Mike's Life - Digital Marketing Dude

How To Advertise Your Business

Mike — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:05:52 +0000

I’ve had some fun lately looking at adverts all over the place, and there are some real howlers out there:

Some where you can’t actually work out what the company does
Others where they have used a tiny space to cram in thousands of words
Several full of cliches “No job too big or too small”
And others that look as though they have been designed on an Etch a Sketch

And yet an advertisement, small or large, only really has to fulfil three things:

It has to tell me what you do

This can be done with images, or with a bold headline. Don’t fall into the trap of using your company name as the headline, unless your name is very well known. “Joseph Bloggs and Company” means nothing to me, but “House Painting” does.

It needs to give me a reason to use you and not your competitor

What’s your business USP (your unique selling point?) Are you the fastest, the best, the cheapest? (if you are the cheapest, read this). This is especially true if you are hoping to win customers from your competitors. What can you offer me to make me want to go through the pain of wanting to switch to your service?

It should offer me a choice of ways to contact you

Give me choices – a phone number is good, but how about an email address too? And assuming you have a website, give me the link! (but save some money by leaving out the www – I know all websites start with that!)

That’s it!

What do you do?

Why should I contact you?

How?

Is there anything else?

Where's The Passion in your business?

Mike — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:13:22 +0000

Have a look at this video, I love it!

The guy is clearly passionate about his work, and he’s become famous online as a result of his passion.

Are you passionate about your business? Do you pass that passion on to your employees? Do you give them the freedom and the empowerment to bring their passion to their work?

Or are they hemmed in by rules and regulations, too afraid of making a mistake to be anything other than bland?

We were out later than planned last night and realised we’d be home too late to get dinner, so we stopped at a commercial centre to grab some fast food. The plan was to have nothing more than an urgent food stop and get going.

There was a new kebab place there, so I ordered a Doner Kebab – something I must have done thousands of times at hundreds of places over the years. In the past it has always been a “nothing” kind of experience, a means to an end. But last night was different:

We were greeted with big smiles and a friendly welcome, despite never having been there before
The guy serving us suggested we go for the pitta breaded version “I made them fresh today!”
He took infinite care, layering the meat, salad and sauces, so it was all evenly spread through the bread

It sounds so simple when you list three bullet points as I have done, but the experience was just so different from the norm. They guy was passionate about the very simple meal he was creating for us, and he really wanted it to be special. That transferred into a feel good factor I’ve never had from that kind of place before.

Next time I’m in the area, I’ll seek the place out. It will no longer be somewhere to go to when there are no other choices.

And it has nothing to do with price, position, advertising or salesmanship.

It has everything to do with passion.

Find it in your business today!

Has Mobile Technology Changed The Way We Blog?

Mike — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:25:56 +0000

I have no doubt that mobile phones are the future of communication technology.

I have been using a mobile phone since the late 80’s and with the sudden speed up in increased multimedia capabilities and gaming features in smart phones; I am sold on the idea that the future looks mobile.

Blogging as both a hobby and a business is growing rapidly and the advancements in mobile technology have largely changed the way we write. With a mobile device everything is instantly accessible and news, games, movie clips and media releases are easily viewed in real time. This has made the blogosphere a more competitive place for anyone who relies on current content to keep their visits and rankings up.

The business of blogging is both rewarding and demanding. If you are staying on trend with current events and happenings a mobile device makes it so much easier to complete updates on the move. Almost every industry has had to adapt to the mobile market, often with positive results. Every genre from bloggers, to consumers, to online casino fans who now find all the best entertainment at http://www.mobilecasinocanada.ca , has changed the way people utilise their mobile devices.

Mobile devices have become commonplace and in the media and marketing industry developers and designers have had to adjust their sites for use on mobiles. Bloggers need to ensure they have mobile optimised versions available if they want to increase traffic, as if they are not compatible they will see reduced traffic.

Monetised blogs that feature advertisements and marketing material particularly need to stay on trend as they rely on a higher hit rate to produce revenue. With a mobile device a blog can be updated in real time, links to current events can be added instantly and readers can comment at will. The more current and or on trend your content is, the more interest your blog will generate. A mobile allows you to post images, text and reply to comments at any time, allowing you to engage readers at will.

Overall it is safe to say that mobile devices have positively changed and updated the internet. Blogging can be hard work and you have to keep at it, but mobile technology has made it just that little bit easier to reach a broader audience.

The Truth About Email Marketing

Mike — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 19:22:52 +0000

It’s a simple fact that email marketing is massively effective. Across our own businesses, I can tell you that we achieve a little over 5% conversion rate from emails sent that sell something. That compares to just over 1% from any of our “selling” web pages.

