Feb
8th

Oneupweb : Try Not To Get Lost Out There

Posted by Nick on February 8, 2010 at 10:02 am

I am, as my sister recently called me, a “Lost Junkie.” You know, that television show about a plane crash on a mysterious island full of whispers, monsters and all sorts of other crazy stuff. With the recent start of the show’s final season, I’ve switched back into full addiction mode, which has naturally caused my pondering of the show to cross over into my day-to-day thinking about digital marketing. Specifically, it got me thinking about marketing strategies as a whole, which led to the following idea:

When it comes to your marketing strategy, don’t get stuck on an island.

Yes, it sounds cheesy, but hear me out. What I’m basically saying is that from time to time it pays to step back and take a look at the big picture. Take a look at your marketing strategy and ask yourself what’s working, what’s not and whether there any areas of your business that could benefit from additional marketing efforts. There are a variety of exciting, new marketing methods available to businesses today, but not everyone is utilizing these channels to reach their existing and potential audiences.

So what do I mean when I say, “Don’t get stuck on an island”? I’m talking about not being afraid to try new marketing initiatives and not focusing so much on a single marketing effort. Sure, a single method might be working like gangbusters for you and that’s great. You should continue to pursue it. Just don’t be afraid to try something new. Perhaps you’ve already established your business in its specific natural search space. But have you thought about branching out into social media? Maybe you’ve promoted your business through PPC for years and have never given much thought to your site’s natural presence in the engines, or the site’s design and how it might be affecting your user experience. Some SEO or design work might be just the thing you need to establish yourself in the natural space.

The overall lesson here is that there’s a lot of opportunity out there. While your current efforts might be working great, if you don’t take some time every once in a while to look at your total marketing strategy, you may find that you’ve also become stranded on a veritable marketing-island. And monsters or not, that sounds a little scary to me.

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Dec
28th

Facebook PPC: Frequency Capping Is Key

Posted by Adam on December 28, 2009 at 5:18 pm

We’ve talked previously on StraightUpSearch about how Facebook’s Pay Per Click advertising campaigns can integrate with existing digital marketing initiatives quite nicely. Steven discussed some of the ways to target a specific audience through Facebook back in October.

Once you’ve caught up and had the time think about all the unique targeting options that Facebook provides, you should start planning your ad messaging out for the next several weeks. Why? Think about your own perception of advertising. What types of advertising do you welcome and what types do you despise? For me, there’s nothing worse than going to commercial break only to see the same commercial you’ve seen during every break for the past three months. You’ll find the same concept to be true on Facebook. It’s very important to make sure that your message remains fresh and helpful to the user. Since you’ll be targeting and re-targeting the same audience, complacency in your message will quickly make your ad invisible to users. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Facebook’s targeting abilities also make it easy to choose a specific niche audience. Depending on your budget, size of the audience, and audience usage, your ad may be seen by one person, multiple times per day. Scale this out over the course of a month and at the end, the user will be pretty tired of seeing your ad.

2. Facebook and other social channels are different in nature than search advertising. In search, users are seeking out a solution to a problem which classifies it as ‘pull’ advertising. Within social networks, users are served unsolicited offers which qualifies social PPC as ‘push’ advertising. This puts much more pressure on the ad to be creative, unique and compelling.

3. Users have the ability to vote down your ad. Facebook recently added the feature where users can choose to hide certain ads. If your ad message and offer become stale, there is a good chance that the user will choose to no longer have your ad served to them.

When planning out your ad messages, consider customers’ buying behaviors, upcoming product launches and upcoming promotions. You may even consider creating an exclusive promotion for Facebook users once in a while.

No matter how you do it, make sure you keep your messaging fresh. If you don’t, I can guarantee that you’ll quickly see plummeting impression volume, click-through rates and conversion rates in no time.

And as always, it may be a good idea to consult a professional digital marketing agency like Oneupweb to help you get started!

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Dec
22nd

You Only Need One Ingredient

Posted by Tim on December 22, 2009 at 9:44 am

A few weeks ago, Nick posted a blog here at StraightUpSearch about podcasting and its value to your overall marketing. It warmed my heart to see that post go up. Podcasting is near and dear to me, and I think it’s an exceptionally powerful media that is still dramatically underutilized.

Nick did a nice job in his post of touching on integrating podcasts as a piece of a larger marketing strategy. That’s spot on. The real power of podcasting is when it becomes a part of larger efforts.

While this is all well and good, a lot of folks get a little antsy thinking about podcasts. It feels like such a departure from what they are comfortable with. It tends to raise a host of questions—What will I talk about? How will it sound? Will anyone find it interesting? And on, and on and on….

Podcasting really isn’t all that different. It doesn’t have to be anything more than a conversation. The only thing different about this conversation is that it’s recorded.

So don’t worry too much about the small stuff. There are pros that can help iron out those production details (Oneupweb has plenty of experience with this, in fact). There’s really only one thing that’s essential in order to put together a good podcast that people will listen to.

Passion.

That’s it.

You just have to believe in what it is you’re doing. Be excited. Get fired up! I’ve had the opportunity through the years to be exposed to a myriad of different industries and services, including core aeration, calendar sales, pest control, Sarbanes Oxley compliance, etc. And in almost every case, I’ve gotten riled up about the topic and been genuinely excited about the possibility (Yes, even with Sarbanes Oxley!). The common trait has always been the conversation I’ve been a part of. When people have conviction and passion, it’s easy to get caught up in it.

And that’s all you need for a knock-out podcast. Don’t worry about scripts, or characters or who’s going to say what. That all works itself out. Just get excited and get it recorded!

