To end the week, I'm giving you two resource articles for our Chicken Marketer file. With all the rants I've made about social media, this weekend is a dry run on Twitter. Don't laugh, I'll be sharing my hits & misses with you folks......start placing bets now on how long I'll last:)
Let's get to it -
First up is this article by Suzanne Richardson A Usability Lesson
Before you run off screaming, especially those of you operating businesses not exclusive to the internet crowd, give this article a serious read. It covers website usability but it can be applied to any business marketing you use...brochures, postcards, business cards, placards, etc.
I've taken the liberty of editing this article for length, not content. There are things the big companies get away with that can leave a solo entrepreneur marketing dead in the water.
Here's the meat of Suzanne's article:
"...When your prospective customers visit your
website, you want them to have a good experience.
So when you design your website, make it as
user-friendly as possible. And the best way to do
that is to get your customers to tell you what's
working for them on your site, and what isn't.
Enlist friends and family members to take a look
and give you their honest opinions. As a result of
what you learn from them, you're sure to give
your visitors a far better experience - which will
encourage them to come back again and again. "
I do have one small issue with this idea, how internet savvy are your "family and friends"? If email, watching videos, downloading music and simple one-two word searches are what they do online ...their opinion may be of little help.
The first question they are going to ask you is What am I looking for?
My suggestion: Ask another business person or in the business forums you are active in to take a look at your site. They have no stake in you emotionally nor do you need to explain what it is you're trying to do.
A simple question like...Can you take a look and tell me how it could be better, in any forum will likely give you more information than you wanted to know.
It's not an exact science, and you should take any suggestion to change your site or blog with a grain of salt.
If you have paying customers, send them an email and ask if they had any problems or if there was something confusing to them.
I wanted to get through to some of you how important it is to focus your small business marketing and this video by Michael Port is especially important for Solo Entrepreneurs. Only 4 minutes and very useful.
Finally, I'll recommend this pay-per-click article by the guys at WordTracker and you can read the full article here WordTracker - assuming you already know your customers and you have a clear marketing message already.
7 Steps to A Perfect PPC Campaign
1. Identify the product you are selling. Sounds simple but look at the listings in your local phone directory or do a search online.....some of these folks are corn-fused about what they're really selling.
2. Use keyword research and PPC
If this is your first PPC campaign you can use broad matches to try and see what the
market is doing and what people are typing in. Which is where many of you stopped doing your keyword research!
Use exact match when you are sure they are the best keywords to go for. Another very popular technique is to use broad and phrase matches with a lot of negative keywords. Not, stop, eliminate are good places to start with using negative keywords.
3. Build your PPC campaign piece by piece
A good PPC campaign should start with at least 10 AdGroups, and ideally (if you have time) 50 or more. The more relevant the keywords and the ads in each AdGroup, the better the Click Through Ratio (CTR).
CTR is the ratio of clicks to impressions – it is the measurement of response. The better the CTR (ideally 1% or above) – the more likely you are of getting rewarded by lowering the amount you pay for a click and increasing your ads position on the page.
4. Build specific landing pages
Each of your products should have their own page, with a very clear 'buy button' and a nice description.
Amazon does this very well. Link the ad straight to that page; the keyword should mirror the ad, which should mirror the landing page. It only takes people three to four seconds to make their decision so you have to make sure the page is quick to load.
5. Ad variation
PPC campaigns allow you to have different ad variations, so...by producing different kinds of ads you can monitor any patterns showing which ad is being clicked, and which aren't.
6. Report and analytics
Use Google Analytics or Yahoo Index Tools to help you look at your SEO and PPC keywords. Pay attention to your bounce rates because that is a very important indicator in PPC.
7. Refine Your Campaign
Keep looking at your campaign, keep studying it, learn from it and keep refining it wherever possible. We apply the 80/20 rule. Out of all the keywords, only 20% to 40% may give you real value - ie sales.
Following this step will really help you make the most out of your PPC campaigns. And the great thing is that all the lessons you learn from PPC can be taken into your SEO campaigns.
Yes, Solo Entrepreneurs working off-line and for driving local traffic to your business, this also orks. Go check for more detailed tips on using PPC in driving local traffic to your store or service.
That's it for now and I leave you with this -
"If your dream is a big dream, and if you want your life
to work on the high level that you say you do, there's no
way around doing the work it takes to get you there." ~Joyce Chapman
