How soon is too soon to call time of death on your marketing campaign?

The other day, a client of ours emailed us. He said that since the digital marketing campaign we had set up hadn’t produced any results yet, perhaps we should start brainstorming different approaches. Now, to be clear. in this case, it was way too early to be asking that question, since the ads had been running a couple of days at most. But we liked seeing that he has the right approach to small business marketing—namely that one should always be testing and tweaking your campaigns until they deliver you the results you want.

It also brought up an interesting question: when should you start to mess with a marketing campaign? How long should you wait before you call time of death? Theron and I knew it was too early in this case because we have decades and decades (OK, now I feel old) of experience on how long it takes for various campaigns to get running. But without the benefit of that experience, how does one know?

After all, the last thing you want to do is throw bad money after good.

Unfortunately for the black-and-white types out there (myself included), I’m not going to give you a hard and fast answer here. Frankly, there IS no exact number or formula. But I will give you a few thoughts that should help you feel your way.

The first thing to remember is that the smaller your budget is, the longer it’s going to take to see results.

Marketing is basically just math: you put your message (in the form of an ad, for instance), out in front of a bunch of people, and once those people have seen that message several times, a smallish percentage will click on your ad, and of THOSE people a very much smaller percentage will buy your product/fill out a lead form/visit your restaurant. What those exact percentages are will vary from industry to industry and business to business.

This means you have to stuff the top of the marketing funnel with a LOT of people, wait long enough for them to see your ad a bunch of times, and only then will one or two pop out the bottom of the funnel.

Now, the great thing about big budgets is that you can quickly reach a bunch of people and get your message to them multiple times and in multiple ways. But if you’re spending, say, a buck a day on Facebook marketing, it’s going to take a lot more time to reach that critical mass. You’ll need patience. Heck, in some industries where there’s a lot of search marketing competition for the top keywords, you might find that your budget isn’t big enough to show an ad at all.

A good rule of thumb is that if your digital ad campaign has been running a week or more and you haven’t seen any new traffic, you can pretty well assume one of two things: 1) your ads aren’t working, or 2) your budget isn’t big enough.

Luckily, it’s pretty easy to test which one it is; simply increase your budget significantly—even if as a result you only run the campaign for a short period of time in order to make up for the budget shortfall. If you start seeing traffic (clicks) being generated, it was your budget that was the problem. If not, it may be the ads; either they aren’t targeted right, or the messaging isn’t resonating.

This happened just recently with a client of ours; we were set at about a dollar a day for their Facebook ads, but that budget rate wasn’t generating enough frequency (the number of times each individual saw the ad), to get clicks. We doubled the budget (note that we’re still at only $60/month), and, hey presto, the clicks started coming in.

Of course, traffic itself doesn’t a successful campaign make. We’re ultimately all here to sell things, and if you aren’t getting those sales, your campaign isn’t working. Full stop. But (and this is important) remember that it may take a while before your increased traffic converts into sales.

We generally say wait a month or two, depending on your industry (longer sales cycles like real estate and cars will take much longer than things-we-buy-all-the-time such as coffee or shoes (ahem)).

If you’re running a newspaper or bus ad, wait at least three months. If you’re sending a mailer, wait at least a few weeks past the drop date (and you should have used a tracking email/phone number).

It’s also important to remember that there are a lot of fail points in an ad campaign. Don’t assume your ads aren’t working just because you aren’t getting sales.

Take a look at your web traffic. If you’re getting a bump in traffic but no sales/leads, then the problem may be more in your website and less in the ads themselves. In which case you may want to look at optimizing your website, not tweaking the campaign*.

Ultimately, we’re not going to give you a target click-through or conversion rates that you should aim for. Simply because that doesn’t matter. What DOES matter is that you’re getting the results that you need from the campaign. It is completely immaterial, for instance, that you have a 3% conversion rate if you’re still paying more for the ad campaign than you’re generating in sales. Set goals for yourself—what you want your ad campaign to generate in sales, based on what you’re paying for it—and judge its performance off of that metric. Remember, of course, to take into account that you may be willing to pay more to acquire a new client—one that may generate sales for years—than their initial purchase may justify.

