Archive for Marketing Basics
PPC Landing Page Optimization – Keeping the Continuity in Your Message
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’re investing in Paid Search then it will most certainly and profitably make your wallet happy if you clearly understand how to optimize your landing pages that visitors arrive at after clicking on your PPC display ads to increase conversions.
Of course you will need to perform testing on your landing pages to determine the best page combination of elements statistically speaking-but it’s important to understand or to at least be reminded of the importance of carrying your message through in landing page optimization. Understanding this concept will help you in choosing initial test elements to test.
IMPORTANT: Your message needs to be carried over from your display ad to your landing page.
If someone is on Google or any other search engine doing a search on Apple products and your display ad copy influences them to click based on its references to your special deals on Apple products, but the landing page features and talks about Microsoft products, the visitor in most instances won’t spend the time to find out where you have that information placed or hidden, it’s just too easy for them to use the back button. Additionally, if you are presenting information on your special deals (your offer) as I mentioned above, and your landing page has the right products, but no mention of the special deals (offer) you can also lose the visitor for many other reasons such as the frustration of feeling they were mislead.
Remember the visitor clicked on your ad because it drew them in by what it had to say, be it a specific product, your offer, your brand, your verbiage, etc. You don’t want to let the visitor bounce and go back and click on the next display ad. And unfortunately, in most cases that next ad will be your competitors’ ad. You wouldn’t have a sign on your brick and mortar store that says Tire Sale and only have toothbrushes on the shelves.
When you don’t carry over the message, you’re throwing a good portion of your PPC money away on unproductive clicks that won’t convert as often as those who carry over their message from PPC to their landing page.
Therefore it’s extremely important to keep the continuity of your message all the way from your display ad through to the landing page to increase your chances of influencing a conversion.
On a final note, you should know that just carrying over the message isn’t the magic bullet where you don’t have to worry about anything else. You still have to be concerned with your page layout and presentation, your offer, your images, the style and content of your copy and so on. Carrying over your message is just one major but important factor in the process of landing page and landing page optimization success.
Tips for Using Twitter in Marketing Your Business
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Twitter, the micro-blogging conversation tool can be a great marketing channel for your business. You have the chance to be a part of or even lead a conversation on your service, your company, or your products.
Not familiar with Twitter, need a recap, or just want to watch a good video? Check out this Twitter in Plain English video by CommonCraft:
But it’s not as easy as just Tweeting your normal marketing message that you might use in marketing emails, banner ads, or elsewhere. You need to actively participate in non-promotional conversations to gain respect. Share your expertise in your area, and be a person not a brand or a logo. When you show value to those who are following you on Twitter or those Twitter conversations you are participating in, those involved will be more apt to listen when you eventually do share your marketing message. Remember you are just one click away from someone no longer listening to what you have to say – and they can Tweet their experience to others just as easily be it positive or negative. It’s important to be reminded that Twitter is a tool for conversation, for personal or group contact of those who share a common interest, question, need, job, and so on. When you’re not adding value to a conversation, you become an outsider.
It’s also easy to throw Twitter to the wayside and believe that your business or your marketing plan has no use for Twitter, but if you have customers, or want customers there is a huge potential for gaining their respect, sharing your expertise, or providing even more value to your product or service through this tool which eventually relates to sales, renewals, referrals, ideas, innovations and connections. Twitter is free, and you can’t beat free especially when it’s one of the few available ways to develop deep connections with those who show interest.
Not sure how to get started with Twitter for business? Read 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business by Chris Brogan.
Two additional great ideas for using Twitter in marketing:
- Customer Service – Twitter: A Valuable Marketing Tool?
- Webinars - How Twitter Can Turn One-Way Webinars into Two-Way Conversations
Need a great resource for using Twitter in Marketing: The Top 75 Blog Posts in using Twitter in Marketing / Social Media by Spotlight Ideas provides you with enough reading to help feed your hunger for Twitter in Marketing desires.
Social Media Optimization (SMO) Tips and Tricks
Posted by: | CommentsRohit Bhargava, Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy & Marketing at Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence authored the somewhat famous post – 5 Rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO) on his Influential Marketing Blog.
His 5 rules are as follows:
- Increase your linkability – add content that others will want to link to
- Make tagging and bookmarking easy – add “submit to” buttons and make sure pages have relevant tags
- Reward inbound links – reward those who link to you
- Help your content travel – submit portable content (pdf’s, video, etc) to sites
- Encourage the mashup – let others within reason use your content
To read his 5 rules of Social Media Optimization (SMO) in more detail make sure visit his website.
