The 7 Perils of Pay-Per-Click Companies

Recently I have been meeting with a lot of companies about Pay-Per-Click (PPC), and none of them seem to be happy with their PPC provider. I have heard of and seen atrocious campaign management, lack of thought put into phrase selection and too many PPC campaigns sending a potential customer to the homepage of a website.

Here are some of the most frequent complaints and warning signs you should be aware of when considering a PPC provider or reviewing your current PPC provider.

  1. Running on Autopilot – While technology is fantastic and can do many things, it can’t do everything. Sometimes human brain power is just better. For example, I’m writing this as I fly home from Memphis, Tennessee. Now since we have hit cruising altitude of 37,000 ft, I’m sure the pilots have set the plane on autopilot and that’s great—the plane is set on course, and that gives the pilots a break. But when the time comes to perform and land the plane, autopilot just won’t cut it, it’s time for the experienced pilot to take the controls and land the plane safely. The same holds true online. Your PPC campaign should be monitored by a human. Landing pages (just like landing the plane) should be done by an experienced person, You don’t want your landing pages just pointing to your homepage. That’s probably not the most cost effective way to spend your PPC budget.
  2. You Never Talk to or See the Sales Rep – Notice that I said “Sales Rep” if the person who you are dealing with is just a sales rep then that is exactly who you are going to get. A sales rep whose main concern is selling you something. Too many companies are outsourcing or using software to run your campaign. There is no magic Pay-Per-Click machine out there that automagically creates the perfect campaign and brings customers to you. If there were, everyone would use it and the economy would turn around and we would all live happily ever after!
  3. Bidding on Your Name is Branding – If you hear this turn and run!!! Run fast and never look back.  Look, if people are searching for your name, they already know who you are, and that means your other advertising, marketing and branding has worked, so you don’t have to pay for it again. Secondly, you should come up in the natural (organic) search results for your unique name. You don’t need to brand people who already know you, you have already branded them.  Move on and convert  them to customers.
  4. Local Search is the Wave of the Future – Local search…more like searching locally is, and has been here for quite a while. Most people are not turning to local directories to start their search for things to do or services they may need  in their area. They are still going to Google, Yahoo, and MSN and searching locallythen adding, “Chinese food in Branson” or “Electricians in Branson, MO” to get that local search.  Most people are NOT going to Local.com or the YellowPages. Be wary of the deals that local search directories offer on their PPC services, they usually give you a deal if you pay for a listing in their directory they will give you a deal on the PPC Service. Being in their directory is suggested but not using their PPC services.
  5. Not Reporting on Conversions – I was recently given a report by another PPC company and they spoke nothing of actual conversions, visitors clicked on an ad and then filled out a form or called a unique phone number. The report had lots of pretty pie charts and spoke about the new search engine BING. Who cares! How many people actually did something from the PPC campaign? Ultimately, you need to know if you are making money or losing money on their PPC campaign dollars.
  6. You Came Up with the Keyphrase List – This one just blows my mind. If your PPC company asks you for your keyphrase list, they obviously aren’t doing their job. They are supposed to be helping you! Sure they can ask you for your OPINION, but the bottom line is, they should be doing research to identify what people are actually searching for online and develop a list of phrases for you, then, work with you to identify phrases that may or may not fit your product or service.  Then they should be testing measuring and changing the campaign as time progresses.
  7. They Don’t Test and Measure – To my last point! The obvious answer isn’t always the best one or the one that converts the best. This is why you have to test and measure. In no other medium can you be so precise in your testing and measuring, you can know exactly how much each ad drives in revenue for you if you do your analytics correctly.

If you see any of these warning signs or have had any of these complaints about your PPC company, then you are wasting valuable marketing dollars by not taking a proper look at who is providing your PPC campaign. PPC is an extremely powerful method of driving new customers to you. Don’t blow it.

Pay attention to your Pay-Per-Click Campaign!

5 Steps to QR Code Marketing Success

What is the QR code

QR stands for quick response so a quick response code is one of those postage stamp looking codes you seem to see all over the place recently.  Simply scan it with your phone and it takes you to place on the web.

QR codes have been around for years, on the back of most of our licenses we have small QR codes. They hold a lot more information inside them, so our license holds a lot more information about who we are instead of just a linear or 1D UPC code.

So why are they also becoming popular?

With the advent of smart phones and people putting cameras into smart phones suddenly the general public is able to read information that you would’ve needed an optical scanner in order to use, which most people don’t have. Now with a smart phone, you scan the code and it brings you to a website. Sometimes you need a few technologies to come together in order to make something mainstream.

Most people are just at the early stages of QR code marketing so what people are mainly using it for right now is to send people to a website. You typically see these in newspapers, or on postcards, mailers and up on billboards.