Just give it a little time before you make that judgment. Perhaps a little more than you think.

Happy small business marketing,

Katie & Theron

*This could also mean that you have a targeting problem with your ads—meaning that you’re generating traffic from people who aren’t going to ultimately want to buy your product or service. This is less likely than a website that needs optimizing; generally, bad targeting just means you don’t get as much traffic generated from your ads in the first place. But it can happen, especially for products that are expensive. For instance, Cathy Customer sees a pair of gorgeous shoes in a social media ad, clicks through to the web page, and then finds out that they are $500, so she nopes right out of there. This can easily be solved by adding income parameters to your ad targeting.

At Urban Sherpa Marketing Co. we offer marketing advisory, strategic planning, and services for small businesses and startups, including content marketing. Our goal is to make high-quality marketing possible for every business, no matter the size. Think of us as your outsourced marketing department, strategic marketing advisor, or even your phone-a-friend marketing lifeline. We specialize in building efficient marketing programs to grow your business without blowing the bank.

Share this on:

Landing pages: the art and necessary science

The sad truth about landing pages… Most people have done it: built really cool and well-thought-out search programs (or social media ads), spent hours on keyword research, carefully crafted the perfect ad copy… and then pointed that ad right at the home page of our website.

The fact is, when we don’t use a landing page, we’re cutting the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns by a significant percentage. How much? It’s hard to quantify, but I’d hazard a guess that this tactic leeches at least 50% or more of the possible impact out of a campaign.

It’d be like running an ad for a room at the Ritz Carlton, painting a fantastic picture of the great accommodations awaiting you… the marble bathroom flooring, the golden fixtures, goose-down pillows, nightly turn-down service… heck, even describing the little chocolates on your pillow (I love those!). But when you arrive at your destination (i.e. when you click on the ad), it turns out you’re actually at a Motel 6. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not slagging Motel 6- they provide great value for the money, and there’s nothing wrong with their rooms. But it’s absolutely not what you expected when you read that ad.

Ideally, if you click on our fictional ad describing a sumptuous Ritz Carlton room, you’d end up on a page that goes into a bit more detail about the room, and builds on the experience the ad started to describe. That marble floor? It was quarried in the city of Carrara. That little chocolate on your bed? It’s Patchi, one of the best-selling chocolate brands in the world. And there would be a way to book that very room, right there on the page.

In other words, you’re moving the customer a little farther along the funnel—and increasing your chances of converting them from a customer into a buyer. And you’re absolutely not forcing them to go find the information they want and need.

Aside from just being a common-sense kind of thing, there are some very tangible benefits to having a quality landing page experience:

Your ads will convert more effectively. If your customer clicks on an ad and gets more or less exactly what they’re hoping to find (in other words, more information on what your ad or social media post started to tell them), then they’re more likely to stay and less likely to bounce without taking the action you want them to take (more on that in a minute). On the other hand, if your ad just dumps your customer on your homepage, then you’re forcing them to dig through your site to find what they’re looking for. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a ton of time for stuff like that… And by the way, this will also increase the overall bounce rate of your website, muddying the water so that it’s hard to see how the site is actually converting from an organic perspective.
Your ads will ultimately cost less. If your landing pages convert well, then you’ll need to spend less to get the results you’re looking for, and your customer acquisition cost will be lower overall.
You’ll earn a higher ad quality score for your PPC campaigns. Google is always watching… especially if your Google Ads and Analytics accounts are connected. They’ll reward you for higher conversion rates and longer time-on-site by giving you better frequency, placement, and cost. (And ultimately, all these stats should also help your organic rankings.)

