Learning Internet Marketing is a bit like learning how to drive a car.

In order to drive the car you have to learn a number of new skills and then put them all together in a coordinated way to make the journey a smooth and safe one. 

You need to master clutch control, road awareness, develop your judgement, learn the highway code, how to change gear ……. then put it all together.

Internet marketing requires skills in advertising, copywriting, article writing, making videos, culturing relationships, social media ……

One really important skill is learning how to do Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising – why? 

Well get this wrong and it will empty your bank account and marketing budget faster than you can blink!

So what is PPC – well you know when you goto Google and type in that you are for instance looking for a hairdresser in your local town – then clever Google brings you a page of 'suitable' websites and at the top of the page and down the right hand site will be 'sponsored ads'

The sponsored ads are PPC adverts – so called because the advertiser only pays when someone clicks on the ad.

So how does it work

Well good organisation is the key

Campaigns

So you own a soap making shop which sells soaps, bath truffles, bubble bath, bath oil (like my friends at the Yorkshire Soap Co) …….

You set up 1 campaign per separate item

• Soap
• Bath Truffles …….

Adgroups

Within each campaign you set adgroups so for instance in the 'Soap' campaign you might have

• Soap cakes
• Novelty soaps
• Pink soaps
• Carbolic soap …….

Keywords

Within each adgroup you then need to set keywords so for instance in the 'Soap Cakes' adgroup you might have

• round soap cakes
• square soap cakes
• pink soap cakes ……

Adcopy

You now need to write some killer adcopy to hypnotically draw customers in and to tempt them to spend their money on your products ……..Make sure you give them a good reason to click on the ad.

Budgets

You then need to set your budget (set it as a daily one then you can go into your account and monitor it closely daily) and you need to decide how much per click you are prepared to pay.

You need to work out just what would be profitable for you remembering that just because someone clicks on your ad does not mean they will actually buy your product.

This is why in the beginning it is essential to monitor the account very very closely to work out your ROI as there is no point spending £10 for an average order of £8.

Pay Per Click advertising is a very effective way to advertise but caution is needed until you learn exactly how it is going to work for you and your business model.

Alternatively, you could ask us to help you with this – we are experienced advertisers in Google, Bing and Facebook advertising and offer a unique service to set up and manage your online advertising campaigns so call us now on 07963 054089 to find out how we can get your company right in front of new customers today.

Ok…. so Christmas is gone and the New Year is here so it's time to knuckle down and get to grips with 2012.

It might be that December was frantic and busy and in the midst of all the rush, hype and excitement you forgot (or even just did not get time) to think about just how you were going to approach your marketing in the New Year.

You see once the excitement has died down and everyone gets back into the same old same old routine in January and the visa bills hit you may begin to realise that business might not be just as good as it was.  Competition is fierce and money is getting tighter and just retaining existing customers can be a fight for survival – let alone trying to find any new ones.

So here are a few top marketing tips designed to give you an edge over the others to help to keep you top side of your business…

• Make sure that you have a business plan for the next year and a detailed one for the next 3 months
• Bear in mind that finances will be stretched so think about what can you be offering over and above your normal levels or service and over and above your competition?  Be prepared to go over and above expectations – add value over and above all expectation.
• Have us create a 'You-Vie' or let us show you how to make your own.
• Take a look at what stocks you have as left overs from the festive season – what special offers and sales can you offer from these?
• Could you be offering any new services, extra services, seasonal services, extra value services for January?
• Use direct mail and email to reach out to your customers and thank them for their support in 2011 and wishing them a Happy and prosperous 2012.  Send them a 'special offer' making sure it has a timely expiry date. Remember that regular contact via email is a very cost effective and effective way to keep in touch.
• Create a 'freebie' – it my be in the form of an ebook download, training video, an event ……..
• Consider running a Groupon promotion – take a look at my Groupon post to make sure you get the most out of this
• Create a free training course
• Have a competition with an awesome prize – contact your local paper/radio station to try and get some free editorial publicity.
• Have a FREE marketing consultation with us here at SEO In Leeds – we have plenty of ideas and experience to get you moving to success in 2012.

Groupon?  Whats that?

Groupon is a great place to get cut price deals on meals, massages, present, holidays – you name it and there will be a groupon coupon for it at some time.  In fact I have actually bought quite a lot of Christmas presents via Groupon this year.  If you have not yet bought a cut price deal using Groupon or a similar promotion site then you must have been living in a cave for the last few months.

