The Work Media Internet Marketing Blog

Think before you spend. That is today's lesson. We're talking about spending with regard to what you spend on advertising, especially online advertising. We have a large client who inquired about advertising on the front page of Yahoo!. Before we even looked into what it would cost, we knew this was a bad idea.

Yahoo! has massive reach. The home page gets nearly 2 billion impressions PER DAY. That is a lot of eyeballs. It's fairly analogous to advertising during the Super Bowl, both in terms of reach and expense. So yes, advertising on the front page of Yahoo! would give you an incredible amount of exposure and probably drive a lot of traffic to your web site.

But even if you are a big enough company to afford Yahoo!, is it the best use of your money? Probably not. For a fraction of the cost, you could run ads on dozens or hundreds of web sites much more closely aligned with your target market. For instance, if you are a financial services company, you could run your ad on many financial-related web sites, where people are already interested in your type of service, for pennies on the dollar of what the Yahoo! ad would cost.

You should apply this kind of thinking to all of your marketing. Ask yourself: am I spending my money on an advertising forum that will expose my message to the maximum number of people who are good prospects for my service at the best price? If you have lots of money to spend on marketing, we still think you should apply this kind of thinking. Spend your money on targeted advertising first, and then if there are funds left over, you can use those funds on a more broad, branding-oriented campaign.

If you could use some guidance with your pay per click management or search engine optimization, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, business advice, internet marketing, marketing, paid search, pay per click, pay per click management, ppc, search engine marketing, sem, Yahoo

Local businesses are losing sales by not taking advantage of the Web as a sales tool. No, this is not based on any kind of poll or data analysis. It's based purely on my own experiences. It is usually the case that for every one person who experiences a problem, or expresses dissatisfaction about a situation, there are many more people who feel the same way. So I am going to make the assumption that there are many people who have the same frustration I am about to discuss.

Businesses at the local level just don't seem to get it when it comes to online marketing. They will spend thousands of dollars on TV ads, print ads, radio ads, etc., but give no attention to their web sites. Here is a cold, hard fact: more and more people use the Web to do product research and find local businesses with whom to do business; and that trend is only going to continue. So why would ANY business not have a strong Web presence that shows what products or services it sells, and that makes it easy to do business with it?

Here is an example of what I am talking about. I am researching gas and electric fireplaces for my house. One large retailer in Nashville who I thought sold fireplaces (since there is a fireplaces page on its site) has ZERO visibility and almost no information about its fireplaces. If I did not already know about the company, I would not have looked at their web site to start with since it is not possible to find it in the search engines. As it turns out, I found out that this business stopped selling fireplaces two years ago...despite the fact that they are still shown on its web site. I mean, come on...in TWO YEARS you couldn't update your web site?

So I continued my search. I only found a single local business online that had a reasonable number of the kind of product I was looking for. The business' web site was not very good. There is very little information about specific products. It is an ecommerce-enabled site, but there is so little information about the products that I don't think any user would feel very comfortable placing an order online.

I cannot find a single business in Nashville that sells fireplaces that has a well-crafted web site with adequate information about its products. And that can be found in the search engines. There is probably a retailer in Nashville with exactly what I want. But I can't find it. So I am reduced to physically visiting random stores in hopes of finding what I want. Wherever that perfect store is, it is probably going to lose a sale.

If you own a physical business that sells products locally, all you have to do to have a MAJOR advantage over your competition is put up a high quality web site where visitors can get lots of information about your products. If they can buy the products online, that's even better. And PLEASE have the web site built in a search engine-friendly manner so your site can be found. Ask your web site developer about this. If he is not experienced in SEO, either hire another designer or bring someone onboard who can work with your designer. Yes, it will cost some money, but it will be a very, very good thing for your business.

If you need help promoting your local business via search engine optimization or pay per click management, contact Work Media at 615-263-2811 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: internet marketing, local search marketing, marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, web site marketing

Welcome to the first Work Media blog post of 2008. We hope everybody had a terrific New Years!

We've been finishing up the Work Media 2008 marketing plan and it got me thinking about something very important when it comes to marketing, and that is measurement. Even though we're an Internet marketing firm, we will be using a number of different strategies for promoting ourselves in our local market, several of which are off-line. It would be foolish to exclude certain marketing venues just because they are not the techniques we specialize in providing.

But the question is: how do you know what combination of marketing strategies to use? There are many - search engine marketing (which we, obviously, heavily recommend), direct marketing, print advertising, TV, radio, etc. The first clue as to what methods to use is by finding out what methods are used by your most successful competitors, or similar types of businesses that are successful in your home market.

One problem is that the strategies used by your competitors may not be the same that work for your business. So ultimately what you have to do is try different things and track results as tightly as you can. You need to try and associate leads with the marketing techniques that generated those leads. A couple of ways of doing this is to use a special URL or phone number with different advertising campaigns. For instance, if you run a TV ad campaign, you might direct viewers to a URL like "www.mysite.com/TV". Then when you check your stats, you can see how many visitors you had to the "TV" URL, which will give you a good idea how effective the campaign was.

This strategy is not perfect. In the above example, someone could type your URL without the "TV", in which case you would not be able to make the connection. But this strategy is at least a starting point. A more accurate, but more complicated, way to measure ad campaign performance is to set up a unique phone number for different ads. Then you can tell which ads are working by how many calls come in for different phone numbers. There are a number of different companies that can help you set these phone numbers up and provide call tracking.