It should be obvious – anyone who is engaged enough to have signed up to your newsletter list has a level of trust in what you suggest to them, and they are far more likely to buy from you when you ask them to do so.

Its why I have always advocated that you really must concentrate on building an email list, and why I recommend only Aweber as the place to store that list. Unlike many cheaper or free options, Aweber allows you to “program” emails to go out automatically a set period of time after someone new signs up to the list.

To illustrate the point, I’ll share with you some numbers from a recent promotion we ran on an inexpensive product. I’ll add the proviso here that we don’t recommend anything we don’t believe is good value and will be of interest to our readers – doing anything else is a sure way to lose the trust that results in high conversion.

The list that the promotion went out to is 9,400 strong, and new people are currently joining at the rate of about 200 a month.

I sent an initial email about the product (a book in this case) out to the whole list. As expected, that resulted in sales of 582 units of the product – in this case a shade over 6%. It was a great bonus for the month, and another reward for investing time and effort into building a large list.

But here’s the good part!

I also wrote a follow up email, which will go out automatically to everyone who joins the list after several weeks. If that conversion rate continues, we’ll sell a further 12 units every month, with no effort, and no more work on my part.

The income each month from this one product will only be around €30, but as I said at the top, its a low value product. but multiply that out by several similar, useful products, and you can gradually build a worthwhile passive income.

So, the message is simple. If you don’t already offer a mechanism where people can join your email list, then do so now. Let’s imagine that in a couple of year’s time you decide to write a book, which you’re going to sell for €10. If your email list is 20,000 strong at that point, you could be looking at earning over €10,000 for a single promotion!

Start an email list today. Make sure it’s a system that allows you to send programmed automatic follow up emails, and make sure it’s easy for people to join your list using a sign up form on your website.

if you’re not sure whose offering to use, then I’d recommend Aweber – I have all my lists with them, and almost all of my consultancy clients use them.

But there’s more to it than simply banging out a quick email.

Don’t fall into the trap of putting everything but the kitchen sink into your emails. A selling email should be very simple, clear and to the point:

Tell people up front what it’s about, so that those who aren’t interested can close it and move on
Give basic information on the product with a few features and benefits
Link at least a couple of times to the sales page where they can find out more and place an order
Don’t offer any other distractions – no links to Facebook or Twitter, no “other news” – the decision needs to be simple: “Do I want to find out more, do I want to buy, or do I want to close the email?”
Finally, intersperse any “selling” emails in your follow up stream with others, which either give something away or are simply interesting of helpful – I use a ratio of 3 normal emails to 1 selling email

That’s it! All you need to do now is either find a product you can sell as an affiliate, that is both interesting and useful to your readers, or, much better still, create one!

Are you connected with me on Facebook yet? I post a lot there, and I have a lot of fun, so if you want to get to know me better just friend request me there. My Facebook.

Fancy Yourself As A Blogger?

Mike — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 06:19:55 +0000

You might be asking yourself why you haven’t heard from me here for some months, and in case you are, here’s the top line:

Lanzarote Information, our flag ship site, continues to amaze and enthral me. With over 5,000 visits a day, a social media community of 30,000 and some increasingly blue chip advertisers, it’s everything I hoped for when we set out on the road the create a sustainable on line business. Our other smaller sites are growing and blossoming, benefiting from the learning we went through on the big one. I’m continuing to work extremely hard with my consultancy clients (some would say making hay before the sun sets on the European economy!) and I’m back to my triathlon training after a small operation.

But this blog has never been about me.

It was always about helping people to do similar things, using the experience I have gained over the last few years. And it’s gratifying to know that despite my relative absence from these pages, it soldiers on doing just that.

The most recent examples are an old friend Marc Johnston, who is a brilliant musician, and who has created a fabulous blog at www.marc-johnston.com

He followed my Beginner’s Guide to Blogging course (free here ) and then got in touch with Sue Almond.

I’ll let Sue take up the story:

A Steep Learning Curve

Not so very long ago I was a complete cyberphobe.

My first computer was a second hand laptop, from the very early days of laptops, which someone let me take home 'to have a play around with' to see if I wanted to buy it.

Days later I was asked how I was getting on with it and I had to own up that I had never even switched it on (didn't really know how to) and, like many people at the same stage I was, I was convinced that if I pressed the wrong button I could at the very least destroy the machine, at worst blow myself up!

Well now I have a Blog!