As a buyer it can be 'bargain paradise'.

However, you only need to read the daily papers to read the 'groupon horror stories' of the sellers who got caught out by the sheer volume of purchasers.  You all must have read the story of the cupcake lady who had over 20,000 cupcakes to bake (how she agreed to sell so many I do not know).

Groupon is a fantastic marketing tool when used correctly but it seems from these articles that a number of small business owners do not simply 'do the sums'.  You have got to view this as a business decision and think it all through very carefully first of all.  If your capacity is for 200 cupcakes per week then make sure you cap it at this.  It is your business and you have to be very very clear about how many cut price deals you can afford to do.

Having run Groupon promotions myself I thought I would share with you a few tips…

Dealing with Groupon….

• Groupon do not want to take over your whole business capacity/output they only want to take up any slack you have in your system after you have served your full price customers.  So…. if for instance you own a beauty salon and you have 10 spare appointments per week (on average) then Groupon want to use these.  They will then multiply this weekly spare capacity by 4 months (16 weeks) or however long the promotion voucher will last for.  This will give a total number of vouchers to be sold.  So, make sure you are sensible and only use spare time to offer and do not be persuaded to go beyond this number.  Remember your full price clients have to come first and you have to be realistic about capacity.

• Do not offer your most 'expensive' treatments especially those that require a lot of product and laundry etc. offer those that are easy to do and just take up your time.

• You only get paid once the client rings to book and you ask for their code so there will always be clients who never book and Groupon get to keep all this money so try and negotiate a better deal than the 50% because you also get charged VAT by Groupon so your 50% is not 50% at all.  They will negotiate for a few more % so make sure you do.

Dealing with bookings …

• When you get the phone calls to book these appointments do not give over all you appointments to just servicing these – again if you have budgeted for 10 Groupon clients per week then set aside10 appointments per week for these.  If people ring up early they get early appointments and if they wait then they will have to wait.  This must not be allowed to take over your full price clients just politely explain that xxx is the first available appointment you can offer them.
  

• Only offer a product/service that you know you will be able to deliver on and try to think of a way to upsell from the original sale.  So for instance if you were offering a facial for the offer then when they ring up to book the appointment offer an upgrade to the luxury facial for £?? or add in a manicure/waxing for £??.  You could even give a discount voucher for another treatment if they return. 

• Do not offer you most time consuming and product heavy treatments or the ones that take lots of clearing up afterwards.  I offer Reflexology as it requires no products other than foot cream and wipes and virtually no clearing up at the end.  So, I have not spent more than I earned and it is just my time.

• Make sure you get email addresses so that you can send newsletters in the future

• Make sure you get the Groupon codes at the time of booking the appointment.  You only get paid once the client calls to book the appointment – it is a myth that you get the money immediately.  If the client does not ring you to redeem the voucher you do not get the money.  It is amazing how many vouchers do not get redeemed at all and Groupon keeps this money.  So get the codes at the time of booking and input them online immediately before the client comes for the appointment so you get paid as soon as possible.  Make sure you make the client aware of your terms and conditions so, if you have a policy of 24 hours notice to change or cancel then make them agree to this at time of booking.  It is surprising how many think cancelling or not even bothering to cancel is acceptable and that they can rebook at a later time.  I have a policy of 24 hours notice or they lose the booking forever – and at least I will have been paid for it having got the code at time of booking.

• Always look for a way to repeat their business at full price and ask when they are there if they would like to rebook.  If you have given great service and a great treatment rebookings should be a cinch.

• Remember also that if you do get caught out and end up overselling your capacity that you have not yet been paid to deliver those treatments so you can always apologise and explain they were oversold and refer them back to Groupon.  You could send a discount voucher as a sweetener.

When used properly Groupon promotions can be a great tool to get new clients and customers but if you are not looking at this through business eyes then it is easy to get sucked in and chewed up.

If you would like some help with assessing what would be a good marketing tool for you to attract new clients then we offer a free Small Business Marketing service – come over here and request a free Marketing Consultation

If you have got any experiences or tips to share then post them as comments at the bottom

]]> http://seo-in-leeds.com/groupon-promotion/feed/ 0 http://seo-in-leeds.com/facebook-and-business/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=facebook-and-business http://seo-in-leeds.com/facebook-and-business/#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:23:19 +0000 seoleeds http://seo-in-leeds.com/?p=1021

Small business owners are waking up to the fact that the marriage of Facebook & business is one made in heaven and it is a hot place to be right now.