So when you are working out your marketing plan (you do have a marketing plan, don't you?), please keep in mind how you are going to measure performance. Finding the right marketing mix can mean the difference between success and failure for your marketing and your business.

For help implementing a successful marketing plan for your business, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, analytics, business advice, business planning, internet marketing, marketing, marketing plan, performance measurement, tracking, web site marketing

We are working on Work Media's 2008 marketing plan, so I thought that would be a good subject for today's blog post. I was listening to an audio program at some point in the last year that had a formula for a seven sentence marketing plan. This may be a Michael Gerber invention (I can't remember exactly who it was), but here are the seven questions to ask to create your seven sentence marketing plan:

1. What action do you want your prospects to take?

2. What is your competitive advantage?

3. Who is your target market?

4. What marketing weapons are you going to use?

5. What is your niche in the marketplace?

6. What is your "identity"?

7. What is your marketing budget (as a % of projected gross sales)?

If you use these seven questions as a mental diving board to think deeply about your business' marketing, you will be in good position to sketch out a more detailed plan. It might be a good idea to create one document that is literally a seven sentence plan based on the above questions (a sort-of thumbnail) and another document that elaborates in much greater detail.

An important part of having a plan is LOOKING at the plan periodically. I'll admit that we have historically been bad about creating a nice plan and then having it sit in a shelf collecting dust. I know we're not the only ones. But let's change our ways, starting in 2008. You've got about two and half weeks left this year to do your brainstorming and create your plans for the new year. So get your marketing plan created and look at it periodically to see if you're on track. It just might make a huge difference in your performance for the new year.

And of course, make sure you have an Internet component to your marketing plan. Search engine marketing is the only form of marketing that can immediately place your message in front of people who are looking for exactly what you're selling.

If you need some help developing a strong Internet marketing plan, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net. We specialize in helping companies find just the right combination of strategies. We would love to help you.

Labels: advertising, business advice, business plan, business planning, internet marketing, marketing, marketing plan

The human mind is a wondrous and complicated thing. It is also completely unpredictable. When it comes to writing ads for paid search marketing, you might think you know what copy will cause people to click your ad...but you really don't. We've preached this before but it bears worth repeating - the only way to know what works is by testing. Here are some different things you can test that could have a profound and unexpected impact on the success of your ads.

Capitalization. Most marketers capitalize the first letter of every major word in the title. You should try that as well as not capitalizing any letters. Do the same with your display URL.

The order of content. Let's say you have an ad with both an offer as well as a deadline. Try running ads with the offer first and with the deadline first.

Dynamic versus static content. Most search engines now allow you to dynamically have the keyword that triggers the ad placed in the headline or copy. Usually, this will result in higher click-throughs, but not always. Experiment to see what works for you.

The display URL. Try using "www" versus leaving it out. Try just the root domain name versus a domain that includes a sub-folder with keywords. For example, "www.yourdomain.com" versus "yourdomain.com/keyword".

Adjectives. For example, "easy" versus "fast". One of the two will probably trigger many more clicks. The only way to know the right psychological trigger is to test both.

Call to action. Visit now...Buy now...Learn more. These are all different ways of specifically requesting that the reader of the ad click the ad to visit your web site. Try different calls to action as well as not having a call to action to see what works best.

If you experiment with the above elements of your ads, you will have a much better chance at discovering the ad copy that generates the highest click-through rates as well as conversion rates. Another important part of this analysis will be only changing a single ad element at any one time. For example, if you change both the display URL and the call to action at the same time, you won't know which change causes a chance in the performance of the ad. This kind of analysis will not only drive the most traffic to your site, it will save you some money because ads with higher click-through rates can be displayed above ads with lower click-through rates even if the placement bid is lower.

If you need professional advice for managing your paid search campaign, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad writing, advertising, copywriting, Google Adwords, internet marketing, marketing, paid search, pay per click, ppc, search engine marketing, web site marketing, Yahoo Search Marketing

Hey, we're not just Internet marketers - we're also business men. And our point in this blog is to teach you all that we can not just about Internet marketing, but about lessons we learn and experiences we have along the way. We just had a real life business lesson that cost us $100 thousand. We don't want you to make the same mistake in your business, so we thought we would share our lesson with you, our valued readers, in hopes that you will do better.

So what is the $100 thousand business lesson? It's this:

Always be thoroughly prepared for any communication you will be having with potential customers - ask if there is a particular agenda or topics that will be covered in advance; anticipate questions they will ask; take notes in advance. Do this regardless if it is an in-person meeting or a phone call.

We were pitching for a prospective client and thought we had the deal in the bag. There was a scheduled telephone to discuss a "plan" - what I did not realize is that the call was really an interview because our prospect was also talking to another company. I was expecting something much more informal and didn't do any extra preparation (having already devoted many hours to the writing of a proposal). As a result, the other company got the gig and we lost a piece of business that would have been worth nearly $100 thousand.

So if you are pitching business, even if it is to a company with whom you already have a relationship, be overly-prepared for every interaction you have with the prospect. Assume that the fate of the deal rests on every phone call or every meeting. Take nothing for granted.

