|
|||||
| Part 2: Riding The Long Tail |
|
1) You have a list of short one and two phrase keywords that relate to your product or service. (at least the one’s you think are related) 2) You have done a little research online, trying to find a couple keyword phrases that have the “long tail” we are looking for Ok, that’s a great start so let’s dive deeper. The whole goal in this process is to find the pockets of online searches for content that are less competitive and you can compete with right out of the gate. So now that we have our short one and two word phrases we can start getting a list of our “long tail” keywords to attack. Step #1: Use The Google Keyword Tool The most extensive tool I’ve found with data from “actual” searches is from Google. Of course, seems pretty straight forward. I am going to encourage you right now to go open a Google Adwords account. Go to www.adwords.com and sign up. Don’t setup any campaigns, just get an account so we can use the keyword tool. We will move on to Pay Per Click advertising this coming month. Of which, the long tail keywords will help you. If you don’t want to sign up for an Adwords account, you can use their free Keyword Tool The process will be pretty much the same. So all you are going to do is take the one and two phrase keywords you came up with in part 1 and start plugging them in to the tool. What I usually do is keep a spreadsheet that outlines the “main” keyword, then I branch off to the long tail keywords in a separate column. This spreadsheet will act as your main keyword list for many online marketing efforts so don’t lose it. Repeat the process, until you have a good solid list of about 50 long tail keywords. Remember these are phrases that are typically 3 or more words in combination like “lead generation consultant Seattle, WA”. Or, “marketing consultant Seattle WA”. Step #2 – Competitive Research So now that we have our list of long tail phrases, it’s time to isolate the competition. I am going to give you the free, cheap and dirty route. There are tools that help automate this further but this method works well for just getting started. The first step is to open up Google. Then, I want you to type each keyword in quotes and do a search. In your spreadsheet, I want you to write down the top 3 domains that are ranked 1,2, and 3. Then I want you to write down the number of competing pages. This is important because it will tell you where you will be able to compete quickly for traffic online. Ok…take a breath. I know, this is a lot but if you want to get good at online marketing you have to go through the process. So, now that we have the domain names of the top 3 for each search phrase, I want you to visit these sites. We are now going to do a little online “espionage”. When you visit their page, I want you to go to web browser and go to VIEW then SOURCE. You will see a page that is a bunch of programming code that makes the website. What we are interested in is everything at the top of the page between the <META NAME=”keywords” > These are all the keywords that your competitor is optimizing their website for. So what you are going to do is add any to your list that you didn’t have already. If you focus on your top 5-10 keywords with your process, you will be miles ahead of many in your market. So go ahead and take some time and do your research. In the next series, I am going to give you some additional ammo on how to use your list of keywords. As a starter, you will start seeing trends develop in the keywords and phrases. Start outlining those and start including them in your Blog content, in your articles, and other Social Media posts. You will even want to use these keywords in your digital real estate. This includes images, audio, and video… Have a prosperous week! Cheers, Matt |
| Part 1: Riding The Long Tail (sounds fun eh?) |
|
Yes, “Long Tail” is a marketing term for those of you that aren’t happenin’ marketing folks…:) If you are a small business, you need to be riding the “long tail” in all of your online marketing. Why is it important? Here’s why… See Al Gore invented the Internet some time ago (joke), and I think you will agree it is a pretty competitive place these days. To compete (especially when you are getting started online) with your blog or website you need to compete in a smaller pond so to speak. So, here’s where the long tail comes in… If I optimize my website for the term “Marketing Consultant” I am competing with potentially millions of sites with years of history. Not that I am not going to try of course, but it will take me some time. That is a great long term goal, but like you I want leads NOW dang it! So, here’s how you can win in that game. Leverage the long tail. Optimize your site for a term like “Marketing Consultant Tampa, FL” for instance. Or even get more specific, and use a keyword like “Marketing and Branding Consultant Tampa Bay” for instance. Here’s a good way to do a little research. Go into Google and put your keywords in quotes. See my example below. You will notice there are only 12,300 competing sites. Now we are on to something here…
So…When you are optimizing all of your online digital assets you need to be leveraging the long tail. This includes images, video, audio and of course your blog posts. So how do I do that you ask? Well, in part 2 we are going to dive into that deeper and go into long tail research for your small business. Start by writing down all of the top level phrases related to your service, product, or industry. These are usually one or two word phrases or keywords that are commonly used by your prospects when searching for your product or service. Start there, and you will be ready for part 2… Now…Get back to work and Target, Attack, and Profit! To Your Success,
|
| Marketing Tip: Market Research Using Yelp |
|
