Is Online Advertising Right For You?March 25, 2014

Who We Are

Today You Will Learn How To:

1. Use free or low-cost online advertising & marketing outlets to establish a basic web presence

2. Use more advanced strategies to target potential clients and drum up leads

3. Engage in paid online advertising in various forms and evaluate the ROI of each type

Section I:Free & Low-Cost Online Exposure

Benefits

• Virtual Real Estate• Easier for potential and current customers/clients

to find and contact you– IF they’re already looking for you

• Inbound links– IF you already have a website

• Most importantly: Unlike in the real world, the internet provides more free & low-cost advertising options that have potential to actually generate leads

Virtual Real Estate

Easier To Find and Contact You

INBOUND LINKS TOYOUR WEBSITE

Audience Questions

Does anyone not know the difference between a Facebookbusiness/fan page and a profile?

Who has a personal Facebook profile?

Of those people, who uses it to interact with brands and

businesses?

Now, who has a brand page for their business?

Of those people, has it ever produced any leads? If so, tell us!

Facebook

• A Facebook business or brand page is the easiest way to get your business on social media

• Facebook is the largest social network for all age groups – your potential clients are certainly on it, no matter who they are

• But… does “social currency” produce leads?

Facebook Pages: Are They For You?

• Facebook pages are best for businesses that:– Want to have an easy and interactive way to stay in

touch with their more social customers

– Want to take control of their brand reputation on the web and in the social sphere

• However:– If you don’t have time to manage a page, claiming

your FB real estate may not be enough

– Don’t expect leads to come walking in through the door because of your page

Audience Exercise

Write down 3-5 “tweets” of approximately 10 words in length that you think would be interesting for your followers.

Include a call-to-action in at least one of them.

Exercise:

Twitter & LinkedIn

• Little value as a home for your business on the web… the value comes from networking

• Interacting with colleagues, other local or industry businesses or potential clients shows your technological savvy and can be a powerful tool for forging digital connections

• Best for anyone who knows how to reap the benefits of networking in real life and wants to apply similar skills in the digital space

Video Marketing

& Online Video

• Offers the ability for anyone on the internet to “e-meet” you and gives you the opportunity to show, not just tell, what makes your business great

• Any properly framed video makes its protagonist out to be the expert

• Videos are some of the most viral and frequently shared forms of online media

Audience Questions

• Who has ever used Yelp to find a business?

• Who has ever written a review on Yelp?

• What about Tripadvisor?

• Facebook’s counterparts for review sites – wide usage across all demographics and age ranges

• If you have a local or B2C business, you need to be on Yelp, or your competitor could be outshining you

• People trust peer reviews more than any traditional form of advertising

• Not for the feint of heart – negative and harsh criticism is common

&

Google+ & Google+ Local

• Google and Google+ may have lost the social media war, but they are still the world’s largest search engine

• Google rewards participation in their ecosystem in search listing gold!

• Remember “virtual real estate”?

Getting Started

So would 50% more Google users! How’s that for a free ad?

“Rich snippets”

“Vir

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• Visual and consumer-driven services that have little value for B2B businesses

• Great for graphic designers, artists, interior designers, merchandisers or apparel companies, retail stores, etc.

• Rare that leads will ever come through Instagram or Pinterest

• Beware: only for the socially savvy

Audience Exercise

Think of two relevant topics that you could write 300-500 words about relating to your industry or business category.

Think specifically and current – something that would appeal to a potential or current customer

Exercise:

Guest Blogging

• Like video, offers a great chance for you to offer your knowledge and expertise to the web

• Your blogs can be shared on all your social media channels and with your email list

• Helps forge relationships with online publications and journalists in your industry

• Best for a business that doesn’t have a blog that is looking to get their name out there while contributing their knowledge

So what does it all mean?

Is this kind of advertising right for me?

• Free or low-cost exposure on the web can be time consuming, but it’s worth the effort

• You won’t find a better deal on basic marketing

• If you’re not making your presence known, you can bet your competitors are

• But, none of these ideas could guarantee or draw new business, unless you’re very lucky or in the right industry

• Is it right for your business? Absolutely.

Questions

Section II:Getting Found On The Web

Comments/Questions?

