Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Blogger Outreach - What Do They
Think About SEOs?'
Posted by DaveSottimano
Have you ever wondered why bloggers didn't reply to your last outreach email?
Why they refused to link to your shiny new infographic, or what they really
think about SEOs?
I conducted a 26 qu...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/7VJlcQvsdHA/blogger-outreach-what-do-they-think-about-seos
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posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Monday 30 September 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Best of the Month: September's Greatest Hits'
You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/pS6E5LfBV1Q/best-of-september You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
While compiling the "Best of September" post this month, I happened across this, on Tumblr:
Seasonal Babysitters Club covers are the best way to celebrate any holiday or change of season. Print this out on a sweatshirt and wear it while sipping your pumpkin-flavored whatever.
Wow, I wish I had known about this before! Please tell me I'm not the only person in the search marketing industry who read every Babysitters Club book. (Then sold the whole collection at a garage sale for less than $20, sob.)
Now for some reading to enjoy as you sip that pumpkin latte. Here are our 10 most popular blog posts from past 30 days. Read 'em, know 'em, love 'em.
- The Best Keyword Research Tools (For Experienced Fishermen & Fisherwomen Only) - The AdWords Keyword Tool's reign has come to an end. Johnathan Dane shares his eight favorite keyword tool alternatives.
- Content Marketing for E-Commerce: 3 Great Examples - Content marketing: Not just for B2B and lead gen companies! Here are three e-commerce businesses killing it with clever content.
- How to Make an Excel Bubble Chart for PPC - Excel wizard Chad Summerhill shows us how to improve our PPC storytelling with bubble charts.
- New! Build Landing Pages & Manage Leads with WordStream - The rumors are true: We've released a landing page builder. It's pretty cool.
- Mobile Advertising: Why Just Showing Up on Mobile Isn't Enough - Adam from our product team explains why you need mobile-specific ads if you're going to advertise on mobile devices.
- How to Create Squeeze Pages: What Makes an Awesome Squeeze Page Design? - What the heck is a squeeze page? Meg explains, with plenty of tips and examples.
- PPC for Lead Generation: How to Get More Leads with PPC - PPC works amazingly well for lead-gen companies, especially those with relatively high customer value. Learn how to make it work for you.
- New Commands for Google Voice Search: It Doesn't Get Much Lazier Than This - Learn what that little microphone in your Google search box is for, and how to use it.
- Creative PPC: 5 Clever & Interesting Ways to Use PPC Marketing - This fun guest post from Taewoo Kim shares some smart ideas for using PPC in ways you never thought of.
- The 80/20 Principle Part 2: Force Multiplication & The 80/20 Principle, Part 3: Finding Your Natural Persuasion Groove - Perry Marshall continues to blow our minds with this series on the 80/20 principle and all the ways you can leverage it. (Find Part 1 here.)
See you in October!
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Sunday 29 September 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Flyboarding on Lake Lanier with Dr. Matthew Loop'
Here’s my first flyboarding attempt at Lake Lanier, GA. It was too much fun! I wiped-out a few times… hard! Allow my pain to entertain you at 21 seconds. If you’re in the Atlanta area and enjoy extreme adventure, check this company out here.
–
Did you like this post? Click the Facebook "like" button below and share it with your friends.
Related Blog Posts:
Cancun Jetpack Adventure with Dr Matthew Loop
Ferrari F430 Test Drive [video]
AWESOME Paragliding Adventure in South America
Caribbean Adventure on the Island of Providenciales
You may view the latest post at http://dcincome.com/blog/flyboarding-on-lake-lanier/ You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.comSaturday 28 September 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] 7 Things You Need to Know From My Content Amplification Test
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, '7 Things You Need to Know From My
Content Amplification Test'
The new Hummingbird release pushes Google further along as a provider of
first-hand information. You'll be seeing more much more of the Google
Knowledge Box that sometimes appears on the top right-hand corner of search
results, giving you what you need without having to navigate to a different
website. This is part of []
7 Things You Need to Know From My Content Amplification Test is a post from:
Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/47225430/0/convinceandconvert~Things-You-Need-to-Know-From-My-Content-Amplification-Test/
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Content Amplification Test'
The new Hummingbird release pushes Google further along as a provider of
first-hand information. You'll be seeing more much more of the Google
Knowledge Box that sometimes appears on the top right-hand corner of search
results, giving you what you need without having to navigate to a different
website. This is part of []
7 Things You Need to Know From My Content Amplification Test is a post from:
Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/47225430/0/convinceandconvert~Things-You-Need-to-Know-From-My-Content-Amplification-Test/
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Friday 27 September 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] Solving the Sub-Domain Equation: Predicting Traffic and Value when Merging Sub-Domains
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Solving the Sub-Domain Equation:
Predicting Traffic and Value when Merging Sub-Domains'
Posted by russviranteThis post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the
main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The
author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz,
Inc.
To...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/BkawCAef_Ao/solving-the-subdomain-equation-predicting-traffic-and-value-when-merging-subdomains
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posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Predicting Traffic and Value when Merging Sub-Domains'
Posted by russviranteThis post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the
main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The
author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz,
Inc.
To...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/BkawCAef_Ao/solving-the-subdomain-equation-predicting-traffic-and-value-when-merging-subdomains
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] Setting Goals (Not Tools) as the Foundation of Your Marketing - Whiteboard Friday
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Setting Goals (Not Tools) as the
Foundation of Your Marketing - Whiteboard Friday'
Posted by MackenzieFogelson
With new tools introduced so regularly, it's easy for marketers to spend an
inordinate amount of time trying to figure out which ones are most effective for
their own work. That focus, though, shifts our attention from what really
matters: setting the right goals for our companies. In today's Whiteboard
Friday, Mackenzie Fogelson walks us through the five-stage process she uses to
make sure her team's attention is on what really matters.
Setting Goals (Not Tools) as the Foundation of Your Marketing - Whiteboard
Friday
For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!
Video Transcription
Hey there, Moz community! I'm so excited to be here with you today. I wanted
to share something with you that has been really powerful for the businesses
we've been working with in the last year or so about building community. It's a
concept that we call "goals not tools," and it works in this pyramid format
where you start with your goals, you move on to KPIs, you develop a strategy,
you execute that strategy, and then you analyze your data. And this is something
that has been really powerful and helped businesses really grow. So I'm going to
walk you through it here.
We start down at the bottom with goals. So the deal with goals is that you
want to make sure that you're setting goals for your entire business, not just
for SEO or social media or content marketing, because you're trying to grow your
whole business. So keep your focus there. Then once you develop your goals, and
those goals might be to improve customer communication or you want to become a
thought leader. Whatever your goal is, that's where you're going to set it.
Then you move on to determining what your key performance indicators are and
what you're going to use to actually measure the fact that you may or may not be
reaching your goals. So in terms of KPIs, it's really going to depend on your
business. When we determine KPIs with companies, we sit down and we have that
discussion with them before we develop the strategy, and that helps us to have a
very authentic and realistic discussion about expectations and how this is all
going to work and what kind of data they're expecting to see so that we're
proving that we're actually making a difference in their business.
So once you've determined those KPIs, then you move on to developing a
creative strategy, a creative way to meet those goals and to measure it the way
you've determined in your KPIs. So this is your detailed roadmap, and it's two
to three months at a time. A lot of companies will go for maybe 12 months and
try to get that high level overview of where they're going for the year, and
that's fine. Just make sure that you're not detailing out everything that you're
doing for the next year because it makes it harder to be agile. So we'd
recommend two- to-three month iterations at a time. Go through, test things, and
see how that works.
During your strategy development you're also going to select the tools that
you're going to use. Maybe it's Facebook, maybe it's SEO, maybe it's content
marketing, maybe it's email marketing, PPC. There's all kinds of tools that
could be used, and they don't all have to be digital. So you just need to be
creative and determine what you need to plan out so that you can reach the goals
that you've set.
Then once you've got your strategy developed, that's really some of the
hardest part until you get to execution. Then you're actually doing all the
work. You need to be consistent. You need to make sure that you're staying
focused and following that strategy that you've set. You also want to test
things because you want as much data as possible so that you can determine if
things are working or not. So make sure that during execution there are going to
be things that come up, emergent things, shiny things, exciting things. So what
you'll have to do is weigh whether those things wait for the next iteration in
two to three months, or whether you deviate your plan and you integrate those at
the time that they come up.
So once you're through execution, then really what you're doing is analyzing
that data that you've collected. You're trying to determine: Should we spend
more time on something? Should we pull something? Should we determine if
something else needs to completely change our plans so that we're making sure
that we're adding value? So analysis is probably the most important part because
you're always going to want to be looking at the data.
So in this whole process, what we always do is try to make sure that we're
focusing on two questions, and the most important one is: Where can we add more
value? So always be thinking about what you're doing, and if you can't answer
the value question, you know, "Why are we doing this? Does this provide value
for our customers or something internal that you're working on? If you can't
answer that question, it's probably not something valuable, and you don't need
to spend your time on it. Go somewhere else where you're adding the value.
Then the last question is where you can make the biggest difference in your
business, because that's what this is all about is growing your business. So if
you stay focused on goals, not tools, it's going to be really easy to do that.
Thanks for having me today, Moz. Hope I helped you out. Let me know in the
questions if you need any assistance.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/AEA5j3ausso/setting-goals-not-tools-as-the-foundation-of-your-marketing-whiteboard-friday
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Foundation of Your Marketing - Whiteboard Friday'
Posted by MackenzieFogelson
With new tools introduced so regularly, it's easy for marketers to spend an
inordinate amount of time trying to figure out which ones are most effective for
their own work. That focus, though, shifts our attention from what really
matters: setting the right goals for our companies. In today's Whiteboard
Friday, Mackenzie Fogelson walks us through the five-stage process she uses to
make sure her team's attention is on what really matters.
Setting Goals (Not Tools) as the Foundation of Your Marketing - Whiteboard
Friday
For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard!
Video Transcription
Hey there, Moz community! I'm so excited to be here with you today. I wanted
to share something with you that has been really powerful for the businesses
we've been working with in the last year or so about building community. It's a
concept that we call "goals not tools," and it works in this pyramid format
where you start with your goals, you move on to KPIs, you develop a strategy,
you execute that strategy, and then you analyze your data. And this is something
that has been really powerful and helped businesses really grow. So I'm going to
walk you through it here.
We start down at the bottom with goals. So the deal with goals is that you
want to make sure that you're setting goals for your entire business, not just
for SEO or social media or content marketing, because you're trying to grow your
whole business. So keep your focus there. Then once you develop your goals, and
those goals might be to improve customer communication or you want to become a
thought leader. Whatever your goal is, that's where you're going to set it.
Then you move on to determining what your key performance indicators are and
what you're going to use to actually measure the fact that you may or may not be
reaching your goals. So in terms of KPIs, it's really going to depend on your
business. When we determine KPIs with companies, we sit down and we have that
discussion with them before we develop the strategy, and that helps us to have a
very authentic and realistic discussion about expectations and how this is all
going to work and what kind of data they're expecting to see so that we're
proving that we're actually making a difference in their business.
So once you've determined those KPIs, then you move on to developing a
creative strategy, a creative way to meet those goals and to measure it the way
you've determined in your KPIs. So this is your detailed roadmap, and it's two
to three months at a time. A lot of companies will go for maybe 12 months and
try to get that high level overview of where they're going for the year, and
that's fine. Just make sure that you're not detailing out everything that you're
doing for the next year because it makes it harder to be agile. So we'd
recommend two- to-three month iterations at a time. Go through, test things, and
see how that works.
During your strategy development you're also going to select the tools that
you're going to use. Maybe it's Facebook, maybe it's SEO, maybe it's content
marketing, maybe it's email marketing, PPC. There's all kinds of tools that
could be used, and they don't all have to be digital. So you just need to be
creative and determine what you need to plan out so that you can reach the goals
that you've set.
Then once you've got your strategy developed, that's really some of the
hardest part until you get to execution. Then you're actually doing all the
work. You need to be consistent. You need to make sure that you're staying
focused and following that strategy that you've set. You also want to test
things because you want as much data as possible so that you can determine if
things are working or not. So make sure that during execution there are going to
be things that come up, emergent things, shiny things, exciting things. So what
you'll have to do is weigh whether those things wait for the next iteration in
two to three months, or whether you deviate your plan and you integrate those at
the time that they come up.
