redesigns in 2012 to Best Meet Their Goals

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Jeff Demers

March 28, 2012 – - WESTBOROUGH, MA — Wakefly, a leading online marketing firm, recently surveyed several hundred B2B marketers to identify the web marketing tactics that would be their focus in 2012. According to Jeff Demers, Wakefly’s Director of Online Marketing and the survey administrator, “The most striking part of this survey is that interest is growing in Marketing Automation solutions at a rapid rate – in previous years surveys, B2B marketers indicated that they allocated less than 3% of their overall online marketing budget (2011 survey) to such solutions, now that number is greater than 10%.”  (See Fig. 1)

Overall, 61% of B2B Marketers surveyed were planning budget increases in 2012 while 31% planned to spend the same in 2012 as in 2011. Just 8% experienced shrinking budgets in 2012. Also of interest, only 30% of marketers reported that they had integrated online systems with their CRM to provide “Closed Loop” intelligence on the performance of their marketing efforts.

In addition, interest in website redesign projects as a percentage of total online marketing budget grew from 15% of total budget to nearly 25%.  The reason for these redesigns remained fairly constant from year to year – except for this year, as a staggering 72% were interested in improving user experience as the primary desired outcome of any web project.  According to Tim Hawkins, Wakefly’s Director of Design and Usability, “This isn’t surprising – the web design market is moving in two directions, down channel for the budget conscious that want to quickly and easily build websites and up channel for the savvy marketers that are mapping personas, delivering dynamic messaging and employing usability experts to ensure high performance web assets.”

Other significant growth was seen in marketing allocations for PPC search and landing page design, together comprising another 30% of B2B marketing allocations for 2012.  Showing no growth in allocations over 2011 were social media marketing and email marketing.  According to Dean Dorazio, Wakefly’s CEO, “We were surprised to see email marketing flat line – long considered the holy grail of web marketing – but, survey respondents indicated they are getting even more defensive with access to their inbox.”

Losing traction was search engine optimization (SEO). Down in allocation to less than 10% of online budgets since the survey’s inception, SEO as a B2B tactic may have its high water mark in 2011.  According to Demers, “many indicated frustration with Google continually moving the goal line to get top visibility and combined with the tremendous resources required to pursue enterprise SEO – it’s really no surprise.  SEO will remain in the toolkit for many savvy marketers but the time to results may be increasing.” This possibility was strengthened by 46% of marketers expressing interest in learning how to track actual SEO results.  “The fact that SEO budgets are shrinking in both real size and allocation and marketers wish to understand how to actually gauge results is a major indicator that for many over-taxed B2B marketers SEO may still be more of a questionable activity that a definitive business asset at this point.”

Upon review of these survey results, you might be wondering what these results can mean for your business and how you can benefit from them? Essentially, these survey results enforce the fact that businesses are focusing more on allocating their marketing budgets to specific marketing activities that will use their budgets most effectively and efficiently from a time and cost standpoint. Although this has always been a goal of businesses, what differs is that businesses are beginning to take more ownership and control of their marketing activities, a task now possible through marketing automation that wasn’t so through more traditional marketing means. CloudTimes.org describes marketing automation as a service that, “…provides better control of the organization, with the use of a CRM system, the marketing team can track and communicate with prospects and customers, appropriately keeping them in the sales cycle, and successfully addressing their issues and concerns.” Companies do not have to heavily rely on marketing agencies to update them on how their marketing efforts are turning them a profit. Once a marketing agency sets them up with a marketing automation tool such as Pardot and provides them with training on how to use the system, companies can take ownership of their marketing activities from there. Taking this approach can ultimately save businesses invaluable time and money.

Fig. 1 – Overall Marketing Automations

Activity 2011 Allocation 2012 Allocation
Web Redesigns 15% 24%
PPC Advertising 16% 21%
Website Maintenance/Features 15% 14%
Marketing Automation 3% 10%
Landing Pages 7% 9%
Email Marketing 12% 7%
SEO/Content 14% 7%
Social Media 6% 5%
Display Advertising 3% 2%
Other 9% 1%

Fig. 2 – Web Redesign – Desired Outcomes

Outcome Interest (Select Many)
Improve User Experience 72%
Improve Brand Image 64%
Improve Visibility 64%
Increase Lead Flow 62%
Easier to Use Back-end 20%
Other 9%
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Re-marketing 101

Posted on March 23, 2012 by cklipfel

PPC advertising efforts are of utmost importance to a business that sells products or services online.  With the correct execution, PPC campaigns should target buyers at all stages in the buying cycle: Interest (“custom t-shirts”), Research (“best custom t shirt companies”), and Purchase (“ABC Clothing Co. custom t-shirts”).  But how should one go about keeping their brand top of mind as the user experiences all stages of the buying cycle, sometimes taking days or weeks instead of a single usage session?  This is where display remarketing can bring results and encourage conversions.

What is Remarketing?

Remarketing, or retargeting, is a service available through Google AdWords that allows advertisers to reach users who have already visited the site, and are therefore qualified potential customers.  Remarketing technology captures user behavior to serve relevant advertisements to that user on other sites such as blogs, news sites and gaming sites on the web that user might visit.  Based on the pages the user visits and the actions he or she takes on the advertiser’s site, targeted messages can “follow” these users around their future actions on the web, keeping the advertiser on the forefront of the user’s mind and helping to increase conversions.

