3 Tips To Spring Forward In 2015

As we get into the spring season, it is important to make sure that your digital marketing plans are set up to help you convert more business.  Below are three important tips for any small business to be successful here in 2015.  Spring time in Philadelphia is a wonderful time for business to engage with their clients and to ramp up their marketing efforts.

TIP #1 - Mobile or Responsive Design Website:

•     Google announced that on April 21st, that their ranking algorithm is going to factor mobile design.   This means that on mobile searches, if your website is not mobile friendly or responsive design, it will get punished.  Most small to medium sized businesses know that they need a mobile site but may not have moved to update their existing design.  Below is an example of one of my clients that we moved to responsive design.  You can see the before and after in the screen shot.

• From the outside in, there might not look to be much of a change, but look at how the site responds to mobile visits.  You can see below the before and after of mobile visits. For those that visited the old site on their mobile phone, they were having a terrible user experience.  Now that they have updated the site, it is seen better by users and Google will not penalize the site in mobile rankings.

Tip #2 - Localized Mobile Marketing

• Once you have a site that is updated for mobile users, the next step is to make sure that you are getting traffic to it.  It is important to understand that the search engines want small to medium sized local businesses here in Philadelphia to invest in mobile marketing.  The site is not going to show up for every term and ads on the search engines will enable your site to target local users.
• Below is an example of a mobile search ad.  Ad placement is bid on and the highest bidder wins.  Bids on mobile searches are much more aggressive due to the limited space.  There are only two spots so make sure to allocate higher maximum bids on mobile searches.  If you are not sure how to do this, higher someone that knows.

TIP #3 - Track Return On Mobile Investment

• Now that you've spent the money to update the site and allocated resources to the search engines, it is vital that you monitor how well you are converting these marketing dollars into revenue.  
• Tracking conversions is something that websites, like the one above, can help you with.  When we develop sites, at ReachLocal, we incorporate a tracking software that shows us the calls that are generated from the site.  We can track it down to how the person got to the site.  If someone searches on Google, we can see if that person clicked on an ad and called the business.  We can also see if the lead came from a social site, a directory site or from the organic position.
• Below is a sample of what the tracking looks like.  As the business user monitors the leads, they are able to push those leads into contact, to a lead and finally into a new clients.  As they move them through the decision making process we can see how much revenue is generated.

To learn more about digital and mobile marketing, feel free to call Eric at 610-664-4595 or email him at elaylon@reachlocal.com

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

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.