How to set up wordpress

Posts Tagged ‘Inspiration’

Anyone who has been working on a PPC account for a while- whether it be your own or a client’s- probably reaches a point of inspiration deficiency. A new PPC account can be like a new toy (if you’re not as nerdy as us, as I’m assuming you are, and this does not hold true for you I apologize); it’s fun setting it up and seeing what it does and how the world responds. But after a while, you have other new accounts to play with. Or you don’t, and this is the one account you’ll be handling forevermore. Either way, boredom can lead to neglect, and neglect will eventually damage your account’s profitability. So what to do? Get a little creative and find new ways to improve your accounts:

• Use your colleagues! It really doesn’t matter if they do PPC as well (though that helps)- anyone with familiarity with your product or service can give a new perspective, which can be very helpful when your ad texts all start to look the same and you can’t think of one more benefit for your landing pages. If you do work with other internet marketers, you can take this one step further and ask them to review your accounts for anything you may be overlooking, and for new ideas. This works beautifully and I think you should try it. Aside from actually having coworkers review your accounts, if you have access to theirs, you can also get ideas for settings or account structure changes by looking at what works for them and then applying relevant findings to your own clients.

• Remember there’s a world outside of your PPC account. It’s not all keywords and ad texts- don’t overlook landing page testing! Clients, even if wary of website redesigns, often will allocate budget for one-page design projects if you can adequately justify the increase in conversion rates they’re likely to see as a result.

• Think outside the PPC box- luckily, at Hanapin we have both PPC and SEO clients, so we have a bit of an advantage in this area, but if you don’t, you can still look at your website from a non-PPC perspective. Improvements to your site’s structure, updated content or products, and social media integration can all translate into new PPC opportunities. Updated content can give you ideas for new ad texts and landing page messaging. New products translate to keyword targeting opportunities. Understanding who your customer is and what they want from you via social media can help your messaging become more targeted as well. Meeting your visitors’ needs and expectations is paramount to success in all areas of internet marketing, and exploring how you’re doing that outside of PPC can open your eyes to a lot of possibility.

• You can ask search engine reps for help and ideas, particularly if you work at an agency and have dedicated reps for this kind of thing. I’ll just say a) they are extremely helpful, and sometimes have great ideas and b) you should always take their ideas with a grain of salt, because ultimately their first job is to increase their employer’s profit…not yours. If you choose growth avenues wisely, you can find a balance that does both simultaneously: lovely!

One last note: don’t let your desire to try something new win out over your ROI’s best interest…some ideas are more likely to have a substantial impact than others, and you know your account well enough to understand logically what’s most likely to be useful and what is just a pointless waste of time and money. Trust yourself, do your research, and get inspired. Everyone will be better off for it.

Check out The Adventures of PPC Hero: Heroic Feats of Pay Per Click Management at http://www.ppchero.com/. Copyright © 2007-2010 Hanapin Marketing, LLC.

After reading the second half of Ron Jones’s article, Measuring Success, on Search Engine Watch, I was struck with an overwhelming urge to blatantly steal his ideas. However, my more noble tendencies forced me to merely reference them, while giving him credit for the inspiration.

Mr. Jones’s article discusses the methods for planning and measuring success in SEO efforts using SMART goals:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

These principles can also be applied to PPC campaign optimization.
 

Specific – The tendency for PPC campaigns always seems to be more, more, more. More clicks, more orders, more revenue… And, while “more” isn’t an unreasonable goal, it’s an extremely vague plan. Starting with a specific goal – e.g. “improve campaign click through rate by 3% over last month,” or “increase SEM orders by 5%.” – makes it much easier to focus.

Measurable – Obviously, the ability to track traffic and sales is essential to running a successful sponsored search campaign. Regular ad group and keyword analysis is necessary to be sure you’re getting the most out of your campaigns. Along with maximizing the keywords and ads that do lead to conversions, it’s equally important to limit, or completely eliminate, the ads and keywords that do not lead to orders.

Attainable & Realistic – These two points go together. Is it realistic and possible to increase orders by 25% in any given time period? Maybe, but there are many outside factors that contribute to it. In the direct response industry, sales are still largely driven by television and/or radio exposure. If there’s no change in the media exposure for a product, it’s very difficult to significantly increase the impact of paid search efforts. It’s important to realize that marginal improvements in click-through or conversion rates can drastically affect the bottom line (i.e., net revenue) only if there’s a corresponding bump in relevant traffic.

