Many of the nuances of SEM are lost on small business owners and entrepreneurs, simply because in terms of advertising, this kind of thing has only recently really become a major player.
Just like Miley Cyrus...
Here are three other things, search engine marketing and Miley have in common.
Miley is a money maker, no one is questioning that. So is landing number one on Google search results.
First page of results will guarantee you traffic. Second page makes you competitive. Beyond that? You need a new SEO strategy and to invest in some Pay Per Click ads.
Being acutely targeted in nature, effective SEM brings in your ideal customers, without blowing your marketing budget. You simply have to know what your market is searching for. Pay Per Click puts your offer in front of the eyes of your buyers--but you either have to research to know what they’re searching for, or have a strong intuitive sense about your target market.
Miley seems to excel in the latter (but who knows? Maybe she has some kind of wacky brilliant marketing team behind her). She understands what her ideal audience wants to or is ready to see, and has gotten really good at delivering the goods. Love her or hate her, that’s a business lesson to take to heart.
Miley’s new videos walk a line between art, exploitation and expression. Sort of how Search Engine Optimization does with your web presence.
Sure, you want to provide useful, meaningful, and valuable content to your customers, but you also want Google to pick up on that. Striking a balance between writing for robots and writing for people can be tricky.
Thankfully, there are SEO tricks that you can use to boost your rankings without sacrificing your content. On-page optimization, will give your site more flexibility and rank your site higher in search results. It can be as simple as ensuring that your content is styled for search engine visibility, or as complicated as embedding specific keyword phrases and code into your copy.
So long as people are searching Google for any kind of information at all (and can you imagine a scenario where humanity would suddenly find search engines useless?), SEM is going to be a part of every successful business marketing toolbox.
How seriously you take SEM in your business will have an impact on your bottom line. As, thanks to the internet small and local businesses find themselves competing on a much grander scale.
So you might as well jump on board now, because like Miley, SEM is going to be on the scene for awhile.
If a picture speaks a thousand words, how many does a video say?
With the advent of super fast broadband at home and when mobile, video content is about to get a whole lot more popular.
At the moment, 1 in 3 Britons watch an online video every single week, that's nearly 20 million people. Youtube gets more than 1 billion unique visitors a month which is second only to Facebook and it is set to grow. According to Cisco, by 2017 video will account for 69% of all consumer internet traffic. Video-on-demand services like Netflix, would have tripled.
Think back through 2013, what caught your attention? Was it the gangster rapping baby Mother or the trio of videos from Volkswagen which got over 155m views?
Whichever it was, almost every commentator out there predicts it will grow rapidly. One of the main reasons behind this is accessibility.
No longer the remit of production houses with hugely expensive equipment, with the advent of HD cameras in our pocket and services like Vine from Twitter with it's 6 second clip length, more people will find themselves creating video content than ever before.
Follow these tips and you could be seeing a huge increase in traffic and brand awareness...
1. Get creative
Often the most successful videos are not the most costly, but they will be the most creative and not just in the way they are put together either. Remember the delivery, be creative in marketing the video too.
2. Remember the audience
Is the video topic relevant to the audience? Even bearing in mind the above, is it the most appropriate way to get your message across?
3. Don't forget mobile
One tenth of all videos are viewed on them and this is set to grow hugely too.
4. Be social
To get the most benefit from your video production you must include social media in some way. Videos are very popular items for people to share and you can keep the conversation going by creating your own Twitter hashtag.
Ofcourse, Mediatasks can help you create & execute a winning strategy involving video so if you have any questions please use the contact form to get in touch, or simply call the office on 020 3303 0005.
And finally, the answer to my question - according to Forrester Research, if a picture paints one thousand words, then one minute of video is worth 1.8million. Certainly worth thinking about.
Using social media as a business tool can puzzle many SMEs. Typically they use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+ as a consumer so setup a company profile, write a few posts and then realise that they're competitors are doing far better with astronomical follower numbers.