So once you're through execution, then really what you're doing is analyzing
that data that you've collected. You're trying to determine: Should we spend
more time on something? Should we pull something? Should we determine if
something else needs to completely change our plans so that we're making sure
that we're adding value? So analysis is probably the most important part because
you're always going to want to be looking at the data.
So in this whole process, what we always do is try to make sure that we're
focusing on two questions, and the most important one is: Where can we add more
value? So always be thinking about what you're doing, and if you can't answer
the value question, you know, "Why are we doing this? Does this provide value
for our customers or something internal that you're working on? If you can't
answer that question, it's probably not something valuable, and you don't need
to spend your time on it. Go somewhere else where you're adding the value.
Then the last question is where you can make the biggest difference in your
business, because that's what this is all about is growing your business. So if
you stay focused on goals, not tools, it's going to be really easy to do that.
Thanks for having me today, Moz. Hope I helped you out. Let me know in the
questions if you need any assistance.
Video transcription by Speechpad.com
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/AEA5j3ausso/setting-goals-not-tools-as-the-foundation-of-your-marketing-whiteboard-friday
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] How to Fix a “Broken Brand” with Social
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'How to Fix a "Broken Brand"
with Social'
James Royer, Director of Digital and Social for the Tampa Bay Lightning, joins
the Social Pros Podcast this week to discuss social space in American sports,
building rabid brand loyalty, and how to completely rebuild a broken brand
successfully. Read on for some of the highlights and tweetable moments, or
listen to the full podcast. []How to Fix a Broken Brand with Social is a post
from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-pros-podcast/how-to-fix-a-broken-brand-with-social/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-fix-a-broken-brand-with-social
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
with Social'
James Royer, Director of Digital and Social for the Tampa Bay Lightning, joins
the Social Pros Podcast this week to discuss social space in American sports,
building rabid brand loyalty, and how to completely rebuild a broken brand
successfully. Read on for some of the highlights and tweetable moments, or
listen to the full podcast. []How to Fix a Broken Brand with Social is a post
from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-pros-podcast/how-to-fix-a-broken-brand-with-social/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-fix-a-broken-brand-with-social
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Thursday 26 September 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] On Our Wait-List? You Get a Moz Analytics!
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'On Our Wait-List? You Get a Moz
Analytics!'
Posted by Anthony Skinner
It is with great pleasure that I announce the wait is over! That's right, we
are now letting people from our wait-list into Moz Analytics!
In many ways, I feel like a not-as-cute version of Oprah Winf...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/ME3hSo7kvfU/moz-analytics-wait-list-announcement
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Analytics!'
Posted by Anthony Skinner
It is with great pleasure that I announce the wait is over! That's right, we
are now letting people from our wait-list into Moz Analytics!
In many ways, I feel like a not-as-cute version of Oprah Winf...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/ME3hSo7kvfU/moz-analytics-wait-list-announcement
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] What Changed My Mind About Triberr and Turned Me Into an Advocate
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'What Changed My Mind About
Triberr and Turned Me Into an Advocate'
Dino Dogan and Dan Cristo have crafted what just might be the perfect social
sharing community on Triberr. That says a lot coming from a self-proclaimed
Social Media Diva like myself. I'm not going to go into a lot about why I didn't
embrace Triberr w...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/V6lrrpeZxd0/changed-my-mind-about-triberr.html
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Triberr and Turned Me Into an Advocate'
Dino Dogan and Dan Cristo have crafted what just might be the perfect social
sharing community on Triberr. That says a lot coming from a self-proclaimed
Social Media Diva like myself. I'm not going to go into a lot about why I didn't
embrace Triberr w...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BasicBlogTips/~3/V6lrrpeZxd0/changed-my-mind-about-triberr.html
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Targeting Bilingual & Spanish-Speaking Audiences in AdWords: The Why & How' 
You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/RnyQeUy6rvs/language-targeting-adwords You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
As digital marketers, we are always under the gun to drive more qualified searchers to our website. This can be a challenging job, especially once a PPC account is well-optimized.
So what do you do when your performance starts to plateau? Look for missed opportunities. Hands down, the most common area of missed opportunity I see in US-based accounts is not advertising to the bilingual, Hispanic community.
Why You Can't Afford to Neglect the Spanish Language Market
The numbers speak for themselves. According to the 2010 census, there are 53 million Hispanics living in the United States, which comes to 17% of our total population. Not only that, but this group is projected to continue growing at a rapid rate. As you devise your digital marketing strategy, this is an important factor to keep in mind. While all US-based advertisers should consider this audience, it is particularly critical to those targeting a younger audience (the median age across Hispanic communities in the US is 27.6) or regions with particularly large Latino communities.
Ok, so you didn't ace Spanish 101? Don't worry, you don't need to be fluent in order to expand your advertising to this ever-growing market. Remember, Google bases language targeting on a user's interface language. Users can edit this setting to ensure Google provides results in their selected language. For example, if a Spanish speaker who lives in the US sets his interface settings to Spanish, he will only see Spanish results, even if he is searching on www.google.com. AdWords will only display your ads if your language targeting matches a searchers' interface language.
Here's the key—according to Google, over 30% of online media consumption in the United States is conducted by searchers who use both Spanish and English interchangeably. These bilingual searchers tend to be a huge area of missed opportunity for US-based advertisers. If the primary language used in their households is Spanish, their browser settings are likely to be set to Spanish. However, they are also likely to conduct many searchers in English—therein lies the problem. If a business's language targeting is set to English only, its ads will not show to this audience.
Make This Easy Change to Your AdWords Campaigns NOW!
If your business is located in an area with a large Spanish-speaking population and your targeting is set to English-only, cancel whatever you have planned for the next ten minutes. Yes, this will be quick! All you have to do is identify your English-only campaigns and adjust your language targeting to include Spanish. Boom—you just expanded your PPC audience in a matter of a few clicks.
I know it sounds like we're taking the easy route out by simply tweaking the settings and neglecting to build campaigns in Spanish. However, in some cases, the easy route is truly the best route. If your website doesn't translate seamlessly or your sales/services aren't offered in Spanish, you probably don't want to risk advertising to a Spanish-only audience. While Spanish campaigns may help you to expand your impressions, it is not likely that you would see a proportional uptick in conversions.
Google recently shared results from a case study in which they applied this strategy.
As you can see, the benefits of the adjustments are clear. Not only did this advertiser experience an increase in click volume, they also found lower CPCs for the Spanish-speaking audience.
I highly recommend adjusting your strategy to include the Spanish-speaking population sooner rather than later. At this time, Latinos control $1 trillion in spending power in the US. This number is expected to grow 42% by 2017. It is critical to adapt your paid search campaigns before you miss out on great potential!
Buena suerte!
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
[Build Backlinks Online] Improving Search Rank by Optimizing Your Time to First Byte
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Improving Search Rank by
Optimizing Your Time to First Byte'
Posted by ZoompfThis post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main
blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's
views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz, Inc.
Back i...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/eWdCHJ7HNWI/improving-search-rank-by-optimizing-your-time-to-first-byte
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Optimizing Your Time to First Byte'
Posted by ZoompfThis post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main
blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's
views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz, Inc.
Back i...
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/eWdCHJ7HNWI/improving-search-rank-by-optimizing-your-time-to-first-byte
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] NARS Uses Snapchat to Release Preview of New Collection
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'NARS Uses Snapchat to Release
Preview of New Collection'
Call it the ultimate teaser cosmetics company NARS recently turned to Snapchat
to release a preview of its upcoming Guy Bourdin color cosmetics collection.
Snapchat, an app where you can share a photo or video in increments of anywhere
from one to ten seconds, allows users to send exclusive content to its
followers. The []
NARS Uses Snapchat to Release Preview of New Collection is a post from: Convince
and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/47089078/0/convinceandconvert~NARS-Uses-Snapchat-to-Release-Preview-of-New-Collection/
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Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Preview of New Collection'
Call it the ultimate teaser cosmetics company NARS recently turned to Snapchat
to release a preview of its upcoming Guy Bourdin color cosmetics collection.
Snapchat, an app where you can share a photo or video in increments of anywhere
from one to ten seconds, allows users to send exclusive content to its
followers. The []
NARS Uses Snapchat to Release Preview of New Collection is a post from: Convince
and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/47089078/0/convinceandconvert~NARS-Uses-Snapchat-to-Release-Preview-of-New-Collection/
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Wednesday 25 September 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Do I Need a College Degree to Start an Online Business?'
In this video, I answer a common question I frequently get asked when speaking at seminars around the country. The question is,”Do I need a college degree to start a 6-7 figure business around my passion?”
You might be surprised by the answer. It goes against convention wisdom and what the masses say you need to be successful in business.
Click the play button below to watch…
–
Did you like this post? Click the Facebook "like" button below and share it with your friends.
Related Blog Posts:
Should I Tell My Family I'm Starting an Online Business?
The 5 Pillars of a Successful Internet Business
Before You Start an Online Business, Watch This FIRST!
The 12 Common Denominators of Internet Millionaires
You may view the latest post at http://dcincome.com/blog/do-i-need-a-college-degree-to-start-an-online-business/ You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com[Build Backlinks Online] Kill It on Facebook by Being TAGFEE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Kill It on Facebook by Being
TAGFEE'
Posted by quietcorey
This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it
provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are
entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz, Inc.
Last month, I presented a Mozinar on Deconstructing a Niche Market. Much to my
surprise, the Q&A session focused almost entirely on my experience using
Facebook as a niche marketing channel.
It's true that Facebook is a dynamic and oft-misunderstood creature,
especially in marketing. When building a strategy with long-term sustainability
in mind, it's important to avoid relying on any one source of traffic. Any
channel can be fickle, and Facebook has certainly proven to be no exception.
That being said, Facebook still represents the largest share of the social
space, and is at least worth considering for businesses looking to diversify
their channel marketing portfolio, be it niche-targeted or otherwise.
Just 9 months after we decided to give the platform the old college try,
Facebook has become a substantial traffic source for our B2B business.
As I mentioned in the Mozinar, our business has spent the last nine months
developing our Facebook channel. As a result, we've seen traffic from Facebook
increase to the point where it is roughly equal to 30% of our organic traffic.
In this post, I'll be going through the philosophy we use to maximize
engagement and traffic.
Marketing like it's 2013
In a recent post on LinkedIn, marketing wizard Gary Vaynerchuk delivered this
gem: "It's 2013 and 99 percent of people are marketing their products like It's
2004."
His assessment is spot on.
Successfully building social media channels that drive converting traffic is
about more than a content schedule. On Facebook, you have a built-in audience of
anywhere from hundreds to millions of people who have opted in to your message.
Remind you of another platform you use? Email, perhaps?
Social media, of course, adds engagement into the mix. This means that you not
only have the opportunity to push your message out to your droves of fans, but a
responsibility to have conversations, contribute, and be a member of the
community.
If you want to market like it's 2013, you have to learn how to engage your
audience, not just talk at them.
The (not so) curious case of Sue Bryce
Sue Bryce is an award-winning professional photographer that teaches
photography through workshops on CreativeLIVE. If you take a look at her
Facebook page, you'll see that her engagement is off the charts. 43,000 likes
with 8,870 talking about her page.
How does she do it?
First things first, she's not even remotely shy about promoting herself or her
work. As you progress down her page, you'll definitely see the occasional post
promoting her events or cross-promoting her partners.
But therein lies the rub. The occasional post. The promotional posts are woven
into a cloth of intensely personal, fun, and sometimes catty quips about life,
the photography business, and people that she meets along her journey.
Among her most engaged-with recent posts? Sharing a story about getting dental
work done, and how happy it makes her feel. I guarantee that each person who
liked and/or commented on this post feels closer to Sue because of it.
In addition to sharing elements of her personal life, Sue communicates with
her Facebook community in her own voice. There is nothing that feels remotely
fake or forced about her posts. This makes it extremely easy for her fans to
feel a connection to her, and to respond to her posts, which they do quite
regularly.
Finally, Sue takes advantage of the fact that visual media performs
exceptionally well on Facebook. In fact, a 2012 HubSpot study found that photos
on Facebook generated 53% more likes than the average post. As possibly one of
the world's best photographers, of course, Sue has an unfair advantage in this
arena.