What We Will Learn

1. How to build your search ranking and get that phone to ring!

2. Create a web presence that is engaging and will convert potential leads to prospects

3. How to interact with these prospects to make them customers

Who Has A Website?

Are you concerned with getting more traffic? More leads? More business? More Opportunities?

Websites

• At its most basic it’s a business card on the web but it can be so much more!– A revenue tool (the phone

book on steroids)– Control over how your brand

is represented on the web– Portal to your other web

properties– Marketing Tool for email

collection

How Does It Become Advertising?

How Does It Become Advertising?

#1 mistake everyone makes on the web?

• Failure to market your website:

– Your website can be a tool that helps you sell to new customers, but you have to optimize it for more than your business name, or a list of services

– Search Engine Optimization drives traffic to you but you need to know the 3 principals of SEO.

3 Principals of SEO

If I have to explain SEO in 3 simple components:

• Keyword Density

• Keyword Relevance

• Keyword Proximity

What Is SEO?

• Search Engine Optimization is the process of affecting the visibility of a website in a search engine’s “organic” search results– Being on the front page

of Google for search is like having a shop on main street in the downtown!

Where & How?

• On your website using meta tags and descriptions, keywords and within your content

• Content Is King

• SEO can have differing levels of success depending on a couple of factors:

– Avoid “Black Hat” SEO techniques

– Platform site is built on

– Amount and quality of content

– Regularity of updates

Some SEO No No’s

• Don’t try to play to Search Engines

– Duplicate Content

– Poor writing

– Link Farms

– Spamming with keywords and terms

– Hiding text and keywords

– Dirty URLs

Some SEO No No’s

• Don’t assume your SEO firm is doing it correctly

– Make sure you have a plan in place and understand what they are targeting

– We see SEO tactics used by other companies all the time that actually hurt your result

Not All Platforms Created Equal

• Older sites or those build in platforms like WIX, 1&1, Web.com, GoDaddy Website Tonight were never designed with SEO in mind and are limiting.

• Wordpress is the #1 recommend platform for SEO because its engineered with blogging in mind and its FREE to download.– Why is blogging the best way to drive

traffic to your site?

vs.

Blogging

Why Blogs allow you to put content out there that sells you:

• Blogs only grow in value

• Share free advice & white papers in exchange for leads

• Nearly 40% of companies use blogs for marketing

• Blog articles influence customer purchases

• Companies with >51 articles experience an average of 77% increase in monthly leads

Source: ramarketing.com

How do I Blog Effectively?

Blogging gets you leads, but you need to know what bait to use:

• Get ideas from audience on social media

• Answer common questions

• Find trending topics

• Do it consistently

• Keep it short and sweet

Source: ramarketing.com

Turn Visitors Into Conversions

• You’ve optimized your site and driving traffic organic traffic through search engines… now what?

• A conversion is taking a website visitor and turning them into a potential client, customer, subscriber, webinar attendee – whatever the conversion goal for your business is

• Do you know what your conversion goal (and rate) is?

Conversion Optimization

These strategies can help you convert a visitor into a potential customer:

• Creates Trust & Affinity

• Calls To Action

• Quick Contact Form

• Video & Imagery

• Testimonials

• Case Studies

• Logos & Press

Conversion Optimization

My Big 3 For Conversion:

• Video: introduce who you are and why to buy from you.

• Testimonials: Use these to help sell your product.

• CTA: Make it easy to get in touch!

Audience Exercise

You are in an elevator and the person next to you asks what your business does and what makes it unique. You only have

30 seconds till you reach the next floor. What do you say?

If you don’t have a business, make one up!

Exercise:

Landing Pages

Allow you to target exactly what you are looking for in a new customer!

• Offer specials that are not on your website

• Be as specific as possible

• Focus on quick calls to action and conversion

• Give away FREE stuff!– ebooks, or whitepapers

User Engagement

Make people stick around:

• Improve headlines (page titles) focusing on special benefits rather than features

• Make it easy for people to connect with you via email capture forms (build list)

• Update site with mobile friendly pages and forms!