A big industry that is taking interest in this is actually the vending industry. They need to present nutritional and allergy information to consumers before they purchase products. Some vending machines can have many different products stocked so keeping a nutrition guide is not an alternative since the products are always changing. Now they can have a list of items with a QR code next to each, then the consumer can easily scan before they buy to get all the facts.

How are Businesses Using QR Codes in Marketing

Most businesses at this point are using simple techniques, sending people to a website or a coupon. So you see a QR code inside of an advertisement you scan the code with

your smart phone and it takes you to their website. That’s a great start but putting some marketing strategies behind it we can start to accomplish more and get more out of the promotion.

While it’s very easy to setup a QR code the first mistake most people make is using the free QR code generator. The free versions have an expiration on them, so if you plan to use them over any period of time, us a QR Code generating service. This will also allow for metrics, also crucial in any marketing campaign.

Strategic QR Code Marketing

Business owners need to become a bit more sophisticated about how they use QR codes.  Gathering intelligence and marketing effectively will make QR Code campaigns generate more business. Here are the 5 Steps to a Successful QR Code Marketing Strategy.

Define your Goal

In anything you do always start with the end in mind, so unless you know what your goal ultimately is when somebody scanned the QR code, think about what you actually want them to do. Do you want them to subscribe to your mailing list, do you want them to get a coupon, do you want them to download an app, fill out a form, buy something, get information…what do you want them to do?

Develop your Offer

Now that you know what you want them to do, how are you going to get them to do it? Is this going on a printed piece will this be on car magnets, where is this actually going, how are you going to reach your audience? Once you do that, what’s going to get them to actually scan the code? Unless you tell them what to do next nobody’s going to do it. Yes these QR codes are popular but you still have to have a strong call to action. Ie. Scan this code to get a 25% OFF Coupon NOW.

Design your Funnel

In order to design your funnel you have to have a website and the QR code generator. You’ll need to get the QR code in front of your audience so promoting the QR code you’ll need to you need a strong offer to get people to scan the QR code then you’ll need to drive them to a website and a way to capture their information. This should not be a one transaction deal, getting that person on your e-mail list is worth more than a one-time transaction so you’re able to market to them time and time again.

Test

Once you have your funnel set up your going to actually need to test if it works properly. That will include asking people with different types of phones to check browser compatability and that the process works seamlessly.

Measure

The final two pieces, test and measure go hand-in-hand, when you test something out you not only test that the funnel actually worked, but you will also test the offer and the landing page. You want to be sure to be capturing peoples name and email for future marketing. Measure response rates, opt in rates and how many new customers you develop from the campaign.

With these 5 Steps you can be sure to be successful with any QR Code Marketing you take on.

The Lost Book of Social Media

Leverage the Power of Facebook…Get More Followers on Twitter…Influence More People on YouTube!

Too many people jump on the social media bandwagon and instantly barrage you with sales messages, and advertisements. They think that Twitter and Facebook are advertising platforms, they’re NOT! They are a place where people go to make connections and find like-minded people ultimately, to build relationships with those people.

People in general do not go online to look for ads… unless of course, it’s a hysterical commercial from the Super Bowl.

When you first meet a person do you immediately jump into explaining what you do and talking about the services or products they can buy from you? Of Corse NOT…or at least I hope not! You would look like a jerk.

There are thousands of so called Social Media Experts out there, all preaching how to get 19,523 followers in one week, but what they all seem to be missing is the relationship side of social media. They seem to be taking the direct marketing approach to social media, and sure you can get a certain number of customers doing this, but you will not build loyal customers.

Here are the real facts; people buy from people they KNOW, LIKE and TRUST. The big question is how do you accomplish that when you have never met the person face to face? Think about it, how many times have you seen a person and then met with them before you felt you knew, liked and, most importantly, trusted them? It takes a while, right? So why do we lose this thought process online?

The only “guru” you truly need to follow is a guy that was born in 1888…yes that would make him over 121 years old. And he wrote a little book out there that I am re-naming, “The Lost Book on Social Media”. This book covers everything you need to know about making better connections on Facebook, gaining more followers on Twitter and how to win with YouTube.  The crazy part about this book is that it was written over 70 years ago, well before social networking, the internet, and even before the first real television broadcast of the 1936 Olympic Games of Berlin.

The book I’m referring to is Dale Carnegie’s classic, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.

This classic, read by millions of people is the official guide to Social Media. You can get it on Amazon, or in Barnes & Noble, go out and get a copy now.

Some of the highlights that you can use in Social Media immediately are principals like, “Give Honest and Sincere Appreciation,” “Become Genuinely Interested in Other People,” and my favorite, “Smile.” These are just three of the principles outlined in the book but are truly at the heart of social media, it is about building relationships, not about blasting out your advertisement.

Maybe I should start a series called  “How to Win Followers and Influence Tweeple.”