Instead of getting disheartened and abandoning social media all together, it is important to understand why this is happening and put things right.
Social media is far too powerful to ignore and once a position of influence is reached, companies will have a valuable direct connection with their customers, suppliers and partners.
Often, especially in the case of the big brands, there is a dedicated team tasked with optimising that companies social media marketing. This can make you think you are fighting a loosing battle but it is not the case. If you are willing to put in a little effort SME can get great results too.
There's a myth about social media which says, all you need do is create a profile and huge follower numbers will fall from the sky. Not true. Unless you are Scarlett Johansson. SMEs should not be averse to advertising their new profiles to give them a real headstart. The large social networks have new very low cost options starting at only a few pounds per day. You can target people by interests and some only charge when a user actually clicks through to your page.
TIP: If your budget doesn't extend to paid advertising, at least let people know about your new profiles. Add a link to them on your website and in your email signature. If you regularly send out client notification emails or an email newsletter, put a link in the footer - ideally with a great strapline accompanying them. It worked for hotmail.
Social media posts do not need to win any pulitzer prizes. Too many people overthink what they want to say and end up saying nothing. Do not do this. But, don't be too pushy either. Another mistake companies make is being too sales orientated with their updates. Every post does not have to talk about how fantastic you are. Treat social media like any other engagement, you wouldn't constantly bang on about how great you are whilst networking face-to-face so don't do it online.
TIP: Make your posts a mix about who you are, what you do and what makes you great. Join in conversations, chat to people and get to know them. If it's Twitter, get to know the hashtags for your business area, if it's LinkedIn look for any specific groups you could contribute in. Hopefully, you will raise your profile to the point that when someone does need your service, they know who you are.
Niches work online. You don't have to have millions of followers to be effective. Instead, research the influencers in your business area and engage them directly. Enjoy being small. Big corporations try to appear more personable but more often than not fail. SMEs are small, so being personable, friendly and even possibly funny - is much easier to pull off.
TIP: It is more beneficial to have 1k people talking about your brand than 10k simply liking you. Concentrate on building user engagement instead of simply followers.
Use tools like Google Analytics, link shorteners like Bit.ly or Ow.ly and Hootsuite to keep track of how successful you are being. Review these results regularly. These applications can help you monitor activity about your brand and conversations from the large social networks that mention your company.
TIP: These tools take alot of the guess work out of social media. By focusing on what is successful, you will be able to make informed choices and grow your audience faster.
The days of leaving responsibility for social media to the office intern are long gone. Like all other marketing, your social media campaign strategy needs to be approved at the highest level and handled professionally. If you feel you are lacking the skills, experience or even the time to get your social media sorted in house, consider using a specialist.
TIP:A Social Media Management Service like ours can give you access to an expert at a fraction of their usual salary, if you were to employ someone with the same skillset in house. We can handle the essentials, freeing up your responsibility and allowing you to concentrate working on your business.
If you like this, sign up to our Newsletter or use the contact form to get in touch. Alternatively you could give us a call in the office on 020 3303 0005.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the business of getting your business to the top of the results page on Google when someone searches for a term related to your industry.
This is important because more people search online when looking to buy a new product or service than do anything else.
As a general rule, sites that appear near the top of the results page get more traffic and therefore more potential business. Your mission is to get to position one on the first page, which, depending on what industry you operate within and how achievable it is - varies greatly in time and money.
If you operate in a niche and follow these basic principles you stand a good chance of getting to at least page one...
Search providers like Google & Bing use 'spiders' to determine their search result rankings. A spider is a piece of software that crawls the web to identify what is written on website pages and in particular any keywords and phrases. So, when someone searches for that keyword on Google (for example) they can work out how relevant your website is to that request.
Because of this, it is important to make sure your website has all its keyword areas correctly filled out and includes the words or phrases which people may search for; when looking for a business like yours.