OK, what are some key elements that should be a part of every good landing page? Like many things in life, keeping it simple is key:

Make sure to include a single, highly relevant call-to-action. Trying to get people to book a room at the Ritz Carlton? Include a prominent “BOOK NOW” button on the page. Heck, put a couple of ‘em on the page, one above the fold and one lower down on the page. And always make sure that button works (and links directly to the booking system in this example.) Resist the urge to add multiple calls-to-action. Don’t muddy the waters for your customers – point them where you want them to go. Again, keep it simple!
As already covered above, make sure the content is highly relevant to what’s described in the ad/post that leads them to the landing page. Pictures are always good, but as we’ve said before, people aren’t going to take the time to read a ton of copy (or watch your 15-minute long video that you spent so much time and money producing)
Include a little social proof in the form of a short testimonial. Humans are herd animals and we love to be reassured that others have had a positive experience: “That was the best darn chocolate I’ve ever had—I slept like a baby after eating it! – John Q. Public”.

In short, in these days following the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that landed men on the moon for the first time, we at Urban Sherpa Marketign Co. want to encourage you to create your own highly memorable and effective landings of your own. And while we can’t promise you a place in the history books, we know you won’t have to put on bulky spacesuits and leave the Earth to achieve your marketing goals.

Unless, of course, you’re Elon Musk.

Happy small business marketing!

Theron & Katie

At Urban Sherpa Marketing Co. we offer marketing advisory, strategic planning, and services for small businesses and startups, including content marketing. Our goal is to make high-quality marketing possible for every business, no matter the size. Think of us as your outsourced marketing department, strategic marketing adviser, or even your phone-a-friend marketing lifeline. We specialize in building efficient marketing programs to grow your business without blowing the bank.

Share this on:

Google My Business listings: the one super simple, free thing many small businesses forget to do

Most small businesses set up a Google My Business listing. You know, that listing at the side of the search results that shows your business logo, some pictures, your address, and a few other things? That’s a Google My Business listing. But unfortunately, a lot of businesses set it up about a part of the way and pretty much forget about it. And that’s a serious mistake.

As overlooked as it often is, Google My Business listings are powerful tools to help people find your business–both directly and as a boost to your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Basically, Google wants all businesses to have super relevant Google My Business listings with lots of information, so they prioritize businesses that keep their listing refreshed and up to date. And, trust me, you want Google to prioritize your business when people search for your product or service.

Since it’s free and pretty simple to use, there is no reason on this green earth that any small business should forget this great little marketing tool.

Let’s take a look at some best practices, shall we?

First, the basics: if you don’t already have a listing, just go to Google.com/business and set one up. Be forewarned that they will need to confirm you are who you say you are (and therefore have the right to set up and/or change a GMB listing), and this can involve a complicated process of having Google snail mail you a postcard that has a PIN to your physical address. Word to the wise: don’t wait too long once you get your postcard, and don’t mess around with the account while you’re waiting for your PIN. Both will invalidate your PIN and make you need to do the whole darn thing over again.

If there is already a Google My Business listing for your business but you don’t have login access, never fear, you can claim the business. This also involves proving you are who you say you are, but it’s not hard; there’s even a handy little button helping you do it.

Once in, you will want to set up the account fully: use the functions to their full capacity. Add photos, videos (if you have them), the correct contact information, hours (including updated holiday hours), correct addresses (don’t worry if you don’t have a physical location; you can set it so that it doesn’t show the exact address), your logo, etc.

