1. 89% of ad clicks are incremental. Which means, on average businesses see an increase of visitors to their site by 89% because they added pay per click to their SEO strategy.

2. Businesses who rank in the #1  organic position see an increase of 50% more click-throughs to their site if coupled with a paid ad campaign.

3. Businesses who rank in positions #2-#4 organically see an increase of 82% of click-throughs to their site if using pay per click.

4. Business who rank #5 and higher see an increase to 96% of ad clicks incrementality.

Also, the study shows that if you do not rank on the 1st page of Google organically but run an Adword campaign you will see 66% of traffic come from PPC. In addition,  81% of your impressions will come from your pay per click text ad exposure.

What does this show us? That having a web presence that incorporates owning and dominating the SERPs will increase traffic into your business.

The second reason, creating great content online is crucial to your niche marketing strategy is the search engines love it! Search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing love when companies provide specific articles related to their niche because it gives them a better pool of articles to match with the searcher query request. Remember, search engines want to provide the most relevant information to their searchers because they want the searcher to find what they are looking for. By providing relevant information on or about your niche gives you  a better chance of ranking in the search engines especially for long tail keywords.

Third reason, great content is good for business because is it gives you something to distribute. With social signals playing such a huge role in which websites rank on the search engine results page having a piece of content to distribute on your social media profiles is major. You should be thinking, “what type of information am I going to create to drive people back to my site?”

So, how do you create great content? Creating content is time consuming. And like I said before, after some time creating content you actually do become an expert due to the fact that you are researching information to make sure your content isn’t just relevant but is good quality. The best way to get started in crafting your message is to answer questions your current clients might have in blog format. For example, if you are an automotive repair company, writing your first blog about “how to determine a good mechanic” might be a great article to start with, seeing how this is usually one of the first questions people pondering when deciding who to take their car to for repairs. Another strategy, is content curation. Content curation is the act of taking content from other places and either linking to it or adding additional information on your site along with the original article. The pro to this strategy is it takes some of the leg work out of structuring the content but allows you to distribute it with your expert opinion attached to it.

In conclusion, having a blog is a must within your site to have a platform to display your content. Don’t let your blog just sit unattended but get it to spotlight your great content. Great content leads to becoming an expert. Becoming an expert leads to establish trust. Establish trust grabs more leads. More leads means more sales. More sales is more money. Spend time incorporating quality content into your niche marketing strategy and the results will impress you.

Image via Reachlocal

Pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) both fall under the umbrella of search engine marketing (SEM). Some consultants will be experts in SEO while others will have a focus on PPC. There is no doubt that good SEO practices should be established at the beginning when branding a business online but where does PPC fall in all of this? I say early on. Why? Pay per click is a great way to determine the best converting keywords for your business, first! Nothing is more of a waste a time of than spending time and money optimizing a website around keywords that don’t convert into customers.

Pay per click gives you the ability to be found on the 1st page of the search engines for your desired keywords quickly. Unlike SEO, that can takes months to get you there. With PPC, you can bid on hundreds of keywords relative to your business and then begin to measure what type of conversations are happening with each keyword. For example, if you are a HVAC repair company in Charlotte, NC and after running a successful PPC campaign you might determine that  “A/C Repair in Charlotte NC” drives more phone calls into your business than “HVAC Companies in Charlotte”. Therefore, it might be wiser to build an SEO campaign around the converting long tail keyword “A/C Repair in Charlotte NC” versus the latter.

Here are a couple of reasons that I believe a PPC campaign should be done before an SEO campaign:

1. Quicker results. Most businesses need new customers now. Pay per click is the quickest way to get on the home page to capture you desired consumer.

2. Resources. It is much easier to bid on keywords that you believe to be effective to gain traffic to your site and track the results than to execute a SEO campaign around only a couple of keyword phrases.  SEO is something that has the be actively worked on for it to be effective. You have link build, write quality compelling content, and other techniques and to make sure your website doesn’t get back-lashed by an algorithm update that can undo all your hard work.

3. Measurable. Pay per click data will give you insight on what keywords are driving not only visits but conversations. You can utilize this data in other online campaigns to accelerate success.

Ultimately, owning as much real estateon search engine results page (SERP) is key to a successful web presence strategy. All business, local and national, should actively be building different avenues to reach more customers online. A strong social media, pay per click, and search engine optimization strategy should be established and executed to capture as many leads online as possible.

Blogging is painful for a lot of local businesses. They are constantly being told that need to have a blog but little is explained to them on what they should blog about, how often, what their blog should include, etc. And then fear sets in. Will people like what I have to say? Am I offering value? So you know what happens next, right? Nothing. The business puts the blog on the back burner for something to do later when they have more time, more ideas, etc and they never start blogging.

START BLOGGING!

Yes, that is me yelling at you but in a nice way

Here are some Do’s and Don’ts of blogging:

Do’s:

1. Do write the way you talk. Blogging is a conversation. Blogging is sharing information. Be mindful of your grammar and tone but be authentic. The best way to do that is to share information an easy to understand language that allows “your voice” to be heard.

2. Do some research. Find out who your audience is. Why would they seek out your product/service? Are there any questions you can answer for them? Blogging is a great way to show that you are an expert in your industry and by blogging you are establishing yourself as a resource so when they are ready to do business they think of you and not your competitor.

3. Do keep it simple but not too short. You don’t have to overdo blogging by publishing a new post daily but you do want to blog a least once a week or a couple times a month. Show your audience that your alive. A blog is that is outdated is a tell tale sign that you haven’t invested into your website. But don’t skip on the content. You want to write for your audience first and the search engine second. Try to blog more than 300 words per post but it doesn’t have to be a novel.

4. Do add links to your post that back up your findings or reference information you have found.

5. Do add images to your post.

6. Do write a calendar of post ideas and schedule posts accordingly. A plan of the blogs you want to write and when to publish them will help you to have consistent information to write about and not get behind.

Dont’s:

1. Don’t wait. Time is of the essence. Your customers aren’t slowing down. Nope, they are just getting started. Your competitors get it and they are doing it. Don’t wait until you have the right blog idea or time. Start when its hard because constant work at it will make it easier.

2. Don’t forget to share. Share your blog post with your Linkedin connections & groups, Facebook page, Twitter, and so on. This is your microphone to amplify your content. You spent an hour or so writing your blog post and then you didn’t do anything to promote it?

3. Don’t forget to be consistent. I know I mentioned this earlier but its worth mentioning again be consistent.

4. Don’t stress over ROI. Blogging is one of those things that you just do and if done well will bring you returns. The problem is the return isn’t going to be tomorrow unless your content is totally rocks and converts. Remember you are building a brand, a brand meant to last, and blogging is a great to build you up online.

5. Don’t be afraid to outsource. Let’s face it, sometimes committing time to a blog is just not feasible with the workload you already have. You have options. I would love to talk to you if would like to know more about outsourcing your blogging. Contact me here.

1. Breaking Down Complicated Info: I wrote a blog article a couple weeks back discussing How The Google Adword Auction Works and I used this infograph I found awhile back to illustrate how it works.

Using a visual representation to breakdown complicated information is a great way to share knowledge in a quick, easy to understand approach. I will be using this infographic a lot when I share with my clients the Google ad auction process.

2. Branding & Content Marketing: Infographs are a great way to brand your company. It allows you an opportunity to showcase your design skills, ability to gather useful information, convey an idea/topic/or message in a visual format, all while promoting your brand. People like looking and reading well thought out information graphics and by creating them you establish yourself as a brand that enjoys being a resource. Being a resource to potential clients is great thing because people like doing business with companies they feel possess useful knowledge. Whenever I see a great infographic I usually look towards the bottom of the infograph to see who made it which then turns into me visiting their site to find more information about what they do.

3. Making Your Resume Stand Out: This is my personal favorite way to use an information graphic but its also the most unconventional.  Turning your resume into a graphical representation of who you are. Not only does it communicate someone who is creative but someone who isn’t afraid to take risks. Now, I am no HR director so I can’t speak on if this is the smartest thing to do to land a job but it surely interesting. The great thing about information graphics as resumes is that it allows your resume to go viral by people adding it curation sites or blog posts, like I am doing here.

4. Making Your Website Stand Out: The more emphasis then ever now on the user experience of your website. A way to make your website stand out from the pack it designing it around being an infograph.  You want the user experience of your site to be visually simulating, easy to understand, and navigateable. Here are 2 that I really like.

What are some ways you find information graphics can be used? Check out my Pinterest’s Infographic Board here. Visit Visual.ly to find more infographics and create your own.

1. Using Google Only. Most local businesses who I come across who are doing their own pay per click advertising only use Google adwords. While Google does possess roughly 65% of the search market share, Bing/Yahoo harness about 30% of the search volume. That’s a lot searches being missed if you are only on Google. So there is a couple of reasons local businesses should consider advertising on the Bing/Yahoo search engine. Less competition from advertisers and 57 million people said that they don’t use Google and are exclusive to Yahoo/Bing. When choosing an outsourced pay per click agency ask them if they bid across all search engines and if that is right for your business.

2. Not Knowing How The Google Ad Auction Works. Some local businesses think that you can bid their way to top. We call these vanity bids. Which means these business associate being #1 with more clicks and are willing to bid over the necessary amount. Bidding the maximum amount does not guarantee 1st position. The advertiser’s ad rank is based on their cost per click bid and quality score.  Their quality is based on the click-through-rate (CTR), relevancy of the texts ads, and landing page. Your quality score is like your fico score. The higher the score the less you have to pay. A good quality score can trump a higher bid any day. Why? Because Google wants to show the searcher the most relevant information and will reward those sites who do just that. Local businesses should focus on adding fresh content to their site and composing compelling and relevant text ads. It should also be mentioned that having a visually unappealing website also hurts your quality score.

3. No Added Features. If you are a homebuilder, how long is your sales cycle? A month or so, maybe longer? What happens if someone is beginning their new home search but are doing some comparisons between builders, locations, and floor plans. They do a search to see what their local market offers and clicks on your ad but leaves. They still want a new home but are taking their time because after all buying a new home is not is no small puchase. How are you going to stay in front of them? Working with an outside agency can provide solutions for these situations. One way is to offer remarketing. When someone clicks on your ad and then begins to surf the web, your banner ad is then shown to them for the next 30 days to keep your brand top of mind.

4. Conversion Based Optimization. Which keywords led to a phone call, email, or form submission? Most local business know which keywords they are bidding on that are driving visitors but which of these keywords are leading to a revenue generating activity? That is a harder question for advertisers to answer, especially if they are unaware of how to use Google’s call tracking system and how to place Google’s tracking code into their sites to reveal those answers. Conversion based optimization is when over time you realize what keywords are best performing and shift adword dollars away from keywords that might be driving clicks but not conversions.

5. Setting Up Keywords, Text Ads, and Ad Groups Improperly. How many keywords should you bidding on and which ones? Setting up keywords can be challenging. There a tons of different keywords and or phrases a searcher could put into a search bar looking for your business. A lot people geotarget in their searches so making sure that you have geotargeted keywords in your campaign is important too, for example, “Dentist Charlotte”,”Dentist Charlotte NC”, “Charlotte Dentisit”, and “Charlotte NC Dentist”.Also, your campaign should have negative, exact, and broad keywords. Use Google’s keyword tool to help determine how many searches are done for a particular keyword.

You should particularly pay attention to your text ads. Well written text ads act like a bouncer at a club, it lets the right people in and wrong traffic out. Your text ad should speak to your ideal customer with a strong call to action. A text ad that sends out a message that doesn’t correspond with your site will get a lot of clicks but searchers will realize, this isn’t what I am looking for and back out of your site quickly in turn hurting your quality score.

You want to group like keywords together and show a particular ad to those searches. For example, if that homebuilder sells new construction and custom homes they should have 2 ad groups. One that speaks to new construction and one that speaks to custom homes because these are 2 different buyers. Local businesses tend to land everyone on their home page. You should dynamically land the searcher on the page that provides the information they are looking for. Searches who are looking for custom built homes should land on the custom build page and new construction searchers should land on the new inventory listings page. Searchers will spend more time on your site when you make it less difficult for them to find the information they are looking for.

6. Monitoring & Tracking. These are two of the biggest components of a good pay per click campaign and happens to be two of the most time consuming. I find that a lot of my clients who have access to their campaign reports 24/7 never log in to see them. Having an outsourced partner who specializes in interrupting the data is invaluable. Pay per click isn’t cheap and you want to consistently tweak your campaign to make sure you are budgeting your campaign properly, understanding return on investment, and optimizing around conversations not just clicks.

7. Time. A lot of these reasons take skill, acquired over time working on campaigns and understanding online behavior patterns and time. Two things that many local businesses don’t have. Outsourcing your pay per click saves you time and peace of mind that your campaign is running as effectively and efficiently as possible.

But seriously, what does happen to your social media when you die? What’s the law? It is actually something being discussed by The Uniform Law Commission because its not very clear. When you pass your loved ones might want to take over your digital assets. One of the biggest obstacles is your social media passwords. Many of your close family members (maybe even your spouse) don’t know your passwords and may even be illegal for them to access your accounts after you die even if you did have them. Check with your personal attorney to see what you can do to give your next to kin authority to manage your accounts when you die.

A recent stat states 1 in 3 Facebook users die every minute. What do you think should happen to your social media when you die? It is sick to keep it around or should your accounts be taken down?

Here are 4 Ways To Optimize Your Web Presence:

1. Create or Curate Content: Make sure your website has a blog! Why? Most business owners don’t realize this but your blog is one of the most valuable things on your website. An Updated Blog = More Profits! When you create or curate industry articles and post them to your blog you are establishing yourself as an industry leader to your peers, your customers, and the search engines. When people have a problem or a desire they are now turning to search engines to find more information. A company that blogs will begin building a reputation with the search engine as an industry expert and begins ranking them higher in the search engine. Why? Because the search engines wants to provide the searcher with relevant content so the searcher is happier and come backs and uses that search engine.

2. Engage & Participate: You get out what you put in to social media. The more your engage and participate in social media the more others will respond. Social media is fun but you should establish your business as professional but with personality. Reach out to clients and vendors on social media because they are your core base. Share content that you have posted to your blog to your social media to grow your base.

3. Respond to Your Reputation. No matter if its good, bad, or unknown respond to your reputation. If you get good reviews on Yelp, Citysearch, or Google Places share them on your website under testimonials, Facebook, & Linkedin. If you have negative reviews, don’t ignore them! Take control of the situation by responding with a kind message that shows you are aware of the comment but that is has been resolved. This signals to potential customers who are reviewing you reviews to find more information that you are present at the Zero Moment of Truth. If you haven’t claimed your local directories or social media pages or aren’t sure, Claim them!

4. Strategize, Schedule & Monitor. If you fill like you’re struggling to keep up, strategize on which web presence avenues are best for your company. Whether you invest in social media, pay per click, search engine optimization or all, know what you can handle and don’t be afraid to outsource the task if you don’t have anyone in house available. Schedule blog posts and social media updates. Schedule deadlines on your online objectives so you can monitor what is driving results into your business.

5 Ways To Create An Effective Banner Ad:

1. Message. Make sure when people see your banner they know exactly who and what you do. Try not to use script or scroll font, clean bold font is best for readability. Have your logo prominent on the ad. Even though most banner ads are not that large you want to make sure that you maximize as much space while maintaining a clear message.

2. Call to Action. The click through rate on a banner ad is very small however this does not mean you shouldn’t entice your reader to make an action. Make sure your banner has some type of call to action. “Call now”, “Join Our Newsletter”, “Great Promotion”, “10% Off”! These are all examples of effective call to actions. It is breaking my attention from what I am looking at to decide whether or not I want to see more from you.

3. Design. Even though banner ads seem like an easy enough task to do on your own, you might want to consider hiring a professional. Banner ads are small which means you need to have a strategic layout and software that can size your graphics just right. And most ad networks only except very small files which some free graphic programs can’t compress so the ad network won’t accept it. Good banner don’t always come cheap but its worth the investment since it can be the first introduction your customer has with your brand.

4. Target. When deciding where to display your banner ad you want to target your right customer. You can do this by choosing to run a behavioral, geographical, or remarketing campaign. Facebook is a leader in display advertising and perfect for targeting your right customer.

5. Measure. Like I stated earlier, banner ads are not usually measured by click-throughs but is definitely welcomed if they people do. If you want to measure it by click throughs try running a campaign or promotion that drives people to your site. CPM is a little display lingo that means (cost per thousand) and usually varies in cost depending on how targeted the campaign is. Banner ads are for awareness marketing and the more target eyeballs who see your ad the better which turn into customers.

Have any additional tips to add?

Content Creators:

These are the journalists, writers, researchers, designers, bloggers, etc. who, you guessed it, create information and share it online. I believe these people are the highest in demand because we live in a world of content overload. Good copywriters set the standard of quality content which search engine love. Without these individuals researching and compiling quality content, curators have have nothing to curate to keep their site fresh with content.

Content Curators:

Have you ever tweeted an interesting article from another website or shared an inforgraphic on your social media. Or even better, have you ever “pinned” a image on your Pintererst board’s? If you have, congratulations you are a curator! Digital curating simply means collecting stories, articles, and images. A lot of people curate to share useful information to their peers. There is nothing wrong with this and most of the times this is why  Creators create because they want to inspire and share. Content curators really help creators by promoting useful and well written content that links back to the creator which then makes them more visible to their audience.

I, myself tend to do a little of both. I prefer to curate because I don’t have the leisure to do a lot of research and compiling of information but from time to time a topic comes up that I like to create content around.  I find that a nice balance between the two allows you to share quick knowledge with your readers from time to time and also allows you to flex your expert point of view as well. It is great to find creators who push quality content versus junk content and it is great to have curators who can distinguish between the two.

Content Marketing Infograhic