Top 5 Reasons why Pay Per Click Ads are Good for You
For many, Pay Per Click advertisements are nothing more than a short-term marketing measure to be used just until the effects of search engine optimization are felt. Internet marketing experts, however, state that the customized ads in fact, provide more benefits than most people give them credit for. Here are some of them:
1. With PPC ads, you’re always at the top of the heap
In a perfect world, you would always have top ranking in search engine results page after your web site is optimized; unfortunately, we’re not even close. Getting on top of the list can take a lot of time and effort, and doubly more so if you’re targeting very popular keywords and phrases. PPC ads greatly increase the chance of your web site being seen by searchers even if thousands of other companies are competing for the same keywords. Advertising on programs like Google Adwords can actually save you time and resources by allowing you to focus your SEO efforts (which are definitely more laborious) on campaigns that will have more fruitful results.
2. You’re the boss (at least when it comes to your PPC ads)
With PPC ads, you get to choose how much you are willing to pay per click, how you would want your ads to be worded and how long you would want your ads to be displayed. One good thing about PPC ads is that you’re in total control of your ads. If you want to edit existing ads so you can announce a new promo for example, then nothing will stop you from doing so.
3. PPC ads can be used to ensure greater SEO success
PPC ads is a relatively inexpensive means of testing if the keywords and phrases you chose to use to optimize your site will work or not. PPC ads can help prevent the costly mistake of using ineffective keywords to optimize your site.
4. PPC ads allow you to pretend like you’re Big Brother
One PPC feature that makes the tool particularly attractive is the fact that it allows advertisers to extensively track their ads and how they are performing. With PPC ads, you’ll be informed of how many times the ads are clicked, the number of impressions, their average position, costs-per-click and other stats you’ll need to assess if the ads are worth the money you pay for them (remember, being micromanagers never hurt Bill Gates or Steve Jobs).
5. PPC ads help you help yourself
While many think that PPC ads bear only immediate results, the customized advertorials can actually benefit you in the long-term by helping you establish your brand. If people, through your ads, regularly see the name of your company and web site, you can expect to leave an imprint on their minds and create an impact.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Maraya_Mullen
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Social Media, Win the War for Passive Talent
By Richard Nacht
Founder, Career Connection Network
Richard Nacht, Career Connection Network’s CEO, is helping companies win the war on passive talent in his soon to be published book Social Media as a Recruiting Strategy.
This book addresses the challenges Fortune 500 companies face regarding the intensified competition in recruiting top talent.
McKinsey & Company in their The Organizational Challenges of Global Trends study, reported in December of 2007 that fifty percent of business leaders expect that intensified competition for recruiting talent will have a major effect on their companies over the next five years.
Social Media as a Recruiting Strategy, coming from publisher Wiley in late 2008, provides tools to help companies:
• Reach out to top tier passive talent
• Stay engaged using social media and social networks
• Recruit and hire top tier professionals
Social media and social networking will be essential to successful recruiting. Social Media as a Recruiting Strategy provides the information companies need to know to stay ahead of the hiring curve.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Interchanges.com Featured in the Jacksonville Business Journal
See and be Seen
Businesses large and small can improve their bottom line by improving their Web search ability.
By Dolly Penland – Correspondent
There are an estimated 1.17 billion people regularly using the Internet nowadays, according to the research Web site, InternetWorldStats.com. That means small businesses really can sell their wares locally and globally – if potential customers find their Web sites.
If you build it and they don’t come, your Web site just isn’t doing its job.
“There are millions and millions of little Web sites that are very nice looking, but compare it to a beautiful billboard,” said Chris Patterson, CEO of Internet Marketing / Web Site Development firm Interchanges.com. “If it’s in the middle of the woods, it’s not doing any good. You need to take that billboard out of the woods.”
An effective Web site, with good content, will only attract and retain customers if it ranks high on search engines such as Google, Yahoo! or MSN, thus making search engine optimization a key part of any Internet marketing strategy.
One strategy is to pay for a higher ranking. However, a good IT company or in-house staff guru also can use organic search engine optimization methods.
“Internet marketing has evolved quite a bit from just 2003, particularly search engines,” said Shaleen Shah, president of Seventhman, an Orange Park-based software and web site development company.
“There used to be a time when businesses would add metadata, key words and things like that, that helped them get ranked on search engines,” Shah said. “Whereas now, search engines have evolved so much, it’s almost an art to [know what it takes to] be ranked well. This is especially true when you want to get ranking for high-frequency key words.”