The beauty of Yelp.com and other social search websites is that you can read real authentic reviews from prospects just like yours. Why is that important you say? Well, first off you can find out potentially what customers are saying about your competitors. Do a search and find out. If you can’t find your competitors, search lateral markets and get a sense of what consumers like and dislike. If you find that your competitor is getting beat up for always being late, guess what…You may want to focus on responsiveness and timeliness. If you are a plumber, and the complaints are about leaving messes to clean up. Guess what…Again, focus on how your crew is the cleanest in town. By all means don’t just go out there saying you do stuff and don’t actually follow through. If you have to tweak your operations first, it may be required. But you get my point…Here’s the real nugget. What I want you to do is start searching using keywords from your industry. Open up a text editor on your computer and start reading, copying and pasting the comments and reviews from Yelp or other Social Search sites. After you have compiled a good set of information, (both good and bad reviews) you are ready to dive a little deeper. Make a list of the things they like and dislike. If Bob the landscaper is always on time, note down timeliness. But more importantly, highlight the EXACT phrase they use to describe what they like or don’t like. This is the nugget. When you are marketing to your suspects and prospects you need to use THEIR language to describe their problem and the solution. NOT your words. Yelp and other sites are perfect for this because you can literally use the words right out of their mouth to create your headlines, blog copy, direct mail, and even email campaigns. With the power of Social Media, you have enough market research ammo in Yelp alone to keep you busy for a bit. So get out there and…Target, Attack, and Profit! Cheers, Matt |
| Part 2: Put Your Marketing On Auto-Pilot |
|
If you haven’t read Part 1 of this post from yesterday STOP, don’t pass go read it now before you proceed… RECAP: 1) We have a high level list of follow-up sequences organized by product, service, and target market. 2) We prioritized our list, and focused on ONE and only ONE follow-up sequence that will give us the most bang for the buck. 3) We started our automated marketing system by creating our specific content for each step in our follow sequence. Whether it was an email, post card, newsletter, or other tactic…You sat down and focused on the specific call to action, and you created a message that was consistent throughout the entire campaign. Here’s where it gets fun…Now we get to leverage technology. If you don’t have a CRM system right now, you need one. If you are using a CRM system now, you can bolt on any of the tools I am going to mention below and enhance your existing process. It will be a little more sticky as you will have data in two places (which isn’t recommended, but ultimately up to you). Many of the new tools are built to handle your automated follow-up sequences that let you create a series of steps that can be executed in sequence. Here’s an example of a simple campaign: 1) User visits your website 2) They sign up for your newsletter 3) Immediately they receive a welcome email with the first newsletter 4) The software sends a request to your printer or mail-house and sends them a thank you postcard 5) Monthly they now receive your newsletter Now this is just one example, and you can get pretty sophisticated. As you can see, all of that happened without my intervention. It is CRITICAL that you are careful in the “blueprint” phase in creating a rock solid sequence. Remember this is going to happen “auto-magically”. The power is infinite if you follow the process. Here are a couple systems I am fond of: Infusionsoft – A little more expensive but well worth it in the long run. It handles email, fax, voice broadcast, and direct mail. Ace of Sales - A rising star in my book. It is only $20 per month and let’s you do email, eZine’s, direct mail, and postcards. Very simple, and powerful. Great for smaller businesses. SendPepper – Very simple as well, handles email and postcards. Remember, take your time and hammer out one sequence at a time. After you have a few sequences in place, loop back and start adding additional steps. In many cases you will find that you can loop prospects and customers from one sequence to another, winding them through your maze of offers while you maximize your marketing dollars and increase your profits! Hopefully you found this helpful! If I can help you, let me know… Cheers, Matt |
| Part 1: Put Your Marketing On Auto-Pilot |
|
Ok, we can’t automate 100% of your system, but we are going to automate a key piece which is your closed loop follow-up sequences with prospects. The same system will apply to touching customers on a monthly basis as well. Done right, you should have a marketing system and plan that puts many of your follow-up communications with prospects on complete Auto-Pilot. It really isn’t as hard as you think, but it will take some heavy up front planning… Let’s dive in… Warning: If you don’t know who you ideal client is, this might be a little tough but still doable. We are going to break this into three (3) steps as we get you on your way towards a marketing automation. Step # 1 – Build Your Blueprint – So, just as every good system and building starts with a solid blueprint so must your automated marketing system. If you don’t understand and map out your follow-up sequences outside of your system you will be looking at a blank screen when it comes to building the system. So…what I want you to do is write down the steps one by one of each follow-up sequence by product, service, and target. I would separate your follow-up to prospects and customers as two separate channels. At first, we are going to create one sequence for each just to get rolling. Under each one, I want you to create a step by step list of how your follow-up sequence should look including time frames. Forget about how you are going to do this for now. The follow-up should include newsletters, email, direct mail, postcards, phone calls, and basically any other communication method you use to follow-up with prospects and