Have you advertised online or offline before? More than likely, you were expecting your potential customers to visit your website or look you up online to find you. While it’s great that you are advertising and you may have some success with those that were already going to buy, you may be wasting money.

When a user is directed to the homepage of your website, especially after clicking through from some type of marketing message or offer, if there is not an obvious message match — i.e. “Where do I go for the 20% product I just clicked an ad for”  – you will lose visitors that may fall out of your “conversion funnel”. Conversions vary by website and industry, but most typically is a purchase, phone call, or contact form submission.

Not only is it beneficial for users to have a clear understanding of where to find things on your website to perform your intended action, but it can also save you money. When advertising with pay-per-click methods such as Google Adwords, the relevance of your ad’s landing page contributes to your “Quality Score”, which is combined with your bidding cost per click to calculate your actual cost per click. What this means is that you can rank higher in paid search results and pay less when you have a higher quality score – something that all campaigns should strive for.

1. Claim all local profile pages – All major search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) offer up local search results in the form of map and directory listings. These listing have been populated from various data sources such as InfoUSA and the Yellow Pages. These pages can be claimed optimized by including keyword text and business categories. A great way to see what directories already have your info is to use the free service at GetListed.org which will show you which profiles have been completed and which have not.
2. Strive for positive reviews – At it’s core, Google and other search engines are there to provide the best option for a search term. If they offered results that included poorly reviewed businesses, they would lose trust from searchers. One factor that comes into play here is the ratings your business has received from various places online like Yelp, YellowPages.com, and other aggregate websites. Not only does it improve your ability to rank, but a number of positive reviews also increases your click-through rate (CTR). Remind customers to review you online if they had a good experience during your interactions on a day-to-day basis.
3. Focus on your real location, not the nearby cities or towns – One major factor is your physical location and the proximity of a search to your business. If you are located in a suburb of Boston and sell pizza, you shouldn’t aim (and probably won’t) rank for ‘boston pizza’. Instead, focus on ranking for a more accurate term like ‘cambridge pizza’. The volume of searches may be lower, but the actual business driven from them will more than likely be more significant.
4. Make sure your business phone number and address is clearly located and consistent on other properties - Your business number should be consistent on your Google Places page and website as well as other trusted listings. If your phone number is incorrect on these websites and there is a listing discrepancy, your results can suffer because it can be inferred that other information may be incorrect.
5. Keyword use in business categories on profile pages – Google has an ability to match data for your business to other sources, analyze links, and page content, but ultimately, it’s up to you to tell them what categories your business falls into. Perhaps you run a bakery which is also a cupcake shop or you are  coffeeshop and a cafe. You can be listed under both categories and show up in the  results for both, but you’ll need to add these categories to your local profile pages manually.

Have you had success with these methods or others we didn’t list here? Let us know in the comments.

The Google URL Tool provides an easy way to tag links from your various inbound links (advertising, social media, email marketing newsletters) to allow easier tracking in Google Analytics. Using the tool, you can input any URL and provide a source, campaign and medium. The tool will generate a longer version of my original link that now includes tracking tags appended to the URL.

What information can you track on links?

Google lets you track quite a bit of granular information about your campaigns and depending on how you use the terms, you can implement a relatively comprehensive tracking plan with just Google Analytics and the URL Tool. Here’s what you can track with some examples:

1. Campaign Source: referring website – Examples = google, citysearch, newsletter4
2. Campaign Medium: marketing medium – Examples = cpc, banner, email)
3. Campaign Term: paid search keyword – Examples = “nike air max size 12″
4. Campaign Content: variation – Examples = image link vs. text link
5. Campaign Name: your campaign title – Examples: Spring Sale, 50% Promotion

When should you use the URL Tool?

Any time you have an opportunity to provide a link from an external site. A few good examples would be:

• Links from your Facebook Page to key pages on your website
• Link from email newsletter to a new product launch page or event registration
• Sponsorship image or display ad on a niche blog that you are advertising on
• Web design agency – links from client website footer/”Design by ___” links

Using the methods outlined above, you can take high-level information such as a number of overall Twitter referrals from your website and segment to see exactly what links provided those links and test variations to improve your marketing.

Did you find this post informative? Please let us know in the comments.

You have been sending out semi-frequent emails to your customers in the form on a monthly newsletter, product release announcements, or annual holiday type greetings. You’re doing better than most of your competitors on the email front and sometimes your customers even tell you that they saw something in one of your emails that leads to a sale. However, you’re still perplexed why some companies are fanatic about the power of email for their business. What is different about your emails and theirs?

To be successful, email marketing should be personal and attempt to identify the exact needs of the user. “How would I know exactly what my customer wants?” you ask. This can be done by segmenting your email marketing lists by buying patterns, online shopping behavior, and simply by asking your customer what they want to be informed about at the initial opt-in point.

Instead of simply having an email list, have an email list with multiple subsets that are segmented by products lines that they’ve bought or expressed interest in. A study by eMarketer shows that email segmenting can increase open rates, make emails more relevant, and improve revenue. It can take a little bit more work to deploy a few additional newsletters, but when your emails are more targeted to the needs of your customer, it will improve your business.

A few possible segmentation methods:

• Existing vs. potential customers
• Product lines purchased
• Average purchase price (high-end vs. low-end customer)
• Engaged customers (those opening your emails vs. those who aren’t)
• Geography (East Coast vs. West Coast, by city, by country, etc)

Keep in mind that all of these methods can be effective and try to not make the process overly complicated by attempting to segment in multiple ways at once. Keep things manageable (K.I.S.S. Principle) to implement the way you’ve planned to and you’ll start to see results.

Use the comments to tell us about your email marketing experiences, both good and bad.

There are quite a few ways to use online marketing to advertise your business, but that doesn’t mean that you should. Start by developing a strategy that answers why before you determine the how. That being said, here are ten differentways to advertise online:

1. Local Listings: These are free and are a must for local businesses. More than likely, your business already has a listing that just needs to be claimed. Most of this type of content was provided by larger Yellow Pages like companies like InfoUSA that have been collecting this information for years. Make sure your Google Places and CitySearch listings are claimed, updated, and have as much information as possible.
2. Search Advertising (aka Pay-Per-Click Advertising): Picking and choosing when to display ads for your product or service based on potenetial customers’ search keywords has turned the advertising world on it’s head. Never before have you been able to target just those who are in the market for what you sell. Even better, this advertising model only charges you when someone clicks your ad, so the more targeted you make your marketing message, the better.
3. Contextual Advertising: You’re finding new customers who already know they need your product, but what about those who don’t? Contextual advertising gives you the ability to target a specific demographic (i.e. women ages 25-40) who fit your customer profile. Specify your criteria and find websites that match your customer profile to find new customers.
4. Display Ads: Display ads are featured in various ad sizes throughout website and utilize many of the targeting options mentioned in this list. Display ads can be static images, flash, video and expandable.
5. Geotargeting: Sell a generally needed product to a specific area? You might be successful utilizing geotargeted advertising which can be targeted down to the zip code of the online viewer.
6. Group Buying: Sites like LivingSocial and Groupon have become extremely popular, literally guanteeing customers for businesses. However, these “deal sites” come with a price and often result in very few long-term customers. These can work for certain businesses, but do your research and tread with caution here.
7. Mobile Marketing: Mobile is becoming a bigger market for targeted advertising as phones and tablets with iOS and Android mobile operation systems become more popular. Mobile marketing can include SMS messaging and mobile targeted ads. You should start collecting your customers mobile phone numbers and permission to send them announcements now, even if you don’t have a strategy in place.
8. Social Networking: Facebook and Twitter have opened the door for the rise of the virtual “Word-of-Mouth” referral, which is a large factor in many consumer buying decisions. Companies should be building a social media strategy that involves use of networks (large and small) that make sense for their industry.
9. Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make sales, as it effectively is the outsourcing of a sales staff to users who are selling your product for a small commission per sale.
10. Online Videos: Video is a great way to make your product or service even more real to those who are visiting your website. Customer testimonials, product overviews, and demos all work nicely and properly titled videos can drive SEO based traffic.

We’re working on a project for a client with a customized Shopify eCommerce website. They operate a jewelry store in Bel Air, Maryland but do a lot of business online for some of the unique artists they carry. They were looking for  a solution for situations when they have an item out-of-stock, but would like to continue selling it with a notification that it will take 4-6 weeks to ship. Shopify has unique HTML-like system called ‘Liquid’ that allows you to customize the output of your page templates.

We put some code to together to display a message for these out of stock items. Please use it for your store if you want to do the same thing!

<div>
{{ product.description }}
<!-- out of stock display messages -->
{% if product.variants.first.inventory_quantity <= 0 %}
<p style="color:#ff0000">This item is currently out of stock.
Order today, and your item will be shipped in 4-6 weeks.</p>
{% case product.variants.first.inventory_quantity %}
{% when '0' %}
{% else %}
{% endcase %}
{% endif %}
</div>
<!-- .description -->

Have a question about how we implemented this? Leave a comment!

Do you have a product or service that in unique in nature with a customer base that may need to come to you or a few other competitors to do business? If so, it may make sense to retarget your website’s visitors.

When retargeting a website visitor, you deliver ads specifically to users who have visited your website recently with messages asking them to complete the sale, contact you, or pick up the phone and call you.

The process works like this:

1. Visitor finds your website through a search engine or website referral
2. They browse your site as a normal visitor
3. During the visit, the user’s computer keeps records of pages that were visited
4. When the user visits other sites (CNN.com, local newspaper sites, blog, etc.), an ad server identifies that they were on your site
5. The ad server delivers a relevant for your product or service, based on their experience on your website
6. Ad brings user back to your website to complete their transaction

Retargeting can make a lot of sense for advertisers, as they reaching an already interested audience.

If you have customers in another country are you better off creating a new website for each language or having multiple versions of your site under one domain? Matt Cutts, Head of Google Public Relations, explains the advantages of using independent top-level domains instead of a sub-section of your existing website. To make a long story short, you are better off having a separate local domain for each county you do business in with hand-crafted content that is not automatically translated.

Local SEO is an important aspect of any small business’ efforts to be found locally. However, there is a lot of confusion between how to optimize your online presence to be found locally vs. nationally with general search terms. Take a moment to review the great video from the guys at SEOmoz as they go into detail on this subject.

Effective local online advertising involves a professionally built website, a local search engine marketing campaign, and someone that can manage both of these efforts.

A report titled ‘Ad Spending from SMBs’ by Melinda Gipson from Burrell Associates states: “In the last three years, Internet spending by SMBs has nearly tripled from 4 percent of sales to 11 percent. So says the latest Borrell Associates report “Main Street Goes Interactive.” But, while the collective heft of such businesses, numbering more than 14.6 million in the U.S., has tantalized numerous locally-targeted Internet marketing services who are deluging them with offers, Borrell warns, “the SMBs in any market are less like a two-ton gorilla and more like 1,000 four-pound monkeys – difficult to chase down and impossible to corral.”

The good news: such offers have this market’s attention. The bad news, they’re much less receptive to buying banner advertising (now 54 percent of their Internet spend, but declining in share), and more amenable to search engine advertising, online directory listings and streaming video. Rather than spend more on what publishers might define as advertising, they’re upping their budgets on site design, search engine optimization and customer databases.

“SMBs are collectively poised to plow billions of dollars into their own Web sites,” but they appear to be extremely results oriented and have grown leery of Internet products that are “oversold and under-perform.” The report is chock-full of insights on what kinds of SMBs are spending more online than their peers, by category of business (hint: general merchandise stores, auto marketing and Real Estate Services together account for 70 percent of all local online ad spending.) Pure-plays like Yahoo and Google control almost half of all local interactive ad spending by SMBs, irrespective of their size. Newspaper-owned interactive units follow in rank with a 28 percent share. In 2004, newspapers’ share was 50 percent and portals hovered around 20 percent, so these marketers’ roles are nearly reversed, even as the competition for attention heats up. “All in all, our interactive Main Street may look quiet, but when it comes to local interactive ad spending, it’s where the action is.”