Be Found. Be Relevant.℠

The fundamentals of successful marketing have remained unchanged for millennia. But where marketers should be marketing is in constant flux. And the answer to the “where question” is simple: be where your customers are. Being in the right places (including virtual places/on the Web) is the first step (Be Found). The last thing any business wants is to waste valuable resources fishing (prospecting) in ponds with little or no fish (prospects).

One of the most common pitfalls U.S. small businesses fall into is being overly concerned with where their competitors are; even if the competition is looking for new customers in all the wrong places. The reasoning goes something like this: “It looks like all my competitors are there [fill in the blank], so I need to be there also.” Being where “all” one’s competitors are might generate some warm fuzzies (especially if your ad is bigger, bolder and more colorful than your competitors’ ad), but it is targeted marketing that generates warm leads and new sales. And remember that fundamental marketing encompasses a company’s product (goods and/or services), price, place, and promotion (the “4 P’s”) – all of which need to Be Relevant to your target market (a.k.a., targeting).

So where are your customers (looking for your business)? In a word, Online. Consider the following:

• According to Business Insider, every 60 seconds, a combined 1.5 Million searches and status updates occur on Google and Facebook, respectively (that’s more than 65 Billion every month!).
• 97% of consumers look online for local products and services… yet 63% of small businesses in the U.S. do not have a website. (sources: BIA/Kelsey and Google)
• Everyone is online, regardless of age. ComScore reports that of the seven age brackets from 12-65+, those 45-54 are online more often than any other age group (nearly 40 hours every month). And believe it or not, those 12-17 and 18-24 are online the least often, respectively.

Like it or not, we are all in the “generation of the web”, where businesses can no longer cost effectively search out new customers.  Rather, prospects are now searching for and coming to you… that is, if they can find you.  And when businesses offer what prospects want at the right price, is when businesses thrive. Your business needs only to Be Found. Be Relevant.℠ Online. (which, by the way, is the Generation Web® tag line – it’s what we are all about!).

Social media is commonly treated like direct marketing. This is a mistake – nothing could be more detrimental to any social media marketing effort. Social media is a new frontier of marketing. It is marketing, but not in the traditional sense. Social media is not promotion. As a form of marketing, social is more akin to guerilla marketing than it is to direct marketing or mass marketing. As such, social media often does not include a “call to action” (which, by the way, I am a huge proponent of when used in the proper “marketing setting”). Simply put, social media is social. Social media marketing is the process of making individual connections, one person at a time, one day at a time. Social media is not the quick fix for your business; it’s a tool for long-term sustainability. Whether your business is B2B or B2C, remember that social media is always P2P (Person-to-Person).  And we get off track when the cool tools (i.e., Facebook, Twitter) cloud the reality that online social media should follow the same (social) rules of offline social media.

A misunderstanding of what “real” social media looks like, inevitably leads to false hopes and unfounded expectations. Don’t expect a ton of leads or sales right away. Social media is not some machine. Social media is organic – it requires time and nurturing in order to grow… just like any healthily human relationship. Social media is your opportunity to connect with and influence others – connections which do not start as customers, but often eventually “grow” into customers.

Here is a quick quiz (really quick, ‘cause it’s only one question), which can provide some general guidance for your social media efforts: “Would I say this to someone in my professional network?” If not, then give what you are planning to post a second thought before publishing. That’s not to say you should never ask for something (e.g., a call to action). Get to know your audience; let them know you are a real person, a real business… that they can relate to. First, find common ground. Second, find some way to “contribute” (provide benefit) to the person on the other end of Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus. Then, after a relationship has been established ask for something (perhaps a purchase), when the time is right. If the aforementioned steps are out of order, you risk turning someone off. And if that happens, you may lose him/her forever. But chances are, if you follow the first two steps, step three may be unnecessary because your connection may have already become a customer. Why? Not because you “sold” them on your product, but rather because they truly like you and trust you (and your company, which you are an extension of). So don’t sell. Be social.

Whether your business needs a social media ‘kick start’ or ‘kick in the pants’, you are welcome to download our free social media podcast (The ‘10-Step Social Media Quick Start Guide’); jam-packed with practical, motivational nuggets to help you get on track. Enjoy!

Let me put it this way, when my mechanic (who knows his stuff) tries to explain to me what’s wrong with my car, I sort of understand what he’s talking about. Sort of. But if you were to ask me to fix my own car – when something more than a tire or fluid needed to be changed – then whatever is wrong with the car now is about to get drastically worse. That’s why I leave auto repair to auto mechanics. The same holds true for PPC Marketing. A good Web Marketing agency, with top notch PPC professionals, can leverage PPC to help grow your business. Otherwise, PPC “done incorrectly” will “work incorrectly”; which in turn is often costly and ineffective. And so I would suggest – with the auto mechanic example at the fore of our mind – that PPC Marketing must be “done correctly”, by qualified professionals, in order to “work correctly”.  So be sure not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Below are four bad PPC habits to break…

1. No Segmentation

Top notch Pay-Per-Click managers know that for your specific industry/business, all days of the week, all hours of the day, ad copy/text, types of devices (i.e., pc’s, mobile phones, tablets), or types of PPC ads are not created equal. Therefore, segmentation and testing with the above variables in mind is a must. Start by testing different ad copy (which is pretty easy to do), then move on to another variable. If you are scratching your head at this point, then don’t panic, just keep reading and then contact us. (Yes, that was a shameless plug for our agency).