There you have it. $100 thousand worth of business advice, and you got it for free just for reading the Work Media Internet Marketing blog.

If you need some help promoting your company online, call Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: business advice, communications, internet marketing, marketing

Work Media has opened up shop at our new offices on 2nd Ave. in Nashville. We have a "sister company" now, in Frank/Best International ("FBI"), a successful advertising agency with some very large clients that include Honda Power Equipment and AKG Microphones. Our relationship with FBI allows us to offer a full array of services, including:

Search engine optimization

Paid search marketing

Public relations campaigns (both online and offline)

Online Video advertising

TV advertising

Print ad campaigns

In other words, we are now a full-service shop. We can accommodate all of your needs. We believe the next wave to hit the advertising industry will be integrated shops that can provide clients with both offline and online advertising services. Work Media is proud to be one of the first (if not THE first) companies in Nashville to be on the cutting edge of the advertising industry. We have access to not only the technology to create cross-media campaigns, but also to the brain power of advertising industry veterans with years of experience creating successful campaigns for some of the world's largest companies.

So what can we do for you? Call us today at 888-299-4837 or stop by our offices at 705 2nd Ave. S. in Nashville. The Work brothers (and our new partners) are ready to go to work for you.

Labels: advertising, internet marketing, marketing, Nashville, paid search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, seo

It is possible to weld the core business motive of generating profit with virtues such as charity and environmentalism. Not only is it possible, it is advisable.

If you incorporate an element of charity into a marketing campaign, such as giving a percentage of earnings to a particular charity, it gives you the opportunity to tap into a whole new network. It also gives you a hook for public relations purposes. It goes without saying that the charity should be one that you have researched and want to be associated with.

Having an environmental element to your marketing is another great way to gain the participation of socially aware prospects. People who are devoted to a particular cause are aggressive about dissiminating information in support thereof. So if you associate your marketing campaign with that cause, then you will win the loyalty of and help from the people who believe in the cause.

If you can combine the above elements with a discount or money-saving offer, then you compound the effectiveness of the offer. You will also have all of the makings of a strong press release campaign. Online PR can be used to distribute your message to thousands of web sites. If you push the right buttons, you can generate a ton of traffic from environmentally-conscious individuals who will be receptive to your offer.

If you need help crafting a socially responsible marketing campaign and message for your business, give Work Media a call at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, charity, email marketing, environmentalism, internet marketing, marketing, pr, publicity, social media

You've probably heard that Google has recently purchased Double Click, an ad network management company. Well, in keeping pace, Yahoo! has just announced the purchase of Right Networks, an online ad exchange. Both deals greatly increase the respective company's reach by increasing the total ad inventory available.

So what does this mean to you?

It means the sooner you adapt to the new world of Internet-driven advertising, the better able you will be to take advantage of converging media. Face it - Google and Yahoo! are no longer search engines or directories. They are full-blown media giants who are steadily increasing their reach, both on-line and off-line. Being an informed advertiser experienced in the use of search engine interfaces gives you the cutting edge advantage. Soon you will be able to purchase search engine ads, TV ads, print media ads, billboards...all from a single company, using single centralized media management control panel.

Don't fear the future. Be on the cutting edge. It starts by running a simple pay-per-click text ad campaign. Where it goes from there, is only limited by your imagination and willingness to learn.

If you would like help entering the world of search engine marketing, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad networks, advertising, internet marketing, marketing, paid search, pay per click, ppc, search marketing, sponsored search, web site marketing

You need to think of all of your marketing efforts as an integrated campaign - TV, radio, print, search, online content networks...it all needs to support one another, and it all needs to be tightly focused on achieving some kind of objective.

Now that video is a mainstream feature of the Web, you can make multiple uses of any video you shoot. For instance, let's say you shoot a TV commercial. If the commercial has some element of humor or takes on a very serious topic, then you could re-package it as a video for use on YouTube and similar sites. With any luck, some people will find it, like it, and start passing it around. Then you could repackage it into a short video ad for use on the Google content network. We have found that, up to this point, video ads generate fewer clicks, but it may turn out that those clicks convert at a higher rate than text ads. We don't have the data to back that up yet, but it's a hunch.

As far as the marketing message itself, you should decide on a single converting event and create all of your marketing material so that it emphasizes that single event. Singularity of focus will go a long way toward helping you accomplish a goal with your marketing. If your message is watered down and you give people too many choices, your campaign will not be as powerful. For instance, let's say you have created some kind of free downloadable item that you want to give away on your web site as a means to gather email addresses. Your marketing related to this should all focus on the single event - getting people to your web site to fill out a form and download the item. Your TV ads should focus on it, your radio ads should focus on it, your print and online ads should focus on it.

Think about it: if all of your marketing is consistent in look and feel, and if it all points to a single event...that's powerful. Which do you think would make the most impact? A standalone TV ad asking the viewer to do one thing, a print ad asking them to something else, and a search engine ad asking something else again - or all three ads asking the viewer/reader to do the same thing? Just like singleness of purpose is a key to success in life, it's also a key to success with your marketing.

If you would like help implementing a cohesive, integrated marketing plan, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, conversion strategy, marketing, search marketing, TV advertising, web marketing

Ma.gnolia is a very nicely designed social bookmarking site that is easy to use. It has a Google Page Rank of 7, so it can be a nice boost to your site to acquire links from it.