That was the case with The Waterhouse Group and its high-frequency key words, such as the words “sales” and “training.”
“I have been involved with the Internet since it was a top-secret military tool,” said Steve Waterhouse, president of the sales and training consulting firm. Waterhouse isn’t kidding – he’s a former Raytheon Co. design engineer who worked on the Patriot missile. “We started early using the Internet as a business tool back in 1991 or 1992.
Waterhouse’s company, also based in Orange Park, enjoyed high search-engine rankings all that time until about three years ago when it slipped. That’s when he contacted Seventhman.
“They got us from, I think it was [being ranked] in the 20s and in a matter of weeks, we were at No.1,” Waterhouse said. “We have sat at No.1 since then.” That means when the keywords “sales” and “training” are queried on Google, The Waterhouse Group pops up at or near the top.
The Waterhouse Group was getting about 15 to 20 unique visitors a day, but is now getting more than 100 each day. “I get all the leads I need just by being No.1,” Waterhouse said. “My business does just fine simply from the Internet [-generated] business.”
Useful content that is updated regularly is key to attracting customers, Internet marketers said. “You want to have the right information for people doing their due diligence on products or services,” Patterson said.
Useful content also improves a site’s ranking on the search engines. “Google really values content. So, you can please Google and position on the products or services at the same time,” Patterson said.
“I would put that around 20 percent to 25 percent,” Shah said. “How fresh the content is also makes an impact, 5 percent to 10 percent. A tremendous amount is created with link-building with other Web sites”
The criteria for Web site rankings are complicated and in constant flux. So when hiring a company to give a site a boost, it’s important to look for current experience and good results. The big search engines have spent years refining algorithms to prevent artificially inflated rankings. Officials with this companies frown on attempts to game the system.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Internet One Step Closer to Staying Tax Free
by Nick Gonzalez
source:http://www.techcrunch.com
The House of Representatives has passed legislation (402-0) extending the moratorium on state Internet access taxes for seven years out to 2014. The bill, set to expire Nov. 1st, has already passed through the Senate last Thursday, leaving final approval up to the President.
While the House bill was three years longer than the body initially proposed, some senators called to permanently end the tax. Telephone based services have not been so lucky. For instance, the FCC ruled internet services that connect to publicly switched phone networks had to contribute to the Universal Service Fund. The issue gets muddier, however, as communication services move completely online.
News reports say if the moratorium is not extended, bandwidth costs could raise as much as 17 percent.
Initially signed into law in 1998, the Internet Tax Freedom Act bars federal, state and local governments from taxing Internet access and discriminatory Internet-only taxes such as bit taxes, bandwidth taxes, and email taxes. It was previously extended to 2007 as the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act of 2004.
So it appears that at least taxes on the net will remain neutral.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Can You Afford Not to Optimize Your Site?
by Lisa Wehr
If your responsibility is to increase online revenue, you’ll need the right resources.
Investing in a search engine marketing campaign is like spending money on any other type of marketing. The costs parallel the challenges, and everyone’s challenges are different.
The scope of search engine optimization and marketing is extensive in regards to application and implementation. Search engine marketing—also known as Web site marketing, Internet marketing and Web site promotion—can help create a solid Internet foundation on which your business can build.
Because every business is unique, your first task is to clearly identify what it is you want to accomplish. Do you want more brand visibility? Do you want to reach a specific audience? Obtain a higher position in Google? Increase online sales?
After you identify your business goals, partner with a reputable search engine marketer (SEM)—also known as a search engine optimization (SEO) company. These specialize in the technology that generates traffic and positions for clients. A knowledgeable, experienced SEM/SEO can assist you every step of the way while keeping the best interests of your business in mind.
But before we delve into the fundamentals of how search engine marketing can increase your online revenue, let’s take a look at some of the benefits of successful search engine marketing to get a sense of what can be accomplished.
Consider the following examples:
A nationally recognized healthcare complex made $185 for every dollar spent on search engine optimization and marketing during its first year. The healthcare company’s goals were to increase Web traffic and target a specific audience that would, ultimately, improve the quality of its traffic. The comprehensive campaign included keyword and Web site architecture analysis, optimization of Web site and press release content, and the installation of tracking technology that monitors and evaluates the healthcare facility’s investment.