In particular, make sure you:

Include a strong description of your business that includes the things that set you apart from the competition (many people will see your listing when they are in the final stages of comparing options)
Choose your photos wisely to support the message you are trying to convey—not just any old pics you have laying around. For instance, if you’re a house painter who serves super high-end clients, make sure your photos are high quality. If you’re a kid’s dentist, show lots of smiling, tear-free kids (make sure you get parental permission, of course)
Make sure your cover photo provides the right message. Think of it like the homepage on your website. If you have products and services, add them!
Do everything you can to get reviews… and as many as possible. Pro tip: the easier you make it for people to review you, the more will. Get them started by sending them (or asking them) one question, like, “tell me one thing you love about my business”, and then send them the URL of your GMB listing so it’s easy (just one click) for them to submit a review
Are you writing blogs, or creating podcasts, or any other sort of content? Add it to the “posts” section. Google loves this, and I’ve heard through the grapevine that it really helps your SEO. At the very least, it is another way to get your thought leadership out in front of potential customers
Do you have special hours on, say, the 4th of July? Make sure you post them and keep everything updated

If all this sounds pretty basic, well, it is. Nothing here is rocket science. SO YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE.

Really. Ahem. Just do this thing. It’s important.

Happy small business marketing!

Katie & Theron

At Urban Sherpa Marketing Co. we offer marketing advisory, strategic planning, and services for small businesses and startups, including content marketing. Our goal is to make high-quality marketing possible for every business, no matter the size. Think of us as your outsourced marketing department, strategic marketing advisor, or even your phone-a-friend marketing lifeline. We specialize in building efficient marketing programs to grow your business without blowing the bank.

Share this on:

Search marketing (SEM): when (and how) to use it… and when not to

We say it more than anything else: “you need search marketing”.

You sell watches online? You need search marketing. You are a kid’s dentist? You need search marketing. Again and again, search marketing (SEM) is the top of the list of Things We Say You Should Do.

First, let me quickly go over what search marketing is for those of you new to the term. Search Engine Marketing (specifically Google Ads or Bing Ads) is those ads that show up when you search for something on a search engine. Also called SEM, this is different than Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in that you are buying ads, not attempting to manipulate natural search results. You can tell the difference because there’s a little “Ad” graphic next to the result. You’ve seen them, of course. They look like this:

Unlike SEO, which is a long, complex, and somewhat arbitrary field ruled by the ever-changing algorithms that power Google and Bing, with Search Marketing you can get your search ad up at the top of the page by being smart about the terms you select, writing solid ads that point at relevant landing pages, and making sure you’ve got a competitive bidding strategy. We like things we can easily control when it comes to marketing. They tend to work best.

Frankly, search marketing works really, really well for most businesses. It’s one of the very few (only?) times when you get to show people your ad at the specific time they are looking for your product.

That’s pretty spectacular targeting.

Even better? You only pay for the ad if someone clicks on it, and you only spend what you want. Try asking a newspaper to only bill you if someone calls you from your print ad.

While there are a lot of nuances to putting together super fantastic search campaigns, there are basically three main things you need to worry about to get started:

1) Pick the right keywords.

Your search ad shows up when someone within your targeting parameters searches for one of the terms you’ve listed in your campaign, AND your bid is competitive (lots of factors go into bid pricing, so we’re not going to go into it here. Just reach out if you need help figuring this out). Your goal is to get your ad to show up on page one when, say, a busy mom searches for “kids dentist” and you have the search term “kids dentist” in your campaign.

One of the biggest keys to selecting the right keywords is putting yourself in the mindset of an ideal customer and figuring out what that person is likely to search for. I’m going to say that again: don’t select keywords that YOU think are important to your business. Instead, brainstorm keywords that your customer would think describe what you sell. Google will make suggestions for you, too, and that can help a lot.

A few words on keywords: There are all sorts of nuances and methods around how you set up your keyword lists that can result in the most effective keyword lists. Let’s assume for a minute that your business is The Ultimate Ladies Hat Emporium and you sell women’s hats. Here’s a little grid from Google that gives some examples of the different types of keywords you can set up:

You can use any combination of match types in your campaigns. There are some best practices around setting up campaigns and ad groups, but this is getting long as it is so we’ll leave that for another time.

