As an SEM practitioner, I am a self-proclaimed fan of Google AdWords.  I love the ease of their platform, I love the depth of their reporting, I love our dedicated Google agency team and I especially love the ROI that Google AdWords drives for our clients.   To be honest, Adwords management is a dream compared to the other major PPC engines.

But while there are many things to praise Google for, I’m not totally naive.  Google is a business.  A BIG business.  One that needs to continue to make money and grow in order to appease stakeholders and further secure their dominance.

As a result, Google doles out some advice to its advertisers that is questionable at times.  Not to mention, some of their account defaults make it all-too-easy to run a less-than-optimal campaign if you are a newbie to the game.  In short, not everything that Google puts out there is in the interest of the advertiser.

Here are four examples of when you should think twice about blindly following Google’s defaults and advice:

“Optimizing” Ads to CTR (Google revenue), rather than conversion (your revenue)

When setting up a Google account there is an option to ‘Optimize’ your ads or to ‘Rotate’ your ads.  Upon first thought, you might think that ‘optimize’ sure does sound nice.  And hey, it has already been chosen for you by default so why argue?  Google states that this will simply allow you to ’show better performing ads more often’.  They even explicitly state it is ‘Recommended’.

In actuality, if you are an advertiser whose primary goal is to maximize conversion (sales, leads, etc) then the ‘Optimize’ default is not for you.  Why?  Because ‘optimize’ by Google’s definition means serving the ads that have the highest click-through rate (CTR), NOT the highest conversion rate.

Why would Google push for ads that have the highest click-through rate?  Well, at least partially because ads that get more clicks produce more revenue for Google.  Google will also make the point that ads with a higher CTR are more relevant and therefore provide a better user experience.  But it’s hard to completely ignore the Google revenue incentive.

Setup isn’t the only instance in which Google hits you up to ‘optimize’ to CTR.  In the past couple of months, Google has even gone so far as issuing this alert in advertisers’ accounts, once again urging people to ‘optimize ad serving’.

Hey Google – stop being pushers!  If we already changed this from the default setting once, then it was probably a conscious strategic decision the first time around.  We are trying to optimize to the metrics that are important to our business – please stop trying to convince us otherwise.

Broad Matching in order to “show on similar phrases and relevant variations”

Okay, I know that I am starting to sound like a broken record on this whole broad match issue.  But seriously… time and time again when we audit PPC campaigns, the top culprit behind wasted spend is unmonitored, rampant broad matching.

Broad match happens to be the default match type for all keywords.  As a result, many advertisers don’t even know they are using it.  Yes, the onus of this mistake falls largely on advertisers for overlooking this.  Still, Google isn’t helping the situation with their loosely defined parameters and lack of controls for Broad Match (i.e. no option to opt out of expanded broad match).

Here is how Google describes Broad Match:

With broad match, the Google AdWords system automatically runs your ads on relevant variations of your keywords, even if these terms aren’t in your keyword lists. Keyword variations can include synonyms, singular/plural forms, relevant variants of your keywords, and phrases containing your keywords.

And its benefits:

One of the primary benefits of broad match is that it helps you attract more traffic to your website. In addition, broad match saves you time when constructing your campaigns, lets you take advantage of global search trends, and is cost-effective.

In fairness, the above benefits are true if Broad Match is properly used in conjunction with Phrase and Exact match types and monitored closely for quality of traffic.  My qualms, however, are with the blanket use of ‘relevant’ and ‘cost-effective’.  Some examples we have seen in recent AdWords management audits -

Certainly not always ‘relevant’:

• Wedding albums keywords broad matching to ‘wedding photographer’
• Personal injury attorney terms broad matching to ‘pro bono attorney’
• Printing supply terms broad matching to ‘desks’
• Digital camera terms broad matching to ‘babe cams’ (not just a relevancy issue, but also a branding nightmare)
• Kids cell phone terms broad matching to ’sexy cell phones’ (ditto)

And certainly not always ’cost effective’:

Capturing “additional relevant search queries” via Automatic Matching

Yikes!  Google took Broad Match a step further this past year when they enabled automatic matching across many advertisers’ accounts.  Even worse, it was an opt-out situation, rather than an opt-in.  Messages like this just showed up in our accounts one day:

Per Google:

Automatic matching uses your surplus budget to help your ads reach targeted traffic that’s been missed by your keywords. It works by analyzing the landing pages, ads, and keywords in your ad group. It then shows your ads on search queries relevant to this information.