A 75-year-old Fortune 500 cataloger of business and institutional supplies now has more than 650 keywords in Top 10 search engine positions and more than 940 keywords in Top 30 search engine positions—up from nothing in the course of just one year.
A nationally recognized furniture manufacturer, working within a tight budget and with a limited number of keywords, optimized for several highly competitive terms. After optimization, the furniture manufacturer reached more than 100 “Top 10” search engine positions and more than 130 “Top 30” search engine positions for these highly competitive terms.
A specialty grocer’s homepage was as rare in the search engine listings as the unique, hard-to-find products it sold. After a year of search engine optimization, the grocer has sold $7 for every dollar invested in its search engine marketing campaign.
An international chemical giant needed to fix problems created by a previous search engine practitioner. They also wanted to increase traffic and educate a targeted audience. In less than a year, the company reached its traffic goals and moved from six Top 10 positions in the search engines to 500. Top 30 positions rose from 20 to more than 680.
This is just a small sample of cases where the right combination of resources and talent significantly increased online revenues for a business.
The Five P’s of Search Engine Marketing
Let’s put a little twist on the five traditional principles, or P’s, of marketing. For each category (product, place, price, position and promotion), we have added a little information for you to chew on.
I want my cake right now (Product). Being able to easily find a product on the Web is a value-added service for many customers. Despite the time of day or night, location or even the weather, customers can get what they what from you—if your product promptly appears within the first few results pages of the customer’s search engine of choice (which, according to most recent studies, is probably Google, MSN, AOL or Yahoo!). The sale of your products and services can quickly escalate based on how convenient it is for your customers to research, inquire and ultimately make a purchase. How quickly can they find your products or services? Can they learn more about those products or services and buy them from you right now? Is it a safe, simple procedure?
Where can I find that cake? (Place). A bakery can sell its famous cakes from a brick building down the street, from a kiosk in a food court or from the results pages of a search engine. When a customer walks into a bakery, he can immediately see whether there are any chocolate cakes—but what about the baker’s Web site? How will the customer know if the baker has any chocolate cakes? The answer is keyword. If your Web site does not contain the keywords customers use to find a specific product, it’s just like having an empty shelf at the bakery. With conscientious search engine optimization, you can put your products and services on the shelf—at eye level.
How much is that cake? (Price). Comprehensive search engine optimization and marketing can help reduce the cost of generating leads and sales. You can pass those savings on to your customer, enjoy a stronger profit margin or benefit from both. Plus, search analytics can provide you with the data and the analysis needed to generate leads and demonstrate your savings, quarter after quarter.
Is that the best cake you’ve got? (Position). What do you suppose happens to your reputation if the products and services you sell don’t readily appear within the first few pages of a Google search? You may be judged irrelevant. Nonexistent. Ouch. A successful campaign, however, can permit smaller players to walk among giants. It levels the proverbial playing field. And don’t forget—you can add to your visibility with pay-per-click advertising and let your customers know you’re ready to deal. Your reputation is resuscitated. Your presence is felt.
My friends love your cake—can we get a group discount? (Promotion). Obviously, the exposure of being well positioned naturally in search results promotes your product or service—potential customers usually scroll through only the first few pages of search engine results before giving up and moving on. But have you considered how paid search campaigns could also offer price promotions and seasonal products or launch new services? And how a well-optimized press release can rise to the top of a journalist’s list of resources? Or on the list of an investor, analyst, franchisee, or most importantly, a customer? And where does a customer go to get more information about an advertised sweepstakes or self-fulfilling promotion? You get the idea.
So what should you, the marketer, glean from all this information about search engine optimization and marketing?
First, familiarize yourself with it. Learn how search engines search. Learn the importance of keyword selection. Define objectives for your business and your Web site and make a list of the goals you wish to achieve. Learn who the players are, then partner with a SEM/SEO that bases success on results, not just potential.
Be sure that the companies you consider can clearly track, measure and demonstrate a return on your investment, and that they have the tools to report and evaluate Top 10 and Top 30 search engine positions. Your SEM/SEO should also provide analytics that reveal search engine traffic increases as optimization efforts take effect and grow over time. As with any great recipe for success, superior results are always measurable.
Finally, ask your SEM/SEO partner if it can define actions (such as downloading articles, subscribing to newsletters or requesting information) that convert Web site users into prospects, and then qualify them as suitable leads. Prior to optimization, your SEM/SEO should be able to benchmark conversion rates and, as optimization takes effect, document how your site is attracting qualified prospects.