If this sounds a little Greek don't worry, Google has a free tool to help called the Google Adwords keyword tool. This is actually designed to help potential advertisers identify the most relevant words to use in their ad's but you can also use it to research what should ideally be on your page.
When you know which keywords should be on the page, make sure they are in the body of text and not in places like imagery which is an SEO no-no. In addition to the body of text, keywords should also appear in an unseen area called 'metadata' which is where spiders will look for key information.
If you don't know how to do that, your web designer can help. But if you have a little knowledge of HTML or your website is run by a management system like WordPress, then it may be more straightforward that you think.
Your sites PageRank is a score out of 10 that is based on Inbound & Outbound links to and from it. If your site is linked to by another site with a good PageRank, your ranking will improve.
At this point you may think the more links the better but you would be wrong. Artificial ways of linking, like Link Farms, are especially frowned upon by search providers. It is not just the number of links, but also the quality. Social Media - like Google+ - is particularly good for this, as are professional bodies and certain directories.
A good rule of thumb is to make sure whenever you reference an external site or source, you use a hyperlink. Internal links (to and from pages on your own website) encourage people to spend more time on your site by real people and spiders mentioned earlier. It is worth making sure your menu structure and available quicklinks are clear and easy to use too.
Just like the Google Adwords Tool, there is something which can help here too and it is a Google Chrome browser plugin called PageRank Status.
The more your site content changes, the more frequently spiders will revisit your website. This is a particular reason why a regular Blog is so good for SEO. That, and the fact that is illustrates your expertise in your area of business.
Google and Bing change their algorithms periodically so they can improve their search results so more people will use their service. Because of this, SEO is something which needs to be monitored in order to get the most benefit although some basic principles - like those described above - are universal.
If you like this, sign up to our Newsletter or use the contact form to get in touch. Alternatively you could give us a call in the office on 020 3303 0005.
WordPress is an amazing platform. It is free to use, straightforward to setup and extremely flexible. It can be an Online Shop, a Web Publisher, a Business Directory, even a Social Network. However because it is so widely used it is a target for unscrupulous people and in this instance spammers. As a user you can be subjected to a *huge* amount of spam in the form of comments on your posts.
To reduce comment spam (because you'll probably never eradicate it permanently) a good option is to install a plugin that requires membership of a Social Network like Facebook before they can post anything, instead of relying on WordPress own comments system or forcing people to join your site which could open you up for further abuse.
First thing to do is install a Facebook comments plug in (like the one by Alex Moss called 'Facebook Comments' as it is particularly easy to use).
Next, you will need to create a quick app on Facebook (details can be found here) and configure it to work with your site.
When that is done and tested, login to your site and go to Settings > Discussion, and disallow people to comment on new posts and close commenting on older posts after 1 day. This now forces people to be logged into Facebook and stops people posting junk.
If you like this, sign up to our Newsletter or use the contact form to get in touch. Alternatively you could give us a call in the office on 020 3303 0005.
In our Marketing 101 Series we demystify Digital Marketing by walking through the industry fundamentals and basic terminology. So, if you don’t know your SEM from your SEO or the difference between Opt-In and CAN-SPAM – this one’s for you!
Social Networks, we all know about them right? Facebook, Twitter, that business one called LinkedIn. Sure. But wait, that's fine if your looking at photo's of your Aunt Suzy, but what about for helping your build your business?
I'm hoping I don't have to explain what Facebook is generally about. I'm going to assume I don't and jump straight to what you need to know about it as a marketing platform for your company.
First up - the numbers. Over 1 billion people are on it. Although it's pretty hard to actually leave it must be said. That being said though you can safely say that most of your customers and prospects are there. Facebook users can be any age, gender, race or religion - and generally location. It is the most used Social Network on the planet.
But what do people do there? Great question because that matters alot. Typically this is where Aunt Suzy comes in. People are sharing their experiences, uploading photos, videos or audio, sharing interests and 'liking' many many things.