The obvious concern here is the statement that this helps you reach ‘targeted traffic’.  I have yet to hear of any advertisers who have reported this to be true.

Automatic Matching seems an awful lot like a cash grab to me and one of the more disappointing moves that Google has made in recent years.

Using Dynamic Keyword Insertion to “provide users with more relevant ad text”

Up front I should say that I haven’t heard of Google actively promoting Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI), nor is it a default.  However, many clients we’ve talked with are under the impression that DKI is a Google-touted ‘best practice’.  Perhaps part of this misperception comes from Google’s Help section which describes the benefits of DKI as providing “users with more relevant ad text while using a single generic ad for multiple keywords”.

Wait…  did Google just say ‘generic’?!  Aren’t ‘generic ads for multiple keywords’ at odds with the principles behind Quality Scoring? Doesn’t improving quality entail being granular and well-differentiated – not ‘generic’?

Yes, DKI can be a time-saver and sometimes even a necessary evil of sorts if you’re running a monster e-commerce campaign.  However, if not used properly it can result in dull non-differentiated ads, impulsive unqualified clicks and some good laughs:

Source: Find Me Faster, Implementing Dynamic Keyword Insertion in a Quality Score World, SMX Advanced 2007

Make it Work

So here’s the thing…  despite the above complaints my point is not that Google is evil.  Google still does more than any other PPC platform when it comes to providing robust reporting tools, powerful ROI controls and better visibility into what is working and what is not.

Furthermore, each and every issue described above can be remedied if you know what you are doing.

Want to optimize to conversion instead of CTR?  No problem, simply ignore Google’s advice no matter how persistently they try to convince you otherwise.

Want to use broad match intelligently? Yep, you can do that.  Create a robust negative list, use broad match in conjunction with other match types and refine over time by mining your Search Query Performance Reports.

Think automatic matching is a waste?  Join the crowd.  Turn it off like most of us did.

Find it debatable that single generic DKI ads are going to provide more relevance to searchers?  Then take the time to customize your ads with well-differentiated, static copy that is tailored to each ad group.

In short, make it work… Learn the ins and outs and nitty-gritty details of PPC management — and realize that PPC 101 will not suffice.  A deep, thorough understanding of AdWords management will allow you to make better educated, strategic decisions that are in your best interest, not Google’s.

AdWords Management – When to Just Say No to Google » Closed Loop Marketing Blog

Since our eyes and ears have gotten a well needed vacation from the Presidential Elections back in November, for some in the industry, it’s time to start thinking about the new political races and how to best leverage what was learned with regard to Paid Search Marketing in particular. This topic is not only important to talk about for those who are involved in the political world, but also millions of others who are simply fascinated by what President Barack Obama’s campaign did last cycle. Let’s discuss shall we…..

In a previous post on SemGeek entitled “McCain and Republicans Turn To Paid Search To Influence Voters“, I spoke about the power PPC has as a main “influencer” to raise money, volunteer or just to continue the conversation. One of the biggest “shining moments” of paid search marketing, came when the campaigns quickly and effectively used Google as a platform to counteract and/or react to the rest of the media.

For example, here are just some of the strategies where paid search made a difference.

• Defense against negative campaign attacks
• Defense about leaks within each of the campaigns.
• Became a online behavioral barometer of the public on specific issues.
• Constantly identified what was popular in the online community (search volumes)
• Used as a tool to advocate certain issues that were raised in campaign and media.
• Used as a AD testing tool to determine which language is best associated with public.

Paid Search and Politics: It’s all about timing:
Probably the most effective part of paid search is the ability for a quick turnaround. In the spirit of Journalism and news agencies, timing is everything, and when a candidate is in the news or attacked on the campaign trail, people are going to search about it online, the more people start seeing an PPC Ad directing them to go to the website for more information or a statement from the candidate, the better it is for everyone, especially the campaign.

