Author: Chris Leadley

Not as boring as it sounds…

Educational Marketing is actually a great way of building a trust relationship with future and present clients!

This means to give your prospects information to educate them and help them overcome their anxiety of doing business with you.

By giving your prospects information – for free usually – you are positioning yourself as somebody who has authority in that area and starting to form a relationship with that prospective customer.

You’re seeing it in action right now, I’m giving you valuable advice and educating you in a way that will help you overcome any objections or fears that you may have to joining one of my premium coaching programs when they become available in the future.

You can apply it to any other business that sells a product or service to anyone, you will have to be creative with it though and maybe think outside of the box a little.

For example,

If you own a flower shop you could give out a brochure or leaflet that doesn’t just have the latest flowers that you have in stock but actually shows people the best way to care for the flowers so they last longer and look better.

Now you could say that doing this might stop people coming back so often, but if the flowers have lasted longer then wouldn’t people think that they are of a better quality and be more likely to return.

Another example is in a garage, if you educate your prospective customers about why their cars should be serviced regularly are they more likely to come to you than just giving them a price to have it done?

Remember it doesn’t hurt to go into details but don’t make the information boring plus when you have educated your customer you have become an ‘expert’ in that area and have already positioned yourself above your competition.

Action Point

Take a look at you current marketing material, does it help people overcome their distrust and fears of spending money with you or does it simply state what you do and for how much.

If it’s the latter it may be time to get some new material drawn up.

These days, with social media all the rage, it’s easy to overlook email marketing for your small business. After all, who uses email anymore? Turns out a lot of people do, in fact three times as many people as Facebook and Twitter users combined.

 

 

Yes, the inter-web is here to stay and businesses no longer have to rely on expensive advertising in newspapers, or pay thousands of dollars for a TV commercial.  To a big degree, the internet has leveled the playing field for small business.

But there’s one problem most business owners face with their website: you need to give people a reason visit your site, and that’s not exactly easy.

Then you have to give them a reason to keep coming back.

And this is why newsletter marketing matters.  Have you ever heard the phase – “The money is in the list?”  That is especially true for small business owners –whether you know it or not.

Getting a potential customer to visit your website is great, but it’s even better if you can get them subscribed to your newsletter.  With each new subscriber, you are building your “list” of potential and current customers.

With this list – you can literally create sales on demand because by opting in, these people have already demonstrated that they’re interested what you have to say. Now, you don’t have to wait for them to come to your website, you can reach out to them.

Email Newsletter Marketing is Easier

The predecessor of newsletter marketing is direct marketing, which involved sending out actual printed materials like pamphlets, brochures, and catalogs through the mail. But what most businesses will tell you, sending email newsletters is so much better.  Here’s why:

• It’s more affordable. You don’t have to invest a lot of money sending out digital newsletters, because you don’t have to print out anything. You don’t have to spend precious man-hours stuffing these printed materials into envelopes. Printing and paying for postage is expensive too.
• It’s also more convenient. In comparison to traditional newsletter marketing – email newsletters are easy to create, and take less time to reach more people.
• It’s easy to track your efforts. With direct marketing, you know it’s working when your sales spike up after launching a DM campaign. But if it doesn’t work, you can’t really pinpoint the exact reason.

But you can with free analytical tools inside your newsletter service dashboard. You can find out the percentage of emails that were opened, whether you used an effective headline or not and most importantly you can find out how many of your recipients clicked on your call to action.

• Your newsletters are easy to share. With printed materials like brochures, you can share them with only a handful of people – and that’s if you’re lucky.

But that’s one reason why email newsletters are so great – subscribers share and forward your newsletters to their own contact list. So if you send something that your recipients will find a lot of value in email is the perfect medium to spread the word to their contacts.

Newsletter Topics that Get Clicks

Your newsletter should be helpful and offer value in some way – The main objective is to help your customer resolve a specific problem related to your industry and continue to engage them – so when the time comes, they come to you for a solution.  Some good newsletter topic ideas to get you started include:

• Company News –People like getting an inside look at your business (awards, nominations) and anything that happens inside your company (new employee, charitable event, etc)
• You can announce special offers, discounts, new products or services. This is a tried and tested way boosting revenue in a low sales period!
• Discuss the latest developments in your industry. Emails are essentially a relationship-building tool, and here you can establish yourself as an authority by providing updates about the latest developments, trends, and other news in your industry.
• Reviews of Happy Clients. When you get a positive review from a customer, you need to share it in your newsletter. This helps to nurture your relationship with all your customers who have subscribed to your list and shines the spotlight on those who take the time to leave a review
• Surveys & Feedback. It’s critical to know how your customers feel about your products and services.  Many times, it’s just not possible to get feedback while they are in-store so newsletter surveys are a good way to get much needed feedback about your business.
• You can give practical advice. The words “how to” are two of the most commonly “googled” words, so take advantage of it by answering questions that you think your customers are probably asking. You can provide tips or advice on ways to help them find new solutions to problems relate to your industry.
• Enlisting volunteers for charity efforts. Many recipients are willing to help out, and it elevates your “good guy” reputation when you don’t always use your newsletter for promotional reasons.