The key to increasing your online revenue through search engine marketing requires a team effort—the right combination of resources and talent. And, because of all the buzz about search engine optimization being on the rise, it is common knowledge that competition for Top 10 and Top 30 search engine positions is going to intensify.
After you’ve done a little homework, answer this questions: Can you afford not to optimize your site?
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Add a Human Touch to Your Website
From: E-Commerce Times By: Dean Cruse
Why aren’t more people making purchases online? Hint: A little human interaction on your Web site may close the sale.
Despite consumers’ growing acceptance of doing business online, e-commerce still tends to be an unprofitable sales channel for many. Yes, people come to e-commerce sites and look around, but retailers often find themselves wondering why more of those people aren’t making purchases.
Many of the reasons stem from one simple cause: people tend to prefer doing business with other people. Web sites are great for doing research, but when it comes to making an actual purchase, many customers need the reassurance of human interaction.
By providing a simple method for customers to get real-time answers online to their questions, a company can help its conversion rates skyrocket while raising its customer service to a new level.
Real-Time Answers Make the Difference
Ideally, Web-based customer service should include both self-help and live-help capabilities. Most companies will find that a large percentage of customers prefer to help themselves to the information they need. And for those who don’t need real-time assistance, just the knowledge that representatives are available makes the shopping experience more satisfying.
In addition, real-time interaction with an informed representative encourages completion of the sale. In a traditional sales environment, salespeople are available to assist and to close the deal.
The ability to have a conversation with a live representative also makes customers feel more secure. Even though Web-based security has become a very manageable issue, many customers are still hesitant to enter their credit card information in an online form. Yet these very same individuals will hand their credit card to an anonymous waiter in a restaurant or give their information over the phone to an unknown mail-order catalog representative. The difference is human interaction.
Staff Your Online Store
Most e-commerce sites provide customer service through an 800 number and/or an e-mail address. But both of these options can fall short of customer needs in some cases. Not only do both methods delay the completion of the sale, they can also be inconvenient.
For customers with only one available phone line, using the 800 number requires disconnecting from the Internet, calling the merchant and, at times, waiting on hold. Once the customers are connected with an agent, they have to remember where they were on the site when the question arose, and explain their query without the benefit of viewing the actual Web page. Then, after the representative helps them, the (now frustrated) customers have to reconnect and try to implement the agent’s instructions. Or they can choose to complete the transaction over the phone, eliminating all the time, convenience, and cost savings of e-commerce.
The alternative, e-mail, can be even worse from the customer perspective. The potential customer faithfully fills out the online form, wondering if someone will actually receive it and reply, and wondering when that might happen. Answering all e-mails individually can also become a burden on the company. As more customers use a site, the volume can grow to an overwhelming level, further delaying responses. By the time the company answers the query, the customer has likely moved on to another vendor.
Service Solutions
In today’s economy where service equals success, companies need to provide a better option for real-time e-commerce service and support. The answer lies in allowing customers to help themselves to the information they need without leaving the Web site.
This self-help model can be achieved using a combination of tools, such as robust data repositories with an intuitive search capability, automated e-mail response, and the option of interacting with a live customer service representative (click here for an example). All of these technologies are available and ready for implementation today.
By combining customer self-help and the option of live help from a customer service representative via text-based conversations, Internet phones, and online video, the e-commerce process becomes much more engaging, user-friendly, and successful. Web-based customer interaction is a win-win solution for companies and customers.
Combining Email Marketing with Web Marketing
by Ron Evans
Email marketing is incredibly effective at maintaining customer loyalty, as well as converting interested prospects into customers. However, for the acquisition of a new prospect, email marketing may not be the most ideal method due to the proliferation of unwanted offers. So how do you get these “hand-raisers” to give you the permission to market to them in the first place? Here are some online marketing techniques that combine well with email marketing.
Search Engine Listings
Search engines and directories such as Yahoo and MSN are still one of the first sources that people go to when looking for information online. The searcher is trying to find a solution to a problem, and their psychology is such that they can be highly receptive to your message if it is relevant to solving that problem. Once they have clicked thru to your web site, your goal is to get them to volunteer their email address to allow you to continue the dialog with them. You can only achieve this by giving them a valid reason for doing so. For well-known brand names, simply asking for the information may be enough. For newer or niche-focused companies, techniques such as providing information of value like a report, or actual giveaways are needed to convince most visitors to participate.