Since the Internet has become the source of the continued conversation from other media such as TV and Radio, support from paid search, from a online strategy perspective is a no brainer. Now, even though we have identified that timing is key to an PPC strategy, there is one major concern and that is messaging the correct message.

Paid Search and Politics: Get the Messaging Right
It’s very easy to throw a campaign on Google and make a splash right out of the gate. However, in Political campaigns, it’s very easy to get the messages crossed where an opinion or statement can be taken out of context or is just not aligned with other statements from other staff members. In paid search, this lack of communication and/or discipline can be devastating.

Since the Internet has become a breeding ground for information gathering, it allows opponents or their campaigns to obtain any misconceptions or simply “misleading” statements to their advtange. Even though the majority of the campaign’s media spends is still being use for TV, Radio and Print, the Internet has become the “SUPER POWER” for more real-time influence and the ability to persuade and continue the conversation.

In conclusion:
No matter what political party you may belong to, Obama and some others set a new standard for Politics on the Internet. Whether is was clever Social Media Tactics, Text/SMS Messaging, Blogs, Emails, Donation Platforms and Paid search, the “Online Political Benchmark” has been raised and if campaigns want to compete, what we have learned this last political cycle needs to be a part of the overall strategy.

The Google Analytics team gave out advice on how to track telephone leads and live chats using Google Analytics in a blog post today.

Google teams up with Mongoose Metrics to allow users to track offline phone calls. Mongoose Metrics provides toll free numbers extremely cheap. GA is able to track calls to the toll free number by assigning that number to a hidden web page on your site containing your GA tracking code. Jeff Gillis from the GA team explains how it works:

When a phone call to the tracking number is connected, the technology will place a web browser visit to your hidden tracking web page and in this way insert the phone call event back into your Google Analytics account. Each phone call generates a unique visit which is clearly labeled inside of Analytics

For tracking live chats, GA teams up with Live Person. Live Person allows Web site owners to interact with their customers via a chat system on their site. Live Person created a GA integration that allows users to track conversions after chat, and also the following GA data:

• Map Overlay Report which displays volume and quality metrics of live chat interactions by geographic region
• Search Engines Report: Reveals the sources and keywords that drive interactive chats (and resulting conversions)
• Reverse Goal Path Report: Lists the navigation paths that lead to the most chats

GA is a great free analytics platform, and these features demonstrate its effectiveness. For most businesses being able to get this level of detail from a free platform is phenomenal. Make sure you are always getting the most out of whatever analytics package you are using. Conversion tracking should always be a priority.

What other types of offline conversions would you like to see tracking for?

Google Analytics Integrates Telephone Leads and Live Chats

Posted by guestblogger on February 3, 2009 www.ppchero.com

This week we are featuring guest articles from our PPC Hero allies! We requested submissions from our readers and we received excellent responses from some great PPC bloggers! The PPC Hero team will return to our regularly scheduled articles next week. Enjoy!

I love log files, analytics, and looking in your own backyard for PPC keyword strategies. I think your own site’s keyword data is the best and purest (though not the only) place to start your keyword research. Your site’s keyword data offers you three things: relevance, accuracy, and relevant accuracy.

Relevance - You know these keywords are relevant to your business and your site’s content, because people have already gotten to your site via these keywords.

Accuracy – I find that actual traffic data is a much better indicator of actual traffic than playing around with the daily/weekly/monthly estimates from keyword tools.

Relevant Accuracy – If I go to a keyword research tool and see that a lot of people are searching for a keyword, that’s obviously useful data. But what would be more useful is to know if the people who searched for that keyword would then become a conversion on my site. I can learn this by looking at my own analytics.

And, I don’t think there’s any debate that keyword data is becoming a proprietary commodity for businesses who advertise online. As such, I think it makes a lot of sense to invest in building out a keyword list complete with actual data about how many times people will actually visit your site if you bid X, and about how many times people will convert (and at what price!) if you advertise against a given keyword.

Acquiring This Data Without Breaking Your PPC Budget

A great way to build this keyword database would be through organic search engine optimization. While I balk at the idea that SEO is “free” (try hiring good copywriters, creating the kinds of relationships that build trust, and employing someone competent to ensure that your information architecture and keyword targeting are optimal for “free”), you can at least pay a minimal price for irrelevant clicks in SEO, and you should be targeting various keywords and tracking their value, anyway.