customers. Keep it simple and just write out step by step. Then, attach a time frame between each activity. So for example, I may start with a Thank You card follow-up after a purchase. Then 3 days later, I follow-up with an email thanking my new client with a promotion. So now you should have a list of steps for each follow-up sequence with time frames of when you will follow-up. Are you tracking so far… Step # 2 – Prioritize and Dive Deep – Now that we have our high level list of follow-up sequences, it is time to select ONE and ONLY one to focus our efforts on. Often, I find small business owners take on too much at once and never complete one automated sequence let alone 10. So, pick one and let’s focus on that one for now. Choose an automated sequence that has the opportunity to provide you immediate revenue. My recommendation is to start with an automated sequence that starts immediately after a customer makes a purchase. It is proven that customers that have just made a purchase are more likely to be consistent with their prior action and make another purchase. No that you have selected the ONE automated sequence you are going to focus on, let’s dive a little deeper. Now what I want you to is take all of the steps listed from Step #1 and outline the message for each step and focus on the offer. What is the offer and call to action for each step of the sequence. I want you to write this down next to each step. Message with an offer and your call to action. Is this a phone call, visit a website, what do you want them to do? I see too many businesses that put follow-up sequences in place with no objective or goal with each communication. WHAT A WASTE! Step # 3 – Build The System – Ok, we have our high level step by step follow-up sequence defined. We have a high level message and call to action. Now it is time to create each step. This includes writing the email, the thank you card, the phone script. Remember your call to action? The key here is to make it flow. Build from one message to the next on your desired action for the prospect. Build demand with each message and give them a reason why… Tear apart each step and get tactical and create each message as it exists in a sequence, one leading to another. I promise if you go through this exercise, you will be looking at your follow-up in a whole new light. Getting tactical vs. one off promotions. Remember…only focus on one right now. Tomorrow I am going to dive deeper into Part 2 which is automating the system further. Do the work above so you are ready to put your system in place… Now go…Target, Attack, and Profit!
|
| 3 Tips To Jumpstart Your Referral Engine |
|
If you are like most small business owners I speak with, one of their primary sources of leads is word-of-mouth and referrals. After studying the main differences in those businesses that excel at word-of-mouth, I have come up with some conclusions that will more than likely help you business as well. Here are three (3) tips to Jumpstart your referral engine: Tip # 1 – Expect Referrals – If you do such an insanely good job for your clients, why wouldn’t you expect them to refer you? I am shocked how little business owners ask for a referral. If you start expecting referrals as a component of doing business with you, I think you will be surprised with the results. A little “law of attraction” never hurts. Tip # 2 – Create A Referral System – I think one problem we all run into is that we don’t integrate referrals into our overall marketing and sales process. This includes making statements like, “My job is to make you so excited about the job I did, that you will refer 3 others that need my product or service”. Or, you may have an ongoing internal marketing campaign highlighting recent work you did, then ask if they know of any others that might need your assistance as well. If you don’t ask, you won’t receive. Your clients are busy. Many times it takes a gentle nudge to remind them you exist and how you can assist others. Tip # 3 – Give First! – One powerful referral tactic is to focus on being the “connector”. If you aren’t part of an existing networking group, start your own database of those you can refer business. When you find a prospect or client that needs another businesses product or service give a referral. By taking the first step and referring business, you will build good will and reciprocity when the opportunity arrives to refer you business. You can also use this technique if you desire a relationship with a potential partner. Seek out opportunities for THEM, then open the conversation talking about how you can help them with their efforts FIRST. Then, start building the relationship to feed your referral engine. Have a great weekend! Go Target, Attack, and Profit! ~Matt |
| Less Marketing = More Leads (really?) |
|
As Americans we like to subscribe to the theory of bigger is better, but that isn’t always true when it comes to marketing. Especially today, in the age of Social Media and total transparency. You can’t just hit a button and SPAM someone with 50 Tweets, or 10 emails in a week and expect the leads and sales to roll in. It just doesn’t work that way. I see this time and time again. The tools are so efficient, that is is almost TOO EASY to post the comment, send the email, blast the Tweets, and business owners forget about the best interest of their prospect. They only think of their own need, before putting their prospects and their needs first. Where less is actually more… What if, you actually gave your best stuff away. All your secrets, pulled out all the stops and just gave it away. This is often referred to as moving the “Free Line”. Basically to say that when marketing to your ideal client, you should be giving them the best content you have. Help them solve their biggest and hairiest problem. Maybe it through an email, your blog, or maybe you crank a quick video out. But help them solve their biggest problem related to your product or service, or your industry. Wait a second, that’s my “secret sauce” you say… I know, it seems counterintuive but that’s hwo you build trust. You want your ideal client to say Holy Cow, if they are GIVING this kind of content away, I wonder what it would be like to be a client. And that’s where you build your authority and position yourself as an expert. So, back to less marketing… Don’t stop marketing, but make sure every interaction, post, and piece of content is the best stuff you have. Do a quick inventory of all the marketing you do and make sure it solves a problem. One key warning sign is if all of your marketing talks about YOU and not your prospect. Go Target, Attack, and Profit! ~Matt |
