I’ve been clicking through the google adwords for a recent project and every 10th ad or so 
I run into the same problem. I see an ad I like. I click on it to view the service providers’ website and get a not found page.
How dumb is that? People paying for clicks on their google ads and then losing their prospects by Read More »
How can you tell what’s missing from your marketing, and how do you fix it? What’s the secret to attracting more visitors and converting them into buyers?
Find the answer in this week’s article on web marketing >>
Charlie
Small Business Web Marketing Ideas That Get Results
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Do Google Adwords work?
The answer is yes and no. Google’s elegant Adwords system makes it easy to set up and test ads but most web site owners never make a profit from their ads. For most people Google Adwords are the number one website marketing money waster.
Why?
Once a prospect clicks on your Google Adwords ad, they’re linked to your site. Then what happens? In most cases a whole lot of nothing. They visit your site or your landing page and then they leave. They leave without buying anything or even leaving you their contact information.
The result of your Google Adwords campaign? For most people, it’s another advertising black hole. A whole lot of money goes into it and it doesn’t generate much in the way of business. That’s not to say it can’t work.
I have one web site marketing client that relies primarily on Google Adwords to generate leads and sales. And their business is booming. But it costs them plenty, more than most people realize to generate a lead. When I first started working with them their per lead cost was over $75 dollars.
That’s right they were paying for more than $75 worth of Google Ads just to get one person to fill in their opt-in form on their site. Now, they’re absolutely delighted that I’ve helped them reduce it to less than $25 per lead. Why does this work for them? Google Adwords works for them because they close enough of their leads to make a huge profit.
Will Google Adwords work for you? To make them work you need to determine your per lead costs, conversion rates and the value of a new client. If it’s less then you’re paying for your Google Ads, then you need to either stop or discover how to increase your conversion rates so a higher percent of visitors to your site or landing page become buyers.
Don’t be hoodwinked by this website marketing hoax. Don’t assume Google Ads will automatically start bringing in business. They won’t – unless you know how to convert site visitors into highly profitable clients.
– Charlie Cook
Web Site Marketing That Gets Results
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If you have a blog and are regularly writing posts you want your efforts to generate results. Right? How can you tell if your blog is working?
A well planned and well written blog should do the following for your small business marketing. It should generate:
– Interest in your products and services
– Position you as the expert
– Familiarity and trust
– Virtual relationships with prospects
– Qualified leads
– Sales
If your blog isn’t doing this for your business – your missing some of the basic steps involved in using your blog to enhance your small business marketing. First start by writing about topics that wil attract your prospects like a magnet. Then give them straight no B.S. advice that they can take to the bank.
Do this and they’ll want to read every blog post and they’ll subscribe to your blog RSS feed and you’ll have their attention and their loyalty – two big steps towards converting them to customers and clients.
– Charlie
Small Business Marketing That Generates Sales
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Why should you take a few minutes a day to write a blog and will it help you market your business?
Take a look at your marketing materials. Do they grab your prospects’ attention and make then laugh or cry? On the scale of dry and boring versus engaging and entertaining an insurance application form would be on the dry and boring side and what one of your impassioned colleagues shouts when he is throwing his coffee cup across the room is on the engaging and entertaining end of the spectrum.
The norm around marketing is that it’s supposed to be dry and “professional”. The result is that most small business marketing is boring as dirt. With blogs, the norm is still being defined. It’s acceptable to include opinions, rants, ideas, commentary and personal stories. The result, many blogs are attention grabbers, interesting and fun to read.
Blogs provide an accepted vehicle for you to make your marketing more personal, more direct and let people see your ideas and personality. Of course you might want to keep your wildest ideas and thoughts to yourself.
Why is this type of communication good for business?
Blogs give people and companies a chance to break out of an out-moded boring model of marketing and market and be more engaging, conversational and personal.
Whether you sell to small or large companies, the end buyer is just another person, someone like you. When they get to know you as a person, a person full of ideas, expertise and passion, they’ll be more likely to relate to you and to want to do business with you.
And then there is the added plus, that Blogs are easy to use and you can publish your ideas instantly without having to build or load a new page to your web site.
Want more prospects and clients to know you, trust you, understand how you can help and keep you front of mind?
Start blogging!
– Charlie
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How can you improve your small business marketing with your Google Ad campaign?
Before you rush into spending money on your Google ads, it pays to understand how they work and their purpose in your small business marketing. With the right verbiage you could create an ad that generated hundreds and thousands of click-throughs to your small business. Would that help your small business marketing?