Even still, one of her recent photo shares depicting her and fellow
photography guru Kelly Brown in newborn poses garnered 2,174 likes, 156 shares,
and 262 comments. Why? Because it was fun, relevant to the audience, and (let's
be honest) darn cute.
Despite the fact that you're probably not a world-renowned photographer, it's
still extremely important to engage your audience with relevant visual media.
Behind-the-scenes photos, product photos, and event photos are all a good place
to start, and will work for most businesses.
Obviously, as a sole proprietor, Sue Bryce has a much easier time
incorporating her personal voice into her brand, and this type of strategy won't
necessarily work for all types of businesses. If nothing else, this case
exemplifies the possibilities of incorporating personality into your brand to
achieve outlandish levels of engagement.
Channeling your inner Sue by harnessing the power of TAGFEE
Seeing success is great, but this article isn't here to tell you how awesome
Sue is.
Image credit: Nicholas L., from Minneapolis
Interestingly, what makes her such a great example for the Moz audience is
that her Facebook page is a ridiculously great example of being TAGFEE. How can
you incorporate this attitude into your own social endeavors?
Be transparent and authentic
While transparency can get bogged down with organizational hurdles, the lesson
is to be yourself. Decide who your company is, and talk about things that
reflect that, even if they're uncomfortable. For example, if you sell industrial
supplies, don't be afraid to talk about the downsides of certain products.
Modern customers know better than to trust claims that everything you sell is
made out of sunshine, rainbows, and Adamantium.
Be generous
Offer special benefits to your fans that follow you on Facebook. Offer free
trials and products, highlight their success stories on your page, and
intentionally seek to add as much value to them as possible. This means thinking
critically about what you're adding to the conversation, not just extracting
from the platform.
Be fun
Again, being fun is relative, and dependent on company culture. But, as can be
seen in the example of Sue Bryce, fun drives engagement. The same goes for Moz.
It never hurts to take a lighthearted approach, and a good brand personality
will make your fans more engaged.
Be empathetic
On one level, empathy is about following the golden rule. Facebook manners are
no exception. Strive to be professional and respectful on social media at all
times. Additionally, I would argue that empathy is about continually seeking to
understand how your audience feels, what challenges they face, and working hard
to provide a product and resources that help them address those needs and
challenges.
Be exceptional
There is no shortcut to being exceptional. Always seek to try new things, test
new ideas, and be fresh and relevant. This is not only a healthy practice for
your business, but a way for you to add unique value for your fans. Being
exceptional lets you tell exceptional, unique, and fresh stories in a way that
other brands in your industry may not be able to. It's all about setting
yourself apart.
Being exceptional includes making the most of the platform. Use well designed,
cohesive image posts. Not only do you want each post to be interesting from a
visual perspective, but you want your page as a whole to have a sense of visual
flow. Doing this will not only boost your engagement, but also make your
Facebook page look more professional and put together.
The same goes for copy. Choose a voice that fits your brand, remember to edit,
and deliver your message exceptionally well. Know how you plan to format your
posts, and how formatting works on Facebook. If you mention one of your fans,
tag their name with @Username. Create a style guide and stick to it.
Paying to play
The problem of "pay to play" on Facebook is worth mentioning, as past and
future changes have and will alter your brand's visibility on the platform. As
it stands, our brand's data shows that we can expect to reach between 7% to 32%
of our built-in audience when posting without advertisements.
Facebook indicated in early 2012 that the average reach of an "organic" post
was 16%.
Considering that open rates of between 15% and 25% are, in general, considered
good in email marketing, we can say that non-boosted Facebook posts boast
respectable performance as they are.
The counter-intuitive twist is that paying to play isn't necessarily a bad
thing.
Much like a Google SERP in the dark ages of Internet marketing, a Facebook
feed inundated with an uncomfortable slurry of poorly written brand messages and
uninteresting posts isn't really a worthwhile place for your brand to be.
A realignment in the signal-to-noise ratio is a serious come-up for a brand
that uses Facebook responsibly and thoughtfully, and raises the bar to entry in
a way that benefits brands that have their house in order.
Considering that Facebook advertising is relatively affordable, and allows you
to target a ridiculously granular audience outside of your normal fan base, it
is definitely worth a go. Lauren Vaccarello from Salesforce gave an outstanding
primer on Facebook advertising in a recent WBF, and there's an excellent crash
course on YouMoz. I recommend checking out both of them if you think Facebook
advertising is a good fit for your business.
Additional resources
The social media landscape is constantly evolving, and Facebook is no
exception. Over time, citizens of the Facebook empire will likely grow more and
more desensitized to advertising. While some best practices are bound to remain
exactly the same, it's important to keep an eye out for developments in the
ecosystem.
That said, you can cover most of the basics with the following resources:
6 Facebook Marketing Best Practices
Facebook Timeline: 9 Best Practices for Brands
7 Key Ways to Optimize Facebook Fan Page SEO
And that's a wrap. Enjoy building an outstanding Facebook presence, and
rememberâkeep it TAGFEE!
Have you had great success driving traffic with Facebook? Please share your
experiences in the comments below.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/mLL7JvC_mdI/kill-it-on-facebook-by-being-tagfee
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
TAGFEE'
Posted by quietcorey
This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it
provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are
entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz, Inc.
Last month, I presented a Mozinar on Deconstructing a Niche Market. Much to my
surprise, the Q&A session focused almost entirely on my experience using
Facebook as a niche marketing channel.
It's true that Facebook is a dynamic and oft-misunderstood creature,
especially in marketing. When building a strategy with long-term sustainability
in mind, it's important to avoid relying on any one source of traffic. Any
channel can be fickle, and Facebook has certainly proven to be no exception.
That being said, Facebook still represents the largest share of the social
space, and is at least worth considering for businesses looking to diversify
their channel marketing portfolio, be it niche-targeted or otherwise.
Just 9 months after we decided to give the platform the old college try,
Facebook has become a substantial traffic source for our B2B business.
As I mentioned in the Mozinar, our business has spent the last nine months
developing our Facebook channel. As a result, we've seen traffic from Facebook
increase to the point where it is roughly equal to 30% of our organic traffic.
In this post, I'll be going through the philosophy we use to maximize
engagement and traffic.
Marketing like it's 2013
In a recent post on LinkedIn, marketing wizard Gary Vaynerchuk delivered this
gem: "It's 2013 and 99 percent of people are marketing their products like It's
2004."
His assessment is spot on.
Successfully building social media channels that drive converting traffic is
about more than a content schedule. On Facebook, you have a built-in audience of
anywhere from hundreds to millions of people who have opted in to your message.
Remind you of another platform you use? Email, perhaps?
Social media, of course, adds engagement into the mix. This means that you not
only have the opportunity to push your message out to your droves of fans, but a
responsibility to have conversations, contribute, and be a member of the
community.
If you want to market like it's 2013, you have to learn how to engage your
audience, not just talk at them.
The (not so) curious case of Sue Bryce
Sue Bryce is an award-winning professional photographer that teaches
photography through workshops on CreativeLIVE. If you take a look at her
Facebook page, you'll see that her engagement is off the charts. 43,000 likes
with 8,870 talking about her page.
How does she do it?
First things first, she's not even remotely shy about promoting herself or her
work. As you progress down her page, you'll definitely see the occasional post
promoting her events or cross-promoting her partners.
But therein lies the rub. The occasional post. The promotional posts are woven
into a cloth of intensely personal, fun, and sometimes catty quips about life,
the photography business, and people that she meets along her journey.
Among her most engaged-with recent posts? Sharing a story about getting dental
work done, and how happy it makes her feel. I guarantee that each person who
liked and/or commented on this post feels closer to Sue because of it.
In addition to sharing elements of her personal life, Sue communicates with
her Facebook community in her own voice. There is nothing that feels remotely
fake or forced about her posts. This makes it extremely easy for her fans to
feel a connection to her, and to respond to her posts, which they do quite
regularly.
Finally, Sue takes advantage of the fact that visual media performs
exceptionally well on Facebook. In fact, a 2012 HubSpot study found that photos
on Facebook generated 53% more likes than the average post. As possibly one of
the world's best photographers, of course, Sue has an unfair advantage in this
arena.
Even still, one of her recent photo shares depicting her and fellow
photography guru Kelly Brown in newborn poses garnered 2,174 likes, 156 shares,
and 262 comments. Why? Because it was fun, relevant to the audience, and (let's
be honest) darn cute.
Despite the fact that you're probably not a world-renowned photographer, it's
still extremely important to engage your audience with relevant visual media.
Behind-the-scenes photos, product photos, and event photos are all a good place
to start, and will work for most businesses.
Obviously, as a sole proprietor, Sue Bryce has a much easier time
incorporating her personal voice into her brand, and this type of strategy won't
necessarily work for all types of businesses. If nothing else, this case
exemplifies the possibilities of incorporating personality into your brand to
achieve outlandish levels of engagement.
Channeling your inner Sue by harnessing the power of TAGFEE
Seeing success is great, but this article isn't here to tell you how awesome
Sue is.
Image credit: Nicholas L., from Minneapolis
Interestingly, what makes her such a great example for the Moz audience is
that her Facebook page is a ridiculously great example of being TAGFEE. How can
you incorporate this attitude into your own social endeavors?
Be transparent and authentic
While transparency can get bogged down with organizational hurdles, the lesson
is to be yourself. Decide who your company is, and talk about things that
reflect that, even if they're uncomfortable. For example, if you sell industrial
supplies, don't be afraid to talk about the downsides of certain products.
Modern customers know better than to trust claims that everything you sell is
made out of sunshine, rainbows, and Adamantium.
Be generous
Offer special benefits to your fans that follow you on Facebook. Offer free
trials and products, highlight their success stories on your page, and
intentionally seek to add as much value to them as possible. This means thinking
critically about what you're adding to the conversation, not just extracting
from the platform.
Be fun
Again, being fun is relative, and dependent on company culture. But, as can be
seen in the example of Sue Bryce, fun drives engagement. The same goes for Moz.
It never hurts to take a lighthearted approach, and a good brand personality
will make your fans more engaged.
Be empathetic
On one level, empathy is about following the golden rule. Facebook manners are
no exception. Strive to be professional and respectful on social media at all
times. Additionally, I would argue that empathy is about continually seeking to
understand how your audience feels, what challenges they face, and working hard
to provide a product and resources that help them address those needs and
challenges.
Be exceptional
There is no shortcut to being exceptional. Always seek to try new things, test
new ideas, and be fresh and relevant. This is not only a healthy practice for
your business, but a way for you to add unique value for your fans. Being
exceptional lets you tell exceptional, unique, and fresh stories in a way that
other brands in your industry may not be able to. It's all about setting
yourself apart.
Being exceptional includes making the most of the platform. Use well designed,
cohesive image posts. Not only do you want each post to be interesting from a
visual perspective, but you want your page as a whole to have a sense of visual
flow. Doing this will not only boost your engagement, but also make your
Facebook page look more professional and put together.
The same goes for copy. Choose a voice that fits your brand, remember to edit,
and deliver your message exceptionally well. Know how you plan to format your
posts, and how formatting works on Facebook. If you mention one of your fans,
tag their name with @Username. Create a style guide and stick to it.
Paying to play
The problem of "pay to play" on Facebook is worth mentioning, as past and
future changes have and will alter your brand's visibility on the platform. As
it stands, our brand's data shows that we can expect to reach between 7% to 32%
of our built-in audience when posting without advertisements.
Facebook indicated in early 2012 that the average reach of an "organic" post
was 16%.
Considering that open rates of between 15% and 25% are, in general, considered
good in email marketing, we can say that non-boosted Facebook posts boast
respectable performance as they are.
The counter-intuitive twist is that paying to play isn't necessarily a bad
thing.
Much like a Google SERP in the dark ages of Internet marketing, a Facebook
feed inundated with an uncomfortable slurry of poorly written brand messages and
uninteresting posts isn't really a worthwhile place for your brand to be.
A realignment in the signal-to-noise ratio is a serious come-up for a brand
that uses Facebook responsibly and thoughtfully, and raises the bar to entry in
a way that benefits brands that have their house in order.