How? Very slowly, with a lot of help and patience from friends and a few paid lessons, I started to gain confidence. It was gradual and often stilted progress, on a need to know basis; each new task, piece of terminology or skill, a revelation. After every advance I needed time to practise, consolidate and catch my breath before I could face another new step in the computer world.

If I told you honestly how recently I did not really know what a blog was you probably would not believe me. Web sites, Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, they were all Greek to me (and I am still working on Hoot Suite.....)

It is a bit like a see saw though, once it tips progress speeds up, until recently when it was suggested I should start a blog, instead of falling about, and assuming I was not meant to take the suggestion seriously I took a piece of invaluable advice and had a look at mikeslife.org

That was literally a couple of months ago and I am now so far ahead of where I was it is unbelievable. From a standing start I am up and running.

Now, I am not claiming that I could have done this on my own, but then again most people are not coming from my starting point. But without mikeslife.org and Mike's 'Beginner's Guide to Blogging' I would have had no idea what I was even supposed to be doing. With my partner in the Blog, Marc, I have worked really hard to create the posts and to understand how it all works. He is still, absolutely, the mainstay of the technical side but I am actively involved and building my understanding and skills day by day.

Mike, himself, points out, it is not a get rich quick scheme, you have to work at it and we certainly have. We have put so many hours into writersend.com and expect to go on doing so. But guess what? It is fun!

Without Mike's 'Beginner's Guide to Blogging' it would not have been possible.

If you write a blog, the head over the Writer’s end now and enter their competition.

4 Ways Blogging Can Contribute To Your Self Growth

Mike — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 18:11:35 +0000

I’ve been in touch with Glynis for a few years now, and as she says in this guest post, she’s one of the many people who have been through my Beginner's Guide to Blogging course.

People hear or see the term, Self Growth, and immediately think that there will be deep thinking, meditation, candles lit, and long discussions about what the meaning of life is. Although you can certainly go this route by finding a life coach that specializes in in the spiritual area of self growth, Many things about improving yourself can be learned in activities in your daily life.

When I took part in Mike's email course, The Beginner's Guide to Blogging, I actually thought I had all my ducks in a row and taking this free course was just to make sure that I did not have any ducks wandering off. What I soon discovered was my knowledge was sorely lacking in any depth.

Mike's course and my journey with my blog since then has instructed me on some aspects of life the I have wanted to improve on for a long time. These are things that come in handy every day for whatever you are doing.

Organization Skills

With blogging, if you are not organized, your chances of succeeding are slim at best. There must be a plan before you think about launching your blog. The ultimate goal, the sub-goals, the tasks, the brainstorming, it all takes planning, organization.

Moreover, you will need to schedule the time you need to put into this endeavor. Doing small jobs with your blog when you just feel like it is not going to give you the desired results you was.

Your materials must, also, be organized. Everything should be laid out before you start if at all possible. I fall a little short here even still. I do not have everything I need to create videos or audio recording.

Confidence Building

Sure, blogging is a writing craft. Why would you need confidence when you are spending so much time alone? Believe it or not, there are many people who go along with this logic, thinking only people who have to have a public presence need confidence building. Wrong.

Although a blogger's life may usually be in front of a computer screen, that does not mean that there is not any public life going on. Bloggers must promote their own blogs/websites. Yes, some hire it to be done but, nevertheless, the blogger must make his/her presence known at the social media sites. This can not be done by an agent. Moreover, with the blog itself, you must show your personality within your posts.

All this takes some confidence. Confidence is one of those values that require you to practice it in order to build it up. You can not learn it from a book. Through the posts that you write the confidence in you will grow. It helps you open up and spread your wings.

Communication Skills

Like other forms of writing, blogging requires a good foundation in communicating. In order to get your message across to your readers, you must be able to use words (both written and spoken) effectively. Yes, spoken communication through videos and audio recordings is used in posts.

The only way I know how to improve communication skills is to practice them, use them every day. By blogging you have found an avenue to do just that in a way that will also improve your vocabulary, grammar, and spelling.

Goal Setting Skills

Do you ever have days in which you feel 'stuck'? What I mean by 'stuck' is that you feel as though you are caught between a hard place and a rock, and do not know which way is going to get you where you want to be.

By setting goals, this is not as likely to happen to you, ever.

Sure, you can take classes for this, but I can tell you that you will learn much more by doing. Blogging is a productive way to get in there and 'get your hands dirty' in the process of setting goals. When you have a blog, you are always setting new goals of one type or another. Blogging is one of those arts/crafts/business that is always evolving.

You will learn how to set long-term goals, short-term goals, sub-goals and all the tasks within these categories. You will learn how to be flexible in goal setting and how to be persistent in this process.