Notice that results from Broad Match terms are, well, broad. Your term is womens’ hats, but you will also get results for women’s clothing, women’s gloves, women’s vitamins, men’s hats, hard hats, chef’s hats and so on. That’s not to say Broad Match is bad at all – but it’s worth giving plenty of thought to the possible results for the broad match terms you choose.

Negative Keywords

Once you get some results under your belt, you can also begin to start using Negative keywords to eliminate terms that are unrelated to your business but might be triggering ads. For instance, in our hypothetical Ladies Hat campaign, you may be a fashion merchant selling the latest and greatest cutting edge hats, but people may be finding you in paid searches for “Ladies Hard Hats”, and clicking on your ads, costing you money and eating up opportunities to reach customers who actually want what you sell. You can tell Google and Bing not to deliver ads for an exact term by setting it up as a Negative Exact Match term. (*Word of Warning: Negative match terms are very powerful and it’s possible to easily damage your business if you apply them incorrectly. If, for example, you selected “Hat” as a broad match negative term for The Ultimate Ladies Hat Emporium campaign, you would be telling Google you didn’t want the term “Hat” to show up in ANY searches. That would be bad indeed. So, be cautious.)

2) Write ads that work. (Duh.)

Google and Bing are both focused on delivering the best experience possible for their users, and so the best way to write “good ads” is to be accurate and as helpful as you can for someone who’s searching for your product. If you’re selling ladies hats, then make sure your ad talks about ladies hats, how you can help someone who’s searching for them, why YOU are the best place to find ladies hats, etc., etc., etc.

Simple, but not always easy.

Stay away from hype and exaggeration, just stick to the facts, and try running sales and discounts. Giving the customer some kind of reason to click on your ad (such as a sale) is ideal because Google and Bing only get paid when someone clicks on your ad, so they will reward you for ads that convert well by showing them more often!

3) Make sure your website link reflects your ad (and the keywords you’re targeting).

Back to the comment above, Google and Bing want to deliver great user experiences. If someone clicks on an ad for ladies’ hats and winds up on a landing page for fishing lures, that is NOT a great experience. Make sure your landing page (the page your ad links to on your website) is relevant to the ad. The search engines’ algorithms also take relevance into consideration in the bid calculation process… so the more relevant your landing page is to the keywords you’re targeting, the cheaper your bid will be, relatively speaking.

When to skip search marketing

All this sounds great, right? And it is. Search Marketing is awesome for almost every business. But not quite all. There aren’t many, but there are some businesses that don’t get good results from SEM. If, for instance, people don’t know your product or service exists (and therefore nobody’s going to search for it), then absolutely don’t bother with search marketing until you’ve built up more of a reputation. If you must do something, try a small campaign on your business name to make sure it shows up when people DO hear of you.

Also, if you’re in a highly competitive market, search marketing may seem prohibitively expensive based on what the competition is bidding for your terms. There are ways around that, such as doing a great job of optimizing your ads and landing pages, selecting lesser-searched long-tail terms, finding a niche market to attack, etc. But that’s a whole ‘nother post. And, trust us, most business owners starting up Google Adwords for the first time won’t have much luck working those angles.

Which brings me to the elephant in the corner. While the great thing about search marketing for small business is that it’s super effective and you can spend as little or as much as you want (different budgets will just get you fewer or more clicks to your website), the bad thing, of course, is (as you can probably tell by reading this) that it’s little more difficult to set up for the average person-on-the-street. Google does have a step-by-step process to get you started, which works to a certain extent, but my best advice is either train yourself a bit on the process—Google’s Adwords Courses are good for this—or hire someone (like, you know, us) to set you up with a simple program and teach you how to maintain it.

So, yeah, unlike throwing up a Facebook page and posting when the mood takes you, setting up Google Ads is a bit harder. But your hard work and/or investment pays off like almost nothing else. And while you work, just remember you have a significant advantage over businesses from the 80s:

Happy small business marketing!

