Posted by Carole Mahoney on Fri, Jan 22, 2010
I was not sure where to start with this week's post- most of the time my posts are inspired either by questions clients ask me, questions clients
should be asking me, or recent trends and topics that I have read elsewhere (that I either agree with or wonder ....what the heck are people thinking?). Since I did not know where to start, I made the very wise choice to start at the beginning!
One of the first steps to search engine optimization is a keyword analysis. For any search engine optimization or paid search campaigns, it is still an essential first step. In order to drive traffic to your site, you need to know how people are searching for your product or service. You need to use the words people use when they're searching (not the ones you use, your boss uses, your sales team uses- but the ones that your potential customers are using!)
How to use your key word analysis:
Write relevant and compelling website copy by incorporating terms that people immediately identify with. Use the phrases in your keyword analysis to speak the same language as your customer, not the lingo of your industry. Don't limit it to your web copy, create a consistent message with your email copy, or print copy, or ad copy- you get the idea...
- Pay-Per-Click Campaigns (PPC)
Plan profitable pay-per-click campaigns by building up a broad range of
keyword phrases that will capture your market. There is no need for guesswork- develop your PPC strategy around your key word list and offer.
- Content Strategy and Management
Develop the content that directly addresses your customers' needs. Is there a large search volume surrounding particular phrases? Review your web site content to see how you address those needs and fill in the gaps.
- Customer Behavior Marketing
Understand your customers' behavior and concerns by analyzing the words that they use. Are their search terms more general, indicating that they are early in their buying process, or are they more specific? Are they searching on ‘how to' or ‘best' or ‘compare'? A keyword analysis gives you the clues you need to understand their motivations.
Measure the size of a potential online market by the number of searches conducted. Determine the competitive landscape by the number of occurrences that appear for the same key words.
Develop new revenue streams by using popular keywords to inspire new product
and service ideas. An example that comes to mind is the custom luxury home builder who asked me to set up their PPC campaigns for them. After finishing their key word analysis we found a large number of searches focused on custom home design. The builder wisely decided that in order to gain the building contracts that they needed, they would need to have a designer or architect on staff to bring people in.
Ok, I know the post title says 5, but I just could not leave out the last one.
And one more tip- a keyword analysis is not something you do once and then forget it. Ideally a key word analysis should be updated quarterly so that you can see where trends are going, see how volume has changed, and pick up on any new phrases that are emerging.
Whenever someone comes to me overwhelmed by all the components of internet marketing, this is where I tell them to start. A good key word analysis is the rock solid foundation of any successful internet marketing initiative.
Posted by Carole Mahoney on Fri, Jan 22, 2010
If you still think that your online marketing success is defined by the number of visitors to your website, your click-through-rate (CTR) for your paid campaigns, or the open rate for your email campaigns then you may be missing a very large piece to the puzzle.
I often find myself telling people that optimization, (whether it is search engine optimization, business optimization, conversion optimization- same concept applies) is a long term strategy and process, not a one time project or campaign. So often I hear clients asking to optimize a web page, a PPC campaign, and they never move beyond that into true online business optimization.
It will not only require careful planning, detailed implementation, measurement, analysis and improvement- it also requires the commitment of the business owner or executives to see and understand the larger picture. Yes, there will be short term successes on the way- but do not stop there to see the real ROI.
Optimization should (at the very least) address these areas:
- Maximize the quality (and quantity) of leads delivered to sales.
- Measure online and offline campaign results based on sales metrics beyond the lead.
- Align sales and marketing so that the messaging matches the customer experience.
- Increase conversion rates on key marketing initiatives.
- Understand not only who did what and where it was done but also why it may have happened.
With average campaign conversion rates anywhere from 2-10 percent, the vast majority of your visitorsare simply not converting to customers. Somewhere in the sales process they bail out- where and most importantly-why?
If you're only measuring visitors, click-through rates, open rates, and the like you have no means to identify and plug these leaks in the conversion funnel. This represents a huge untapped opportunity and money being left on the table. To tap into this opportunity it will require not only the right tools to measure, but also the expert knowledge to leverage the numbers to make improvements through testing and implementation.
What will you optimize for your business? Can you afford not to?
Posted by Carole Mahoney on Wed, Jan 20, 2010
"Conversion optimization, what is that and what is the point?" was a question recently posed to me. I love it when people want to get down to the basics and find out not just the what, but the why. A simple question deserves a simple answer. So first, lets answer the what.
All businesses have a sales funnel. A sales funnel is simply a graphical representation of the process of acquiring interest in your product/service and then ‘funneling' those interested people into actual customers.
The funnel has steps in it to represent your business selling process. At each step it can be expected that a certain percentage of those who were first interested will drop off. Not everyone is going to be your customer.
What this funnel, and most sales funnels like it, does not show you is why your potential customers are falling out, or jumping out, of the sales process.
Imagine instead the colander, and that is closer to what most sales funnel actually ACT like. Somewhere in this funnel people have dropped off- where and why? The goal of conversion optimization is to identify those places where people are falling out of the funnel (or colander) and not making it to the bottom, the part where they become loyal paying customers. (The part that matters the most to any business of any size.) Knowing where they drop off is half the battle, figuring out why is where you can start plugging up the holes to retain more of your potential customers. Conversion optimization should be able to identify your customer's buying processes and match that to your selling process.
So back to the second part of the question, "Conversion optimization, what is that and what is the point?" The what is turning more interested people into actual customers. The why is just as simple.
You have 2 basic choices to increase your sales; you can either pump more money into acquiring that initial interest and therefore increase your chances of acquiring more customers. In other words, pouring more water into the colander in hopes that more of the water (customers) will end up at the bottom and not spilled out somewhere else.
OR...
Plug up the holes in the colander and ensure that you will get more water where you want it. Conservation is becoming more and more popular, and in business it can apply to those sparse marketing dollars turning more people into customers.
Still need help turning traffic into customers?
Posted by Carole Mahoney on Wed, Jan 20, 2010
The first step for any internet marketing campaigns is to set your objectives. What do you want your website, email, blog, or pay-per-click campaign to accomplish? Are you looking for new leads, trying to populate a webinar, increase the sale of a certain product or service?
When thinking about your goals, here are a few basic questions you should be able to answer:
- Who are you trying to persuade?
- What are you trying to persuade them to do? (to click on your site, open your email, or post to your blog?)
- What does that person need in order to feel comfortable and confident taking that action?
Sounds simple doesn't it? It is a simple concept, but one that so many marketers ignore under the pressure to drive traffic and increase leads now.
Stay tuned as we explore each of these questions and what they really mean to your online marketing efforts. Post your thoughts as to what you think these three questions mean.