User Engagement

Make people stick around:

• Test how people will interact with your site and gage ease of use with UserTesting.com

• Get feedback with UserVoice

• Monitor Analytics and bounce rate to create pages that rock

• Speed up your website (hosting)

Recap

The Road Map:• SEO gets them there• Once we get them to your site the goal is

conversion from leads to prospects• Now lets keep these prospects engaged so that

they become customersTakeaway: • Whereas an ad is static, the process of acquiring

and converting customers on the web is an interactive one

Is this kind of advertising right for me?

• Investing in a website that is setup for success should be a priority of any business owner’s agenda

• Spend the time to learn who your target customer is and speak to them directly

• Create content that has value for current and potential customers alike

• People are searching online for products and services every day, now is the time to seize the opportunity and stay ahead of your competitors by taking active action today

• If you have a product or a service the answer is YES!

Section III:Paid Online Advertising

Intro to Online Advertising

What We’ll Learn Today

Which online advertising

services are right for me?

What are some pros and cons of each?

Can I manage it on

my own?

Paid Internet Advertising

Is Online Advertising Right For You?

Advertising

Newsfeed AdsMobile

Desktop

Why Facebook Ads?

• Use ads in a variety of ways

– Garner likes

– Increase Social influence

– Promote event ticket sales

– Develop brand awareness

– Generate contest entries

– Direct users to your website

– Promote product launch

Sponsored Stories

• It’s all about trust (your friends like it, so you might!)

• Option to use your voice or your customer’s voice

Exercise

Think about the people and/or audience you want to reach. 1. What kind of traits does your target audience share?2. Identify key customer segments (geo, age, gender, etc).

Targeting

• People volunteer a lot of data on interests, their life– Zip codes– Family members– Workplace– Relationships– Partner interests– Socioeconomic status

• Extensive control over who sees ad

• Detailed reporting and insight on customers

Ease of Use

• Creative genius not required

• Ad equality

• Low minimum spend

Video Advertising

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Who has uploaded a video?

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YouTube Ad Facts

• 75% of online video viewers interacted with video ad this month

• Avg. 20% increase in traffic to your website when running video ads

• Reaches more U.S. adults than any cable network

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Placement

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TrueView

• Only pay when people watch entire ad

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Advertising

8080

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Found a Business on Yelp?

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Yelp Ad Facts

• Remove competitor ads• Places your ad on competing nearby businesses• Can provide professional videography• Unlimited listing photos to showcase you• Serve different ads on different platforms (Mobile,

Desktop)• Average campaigns range $300 - $2,200 per month

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Pay Per Click

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A Few Myths

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Did You Know

• ‘Insurance’ bids avg. $55 per click on Google!

• 89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused

• The top ad position can achieve 6%+ CTR

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YouTube Example

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High ROI

• If done correctly PPC can provide you with a huge return on investment:

– Takes time, skill, vigilance

– Google Partners training and testing

• Well run campaigns can return $2 for every $1of spend

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Put It On Display

• Place custom ads on relevant websites

• Retargeting vs. remarketing

• Stand out from the crowd

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Where Will I Show Up?

• Place custom ads on relevant websites

• Retargeting vs. remarketing

• Quality affiliate websites

• Areas on the web that maximize clicks

• Influenced in part by user browsing history

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Direct Ad Buys

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Bulk Purchasing vs Bidding

• Fixed or variable cost per thousand impressions (ad views)

• Manual (direct buy) vs technological approach (eCPM)

• ‘Premium’ placement

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VS.

& Local Deals

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Local Deals By the #’s

• 650,000 merchants featured on Groupon to date

• 200+ million Grouponemail subscribers

• Local deal users spend 45% more than average U.S. online consumer

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Opportunity

Pros

• Attracts high volume of consumers

• Advertises your business

• It helps move inventory

• It builds relationships

• It generates incremental revenue

Cons

• Deals attract low-end bargain seekers

• May impact perception of the brand

• May not generate repeat customers

• Deals may not turn profitable

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Recap

AdType

Facebook YouTube Yelp Pay Per Click

OnlineDisplay

Direct Ad Buy

Groupon& Local

Cost As low as $5 / day

Varies based on production & CPC

$300 -$2,200 average per month

$1.00 -$55.00+ per click

Varies based on placement

Minimum$10,000 spend

Varies by business and offer type

Ease of Use (1 easy to 5 hard)

2 2 or 3 1 4 4 5 2

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Q & A