All these things must adhere to two crucial rules:

(1) Rule 1 is that the info should be interesting for the reader.

(2) Rule 2 is that in some way or another, the info should make your business look better.

Of course, there are lots of other rules that pretty much go without saying – Your newsletter has to be readable, make sure that you don’t have any typos or obvious grammatical errors that will give readers the wrong impression.  This is not something that you want to type up on the fly. The more effort you put into creating an awesome newsletter, the more you’ll get out of it.

Chris

 

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About Chris Leadley

Chris is a leading Direct Response Marketing Consultant specialising in Facebook Ads, Google Adwords and Email Marketing. He has helped hundreds of small businesses owners all over the world get new business with his online marketing workshops and private consulting. Chris works with small business owners to plan and carry out marketing strategies that are designed to get you in front of your customers and generate enquiries quickly.

Chris can help with your marketing in the following ways:

Private Consulting, One-to-One Training, One-to-One Strategy Sessions.

As a local business owner, you should be focusing your marketing efforts on driving traffic to your website.  Pay per click advertising is one of the fastest way to get quality traffic but if you want to build a successful PPC campaign for your small business then there’s no need to go it alone.

There are plenty of websites, apps and tools out there that can make a real difference to helping you successfully generate clicks and more importantly sales and which can save you a lot of time and frustration. These can help with everything from choosing your keywords, to testing your most successful combinations to creating display ads. And we’re not just talking about Google here either – these tools can similarly help you whether you’re looking to create Facebook ads or ads for Bing.

Here we will look at 11 of the very best PPC tools that we think are pretty much essential for your success. No matter your niche or your strategy, these will help you to create ads that get clicked and to waste less time chasing down keywords that no-one is interested in.

Local Keyword Generator (5minutesite.com/local_keywords.php)

Local Keyword Generator is a tool that comes from 5minutesite.com and which allows you to generate local keywords… as the name kind of suggests. Enter your desired keyphrase along with a city name, zip code or radius and let the generator do its work! Local businesses have a big advantage when it comes to AdWords and similar platforms as they will be fighting for a far less crowded niche and can be very exact in their choice of keywords. This tool will help ensure you don’t squander that advantage!

SplitTester (splittester.com)

Split Testing is the definition of ‘essential’ when it comes to success in the world of PPC – too bad then that it takes a lot of time. SplitTester allows you to extrapolate the likely long-term performance of two different ads from short-term data in order to help you choose the best long-term choice.

BidCops (bidcops.com)

BidCops is designed to help you track down money-wasting keywords and to then provide you with effective alternatives that should increase your traffic and conversions. Sometimes it’s more important to get rid of the keywords that are slowing you down rather than to hunt for even more to add to your campaign.

SEMRush (semrush.com)

SEMRush allows you to spy on your competitors which might sound sneaky but everyone’s doing it! Just enter the address of your competitor’s site and you’ll get AdWords ad copy, key words, CPC and loads of other juicy details.

KeyWord Spy (keywordspy.com)

KeyWord Spy is a great tool again for checking out what the competition is up to. This way you can see who is spending what on PPC, what keywords they’re targeting and more. Did you know for instance that Amazon spend over a million dollars a day sometimes on their AdWords? Whether you want to try and beat your competition at their own game, or you’re looking to get inspiration for your own keywords, then Keyword Spy can be very helpful.  They offer a premium account (which is well worth it)  but you can get a lot out the free features as well so it’s worth checking out.

WordHippo (wordhippo.com)

WordHippo is a synonym or antonym generator which is very useful for mixing up your keywords as well as your negative keywords. Could a Thesaurus do the same job? Sure, but it’s nice to have something convenient and build especially for PPC.  And it’s free!

Facebook’s Suggested Likes and Interests (facebook.com)

PPC isn’t just about Google, Facebook is also a big player in this field. Suggested Likes and Interests is again a tool that does what it says on the tin. Found on Facebook, you can use this to get suggestions for the most common likes and interests that can then allow you to show your ads to only the most targeted Facebook users.

ROI Calculator (tools.seobook.com)

Wouldn’t it be nice if you knew whether or not your PPC campaign was going to pay off before you invested all of your hard-earned cash into it? With ROI calculator you can (in most cases) do exactly that. Enter the monthly clicks and estimated average cost per click along with some details and you’ll get a convenient estimated ROI for any given ad. Sure, it’s just a bit of basic math that you could probably do yourself, but it’s definitely handy having it conveniently built-in like this.