To sign up:

1. Visit http://ma.gnolia.com.

2. Click the Join button on the top menu. The URL is: http://ma.gnolia.com/join.

3. Type in the required information and click “Join Free”.

4. In a few minutes you will receive an email from Ma.gnolia that you will click to
activate your account.

To bookmark a web page:

1. On the front page, there is a box on the right side of the screen labeled “Add a
bookmark”. Click the arrow beneath the textbox to expand the box to give you
options to add a title, description, and tags (separated by a comma).

2. Type in the information and click Save. Leave the checkbox labeled “Keep
bookmark private” unchecked.

3. As before, make use of the keywords someone would use to search for your web
site in the tags and in the title.

To see the top tags being used on the site, click the Tags link on the top menu. Then click
the tab labeled “Everyone’s Top Tags”.

To add the functionality to your browser to bookmark sites without having to go do the
Ma.gnolia web site, visit: http://ma.gnolia.com/support/bookmarklets.

We suggest that you create an account and bookmark every page on your site that has strong content. Hopefully some other people will see your bookmark, check out your site, and bookmark it themselves. Another strategy is to get people who know you or are associated with your business to create their own accounts and bookmark your site as well.

For help integrating social bookmarking sites into your online marketing strategy, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: content, content creation, internet marketing, ma.gnolia.com, marketing, social bookmarking, social media

Today we thought we would tell you about some people whose work you need to seek out and study. Copywriting is possibly the single most valuable skill you can develop to be successful in our marketing, and the following list is just a few of the all-time greats whom you can study to learn how to write strong sales copy.

Dan Kennedy. One of our favorites. Dan is a marketing genius who has a straightforward (sometimes mean) style and is very entertaining to read and listen to. He has lots of products for sale at his web site. You can also find Dan's books in bookstores, with titles such as No B.S. Wealth Building for Entrepreneurs. http://www.dankennedy.com

Brian Keith Voiles. Brian wrote what is possibly the single best book on copywriting, called “Advertising Magic”. It is for sell on lots of web sites. We couldn’t figure out the official web site for the book (Brian doesn't really seem to do much self-promotion). But there are lots of places to buy it online if you search.

Jay Abraham. Possibly the top and most expensive marketing expert in the world. He also has lots of products for sale at http://www.abraham.com. His products are expensive, so you might want to seek out used copies of his books and audio material.

Claude Hopkins. In the 1920’s, Hopkins wrote a book called Scientific Advertising. It is a brilliant, ageless book that boils advertising down to a set of principles that will greatly increase your chance of success. You can find it for free if you search for it online.

There are many more fine copywriters, but if you look into the work of the above men, it will set you on the road to being a much better copywriter. Strong ad writing is very, very important to the success of your Internet marketing campaign. So we suggest you put the work into getting better at it.

For help writing copy for your marketing campaigns, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, copywriting, internet marketing, marketing, web marketing, web site marketing

An email I got this morning reminded me of a couple of good Internet marketing principles, so I thought I would talk about it.

Not too long ago, I owned an old Dodge Ram truck. I bought a part for it that I had not been able to find from a web site called AutoPartsWarehouse.com. Since then, I have received emails from them fairly regularly. Most of the emails are general in nature.

Today I got one with the following headline:

Get 5% OFF on all DODGE RAMCHARGER parts for 5 Days only + FREE Shipping

This email and headline illustrate a couple of important points about successful marketing:

1. They are using segmentation to send me emails based specifically on my past purchases. They know I have bought parts for a Dodge Ram, so they are sending me messages about Dodge Ram parts.
2. The offer is specific and contains a deadline. Deadlines are important because without them your prospects will delay on making a decision. I only have 5 days to save 5% and get free shipping.
   
3. It contains the word "FREE", which is one of the most powerful words you can use in your marketing.

How could you apply these principles to your own marketing? Do you segment your customers and send them specific messages based on their past purchases? You should.

Do you carefully craft your marketing messages to get your prospects' attention? And do you place time limits on your special offer?

Do you email past customers on a regular basis?

These are all very basic principles of modern marketing, but if you just master the basics, you will be VERY successful.

If you need some help crafting a thorough Internet marketing plan, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad writing, advertising, copywriting, email marketing, internet marketing, marketing

Google is making a lot of people very happy...and some people very sad. In a move that could begin a momentous swing for the way TV ad space is purchased, Google has announced a partnership with EchoStar Communications to launch a new system for purchasing ad space on TV channels on the EchoStar network.

In the new system, TV ad space will be auctioned on a CPM basis using an online interface much like the current AdWords system. Within 24 hours, the advertiser will know if he won the auction, where the ads ran, how many ads ran, how many households saw the ad, and EVEN IF THE HOUSEHOLD WATCHED THE ENTIRE AD OR ONLY PART OF IT. Using this information, advertisers can make adjustments to their campaign until they find the optimum combination of TV channels, times, and ad creative. In the world of TV advertising, that kind of quick feedback is unheard of. It combines the power of on-the-fly pay-per-click campaign tweaking with the massive reach of broadcast TV.