Two more rules of Social Media Optimization can be found at the Web Strategy Blog by Jeremiah:
- Be a user resource, even if it doesn’t help you – become the ultimate guide in your “space”
- Reward helpful and valuable users – make sure to thank those that help you
Cant get enough Social Media Optimization ideas? Find rules 8,9, 10, and 11 at the ProNet Advertising Blog’s Social Media Optimization post where he rounds off 4 more ‘must practice’ Social Media Optimization ideas.
What are you tips for Social Media Optimization?
Top 15 Tips For Multivariate Testing with Google Website Optimizer
Posted by: | CommentsI just got back from SIPA’s “Gain. Market. Share.” Conference at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas yesterday. I along with Bob Brady and Kiplinger’s Greg Krehbiel hosted a session on Multivariate Testing with Google Website Optimizer. You can find our combined Top 15 To-Do List for Multivariate Testing with Google Website Optimizer that we concluded our session with over at the Mequoda Daily blog.
Three of my favorite sessions that I attended during the SIPA conference were those by Frank Gruber, Social Media Expert at AOL’s Social Media & Somewhat Obsession With Its Shiny Objects session; Michael Brito, Social Media Strategist at Intel Corporation’s Integrating Social Media into your Marketing session; and Bob Lorum, President of MarketingSherpa’s Maximize Your Landing Page Conversion Rates session.
Creating a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) for Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsA Unique Value Proposition (UVP) is essential for your business, not only to help you precisely define your business to your customers and yourself but also incredibly necessary in helping to fine tune your marketing strategies and optimization program. If you don’t know your UVP or it’s below par, you don’t know your business-and if you don’t know your business, your seriously harming it’s potential.
First, repeat these words to yourself and focus on what each word means; Unique…Value…Proposition.
Unique- being the only one, being without a like or equal (Merriam-Webster Online, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unique)
Value- relative worth, utility, or importance (Merriam-Webster Online, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/value)
Proposition – something offered for consideration or acceptance (Merriam-Webster Online, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/proposition)
What does your business offer of relative worth, utility or importance to its customers without a like or equal from others (your competitors do not/cannot).
A UVP clearly states the reason why customers should do business with you. Most likely there are other businesses (those who you consider your competitors or not) who offer the same product, a similar service, the same information, the same or similar whatever, and therefore your unique value proposition separates you from the herd of “sames” and “similars”. It explains why customers should do business with you and not the “them”. Furthering the “without-a-doubt” reason that the customer must give you the money in exchange for what you are offering rather than someone else.
But be careful, because a Unique Value Proposition isn’t:
- What you hope your business will be (i.e., We are going to be the best xyz in the world)
- What you wish it to be (i.e., Our goal is to be the #1 xyz, or the most referenced xyz, etc.)
- What you say you are (i.e., We are the #1 xyz in the state),
Instead, a UVP clearly states what your business is, and what your business does – what you are truly offering to your customers.
Marketing Experiments suggests in their In Search of a Value Proposition article to:
“Ask yourself why someone should buy from you instead of a competitor. If your answer is “best selection,” “best customer service,” or “fast shipping,” you potential success may be quite limited. These qualities do not make a business unique.”
Here are a few examples of how you can improve your Unique Value Proposition:
- Original UVP: We install widget weasels that save you money.
Improved UVP: As the only licensed widget weasel implementation provider in the tri-state area, we have saved our clients on average over $125,000 on maintenance problems due to faulty implementations. - Original UVP: We offer the smallest time travel unit in the world.
Improved UVP: We are the only pocket-sized time-travel unit provider in the world for those who want to time travel but don’t have the room or budget for a full-sized machine.
You’ll want to include your company’s Unique Value Proposition throughout your website and test the most effective way to present it. According to FutureNow/GrokDotCom’s Landing Pages & the Value of First Impressions blog post, “The UVP is your site’s first chance to begin a dialogue with its visitors.” Enough said.
Want to learn more about writing Unique Value Propositions? Check out:
- Marketing Experiments $100,000 UVP Challenge – In Search of a Value Proposition
- Bruce Mayhew Consulting’s Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
- Your Unique Value Proposition at Summit Insight Blog
- Landing Pages & the Value of First Impressions by FutureNow/Grokdotcom