JUMBO Keyword (jumbokeyword.com)

JUMBO Keywords can help you to edit and clean up your keywords with a single click and also has an Ad-Maker for testing copy and placements to see what your ads are going to look like. You can also save your configurations in a useful .txt file which

Google Web Designer (google.com/webdesigner)

If you’re looking to create flashy HTML5 display ads, then you need Google Web Designer. Google Web Designer makes it easy to add animations and interactive elements to your banners which really grab attention and which can help to encourage interaction, engagement and clicks. This is also a great tool that can be used for a range of other applications and which is generally useful for learning the ropes of HTML5. As it’s completely free, it’s definitely worth downloading and trying out for yourself!

AdWord Editor (google.com/adwordseditor­)

Perhaps the most essential tool of all though is still Google’s own AdWord Editor which makes it as easy as possible to create your ads and gives you all the tools you could possibly need right from the guys who brought you AdWords themselves. This might not be an exciting choice to end off the list, but there’s no denying that it’s certainly essential for almost any PPC campaigns.

And there you have it! Eleven tools that can go a long way to helping you target more effective keyphrases and optimize your campaigns to be as effective as possible. These tools will make your display ads more beautiful, your Facebook ads more targeted and your PPC more effective.

But remember: good tools will not make up for a poor strategy to begin with! Make sure that you are approaching these tools with the best strategy in mind and that you use a little common sense in the mix as well.

Marketing your business online is an incredibly powerful way to increase your visibility and to start attracting more new customers. The cost of online marketing is relatively low compared to other types and yet it’s possible to create a much more impactful and engaging campaign this way when compared with advertising in magazines for example. Seeing as most of us now find they companies we want to buy from on the web, it stands to reason that this should be the logical place to spread the word when promoting your own offerings.

 

The question then is not whether to market yourself online but how to go about it. Here you have two main options: managing your own online marketing and doing everything in-house, or outsourcing the process to another individual/company who can take care of it for you.

Here we will look at why the latter is the much better option.

 

The Benefits of Outsourcing Your Online Marketing

When you outsource your online marketing, you will be paying for a specialist to handle your online presence and to help you reach more customers.  This is what they specialize in, and it means they’re able to advise you on the very best strategies and help you accomplish your goals online.

This is their ‘day job’ and it is what they have been doing professionally for a long time. No doubt they will have worked with many other companies before yours to help them increase their visibility and to get more customers and as such they will know the process inside out and be up-to-date on the very latest techniques and tools. Things like search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing are changing constantly as Google alter their algorithms and as new social media sites are emerging all the time. Did you know that Google recently released their ‘Penguin 3.0’ update? Have you heard of IFTTT and how it can streamline your social media efforts?

The point is, that even if you have a good basic understanding of online marketing, you aren’t going to have the same level of experience or in-depth knowledge as a company that is constantly immersed in that industry. Likewise, you aren’t going to have the time to dedicate to your marketing unless you either hire more staff (which is very expensive) or neglect another aspect of your business. Unless you run an online marketing agency, you won’t have the same skills and expertise as an online marketing agency… And thus any attempt you make to market your business will be less effective than it could be.

Just imagine that one of your own clients or customers decided to handle the service/product you provide ‘in house’ instead of using you. Do you think they could do as good a job as your business by trying to learn themselves? Probably not and the same goes for internet marketing.

Bear in mind too that there is a cost to bad online marketing; not only can you waste a lot of time, energy and money if you approach online marketing incorrectly but you could even risk damaging your company’s reputation or getting penalized by Google. This is why you really need a company or professional that knows what they’re doing.

 

Why Companies Often Go In-House – And Why it’s a Mistake

Many bigger companies have a large desire to do everything they can ‘in-house’ and even to buy the companies they work with to accomplish this, or to hire lots of new staff to create whole new departments. This stems from a need to ‘control’ every aspect of their business (often partly due to ego) but it is actually very misguided.

For starters, outsourcing to another company almost always results in a higher quality of work and greater output than using employees. That’s because companies that provide these services are trying to exceed your expectations in order to retain your business on a long term basis and they want to work quickly and efficiently so that they can increase their turnover. Small service-based companies and freelancers then will put in much more effort than employees because they own their business and thus you’ll get better value for your investment. Did you know that the average employee completes about 3 hours of work in an 8 hour day? And that’s when there’s actually something to do… When you outsource you only pay for the work you’re actually getting.

Likewise, even if you hire extra staff to form your own marketing department, you are still going to have to dedicate time to managing those employees. You are still going to have to provide them with somewhere to work and you are still going to have provide them with the right equipment. Not to mention costly benefits and negotiate pay too.