Considering that Facebook advertising is relatively affordable, and allows you
to target a ridiculously granular audience outside of your normal fan base, it
is definitely worth a go. Lauren Vaccarello from Salesforce gave an outstanding
primer on Facebook advertising in a recent WBF, and there's an excellent crash
course on YouMoz. I recommend checking out both of them if you think Facebook
advertising is a good fit for your business.
Additional resources
The social media landscape is constantly evolving, and Facebook is no
exception. Over time, citizens of the Facebook empire will likely grow more and
more desensitized to advertising. While some best practices are bound to remain
exactly the same, it's important to keep an eye out for developments in the
ecosystem.
That said, you can cover most of the basics with the following resources:
6 Facebook Marketing Best Practices
Facebook Timeline: 9 Best Practices for Brands
7 Key Ways to Optimize Facebook Fan Page SEO
And that's a wrap. Enjoy building an outstanding Facebook presence, and
rememberâkeep it TAGFEE!
Have you had great success driving traffic with Facebook? Please share your
experiences in the comments below.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/mLL7JvC_mdI/kill-it-on-facebook-by-being-tagfee
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] 7 Content Marketing Poop Scoops
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, '7 Content Marketing Poop Scoops'
I believe the most common content marketing question I field is: Barry, how do I
make exciting content about (insert dull product category here)? On one hand,
its a good question in that the marketer asking it knows dull content is deadly.
But its a bad question too. Why? Because its the wrong question. The []7 Content
Marketing Poop Scoops is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media
Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing-2/7-content-marketing-poop-scoops/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=7-content-marketing-poop-scoops
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
I believe the most common content marketing question I field is: Barry, how do I
make exciting content about (insert dull product category here)? On one hand,
its a good question in that the marketer asking it knows dull content is deadly.
But its a bad question too. Why? Because its the wrong question. The []7 Content
Marketing Poop Scoops is a post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media
Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing-2/7-content-marketing-poop-scoops/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=7-content-marketing-poop-scoops
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Creative PPC: 5 Clever & Interesting Ways to Use PPC Marketing'
I admit it. As a marketer, sometimes I get stuck with ideas when I try to promote my own self.
Maybe it's a cultural stigma that somehow self promotion is a shameful thing (hence the term "shameless self promotion"). And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.
But one day (as I was TOTT-ing … "thinking on the toilet," term you see posted on the back of bathroom stall doors) it dawned on me: "Heck, I should use my knowledge to benefit … ME!"
For example, this guy was looking for a job. He was trying to stand out from the other applicants, so he bought keywords for executives in the company that he was trying to get hired at.
Why did it work?
Simple. He tapped into people's natural tendency to Google themselves. Like Al Pacino, vanity is ALL marketers' favorite sin.
That's just ONE interesting use case of PPC that search engine designers probably never intended.
Ok, so maybe vanity isn't the best and the brightest use case for PPC. But sometimes we all get creativity block, so here five creative ways that people have used PPC marketing.
1) Use PPC to Market-Test Your Product Ideas
The last thing you want to do when you create a product (book, widget, software, whatever) is to do it in a vacuum.
If you're an entrepreneur, I'm sure you've heard "Build it and they will come."
Right.
If that were the case, every product that silicon valley engineers build should all be $1B+ valuation companies.
However, great products don't build great companies. Don't believe me? Just go to any night / flea market in China, Thailand, India, Brazil … or any of those up and coming countries. They're FILLED with awesome products that will never fly off the shelves anywhere on earth.
Why not ASK people if they would use your product first? You can use PPC to do some market research and find out for yourself if:
- there is market demand for it
- people would even be interested in signing up to be your beta tester
I’m guilty too. One of my web ideas pivoted three times before I called it quits because I couldn't find a market fit. (But I did learn some valuable lessons about Facebook fanpage marketing.)
Don't be another victim. Audience first, product second.
2) Use PPC for Nonprofit Fundraising
Yep, the political people figured it out too.
Politicians are using PPC to sway, but most importantly, to raise money from the people.
In fact, they spend LOTS, especially during the important election times.
Politicians know this – it doesn't matter what media people are reading. As long as you can get in front of them, you can get your message heard.
So if you're in the non-profit space (or at least an organization that does non-profit things, like silicon valley startups *cough cough*), why not tap into the minds of people who are LOOKING to hand you free money?
In fact, I've used PPC to help ignite a non-profit fundraising effort for a dog rescue organization in Singapore. They raised a couple of thousand dollars in a matter of a few weeks and got insane exposure for their organization, as well as media coverage. (Plus their video got over 1 MILLION views as soon as the virality kicked in.)
Ask and you shall receive.
3) Use PPC to Test Offline Advertising
A while back, a small chat software as service company called HipChat used a billboard to get its message in front of tech people in Silicon Valley on 101 (one of the busiest freeways there).
Their cost? $7k for 4 weeks.
Despite the universally accepted notion that this kind of advertising doesn't work, the HipChat team managed to go viral, getting backlinks, free media mentions and PR, and of course customer signups.
So if you do a popular internet meme ad for your product, will you get the same results? Probably not. But here's my point. Offline ads (newspapers, magazines, billboards, posters, etc.) are ALL very expensive media.
Why not use PPC to test out your messaging FIRST before plunking down tens of thousands of dollars of your cold hard cash? It's much easier to test your messaging online that in print.
Do an A/B test to find out what resonates with people before committing to that final order at the print shop.
4) Use PPC to Test Your Conference Event Titles
Ever wonder why some conferences are such a spectacular hit and some are just plain duds?
Why not use PPC to test event titles before committing the entire marketing team to promote event titles that people don't find interesting?
The last thing you want to do is have NO one show up.
5) Use PPC to Get a Date
Are you single? Have you ever wondered why you are single even though you're this kick-ass marketer and you should have members of the opposite sex beating down the door for one chance of dating you?
Simple. EXPOSURE.
Just like you're giving your product or service (or your client's) a chance in the marketplace by giving it exposure, you can do the same for your OWN love life.
I personally used copywriting to get better dates and I thought I was a genius. I even thought, heck, since I can target single women with Facebook ads, I might as well try that.
Then I thought … maybe that's a little TOO crazy.
Until I read about this guy – he did what I thought was too crazy.
This guy even did an A/B test! Now I must worship him. He even compiled a spreadsheet of this results on a cost per lead basis.
Heck, you might even try guest blogging on one of those PUA (pickup artist) blogs to see if you can land some single men as your potential online marketing client.
Takeaway?
Be creative. Be unique.
Take your PPC to a whole new level with your imagination wide open.
I'm curious – what have YOU seen done with PPC? Leave your thoughts in the comment box.
This is a guest post by TaeWoo Kim, an entrepreneur, digital marketer, speaker, and blogger. He has over 7 years of experience in software startup, inbound marketing, direct response marketing, PPC/search engine marketing, sales lead generation, conversion rate optimization, email marketing, and social media. You can follow him on Twitter (@TaeWooKim), Google+, and on his blog FreshSuperCool.com.
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
Tuesday 24 September 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'New Commands for Google Voice Search: It Doesn't Get Much Lazier Than This' 
You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/xHY8vJSnOF8/google-voice-search You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Google voice search – because who has time to type these days? We all have better things to do, like binge-watching Breaking Bad or looking at pictures of babies trying to lift weights. Finger exercise was the last remnant of physical activity for office drones, which means this future is only a few decades away:
Thanks Google!
We could debate about how much Google had contributed to the obesity epidemic while improving our techno-lives, but to be fair, Google Voice Search is a pretty nifty move by Google. Google has been continuing to build on its development, making our online activity even lazier easier.
Last month Google did some upgrades on Google voice search, enabling Google search to connect with your other Google accounts to deliver personal information to users. In this post we'll be going into more depth about this new update, and what we can expect regarding the future of voice search.
What is Google Voice Search? I Know it Seems Obvious, But…
While defining what Google Voice Search is seems totally gratuitous, it's necessary considering Google's plethora of projects and overlapping names. Mainly we need to distinguish Google Voice Search from Google Voice. Google Voice is a voicemail service, whereas Google Voice Search lets users input search queries and mobile commands via speech. I know, right? Calm down Google.
How to Use Google Voice Search: New Google Voice Search Commands
Google Voice Search is primarily intended for mobile users, as the voice function makes it easy to search Google without using cumbersome touchpads or the QWERTY keyboard. Using Google Voice Search is as simple as a tap – just hit the voice button you can find alongside the Google search box and ask the all-knowing Googs for help.
Image taken from Google Search Insights
Until recently, Google Voice Search was primarily meant for entering search queries, but since August 2013, Google Voice Search can be used for more complex commands that relate to personal data. Some ways to take advantage of the new Google voice search commands include:
- Flights: Ask Google "Is my flight on time?" and you'll get info on your upcoming flights and status updates on current flights.
- Reservations: Ask for "my reservations" and Google will show you your upcoming dining plans. Ask for info about "my hotel" to get your hotel name and address, along with directions on how to get there.
- Purchases: Ask Google search for "my purchases," and you'll get the status of current orders.
- Plans: Ask Google "What are my plans for tomorrow?" to see a summary of upcoming appointments, flights, reservations and events.
- Photos: Say "Show me my photos from Europe" to see the photos you uploaded to Google+. You can also ask for "my photos of dogs" if you want to see all the shots of dogs you've taken over the year. Google automatically recognizes the type of photo you're asking for.
Cool commands like these have already been available for Google Now users, but now that they're built into Google voice search, anyone can take advantage of commands like these and let Google be your personal assistant.
Naturally you need to be signed in to your Google account for these new voice commands to work, since Google has to delve into your calendar and Gmail to obtain this info. If the whole idea of this creeps you out (as it will some people) you can turn off Google voice search options in your Google account settings.
Google Voice Search: Performing on A Device Near You
Android Google Voice Search: Google voice search for Android comes baked in to modern Android devices, and can easily be accessed by the voice button beside the Google search widget.
Photo by Johan Larsson
Android users can do more than just Google voice searches – they can use voice action commands to conduct specific actions on Android devices. Like…
- "Open Angry Birds"
- "Create a calendar event: Breaking Bad Finale party on September 29"
- "Directions to iParty"
- "Send email to Patti Mayonnaise, subject picking up Doug from the airport, message what time do we need to pick up Doug from the airport question mark, should we bring a sign question mark." (I know, speaking punctuation marks feels silly. Period.)
- "Listen to The Scientist by Coldplay"
- "Set alarm for 7:15 am"
Check out Google for a full set of Android voice action commands.
iPhone Google Voice Search: Are you an iPhone user? Conducting a Google voice search via iPhone requires that you download the Google Search app before shouting questions and commands at your mobile device.
Google Voice Search for Desktop: Maybe you're one of those folks whose beeper nostalgia won out against the smartphone. For you, there's Google Voice Search for Desktop.
Image from Google Inside Search
Truthfully, using Google Voice Search on a PC will likely just infuriate your co-workers, but if you simply must search by voice, you'll need the latest version of Chrome and a built-in or attached microphone. Then it's just a matter of navigating to the Google homepage and clicking the voice search option.
There's also a Google Voice Search Chrome extension that keeps a microphone icon for voice search ever-present in your browser's toolbar if you'd rather not go to the Google homepage every time you want to enter in a voice command.
What does Google Voice Search Mean for the Future of SEO and PPC?
Voice search functionality goes hand in hand with Google's continued emphasis on all things local, since it's commonly thought that the primary use of voice search is to find info while driving (look ma, no hands!). Digital devices have made it possible to do absolutely no preliminary planning whatsoever – just leap into your car and let Google figure out where the nearest JoAnn Fabrics is. Efforts in predicting on-the-move voice search queries could be the next big thing for PPC.
Mobile search queries already tend to be pithy, and we can expect the same with many search queries conducted by voice. Users suppose that the longer they speak, the less chance they have of being interpreted correctly, so they keep most queries brief. In truth, voice interpretation has come a long way in the past few years, but we're not accustomed enough to trusting voice tools yet.
What's Next For Google Voice Search?
Conspiracy theorists will likely have a field day with Google Voice Search – do we even want to talk about the possibility of Google collecting data for voice recognition? As if Facebook face recognition for tagging photos wasn't creepy enough?
If Google Voice Search is collecting voice data, it will likely be a huge aid in furthering Google Glass. Google Glass relies almost exclusively on voice search, so Google wants to understand your commands better than a dog begging for treats.