Google claims that there will also be a happy result for the consumer in the form of more relevant advertising, as advertisers adjust their campaigns based on the feedback they receive. To us, the argument from the consumer side is weak because consumers are already flooded with 10 thousand commercials a day - we don't think it matters to consumers if they view more relevant commercials. In addition, TV commercials are often filtered out or bypassed anyway. Which brings us to another point: is TV advertising dead anyway? Is Google beating a dead horse?

The answer is "no". Even if Google is entering an industry that is declining, TV advertising in some form or another will always exist. By giving advertisers a strong platform to place ads, and much better, quicker data about the performance of their ads, Google is bringing new fire to an industry that badly needed it. And eventually the world of TV will figure out a way to force-feed ads to consumers who zip through commercials...and Google will be there with its technology, making it easy and efficient to use whatever the next phase of TV advertising looks like.

In addition to the ad purchasing platform, Google will run a marketplace to hook up TV advertisers with TV commercial producers. Similar to Spot Runner (discussed yesterday), it gives any small business the ability to purchase an already-created commercial and personally brand it - drastically cutting ad production costs.

We are excited about the new TV ad platform because it moves the world of advertising closer to one universal system in which advertisers bid on ads to run on-line and off-line, with almost instant feedback to improve their ad campaigns. And you better know Work Media will be on the front-lines, helping advertisers figure this stuff out.

For help creating your own state-of-the-art marketing campaign, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, cable TV, google, Google Adwords, internet marketing, marketing, TV advertising

We're diverging slightly today from our normal course. We're all about Internet marketing here at Work Media world headquarters. But we're not just Internet geeks...we're marketers. We have spent a lot of time studying all forms of marketing, and not just the on-line variety. With that in mind, we thought today we would talk about a couple of cheap ways to do TV advertising.

In general, we are opposed to mass market "image" advertising. You can spend a whole lot of money for very little results. It is also far less measurable than online advertising. However, if you are careful about how and where you buy your air time and use TV advertising in conjunction with Internet or direct marketing, it can be a powerful addition to your marketing mix.

The two low-cost ways to advertise on TV that we are going to talk about today are: 1. Making your own commercial and purchasing discounted air time; and 2. use the services of a one-stop TV ad aggregator.

To do things on your own, you will first need to find a way to create your own commercial. Given today's cheap cameras and video editing software, this is much more feasible that it once was. But you will probably get a better result if you seek the assistance of someone who knows what he is doing.

Assuming you are able to create the commercial, the next step is buying airtime. First you should decide in advance where you would like your commercial to run. You need to target prospects who are strong candidates for your product or service. If you run a financial-related business, for instance, your best bet may be something like MSNBC - a channel that focuses on financial news.

You should try to establish a relationship with a salesperson at the TV station. If you can find one who is young and still trying to build his client portfolio, then you have a better chance at getting some deals. Once you have a relationship established, make it known that you need discount airtime and are flexible with regards to when your ads run, as long as it is on the appropriate channels. You may be able to pick up discounted airtime near the end of the month. TV stations fill unsold airtime with commercials of existing advertisers - for free. They would rather sell it to you at a discount than give it away for free.

The other option is to use the services of a company like Spot Runner. Spot Runner lets you customize a pre-created commercial with your own logo and voice over, and then lets you pick specific airtimes on specific channels. The interesting thing is that they can help you target your ads down to the neighborhood. The company already has everything in place - all you have to do is fill in the details.

One strong budget-minded use of TV advertising is to direct the viewer to your web site. Your web site can explain way more about your business than you have time to explain in a 30 or 60 second commercial. However, don't just direct viewers to your front page. Create some kind of special offer, create a landing page devoted to it, and promote the URL to the landing page in your ads.

For help creating an aggressive, multi-pronged marketing plan, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, branding, cable TV, internet marketing, marketing, TV advertising, web marketing, web site marketing

We thought we would take the time today to talk about some online advertising methods we are either already doing or are thinking about implementing.

We are working with a mortgage lead generation business that is using Google video ads. We are running the ads on news web sites local to our target markets. Google video ads are bought on a cost per thousand impressions basis, although it's still a bid model. So far we have had limited success due to lack of sufficient impressions. We are dealing with fairly small markets, so we don't really have enough data yet to make any conclusions. Our feeling is that given enough exposure, the video ads would be very effective at both generating traffic and brand building.

We are looking into using www.turn.com. It is a CPA ("Cost per Acquisition") ad network. In other words, you determine how much you are willing to pay for the accomplishment of some kind of action - a newsletter sign up, a sale, etc. - and that is what you pay. So rather than paying for just a click to your site, you are paying for the conversion, thus eliminating risk.

We are also looking at trying out some ad networks. One that looks interesting is www.mediatraffic.com. The way Media Traffic works is that the advertiser's offer is displayed in a popup or popunder window to users who have downloaded utilities by Vomba Network. The company claims there are 7 million of these users. Advertisers bid on keywords and URLs used by the Vomba Network users. When a match is found, it triggers the ad.

If you would like help running a more sophisticated Internet marketing campaign, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad networks, advertising, branding, google, Google Adwords, internet marketing, marketing, web marketing, web site marketing

Pay-per-click marketing is a fantastic way to engage in a targeted advertising campaign - this you probably already know. But what most people don't think about is what a quick and cost-effective testing ground search engine marketing is.