In other words, hiring your own department involves a lot of overhead – both financial overhead and communication overhead. When you outsource on the other hand, none of that is your problem and you are able to keep your business lean and focused while you put more time and energy into delivering the best possible service or product to your customers. Let them do what they do best so you can do what you do best!

Plus, with tools like Skype, Google Drive and TeamViewer providing more forms of location independent communication, you can now stay in constant contact with companies you’re hiring and even work collaboratively as though they were right in the office with you.

 

How to Outsource Your Online Marketing

Outsourcing your online marketing then is by far the most efficient way to get the best service for the least expense and is a very good investment. What’s just as important though is that you also hire the right online marketing company and that you take due diligence in choosing the right people to work with. Make sure they have a good track record, discuss strategy with them and take your time finding out whether they’re right for your organization. If you get this right, then they will be able to greatly increase your turnover so it’s more than worth the time required to do a little research first!

About Chris Leadley

Chris is a leading Direct Response Marketing Consultant specialising in Facebook Ads, Google Adwords and Email Marketing. He has helped hundreds of small businesses owners all over the world get new business with his online marketing workshops and private consulting. Chris works with small business owners to plan and carry out marketing strategies that are designed to get you in front of your customers and generate enquiries quickly.

Chris can help with your marketing in the following ways:

Private Consulting, One-to-One Training, One-to-One Strategy Sessions.

 

Many business owners – make the mistake of chasing after new leads and creating new opportunities without first making the most of the resources and opportunities they already have.

 

 

If you have a website and you’re focusing all of your energy on getting new people to visit, then you are likely missing out on a lot of potential business from your current visitors. It’s much easier to get someone to buy from you who has already done business with you in the past, so that’s actually the smartest place to focus your efforts.

Likewise, you’re much less likely to get a sale from someone who is visiting your site for the first time versus someone who has been visiting for a while and who you have established trust with.

Read on and we will look at how you can turn your visitors into customers and your existing customers into repeat customers.

Make it Easy

This is where your branding becomes incredibly important. If someone lands on your website and is impressed by the way you present yourself and what you offer, then you need to make sure that they are able to get back to you again when they decide to bite. This means you need to have clear and obvious banner/design that is memorable enough that they can track you down in future. Likewise an easy and memorable URL can go a long way. You can even encourage them to bookmark your page through a popup or the like.

 

A Mailing List

Better yet is to get them to join a mailing list or newsletter of some kind. This will then ensure they get frequent updates from you which will keep you at the forefront of their minds. What’s more, it will allow you to reach out to them with specific offers and deals that might interest them based on your previous interactions. Lead capture is one of the most crucial aspects of your online presence, so don’t neglect it!

91% of Consumers Check Their Email Once a Day or More

Email Marketing Has a ROI of 4,300%

 

Social Media

Similar to a mailing list is a social media account – by using a Twitter or Facebook account you can keep your customers up-to-date and provide yourself with a means of staying in touch long after they’ve left your site.

67% of Twitter Users Are More Likely to Buy From Brands They Are Following on Twitter

 

Providing Value

Another good strategy is to ensure that your website itself provides value which most companies try to achieve through a blog. Give your site a blog and that way there will be useful content for your visitors to come back and read. If your website is literally just an advert, then there’s really not need for them to return to your site unless they are looking to buy something.

 

Deals and Special Offers

Running some kind of deal or special offer is a great way to increase your turnover for a period and to potentially gain some free marketing. At the same time though, it’s also effective at demonstrating to your visitors a good reason to check in from time to time. If you mention your promotion in a Tweet then you’ll find it’s a good way to attract a lot of previous visitors back to your site who maybe were interested in some of your products but didn’t have the money at the time. Make sure to get involved in larger deals and promotions too like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

 

Tell Them to Come Back

Sometimes the best techniques are the obvious ones: why not just literally instruct your visitors to come back to your site? This could literally just be a case of including a message at the end of your content saying ‘be sure to come back soon’, or telling them how often your content is updated or how you occasionally have deals and offers. Of course they might just ignore your request but at least you’ve planted the idea and you’ve made your case for why they should keep you in mind.

 

Use a Loyalty Program

A loyalty program is a fantastic way to get your customers to come back time and again. Here you offer discounts and other bonuses to customers who use your services or shop with you regularly which gives them additional reason to use you over your competition. At the same time, many people find it somewhat addictive to see their points rack up and will often go to lengths to keep them growing!

 

Create a Social Element

At the time of writing, Facebook is the third most popular site on the net. What makes it so popular? That would be the social aspect which lets people check in on friends and have conversations on topics they find interesting.