But what if you don’t have much SEO data? You or your client has a new or poorly optimized site? Here are a couple of tricks for doing PPC keyword discovery “on the cheap”:

• Embedded Match – This is a “matching option” offered by Google (really it’s a mash up of two matching options, but either way…). Basically, it allows you to advertise against variations of a keyword without bidding on the keyword itself.
• Multiple Match Types – I think it’s a good idea to employ various matching options for testing purposes. You can also apply this principle to frugal keyword discovery.

Let’s take a closer look at how this would work for each option…

Embedding More Keywords Into Your PPC Campaign

I like broad match for keyword discovery, but it certainly presents some efficiency issues if you’re trying to provide ROI and hit a target CPA. SO what’s the solution?

Bid low on your keyword discovery engines, bid high on the keywords you know perform well.

Let’s say I run an online retailer focused on the sale of banjos (hey, someone has to be selling banjos online, right?).

Anyway, I know that the term “banjo” is too broad. It has a very high CPC, and aggressively bidding on it with broad match will lose me a bundle. In fact, clicks on “banjo” are simply an overall loser for me. But I still want to find all those great banjo terms I don’t yet have on my keyword list (more importantly, I want to know which ones convert).

I can just take the term banjo, and set it to “embedded match”:

-[banjo]
banjo

This means that I am advertising against banjo on broad match, but if someone types in “banjo” exactly, my ad won’t show:

banjo – WON’T show
banjos – MAY show
cheap banjos – MAY show
banjos are making a comeback – MAY show (also the statement is just very true)

Key point: now I will turn the bid way down on this keyword.

This lets me accomplish two things:

• Find New Keywords – I can discover long tail keywords that people are actually searching for, that I wouldn’t have otherwise stumbled upon.
• Find Out How Effective Keywords Are – While a keyword tool might show me “cheap banjos”, it can’t tell me whether it will convert for me. This system can.

Option Two: Being Broad But Focused

For the second example, let’s assume we have a bit of account data already. We know that “cheap used banjo” is a great performer for our used banjo store (I know I was selling all kinds of banjos at the beginning of the article, but the banjo vertical is pretty cut-throat, so I had to focus on something a bit more niche).

Now, I have some conflicting interests:

• I want to bid aggressively on cheap used banjo. It’s a great performer and a key part of my campaign.
• I also want to discover new, effective keywords surrounding this one.
• I don’t want to pay for garbage; I have run the keyword on broad match, and bidding on all those extra terms killed my CPA from this keyword.

The solution is to bid aggressively on the more restrictive matching types (phrase and exact) and to bid considerably lower on broad match:

cheap used banjos ** 0.50
“cheap used banjos” ** 4.00
[cheap used banjos] ** 6.00

The way it’s been explained to me by my AdWords rep, is that if I run these three options, broad matches will be assigned to the broad keyword, exact matches to the exact keyword, and phrase matches to that matching option:

online banjo store – BROAD
where to find great cheap used banjos – PHRASE
cheap used banjos – EXACT

Thus, I get to bid aggressively and ensure that I am extracting the maximum number of impressions from my “cheap used banjos” keyword, while finding new phrase and even broad matched variations and getting a feel for how they perform.

If the “online banjo store” keyword turns out to be a great performer, I can give it it’s own “broad but focused” test run and see if I can’t discover a whole new vertical of keywords…on the cheap!

The Value of Great Keyword Lists

The moral of the post is really that keyword lists are valuable assets. If you would pay a monthly subscription for a keyword tool, why not invest some of your PPC budget in finding new keyword verticals? Why not pay to get data about how specific keywords and bids work for you or your client specifically?

Paying a little now for a proprietary, site-specific keyword list can offer you big returns in the long run.

Guest Blogger Bio: Tom Demers is the Senior Marketing Manager at WordStream Inc., a pay-per click software manufacturer specializing in PPC management and keyword solutions. You can contact Tom at tdemers AT WordStream DOT com.

