What is Pay-for-Performance Marketing?
In the simplest terms, pay-for-performance marketing is an assurance of value. Instead of paying for marketing services with the hopes of increasing your profits, you are essentially taking on a marketing partner who has a vested interest in increasing your leads, sales and profits. For more information, click on pay-for-performance marketing.
I’ve Been Too Busy With My Business. Haven’t I Already Missed The Best Opportunities Involving Internet Marketing?
No. Internet Marketing is continually evolving. The era of 21st century marketing is still in its infancy. There are now MORE ways to shoot your business to the stars than ever before.
How Can My Website Get More Visitors?
Jeez! You know how to cut to the chase! There are MANY ways to get more web visitors. But they all boil down to either:
- BUYING traffic or
- GROWING traffic naturally through Search Engine Optimization, and organic traffic growing strategies (including social media)
The question should really be, “Which are the best ways for MY business to get more traffic?” We need to discuss your circumstances before I can give you a relevant answer.
Should My Business Have A Blog?
For most businesses that rely on interacting with new and existing customers and clients, the answer is “Yes.” Not only is a blog an easy and effective way to build relationships with your visitors, prospects, customers and clients, but, by their very nature, blogs have built-in features that can be leveraged as part of a traffic-building strategy.
However, like anything else in the world of marketing, its greatest power is through an effective integration within a larger, overall marketing program.
Creating and updating a blog by itself is quite useful. But its full potential can not be realized by simply starting one (even though it’s so easy).
An analogy would be putting a driver, like you or I, in the seat of a high-performance race car. Even though we could make it go, steer it and stop it (and might even enjoy it), that car will not make you or I a world champion race car driver.
On the other hand, for some people, maintaining a blog is such an enjoyable experience that they could happily continue to create it without ever having a concern about increasing its performance (such as generating more traffic, creating more sales, etc.)
Should My Business Use Video for Marketing?
Video offers some practical opportunities in terms of expanding your business. A considerable amount of information can be conveyed more effectively on video, which all by itself, can be translated into more leads and sales. Furthermore, your videos can benefit from favorable search rankings, which means a greater exposure of your marketing message. In short, video is a very powerful media and, used effectively, should be part of any marketing mix.
How Can I Turn More Visitors Into Clients Or Customers?
Although this would require a conversation to determine your particular situation, generally speaking, it is possible that you are concentrating on the very end of the process of converting visitors into customers. Unless you have an inexpensive, impulse product, the steps to convert visitors to buyers starts much earlier on the chain of events, and the earlier points are often the most neglected.
How Come My Email Marketing Isn’t As Effective As It Used To Be? Is Email Still Relevant?
Email is very much an important part of a marketing mix! However, if you are still using email like many businesses were in the 20th century (shouting at email subscribers to buy from you), your email should be less effective. You need to build a relationship with your email subscribers and engage them with valuable information that truly helps them and not just bombard them with “Buy Now” messages. You want your subscribers to look forward to your emails. They will not only be more interested in your products/services, but by building a relationship, they will be more inclined to WANT to buy from you.
How Come I’m Losing More Email Subscribers Than I’m Gaining?
See the previous email question. Of course, another point that’s so basic that it may be overlooked is ensuring that all your email recipients are truly “confirmed” subscribers who requested to receive your emails.
Some amount of subscriber attrition is completely normal. However, if you are losing more subscribers than you are gaining, that’s a bad sign.
The short answer is that your email subscribers are leaving because you have not continued to provide what they expected when they registered for your list.
The good news is that there are a variety of specific solutions pertinent to your unique business to reverse this trend. We just need to talk.
I Was Doing “Pay Per Click” Marketing For Years. It Used To Work Well For Me, And Then It Got More Expensive And Less Effective Before I Gave It Up. What Did I Do Wrong?
One way to answer this is to say that you didn’t do anything wrong: but the way to conduct PPC marketing has changed quite a bit over the years and you were probably too busy to keep up with the changes.
Another way to answer this is to say PPC was much easier several years ago.
However, because PPC was (and is) such a great way to generate traffic and sales, the costs went up and the manner on how to conduct Pay Per Click marketing became more sophisticated. In short, PPC is a very powerful media when used skillfully by current standards.
I Tried PPC Not Too Long Ago And Lost Money. What Did I Do Wrong?
You could have started a PPC campaign as late as 2003-2004 without knowing what you were doing and made money with it right from the start. Nowadays, it is much more likely that you will lose money in the beginning.
In fact, Google will charge you MORE money for clicks until you PROVE that you know what you’re doing with the traffic they send you.
It may sound somewhat irrational as a business model, but there is a business reason Google does this. We can talk about it if you’re interested. The point is, PPC can work for most businesses, but some money may be lost before profits are realized.
I Had My Website Completely Redesigned And Now I Get Less Visitors and Sales. How Come?
A “good” website design is important. However, what’s much more important are all the factors that are not as prominent and include copywriting, usability issues and quite vitally, Search Engine Optimization factors.
One thing that might have happened was that website pages were renamed, and moved around, during the redesign process which could have rendered some of your prior search engine benefits less effective.
In short, what’s more important than your site’s “look” are the features and characteristics that drive performance, which really boil down to the marketing strategies to bring that about.
Although this next statement may seem counter-intuitive, it’s useful to realize that there are plenty of sites that might be described as unimpressive, underwhelming, very simple or even downright ugly, but that are high-performance and very profitable sites.
Conversely, in the world of web performance marketing, a rule of thumb was established long ago that if a site is so good looking that it has won a “design” award, that’s a certain indicator that it is an utter failure as a business platform.