| 3 Tips To Kick Start Your Blog |
|
Do you sit down and stare at your blog admin panel not sure where to start? Or, do you delay and procrastinate writing your blog because you just can’t come up with any original idea? Let me give you a few tips to kick start the process, and hopefully make it a little easier to come up with content ideas for your blog. Here are the three (3) tips: 1) Search.Twitter.com – If you haven’t used Search Twitter, you are missing out on a whole list of potential topics for your blog. Here’s what I want you to do…go to search Twitter and enter keywords related to your product or service. Spend about 15-30 minutes and start looking for problems people are having related to your product or service. Start writing down ideas by reading their short posts as the start of your list. You will start seeing a trend. More than likely you will come across several “authorities” on your subject matter expertise. I suggest you start following them to get consistent ideas for your blog. 2) Yahoo Answers – This is a secret weapon if you use it right. Go to answers.yahoo.com and start entering keywords related to your product or service. For instance if I was a Piano teacher, I might enter “learn piano”. You need to think the way your prospects think. What would they search for? Enter these keywords. You will start seeing questions and answers to solutions related to your product or service. If you spend 30 minutes on Yahoo Answers I guarantee you will have enough blog post ideas for 1-2 months. Stay focused, and think like your ideal client. 3) Go Digging – At this point, you should be up to a couple months of content. When you combine these methods on a monthly basis, you shouldn’t have any excuse to procrastinate in keeping your blog current. Remember, your Blog is a powerful way to get prospects to know, like, and trust you. Get out there and… Target, Attack, and Profit!
|
| The Social Media “Time Vampires” |
|
More than likely you are experiencing them every single day. As Social Media proliferates as a social marketing tool, I see more and more business owners getting frustrated. Is this you? Many business owners jump into the Social Media fray then stop their efforts because they aren’t seeing results. Worse yet, Social Media and Social Marketing become a “time vampire” for them. Sometimes taking time away from marketing efforts that were working well for them. Here are a couple things you need to do now to prevent the social media time vampires from affecting you: 1) Your Objective - Before you start Tweeting and Blogging, start with an objective. What do you want your prospects to do? Are you trying to build your list? Or, are you trying to use a one step sales process and sell your prospect immediately. If it is the latter, I would suggest a two step process if you are moving them from Social Media to your website or blog. Bottom line, get clear on what you want to accomplish. 2) Work In Blocks – Carve time out each day and use automation tools like HootSuite.com and Word Press to create and pre-schedule content. Working in blocks of time with an objective will allow you to leverage your time and not get sucked into real time chats and the infamous Facebook wall. Focus on creating relevant content based on your objective, but have a purpose. 3) Be Consistent – Remember in any marketing effort, it is a marathon not a sprint. Don’t blog twice then quit. It will take a time to build a following, but you need to consistently take action and post relevant content and build a layer at a time. Speak to your prospects about solutions, and get them on your list to build more trust. Go Target, Attack, and Profit!
|
| Online Advertising: Facebook vs. Adwords |
|
As the battle for online advertising heats up, I have had several small business owners ask me if they should be using Adwords or Facebook PPC. What should you be using of Pay Per Click? The short answer is, it depends… I would say that while Facebook is fairly young in terms of the PPC game, they are a very viable player. In the testing that I am doing now, I am seeing some promising results. Here are a couple reasons I would consider Facebook ads over Adwords: 1) Less Expensive – Facebook ads are costing me less per click than my Adwords accounts that I manage for clients. 2) Laser Targeted – With Facebooks 380+ million user base, they have much deeper and more relevant demographic data than Google does. I can actually target the users age, gender, and geographic location much easier than on Adwords. With Adwords I can’t always tell by just the context of keywords that were used. 3) No Slaps – So far, I haven’t seen the same wrath that I have experienced in the path from Google. It seems to be more user friendly with less restrictions for landing page content etc..I imagine that will change over time, but so far so good. The bottom line is that as a small business owner I would for sure give it a shot. The same principles still apply for Facebook Ads for the most part. The biggest benefit is the ability to filter your ads for the exact audience.This ultimately save money as you have a higher conversion and a lower acquisition cost than Adwords. If you dive into the Facebook PPC system and you have questions let me know. Would love to help! Cheers, Matt 
Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing Consultant Seattle, Pay Per Click Marketing | 
Tags: Facebook Ads, Pay Per Click, PPC | No Comments »
|
|
|
||