In Closing

These are just four of the many self growth skills you can learn by taking up the challenge of serious blogging. There are many more you will learn as well as time goes on. All of them will show you good habits that are relatively easy to develop if you are willing to put some effort into it.

I mentioned Mike's email course in my introduction. I highly recommend this free opportunity that you can take advantage of if you are seriously interested in the art, craft, business of blogging.

Bio: Glynis Jolly has been blogging in the niche of Self Growth since 2011. Her background has been in Social Work, using her skills as a patient representative in a state hospital located in Colorado. Her education includes an Associate's Degree in Social Work/Sociology and another Associate's Degree in Accounting. You can visit her blog at http://www.glynisj.com/.

Images was provided by Abigail Elder

Digital Marketing Guide 2013

Mike — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 06:46:13 +0000

There are few aspects of the online world evolving as fast as digital marketing, as we saw time and time again in 2012. Last year seemingly moved at a frantic pace, with the march of the mobile devices changing the way that marketing professionals approached their online campaigns, as well as the spread of video across the digital marketing sphere. With the advent of a new year, interested parties are wanting to know what will be the big areas of innovation and consolidation over the next 12 months.

Video set to open more eyes

It should come as no surprise that video marketing will build upon the successes of 2012 – the biggest year for the format yet – thanks to better technology making it possible to make professional looking videos cheaper and more easily. Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) has said that "the sheer cost of video production has come down to a point where there are no barriers to entry," adding that this is the reason it is currently the sixth most popular element of a digital marketing campaign. With more people owning video-ready mobile devices than ever before and YouTube remaining one of the most popular websites, the video explosion of 2013 is a no-brainer.

Bigger budgets and more agencies

With online marketing outpacing more traditional forms throughout 2012, this year will see more companies recognising its unique potential and releasing more funds to it – the most recent CMI survey found that 54% of marketers were planning to increase spending on digital content in 2013. With its position in the mass market ensured, digital marketing agencies will spring up at a rapid rate, although the established agencies with their base of expertise already established will still be the places to go for reliable and effective digital marketing strategies. The rest of the market will comprise of single owner-operator outfits and consultants.

The personal touch

Just enough room to mention the trend towards increased personalisation in 2013. Most good commercial sites place great emphasis on user experience, and this is set to increase over the next year, with sites and services offering visitors the chance to personalise their experience using either cookies, special logins or preferences on the site itself.

Google, Once The Coolest Kids On The Block, Have Lost The Plot

Mike — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:07:03 +0000

I can still remember the first time I heard of Google. My girlfriend at the time (now my wife) worked at a trendy IT company in the 1990’s. I called into her office one day and saw the plain white Google home page on her screen and asked her about it.

Like most of you, since then, Google has become part of my every day life. I use their browser, their docs, all our emails are routed through their excellent apps service, I love Translate, I use Google +, I buy Adwords adverts.

In short, I’ve pretty much embraced everything Google.

And that’s why it makes me a little sad to write this post. Because Google are the latest in a string of IT companies who have lost the plot in terms of customer service and interaction.

I’m going to talk about Google Adsense.

I’ve been a partner in the Adsense program for years. I put Adsense on several of my websites. For those who don’t know, it’s a program where Google serves advertisements to your website, and they pay you each time one is clicked. Over the years, one site, Lanzarote Information has earned a considerable sum as part of the program – I can’t tell you how much, because that’s against Google’s terms of service. I suspect Google has earned a considerable sum as well, but once again, I can’t tell you how much, this time because they refuse to publish how much of their advertiser’s revenue per click they actually keep for themselves.

So, in summary, over the last four years, through our hard work (my wife is the main writer) publishing original, frequent and much loved content to our site, Google has earned a decent sum of money. That’s precisely why I used the word “partner” above.

Ten days ago, I received a “No reply” email from Google, which basically told me they had found content on the site which broke their terms and conditions. The email pointed me to a post, and told me:

It is important for a site displaying AdSense to offer significant value to the user by providing unique and relevant content, and not to place ads on auto-generated pages or pages with little to no original content.
Your site should also provide a good user experience through clear navigation and organization. Users should be able to easily click through your pages and find the information they are seeking.

I probably don’t need to tell you that the post in question was written by me, is original and not auto generated and actually provides a service to visitors of the island. It’s also been on the site for almost two years.

The Google email told me that ads had been suspended and then suggested I could appeal this decision.

Can I pause for a moment?

Here’s a company I have worked with for over four years, one with whom I’ve shared substantial revenue. One with whom I should have built up a lot of trust and mutual respect.