For example, let’s say that Retailer ABC sells clothing but they are discovering that users are not purchasing at the volume they expected. In addition to their existing PPC Efforts, ABC Clothing Co. decides that remarketing is a good option to retrieve customers who have navigated away from the site.  Since the users have all behaved differently on the web by visiting different pages and navigating away at different points during the checkout process, ABC Clothing Co. wants to message each of these audiences differently.

To achieve maximum returns on this campaign, they begin by segmenting three types of consumers: those who have visited the site but did not added any items to their shopping cart, those who have added an item to the cart but did not complete the checkout process, and those who purchased something already.

For users who have visited the site but did not add items to their shopping cart, generic banner ads will appear on other sites they visit that have Google AdSense enabled. This messaging might feature a simple graphic with a message such as “ABC Clothing Co.: Design Your Own Tees and More!”  Since the user clicked through to the site but did not add anything to the cart, the remarketing tags cannot infer that the user looking for a specific item, so a generic ad to remind them to visit the site might work best.

For users who have added an item to their shopping cart but did not make a purchase, the ad messaging might be a little different.  ABC Clothing Co. could encourage a pre-existing interested user to make a purchase by incentivizing them with a coupon code or free shipping offer to encourage him or her to return to the website and make a purchase. This banner might have messaging such as “Shop Today and Get Free Shipping on All Orders! Use Coupon Code RM101.” This discount code could help encourage a user who may have been put off by high shipping costs to return to the site and complete the order.

Users who have already purchased something from the site also pose a unique opportunity.  These users have already bought something from the site, so on the one hand, they are more likely to purchase again. On the other hand, if they just purchased something, they may not have an immediate need to purchase something else.  The best message to “follow” these users would encourage them to make a purchase on a future date: “Love your ABC Clothing Co Purchase? We Love Our Customers! Get $5 off Your Next Order with Coupon Code: Return101.”

How Do I Get Started?

Contact your Wakefly representative today to develop a custom remarketing plan to fit your business needs. By assessing where traffic is originating on your site, user flow to and from the site, and data from your existing PPC campaigns, the Wakefly SEM team can create a remarketing plan that will deliver results and increase conversions.

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Make PPC Advertising Affordable by Achieving Coverage through Granularity

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Jeff Demers

One of the biggest misconceptions about online advertising is that it is always expensive.  Certainly, a near infinite amount of money could go into advertising online – but for those service firms with small online budgets and the need to prove real ROI – there is a more inexpensive path.  This path begins with Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.  For many advertisers, the first step on the path to great advertising is to recognize the error of their ways when it comes to PPC.  But, before we get into the details of a typical strategic mistake, a little background is in order.

PPC advertising is the foundation of the Google empire.  The platform is known as Google AdWords. The PPC advertising value proposition is clear:  Put your products or services directly in front of the people searching for them by matching the search query of Google’s user with keywords being bid upon by advertisers from within their AdWords account to show targeted ad copy.  Savvy advertisers have the ability to show super targeted ad copy for each search query being typed into Google.com. With some simple marketing mojo, it’s possible to match the intent of the searcher with the ad creative you write – meaning if they (the searchers) are informational search queries you present ad copy that helps searchers solve their stated problem, if they are transactional visitors (looking to buy or demo, for instance) in nature, you focus your ad copy on capturing the click and moving them deeper into the sales cycle.  This whole process is attractive to many sales and marketing teams, but almost without exception it is never correctly implemented initially.  The mistake is that advertisers ignore the concept of Coverage.

For example, too many advertisers are buying a smaller number of clicks and are overpaying dramatically for each of these clicks (40-70% overpayment isn’t uncommon).  These clicks are unproven from a lead and revenue standpoint. Simply put, advertisers are not appropriately visible for the full spectrum of keywords they should be visible for because their budget is being spent overpaying for too few visitors on unproven keywords.

A Coverage strategy ensures that every keyword that is relevant to your product or service is covered in your Google AdWords account, at least at first.  Instead of overpaying for a narrow swath of keywords and appearing at the top of the page for them, a marketing team enables coverage bids on every possible keyword combination without overpaying for a single visitor.

The math is simple – by bidding lower amounts on more keywords and writing targeted ad copy for each keyword set (or Ad Group in AdWords parlance)- tremendous page one visibility & coverage can be achieved.  The monthly budget that was once poorly allocated to a handful of keywords is now spread over hundreds of keywords – where you once bought a single visitor, for say, $2.00 – you know are buying a single visitor for .40 cents.  Granted, your ads aren’t appearing at the top of the page – but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing until a keyword really proves out (You will need some basic web analytics systems in place to understand which keywords are real producers).

Implementation of coverage isn’t rocket science – but it is a heck of a lot of work.  Typically, it’s a lot more work than the average marketer ever even considered and requires more planning and thought than went into your original AdWords effort.  Thus, coverage can only be achieved through exhaustive keyword research and detailed, well thought through targeted ad copy.  Coverage achieved through granularity and attention to detail is the first of many waypoints on the way to great online advertising.  Are you up for the challenge?

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