Even the cat is curious (Photo by David K)
Do you use Google Voice Search? Why or why not? Let us know your feelings in the comments!
This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
[Build Backlinks Online] When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard Tuesday
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'When Keyword (not provided) is
100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard
Tuesday'
Posted by randfish
For nearly two years, marketers have been frustrated by a steadily increasing
percentage of keywords (not provided). Recent changes by Google have sent those
numbers soaring. The site Not Provided Count now reports an average of nearly
74% of keywords not provided, and speculation abounds that it won't be long
before 100% of keywords are masked. Without that referral data, our tasks as
Internet marketers become far more difficultâbut not impossible.
In this special Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make
up for this drastic change, finding data from other sources to stay on top of
their SEO efforts.
Whiteboard Friday - Now that Keyword (not provided) is 100% of Referrals,
What Should Marketers Do_1
For reference, here's a still image of today's whiteboard!
Video Transcription
Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday! Today
I'm going to talk about this extremely troublesome and worrisome problem that
Google has expanded "keyword (not provided)" potentially to 100% of all organic
referrals. This isn't necessarily that they've flipped the entire switch, and
everyone's going to see it this week, but certainly over the next several
months, it's been suggested, we may receive no keyword data at all in referrals
from Google. Very troubling and concerning, obviously, if you're a web marketer.
I think it should be very troubling and concerning if you're a web user as
well, because marketers don't use this data to do evil things or invade people's
privacy. Marketers use this data to make the web a better place. The agreement
that marketers have always hadâthat website creators have always
hadâwith search engines, since their inception was, "sure, we'll let you
crawl our sites, you provide us with the keyword data so that we can improve the
Internet together. I think this is Google abusing their monopolistic position in
the United States. Unfortunately, I don't really see a way out of it. I don't
think marketers can make a strong enough case politically or to consumer groups
to get this removed. Maybe the EU can eventually.
But in any case, let's deal with the reality that we're faced with today,
which is that keyword not provided may be 100% of your referrals, and so keyword
data is essentially gone. We don't know when Google sends a visitâBing, to
their credit, and to Microsoft's credit, enduringly has kept that data
accessibleâbut we don't know when Google sends a visit to our sites and
pages, what that person searched for. Previously, we could do some
samplingânow we can't even do that.
There are some big tasks that we use that data for, and so to start with, I
want to try and identify the uses for keyword referral data, at least the very
important ones as I perceive themâthere are certainly many more.
Number one: finding opportunities to improve a page's performance or its
ranking. If you see that a page of yours is receiving a lot of search traffic,
or that a keyword is sending a lot of search traffic (or even a little bit of
search traffic), but the page is not ranking very well, you know that by
improving that page's ranking you have an opportunity to earn a lot more search
traffic. That's a very valuable thing as a marketer. You can also see if a
search query is sending traffic to a page, but that page has a high bounce rate
for that traffic, low pages-per-visit, low conversion rate, you know, "hey, I'm
not doing a good job serving the visitor; I need to improve how the page
addresses that." That's one of the key things we use keyword referral data for.
Secondarily: connecting rank improvement effortsâthings that we do in
the SEO world to move up our rankingsâto the traffic growth that we
receive from them. This is very important for consultants and for agencies, and
for in-house SEOs as well, to show our value to our managers, and our
clientsâit's really, really tough to have this data taken away.
C: Understanding how your searchers perceive your brand and your content.
When we look down the list of phrases that sent us traffic, we could see things
like "oh, this is how people are thinking about my brand, or thinking about this
product I launched, or thinking about this content that I've put out." Really
challenging to do that nowadays.
And D: uncovering keyword opportunities. We could certainly see, "this is
sending a small amount of traffic, this is doing some long-tail stuff,
heyâlet's turn this into a broader piece of content. Let's try and
optimize for some of those keyword phrases that we're barely ranking on." Or, we
have a page that's not really addressing that keyword phrase that we're ranking
on. We can address that. We can improve that.
So I'm going to try and tackle some relatively simplistic ways, and I'm not
going to walk through all the details you would need to do this, but I think
many folks in the SEO and marketing sphere will address these over the weeks and
months to come.
Starting with A. How do I find opportunities to improve a page's ranking or
its performance with users when I can't see keyword referral data? How do I know
which page people are coming to? Thankfully, we can use the connectionâthe
intersection of a few different sources of data. Pages that are receiving search
visits is a big one, and this is going to be used throughoutâinstead of
looking at keyword-level data, we're going to be looking at page-level data.
Which pages received referral visits from Google Search? Thankfully, that's
still data that we do get, and that'll likely stay with us, because we can
always see a referral source, and we know which pages are loaded. So, even if
Google Analytics were to remove that, I think a third-party analytics provider
would step in.
Pages receiving search visits plus rank-tracking data can get us a little
close to this, because we can essentially say, "hey, we know this page is
ranking well for these five or ten keywords that we have some reasonable
expectation that they have keyword search volume. They're receiving search
visits, and yet they're not performing well, or they're not ranking particularly
well, so improving them should be able to drive up our search traffic, improving
their performance with users should be able to drive up our conversion rate
optimization.
Optionally, we could also add in things like Google Webmaster Tools or
AdWords data; AdWords data being used on they keyword side to fill in for, "hey,
what's the volume that a keyword is getting," and Google Webmaster Tools data to
be able to see a list of some keywords that maybe are sending us traffic. Dr.
Pete wrote a good post recently about the relative accuracy of Google Webmaster
Tools, and while unfortunately it's not as good as any of the other methods,
it's still not awful, and so that data is potentially usable.
This will give us a list of pages that get search visits, or are targeting
important search terms, that rank, and that have the potential to improve. So
this gets us to the answer to this question. This used to be really simple to
get at, now it's more difficult, but still possible.
B. Connecting our SEO efforts to traffic growth from search. I know this is
going to be tremendously hard, and this is probably one of the biggest tolls
that this change is taking on SEO folks. Because as SEOs, as marketers, we've
shown our value by saying, "look, we're driving up search visits, some of it's
branded, some of it's unbranded, some of it's not providedâbut you get a
rough sense of this. And you really need that percentage: "What percent of the
traffic is actually you going and getting us new visitors that never would have
found us, versus branded stuff that's just sort of rising on its own." Maybe
it's rising because of efforts that marketers are making: investments in
content, and in social media, and in email and all these other wonderful things,
but it's hard to knowâ it's hard to directly map that.
So here's one of the ways. Optionally, we can use AdWords to bid on branded
terms and phrases. When we do that, you might want to have a relatively broad
match on your branded terms and phrases so that you can see keyword volume that
is branded from impression data. That gives you a sense of, "what's the
trajectory, here?" If we're seeing it grow, we can identify "oh, that's not us
driving a bunch of new non-branded new keyword terms and phrases; that's our
brand search increasing." So we can sort of discount that, or apply that in our
reporting effectively. If we see, on the other hand, that it's staying flat, but
that search traffic overall is going up and to the right, then we know that's
unbranded.
Optionally, if we don't want to be bidding and spending a lot of money with
Google AdWords and trying to keep our impression counts high, we can use things
like Google Insights or even downloading AdWords volume data estimates
month-over-month to be able to track those sorts of things.
Certainly one of the things I would recommend doing even prior to this
change is tracking rankings on buckets. Buckets of head terms, versus chunky
middle, versus long-tail; so phrases that are getting lots of search volume, a
good amount of search volume, and very little search volume. You want to have
different buckets of those, so you can see, "oh hey, my rankings are generally
improving in this bucket, or that bucket." Same with branded vs. non-branded;
you want to be able to identify and track those separately. Then, compare
against visits that you're seeing to pages that are ranking for those terms. We
need to look at the pages that are receiving search traffic from those different
buckets.
Again, much more challenging to do these days. But, any time we see the
complexity of our practice is increasing, we also have an opportunity, because
it means that those of us who are savvy, sophisticated, able to track this data,
are far more useful and employable and important. Those organizations that use
great marketers are going to receive outsized benefits from doing so.
C: How do I understand and analyze how searchers perceive my brand? What are
they searching for that's leading them to my site? How are they searching for
terms related to my brand? Again, we can bid on AdWords terms, like I talked
about. You can use keyword suggestion sources like Google Suggest, Ubersuggest,
certainly AdWords's own volume data, SEMRush, etc. to see the keyword expansions
related to your brand or the content that's very closely tied to your brand. And
internal site search data. You've got a search box up in the top-right hand
corner, people are typing in stuff, and you want to see what that "XYZ" is that
they're typing in. Those can help as well, and can provide you some
opportunities that lead to D.
D: How do I uncover new keyword opportunities to target? Of course, there's
the classic methodology that we've all employed, which is keyword research, but
usually we compare that to the terms that are already sending us traffic, and we
go look and say, "oh, okay, we're doing fine for theseâwe don't need to
worry." Now, we need to take keyword research tools and add some form of
rank-tracking data. That could be from Google Webmaster Tools despite its
mediocrity in terms of accuracy. We can use manual rank dataâwe can search
for it ourselvesâor we can use automated data.
One of the criticisms for all rank-tracking data is always, "but there's
lots of personalization and geographic localizationâthese kinds of things
that are biasing searchesâhow do I see all of that?" And the answer is,
well, you can't really. Personalization is going to fluctuate things. It may be
sort of included in the Google Webmaster Tools data, but as Dr. Pete showed in
his post, it looks a little funky right now.
For localization, you can add the geo in the string to be able to see where
you rank in different geographies if you want to track those. That's something
you'll be able to do in Moz Analytics and probably many of the other keyword
tracking tools out there, too.
Optionallyâand this is expensive, and I hate to say this is Google
being evil, but this is probably what Google wants you to do when they give you
"(not provided)"âwhich is run AdWords campaigns targeting those keywords,
so that you can see new expansion opportunities. Areas where, "oh hey, we bid on
this, it sent impressions, it sent some traffic, it looks like it's worthwhile,
we're not ranking for it organically," and again, you can see that through your
rank-tracking data or through pages receiving visits from search, and then
targeting those terms.
So, a lot of this data, and a lot of these opportunities are
retrievableâthey're just a lot harder. I will sayâthis is somewhat
self-promotional, but I think one of Moz's missions and obligations as a company
to the search marketing world is to try and help replace, repair, and make these
processes easier. So, you can guess that over the next 6-12 months that's going
to be a big part of our roadmap: trying to help you folksâand all
marketersâget to this data.
For now, these methodologies can and should be helpful to you, and I expect
to see lots of great discussion about other ways to go about this in the
comments.
Thanks, everyoneâtake care.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/3N5M5C4z_Zg/100-percent-keyword-not-provided-whiteboard-tuesday
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posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard
Tuesday'
Posted by randfish
For nearly two years, marketers have been frustrated by a steadily increasing
percentage of keywords (not provided). Recent changes by Google have sent those
numbers soaring. The site Not Provided Count now reports an average of nearly
74% of keywords not provided, and speculation abounds that it won't be long
before 100% of keywords are masked. Without that referral data, our tasks as
Internet marketers become far more difficultâbut not impossible.
In this special Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make
up for this drastic change, finding data from other sources to stay on top of
their SEO efforts.
Whiteboard Friday - Now that Keyword (not provided) is 100% of Referrals,
What Should Marketers Do_1
For reference, here's a still image of today's whiteboard!
Video Transcription
Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday! Today
I'm going to talk about this extremely troublesome and worrisome problem that
Google has expanded "keyword (not provided)" potentially to 100% of all organic
referrals. This isn't necessarily that they've flipped the entire switch, and
everyone's going to see it this week, but certainly over the next several
months, it's been suggested, we may receive no keyword data at all in referrals
from Google. Very troubling and concerning, obviously, if you're a web marketer.
I think it should be very troubling and concerning if you're a web user as
well, because marketers don't use this data to do evil things or invade people's
privacy. Marketers use this data to make the web a better place. The agreement
that marketers have always hadâthat website creators have always
hadâwith search engines, since their inception was, "sure, we'll let you
crawl our sites, you provide us with the keyword data so that we can improve the
Internet together. I think this is Google abusing their monopolistic position in
the United States. Unfortunately, I don't really see a way out of it. I don't
think marketers can make a strong enough case politically or to consumer groups
to get this removed. Maybe the EU can eventually.