Potential customers are easy to track down and identify and are online for an average of 20 minutes per day.

So…. all that remains is to get your business/products in front of them on their newsfeed.

The more you can bombard em with your stuff the more likely they are to buy it – and lots of it – right?

NO!

You see most small business owners I see on Facebook have got it wrong, some very wrong!

WHY?

They just constantly bombard everyone with their stuff they are selling – seriously not cool! (gets us mad)

They are using their own personal profile instead of a Facebook Fanpage (gets Facebook mad)

Their mum obviously did not do a very good job at teaching them basic manners and the result of this is…….

Yep, you got it…….. we unsubscribe or unfriend em pronto.

So,  how to do Facebook and business the 'right' way for great success….

Well it really is quite simple and comes down to 2 things……

• Basic manners – stop bombarding people with your stuff 24/7.  If you are just adding stuff to your timeline then it reads as not too interesting and it looks like a cheap online shopping mall.  So stop expecting people to just drop everything when your updates interrupt their social interactions.  Start to give people something that will interest them or be of use to them and interact with them on a human level.   I use blog posts, free ebooks, free small business marketing consultations, videos etc. etc.  Attraction marketing is all about giving before receiving – the more you are prepared to give the more you get back – this works believe you me.

• Get a Facebook Fanpage which is an official Facebook business page (yes, it is free) – you can set it up like a real website and there are hundreds of apps you can add to make it really fun.

I made a short video showing you more about fanpages just take 5 minutes to watch it below – then take 2 minutes to leave me some comments and tell me of any experiences you have found frustrating or maddening using FB

Social Media Marketing is a skill to be mastered as talked about in the previous post.

You see you cannot sell to people if 1 vital ingredient is missing

This ingredient is so vital that it has not got to be overlooked at any cost and yet …………. many small business owners totally overlook this when trying to use Social Media for marketing.

Any ideas?

Well it quite simply is 'Trust'

People want to buy from someone the trust not a dodgy geezer

If people do not trust you then they sure as heck are not going to buy anything from you.

People buy from those who they trust – period.

Social Media makes you highly visible and makes it very easy for people to see you, listen to you and decide if they like YOU.

First impressions count

You see Social Media is not about hiding away anonymously behind a business web site, it is about sharing your personality and making yourself look credible, respectable and above all trust worthy then building relationships on this.

So next time you are updating your Facebook page just think for one moment what is the image you are projecting out into the world and ask yourself – 'would you buy from yourself, would you trust yourself?'

And….

If the answer is no, then you better do something about it quickly if you want to be successful online.

Tell us what you think and leave some comments below – how important do you think trust is to the success of your online business?

You see, google is a living breathing very dynamic organism that is is a state of constant change and he we interact and use it changes too.

Unless you have been living in a cave for the last few years you will know that social media (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube et al) now play a prominent role in many peoples lives – in fact with some it appears to take over their lives.

Those of you smart enough too spot this trend will also realise that for business this represents a huge opportunity … why?

Well, just think about it….. if there is a place where hundreds if not thousands of people congregate to 'chat' every day (not only chat but to hang around for a big part of the day) then this is a good place to be to be creating relationships and making sales – agree?

Now, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about this process and if you want long term success then you need to think carefully about how you do this.

You see, if you goto a party and walk into a room full of strangers then do you just walk right up to people and hand them your business card and take out your order book?

Nope – not unless you want an immediate brush off

No….

You introduce yourself as a person and chat and get to know people.  You interact in an interesting and interested way and 'give something'.  When people get to know and like you then they begin to trust you and it is then and only then that they are likely to do business with you.

No one wants to buy from a dork with no social skills who is only interested in selling to them!

So, stop the pushy sales pitch, make friends with people and take time to give them something useful and valuable without expecting anything at all back in return.

Until tomorrow …………

So, as mastering social media is essential to online business success in 2011 and beyond I decided to rerun a very successful social media mastery video program I ran a while ago.

Day 1 is a short video about mastering the basic core concepts of Social Media ………

Here it is   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EuWcYbAZzo