Basically, social interactions keep people coming back because they want to see the responses to things they’ve written/continue their discussions. Simply adding a comments section on your site then can be a great way to create a community around your business that builds loyalty in a big way.

 

Make Them Feel a Part of Your Business

Using the web is a great way to get people involved in your business and to help them feel like a part of it. This in turn gives them a stake in your success and they’ll be much more likely to come back as a result, as well as to spread the word.

What does this mean? Well it could mean outsourcing an idea. It might mean running some kind of contest. Or it could just mean answering a question and engaging with the audience. Even giving away t-shirts can make people feel like they’re a part of your ‘movement’ and to really get behind you as a result. This is also another very good reason to be on social media and to leverage other social elements.

63% of People Follow Small Businesses to Show Their Support on Twitter

 

Leave an Impression

Most important of all though is simply to ensure you leave the right impression on your visitors and your customers. At a basic level this means creating a website that runs well, loads quickly, looks great and maybe has a few nice touches that stand out.

 

Going deeper though, it means ensuring that the entire experience of dealing with you is memorable in all the right ways. This entails thinking about your packaging. Maybe it could mean under-promising and over-delivering in terms of shipping. Or how about packaging a freebie in with their order/sending a personalized message? These small touches are what set amazing companies apart from the crowd and build real loyalty. Show you care about your business and about your customers and you will find they reciprocate!

 

About Chris Leadley

Chris is a leading Direct Response Marketing Consultant specialising in Facebook Ads, Google Adwords and Email Marketing. He has helped hundreds of small businesses owners all over the world get new business with his online marketing workshops and private consulting. Chris works with small business owners to plan and carry out marketing strategies that are designed to get you in front of your customers and generate enquiries quickly.

Chris can help with your marketing in the following ways:

Private Consulting, One-to-One Training, One-to-One Strategy Sessions.

 

For any business with an online presence, the most important role of a website is likely going to be to attract more customers. If you design your website correctly, then it should provide a huge ROI as those who land on your page are potential opportunities to make a profit and form a relationship. A good website should inform your visitors of what your business is all about then but it should persuade them to take the next step so that they become customers or clients.

This is a sort of science and an art and it’s something that will require a little trial and error to get just right. Even if your website is currently performing well with a high conversion rate, there are almost always tweaks and changes you can make to start converting more of the people who visit into people who want to hire your services or buy your products.

The good news? Often those changes are very simple to understand and implement. Here are ten easy tricks you can start using…

 

#1 Funneling

If your website exists primarily in order to gain leads and customers for your business, then you have a very clearly defined goal for your site which gives you an advantage.

A good website design will take this into account and as such, everything on the page should ‘lead’ the visitor to take the action you want, like clicking a buy button, submitting a quote request, etc.  If your page is currently cluttered with lots of information and lots of links then users won’t know where they’re supposed to go or what they’re supposed to click – they’ll end up with ‘options paralysis’. Instead, make sure that everything all points in the same direction and leads to the same place so that they can’t help but gravitate towards that contact or order form.

A quick thing to try doing right away, is to take the “less is more” approach and remove some of the unnecessary clutter to streamline the visitor experience, and make sure your call to action is clear.

 

#2 Minimal Design

In service of this ‘funneling’, it is crucial to use an uncluttered design throughout that makes it easier for the visitor to navigate your site and which makes the design appear more professional.

Consider the following design maxim: ‘don’t decorate, communicate’. In other words, no element on your website should be there just because it ‘looks pretty’. Instead it should always serve some kind of role in helping to communicate your message/aid navigation/encourage sales. If it doesn’t? Get rid of it!

Minimal designs also load quicker, they scale easier in terms of responsive web design and they make it easier to create contrast – which is our next point.

 

#3 Contrast

There are two types of contrast that can be used in your website to increase conversions. The first is color contrast, wherein you can of course make your most important elements stand out more by using contrasting colors that leap off the page.

Contrast can also be used though to make ideas stand out and even products. If you have an online shop for instance, consider listing your most expensive items next to your cheapest ones. Why? Because the contrast will make your cheaper items seem like even more of a good deal and your premium products seem like even better quality.

 

#4 The Color Red

Using the color red for your ‘buy now’ button will actually greatly increase the chances of people clicking on it. This might sound strange but studies have demonstrated time and time again that this is the case and that simply seeing the color red increases our heartrate and thus our sense of ‘urgency’. As most purchases are emotional/impulsive decisions, this is a good thing for your sales. It also helps of course that red is a very contrasting color against white (as above) which will stand out more on the page.

 

#5 Social Media Integration

When a visitor lands on your website that’s an opportunity for you to get a new customer right? Actually no – it’s an opportunity for you to get lots of new customers, if you can leverage social sharing. Include social media buttons to encourage your visitors to share pages with their networks and that way you can get some free marketing along with that all-important testimonial.