For example, if you sell a product that has very little actual cost of production (such as an information product), there is a price point at which you would generate the most revenue. It's probably not the lowest price you could charge, and it's probably not the highest (although it could be). It's probably somewhere in the middle. The difference between $49 and $59 could mean thousands in additional sales, but you have no idea what the right price point is until you test it.

That's where ppc comes in extremely handy. In the old days (the 90's) of direct marketing, you would have to conduct expensive sales letter campaigns to uncover such data. It took weeks and cost a considerable amount of money to run a split sales letter campaign to test two different offers. With pay-per-click, you can begin generating data today, and the cost can be as little or as much as you feel comfortable spending to find out what you need to know.

Here's how to do it:

1. Set up an ad campaign in your favorite search engine.
2. Run two or more ads for each ad group, with each ad linking to a landing page with a different offer.
3. Within a week, if your product and landing page copy is decent, you should make some sales.
4. Compare the revenue generated by each landing page. The one that generates the most revenue is probably the optimal offer.

You may want to run the test campaign for more than a week. The more data you have, the more confident you can be in your results.

This procedure can be used for any product or service.

For help using paid search engine ads to test your offers or other variables, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, internet marketing, marketing, pay per click, pay-per-click, ppc, search engine marketing, search marketing, sem, sponsored search, web marketing, web site marketing

Yesterday marked out 80th blog post. We're proud of that because it really took us quite a while to get the hang of it, but we're on a roll now. If you've been reading this blog for a while, then we thank you for sticking with us. If you're new, then we thank you for helping us grow. Now onto something related to Internet marketing...

Today we're going to talk about how to use del.icio.us to promote your site. We're beginning with the assumption that you already have an account and have already installed the tool to bookmark web sites.

When you take the action of bookmarking a web site, you will have the options of typing a title, comments, and tags for the site, separated by a space. The title should incorporate the most popular search phrases people are using to search for your product or service. And it should make the reader really want to click the link. Strong copy writing skills are handy at this step. It is also a good idea to type some comments because others may read your comments before deciding whether or not to visit or bookmark the site.

Then you will type in a list of keywords your customers might use to find your web site. It would probably be a good idea to do some keyword research to find the search phrases people are using to find web sites like yours. Keyword research is a detailed topic unto itself, so we will not discuss general purpose keyword research in this document. But one good way to find keywords searchers are using is to do a search related to your business in the del.icio.us search box, then select one of the top results to inspect it to see what tags people have applied to that web site.

For example, if you search for “log cabins” in del.icio.us, the top result (at the time of this writing) has a header that starts “Log homes & log cabins from scratch –“, which is a link to a builder of log homes. Highlighted in pink next to the listing are the words “saved by 30 people”. Clicking that pink link will show you the comments people have made about the site, as well as the most common tags used for the site (on the right-side of the screen). Clicking “list” in the common tags box shows the exact number of times that each tag was used. In our example, the tag “building” was used 8 times, and the tag “loghomes” was used 5 times. The “cloud” view does the same thing, but visually rather than with numbers (heavier used tags are bigger). The term for displaying tags in this manner is a “tag cloud”. You will also notice that above the search results is a section called “Related tags” which will show you more tags related to your search.

Using the above technique will give you a good idea of the tags other people are using to bookmark web sites in your industry, which is a good way of building a list of tags for your site. We recommend bookmarking one page from your site every day, with a set of tags that apply specifically to that page. If you can get some of your co-workers, friends, employees, etc., to also do this on a regular basis, you expose your site to many more people who, hopefully, will like your site good enough to bookmark it themselves.

For help using social bookmarking sites to promote your web site, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: del.icio.us, internet marketing, marketing, social bookmarking, social media, web marketing, web site marketing

When writing copy for your web site (or any other marketing piece), don't assume that the reader will understand why he should do business with you. Don't overestimate the intelligence of the reader. Write in such a way that a person who doesn't know anything about your industry will understand what you are saying. Don't worry about insulting anyone's intelligence.

In addition to producing more sales, a detailed letter written for a wide audience will be easier to read. It will flow. The reason is that reading on a computer screen is more difficult than reading on paper. It's hard on the eyes. So short sentences and short paragraphs, along with bullet points and other visual effects, are easier to follow.

Use stories, anecdotes, facts and figures to make it crystal clear to the reader why she must do business with you. You probably won't accomplish this by listing the details of what you do or sell. You must convert those features (of the product or service) into benefits (to the customer). Provide an inventory of all the benefits that will accrue to the customer. One after another. This is no time to be modest.

Give proof that what you say is true. If you have specific training, education, or certifications in your industry that are evidences of your status, then tell about it. If you have specific experience and have accomplished certain results, then tell about it. You will do this after discussing the benefits. In essence, you are trying to entice the reader into purchasing from you, and then using concrete evidence to reduce skepticism.

The final dot that needs to be connected is what action the reader needs to take. Again, don't assume that it will be obvious to the reader what he should do. Tell him what phone number to call, when to call, what email to use, when to email, what web site to go to, etc. etc. etc. Using the ideas of scarcity ("supplies are limited") or time constraints ("Offer ends this Friday") are ways to prod the reader into action. People naturally procrastinate, so you have to do something to force action.

If you would like some help writing sales copy for your web site, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad writing, advertising, content, content creation, conversion strategy, copywriting, internet marketing, marketing

A.I.D.

Attention, interest, desire.