Are they there to buy? Probably not. It is not Amazon or eBay after all. But, could they be pursuaded? Absolutely. And, because of the sheer volume of users, connecting with friends - in the right hands it is extremely powerful at raising brand awareness for the right type of product or service. So you should care, alot.
Often wrongly dismissed as trivial, the influence of Twitter and it's users cannot seriously be played down. It is massive. In the UK it accounts for 7% of all people online (opposed to 44% on Facebook). The key difference here though are their users profile. Twitter users are categorised as 'influencers' meaning people who like to be in the know, ahead of the curve. Crucially, this also means people who like to talk about things and hopefully, products like yours. Good old word-of-mouth again.
On Twitter users can post news items, observations about what they are doing or plan to do, articles, jokes, promotions - whatever they can think of in 140 characters or less. Where a character can be a letter, a number or a space. If someone 'follows' someone else on Twitter they get sent all their updates automatically, which is extremely powerful for any organisation wanting to keep up their communication levels. Which is all of us.
Why does this matter? Marketing these days is all about creating discussions. For new sales, product feedback, customer service, etc. and Twitter gives you a real time channel to make that happen. To potentially millions of people who are adept at talking about things. The technology is also free, which cannot be said for traditional marketing, TV, newspapers, radio, etc.
LinkedIn is widely known as the Social Network for business and this is largely true. It is the world's largest professional network with well over 175million users in more than 200 countries.
So who is on it? Business people. Lots of them. Professionals mostly but not exclusively.
How do they use it? Users create profiles and professional connections based on their interests and experience. These can centre around Group Discussions and Answering Questions to display their knowledge in any particular area.
Does it matter? Absolutely. LinkedIn is a great way to create professional connections for you and your organisation. It can give you ideas, advice and feedback for running your business - helping you spread the word about your product and service.
Still relatively new in Social Network land but when you're backed by the worlds largest search engine it doesn't matter, Google+ tries to make sharing on the web much more like real life by making it much easier to segment your contacts so you can share what you want with the people you want.
Does it matter? Ofcourse. Did I mention it's backed by the worlds most popular website? The latest way being anyone signing up for a Google account automatically gets a Google+ account whether they want one or not.
What could it mean for my business? It's too early to say. The company pages side of Google+ is very young, barely out of nappies. It could be great, we will have to wait and see, but it is definitely one to watch and if you like being ahead of the curve, consider getting a head start on it now.
This depends largely on what it is you do or sell, and to whom. Are they businesses or consumers or both? What's their age range? Level of education? All these things matter.
It's crucial to get this right to maximise your Return on Investment but generally most people start with Facebook because of the overwhelming user numbers and organisations are generally 'expected' to be on it so far as for customer services. The next alternative is almost always Twitter.
If you'd like more information on our Social Media Management services please click here or use the contact form to get in touch. Ofcourse if you prefer, you can give us a call in the office on 020 3303 0005.
Technology has changed our lives. What we do, where we go, what we buy, how, why and what we share with others. How businesses market therefore also needs to change. If they still want to sell. The days of 'if you build it they will come' are long gone. Even for Kevin Costner. Sorry Kevin I loved that movie.
That's not to say traditional methods of marketing are now completely defunct though, the landscape is just different.
Marketing is the business of promoting and/or selling your products and services right? Well, yes.
And, the journey of a person becoming a customer is called a funnel right? Absolutely. Marketers talk about a funnel to describe the way they attract new prospects and convert them into customers.
Traditionally with limited resources, organisations have had to prioritise their time on trying to best find and convert prospects, whilst juggling the needs of their existing customers.
Generally that was because the science of keeping customers was largely unknown. It's just about good customer service right? Wrong. It's also about communication. As we now know, after people purchase your product or service, it's about keeping that conversation going. This is where the good old 80:20 rule comes in.
And happily, in case you don't have a small army of telesales people who can do this for you - Social Media has stepped in to help you maintain client contact. Hoping that, when they are ready to buy (or their friends are) they will remember your great Customer Service and come back for more.