 

#6 Provide Value for Free

Giving away a free taste is one of the oldest tricks in the book when it comes to business and things are no different online. If your website can provide some kind of value free to your users – such as free information relevant to your industry – then you will not only encourage more sharing and bring back more repeat visitors, but you will also establish more trust. This is especially crucial if you are selling a service or an information product. It can be as simple as writing a good blog post, so it doesn’t have to put you out of pocket.

 

#7 Lead Capture

Every website that is designed to make money must have some form of lead capture. Not everyone is going to want to make an impulse purchase right away but if you can capture e-mail addresses then you will be able to build trust over time and market future products to people who have shown an interest in the past. Your database of e-mail addresses can become an invaluable asset so you need to start doing this right away.

 

#8 Use Pop-Ups

Pop-ups containing opt-in forms have been shown to be highly effective at increasing the number of leads you can capture from a website. You don’t want to irritate your visitors of course though, so be careful how you handle this.

 

#9 Beautify Your Website

This should go without saying but if you want people to buy from you then you need to make sure your website looks stunning. This will reflect well both on your business and on your products and you can’t expect people to spend money with you if your site looks amateurish. For each cosmetic change you make on your site, you will marginally increase your chances of making a conversion.

 

#10 Split Test

But how do you know if all these changes are making a difference? That’s where split testing comes in. Split testing essentially means making a tweak to your site and seeing whether that increases or decreases your conversion rate. A true split test is performed by showing versions of your website to different visitors and then collecting data from each (tools like Optimizely can help you do this) but just watching your statistics is the most important thing of all.

 

So there you go, there are ten easy tricks you can start using to attract new customers through your website. Give them a go and you’ll find they can pay dividends!

About Chris Leadley

Chris is a leading Direct Response Marketing Consultant specialising in Facebook Ads, Google Adwords and Email Marketing. He has helped hundreds of small businesses owners all over the world get new business with his online marketing workshops and private consulting. Chris works with small business owners to plan and carry out marketing strategies that are designed to get you in front of your customers and generate enquiries quickly.

Chris can help with your marketing in the following ways:

Private Consulting, One-to-One Training, One-to-One Strategy Sessions.

 

Re-targeting (also called re-target marketing or Re-Marketing) is a simple but effective way to go after people who have already browsed your site or shown a certain level of interest, but left without buying.  They might have placed items in their shopping cart and gotten distracted, or spent a significant amount of time browsing your site and then left to compare prices.

Regardless of why they left, the key here to remember is that only about 2% to 8% of all customers convert on their first visit to an eCommerce store-front.  Re-targeting helps you tap into that other 98% to 92% you would otherwise be missing out on.  This can happen a few types of ways, from email campaigns to simple cookie-based solutions.

Re-targeting Your Leads with Cookies

The easiest (but not always the most effective) way to re-target your visitors who have bounced off your site is to embed a JavaScript tag right into the footer on your website.  This is just a little piece of coding (often called a ‘pixel’) on the back end of the site (meaning your visitors don’t see it).  The code programs your site to create lists of all your visitors and places tracking cookies into their browsers.

You’ve likely visited a site that requires you to turn on your cookies if you have them turned off – this is for retargeting purposes most of the time.  The cookies that store in your visitor’s browsers are harmless.  They simply allow your retarget ads to display to people who’ve visited your site as they browse other sections and sites of the internet.

Think of the cookies as an “on” switch.  There are millions of ads out there floating around on the internet thanks to ad vendors, so when a visitor walks into the room (i.e. a website), how can the site know which ads to turn on?  Exactly, the cookies.  Since that person already visited your site, your re-target ad gets the okay from the cookie and displays to the visitor.

This not only help to get your brand recognized, it also provides another in for the customer to get back to your site while simultaneously creating a more personalized internet experience for the user (seeing as your site is obviously pertinent to their interests, or at least was at one point).

 

Re-targeting Your Leads with Email Marketing

You can also re-target people who have visited your site if they have signed up for your emailing list or have made purchases from you before (i.e. they have an account and you have their email address).  Let’s say one of your customers is searching lawnmowers but a week goes by and they don’t buy.  A simple email pointing to a sale you have on lawnmowers this week might be just the motivation to buy that they need.

This also works with items left in a shopping cart or with supplemental items that might be on sale which coincide with a bigger purchase the customer previously made.

 

Why Should You Use Re-targeting?

The main reason – and probably only one you’ll need – to use re-targeting is because it increases your sales.  It also raises brand awareness and draws in more targeted traffic to your site.  You get higher click-thru rates, higher conversion rates, higher return rates—all in all it’s a win-win.