This is a classic direct marketing formula that, if you apply it to your online marketing, will make you much more successful. Today's blog is a lesson in applying this formula to your Internet marketing.

The "Attention" in A.I.D. means that you use some kind of immediate, attention-grabbing start to your marketing. Typically, this is accomplished with a headline. Just like traditional advertising, your Internet marketing - a web page, an email, a press release, or whatever - needs to have a headline that sparks the curiosity of the reader.

Here are a couple of examples of classic headline formulas that have worked for years:

They laughed when I [did something] but not when I [did something else unexpected]

How to [do something] 236% better.

The first formula plays off of the human desire to do something, or to do it better. The original use of the headline was for instructional material about playing the piano. It implied that the product would teach anyone how to play the piano. The second example demonstrates the use of some kind of very specific, proven result. It may seem odd to use a percentage like 236% rather than some rounded number, but that kind of specificity lends credibility to the headline. The point is to try and craft some kind of headline that compels the reader to read more. The headline is the ad for the ad.

Once you've got the reader past the headline, it's time to tell him all the reasons he should do business with you. This is the "Interest" part of the formula. The copy should focus on the reader and what she gains. This is where you tell all the benefits of your product or service. Benefits are not features. Features are the technical details of what you do or sell. It is things like size, color, and services that will be performed. You should not assume that the reader understands why the features are desirable. You should specifically tell him why the features are good. Translate every feature into a benefit to the prospect and focus your copy on that. Discuss features AFTER discussing benefits. The interest section is also where you can discuss your credentials and other things that set you apart from your competition.

The "Desire" part of the formula is where you convince the reader that he will benefit greatly if he does business with you right now, but will lose out if he delays. You create a feeling of desire by offering free bonuses if the prospect acts immediately, or a discount price. Or by placing a time limit on the offer, so that if action is not taken by some date, then the product or service will no longer be available.

The copy should close with a call to action - tell the reader exactly what to do. Make it EASY to do business with you.

It is possible that strict adherence to the A.I.D. formula isn't quite appropriate for your business. But you need to keep it in the back of your mind when writing copy for your web site or other purposes. Provide the reader with valuable information, but don't forget - ultimately, your goal is to turn a prospect into a customer.

For help writing convincing copy for your web site, contact Work Media at Info@WorkMedia.net or 888-299-4837.

Labels: ad writing, content creation, copywriting, internet marketing, marketing, online branding, web marketing, web site marketing

Yesterday we began our discussion of MSN AdCenter Labs beta tools for Internet marketing purposes. Today we continue that discussion by looking at a couple more of the tools, the Keyword Forecast tool and Demographics Prediction tool.

Here is the URL: http://adlab.msn.com/demo.aspx

The Keyword Forecast tool is interesting because it shows the past traffic for a particular keyword as well as expected traffic for the next couple of months (although, the forecast time period is actually in the last couple of months, which I assume is related to the age of the data). You can also chart more than one keyword at a time and view them on the same chart. In addition to past and forecast traffic, the tools shows age and gender distribution for each search term.

For instance, I ran a chart using the terms "internet marketing", "search engine marketing", and "search marketing". Based on the chart created by the Keyword Forecast tool, the term "internet marketing" is used far more often than the other two terms and is expected to continue rising in popularity. Traffic for the term "search marketing" is flat and not expected to see any significant increase.

Looking at the demographics, all of the search terms are used heaviest by people over the age of 50. In addition, the term "search engine marketing" is used much more often by men than women. And in general, it looks like men perform about 50% more Internet marketing-related searches than women. One thing you have to keep in mind, however, is that the data is likely skewed based on the particular demographics of MSN.com.

The Demographics Prediction tool predicts your customer's age, gender, and other demographic information based on a URL of keyword. For example, I ran the tool with the search term "internet marketing", and it returned the following information:

• Male: 63%
• Female: 37%
• Age: 25 - 34

Interestingly, the Keyword Forecast tool indicated that the greatest number of people using this search term were over 50, but the Demographics Prediction tool indicates they are between the ages of 25 and 34. So you will definitely need to use some judgement when trying to use these tools to determine demographic data for your prospective customers.

If you would like some help implementing your own Internet marketing campaign, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or info@workmedia.net.

Labels: internet marketing, keyword research, marketing, MSN, MSN Labs, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, sem, seo, web marketing, web site marketing

As an aggressive Internet marketer, you need to use every tool at your disposal that might give you an edge on your competition. One such set of tools that my brother and I (this is Jerry) have been looking into is Microsoft AdCenter Labs. Here is the URL:

http://adlab.msn.com/demo.aspx

The tools are divided into four categories:

• Paid Search
• Contextual Advertising
• Behavioral Targeting
• Emerging Markets

We're going to start by looking at the Paid Search tools. Some of the tools are fairly conventional in nature, such as the Keyword Group Detection tool, which is basically just a keyword tool (although a good one), and the Keyword Mutation Detection tool, which helps you discover alternate or misspellings of keywords from search logs.

But one tool that's really interesting is the Search Funnel tool, which helps you visualize and analyze search behaviors. You type in a search phrase related to your product or service, and the tool will show you a funnell representing either the search phrases that had been used before arriving at your search phrase, or search phrases that were used after using your search phrase.