Social Media Marketing helps you maintain the relationship with your existing customers - by keeping in contact with them. What is more, technology enables us to influence consumer behaviour at all points of a sale, before, during and after.
Using Email Marketing, Pay Per Click Advertising and Social Media Marketing as business owners we no longer have to hope that customers come back. We can reach out and remind them; making word-of-mouth as easy as clicking a share, like or tweet button.
Successful businesses know that marketing does not end with the sale, it is just the beginning. Social Media is not though a replacement for other forms of marketing your business. It is not a magic pill and is best used as part of a larger marketing strategy.
If you would like to discuss your Marketing Strategy please use the contact form to get in touch or give us a call in the office on 020 3303 0005. Thanks!
It will, for example, show the real name of businesses that have visited your website and the keywords they used to get there. So, you've not only got the name of the company that has visited but also what they were looking for when they did! Here's how...
Open Google Analytics and navigate to Audience > Technology > Network > ...
Here you will be able to see all the network service providers of those visiting your website. Some of those will be broadband providers, but many will actually be static and therefore have their name included in the result.
To find out what they were looking for add the secondary dimension as keywords, and you have a powerful tool that has already generated a warm lead for your business.
The best option is to look up their MD or CEO on LinkedIn and send them an email offering your services. If they're not ready to go ahead right now, they should be impressed as to how you found out about their enquiry.
If you'd like to talk about a PPC Campaign or another form of Search Engine Marketing please book your free strategy call.
In our Marketing 101 Series we demystify Digital Marketing by walking through the industry fundamentals and basic terminology. So, if you don't know your SEM from your SEO or the difference between Opt-In and CAN-SPAM - this one's for you!
Pay Per Click or PPC is a type of Search Engine Marketing largely made famous by Google. Perhaps when searching on their website you remember seeing a little yellow box of results above the usual ones?
They are 'Sponsored Results' also known as 'Paid Search' but both effectively advertising whereby a company or companies have paid to be positioned there in the hope that you will take more notice of their listing than any other. And largely, it works. Very well in fact.
Disclaimer in case Microsoft is reading this: ofcourse Google is not the only place that does this. Bing does too....
Whether or not you are using Google Adwords or Microsoft Bing for your PPC, here are some of the terms that you will come across in handy alphabetical order. Enjoy!
Ad Extensions
Additional information you can add to you ad. The most popular type of ad extension is sitelinks which allow you to add links to additional pages on your site underneath your main ad. There are many other ad extensions though such as call extensions, location extensions and social extensions.
Ad Rank
A measure that takes into account your Quality Score and bid to determine the position on the page your ad will show.
Ad Scheduling / Day Parting
Allows you to adjust bids by a percentage at campaign level depending on time of day or day of week.
Click Through Rate (CTR)
The number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of impressions. A high CTR is a good sign that your ad is relevant and stands out from competitors and it can lead to increases in quality score, lower CPCs and higher average positions.
However, a lower CTR is not always necessarily a bad thing, for example, including a price in your ad might reduce the number of people clicking on it but those that do might be more likely to convert. Additionally, ads in higher positions often see the highest CTR and search partners and the display network usually see lower CTRs than search.
Conversion Rate (CR)
The number of conversions (sales, leads etc) divided by number of clicks.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) / Cost Per Lead (CPL) / Cost Per Sale (CPS)
The amount spent for each conversion.
Cost-per-click (CPC)
Actual CPC is the amount you pay for each click on your ad. Your actual CPC will not be higher than the Max CPC you assign a particular keyword but it is often lower depending on your quality score and the ad rank of competitors.
Impressions
The number of times an ad is shown.
Impression Share
The number of times your ad is actually shown divided by the number of times it entered the auction to be shown. If this is less than 100% your ads will be missing out on potential traffic. An ad might lose out on impression share because there is not enough budget or because ad rank is too low.
Keyword
The word or phrase chosen by an advertiser that is used to determine whether an ad will show for a particular search term.