Think of re-targeting as both a branding tool and a conversion optimization tool.  Of course, on its own, re-target marketing is effective, but it can work even better if it’s integrated into a comprehensive digital marketing and branding strategy.  Use re-targeting along with content marketing and regular AdWord campaigns to give your sales a substantial, sustainable boost.

 

Re-targeting FAQs

Q:  How can I make my re-targeting more effective?

A:  Segment your audience by demographics such as age, interests, location, economic status, buying habits, etc. to tailor your re-targeting ads to the individual.

 

Q:  Are there time frames which are most effective for re-targeting?

A:  Depending on what you are selling, re-targeting time frames vary.  For example, those with time-sensitive needs (e.g. booking a flight or hotel) should get immediate re-targeting but those making large purchases (e.g. cars, diamond rings) should be re-targeted down the line (since the initial visit was likely research and price comparison).

About Chris Leadley

Chris is a leading Direct Response Marketing Consultant specialising in Facebook Ads, Google Adwords and Email Marketing. He has helped hundreds of small businesses owners all over the world get new business with his online marketing workshops and private consulting. Chris works with small business owners to plan and carry out marketing strategies that are designed to get you in front of your customers and generate enquiries quickly.

Chris can help with your marketing in the following ways:

Private Consulting, One-to-One Training, One-to-One Strategy Sessions.

 

Social media marketing has been building a head of steam for the past decade.  Today, social media platforms are an undeniable outlet for any company, organization or individual that wants to reach the masses, no matter how big or small they are. 

The fact of the matter is, when you want to sell an idea, good or service, you have to be where your audience is.  Today, that simply means you have to be on social media.  Period.

 

 

Why Does Social Media Marketing Work?

If you don’t know what social media is by now, you’re pretty far behind the curve.  Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., allow users to stay in contact with one another, sharing ideas, videos, updates, news, recipes, etc.  Social media is exactly what it means: a place to be social and share media (and more).

For brands and individuals that are looking to connect with their audience, being on social media gives them a unique opportunity to engage their demographic.  Social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter allows you to open a direct line of communications with the masses, one that they can then respond to, share or ignore as they see fit.

With some social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, etc.), you have to get your audience to connect with you first before they can regularly see the content you post.  With other platforms (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), your content goes out to the world, but people can still choose to connect with you to better follow.

 

Joining In the Conversation

One popular method of getting others into the conversation is called “hashtagging.”  A hashtag (the pound sign followed by a keyword that represents the topic e.g. #SocialMedia) gets people to join the conversation, yourself included.

When you join the conversation about topics near and dear to your brand, you set yourself as an authority in the industry.  This is how you get people interested in you on social media.  Once they are following you (or “liking” you or “friending” you or whatever), your content will go directly into their newsfeeds.

When this happens, you have a direct line to your consumer to tell them anything you want.  This means you can talk about your new product line, give them information they need and want, or any other number of things.  Of course, you don’t want to just sell yourself – you want to keep them interested in what you have to say, so providing them with data, information, useful tips, funny stories, etc., will keep them coming back for more.

It will also create a viral aspect to your social media marketing since your followers will want to share your interesting, fresh and helpful content with their friends.  In turn, this brings more followers, viewers and ultimately, money to your brand.

 

Which Social Media Platforms are the Best for Marketing?

Generally speaking, the best social media sites for marketing are going to be Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and any one of the other few dozen out there – as long as your audience is there.  Each social media site has a fairly reliable user profile in terms of age group, interests and online habits.

For example:

• Facebook tends to attract a middle-aged to older crowd (think college graduates and up) while Twitter lends itself to the younger to teen crowd.
• LinkedIn is mainly used by business and industry professionals as well as those looking for careers (not jobs)
• People who use Pinterest are more likely to be into crafts, the arts, cooking and DIY home projects

 

If you know your audience, you can directly translate that into knowing where your audience is on social media.  Then, it’s only a matter of being there and engaging – of course, that’s the part that takes a little bit of know-how.

 

Social Media FAQs

Q:  Should I be on more than one social media platform?

A:  You should be on as many social media sites as you will be able to constantly keep updated.  A poorly kept social media site is worse than no social media profile at all.  It also makes no sense to be on social media sites if your target audience isn’t using them.

Q:  Is social media marketing free?

A:  While some of the social media marketing success you will have will be organic (and thus free), it’s becoming more common for paid social media campaigns to be a normal part of marketing spend.  This trend towards paid social media marketing campaigns’ results being worth the spend in terms of ROI is expected to continue to increase.
 