In short, if your site was redesigned by a web designer, with no input from website “performance” professionals, there are plenty of reasons why your site would lose sales. We should talk.
Why Have I Heard That “Search Engine Optimization” Is Voodoo?
Search Engine Optimization, like many things in life that are not well understood by individuals, is subject to derision by the same folks.
And SEO is subject to a wider disparity of perspectives because it not only works very well, it can be and is abused.
Hence, the world of SEO has been characterized by “White Hat” and “Black Hat” SEO practitioners.
Some Black Hat SEO tactics do not conform to search engine guidelines, and may attempt to deceive search engines. Although some such tactics may be capable of generating higher search engine rankings faster, at some point after you’ve thanked and paid your SEO professional for his/her services, your site may be penalized by Google and greatly reduced in the search rankings. And other than reading about that here, or somewhere else, you would typically never know why things turned sour….
White Hat strategies do conform to search engine guidelines and simply make it easier for search engines to understand what kind of information is on a website.
In brief, SEO not only works, it is a vital part of any modern, long-term marketing strategy (even if it seems like voodoo). And the good news is, that it includes very economical ways to build LONG-TERM traffic growth.
(Click for Training Video on Driving Website Traffic with the Search Engine Optimization Triangle)
What’s The Difference Between SEO and PPC?
Search Engine Optimization involves strategies and tactics to create and grow organic, natural traffic (including social media).
Pay Per Click involves buying traffic.
Stated another way, SEO is like investing in and building a house, whereby everything you invest builds up as an asset, in the same way that equity builds up in your home (the stream of natural traffic continues to build into a bigger and bigger asset).
PPC is like renting a home – once you stop paying, you lose the traffic, and you’ll never have a true asset, because natural traffic is an important part of a website’s inherent value.
In an ideal world, you would take advantage of both.
I’m Too Busy! How Much Of All This “Social Media” Chaos Should I Pay Attention to?
“Social media” is an important part of a major change in the way people connect to each other for personal and business purposes. A large part of social media is user-generated content (UGC) which can be created through a broad array of web channels. A few examples include blogs, internet forums, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, YouTube, Digg, Delicious, Flickr and many, many more. So much is happening in this area that it certainly can seem like “chaos!”
A very direct answer is you would be wise to pay at least some attention to social media.
As a start, do some research at Wikipedia. If you take pictures, check out Flickr for sharing them. Explore some blogs of people you know and/or of subjects you find interesting. Save some of your favorite websites as bookmarks at Delicious.
But in terms of how to consider social media for marketing purposes, well, that would be an important discussion, because that is where some of the best and lowest-cost opportunities are.
When social media channels are used correctly, your stature and influence can be GREATLY boosted.
Conversely, if done poorly, it can result in negative repercussions broadly disseminated faster than ever before.
If you are receptive to new ideas and if you can tolerate not becoming an expert overnight, this can be a fulfilling and profitable area.
Look, I just need LEADS! How will all this stuff help me?
Strategic lead generation is an exercise in juggling quantity and quality and speed. (Of course, like everything else here, cost is an underlying factor, as well).
If you need as many leads as fast as possible, buying traffic is the best way to accomplish that.
A paid traffic program can be tuned to generate the extremes of either the highest quantity of leads or the highest quality of leads. However, most requirements will fall somewhere in between.
Internet Marketing And Traditional Marketing Is Changing Too Fast. What’s Going On?
More has changed in the marketing, communications, advertising and public relations world in the past few years than in the entire history of all these disciplines combined.
Let me say that another way: More than at any other point in history, we are in the midst of a global technological shift that is radically altering the way traditional marketing, advertising, public relations and communications are being conducted.
Not everyone likes change. Just ask anyone whose career is tied to newspapers, TV or radio. Heck, just ask any of the marketers and advertisers who have been doing things the same way for their entire careers.
We are amidst truly historical changes and they also represent unprecedented opportunities for those that seek to embrace what the changes have to offer.
But even if you turn your head away because you are too busy, these changes will effect you, if for no other reason than your competitors will be embracing them very soon (if they haven’t done so already).
In short, the technological communications revolution that we are surrounded by is the best opportunity for expanding your business that has ever occurred. Take advantage of it now. (Let’s talk!)
Should I Move All Of My Marketing Budget Over To The Internet?
No.
Although the biggest marketing and advertising budgets are moving resources from traditional media to the internet in a tidal wave that is toppling the status quo like never before, the reality is that a well designed marketing program would integrate what is continuing to work for you in the present, along with newer and even lower-cost strategies. Such a program would be based upon your unique business situation and needs. Traditional media is not dead (although some have announced that it is inevitable). Personally, I don’t envision traditional media going away anytime soon, even though the landscape is changing very rapidly.
Marketing channels such as direct mail, radio, TV, conferences, seminars, and events still have an important position in your business, and the right mix of traditional and new marketing media will launch your business into orbit the fastest and/or with the least cost.
Any Other Reasons I Should Consider Hiring You?
Hmmmmm…Because you are very smart and know when to take advantage a good thing!? :-)
I could add that in addition to a unique marketing savvy, specific marketing tools, and proven marketing experience, I also bring a practical aptitude for resolving what often appears, to others, to be complex marketing problems.
Stated very simply, does the concept of an intelligent, rational and systematic marketing approach make sense to you? My “Applied Marketing Intelligence” is that. I’m proud to say it works every time — which means better marketing returns for you!
So, Are You Some Kind Of A Marketing And PR Genius?
Well, no, but per standardized IQ testing, I rank in the top 5% for males. (However, some women have argued that such would rank below the 90th percentile for females. Since I have never won an argument with a woman, I reserve comment.)