But in any case, let's deal with the reality that we're faced with today,
which is that keyword not provided may be 100% of your referrals, and so keyword
data is essentially gone. We don't know when Google sends a visitâBing, to
their credit, and to Microsoft's credit, enduringly has kept that data
accessibleâbut we don't know when Google sends a visit to our sites and
pages, what that person searched for. Previously, we could do some
samplingânow we can't even do that.
There are some big tasks that we use that data for, and so to start with, I
want to try and identify the uses for keyword referral data, at least the very
important ones as I perceive themâthere are certainly many more.
Number one: finding opportunities to improve a page's performance or its
ranking. If you see that a page of yours is receiving a lot of search traffic,
or that a keyword is sending a lot of search traffic (or even a little bit of
search traffic), but the page is not ranking very well, you know that by
improving that page's ranking you have an opportunity to earn a lot more search
traffic. That's a very valuable thing as a marketer. You can also see if a
search query is sending traffic to a page, but that page has a high bounce rate
for that traffic, low pages-per-visit, low conversion rate, you know, "hey, I'm
not doing a good job serving the visitor; I need to improve how the page
addresses that." That's one of the key things we use keyword referral data for.
Secondarily: connecting rank improvement effortsâthings that we do in
the SEO world to move up our rankingsâto the traffic growth that we
receive from them. This is very important for consultants and for agencies, and
for in-house SEOs as well, to show our value to our managers, and our
clientsâit's really, really tough to have this data taken away.
C: Understanding how your searchers perceive your brand and your content.
When we look down the list of phrases that sent us traffic, we could see things
like "oh, this is how people are thinking about my brand, or thinking about this
product I launched, or thinking about this content that I've put out." Really
challenging to do that nowadays.
And D: uncovering keyword opportunities. We could certainly see, "this is
sending a small amount of traffic, this is doing some long-tail stuff,
heyâlet's turn this into a broader piece of content. Let's try and
optimize for some of those keyword phrases that we're barely ranking on." Or, we
have a page that's not really addressing that keyword phrase that we're ranking
on. We can address that. We can improve that.
So I'm going to try and tackle some relatively simplistic ways, and I'm not
going to walk through all the details you would need to do this, but I think
many folks in the SEO and marketing sphere will address these over the weeks and
months to come.
Starting with A. How do I find opportunities to improve a page's ranking or
its performance with users when I can't see keyword referral data? How do I know
which page people are coming to? Thankfully, we can use the connectionâthe
intersection of a few different sources of data. Pages that are receiving search
visits is a big one, and this is going to be used throughoutâinstead of
looking at keyword-level data, we're going to be looking at page-level data.
Which pages received referral visits from Google Search? Thankfully, that's
still data that we do get, and that'll likely stay with us, because we can
always see a referral source, and we know which pages are loaded. So, even if
Google Analytics were to remove that, I think a third-party analytics provider
would step in.
Pages receiving search visits plus rank-tracking data can get us a little
close to this, because we can essentially say, "hey, we know this page is
ranking well for these five or ten keywords that we have some reasonable
expectation that they have keyword search volume. They're receiving search
visits, and yet they're not performing well, or they're not ranking particularly
well, so improving them should be able to drive up our search traffic, improving
their performance with users should be able to drive up our conversion rate
optimization.
Optionally, we could also add in things like Google Webmaster Tools or
AdWords data; AdWords data being used on they keyword side to fill in for, "hey,
what's the volume that a keyword is getting," and Google Webmaster Tools data to
be able to see a list of some keywords that maybe are sending us traffic. Dr.
Pete wrote a good post recently about the relative accuracy of Google Webmaster
Tools, and while unfortunately it's not as good as any of the other methods,
it's still not awful, and so that data is potentially usable.
This will give us a list of pages that get search visits, or are targeting
important search terms, that rank, and that have the potential to improve. So
this gets us to the answer to this question. This used to be really simple to
get at, now it's more difficult, but still possible.
B. Connecting our SEO efforts to traffic growth from search. I know this is
going to be tremendously hard, and this is probably one of the biggest tolls
that this change is taking on SEO folks. Because as SEOs, as marketers, we've
shown our value by saying, "look, we're driving up search visits, some of it's
branded, some of it's unbranded, some of it's not providedâbut you get a
rough sense of this. And you really need that percentage: "What percent of the
traffic is actually you going and getting us new visitors that never would have
found us, versus branded stuff that's just sort of rising on its own." Maybe
it's rising because of efforts that marketers are making: investments in
content, and in social media, and in email and all these other wonderful things,
but it's hard to knowâ it's hard to directly map that.
So here's one of the ways. Optionally, we can use AdWords to bid on branded
terms and phrases. When we do that, you might want to have a relatively broad
match on your branded terms and phrases so that you can see keyword volume that
is branded from impression data. That gives you a sense of, "what's the
trajectory, here?" If we're seeing it grow, we can identify "oh, that's not us
driving a bunch of new non-branded new keyword terms and phrases; that's our
brand search increasing." So we can sort of discount that, or apply that in our
reporting effectively. If we see, on the other hand, that it's staying flat, but
that search traffic overall is going up and to the right, then we know that's
unbranded.
Optionally, if we don't want to be bidding and spending a lot of money with
Google AdWords and trying to keep our impression counts high, we can use things
like Google Insights or even downloading AdWords volume data estimates
month-over-month to be able to track those sorts of things.
Certainly one of the things I would recommend doing even prior to this
change is tracking rankings on buckets. Buckets of head terms, versus chunky
middle, versus long-tail; so phrases that are getting lots of search volume, a
good amount of search volume, and very little search volume. You want to have
different buckets of those, so you can see, "oh hey, my rankings are generally
improving in this bucket, or that bucket." Same with branded vs. non-branded;
you want to be able to identify and track those separately. Then, compare
against visits that you're seeing to pages that are ranking for those terms. We
need to look at the pages that are receiving search traffic from those different
buckets.
Again, much more challenging to do these days. But, any time we see the
complexity of our practice is increasing, we also have an opportunity, because
it means that those of us who are savvy, sophisticated, able to track this data,
are far more useful and employable and important. Those organizations that use
great marketers are going to receive outsized benefits from doing so.
C: How do I understand and analyze how searchers perceive my brand? What are
they searching for that's leading them to my site? How are they searching for
terms related to my brand? Again, we can bid on AdWords terms, like I talked
about. You can use keyword suggestion sources like Google Suggest, Ubersuggest,
certainly AdWords's own volume data, SEMRush, etc. to see the keyword expansions
related to your brand or the content that's very closely tied to your brand. And
internal site search data. You've got a search box up in the top-right hand
corner, people are typing in stuff, and you want to see what that "XYZ" is that
they're typing in. Those can help as well, and can provide you some
opportunities that lead to D.
D: How do I uncover new keyword opportunities to target? Of course, there's
the classic methodology that we've all employed, which is keyword research, but
usually we compare that to the terms that are already sending us traffic, and we
go look and say, "oh, okay, we're doing fine for theseâwe don't need to
worry." Now, we need to take keyword research tools and add some form of
rank-tracking data. That could be from Google Webmaster Tools despite its
mediocrity in terms of accuracy. We can use manual rank dataâwe can search
for it ourselvesâor we can use automated data.
One of the criticisms for all rank-tracking data is always, "but there's
lots of personalization and geographic localizationâthese kinds of things
that are biasing searchesâhow do I see all of that?" And the answer is,
well, you can't really. Personalization is going to fluctuate things. It may be
sort of included in the Google Webmaster Tools data, but as Dr. Pete showed in
his post, it looks a little funky right now.
For localization, you can add the geo in the string to be able to see where
you rank in different geographies if you want to track those. That's something
you'll be able to do in Moz Analytics and probably many of the other keyword
tracking tools out there, too.
Optionallyâand this is expensive, and I hate to say this is Google
being evil, but this is probably what Google wants you to do when they give you
"(not provided)"âwhich is run AdWords campaigns targeting those keywords,
so that you can see new expansion opportunities. Areas where, "oh hey, we bid on
this, it sent impressions, it sent some traffic, it looks like it's worthwhile,
we're not ranking for it organically," and again, you can see that through your
rank-tracking data or through pages receiving visits from search, and then
targeting those terms.
So, a lot of this data, and a lot of these opportunities are
retrievableâthey're just a lot harder. I will sayâthis is somewhat
self-promotional, but I think one of Moz's missions and obligations as a company
to the search marketing world is to try and help replace, repair, and make these
processes easier. So, you can guess that over the next 6-12 months that's going
to be a big part of our roadmap: trying to help you folksâand all
marketersâget to this data.
For now, these methodologies can and should be helpful to you, and I expect
to see lots of great discussion about other ways to go about this in the
comments.
Thanks, everyoneâtake care.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
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[Build Backlinks Online] How to Create Living Content to Boost Brand Reputation and Visibility
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'How to Create Living Content to
Boost Brand Reputation and Visibility'
Over the last ten years, new content types have arisen and lots of great tools
have sprung up for creating and marketing content. Video is now ubiquitous,
Slideshare has become a prominent resource, ebooks are easy to create, and
theres a plethora of tools and sites with which to share the fruits of a digital
[]How to Create Living Content to Boost Brand Reputation and Visibility is a
post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing
Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing-2/how-to-create-living-content-to-boost-brand-reputation-and-visibility/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-create-living-content-to-boost-brand-reputation-and-visibility
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Boost Brand Reputation and Visibility'
Over the last ten years, new content types have arisen and lots of great tools
have sprung up for creating and marketing content. Video is now ubiquitous,
Slideshare has become a prominent resource, ebooks are easy to create, and
theres a plethora of tools and sites with which to share the fruits of a digital
[]How to Create Living Content to Boost Brand Reputation and Visibility is a
post from: Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing
Strategy
You may view the latest post at
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/content-marketing-2/how-to-create-living-content-to-boost-brand-reputation-and-visibility/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-create-living-content-to-boost-brand-reputation-and-visibility
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Monday 23 September 2013
[Build Backlinks Online] Building Your Marketing Funnel with Google Analytics
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'Building Your Marketing Funnel
with Google Analytics'
Posted by dohertyjf
Do you have an idea of the path a user typically takes to convert on your
website? Or, are you simply building traffic from one channel (probably organic)
and wondering why it's not converting better? As I've grown up as a marketer,
I've begun to really appreciate the insights that data can provide us on how
users interact with our sites, and more importantly, on how they convert and
where the experience can be improved to increase our conversion rates, and
thereby our top-line revenue from online channels.
I've recently been very interested in building a full marketing funnel based
on Google Analytics data. While it's one thing to be able to identify where
conversion discrepancies exist, such as low-converting types of visitors, it's
quite another to build a full and informed funnel from your site's data. In
order to do this and have an accurate view of where your conversions are
actually coming from, you need to first have the following in place:
Email URL tracking: Check out Annie Cushing's thoughts here in slides 11-14.
(Actually, look at the whole deck.)
Social network tracking (tagging parameters and using a shortener to see
clickthroughs by link)
Display tagging
Referral links tagged (or at least be aware of HTTPS sites linking to you, like
Medium)
Paid search campaigns tagged
Tagging on affiliates (if applicable)
You can build your campaigns here using Google's tool.
What's a funnel?
Before we get too far into the meat of this post, I want to make sure we're
all talking about the same thing. I'm not referring to one of these. Rather, I'm
referring to one of these:
The funnel is typically broken into three sections:
Top of funnel (TOFU)
Middle of funnel (MOFU)
Bottom of funnel (BOFU)
The goal of this post is going to walk you through how to identify the
channels that are performing best for you in each of these areas. Once you know
those, you know where to invest depending on your company's needs or priorities.
Also, knowing the different areas to which you can contribute will help endear
you to the people running those channels, which will help you avoid being siloed
as "the SEO." Instead, you will start to be seen as part of the marketing team,
which is what you are.
Another note: I'm not teaching you how to integrate into other marketing
channels in this post. Stephanie Chang did a great job of it back in July when
she wrote An Introduction to Integrated Marketing and SEO: How It Works and Why
It Matters. Have a read there after you're finished here.
