But before you begin your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign as part of your search engine optimization (SEO) process, there are three main questions to ask yourself:

1.    Do you have SEO keywords?

By using the top keywords your audience is searching for in your PPC ad, you’ll attract more attention… so before you just start writing your ad, conduct some SEO research.

Use a free tool like Google Analytics, WordTracker.com, and others to see the keywords people are using to get to your site. Then, incorporate these words into your ad and think about what you are trying to accomplish.

2.    Do you have a landing page for each ad?

When people click on your PPC ad, where does the link take them? Before you post it, create a specific landing page for your ad that will help accomplish the goal for the campaign.

Your landing page should include the same phrase that’s in your PPC ad so that people know they are in the right place when they click on it.

Plus, rather than sending people to a generic Web page, you can send them to a unique page to sell your product or service with a specific call-to-action. Then, you can track activities and make changes to your landing page as needed to increase sales or clicks.

If you don’t have a landing page for your PPC ad, you won’t get the best results possible for your campaign.

3.    Test and monitor.

The great thing about SEO is that you can see what the results are, test different words and phrases and then use the words that provide the best results… immediately. If you are not checking your PPC campaign on a regular basis, you are missing out on a golden opportunity.

With this in mind, check the clicks on your PPC link and your landing page. Are you seeing the results you want to see? Are people clicking on your link and following the call-to-action on your landing page?

If not, test different variations of your landing page, try different keywords in your PPC ad and then check the results again. By monitoring and testing your ad campaign, you can “tweak” it until it provides the results you desire.

Save Time and Money.

Instead of jumping online with a PPC campaign to try to increase sales, take a few minutes to plan and think. Develop your goal, keywords and landing page first. Then, place your ad and monitor results.

If your campaign is not working, test different, SEO word-variances in your ad and on your landing page. Yes, this takes extra effort. But by paying attention to your PPC campaign and changing it for the best results, you’ll save time and money. Best of all, you’ll create a campaign that actually brings in new customers and sales.

For additional help with your SEO process, please write to me here or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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• Not all your visitors are the same. If you sell a $29 book and a $5,000 coaching program, both audiences are very different from each other and need different marketing approaches.
• Creating a marketing message around a specific call to action will get you a much better response. Landing pages are ideal for this.

So, What Do Landing Pages Look Like, Anyway?

These are some of the most important things you need to keep in mind when you’re working on your landing pages:

• Make Them Short. Write a powerful headline that attracts attention, use a bulleted list for your benefits and have a clear call to action. That’s it.
• Keep the Important Stuff Above the Fold. “Above the fold” means “what you can see without having to scroll down”. Get rid of that huge logo you have. It’s not about your company; it’s about your visitors. The three most important elements of your home page (headline, benefits and call to action) should be above the fold.
• Make Sure Your Copy “Flows” Well. Your copy needs to follow a logical path. Show them the problem first, a solution to the problem second and finally show them what they need to do to take action.
• Have ONE Very Prominent Call to Action. If you ask people to do 10 different things, you’ll lose them. Ask for ONE thing and make sure your call to action is the focal point of your landing page. Are you tired of seeing those big, red animated arrows showing you where you need to click? Guess why they’re everywhere. Because they work!
• Include Testimonials. Talk to your salespeople and discover what are the most common objections people have about your product. Then, get testimonials that overcome those objections. For example, if a lot of people complain about your high prices, get a testimonial from someone who thought your prices were really high but decided to give it a shot anyway and now he’s really happy that he did, because your product is much better than the cheaper options.
• Make Your Message Consistent. If your Google AdWords ads say “Get a FREE Trial” and your landing page is all about buying the paid version, you’ll turn people off. Make sure you have a consistent message across your marketing path.
• Get Rid of Distractions. You don’t need a navigation menu or links to other pages on your site. Define your funnel and stick to it. If you absolutely need to display more information about something, make the links open in new windows.
• Don’t Ask Too Much from Them. Ask for only an email address if possible. Maybe a name. But stay away from those long forms and definitely don’t ask for any sensitive information (credit cards, social security number, etc.) If you need to get this kind of information, ask for an email and name on the landing page and then ask for the rest of the information in the next step. That way, if people don’t complete the process, at least you have their contact information and can get in touch with them later.
• Credibility and Risk Reversal. You need to show people why they should trust you (note that I said “show”, not “tell”). In addition to testimonials you can use case studies, expert endorsements, before and after shots and any other kind of evidence that can back up your claims. You also need to show people how they’ll come out on top even if your product doesn’t work for them (think “guarantee”).
• Privacy Issues. A simple line saying “We hate SPAM as much as you do. We won’t send you junk mail and we won’t give your email address to anybody” should be enough.
• Test, Test, Test. There’s no way to know for sure what headlines, marketing approaches and calls to action will work best unless you test them. Use Google Website Optimizer to test the most important elements of your landing page.