A new year, a new traffic model for Ad Planner

If you are looking for more site information to help plan your display advertising campaigns and understand audiences on the web, Google Ad Planner can help. Our goal is to provide you with the most accurate site information for better planning and decision-making, and we’re excited to kick off the new year with an improved traffic estimation model as well as several other features.

The new traffic estimation model should help reduce some of the confusion that often surrounds tracking the number of unique visitors to your site. When creating campaigns, many advertisers use media planning tools, including Ad Planner, to look at unique visitors based on estimates of real world users. However, publishers typically rely on web server logs or web analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to measure unique visitors based on cookie counts. Discrepencies arise when these two types of unique visitors are compared. You can learn more about this topic by reading the IAB guidelines on Audience Measurement.

To address the various ways of measuring site traffic, we:

• Added Unique Visitors (cookies), a new cookie-based metric, to help you cross-check and compare metrics, similar to Google Analytics unique visitor metrics.
• Changed Unique Visitors to Unique Visitors (users) so it’s clearer that you’re reviewing estimated numbers of real world users.
• Placed the Unique Visitors (cookies) and Unique Visitors (users) metrics on a site’s profile page so you’ll have a more comprehensive view of how a specific site can support your media planning. Learn how to make the most of these two metrics.

In addition, our new model improves our traffic estimates. You’ll notice our page view estimates are now more accurate and consistent with web server measurements.

(Click image for a full-size version)

We’ve also added country demographics for Australia, Brazil, Japan, and Switzerland, which brings our demographics total to ten countries, with more coming in the future. In select countries we’ve also added a new demographics category, Children in Household, which can be used to research sites.

You’ve told us that defining an audience to fit your intended customers can be difficult. In response, we’ve created Pre-defined Audiences that represent commonly used audiences. Now you can experiment with different criteria without having to choose them manually.

This release represents only a fraction of what we’re planning for 2009. Stay tuned for more Google Ad Planner announcements soon.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 1:19 PM

Inside AdWords: A new year, a new traffic model for Ad Planner

Feb 3, 2009 at 5:41pm ET by Matt McGee

www.searengineland.com

Buzz has been growing over the past 4-5 days about what appears to be a new Google search results test that, if widely implemented, might spell doom for SEO rank checking software and some other tools. Many are concerned that it could kill web analytics software, too, but that may not be the case.

Google appears to be testing AJAX-based search results on a limited basis. Users who are able to access the test see different URLs for Google searches. Rather than the standard www.google.com/search?q=keyword, URLs in the AJAX test use a hash mark, like this: www.google.com/#q=keyword.

Michael VanDeMar wrote about this test last week, and a commenter on that post points out that the test was active in The Netherlands as far back as November.

What Does It Mean?

If Google rolls out AJAX-based search results on a wide scale, there could be some big ramifications. As Michael VanDeMar and the commenters on his post point out, SEO rank checkers and other tools could be rendered useless. (Google would probably like to kill such rank checking software, as it has long viewed these tools as taking computing resources it would rather use for human visitors).

While some might not cry for those still stuck in the rank checking mentality of the past, a post today from analytics software provider Clicky says it would also have dramatic impact on web analytics tools, those that measure activity from visitors who come to your web site:

“This change breaks search/keyword tracking for every single analytics app in existence…. the fact that Google is even considering doing this, with blatant disregard for the fact that they will be breaking every single analytics, stats, and log analyzer product on the planet, is just amazing.”

Both the Clicky post and this one from Aaron Wall suggest Google may be setting up Google Analytics as the only software that will be able to track keyword referrals from AJAX-based search results. Says Aaron:

“…what happens to existing tools? Plugins? Rank checkers? Stats and other referral tracking packages? All tools that rely on Google passing data in order to work…. Perhaps the only place you’ll be able to get this data is Google Analytics? Is this the next step – a lock-in? It has happened before.”

But analytics tools might be able to account for a hash mark in URLs; it’s just that most of them don’t handle it right now. Nathan Buggia recently wrote about URL fragments (the portion of a URL after a hash mark) on Jane and Robot. In that post, Avinash Kaushik — Google’s Analytics Evangelist — provides a javascript snippet that will allow tracking of URL fragments after the hash mark. If a short piece of Javascript is all it takes to track what comes after the hash mark, most analytics software providers should be able to update their software to accommodate a chance to AJAX-based search results. (see postscripts below)

We’ve contacted Google for an official confirmation of the AJAX-based test and a comment on its potential impacts, and will update this post if/when we hear back.