Katie & Theron

Share this on:

SEO: a practical real-world guide

I’m gonna say it. SEO (Search Engine Marketing) isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

“Wait, WHAAAAT?” you gasp! “I thought SEO was a critical piece of my marketing, the most important thing for my website, the be-all, end-all of making sure my business is successful, the Alpha and Omega of my strategy…”

Sorry. It’s not. I know what you’ve read. I know what all the marketing “experts” tell you before handing you a proposal to “fix” your site for thousands of dollars.

If you’re still reading, let me explain what I mean. I’m not saying search engine rankings aren’t important; that would be crazy talk (they absolutely are). What I’m saying is that the almost mystic reverence given to the idea of “Search Engine Optimization” is hooey. SEO is important, yes. But not magic.

Many years ago, in the early days of Google, there were definitely tactics that would artificially and positively impact your rankings. Keyword stuffing, backlinks, loading up your site with hundreds of largely superfluous pages… the list goes on and on. It was really a game to some unscrupulous players out there: “how do we scam the system without doing a bunch of hard work?”

At the end of the day, these situations all highlighted a critical problem with the budding world of the internet: manipulation of the user experience to benefit one party at the expense of another.

Fortunately, Google, Amazon, Bing, and others have all gotten smarter over time. They continually update their algorithms to reduce the possibility of their user bases being misled. At the end of the day, they generate income based on the accuracy and enjoyability of the experience users have when they visit their sites.

Are there still ways to manipulate the system? Indeed. There will always be individuals looking for the easy way out, the “angle” to play that will give them an unfair advantage. But, over time, it will continue to be more and more difficult to do so—and less profitable as well. And, Google and the others can, and will, actually punish you if they believe you’re doing something purely with the goal of manipulating rankings.

So, what’s the answer? I said earlier that rankings are definitely important… so what DOES work when it comes to SEO?

The simple answer is “Your site needs to be good.” And by good, I mean:

Your website needs relevant content that your user finds valuable. If your site is about Algerian Food and how to cook it, you’d be better off making sure there are recipes for Algerian Kefta and Chorba Adas than loading up your H1 tags with the term “Algerian Food”. (Can you tell what I made for dinner last night? It was yummy!). And yes, you should absolutely pay attention to your top keywords when you write copy, particularly headlines, but not to the detriment of your user experience.
Your site is aasy to navigate. Don’t bury your best, most relevant content 6 pages deep in some obscure out-of-the-way place that no one will ever go. People won’t dig around on your site; if they can’t find what they need pretty darn quick, they’ll bail out. Google knows that and it likely plays into their algorithm.
It has a decent quantity of content. Yes, as noted above, loading up your site with 100 pages just to have 100 pages won’t work… but if your Algerian Food site only has two recipes, Google’s going to give your competitor, who has 163 recipes, more weight in their rankings. (It’s a concept SEOMoz refers to as “Domain Authority”)
It contains relevant and high quality backlinks. Wait, I disparaged backlinks earlier… I can’t possibly have it both ways? Actually, I can. What I’m talking about here is links to other RELEVANT sites. If the Algerian Embassy in the US links to my recipe for Kefta, that’s going to have a lot more relevance than if Billy Bob’s Tire and Repair does.
It just runs well. If your site loads quickly and is well-built, you’ll reap the rewards. Again, Google’s looking to reward sites that offer the best experience for their customers, and going to a site that takes forever to load, has a bunch of busted links, and continually goes down is NOT a good experience.

So, really, at the end of the day, the keys to achieving “good” rankings are much like the keys to having a successful business. There are no easy, work-free, routes to success. But the good news is that common sense goes a long way. If you ask yourself whether your site delivers a great experience and can honestly say is a place you’d want to visit as a consumer, then you’re on the right track.

That said, it’s time for some lunch. Lahm Lalou, anyone?

Happy small business marketing,

Theron & Katie

Share this on: