If you own or run a business that relies on local traffic, you need to pay attention.  The proliferation of connected mobile devices – specifically smartphones, tablets, and others such as iPod Touch – means your customers and potential customers that are on the go are always connected. No more need for a laptop or desktop to look up your product or service. Forget about the Yellow Pages. We’re talking real-time, hyper-local search.

Here is a jaw-dropping statistic -last year, over 50 percent of all local searches were conducted from a mobile device. More than one out of every two searches that have local intent were made on a mobile device. Most business owners and marketers don’t realize we’ve reached this tipping point and what it means to them.

Imagine this consumer scenario. You (consumer) are driving home from work. Your car breaks down. You need to a) find a ride home or a tow home and b) find a repair shop to fix your vehicle.

What’s that? You don’t own a car. Okay then, here’s another scenario. You go out to have dinner at your favorite restaurant. You arrive and learn that there is a three hour wait for a table. Being hungry enough eat an elephant, you decide not to wait three hours and start looking for other options.

In each case, what do you use to find what you are looking for? You guessed it, your smartphone. Remember that statistic above about more than 50% of local searches being made from a mobile device? You are in the majority.

So, why is all this important if you own or run a business? Say you are a towing company, an auto repair shop or a restaurant. You not only want to be found at that moment when someone is looking for your product or service, you need to be found.  But are you being found?

To get the answer, you need to look at the search results on your smartphone. Do some test searches based on the keywords someone would be searching for when in need of your product or service (not just your company name but a search query that is topical about your product). This is not a complex test. Don’t believe the results? Ask your customers to look on their phones. Ask your friends. Your employees.

If you are not being found you quickly need to fix this problem (again, remember that statistic above about >50% of local searches on mobile devices).

There are a few ways to go about getting your business found on mobile search results. The solution that will get you to the top of the search results for the examples above is setting up a paid search campaign that targets mobile devices. Put your paid search ad square in the face of the consumer at the very moment they are looking for a tow truck, a repair shop or a place to eat. Even show all your surrounding locations and your phone number to allow them to determine how far your business is from their exact location and call you with the tap of a thumb.

Other ways to get more visibility include optimizing your website for search engines (SEO), and making sure you are in all the relevant local directories including Google Maps/Places as well as inclusion in sites such as yelp.com.

Regardless of what path (paid vs. SEO) you choose to be found in the mobile search results, don’t wait. You need to take action now and put your company front and center. If you are not showing up in the mobile search results, chances are good that your competition is there or will be soon. If you need help developing and implementing mobile, local search campaigns, consider using a search marketing agency and give me a call.  I’ll get you there.

Image courtesy of missdv8

For reasons I can’t explain, many B2B marketers, including manufacturers, are unwilling to embrace or even test search engine marketing.  Its hard to deny the facts around how valuable of a communication channel search engines have become.  According to MarketingProfs, search marketing is the leading marketing tactic in terms of it’s growing effectiveness over time. On the flip side, trade print media is the tactic that is showing declining returns at the most significant rate. Some interesting points that lie beneath these stats are that most of the trade publications that support the manufacturing space have shifted their business models towards online content engines.

To support their growth and readership base, guess where the trade pubs turn?  You got it. Search engines.  As I regularly speak with representatives from several trade publications I’ve learned their tactics have evolved when it comes to acquiring readers and new eyeballs.  Trade pubs used to rely on blow-in cards and direct mail to grow their readership. Today, they still use these tactics however they’ve come to rely more and more on e-marketing such as email and search engines.

The reason for bringing this up is to demonstrate that if search engines are a good source for publications to acquire readers, why can’t a manufacturer do this directly themselves?  Go direct to the eyeballs you want rather than through a trade publication or website.  Yes, there is still value in advertising and distributing your message via trade media.  If you manufacture a product and have a B2B audience, you can create content and distribute it via search engines just like the trade media is doing.

The search engines have leveled the playing field and enabled disintermediation.  Rather than having to rely on the trade media to find the eyeballs you want, you can get in the game yourself and go direct to the well – search engines.  To go a step further, the same applies to email marketing and other digital marketing tactics.

You must first understand your audience.  What are their needs?  Interests?  What makes them tick?  How do they spend their day? Next, build a content strategy to leverage these insights.  Put your content online.  Set it up to be found – SEO, Paid Search, Social Media, Email Marketing and so on.

Its time to take advantage of the fact that your target audience is online.  They are on search engines.  They read email.  They are using social media more and more.  Create the content your audience desires and will value.  Then be found when they are looking for information on your industry, products or services.  When executed well, this strategy will enable you to create your own platform to distribute content, keep prospects and customers engaged, create value and rely less upon others to gain access to your target audience.

To learn more about how Point to Point can assist with developing the insights and strategies to connect with audiences through search engine marketing, give us a shout.

Small business is the backbone of our economy.  There are an estimated 29 million of them according to the SBA.  Whether you are a building products manufacturer, a financial services company, a chemical distributor or otherwise, chances are you market to and sell products and services to small businesses.

Small businesses use many sources to get information when they need to buy a product or service.  A key source is still word of mouth however you can’t rely on that alone to reach prospects and generate leads and sales.  It used to be true that the yellow pages were a “go to” source of information when in need of a product or service.  The game has long since changed thanks to the internet.  Where does this leave you?

People turn to the internet first when shopping.  More specifically, they use search engines.  They first cast a wide net to discover options.  They do their homework and research to narrow the field.  Then make a buying decision.  Remember, when you sell your product or service to small businesses, you are still selling to a person.  Using Search Engine Marketing (aka Pay Per Click) to market to small businesses is vital for many reasons.

1. Small businesses and their respective owners are busy, time-starved people.  Who isn’t these days?  Search engine marketing puts your products and services at their fingertips in a timely manner – when they need it and are looking for it.
2. Search engine marketing is the yellow pages of today.  You need to be present when your audience is in shopping and buying mode.
3. Most shopping starts online.  82% of consumers use search engines and more than 50% use it as a primary shopping tool. While this is a consumer stat, remember that people run and manage businesses.  Not the other way around.
4. If you have a website (and you probably do if you market to small businesses), you likely want to rank well for specific search phrases organically.  The reality is that you can’t rank for all keywords.  Search engine marketing (PPC) puts you at the top of the search results regardless of how well optimized your site is organically.  Studies show that if used in combination, SEO and PPC results improve – more clicks, conversions, leads, sales, profit.
5. If you’ve got a great website and nobody can find it, what good is it doing you?  Use search engine marketing as a means to be seen and generate traffic to your site.
6. Search engine marketing is highly measurable.  You can track a wide variety of metrics and understand which keywords and phrases result in site traffic, conversions, leads, calls and sales.  This allows you to optimize your spending.  And, it makes you and your budget accountable.

Whether you’ve got an existing search engine marketing program or thinking about starting one, let us know.  We’re interested to hear about your successes and challenges.

Flickr image courtesy of jm3

As urban sprawl has pushed and pulled families away from the urban core in many markets, it has become increasingly important for healthcare systems to expand their footprint by opening regional facilities in the burbs.  My hometown, Cleveland, Ohio is a great example of a market that has seen its share of sprawl over the last 40 or so years.  The top three healthcare systems in the greater Cleveland market have followed the population as it migrates outwards.  Therefore, it was no surprise to me when The Cleveland Clinic made plans to open a regional campus in Twinsburg,  which is about 20 miles from the main campus in mid-town Cleveland.  The new Cleveland Clinic campus is a stone’s throw from the University Hospitals facility that recently opened about two years ago, a half mile away.  These facilities are just minutes from several other UH, CCF and MetroHealth facilities in Beachwood, Solon and Independence.

This phenomenon is happening throughout greater Cleveland and northeast Ohio.  The same dynamic is occurring in many major markets across the country.  As the Cleveland Clinic’s steel I-beams are being set in place in Twinsburg and other hospitals do the same in suburbs across the country, it is fueling increased choice we have as healthcare consumers.

On the flip side, as a healthcare marketer looking to get new patients into the system and make existing patients aware of the healthcare choices they now have in their backyard, we need to leverage new and unique communication vehicles.  Search engines represent a terrific opportunity for healthcare systems, specifically hospitals, to target prospective healthcare consumers as they seek health-related information online.

Search engines provide a wealth of tools for healthcare marketers to reach prospective patients in a highly targeted manner.  Here are some highly relevant and interesting factoids according to Google*:

• 61% of American adults look online for health information
• 41% turn to the internet first when researching hospitals
• When it comes to obtaining hospital information online, search engines are second at 62%, behind hospital websites in terms of where consumers are navigating
• The three areas of interest people are looking for when conducting online healthcare related research are 1) condition information, 2) facility information and 3) physician information
• 43% of those surveyed said the internet helped them make their decision on a facility.  While caregivers, friends, and relatives ranked higher in this area, the internet is influencing almost 1 out of every 2 people’s decision on a facility.  This is significant.

All these points tell me that search engines are a ripe opportunity to find consumers as they research health related topics and seek care.

Going back to my greater Cleveland example, and doing some cursory research, I am surprised to find that no local hospitals have a presence in paid search advertising specific to the Cleveland, geography-oriented sample searches I performed.  In fairness, they do have a presence in paid search however they are not casting a wide enough net here.

As mentioned above, search engines represent a tremendous opportunity to reach prospective patients and can be further enhanced with recently introduced features such as Google’s Ad Extensions.  Ad Extensions offer the advertiser the ability to include maps, video and other information in the paid search ads.  If you operate a hospital, chances are your building is visible and people know where you are.  But, don’t take it for granted that everyone is so hyper-aware of your location.  Buy paid search ads that are geo-targeted and include Ad Extensions with maps of the location or a brief introductory video that discusses the types of care provided at a location.  These types of ads can be placed around specific keyword searches related to your service lines and within a specified radius of the facility.

For the hospitals that are not buying the geo-based keywords/keyphrases such as ‘hospital near Cleveland Ohio’ or ‘hospital in Beachwood Ohio’, or ‘hospital near <insert city, state>’ my question is: Why not? Why are you not targeting these searches?  Have you considered and implemented a paid search strategy?  What is the data telling you?  According to Google Insights for Search, searches for medical facilities and services in the greater Cleveland area has increased 17% over the last six years (see chart below).  This is at a time when the population is stagnant to shrinking at best.  The forecast is for this search volume to continue rising.

What does all this mean if you are a healthcare marketer?  Opportunity.  The opportunity is here now for you to connect with consumers at the intersection of their search for health related information and the need for marketers to create awareness of new facility locations, new service lines, new physicians on staff, new treatment opportunities, new insurance programs being offered and so on.  The bonus is that you can track every ad, every click, every patient you generate from search engine marketing.  Healthcare marketers need to seize this opportunity and test paid search.  Learn from the testing and understand what works and what does not in terms of generating new patients.  Every day that passes that you are not using paid search to reach prospective patients represents lost opportunity.  This does not mean you should abandon the media vehicles you currently use to reach consumers.  This is an enhancement and a means to complement those media and improve the performance of your marketing and advertising as a whole.

To learn more about how Point to Point can assist with your healthcare marketing challenges, read the Fauquier Health Case Study and how we contributed towards their 6.7% market share growth.  Check out our Search Engine Marketing Capabilities to find out more about how we can assist with reaching healthcare consumers while they are searching for health related information online.  Or, contact us for more information.

*Source:  OTX & Google Custom Hospital Study, June 2009

Flickr image courtesy of ATIS547

If you advertise on Google Adwords, you may have wondered why you can only link to one URL.  In some instances, you may want to offer link choices.  Google Sitelinks within Adwords gives advertisers a way to provide deeper links within their ads.  According to Google, Sitelinks typically appear on branded searches.

From Google:

Ad Sitelinks allows advertisers to include up to four additional page links on qualifiying text ads that appear on Google.com and Google Search Network partners. This extension is available globally on ads that meet our quality requirements. The most common campaigns to qualify for the Ad Sitelinks feature are high-quality campaigns that contain keywords and ads specific to your brands.

With all the effort placed on landing page optimization these days, you might be asking how it could be good to offer multiple link options?  Here’s why its good.

• Sitelinks are typically displayed on branded searches.  If someone searches your brand name, you can now give them a choice of up to four URLs instead of exclusively linking them to your homepage.  Perhaps you have a special offer.  You might want to change the landing page based on seasonality.  Now you can enable these choices.
• If you offer multiple product lines or service lines, you can display and link to more than just the home page.  You can show multiple product lines and service lines as additional links.
• By offering more choices, you can improve the performance of your campaigns.  Your ads will take searchers to the pages that are most relevant to their search.  Less clicks will be required to complete the transaction or event desired on your website.  You should see more conversions as an outcome of Sitelinks.

To activate Sitelinks in your Adwords campaign, go to the Campaign Settings tab.  Find “Show additional links to my site” section under “Ad extensions”.  Enter up to 10 URLs in order of priority.  Click Save.  Google will determine when it is appropriate to show your additional Sitelinks.  Up to 4 will be displayed at a time.

For more information on using Sitelinks in Adwords or to learn more about our search engine marketing agency, give us a call.

Flickr image courtesy of Toni Lozano

Google is set to launch its latest reporting feature in AdWords – Search Funnels. Search Funnels will provide marketers with a glimpse into the search path their customers take before reaching that final point of purchase. The set of new reports describes the keywords and ads that play a role in leading to a conversion.

Currently, AdWords recognizes a conversion as the last click on an ad. This means that advertisers only see the information on the last ad click before conversion. But often times, the last ad is not working alone to get that conversion. Additional keywords and ads assist conversions before the last click. And now, Search Funnels will tell us the story before the last click.

By utilizing the AdWords conversion tracking code, advertisers will be able to see a customer’s search ad history within a 30 day period prior to the conversion. The new reports detail top conversions, assisted conversions, first and last click analysis, time lag and path length.

What are the advantages of knowing this information and how will it be used?

Search Funnels reports will allow advertiser to understand how their keywords are contributing in the path to conversion. By exploring the larger picture of ad impressions and clicks, advertisers can make more thoughtful and strategic optimization decisions thus making our dollars work harder.

Equally important, Search Funnel data may be able to provide insights that could even be utilized in our offline advertising efforts. We will finally be able to see a clearer picture of how our customers search for our products and the overall thought process and length of time it takes to make a conversion. Basically, Google is providing us with the extra piece of the puzzle on the search behaviors of our customers. What’s more valuable than that?

Visit our Search Engine Marketing page to learn more about the PPC services we provide to make your dollar work harder.

Funnel Cake photo courtesy of Joe Shlabotnik

Is your website appearing on page one of search results?

You may be wondering why I am writing about search engine marketing (i.e., pay per click) and including a chart about natural search results.  Here’s why.  There are 10 natural search results per search results page.  If your website is not in the top 10 (i.e., on page one), you are not being seen in more than 95% of searches.

To bring this to life, lets explore a scenario.  Imagine you are a car dealer.  It is widely known that the internet is heavily used as a research tool by prospective car buyers.  One of the first places a car shopper typically visits online is a search engine.  If your dealership website is not appearing on page one of the natural search results, you have a problem.  You are not being seen by over 95% of searchers.  That is, 95% of people looking for information about their next car are seeing your competitors websites or listing sites such as cars.com or other aggregators.  They are not seeing your dealership in the results.

Do you want to get in the game but not sure what can you do about this?  There are three things you can do (as I see it).

1)  Stick your head in the sand and do nothing.  Not only will this get your face and head dirty and be uncomfortable, it won’t help your website visibility.

2)  Optimize your website to appear high in the natural search results and rankings.  This is a great option and one I recommend but keep in mind this is a solution that generally can require more time to finesse.

3)  Initiate a search engine marketing (a.k.a., SEM, Pay Per Click) campaign.  If you need to increase your visibility now, generate traffic to your site and grow qualified leads, SEM is one of the best options.  It has immediacy and has trackable, accountable results.

After reviewing the data in the chart above and considering your business objectives, which option makes the most sense?  With SEM, you can name your budget, track results and gain visibility almost immediately.  If you need help navigating the search engine marketing waters, let us know.  We’d be glad to educate you and assist with setting up a campaign.  If you are not sure if your current campaigns are getting the results you want, we can help there as well.

Photo Courtesy of Howard Gees

Healthcare consumers must often navigate a maze of information and sources as they research health related topics.  Search engines are a common first stop where consumers begin seeking information.  For this reason and others, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a critical part of the healthcare marketing mix.  Use SEM to reach consumers when they are actively seeking information.

Google estimates the term “asthma” was searched 1,500,000 times last month.  This is just for one, randomly chosen health-related term.  There are thousands more general keywords to target along with local, branded and long-tail keywords.  If healthcare marketers are not using SEM to promote their services, they are missing out on significant opportunities.

Through a well managed SEM campaign, you can be front and center in the search results. Here are five winning SEM tips for healthcare marketing.

1) Think Local – if you are promoting services to a certain geography, make sure to target your ads to the relevant search results using geo-targeting.  Geo-targeting is accomplished by specifying a geographical region in the campaign set up as well as through the use of geographical keywords/phrases.  For example, a locally targeted search might look like this:  “Nashville cardiology services” or “Tampa rehabilitation services”.  By using geographical keywords, you open up the universe to searches outside your zip code radius.  This is often beneficial when a patient has a caregiver or family member that is outside of your zip code radius but is assisting with the process of identifying a provider for a loved one.

2) Include a call to action in your ad – every paid search ad should include a call to action.  This gives the consumer a clear idea of what they should do in order to follow through on your offer.  Examples of effective calls to action are:  “Contact us today”, “Make an appointment today”, and “Sign up today”.  Calls to action should be tested as should any ad copy to determine which version drives the most traffic and new patients.

3) Use SEM to drive event attendance – SEM is a great way promote events and seminars.  Events and seminars are a great component to the healthcare marketing mix as hospitals and providers seek to educate prospective patients on treatment courses and the variety of options available to manage a condition.  With SEM being finite through campaign start and stop dates and budget parameters, you can promote your event or seminar at the moment people are looking for the information you will be discussing.  Remember to end these campaigns to coincide with the event date or a cutoff date associated with any pre-registration deadlines.

4) Remember the long tail terms- people don’t always search using one word.  Often, they search for highly specific phrases.  These highly specific, long-tail phrases tend to be the highest converting phrases.  If someone searches on the phrase “allergy symptoms”, they are generally going to be higher up in the search funnel, meaning they are just starting to research.  If they search on the phrase “treating a reaction to peanut allergies”, this is highly specific and the searcher knows that a) they are dealing with a peanut allergy and b) they need treatment.  They are looking for information and treatment.  This type of search has a higher likelihood of converting to a patient as there is an identified need.

5) Track results and always test – as with all healthcare marketing, there should be tracking and testing taking place to assist with optimizing marketing results.  The tracking and measurement available through SEM is extremely robust and allows for myriad of testing and learning.  Testing should include A/B tests for landing pages, ad copy, calls to action, search results position (e.g., first, second, third) and offers.  This is just the beginning.  Don’t stop at the click, track behaviors through the landing page to a conversion.  Measure actions such as phone calls, online appointment requests, seminar sign ups or any other relevant behavior corresponding to the keyword/phrase and call to action.  Connect these ‘transactions’ back to keywords/phrases and campaigns.  Determine what you spent for clicks and how much return you are seeing in the form of new patients, event attendance or other important key metrics.

Contact us to find out more about SEM from Point to Point.  We’d love to discuss how you are approaching SEM in the healthcare marketing space.