Timely – Timing is particularly important for direct response campaigns, where products typically have a relatively short lifespan. Whether those product lifespans are dictated by seasonality – i.e., gardening products, which are mainly viable in the spring and summer – or by market demands – i.e., there’s a 6 month period before the next generation technology is available – it’s important to maximize efforts when they can be most effective. Increases in click through and conversion rates when a site is getting 500 searches per day are far less useful than when that site is getting 5,000 per day.

Ultimately, as in many other aspects of life, the key to creating and successfully managing effective PPC campaigns is to be as SMART as possible.

Check out The Adventures of PPC Hero: Heroic Feats of Pay Per Click Management at http://www.ppchero.com/. Copyright © 2007-2009 Hanapin Marketing, LLC.

If you've been a long time subscriber of The Marketing Technology blog... First: Thank-You! Second: If you're subscribing via RSS, could you be so kind as to update your RSS feed to http://marketingtechblog.com/rss? and any bookmarks to http://marketingtechblog.com?

I have been kicking around the idea of offering a free eCourse for a few months. The inspiration for the idea was a result of participating in the ProBlogger’s original – How to Build a Better Blog in 31 Days. ( It was a free eCourse, now it is a book)

The original concept was cool: Sign up, get an email, link to a blog post, comment, join a forum, read other comments, get an assignment, share what you learn, and the cycle starts again.

I thought it was a great way to engage readers , show off what I know, pick up a few book sales, and possibly a client along the way. With the launch of our new website behind us, I was ready to get started.

An avid Constant Contact user, I was disappointed to discover I could create up to 15 auto responders, but only have 5 active at any given time. (That doesn’t work well for someone planning a Ten Week course)

And so the hunt began for another, affordable resource. I was delighted to find, locally developed Address Two now offers a campaign function. Still in Beta, there have been a few quirks, but developer, Nick Carter doesn’t sleep. My requests, questions, and even the occasional complaints are answered, and fixed, often before I log in again.

What is AddressTwo? The short answer: A simple CRM tool, for someone not big enough for Goldmine, or Salesforce. With the help of the campaign tool, I have a set of 10 emails, preprogrammed to be delivered once a week. Each email is connected to a blog post.

As new people download the business plan outline they are added to a new group, and begin receiving the sequence. I can have as many individuals or groups growing through the program, all at different stages.

How is it working so far? Since I sent out the first invitations a tendays ago, I have about 60 people enrolled in one of four groups. Will I see additional business? That is the plan, but atleast for now, I have 60 people being invited to come back to my website for new content each week, and about 1/2 of them are making the return visit so far.

There are lots of applications for this type of campaign, and if we can get all the bugs worked out, we are going to try it out on a few clients as well.

What’s a CRM?

If you’re curious what a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) package does, AddressTwo has done a great job of documenting what a CRM is it in this video:

---

Masters of Business Online

Indianapolis, IN October 21st

If you or your business needs an online marketing shot in the arm (or kick in the pants), then the 2009 MBO is for you. As with previous years, the MBO is an all-day session of great speakers that will teach you how to create an effective blend of online marketing tactics to reach your customers and increase sales. I’ve learned a ton each time I’ve attended.

When: Wednesday, October 21, from 8:30am - 4:30pm

Where: Ritz Charles 12156 N Meridian Street Carmel, IN 46032 (map)

Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Register with this link before September 23rd to get the early bird pricing and a $20 Marketing Technology Blog discount. For more information, see the 2009 MBO website.

The next time your boss, client or co-worker says, “How do we build a community?” answer them with this:

Invite someone to it.

Ben Thomas, creator of under-the-radar but useful tools like SalaryScout and LeadVine, was listening to London Geek Dinner podcasts one night and caught some inspiration from Lloyd Davis, founder of the Tuttle Club in the United Kingdom. He had an idea to build a community around technology in Louisville, Ky. Ben knew a few folks in town in the developer/programmer community. He also had some friends who were starting to get into this blogging and social media thing. It was the summer of 2006.

Ben sent out some emails and started circulating word that he would host something called Louisville Geek Dinner. He invited people under no pretense. Just come, meet fellow geeks, talk shop, hang out, have a drink.

He invited someone to it.

The concept was interesting enough that 49 people showed up.

LGD has had five more events since. The attendance of each, in order, has been 30, 55, 93, 118 and 153. The event has sponsors. They give away T-shirts. But the premise is still beautifully simple. Come, meet fellow geeks, talk shop, hang out, have a drink.

It’s a community. And perhaps the sweetest irony of it all is the community happens without technology.

It happens because you invite someone to it.

Louisville Geek Dinner v0.7 is Monday, August 24th at 6:00 p.m. ET at Bluegrass Brewing Company on Shelbyville Road in the St. Matthews neighborhood in Louisville. I’d like to invite you to join us.