3 Reasons For/Against Using Software For Your SEM

If you are reading this article it means that, most likely, you are manning your own Google search engine marketing or you want to step into this world. You've wondered if you are getting everything you expected.  You've questioned the ROI of the wonderful world of Google Adwords.  There are many moving pieces to Google marketing and that's not even taking into account Yahoo and Bing.

Below are three reasons for outsourcing to a software platform.  We'll also look at three reasons to not go with a consultant to manage your digital marketing.

Three Reasons For:

• Time
•  This is a business persons most valuable resource.  Time management is paramount when running a business, department or your marketing.  Everyone needs to be able to budget their time in a way that they get the most out of their day.  The goal is to get as much done is as little time possible so you can go home and spend the rest of your valuable time with your family.
• 1 hour
• This is the amount of time you should allow each day to manage your online search engine marketing.
• There are lots of moving pieces to check.
• Bids
• Ads
• Landing pages
• Conversions
• Competition
• Click Thru Rates
• Etc.
• How much is your time worth?
• If you are a local Philadelphia small business person that makes $100k a year, then on average that hour is worth $48.
• With that in mind, you should be checking it each day and once on the weekend.  Search engine campaigns can run 24/7.
• Each month, that adds up to almost $1,200 of time.  This is on top of what you are spending for the marketing.
• Using software, like ReachLocal, will enable you to use that time to build your company and give you back 24 hours each month.
• Expertise
• Most small to medium sized businesses in the Philadelphia area are experts in their line of service and they dabble in finance, marketing, HR and legal.
• For instance, I am an expert in search engine marketing but not in 401ks and business law.  This is why I outsource to the experts in those areas.
• Software can help streamline and manage the components of Google Adwords so you can look at the big picture.
• Software will track and monitor what keyword, at what price, is driving the right type of conversion.
• Then when you work with a digital marketing consultant, they can game plan with you to determine the areas of success and areas of weakness in the campaigns.
• Scope
• When running digital and mobile marketing, there are a number of platforms that you need to be active on.
• Google
• Yahoo 
• Bing
• Each platform has a desk top and mobile program that needs to be managed and tracked.
• With a software program like ReachLocal, you can seamlessly run you ads on each area and make sure that you are moving budget to the areas that are successful.
• One of the biggest mistakes I see local Philly businesses make is not taking advantage of traffic from Yahoo and Bing.
• Google accounts for  67%, and this number is falling as Yahoo and Bing make strategic partnerships to increase their market share.
• Can you afford to not go after 33% of your potential new customers?  Your competition is most likely hoping you do not.

Three Reasons Against:

• Budget
• If you are a small one person operation and/or have annual revenues under $250k a year, I typically recommend that you run a Google only campaign yourself.
• Typically we recommend that you plan for 5% of your revenue to go toward your marketing budget.  With a monthly budget of $12,500 for all marketing, this means that $6250 toward digital marketing.  We always suggest that you have half of your marketing in traditional forms of advertising and half in online marketing.
• If you are investing $500 a month toward digital marketing a month, you need all of those funds to compete against the big boys.  One of the main reasons small businesses fail at search engine marketing is that they don't invest enough and they don't monitor that investment.
• Keywords
• If you are a locksmith, there are only so many ways to say that you are a locksmith.
• Most of the clients, that we work with, have many profit centers and many ways to have potential clients look for them.
• Example:
• Retirement Community
• I work with a number of retirement and assisted living facilities.  Each has a number of profit centers and we have keywords and text ads for all of them.
• Retirement living
• Assisted Living
• Personal Care
• Dementia Assistance
• In Home Care
• Etc.
• It would be near impossible for a local retirement community to manage each of these ad groups and text ads.
• Hands On
• If you are someone that loves technology and has a passion for numbers, then outsourcing PPC to a consultant doesn't make sense.  Running Google Adwords can be a lot of fun, if you have the time to crunch numbers and monitor it every day.
• I've worked with some clients that want to be able to manage the minutia.  When it comes to software running PPC campaigns, this is typically not how software works.  The software is doing that for you so you can achieve maximum return.

In conclusion, it's important to weigh each side of the equation. Always balance the pluses and minuses so that you can make an informed decision.

Feel free to email me with any additional questions.

Eric Laylon
Senior Internet Marketing Consultant
610-667-4595

Mobile Marketing 2015 - What To Know

• Website
• As mobile usage has jumped, in the last few years, your website NEEDS to be mobile friendly and better yet, responsive design.
• If you are not familiar with responsive design, it's when your website fits the screen of the device that is connecting to it.  Google is benefiting sites that are responsive design because of the better user experience.  
• ReachLocal has been developing mobile & responsive design sites for over a year now.  See examples here.

• Google / Yahoo / Bing
• The area we have seen the biggest jump in marketing dollars is search engine marketing on mobile phones.
• Mobile marketing on the search engines is targeted, local and simple.
• It is getting more expensive. As more small business get out of traditional and into digital. upwards of $31 billion was spent on mobile marketing this year!
• At least 40% of your search marketing budget should be directed at mobile.
• Display
•  Display ads on mobile come in a verity of different drivers.
• Social
• In App
• Banners
• This is just like any other push marketing.  Much like radio, tv and print, it is important to get the message out of your service and/or product.  Push ads can be a great way to build your brand and educate the public.
• Each area has pluses and minuses so it's important to consult with yourmarketing rep to determine which is the right avenue.
• SMS
• SMS, or text message, marketing is going to be an area that enables you to push messages through text to customers.
• Much like you collect emails, for email marketing, phone numbers being collected for SMS marketing.
• There are many things to make sure you do if you go this route.
• It has to be opt in
• It has to be local
• It has to be short and interactive

Google Gets Callouts

• Text Ad
• Google is forever changing and testing different strategies for both organic and paid listings.  The most recent change is that Google has added an additional line of copy for advertisers to provide a callout line.
• They show when the ad appears in the top 3 spots on the search page.
• See example below.

• Why
• This additional line allows us to highlight a product or service that the advertiser would like to promote.
• It is flexible and we can tailor it to specials or seasonal events.
• The callouts are also mobile friendly so we can have searchers see it on the phone or table search result.
• Benefit
•  Those advertisers that get them added will make the ad larger and it will take up more real estate.
• How
• To have Google Callouts enabled for your campaign, or to get a campaign started, email or call me to discuss.

Keeping Up With Google My Business

What To Know:

Google recently changed their algorithm and one of the major areas that it effected was in the Google map listings.  This area, which is now called Google My Business, has gone through a lot of changes over the years.  The screen shot below is an example of these listings. With Google's newest update, it has pushed these listings down the result page.  It is vitally important to update and manage this listing to ensure that it will show in the search results.Below are some simple steps to follow: Make sure it is formatted properly. I found with a client, that use to be on top of his listing, that Google had cleared out all of his info. Be sure to proactively search yourself.  If you are not actively managing it, Google can clear it out and reset it. Review ALL of your local listings.  Be sure to look at your listings on Yelp, Yahoo, Bing and other areas to ensure that they are all correctly updated. Set up your service map.  This is going tell Google, and your potential clients, where you are willing to go to meet or conduct business. BIG TAKE AWAY - Check your listing at least once a month.  If you need help, call a professional or if you can't find one, email me.

5 Common SEO Mistakes

Welcome to our April edition of From the Desk of Team Laylon!  As we move into what will hopefully be a break from our extremely challenging winter, we are going to focus on growing your online business.  Soon the flowers will be in full bloom and with that in mind we'd like to help you grow your digital marketing presence by looking at SEO.

 
 

5 Common SEO Mistakes

SEO is, and has always been, an important part of having a solid digital strategy.  We will be looking at some common mistakes to avoid.

We have been assisting local small to medium sized businesses with developing smart and responsive websites.  Our Edge sites are conversion friendly and help to manage and monitor the leads from your marketing. The next step is to make sure that they are driving visits.  This can be done many ways but the two main are Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.

When focusing on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) it is vital that you have a website that is a good starting point.  You would never build a house on a cracked foundation and the same is true with websites.  Below are a few important things to make sure aren't doing wrong out of the gate.

• Outdated Website
• If your website is older then 5 years, or hasn't been updated since 1999, it's time for a new one.  Everyone knows that technology is changing at a rapid pace.  Most likely the phone in your pocket is outdated.  If you have a website. that is even a couple years old, you are most likely missing out.
• Non Mobile Friendly
• The search engines will penalize you for many things and losing visitors is #1.  If your site isn't mobile friendly, then most likely half of the visitors are having bad experiences.  This is going to negatively effect your ranking in a big way.
• Faulty Meta Tags
• If you don't know what metadata or meta tags are, that's probably the first problem.  Learn more here.  Make sure that your website can speak to the search engines and it all starts here.
• Blog-less
• A blog is vital to a website.  This is the mouth piece to the search engines.  Through the blog you are telling the world what is going on with your business and you are letting the search engines know you are keeping up to date.
• Not Local
• The internet is getting more and more local.  It is important to have your website show you are local and that you service the local area.  Google is constantly changing is search page to deliver better local results and you need to target your website to grab these searchers.  You will want to claim all of your local listings and update them often.

Hopefully your website doesn't fall under any of these headings but if it does, we can help. Email or call, 610-557-4595 x112 for more information on Edge and ReachSEO. 

Full article can be viewed here

Determining Monthly Budgets For Digital Marketing

We know that the trend for marketing is moving online and we know that local small to medium sized businesses need to have a balanced approach for allocating their resources so how do they go about figuring out what is right for them?

We will cover a few topics on how to help figure out the right budget and the right allocation.  Below are the areas we will cover.

• What percentage of my business's gross revenues should I put into marketing?
• What percentage of my marketing budget should go toward traditional verses online?
• What type of mix should I have with my online advertising?
• How do I plan for seasonality?

HOW MUCH?

When running a local business having a plan and executing that plan is vital for your survival.  Local businesses are getting hit from all sides and have competitors at every turn.  Local small to medium sized Philadelphia businesses need to compete against other Philly SMBs, national chains, e-commerce companies and more.  With that in mind, it is very important to have a budget and stick with it. 

Lots of businesses shoot from the hip when determining their marketing but that will lead to a ballooning budget.  When looking at how much to spend, there are consultants that recommend 7-8% of your gross annual revenue.  I personally believe that this is a very aggressive number and usually advice my clients to be in the 5% area.  Throughout this blog we'll use an example of a $3 million a year business.

Revenue = $3 million
Annual Marketing Budget = $150,000
Monthly Marketing Budget = $12,500


Percentage Toward Online & Offline
Very soon the total advertising dollars of online marketing is going to exceed that of traditional marketing. Just last year in 2012, $39 billion was spent in online and $33 billion was spent on print advertising. 2013 is showing to have more of the same when it comes to spending online marketing dollars.  This coming year it has been shown that there is going to be an increase of 5% spent on marketing online.

The question for local Philly businesses is, how much should I put to digital advertising?  I recommend that clients typical allocate 50% of marketing to traditional and 50% toward online.  I make the case that traditional marketing is still important to driving the message out locally and it is still expensive.  As an example, it's about $850 for one spot on WMMR morning drive so to keep a consistent message it is going to take a healthy investment. When thinking about where to place your advertising dollars make sure to place it in the right place because you need a lot of frequency to accomplish top of mind awareness.

In our example of $3 million business, about $6,250 should be dedicated to online marketing and $6,250 toward offline advertising.

Marketing Mix
Now that we have a breakdown of how much, the next logical question is where do we invest?  To answer that we need to understand what is out there in terms of digital marketing.

There are some key areas that we group digital marketing into and below are the main areas:
Search Engines
Brand Building
Social Management
Email Marketing


Search Engines

• This breaks down into two major areas
  
• SEO (or search engine optimization)
•  When it comes to investment, this will take an initial payment and then usually a month maintenance fee.
• I usually advise my clients that building a quality site with a blog and updating both is the best investment of time.  If you do this upfront work, the monthly investment for SEO should be minimal. 
• Example...with our $3 million company I would recommend $500 a month on SEO
• SEM (or search engine marketing)
• Google, Yahoo, Bing and the other search engine have a marketing platform that allows for you to bid on keywords and pay for visits.
• With the changing algorithm at Google and the rest, it is important to keep placement on the search engines with a good strategy of buying keywords that get calls and emails.
• Each industry is different and the cost per keyword varies so budget should reflect the competitive nature of your industry.  You can go to Google to see how competitive your industry is by visiting their keyword tool
• Example...with our $3 million company we will say that they are a HVAC company that is in Philadelphia that wants to target AC keywords.  A locally targeting campaign could run up to $3000 a month.

Brand Building
When it comes to push messaging online there are lots of ways to go about getting the message out.  Banner ads are a good way to get the brand image to the right people.  Banner ads have been revolutionized over the years.  Through cookie tracking you can now focus in on specific demographics and search behaviors.  No longer do you have to waste your advertising dollars on one-off newspaper websites or just on Comcast.

• Banner Ads
• Remarketing and Retargeting allow businesses to push their message to a very specific market of people.  You can target people that have been to your website as well as people that have been searching specifically for your product or service.
• This type of advertising is bought on cost per 1000.  That means that when a 1000 people see the banner ad the client is billed a fee.  That fee is determined on how valuable the website is and how much it is worth to the other companies bidding on it.
• High traffic websites like ESPN, CNN and others can charge up to $40 per CPM.  Smaller blogs and niche sites can be in the $1 to $3 CPM range.
• Example...our $3 million company can push messages during their core business season with a $1000 budget.

Social Management

Social management and marketing is a booming industry.  It is important to build your networks so that you can expand your online word of mouth, maintain a good reputation and do digital PR.  Customers are evaluating your business on  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +.

• Social Marketing
• My personal experience with local Philadelphia businesses is that marketing on Facebook is not worth the investment.  For some businesses I'm sure it can work but I have not seen this with local SMBs in Philly.
• Social Management
• When it comes to building your network and managing your reputation, this takes a lot of time and knowledge, which most local businesses don't have the time for.  An investment in social, for the right business, can help make all the difference when buyers get into the decision making mindframe.
• Typically when you outsource social, that involves them building your followers, engaging your fans and managing your reputation.  Each week there needs to be post and content published to build your following.
• Example...a month budget for social can range from $500 to $1500 a month depending on your needs

Email Marketing
Email marketing is a key part of digital advertising.  It can be used to send coupons, inform about specials, education about events and much more.

• Development
• You will want to build a list of emails as consistently as possible.  Every new prospect, client, customer, friend or passerby should be in your email data base.  As you build your list it is important to develop a consistent communication cadence.  You don't want to over do it but you want to have some method to your madness.  
• Implementation
• I recommend Constant Contact to my clients as an email platform.  It is inexpensive and easy to use.  If you need more detailed looking email platforms, then you will need to outsource it and find someone to assist you.
• Example...a monthly investment should be around $100 to $500.  

Budget Breakdown (for our $3 million client)

Search - $3500 (SEM & SEO)
Branding - $1000
Social - $1000
Email - $100
Total Monthly - $5600

This leaves some additional funds (roughly $650 a month) to be invested throughout the year to website updating and one off marketing ventures.

Seasonality
Not every business has a static monthly investment that it makes toward marketing.  Typically companies have learned their seasonality and adjust their spending based on the ebbs and flows of their business.  As a business you will need to tailor your marketing to get the biggest bang for your investment and to do that you need to make a big decision.  Are you going to put a push in your off peak season or during your core season?

• Trend
• When it comes to seasonal marketing it is important to know the trends so you can make an informed decision about when to push your message.  To help with that, Google has a great tool...it's called Google Trends.  I know...really out of the box thinking on the name.  Below is a view of party rental keywords.  This is showing volume of searches on Google for three keywords.

• Planning
• With your marketing message make sure that you are turning up and turning down your frequency.  I recommend that during your off peak time that you pull back a little but still keep a strong presence on the Search Engines.  Then leading up to your peak time, push your message in all areas to ramp up your client acquisition.  Learn more about Seasonal Marketing.

Summary
In summary, have a plan and execute the plan.  Make sure you are being fiscally responsible and holding true to what your goals are.  Make sure the goals are clear and that you have a path is set forth.  When implementing your marketing, you will want to re-evaluate the performance and return on the investment every couple of months.  Do not set it and forget it.  Successful businesses are engaged with their marketing message and their marketing budget.

For more information or to set up your digital marketing plan, email Eric Laylon.  You can also visit www.EricLaylon.com.

Bitcoin - Should Local Businesses Accept It?

An interesting development has popped up over the last couple of months, we are starting to see a new internet currency come into play.  Bitcoin is a new online currency that is gaining some steam.  This currency is not based on gold or silver but on solving complex mathematical equations. This video does a good job of explaining how it works and how it was developed.

Basics

Bitcoin is a digital currency that was originated by an unknown group or person.  This makes it a little "scary" but nonetheless it is getting a good amount of PR and funding.  Bitcoin got its start in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto but Satoshi is not known to the public.  We're not even sure if it is a person or a group, although the thought is that it is a person and that they are doing this as a political thumbing of the nose to government regulated currency.

Math

The way that it works is that Bitcoins are hidden in mathematical equations and the only way to unearth them is by solving the code.  The code is solved by Bitcoin miners.  These Bitcoin miners are computers that are diving into the code trying to find the Bitcoins.  Once you find a block of Bitcoins they are yours to keep.  There are 21 million Bitcoins available to be found, which is how worth is determined.  Not all of the Bitcoins have been released and only a few are release each year.  The pricing of Bitcoins is fluid, like any currency, and it currently sits around $112 per Bitcoin.  Websites like Mt.Gox are where you can go to exchange the currency.  It's value is based on what we think it is worth so it is much like gold.  You value gold because there is a limited amount of it and the same is true with Bitcoins. 

Acceptance

Now the question comes to play, who is accepting it and should local Philadelphia businesses jump on board?  Right now most transactions are mainly between individuals.  There are website companies that are accepting it but most of them are internet based gambling sites and web based businesses.  You can find them on Google by searching for "accepting Bitcoins".  Right now there aren't any major companies that are on the list but there are some major companies investing in it.  Bitcoin got $5 million investment from Union Square Ventures so with money starting to get invested into the system, it gives the movement some validity.

Paypal is a good example of how this can explode.  Paypal had a pretty quick adoption rate with local businesses.  Paypal is grounded in hard currency but the thinking is similar.  Since Bitcoin is its own currency the adoption is going to be a lot slower due to the uncertainty of the platform.  PayPal is considering accepting Bitcoins, which would be a major breakthrough.  If Bitcoins can break into the mainstream by way of PayPal or other banking facilities, this will go a long way to legitimizing the whole process.

Hackers

One issue that it will have to over come is hackers.  The Bitcoin system has been hacked a couple times and the hackers are targeting the online wallets of users. With everything online, there is the risk of getting hacked so it is something that everyone has to weigh before getting involved.  That being said, people thought Facebook would sell your personal information to the government and they would have full access to your life but look how successful it has been.  Even stocks markets can be affected by hackers, look at what happened when the AP twitter account was hacked and the stock market tanked.  These situations don't keep the majority of people away from Facebook and the Stock Market.

Why Do It?

For local Philly businesses it comes down to whether or not they want to venture into this arena.  If they do, there are some benefits.

• No cost of entry
• No charge backs or fees
• Early adopters are bound to gain from it in the beginning

As with everything there are some drawbacks

• No regulation - could be a plus or minus really
• Hackers
• Market volatility

How To Market It

For those companies that do jump into this, they will need to get the word out.  If I was a business, that catered to the young cutting edge demographic, I would seriously think about moving forward with it.  There are lots of internet forums out there to get exposure for this. You can get listed in a lot of areas, like https://www.spendbitcoins.com/places/. Social marketing is going to be key in how to get the message out.  Twitter, Facebook, Google + and other are going to make or break your strategy.  You can also set up an Google Adwords account to focus in on searches for Bitcoins.  Also incorporating the Bitcoin into your website and text ads is going to help promote this new part of your business.

Final Thoughts

As Bitcoins pick up speed, you will be out in front of the wave.  If you are the early adopter type, you'll want to get on board quick because as more people get involved the more watered down it will become.  I believe that internet currency is going to go through a couple generations of change but we'll see something like Bitcoin that will catch on in the mainstream.  The internet has changed so much in our lives and this is one area that it can easily revolutionize. Educate yourself and be aware of the changes with Bitcoins, as this is probably the first wave of a title wave that has yet to come.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at elaylon@gmail.com or visit my website, www.EricLaylon.com.