Maybe – maybe not.
It depends on how many of the people who clicked on your Google ad actually turned into small business clients as a result of your marketing.
You could have the world’s greatest Google ad with a click-through rate of 3-5%, but if the people who click on your ad aren’t buyers then you are just wasting your money and lots of it.
To make sure your ads are not only working to attract prospects, but are also working to generate sales do the following once a month.
On a piece of paper list each of your Google ad campaigns. In the next column to the right, list the amount $ you spent on that campaign. Then in the third column over, list the dollar volume of sales directly attributed to that Google ad campaign.
Here’s what you may find out about marketing your small business. Ads that get the most clicks and bring the most people to your web site aren’t necessarily those that generate the most sales. Other ads that have a lower click-through rate may bring in more bonafide clients. Based on your monthly data analysis you’ll discover which ad campaigns to cut and which to spend more on, resulting in more sales.
Create a monthly advertising ROI spread sheet and you can use the data to improve your small business marketing and see your sales soar. Find out how with this link >>
– Charlie Cook
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“I have a client who is generating lots of business from the top placement of his listings under his keywords in the search engines. Is this a risky strategy or should he be looking at pay-per-click advertising?” – M. Anderson, KPMG
Given the vagaries of the search engine algorithms and the volatile nature of the search engine marketplace I’d advise your client to develop multiple ways to generate leads over the internet. He could be doing very well with his Google search engine placement this year, but if Microsoft has their way, they’ll be putting Google out of business and his search engine placements could be irrelevant.
Even if his current listings continue to do well, why not invest in pay-per-click advertising and generate 30% more leads and business? – Charlie Cook
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“I would like to set up an email direct marketing campaign to generate mortgage leads. I want something that will allow the prospect to respond by giving some personal info such as name, phone number, mtg payment, etc. Where do I start? There’s a bulk email company that will blast 2.7 million email a day, but I don’t believe the prospects can respond. I would need a link to my website I think. Am I on the right path or would a $29.95 lifetime membership or is it be a waste of time?” – Dante
If you want to annoy and alienate potential clients, you can easily do so by blasting emails out to people who didn’t request them. Its the best way to kill your business and shut the door to ever building a positive relationship with your prospects. This course of action is unethical and will immediately get you labeled as a spammer. Once you’ve started blasting people they will quickly catch on and add your email address to their spam lists blocking any future contact.
Don’t do it! It is a waste of time and money, bad idea, to be avoided at all costs, etc. You catch my drift.
If you want to generate leads and grow your business, build a web site, provide content that helps your prospects solve a problem and month by month you’ll attract more and more people interested in your services. Learn how to improve your web site marketing with “Creating Web Sites That Sell“. – Charlie Cook
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“I’ve had a web site up for years but I’m not getting any leads or sales from it. What am I missing? Can I really expect to earn a living from business generated by my site?” – Chris, Sales Consultant
Marketing online can be frustrating especially if you don’t know know what you need to do to make it work. The first step for most people is to redo their marketing message and the content on their site so it focuses on helping instead of selling. Your prospects want help, not to be sold.
The second essential part of making your site work is structuring it to prompt prospects to contact you. One you know how to do these two things than you’ll need to drive traffic to your site. With enough visitors, you’ll begin to see a flow of inquiries and business. I’ve detailed how to write and structure your site to attract all the clients you can handle in “Creating Web Sites that Sell“.
If you do the above will you instantly be generating millions of dollars from your site? That depends. One company I helped was attracting 6,000 visitors each day to their site. With a few changes to their site they increased lead generation by a huge amount and started closing many more high dollar sales within the first week.
If you’re a small business without a steady stream of traffic to your site it can take months or even a year to build up a steady stream of prospects and buisiness from your site. Of course the sooner you put your site in order, fix your marketing copy and the site structure the sooner you’ll be generating profits from your site. – Charlie Cook
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“Hi Charlie! First off your info is great! By taking your suggestions I stumbled upon blogging as a marketing idea. I use blogger.com also. My blog is named Nashville Real Estate. Blogging is an excellent chance to establish yourself as an authority to create public confidence. How can I get my blog to be noticed more? Again thanks for all the great info!” – uminor
Here are a handful of tips for getting your blog noticed.
1. Include links to your blog on every page of your web site.
2. Mention a couple of your most recent blog posts in your ezine and a link.
3. Submit your blog to all the relevant blog directories.
4. Include your blog url on your business card.
5. Write articles in your area of expertise and include your blog link.
(Hey I should start doing that too.) – Charlie Cook
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