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“As three women in a male-dominated industry, we took a risk by starting a company together. My partner Rae is a single mom of three children (one severely handicapped) and I have a speech disorder that makes it difficult for me to communicate, statistics say we probably should have kept day jobs.” — Lisa Barone

Starting a business during a recession is a risky thing to do, but also the optimal time for new ideas, better services and plucky folks to connect. Top of mind for this crew is empowering others to take smart risks. “We did it and we want others to know they can do that too.”

Behind The Scenes

Rae Hoffman	Rhea Drysdale	Lisa Barone
Rae Hoffman is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Outspoken Media, Inc. In 1997 Rae started a small website about her son and his medical condition that became one of the first international support groups on the topic. It earned national media coverage and helped further medical research in the field… More about Rae Hoffman	Rhea Drysdale is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Outspoken Media, Inc. Since 2004 Rhea has grown her understanding of on-page optimization, online reputation management and social media with both in-house and agency positions. Rhea loves working with clients… More about Rhea Drysdale	Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer of Outspoken Media, Inc. Lisa has been involved in the SEO community since 2006 and is widely known for her honest industry observations, her inability to not say exactly what she’s thinking, and her excessive on-the-clock Twittering… More about Lisa Barone

OutspokenMedia works with clients to develop marketing strategies that encourage them to do great things and to care about their niche communities. The Outspoken blog was developed to prompt action in the community as well as teach. Outspoken presents How Tos to small business owners helping them market their own businesses and get more from online.  The recession has given entrepreneurs an even larger opportunity to go out on their own and succeed. It hasn’t taken it away.

Here is a bit from my interview with Lisa from OutspokenMedia.com…

When did the idea for starting your business come to you?
Having my own business was never something I was aspiring to. I was very much content in the stability of being an employee and receiving a steady paycheck. However, in January I was three months into a new job (a job I had moved from CA to NY to take) and came to a point where I knew in my heart it wasn’t going to work out. So the decision was to stay in a job I wasn’t comfortable in to keep a paycheck or venture out on my own in a bad economy.  It may seem crazy to some but, I chose the latter option.

Luckily, it didn’t take more than a few chats with my then-friends, now business partners, Rae Hoffman and Rhea Drysdale to be confident that we could do something together. So really just like that, we formed Outspoken Media, a new kind of Internet marketing company.  Deciding to start the company was probably one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make. Committing to myself to something that huge was an enormous undertaking for me. But I’m very glad I did it.

What do you do?
My official role at Outspoken is that of Chief Branding Officer, which to me means that I’m responsible for starting conversations. Whether that’s for us or for clients, through the blog or on Twitter, or through any other medium, my job really is to build brands and conversation through communities on the Web.  I help people their evangelists and build bridges.

What’s the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome to start your business?
Learning how to wear so many hats.  Before I’ve always had very specific job descriptions. When the business is your own, you find yourself taking on tasks you never imagined.  There’s a constant learning curve.

What’s the most satisfying thing about running your business?
The freedom to do what I feel is right.  I’m a blogger and a bit mouthy, so working for someone else always meant that I had to temper that. I had to watch what I wrote, watch what I said, pick my battles, etc.  Now I get to blog as me and for me, which I think makes my blogging more genuine and more engaging for readers. It probably doesn’t sound like that big of a change, but to me it’s been night and day and something I’m incredibly grateful for.  I can’t always say what I want to in real life due to my speech difficulties, so having total freedom of my written voice means everything to me.  It’s empowered me.

Has running your business been what you expected it would be? How?
There’s a lot more to it than I ever thought. I knew that it would be long hours and that it’d grueling at times…I just thought at some point that would stop and that I’d have a day to catch my breath. That day hasn’t hit yet. My biggest lesson has been that it just never stops. There’s always something to do, something more than needs tweaking, an email to respond to, a blog post to write, someone to reach out to, etc.  I’ve learned that running your own business really is a 247 job. I love it. It’s been great and incredibly rewarding, but there’s so much more to it than I ever knew.  Every so often a crisis will break out and I’ll turn to one of my partners and say, “someone should really take care of that!”, and then I remember that I’m that person. If I want something done, I’m the person to do it.

How did you fund your business in the beginning?
I think that’s the beauty of the Internet, you can start a business with very low capital.  Because we’re a service-based company, the only initial costs we had were those involved with skinning the Web site. The domain was already bought, we had hosting, etc. From there the “cost” really is time. It’s been working to build the brand, getting our name out, letting people know we exist, and taking on clients.

What is your passion?
Using my voice in a way that helps others.  I love that the blog allows me to share advice, concerns, issues, etc, with people and to have an impact on their day or to touch them in some way. There’s no greater feeling than that.