For example, I typed in the search phrase"Gibson Guitars", and it showed me a funnel with the following 5 search phrases (because I had set it to a filter of only showing the top 5):

• guitars
• www.gibsonguitars.com
• ebay
• fender guitars
• gibson

So those are the top 5 search phrases that were used before conducting a search for "Gibson Guitars" (based on the data that MSN has compiled - I would assume based on on MSN.com searches). You can do the same thing to find searches conducted after our test phrase. That results in the following list:

• fender guitars
• ebay
• martin guitars
• epiphone guitars
• guitars

This is very interesting data. If you have a really good idea of the searches people are conducting to arrive at your or your competitors' web sites, then that should give you all kinds of ideas for search phrases to target for SEO, PPC, articles to write, etc. etc. etc. Think about it.

If you need help with your search marketing campaign, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or info@workmedia.net.

Labels: internet marketing, keyword research, marketing, MSN, MSN Labs, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, sem, seo, web marketing, web site marketing

Last Thursday I (Jerry) participated in the Nashville Technology Council's Search Engine Marketing Roundtable. Along with two other Nashville Internet marketing professionals, I answered a number of questions posed by a moderator as well as from the crowd. Word was we had broken a record for pre-registration for an NTC event, and the room was packed, so I take this as a strong sign that there is growing interest in search engine marketing.

At the end of the event, we looked at a couple of web sites of people in the audience. Based on what I saw from those sites, as well as the questions asked by many members of the audience, it is my opinion that people in general really don't understand a very primary rule of search engine marketing:

Your web site should have lots of well-written, keyword-rich content, and that content should be packaged in web pages with as little else as possible.

Two sites we looked at represented opposite ends of the spectrum of web site design, and they both missed the mark from an optimization perspective. The first site was a very slick, dynamic site developed in Flash. The problem with the design, as good as it looked, is that it had little text content for search engines to spider. My advice regarding the site, beyond redesign (and the company had just launched the new design, so that was not a good option) was to make sure that titles and any available HTML elements were optimized, and to engage in an aggressive link swapping campaign. The way to overcome weak on-site optimization is with lots and lots of relevant linking.

The second site was much more bare bones and had much more content, but it was constructed from a clunky, table-heavy design. My advice to this site owner would be to have the site redesigned using div layers to minimize the amount of HTML and maximize the content. Do that, and pay close attention to the page titles and optimization of other HTML elements, and the site would have a good chance of success, especially if done while engaging in a linking campaign.

So remember: it's all about content and clean design (from an HTML perspective). Concentrate on those two things and you can have a very nicely optimized web site.

For help engaging in your own search engine optimization campaign, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or info@workmedia.net

Labels: internet marketing, marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, search marketing, sem, seo, web marketing, web site marketing

According to Online Media Daily, Yahoo! and Create With Context surveyed 2,261 customers who had recently engaged in an online transation such as consumer electronics, automobiles, hotels or loans. Their conclusion was that 40% of those surveyed could be classified as "brand advocates" - meaning they discussed and endorsed their preferred brands with others. For instance, they might discuss their favorite brands on message boards or on a mySpace page.

40%.

This definitely underscores the importance in building a strong "brand" for your company. Working like hell to sell your product or service is a bit of a waste if you don't have a "brand" by which your market can identify you.

So think long and hard about the colors on your web site, your logo, the "look" of your web site. And think long and hard about the story of your business. And what it is that differentiates you from others. If there isn't anything, create something. Because it is likely that 40% of the people you sale to online will go on to endorse your brand and spread your brand to others. If they feel you're worth it.

And if you have a brand.

Contact Work Media at info@workmedia.net or 888-299-4837 for help building your Company's brand and infusing it into your Internet marketing campaign.

Labels: brand, branding, internet marketing, marketing, online branding, social media, surveys, Yahoo

If you publish a regular blog, you should take the steps to make sure that those searching for blog posts in sites like technorati.com can find your blog. So you want to do three things:

1. Use keywords that someone might use to search for your site in the title and body of the blog post.
2. Tag your posts with the same keywords.
3. Ping the blog directories and sites like technorati.com.
   

Some people will search for your blog post by doing a keyword search. So here you need to thing along the same lines of web page optimization. We don't believe you necessarily have to worry too much about things like keyword density, but you should try to use as many different variations of your keywords as you can.

Some people will search for your blog post based on a tag. For instance, you could search for blogs tagged "internet marketing" to view all blogs that had been specifically tagged that way, even if the words "internet marketing" were not used in the blog.

Most blogging applications should be able to tag your posts automatically (you will have to specify the tags). For instance, in Blogger.com, the application we use, we can enter "labels" (the same thing as tags), and Blogger will automatically create a web page for each tag which contains all of our posts with that same tag. It will then add hyperlinks at the bottom of the post which link to those pages.

After you post your blog, you can use a service like http://pingomatic to ping a number of blog directories at once, so they know that your blog has been updated.

So if you tag your posts with keywords and use the keywords in the blog title and content, your blog will be better optimized to appear in social bookmarking / blogging applications, which should earn you some nice links back to your site if you regularly post and ping the blog directories.

If you need help with your Internet marketing campaign, contact Work Media at workmedia.net or 888-299-4837.

Labels: blog marketing, blogging, internet marketing, marketing, search engine marketing, web marketing