Match Type
A property of the keyword that determines which search terms a keyword is eligible to show for. There are several match types:
- Exact – search term must match the keyword exactly
- Phrase – search term contains keyword in that precise order
- Broad – search terms contains keyword, misspells, similar terms and synonyms in any order
- Modified broad – search terms contains keyword, misspells, similar terms but not synonyms in any order. You can also specify negative keywords which prevent an ad from showing if the search term contains that word or phrase.
Product Listing Ads (PLAs)
Ads that show on Google Search and Google Shopping that contain an image of a product, its price and the store name. These are set up within AdWords using a product feed in the Google Merchant Centre.
Quality Score
Google assigns keywords a Quality Score which is represented through the interface by a number from 1 to 10 (10 being highest) based on their relevance. This takes into account factors such as CTR, landing page quality and relevance, and relevance of the keyword to the search term and ad. A high quality score can lead to higher positions and lower CPCs.
Remarketing
Remarketing lets you display ads to users who you know have previously visited your site.
Return on Investment (ROI)
A measure of how much money is made compared to how much is spent. One of the benefits of paid search is that you can track each sale or lead right down to individual keyword level so you can measure ROI at a very granular level and optimise accordingly to improve ROI.
Search term / Search Query
The word or phrase searched for in a search engine.
How many did you know? If you'd like to add any more please feel free to use the comment section below. Or if you'd like to talk about a PPC Campaign or another form of Search Engine Marketing please use the contact form to get in touch. You could also give us a call in the office on 020 3303 0005 if you prefer.
In case you are still wondering whether or not Social Media Marketing is right for your business, the verdict is in. Using the likes of Facebook, Twitter or Google+ as part of a programme promoting your organisation is a fantastic way of increasing repeat business and attract new customers.
And, whether you are just getting started, consider yourself an expert or have been sitting on the sidelines — we can help.
According to Constant Contact’s 2011 Small Business Attitudes & Outlook Survey, 73% of small businesses & organisations have started using social media marketing and 62% of those not using it expect to start marketing through social media within the next 12 months.
Social Media has changed the way people behave online. It is the technology that connects people on the internet whether they are sharing content or just chatting. Social networks, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ are the places where these things happen.
Social Media Marketing is the way to use that technology in order to increase brand awareness, build relationships, drive repeat business and attract new customers through - hopefully - friends sharing with friends.
If this sounds familiar, it's because it is. Social Media Marketing is essentially an updated version of word-of-mouth. The power of pass it on.
75% of people are somewhat or highly likely to share content they like online with friends, co-workers or family. 49% do this at least weekly. Source: Chadwick Martin Bailey Consumer Pulse 2010 (n= 1504)
Like any other Business Activity, you need to set clear measurable goals and understand what you want to achieve from your efforts. Here are some top tips to help you get the most benefit from Social Media on your business:
Spread the Word.
Show customers and prospects who you are and what you can do for them. It’s great for brand awareness!
Drive Sales.
Give customers offers that are so good they’ll share them with their friends. Your promotions can go viral!
Provide Great Customer Service.
Listen and respond to what your customers are saying about you and to you. It’s a wonderful feedback loop!
Keep Your Customers Coming Back.
Build deeper relationships so customers will get to know, like, and trust you more.
Because social media is all about discovering and sharing, every interaction you have has the potential to reach many new people ultimately helping to spread your message and attract potential customers.
Social Media & Email Marketing go great together. And although email marketing is still creating more sales than social media there’s no need to start deleting Facebook Pages. It is important to appreciate that all of these channels compliment each other and get the best results when they are part of a wider programme.
Social networks are relaxed places that can be great at helping you build brand awareness with fewer constraints than email. But, email has the advantage of being able to reach a single identifiable person. Crucially, you can use analytics to track email recipients behaviour, see what that person clicks and/or opens, so you can tailor your follow up to suit individual need.
So get social, but don't forget about the other forms of inbound marketing too!
Enjoy July, see you next month!