And they took a decision to suspend the adverts BEFORE even speaking to me about it? Then they offered me the chance to APPEAL?

It felt like I’d already been convicted! But frustratingly, instead of clearly explaining what the issue was, they couched it in terms which left me baffled as to what to do.

So I appealed.

I asked them to explain to me what needed changing about the post. I told them I thought it must be an error, as the content was clearly original, and a post I had personally written. I naively believed that as soon as a person, as opposed to a bot checked the post, it would all be OK.

It took them a full week to get back to me, and the response came, once again, from a no reply email address. It reads:

Hello,
Thank you for providing us with additional information about your site. However, after thoroughly reviewing lanzaroteinformation.com and taking your feedback into consideration, we're unable to re-enable ad serving to your site at this time, as your site appears to still be in violation.
If you'd like to have your site reconsidered for participation in the AdSense program, please review our program policies (https://www.google.com/adsense/policies) and make any necessary changes to your webpages. For more information regarding your policy issue, please visit https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=113061 .
Once you've fully resolved any issues with your site, please visit https://google.com/adsense/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=policy_violation_appeal to request a second review.
We appreciate your cooperation.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team

Time for another pause.

Presumably an actual, living person has read the post and feels that it’s not complying with one of Google’s terms.

For the life of me, I can’t think how or where. But I can accept I could be wrong about this.

What I can’t accept is why whoever carried out the review hasn’t actually told me what the fucking problem is? What is the point in me appealing again, when I don’t know what needs changing? A simple “You need to take the post down” or “please remove the line xxxx” would do it. How hard can that be?

It’s complete and utter madness.

And a sad day for me, when a company I have watched start from nothing and grow to a globally dominant position becomes just like every other large corporation – impersonal, uncaring, and really not interested in the small businesses on whom they actually rely for their continued success.

I would never, in a million years, treat a business partner in this way.

And however big Google are, however important they may feel.

Neither should they.

Update: In the end I deleted the post and asked for a second reconsideration. The site was reinstated. I'll re write it again (because the message is important) and hope I can get it right this time. As soon as I have time to look at alternative providers to replace Adsense, I will do so.

The Trouble is, I'm Not Really A Salesperson

Mike — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 20:44:22 +0000

It’s the most common phrase I hear when talking to small business people.

So let’s start with the basics

Salespeople who have “The gift of the gab” are seldom successful – good sales people “listen” much more than they “talk.”
Salespeople who don’t have passion about the product or service they are selling are seldom successful – anybody who tells you they could sell “anything to anyone” is talking rubbish
Salespeople who are negative and natural complainers are seldom successful
Selling to people who don’t have a genuine need or want for your product or service isn’t good for you or for them

Now let’s look at those the other way around – are you good at listening to people? Are you passionate about your product or service? Are you positive?

I suspect, if you are in business, the answer to all of those is yes!

In that case, all you need to do is find people who have a genuine need or want for your product or service.

That’s the trick.

Focus your energy there, and the rest will come naturally.

Buyers - It's Actually Your Job To Talk To Potential Suppliers

Mike — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:16:19 +0000

I’ve had an intensely frustrating time over the last few weeks. For a specific project, I’ve been trying to speak to or email some buyers in large companies.

And they are the hardest people in the world to get through to!

I’ve never done this before, so it might not even be a new phenomenon, but these guys seem to employ every trick in the book to avoid speaking to potential suppliers. And I simply don’t understand it!

Surely it’s their job to be contactable?

Surely it’s a major part of their role to be available to hear about new products?

How many fantastic opportunities to be first to market with some hot new product are they squandering for their companies?

In several cases I’ve had to go through hoops to get an email address, and then suffer the ignominy of not even receiving a reply. In others, I’ve called so many times to find the buyer “not in today” that I frankly don’t actually believe that response any more.

It’s not that my expectations are unreasonable – I don’t expect them to place a massive order for the product I’m talking about, and I don’t even want more than a few minutes of their time, but I’m not even getting to that stage.

From a selfish point of view, it’s been a massive waste of my time, and from a global point of view think of the man hours wasted and the costs incurred if every person trying to bring a product to market suffers in the same way.

Are you the top dog at a company that employs buyers?

Please do me a favour – get a friend to try to get through to them to talk about a new product. Don’t give them a name, ask them to call reception and try to get it – make them do the same job any potential new supplier has to do to start the process of doing business with your company.

And if they suffer they way I have, go and see your buyers and put a rocket up their backsides.

Because they aren't doing you or your business any favours.

Google