A Refresher Course on Writing Great Ads
by admin at 11:11 am on August 24, 2010
We came across this great article about Writing Great PPC Ads written by Matt Van Wagner on Search Engine Land and would like to share it with you.
As summer in the U.S. winds down and millions of students head back to school this week, the rest of us head back to work, refreshed and ready to stimulate the economy with great new ad campaigns.
I know from my own experience that with all the time we spend on the analytical aspects of our PPC campaigns like quality scores, click-through rates, costs per click and match types, it is very easy to lose sight of this simple truth: what your ads communicate is much more important than the metrics you use to track them.
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You should have mayonnaise with that website…
by Daniel Clutterbuck at 1:16 pm on August 6, 2009
I’ve just returned from popping out for lunch at our adequately named local sandwich shop, “Muff’s”, a local butchers who have won quite a few awards over the years.
Interestingly enough, I found inspiration for composing a blog on customer service. Gray (Business Partner) and I both waited at the counter. I was served by a lady who I know has been there for a while and has obviously picked up experience along the way. Gray was served by a new recruit. The difference between the two is this; my lady knew exactly what to suggest to make my sandwich better. I had a Chinese chicken barm of which she suggested raw onion, mayonnaise and certain salad. She knew how to make it better and what was right for me – the customer! Gray on the other hand had a tuna baguette and had to ask for cheese, of which he had a “cheese is 35p extra” comment. There was no suggestions and Gray didn’t enjoy his sandwich half as much as I did (and his was more expensive – unlucky!).
I’d like to compare this experience to our industry. For me, I have always put pride in customer service. There is no better way to start off a relationship with a client other than making the best suggestions to make their purchase as tailored and with the greatest possible value that suits.
It happens a lot in our industry, where everything extra, costs… well, extra. This shouldn’t be the case and anyone who does it, at each occasion loses a small piece of a customers economic value.
Another point from our little sandwich adventure is that experience and knowledge does count. Knowing what is best for the customer makes it as valuable as possible. We like to think of ourselves as experienced due to our customer base and with 11 heads to share knowledge, I’d say we’re pretty switched on when it comes to web design/ web marketing too.
I meet clients and non-clients on a daily basis and talk about website design, ecommerce and online marketing all day. I will talk to anyone about these topics and enjoy it no matter who it’s with, even if it’s not going to turn to business – it’s just enjoyable.
If you would like to talk, take advantage, get a new website or have a coffee (Costa/ Nespresso only) drop me an email on daniel@webtise.co.uk and I’ll be happy to respond.
Daniel Clutterbuck
Director
Webtise Ltd
Does Your Business Need Digital Marketing
by Paul Gregory at 10:32 am on July 14, 2009
There are only two questions you need to ask when deciding whether to do any Digital Marketing.
First – Are my audience online or going to be online?
If your customers use any form of digital technology to research and purchase your product or service then you need to embrace these forms of technology to speak to your potential customers. You will need to keep in mind that as the next generation of customers start to become customers they will demand more digital interaction with your business. If you are not in a position to offer it to them then they will spend their money elsewhere.
Second – Are my products/services suited to digital marketing?
Usually the answer to this is yes. It doesn’t really matter what your product/service is as long as you have established that there is a viable online audience for it.
Customers will also use the internet as a means to compare products/services that they are then likely to purchase offline (houses, cars etc). Meaning pretty much anything you can think of is being successfully marketed online!
The below graphs show a percentage of each group who use the internet, for example 74% of adult women use the internet:
* Source: Understanding Digital Marketing by Damien Ryan & Calvin Jones
To find out more about how Webtise can help your Digital Marketing strategy click here.
The 3 main areas of Online Marketing
by Paul Gregory at 11:45 am on July 9, 2009
Online Marketing or Internet Marketing can be a complicated business and there are lots of aspects to consider when taking on a complete Online Marketing project.
However to sum up the whole process we can segregate Online Marketing into 3 main areas, these are Traffic Generation, Conversion Analysis and Repeat Business. The following will go into more detail about each area.
Traffic Generation
One of the first things that need to be considered is how am I going to get visitors to my website?
This can be achieved in various ways but the method that will generate the most traffic is Search Engine Optimisation. This is the process of ranking highly in what is called the natural search results of a search engine. The first step in this process involves Keyword Research. This refers to figuring out what words and phrases most relate to your business and which of these words people actually search for and then incorporate them into your websites content and metadata. This then allows the search engines to know which words are important to your website. There are many other aspects to SEO such as Competitor Analysis, External & Internal Linking and Social Media to name a few all of which need to be considered when taking on an SEO project.
Another method of traffic generation is Pay Per Click advertising. This uses the same principles as SEO in the respect that it uses keywords. However with PPC advertising you bid on the position your advert will show depending on the keyword. The beauty of this type of advertising is you only pay when someone clicks on your advert.
Conversion Analysis
The next part of Online Marketing refers to Conversions. Conversions are sales or enquiries depending on the nature of your business. As part of your project you will want to monitor and analyse how many sales/enquiries you have achieved. A good way of doing this is to attach some analytical package (such as Google Analytics) to your website allowing you to see visitor activity and where any sales/enquiries came from.
However on the flip side if you are not achieving any sales/conversions you will want to know why. Maybe your website simply isn’t appealing enough to provoke a sale/enquiry, maybe you’re not giving the customer enough information or maybe your contact form is hard to find. These things can all be monitored and acted upon that is why it is so important to analyse your websites statistics regularly.
Repeat Business
Once you have achieved sales/enquiries unless you are only interested in one off sales then it is important to encourage people to repeat buy. This can be achieved through online marketing using techniques such as Email Marketing Campaign and well maintained blogs or forums.
Email Marketing gives you the opportunity to send a message to people who have already shown an interest in your product or service by signing up for newsletters or regular updates. This is what’s known as a Permission List as the people on the list have given their consent for you to contact them.
Another method of encouraging repeat business is to keep a well maintained blog or forum. This method allows people to interact with your business and gives them assurances that they can air any grievances or concerns quickly and easily. A blog is a great way to keep your customers informed on latest products, offers or company news and allows them to feel part of the community.
To sum up you will need to plan and consider each of these areas to succeed in your Online Marketing project. However the rewards for successful implementation are well worth the time and effort.