So during this traditional time of reflection as the calendar turns over, to not just a new year, but a new decade, think about how you can open up another channel to connect with customers and partners that share your passion.

Photo courtesy of southerntabitha.

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Nov
27th

AdWords Site Links Testing: Words of Encouragement & Caution

Posted by Adam on November 27, 2009 at 3:48 pm

Google is now testing site links for AdWords ads. This feature is now offered to select advertisers and being served on ads meeting high quality standards. Site links in the organic results have been around for years and are a staple of setting dominant listings above all the rest. Is your site is in the position to be dominant in the PPC space by using site links?

Requirements:

Google requires ads to meet various requirements before they’ll serve your ad with the site links. First, Google only provides this option to advertisers whose accounts meet a ‘high’ quality standard. Google doesn’t provide anyway to quantify that quality level. Either you’re in or not. Second, Google requires the ad to be in position #1. The ad doesn’t have to average position #1, but when the ad serves in positions below #1 the site links will not be included. Lastly since this feature is in beta status, Google isn’t obligated to serve site links with your ads even if you meet the quality, position and editorial requirements.

Words of Encouragement:

Benefits For The Advertiser: There are several reasons why testing this new ad format may benefit you the advertiser. The most obvious is that your ad will be the only one of its kind on the page, effectively making it stick out. If competition is high for a particular keyword and increasing CTR is a challenge, site links may be the one way to do so. Site links should be used to highlight a particular competitive advantage. This could be a free shipping promotion or a brand new line of products. Either way, make sure the link text is compelling and unique to the SERP. This will give you the best chance to be rewarded with extra visitors and sales.

Benefits For Google: There has got to be something in it for Google to test this new ad format. Their goal always will be providing the searcher with the best experience possible. Equal to the experience is Google’s ability to earn revenue from advertising. The site links ad format is designed to do both. If more searchers click on the #1 PPC listing than before, then Google earns more revenue per click and most likely provided the searcher with a good experience. It makes sense that Google would prefer the user to click on the ad in positions #1 over the ad in position #2, and it also makes sense that Google would want a searcher to click on a PPC ad rather than an organic listing. Giving PPC ads top page position while making them as attractive as the organic listings is likely to divert more clicks away from top ranking organic results. Increasing CTR on PPC ads compared to organic listings is definitely in Google best interest. If you do not rank well organically but your competition does, this may be your opportunity to take some of their business away.

Competition for the top position is bound to increase CPC due to the exclusivity of the site link ad format. Because the #1 spot is required, bidding competition is also likely to become much fiercer for advertisers who desire this type of serving.

Words of Caution:

If you decide to start testing site link ads make sure you pay close attention to trending on your average cost per click. Also, measure your results objectively. Set benchmarks before the site link testing begins. By doing so you’ll have a way to compare before and after performance and be confident that the new initiative is worth the effort. There is rarely a good reason to bid to position #1 if the return on investment doesn’t directly support that bidding strategy.

If your website already ranks well organically and displays site links make sure you do not overlap. Think about your overall search strategy. Take advantage of the unique opportunity that PPC ads offer and promote a part of your business that you couldn’t as a part of your organic site links.

I’m interested to see how strategies evolve and whether Google sticks with this format in the long term. To all who are able to use the new site link ads, I wish you the best of luck.

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Nov
10th

Can You Rely Solely On An iPhone App to Market a Product?

Posted by Bryson on November 10, 2009 at 10:04 am

Can you rely solely on an iPhone app to market a product? Well, Volkswagen thinks so. VW recently announced they will be releasing the new Golf GTI, and will be using only an iPhone app to market the vehicle. The idea is to cut marketing costs while still reaching a large, specified consumer base.

In 2006 they spent nearly $60 million on a TV network-heavy marketing plan for the GTI. I understand their logic here, about 60 million times over. In theory, there are nearly 50 million iPhone users worldwide that could potentially glance at the app. On average, there are only about 20 million viewers during the most watched 30 second TV spot ($130,000 a pop).

But can an iPhone app really be as powerful and effective as a large scale mainstream media driven marketing strategy?

Possibly, depending on how creative, interactive and realistic the app is to the actual vehicle. The app itself is going to include a motion-controlled car racing game, a virtual showroom and a six-car giveaway for gamers. The giveaway is a great idea because it incentivizes the app and gives people a reason to check it out. My question is, how many people that have time to play a virtual racing game also have the financial capabilities to ante up the $24,000 to buy a brand new GTI?

VW is not dumb, they have done their research and understand their target audience for the vehicle. In this case, young professionals (20-35), that are environmentally-friendly (31 MPG hwy), social media activists. In my opinion this is too narrow of a scope and may exclude possible consumers that aren’t as technologically savvy. I expect their efforts to be valiant, groundbreaking, innovative and yes, ultimately inexpensive. Unfortunately, there may be some merit to the old cliché “you get what you pay for”, in this case.

An iPhone app would be a great supplement to a marketing campaign. To rely solely on an app to generate the buzz necessary to propel vehicle sales numbers just won’t work. It isn’t a bad idea, after all it will cost them very little (six cars), and there is virtually no risk involved.

Worst case scenario: The app completely flops and the GTI experiences low sales upon its release. So what? No investment. No sweat. They simply re-group, construct a more traditional marketing strategy and hope that the competition hasn’t already eaten their piece of the pie. After all, what better place then here? What better time than now to experiment with cost-effective solutions?

What do they have to lose? Nothing. What do they have to gain? Everything.

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