Pay Per Click Search Listings
Pay Per Click (PPC) listing services such as Overture and Google’s AdWords have all of the same benefits as non-paid search engine listings. There may be somewhat less credibility, as searchers are more skeptical of paid listings. However, this is more than countered by the predictability of the results. PPC listings are far superior to traditional search engines from the perspective of an advertiser because of both the immediacy with which you can obtain a listing, as well as the ability to achieve a specific desired ranking. Promotion becomes simpler because you get the positioning you are willing to pay for. And once you have paid for a visitor to click-thru to your site, your next objective is getting them to tell you their email address, so you can maximize your Return On Investment (ROI).
Content-Based Marketing
Creating original content is one of the best ways to demonstrate expertise and establish credibility for a company as an authority in a particular field. Allowing other web sites and online newsletters to republish this content along with a link back to your site is an excellent way to acquire new prospects. Many people would like to receive further information from an expert that they respect, and are quite willing to not just receive, but also anticipate receiving email from a said expert.
Newsletter Sponsorship
Although not quite as good at establishing credibility as is creating content, ads that are located in someone else’s email newsletter do tend to get noticed in a good light. By carefully selecting the correct target audience, along with proper timing, these ads can deliver qualified prospects to your site. And once they get there, your brilliant call to action and your well-crafted content will convince them to start a “conversation” by giving you their email address.
Site Sponsorship
Like newsletter sponsorship, site sponsorship ads do tend to get noticed in a better light than banner advertising. Combining sponsorship with content (the so-called “Advertorial”) can get more attention than advertising alone. Again, proper targeting and a compelling call to action are critical for achieving a response.
Conclusion
Give people a reason to ‘talk’ to your company and you can concentrate on talking to the people that already want to hear from you. Anything else wastes your time and annoys non-prospects unnecessarily. You can generate new leads by using other forms of online marketing, and then stay in touch with these prospects over the courtship process of getting them to become customers by using email marketing, and you will have adopted a powerful online marketing strategy.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )
Top 10 Email Marketing Tips
#10 Build Your List at Every Opportunity
Build your list at every opportunity you have. If you have a retail location, add a point-of-sale sign up form. At conferences or events, ask everyone you speak with if you may add them to your list after you exchange business cards. Finally, add your newsletter sign-up form to every page on your web site.
#9 Avoid Excess Punctuation or Capitalization
Don’t use ALL CAPS or multiple exclamation marks within your subject line or body. Doing this will trigger spam filters.
#8 Include both Plain Text and HTML
Be sure to include both a plain text and an HTML version of your newsletter. If you don’t include a plain text message, around 5% of your recipients will see a message with nothing in it.
#7 Familiarity Encourages Opens
Make the From Name for your messages either your company name or the name of a person at your company. Once you choose a From Name, keep it consistent. During the split second decision subscribers make whether to open your email, the most important factor in their decision is whether the From Name is familiar to them.
#6 Add a Note about Deliverability
To improve message deliverability, add a message at the top of your emails that says something like: “To ensure receipt of our emails, please add something@yourcompany.com to your Address Book.”
#5 Be consistent with your sending frequency.
Pick a schedule, whether it is weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly and as often as you can stick to that schedule. This way, your customers will come to expect and anticipate your company’s communications.
#4 Timing is key with Business to Business Communication — In most cases it is best to send business to business emails Tuesday through Thursday. We’ve found that the best times of the day to send are just after the start of the day around 9:30am or just after lunch around 1:30pm. It is best to avoid sending business to business emails after 4:00pm or on weekends.
#3 Timing is key with Business to Consumer Communication — In most cases it is best to send business to consumer emails either between 5:00pm and 8:00pm Tuesday through Thursday or between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon.
#2 Only include content relevant to the type of content the person has requested. As long as one provides value–whether by providing content on a topic a recipient is interested in or a discount off a product related to one purchased previously—-people will allow you to continue to contact them.
#1 Only send emails to persons who have requested to receive them. Unsolicited email is, of course, called spam. Sending spam will ruin any legitimate organization’s reputation and brand value startlingly quickly. Rule number one of becoming an intelligent email marketer is to never send unsolicited email.
Interchanges specializes in Newsletter Marketing Campaigns, if you are interested in learning how we can increase your bottom line please click here >>
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