About Chris Leadley

Chris is a leading Direct Response Marketing Consultant specialising in Facebook Ads, Google Adwords and Email Marketing. He has helped hundreds of small businesses owners all over the world get new business with his online marketing workshops and private consulting. Chris works with small business owners to plan and carry out marketing strategies that are designed to get you in front of your customers and generate enquiries quickly.

Chris can help with your marketing in the following ways:

Private Consulting, One-to-One Training, One-to-One Strategy Sessions.

 

As a small business owner, you have heard all the hype. You know you need to have a presence online in order to survive in today’s technology driven business world. Yet, online marketing is a mystery to many small business owners. And, even more intimidating is local marketing.

 

 

As confusing as it may be, many small business owners, just like you, are often lead to believe that they can conduct their local marketing SEO the same way as the national brands. What works for the national brands will not work for your local small business trying to beat out the local competition.

It is hard for any business owner to understand the difference between right and wrong in relation to local SEO marketing, as the majority of information available is unclear and inconsistent. Let’s look at some of the myths behind successful SEO for local business.

· Link building is dead – This myth can be found everywhere today, and primarily stems from Google’s attempt to stop unnatural links. Matt Cutts made a recent comment that people trying to build SEO should stop guest posting. However, there is nothing wrong with posting valuable content in the form of guest posts. In fact, there are specific directories that every business should be in and is safe in Google’s eyes.

· Business List claiming will boost your SEO – It has been thought by many local businesses, that if they claim their business listings online, it will boost their SEO. Yes, it is beneficial to claim your business, but it is not the sole reason for boosting SEO. There are many other factors that are involved in SEO marketing.

· Social Media does not help with SEO – Social media or social search is the rave today. Businesses that have embraced social media are experiencing enhanced SEO marketing. Social media creates natural backlinks when users on sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, share your site and information with others. The key is to post consistently, post value driven content and stay active in conversations.

· Keyword Loaded Domain Names – It’s best to keep your domain name focused on your company name or brand name. Adding keywords to your domain name does not typically provide any SEO support, not anymore anyway. It is the other SEO marketing activities that will promote you and help in achieving higher search rankings.

· Mobile is the same as Desktop – Mobile searching is key for local SEO marketing. The majority of searches completed on a mobile device, are performed for local services and products. Making sure that your website is ideal for mobile devices can impact your rankings. If you have not considered a mobile platform for your business, you should.

· Content is not relevant – It was once thought that link building was the only way to build successful SEO, however, with the changes in Google’s algorithms, writing compelling content is becoming the preferred method in SEO marketing. As discussed above, link building is still relevant, however, investing in value-driven content for webpages, blog posts and more, will bring more quality links and leads to you and your website.

· Local Pages are not needed – At the very least you definitely need to have your city and state listed on your website to be included in local searches. Title tags, on-page citations and links should all clearly state where you are located. However, if you really want to boost your local SEO searches, create a separate local landing page for each niche of your business. These local landing pages will place you higher in local searches.

· All I need is basic SEO to rank at the top of Google Local – You should know your local competition. If your industry is saturated with businesses such as yours, you may find it difficult to rank near the top of local searches, though not impossible. You will need to invest a great deal in multiple SEO approaches, consistently, to promote your business to new customers and increase your local search ranking.

· Photos and/or Video are not important – Multimedia can be beneficial in increasing your local search ranking. Images and videos often show in Google searches as blended displays, therefore, these multimedia pieces can provide additional opportunities to get your business found. If you feel that there is no way to implement photos or videos into your business marketing, think again. Use your imagination – videos of processes, photos of company events or other local events related to your service or product, all make great marketing pieces.

· Microsite and other domains I own will help my SEO – there is no real value in spreading your SEO thin. Search engines today are smart enough to know who a domain name is registered to and setting up multiple domains and sites does not build your primary domain, but dilutes it. Furthermore, many businesses have been penalized by Google for having microsites that have duplicate content. Concentrate on building your primary website!

There are many SEO marketing strategies, some that were once considered mainstream. It’s difficult for a business owner to keep up with constantly evolving SEO strategies and practices. However, knowing which are the myths and which are not can help you to make more effective decisions with your SEO marketing campaigns.

Whether you hire a professional to help you with your SEO marketing or you do it yourself, you should understand that SEO is about the overall experience for the user or searcher. Take that into consideration, and you’ll generate more leads and sales online.

About Chris Leadley

Chris is a leading Direct Response Marketing Consultant specialising in Facebook Ads, Google Adwords and Email Marketing. He has helped hundreds of small businesses owners all over the world get new business with his online marketing workshops and private consulting. Chris works with small business owners to plan and carry out marketing strategies that are designed to get you in front of your customers and generate enquiries quickly.

Chris can help with your marketing in the following ways:

Private Consulting, One-to-One Training, One-to-One Strategy Sessions.