Understanding attribution
You may already know this, but Google Analytics offers multi-channel
attribution tools within the "Conversions" section:
In the "Assisted Conversions" section, you will see a number of columns. The
ones to pay attention to are:
Assisted Conversions
Last Click/Direct Conversions
It's important to understand the difference between assisted conversions and
last click/direct conversions. According to Google's own Answer Bin, a channel
gets credit for an assisted conversion for any touch that they bring to the site
where the interaction was not the one that led directly to a conversion. Google
says:
This is the number (and monetary value) of sales and conversions the channel
assisted. If a channel appears anywhereâexcept as the final
interactionâon a conversion path, it is considered an assist for that
conversion. The higher these numbers, the more important the assist role of the
channel.
On the other side, a last click or direct conversion is a touch on the site
that led directly to a sale. These are your closer, aka bottom-of-funnel
channels. Google says:
This is the number (and monetary value) of sales and conversions the channel
closed or completed. The final click or direct visit before a conversion gets
Last Interaction credit for that conversion. The higher these numbers, the more
important the channelâs role in driving completion of sales and
conversions.
Make sense? Great. Let's build a funnel.
Identifying channels based on funnel level
As I said above, we're going to use Google Analytics to identify the channels
in the different levels of your funnel. If you use a different Analytics
platform, like Omniture or Piwik, write a guide using that and I'll be happy to
share it out.
Top of funnel
The top of your marketing funnel is where the first interactions with your
brand take place. This is typically attributed to search or organic, but is that
really the case for your website?
First, let's identify the most common channels that people use to discover
your site. To do this, go to Content > Site Content > Landing Pages. Set
your secondary dimension to "Medium." You'll see something like this:
Now, export this data to Excel (I've provided a spreadsheet at the end that
you can plug this data into) and pivot it to see which mediums are driving your
best traffic. If you want to get super fancy, break it down by type of page as
well.
Here's how that pivot table is set up:
For the site shown in these screenshots it is indeed PPC and organic search.
But just knowing the channel isn't enough, so let's take it a step further to
see where the different channels are driving traffic. You'll either need to
manually classify your pages (if you have relatively few like in my example) or
write an Excel script to do this automagically.
I now know that referral is the primary driver of traffic and that the
majority goes to the homepage. One specific referral, which I tagged with a
Medium of "Link," sends the best traffic directly to conversion pages (which
might not necessarily be the best place for people to land for their first
interaction):
Middle of funnel
The middle of your funnel is the area where people are moving from a first
brand interaction to an initial sale, or if they have already made a purchase,
towards another sale. What we're looking for in the data here is channels that
are not necessarily our primary first- or last-touch drivers. Rather, these are
the channels where the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-time visitors come from in order to
interact with your content again.
We can figure out the most popular and most effective middle-of-funnel
channels a couple of different ways. The first, and by far the easiest, is by
comparing different types of attribution to discover which channels get more
credit based on first click, linear (where each channel gets equal credit), and
last-click. To learn what each of the different attribution models really means,
check out the Google support page.
By sorting the Model Comparison Tool in Analytics by Linear (high to low), you
can find the channels that perform best when given equal credit independent of
where they are in the funnel.
But this doesn't give us great insight into which channels perform best in the
middle. Rather, it's telling us which channels account for the most revenue
overall (which is still important to know), and the place doesn't matter. In the
above example, for Distilled that's Direct, then email, organic search, and
referral, in that order.
To find which channels are the most popular for your users to come back, we
need to do some manipulation in Excel (my favorite tool) to clean out the first-
and last-touch interactions in the Top Conversion Paths report.
What you want to do now is expand the number of rows in Analytics to account
for as many of your paths as possible. For most sites the 5,000-row limit in
Analytics will suffice.
Download all of your conversion paths into Excel. You'll have one column with
the complete paths, followed by the following columns:
Conversions
Conversion Value
To wrangle the data into the format we need, I also added the following
columns:
Steps in Conversion Path
First Touch
All Middle
Last Touch
$/Conversion
If you're a visual person, this screenshot may help you out to see how the
sheet is set up:
Larger version
Note: the hardest part here is figuring out what your cutoff is for
conversion amount. For Distilled, for example, I removed anything under $30,
because we don't do anything with the data underneath that. I also picked a
minimum threshold for the number of conversions that channel brought.
In Distilled's case, five seemed pertinent because it gives enough to get a
decent idea of $/conversion but also eliminates the very long (20+) conversion
paths that we're not going to optimize for anyways. However, also keep in mind
that the length of the path matters. For example, Distilled's median # of steps
before a conversion is eight. With fewer than eight steps, our average per
conversion is 30% higher than it is with eight+ steps in the funnel.
So, to clean up the data, I removed the following:
Paths with conversions < 5
Paths with conversion value < $30
Paths with (unavailable) in the path
Paths with more than 15 steps in the path
After you clean up the data, it will pull into the "Common Middle" sheet
within the Excel workbook I link to below. Then, you can see pretty quickly
which channels are driving the most middle conversions, and which middle paths
give the best $/conversion:
Here's the setup for that pivot table:
Once again, this will automagically work for you in the Excel sheet.
Bottom of funnel
The bottom of the funnel is the last touch that occurs before someone buys.
These channels are incredibly important to know about because you can then build
your strategy around how to get people into those channels and convert them
later.
This one is easy to find. It doesn't take tricky Excel functions. It doesn't
involve crazy data analysis.
Assuming you have Analytics set up correctly, you can find this data in
Conversion > Attribution > Model Comparison Tool. When you set the Model
to Last Interaction, you'll see something like this:
For Distilled, you can see that our highest last-touch channels are direct,
then email, then organic search.
Applying the data
Remember this funnel from the beginning?
Based off the data, I now see that for Distilled, the sections of our funnel
look this way:
Top
Direct
Organic Search
Social
Middle
Organic to Organic
Direct to Email
Direct to Organic
Bottom
Email
Organic
Direct
Now we can build out a marketing plan depending on our needs.
Excel sheet
I promised you an Excel sheet that I have put together for you. Note that it
does not automatically clean out your very long conversion paths, but use the
parameters given above to narrow down your data to make it actionable if that
makes sense for your business.
That said, you can download the spreadsheet here.
Bonus Excel sheet to find profitability by # of touches
I mentioned above about finding the number of touches that perform best for
you. Here is a quick and dirty spreadsheet that allows you to do just this.
Basically, the sheet looks at the number of touches and averages the conversion
amount for each bucket. You can see the results on the far right.
To use this sheet for yourself, download your Multi Channel Funnel groupings
in Analytics (you need to have ecommerce enabled) and enter your data into the
sheet.
Download this bonus spreadsheet here.
Example and conclusion
If we are trying to convert more people to DistilledU, through that goal I
know that Organic converts best for us on the last touch. This means that we
need to invest in content that drives people towards a conversion through
organic, so either blog content with a call to action or larger content teaching
people SEO. We know that email converts 4th best for DU, but it works well
higher in the funnel to convert people eventually. Therefore, we need to get
more people onto our DistilledU email list.
Direct traffic converts well, of course; people are coming to the site because
they know about it. Therefore we need to get top-of-mind and convert them into
email and RSS subscribers so that they become familiar with our content and
eventually buy through email or search.
We've built our funnel. You should go and build yours. I'd love to hear what
insights you have.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/uVX-RJ6nG3o/building-your-marketing-funnel-with-google-analytics
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
with Google Analytics'
Posted by dohertyjf
Do you have an idea of the path a user typically takes to convert on your
website? Or, are you simply building traffic from one channel (probably organic)
and wondering why it's not converting better? As I've grown up as a marketer,
I've begun to really appreciate the insights that data can provide us on how
users interact with our sites, and more importantly, on how they convert and
where the experience can be improved to increase our conversion rates, and
thereby our top-line revenue from online channels.
I've recently been very interested in building a full marketing funnel based
on Google Analytics data. While it's one thing to be able to identify where
conversion discrepancies exist, such as low-converting types of visitors, it's
quite another to build a full and informed funnel from your site's data. In
order to do this and have an accurate view of where your conversions are
actually coming from, you need to first have the following in place:
Email URL tracking: Check out Annie Cushing's thoughts here in slides 11-14.
(Actually, look at the whole deck.)
Social network tracking (tagging parameters and using a shortener to see
clickthroughs by link)
Display tagging
Referral links tagged (or at least be aware of HTTPS sites linking to you, like
Medium)
Paid search campaigns tagged
Tagging on affiliates (if applicable)
You can build your campaigns here using Google's tool.
What's a funnel?
Before we get too far into the meat of this post, I want to make sure we're
all talking about the same thing. I'm not referring to one of these. Rather, I'm
referring to one of these:
The funnel is typically broken into three sections:
Top of funnel (TOFU)
Middle of funnel (MOFU)
Bottom of funnel (BOFU)
The goal of this post is going to walk you through how to identify the
channels that are performing best for you in each of these areas. Once you know
those, you know where to invest depending on your company's needs or priorities.
Also, knowing the different areas to which you can contribute will help endear
you to the people running those channels, which will help you avoid being siloed
as "the SEO." Instead, you will start to be seen as part of the marketing team,
which is what you are.
Another note: I'm not teaching you how to integrate into other marketing
channels in this post. Stephanie Chang did a great job of it back in July when
she wrote An Introduction to Integrated Marketing and SEO: How It Works and Why
It Matters. Have a read there after you're finished here.
Understanding attribution
You may already know this, but Google Analytics offers multi-channel
attribution tools within the "Conversions" section:
In the "Assisted Conversions" section, you will see a number of columns. The
ones to pay attention to are:
Assisted Conversions
Last Click/Direct Conversions
It's important to understand the difference between assisted conversions and
last click/direct conversions. According to Google's own Answer Bin, a channel
gets credit for an assisted conversion for any touch that they bring to the site
where the interaction was not the one that led directly to a conversion. Google
says:
This is the number (and monetary value) of sales and conversions the channel
assisted. If a channel appears anywhereâexcept as the final
interactionâon a conversion path, it is considered an assist for that
conversion. The higher these numbers, the more important the assist role of the
channel.
On the other side, a last click or direct conversion is a touch on the site
that led directly to a sale. These are your closer, aka bottom-of-funnel
channels. Google says:
This is the number (and monetary value) of sales and conversions the channel
closed or completed. The final click or direct visit before a conversion gets
Last Interaction credit for that conversion. The higher these numbers, the more
important the channelâs role in driving completion of sales and
conversions.
Make sense? Great. Let's build a funnel.
Identifying channels based on funnel level
As I said above, we're going to use Google Analytics to identify the channels
in the different levels of your funnel. If you use a different Analytics
platform, like Omniture or Piwik, write a guide using that and I'll be happy to
share it out.
Top of funnel
The top of your marketing funnel is where the first interactions with your
brand take place. This is typically attributed to search or organic, but is that
really the case for your website?
First, let's identify the most common channels that people use to discover
your site. To do this, go to Content > Site Content > Landing Pages. Set
your secondary dimension to "Medium." You'll see something like this:
Now, export this data to Excel (I've provided a spreadsheet at the end that
you can plug this data into) and pivot it to see which mediums are driving your
best traffic. If you want to get super fancy, break it down by type of page as
well.
Here's how that pivot table is set up:
For the site shown in these screenshots it is indeed PPC and organic search.
But just knowing the channel isn't enough, so let's take it a step further to
see where the different channels are driving traffic. You'll either need to
manually classify your pages (if you have relatively few like in my example) or
write an Excel script to do this automagically.
I now know that referral is the primary driver of traffic and that the
majority goes to the homepage. One specific referral, which I tagged with a
Medium of "Link," sends the best traffic directly to conversion pages (which
might not necessarily be the best place for people to land for their first
interaction):
Middle of funnel
The middle of your funnel is the area where people are moving from a first
brand interaction to an initial sale, or if they have already made a purchase,
towards another sale. What we're looking for in the data here is channels that
are not necessarily our primary first- or last-touch drivers. Rather, these are
the channels where the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-time visitors come from in order to
interact with your content again.
We can figure out the most popular and most effective middle-of-funnel
channels a couple of different ways. The first, and by far the easiest, is by
comparing different types of attribution to discover which channels get more
credit based on first click, linear (where each channel gets equal credit), and
last-click. To learn what each of the different attribution models really means,
check out the Google support page.