Postscript #1: Sean from Clicky, who authored the post we linked to above, has added some clarification for us.

“Yes, Javascript can be used to track the #hashmarks at the end of the URL. This isn’t the problem though. Javascript has a variable called “document.referrer” that contains the URL of the referrer for the page you are currently looking at. Web browsers don’t store the hash in this variable, so there is no way for us to get it.”

To clarify further, the javascript workaround mentioned in the Jane and Robot post only works to track URLs with hash marks on your own site; it doesn’t work to track hash marks from a referring page.

Postscript #2: A Google spokesperson shares this statement:

“We’re continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. We are currently experimenting with a javascript enhanced result page because we believe that it may ultimately provide a faster experience for our users. At this time only a small percentage of users will see this experiment. It is not our intention to disrupt referrer tracking, and we are continuing to iterate on this project. For more information on the experiments that we run on Google search, please see: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html.”

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Matt McGee is the Search Engine Land Assignment Editor, and offers search marketing consulting and training to businesses of all sizes. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and HyperlocalBlogger.com.

Marketing in 2008 became decidedly social — and 2009 will see the social elements of marketing accelerate. Social media went from being on the cutting edge, to approaching the mainstream. When I say “social” I mean marketing driven by word-of-mouth relationships.

As you go through each of the following small business marketing trends, you’ll see how powerful the social component is for getting and keeping your ideal customer. Just remember, your customers control your brand, so act accordingly.

1. AUTHENTICITY– In 2009, the focus is on “authenticity” and letting the real people behind your company be visible and show through — no more hiding behind a faceless website filled with the word “We.” Instead, it’s “I.” Consumers and B2B buyers expect to know who they are dealing with before hiring your company.

In the event of a problem with your products, consumers want a real person to reach out to, whether it’s AngelaAtHP or ComcastCares on Twitter, or the Web designer you want to hire who actively participates in Facebook and Plurk. Business people are connecting one-to-one through social media sites and this activity will continue.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Set up a social media presence in your real name on sites like Twitter.com, and interact with customers and prospects, mixing in personal information as well as business information. Examples: @ShaneGoldberg (Shane Goldberg, founder of Extreme Member),  @TimBerry (Tim Berry, President of Palo Alto Software), and @pixily (Prasad Thammineni, CEO of Pixily).
• Set up profiles and groups on Facebook and start recruiting customers to join.
• Create at least one blog to keep customers educated either about your industry or your products and services.

2. DO IT YOURSELF MARKETING – A study by the Yellow Pages Association of America found that more than half of all small businesses say that getting and keeping customers is a challenge, yet nearly two-thirds say they will NOT get any outside help in marketing. The costs of traditional advertising is going up with newspaper ad rates growing 18%, while the effectiveness of traditional marketing is coming down with newspaper readership coming down. In 1992 it took three touches to reach your buyer — and today it takes more than eight!

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Do some market research. Use free online survey tools like SurveyMonkey or QuestionPro to find out what’s really important to your customers.
• Invest in direct marketing. Take the time to build your customer lists and start sending direct messages to your customers whenever possible. Use the information you learned from your surveys to target your message. If you can’t afford direct snail mail, then do email marketing, which is cheaper.
• Post videos and slide shows on your web site and/or blog. Video a demonstration or collect testimonials from customers. Google likes video content, increasing your chances of being found online. By posting slide shows on your site and on SlideShare, you can reach two audiences – those on social sites like Slideshare and those that come to your site directly. And you make your existing presentations and documents do double duty by posting them online.

3. TECH-DRIVEN WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING – 68% of your customers will leave you because they don’t see the difference between you and the other guy. This is why word-of-mouth-marketing will become even more popular in 2009. Loyal customers tell their friends and family WHY to choose you. With so much advertising around us. small businesses will have to penetrate deep “firewalls” of resistance to get to their ideal customers.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Put a forum section on your web site and run ongoing Q&As with your customers. This will give you the REAL reasons that they choose you.
• Start a referral or affiliate program. It’s as simple as approaching those businesses who serve your customers BEFORE they get to you. A good example is car dealers can refer insurance agents. Clothing retailers can recommend dry cleaners. Look ahead of you in the supply chain and behind you in the supply chain and start referring and collecting referrals.
• Measure your Net Promoter Score. Fred Reicheld wrote a book called “The Ultimate Question” that discovered that this single greatest predictor of profitability was the answer to the question “How likely are you to refer [this company] to friends and family?”

4. ECO AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY – “Green” has gone mainstream. It’s not just a trendy thing to say anymore. In 2009, letting your customers know that your product or service is eco-and socially responsible is literally a feature you want to communicate. A BBDO (Ad Agency) study recently showed that younger consumers made purchasing decisions based on how what “difference you made in the world.” Whether you’re into this trend or not — many consumers have put this on their criteria list.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Promote whatever community programs or ecologically friendly projects or practices that you have. Don’t think that any effort at environmental-friendly activity is too small. If you are replacing all your light bulbs in your offices to the new fluorescent — then say so. If you are recycling paper — say so.
• If you’re a local business that does business locally — show your customers how you re-cycle and grow the money they spend with you back into the community.

5. BOOTSTRAPPING AND SIMPLICITY – We’ve been moving away from excess for a few years now. But in 2009, being resourceful and bootstrapping is officially cool. This year brings a terrific opportunity to cut out products and services that have little value. Simplifying your offerings gives you the opportunity to differentiate yourself and maintain (if not increase) your price points for products or services that you do best.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Run a report of your products and services sold to each customer and check out the margins. Highlight the low-margin offerings and see if you can move your customers to a more profitable alternative.
• Look at your bills and statements and ask yourself the question ‘In what ways does this expense get and keep my ideal customers?’ If you don’t come up with a good answer — it may be time to cut that expense out.

6. MARKETING TO THE “BUY BUTTON” – Neuromarketing is the study of how our brains respond to messages. Neuromarketing is becoming the standard baseline for copywriting and advertising. Learning how your customers’ “buy button” works will save you time effort and money.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Read the books Buyology and Neuromarketing to understand exactly how your brain is influenced to choose one product over another.
• Find ways to attach positive emotions to your product or service.
• Show your customer that you trust THEM by making a trial period available or quickly approving credit.

7. PAID MEMBERSHIPS — Membership sites are a new trend that make the Internet a terrific money-making opportunity for all kinds of entrepreneurs. Combine the trend of creating a niche, and a membership site, and you will have yourself a winning formula in 2009.

Offering memberships is not restricted to the Internet alone. Restaurants have used memberships successfully to even out cash flow and consistently bring in customers. Financial service providers have used memberships to educate their clients and provide special events and services.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Think of ways to offer a regular benefit to members: product or service of the month, research, e-books, designs and templates. If you have a niche, you have the makings of a membership opportunity.
• Can you call your customers members? What could you offer them on a regular basis as a benefit of membership?
• Some examples of membership sites: Artella Words and Art, Artistic Thread Works, The Biz Web Coach.

8. MOBILITY — Accessing the Internet via mobile device or smart phone is a given. The sites that are mobile friendly will be the sites of choice for consumers looking for information on the go. Another common occurrence is receiving updates on your order or any information that you request via text message.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Check out these services for sending text messages to customers from the Web: ClearSMS.com, Group2Call.com
• Talk to your technical expert to see what it would take to convert your web site or blog to be viewed easily on the web.

9. WISDOM OF CROWDS — Your customers will want more say in how you improve your product or service. Internet tools like UserVoice, Get Satisfaction and IdeaScale will gain more popularity in 2009 and will be common platforms for gathering customer feedback and ideas on product improvements. Using these feedback tools helps to build customer community and loyalty.

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Sign up for a free version of UserVoice, GetSatisfaction or IdeaScale and put a Feedback widget on your web site or blog. Tell your customers to contribute ideas.
• Be sure to monitor (or have your employees monitor) the feedback on such sites and participate in it. Then as you implement suggestions – communicate that to your customers.

10. PERSONAL BRANDING– Personal Branding will become more important than a killer resume or bio. Your personal brand is your public identity. It’s what you are known for within and outside your network. It has never been more important to differentiate yourself and focus on what sets you apart from the crowd.

Good personal brands give people an immediate sense of knowing you and the experience your business offers. What do these names conjure up for you? Donald Trump, Oprah, Richard Branson? Each of these individuals have focused on a defining idea or element of who they are that is immediately recognizable. For example “You’re Fired” would not be Oprah and “Live your best life” would not be Donald Trump

How to take advantage of this trend:

• Make sure you are using a photo on the web. It doesn’t need to be professional, in fact, a candid and authentically-you shot is best. Use the same pictures everywhere until your brand is established. @GuyKawasaki has his standard picture – but he also changes it around now and then. @JenniferLaycock from SearchEngine Guide uses her company’s puppy logo as her brand.
• Register your name as your domain name. Also register extensions of your name on popular social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Slideshare, and others. This serves a defensive purpose, too, as it prevent squatters from profiting off of your personal brand.

About the Author: Ivana Taylor is CEO of Third Force, a strategic firm that helps small businesses get and keep their ideal customer.  She’s the co-author of the book “Excel for Marketing Managers” and proprietor of DIYMarketers, a subscription site for in-house marketers.  Her blog is Strategy Stew.

Why SEO Needs Your Web Content

October 24, 2008 | Barry Wise | Search Engine Optimization, Web Design

A client recently approached me to discuss redesigning their website, optimizing it to rank well in Google, and contracting me for some basic marketing and promotion.  Now, this has happened to me a few times, so I don’t want to single out any one client (and I wouldn’t mention them by name even if you asked me).  But their thought process was, well, we’ve got about 100 or so pages indexed right now, but we want to get rid of them and pare that down to just a half dozen or so really sales-driven content pages.

My question, of course, was Why?  Why would you ever want to throw away valuable content (let’s assume for now that it was valuable content about their product and/or service offerings)?  The answer is always the same – we want to drive customers directly to the sale, so let’s push them there with a short, concise marketing message.  What’s wrong with that?

The failure, or disconnect, or whatever you want to call it, is always in the misunderstanding of the purpose and viability of the business website as a sales medium.

Marketing on the web is not like marketing in person, or on a phone call, or via any other medium.  If you were making outside sales calls I would say yes, you’ve got the right idea.  Make your pitch fast and focused and close the sale before they hang up.  So let me make this analogy – do you think customers will call you to listen to your outside sales call spiel?  No?  Then why in the world do you think they would take time out of their day to find your website to read it?

This particular business website, like so many others, suffers from a particular shortcoming I like to refer to as the “sales brochure” website.  They want just 5 pages on the site – one that talks about them, one that says where they’re located, maybe even has a spiffy little mapquest map, one page with their product listings, a contact form, etc. – you get the idea.  And again I make the comparison – what do you do when someone you don’t know hands you a sales brochure full of pitch?  That’s right – you put it in a scrapbook and save it for posterity to peruse later.  No, you don’t?  Really?  Then I guess you’re not surprised that your visitors aren’t going to bookmark your site and come back later to reminisce about your amazing sales pitch.

There’s a very easy solution, both from a marketing perspective and from an SEO standpoint.  Add actual valuable content to your website!  Not pitchy crap, but actually useful information.  You may find that your potential human customers will really think that it’s worthwhile, thereby giving your site the reputation as an authority in your market.  You may find that they return to the site to read more or begin emailing their friends about your great resource.  But more importantly for the promotion of your site, you will definitely find that Google and Yahoo love it.  And nothing assists in the promotion and marketing of a site like ranking in organic search results.

With more web content updated on a regular basis comes increasingly more attention from the search engine crawlers.  Pretty soon your site will be indexed faster (usually within minutes of publishing new content) and will begin ranking for all kinds of organic search terms you didn’t even know would attract customers (that’s what we call the long tail keyword effect).

Then you won’t even need to hire a NJ SEO like me!  Not really.  Content is just the first step, but it is the most important.  If you find an SEO that tells you otherwise, turn and walk away.

Why SEO Needs Your Web Content – Barry Wise NJ SEO and Marketing Consultant