What makes you get up in the morning?
My business partners and knowing that we’re capable of doing great things for clients, in a style that’s true to us.  It’s nice believing in what you do and the way you do it.

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1. Why will people pay you? (money, votes, donations)
2. What does it cost you to sell your item…margins?
3. What protects you from competition, price-feature battles?
4. How will you turn an agnostic audience into loyal customers?

Early on when transactions had no costs, doing anything at a huge scale was very cheap. In order to be successful (a subjective term), you didn’t have to be very big at all. Some efforts don’t look at revenue as the only sign of success, and it’s probably safe to assume they have no real business model.

Identifying tribes and determining the success of working with them is not a new idea; the concept of tribe mentality or acting in a way that benefits the tribe has been around since cavemen. But, the concept of bringing people together, of building tribes, makes the internet is the best friend of people focusing on the third component, differentiating yourself from the competition. Once a network is in place, it is extremely difficult for someone else to disrupt it. I’ll add to this that the network must be active, relevant and provide value. 

The internet, it’s “isms” and even some of our online behaviors are permeating our culture. It is affecting business models offline as well. Local t-shirt and records stores, traditional advertising firms, and political campaign have different business model than they did ten years ago—can you imagine Dukakis, Stockton, Bush Snr, or Dan Quayle, figuring out what tweeting means?

Viral marketing and the growth of cash-free marketing means that people can spread an idea farther and faster than ever before. It also makes it far cheaper for a competitor to enter the market.

Here are three examples of companies leveraging online to create mini movements:

What mini movement is driving your business?

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Late Tuesday evening, around 10:00p, I received a call on my business line from a local area code (my phone was forwarded to my cell phone as I was out of the office for meetings). The person was not already in my address book so all I got on my caller ID was the phone number. To answer, or not to answer … that is the question.

I always answer my phone if I am available. The gentleman on the other end is interested in franchising, actually, interested in starting a franchise concept from ground zero. It’s a great idea, I think, and he has a lot of the work started. After a brief conversation my question was, “How did you find me?”

“Well,” he says. “First, searched the word “franchise,” found FranchiseWorks.com and I saw your profile on FranchiseWorks.com. Then I decided to search your name in Google (Jack Burris search on Google).” From there, I found your blog on StartupNation.com and also the website for Red Beard Marketing. Your phone number is on your website.”

Amazing. With just a few clicks, we were having a conversation.

Franchisors and franchisees alike are beginning to experiment with social media. Some companies (think Burger King’s ‘Subservient Chicken campaign’) have been taking advantage of Web 2.0 tactics for quite some time. Others are still trying to understand why having a company blog makes sense.

How are you using new web techniques for new business? Client retention? Gaining exposure?

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Here’s how: Search terms are getting longer. Notice in the chart below the 22% increase in search terms of 8 words or longer.

This may shed new light on effective search engine marketing strategies as it relates to keywords.

Are any of you seeing this trend or playing to this trend in your search marketing efforts?

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After the discussion with him, I’m more excited than ever about the idea of utilizing video as a promotional tool for a business.

Listen to the Podcast (sponsored by FedExOffice)

Did you know, for example, that 52% of viewers of videos end of taking action based on the video. That’s an incredible stat. 16% who view a promotional video say they purchased the service or product featured. There’s also data suggesting that when a shopper sees a video, they are half as likely to seek out competitive sites offering something similar. Video is just extremely compelling in this usage.

eMarketer estimates that spending on online video advertising will grow to $4.6 billion in 2013, representing a more than sevenfold increase from the $587 million spent in 2008. Nice for John and PixelFish, no?

FYI, PixelFish is a national video producer with a network of over 3,000 videographers around the country. They send in their footage to the L.A. editing studio of PixelFish and then the video is uploaded for you to use. Runs around $850, give or take, based on what bells and whistles you may or may not need.

One thing I discussed in particular is, what works for video? What are the factors that make for a good one and vice versa.

John says in the podcast that you have to create a “Searchmercial”. Watching an ad on your website or in a online directory is fundamentally different from watching an ad on TV.  Fortunately, your consumer is looking for the information and your ad is the information they are looking for.  There is no need to get their attention or compete with other distractions.

The key is to answer your target consumers’ questions. People searching for a product or service have a question to be answered.  Make sure you understand the question your viewers are asking, and that your video answers that question.

It’s also paramount to include a call-to-action and ensure it can be easily edited.  Video content can be optimized not only for the search but for response itself.  Your call to action within the video can be a discount, monthly coupon, send an SMS text etc.  Be sure that your call-to-action is simple to update within your video so you can easily test alternative offers.

There are a half dozen other ideas that we discuss to make a great video - listen to that podcast to find out!

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