By sorting the Model Comparison Tool in Analytics by Linear (high to low), you
can find the channels that perform best when given equal credit independent of
where they are in the funnel.
But this doesn't give us great insight into which channels perform best in the
middle. Rather, it's telling us which channels account for the most revenue
overall (which is still important to know), and the place doesn't matter. In the
above example, for Distilled that's Direct, then email, organic search, and
referral, in that order.
To find which channels are the most popular for your users to come back, we
need to do some manipulation in Excel (my favorite tool) to clean out the first-
and last-touch interactions in the Top Conversion Paths report.
What you want to do now is expand the number of rows in Analytics to account
for as many of your paths as possible. For most sites the 5,000-row limit in
Analytics will suffice.
Download all of your conversion paths into Excel. You'll have one column with
the complete paths, followed by the following columns:
Conversions
Conversion Value
To wrangle the data into the format we need, I also added the following
columns:
Steps in Conversion Path
First Touch
All Middle
Last Touch
$/Conversion
If you're a visual person, this screenshot may help you out to see how the
sheet is set up:
Larger version
Note: the hardest part here is figuring out what your cutoff is for
conversion amount. For Distilled, for example, I removed anything under $30,
because we don't do anything with the data underneath that. I also picked a
minimum threshold for the number of conversions that channel brought.
In Distilled's case, five seemed pertinent because it gives enough to get a
decent idea of $/conversion but also eliminates the very long (20+) conversion
paths that we're not going to optimize for anyways. However, also keep in mind
that the length of the path matters. For example, Distilled's median # of steps
before a conversion is eight. With fewer than eight steps, our average per
conversion is 30% higher than it is with eight+ steps in the funnel.
So, to clean up the data, I removed the following:
Paths with conversions < 5
Paths with conversion value < $30
Paths with (unavailable) in the path
Paths with more than 15 steps in the path
After you clean up the data, it will pull into the "Common Middle" sheet
within the Excel workbook I link to below. Then, you can see pretty quickly
which channels are driving the most middle conversions, and which middle paths
give the best $/conversion:
Here's the setup for that pivot table:
Once again, this will automagically work for you in the Excel sheet.
Bottom of funnel
The bottom of the funnel is the last touch that occurs before someone buys.
These channels are incredibly important to know about because you can then build
your strategy around how to get people into those channels and convert them
later.
This one is easy to find. It doesn't take tricky Excel functions. It doesn't
involve crazy data analysis.
Assuming you have Analytics set up correctly, you can find this data in
Conversion > Attribution > Model Comparison Tool. When you set the Model
to Last Interaction, you'll see something like this:
For Distilled, you can see that our highest last-touch channels are direct,
then email, then organic search.
Applying the data
Remember this funnel from the beginning?
Based off the data, I now see that for Distilled, the sections of our funnel
look this way:
Top
Direct
Organic Search
Social
Middle
Organic to Organic
Direct to Email
Direct to Organic
Bottom
Organic
Direct
Now we can build out a marketing plan depending on our needs.
Excel sheet
I promised you an Excel sheet that I have put together for you. Note that it
does not automatically clean out your very long conversion paths, but use the
parameters given above to narrow down your data to make it actionable if that
makes sense for your business.
That said, you can download the spreadsheet here.
Bonus Excel sheet to find profitability by # of touches
I mentioned above about finding the number of touches that perform best for
you. Here is a quick and dirty spreadsheet that allows you to do just this.
Basically, the sheet looks at the number of touches and averages the conversion
amount for each bucket. You can see the results on the far right.
To use this sheet for yourself, download your Multi Channel Funnel groupings
in Analytics (you need to have ecommerce enabled) and enter your data into the
sheet.
Download this bonus spreadsheet here.
Example and conclusion
If we are trying to convert more people to DistilledU, through that goal I
know that Organic converts best for us on the last touch. This means that we
need to invest in content that drives people towards a conversion through
organic, so either blog content with a call to action or larger content teaching
people SEO. We know that email converts 4th best for DU, but it works well
higher in the funnel to convert people eventually. Therefore, we need to get
more people onto our DistilledU email list.
Direct traffic converts well, of course; people are coming to the site because
they know about it. Therefore we need to get top-of-mind and convert them into
email and RSS subscribers so that they become familiar with our content and
eventually buy through email or search.
We've built our funnel. You should go and build yours. I'd love to hear what
insights you have.
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/uVX-RJ6nG3o/building-your-marketing-funnel-with-google-analytics
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
[Build Backlinks Online] TITLE
Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, 'PPC for Lead Generation: How to Get More Leads with PPC' 
You may view the latest post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WordStreamBlog/~3/-t4v0CWPc2c/get-more-leads-with-ppc You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are posted. Best regards, Build Backlinks Online peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Ask any business owner what he or she needs, and you'll likely hear "more customers." Businesses can't just rely on their existing customers to fuel growth, so there's a constant need for more leads who will eventually become clients.
This guide will tell you how to use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising with Google AdWords to get more leads and grow your business.
Who PPC Lead Gen Works For
A common misperception is that PPC is only for e-commerce websites, but that's not the case at all. PPC is a highly effective channel for websites and companies doing lead generation.
Lead generation (often referred to as "lead gen") is a requirement for businesses that can't or won't do business with just anyone. There's usually a prequalification and information-exchange period that takes place so the company and consumer can make decisions based on information.
Lead-gen business characteristics might include:
- Trial periods
- Approval and denial processes
- Long sales cycles because of the complex nature of the product or service
- Price quotes
For example, financial services (credit cards and mortgages), all types of insurance, and business-to-business software survive with lead generation. In fact, anyone who's reading this guide is, or at some point has been, a lead for a company. As a lead you were categorized with a label, like "hot lead," and were then marketed to on a regular basis until an event occurred: you may have signed up, were denied, decided to do nothing, or just went to the bottom of their lead pile to be marketed to later.
The goal of lead gen is to get prospects into the lead-tracking system (commonly depicted as a funnel – see below) to begin a contact period in which the company learns more about your needs and qualifications, and you learn more about the company's products and services.
The ultimate goal is for a sales person to close the deal, so the company gains a new customer. It starts with obtaining basic information, like a name and email address, then progresses to getting more detailed information about the prospect.
Why PPC Is Great for Lead Gen
If you consider your typical lead funnel, it won't take long to realize you need to keep filling the funnel full of leads.
At first leads go into the top of the funnel, then work their way down to an eventual conversion. The challenge is getting the initial leads to feed the top of the funnel. Let's look at the ways this may be accomplished and why PPC is an excellent source of leads:
- Blogging: This can be a good source of leads, but you need to a) constantly publish new content, b) hope your blog posts get shared a lot, and c) have a lot of blog subscribers. This takes time.
- Email: You can repeatedly email your existing subscribers, or you can rent or buy a list of email addresses and hope you're targeting great new leads for your business.
- Social media: This can get you new followers and fans and expose you to new prospects. However, it doesn't mean those followers are in your target market or need your product or service.
- Organic search: Organic ranking is the top of the heap. Approximately 85 percent of search clicks come from page one organic listings, and the clicks are free! The only problem is you're competing with thousands of others for those positions, and you've got to do a ton of on- and off-page SEO work and wait months, maybe years, to get to page one.
- PPC: You can instantly appear on page one and be in front of people who are searching for your solution to their problem. More people are aware of you and what you have to offer than before. Bingo!
Yes, PPC is a channel you pay for by the click. Do keep in mind, though, that no marketing channel is free. Someone has to manage social media, write the blogs, work with the SEO agency (not free), and publish the emails—and those people don't do it for free.
Benefits of PPC for Lead Generation:
- Attract visitors who are looking for what you offer
- Achieve immediate keyword rankings and traffic
- Bid on various stages of the funnel
- Control the message for each funnel stage
- See what people are searching for and craft your message to their needs
- Know more about your leads and their behavior
- Track ROI down to the penny
- Grow your database of leads and market to them with other methods
How Lead Gen Compares to E-Commerce
Back to our initial statement about how e-commerce and lead generation both use PPC marketing. The most glaring difference is the qualification process: in e-commerce, there is none. As long as you have a credit card you're in the target market.
Lead gen vs. e-commerce ad copy
Starting with the ad copy itself, you'll notice the messages and calls-to-action vary between e-commerce and lead-gen companies:
Notice how e-commerce is about immediate gratification (and sales!), while lead gen is a bit more discriminating. It's rarely the case where you become an immediate customer in lead gen because you have to go through a process first.
Here are some real-world examples of how the ad copy, CTA, and landing page experiences compare. For lead gen, the keyword is "car insurance."
Now look at the e-commerce copy and CTAs used for "asics running shoes":
The ad copy and CTAs are somewhat subtle in their differences. The landing pages, however, are where a distinct difference between e-commerce and lead gen is clear.
Lead gen vs. e-commerce PPC landing pages
Here are some examples of lead-gen landing pages for PPC:
The landing pages are limited and with few distractions.
There's a clear pattern of headline, benefits, and multiple calls-to-action: "Start," "Get an online quote," "Call," etc.
Your choices are limited: either make a call or provide them with your zip code.
Visitors need to tell the companies more so the companies can start to qualify and route the leads through the funnel.
With e-commerce, it's a different landing-page experience. Visitors are free to shop the stores and make purchases.
Both landing pages are relevant to the search query and provide additional pages to look at.
There's urgency associated with the "free ground shipping" offer – it's a limited time offer so visitors are motivated to purchase soon.
The theme of both landing pages is to shop now. They're encouraging visitors to make purchases now.
How to Optimize Your Campaigns to Get More Leads Through PPC
Optimizing lead-gen campaigns with Google AdWords requires the same principles you incorporate with e-commerce: tightly themed ad groups, testing ad copy and offers, and a variety of keywords. The major differences are the types of calls-to-action and the landing pages, as evidenced by the previous examples.
The goal is to keep topping off the funnel with qualified leads, and you do this by collecting information from your visitors. It's a numbers game because not every click you get is going to convert, therefore you need to cast a wide net and increase your chances of getting qualified leads with PPC.
Actionable tips for improving your lead-gen performance:
Entice visitors with offers. Offer something (e.g., a free white paper or guide) in exchange for the visitor's email, name, and more. At the very least, give them the opportunity to sign up for your blog or follow you on social media. Though the latter outcomes are not ideal, you at least have not wasted the click by getting nothing for it.
Use focused landing pages. Repeat the benefits and why the person should give you their information. Ask for just the right amount of pertinent information instead of making the transaction appear laborious by asking for too much information. Use primary and secondary CTAs. Test landing page length and fields. In short, make it as frictionless as possible.
Example of a PPC landing page that was reached via PPC:
Things to notice:
- Very few fields to fill in = increased response
- Simple bullet point list of benefits
- Testimonial and short client list
- Free offer in exchange for information
- Trust and credibility proof
BONUS: Three excellent resources for landing pages:
- WordStream Landing Page Creator
- The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Creating Awesome Landing Pages
- The Anatomy of a Landing Page
Try dynamic number insertion (DNI). DNI allows you to dynamically change the phone number that appears in your ads and on landing pages. This ensures your call representatives know what type of keyword triggered the call. You're then better able to route calls to the right reps in your organization. Two of the better known providers are ifbyphone and Call Rail.
Invest in a solid CRM. Tracking your leads and staying in touch with them can become overwhelming—fast. A CRM (customer relationship management) program allows you to record who contacted you, what they were interested in, and what happened. You can then classify your leads and engage with them via email or a phone call. There are tons of CRM companies out there, but some of the more popular ones are Infusionsoft, Zoho, and Salesforce.
Focus on a "new" KPI. In PPC we're usually talking about metrics like cost-per-click and conversion rate. In lead gen, though, one of the major key performance indicators is cost-per-lead (CPL). It's simple to calculate: [Overall cost of PPC campaign / number of leads = CPL]. In short, it will reveal how much you're paying for your leads and will drive your decision-making process.
About the Author
This is a guest post by Brad McMillen, an internet marketing consultant and freelance copywriter at Mac Strat in Redondo Beach, California. He manages pay-per-click campaigns, performs SEO audits, and writes web copy. He rarely has a case of the Mondays, and he enjoys watching people surf while he works.
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This post originated on the WordStream Blog. WordStream provides keyword tools for pay-per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) aiding in everything from keyword discovery to keyword grouping and organization.
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