2. Watching the Wrong Metrics

Sure, look at all your PPC stats/metrics, but if new leads and/or purchases are what you need, then don’t place too much weight on statistics like Impressions (how many times someone saw your ads) or ad clicks. Instead, watch the more important metrics like Cost per Conversion, Conversion Rate, and Conversions (actions someone took when on your website: purchase, phone call, submitted a web form, etc.). Impressions and ad clicks are important for increasing market awareness and help you get a feel for how compelling your ads are, but remember that getting the website visitor to do something is of utmost importance.

And most important, once you have been watching the right metrics for a while and trends start to emerge, then making some changes to your PPC campaigns and website will be in order.

3. Running Ads with No Well-Defined Action

“What do I want to accomplish by doing PPC Marketing?” The answer to this question is going to be a little different for each business or organization. This is the first and most important question to answer when undertaking any PPC Marketing effort.

Once you know why you are doing PPC, then make sure your prospects know too. In other words, starting with your ads and ending at your website landing page, “tell” your potential prospects what you want them to do in words and pictures (i.e., submit a web form, click the buy button/purchase). It must also be obvious what your potential prospects will get in return (i.e., a free white paper, a product) for doing what you want them to do.

4. No Dedicated Landing Page (mostly for non-ecommerce websites)

Again, getting your PPC ads seen or even clicked on is one thing, but why are you running the ads in the first place? Right, the goal is to convince your potential prospects to ultimately contact you, try something, or buy from you. In order to accomplish this, your landing page/pages must first capture the visitors’ attention, then convince them to stay, and finally elicit them to take an action.

This last “bad PPC habit” is probably the most common reason why many PPC campaigns fail. It is easy to assume that effective PPC marketing and management is limited to what changes are made in Google AdWords (for example), but nothing could be further from the truth. Effective = effecting action. And the only actions that lead to improving your ROI (at least in the short term) occur on your website – and more likely on a well-thought-out, well-designed, and “A/B tested” landing page.

So, yes as the title of this blog states, “PPC Marketing Doesn’t Work”… if done incorrectly. If PPC hasn’t been working for your company, then analyze the situation. Look at the facts and identify what’s underperforming, what’s missing, what needs to be fixed, and where the untapped opportunities are hiding. If PPC “works” for other businesses (and it does!), then it can work for yours’. And no matter what, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater; because that is not a solution – it’s simply giving up. Instead, fix what’s broken and move forward.

I have only touched on four PPC practices to avoid. And there are certainly more than four – so add your comments below. Don’t feel like leaving a comment? No worries. If you liked this article, then download a free PPC podcast: 7 Tactics for Top Notch Pay-Per-Click Marketing.

If the number you are using to measure your social media clout is your Klout score (pun intended), then it might be time to say with so many others that “Klout is out”. Many social media pros and novices alike seem to be gravitating toward other social media scoring services, like Kred, to more meaningfully measure their social media influence.

Successful social media marketing hinges on influencing the right people. And measuring your influence is one of the first steps down the path to social media success. What you use to measure the success – or, God forbid, failure – of your social media efforts will vary by your type of business, your marketing goals… and other factors. But, there are some ubiquitous measures that apply to pretty much every type of business, organization, or individual. And influence is one of the standard metrics you should be tracking.

In late 2011, Klout revamped its score to the point where many now question what, if any, meaning it holds. If I don’t know what I’m being measured against and neither does anyone else, then what’s the point (rhetorical question)? Social media is not about some arbitrary number, which seems to be the direction Klout continues to move in. Rather, it is all about influence. And I (and many others) agree that any score that does not transparently (to some degree) measure just that, “is out”!

Scores like Kred are not perfect by a long shot (what social media influence score is?), but Kred is the following:

1. More objective and concrete

than Klout. This is important for the rest of us, especially since so much of social influence measurement is still in flux/in its relative infancy. We need to know what is being measured.

• “Social media-loving ninjas, gurus, and wizards may once have touted their Klout. But if the recent spate of criticisms over the company’s privacy, transparency, and methodology is any indication, these days, Klout is out.” – Adweek
• “Remember that time that astrologers decided that they had gotten all the zodiac signs off by one, and everyone was so bewildered because all of a sudden you were NO LONGER AN ARIES BUT A PISCES and it seemed like everything you had believed for so long was untrue. Well the social media equivalent happened today for startup Klout and its “scores”…” from the article entitled: ‘Nobody Gives A Damn About Your Klout Score’ – TechCrunch

2. More transparent

in stark contrast to Klout’s secret ‘formula’ which no one seems to know or understand.

• Kred says it is “the first totally transparent social scoring system to evaluate influence among communities and reward generosity.”
• “The biggest difference between your Kred score and your Klout score is a quality of mystery. Kred details exactly how user scores are tabulated. Furthermore, Kred lets users add “real world” accomplishments such as employment or being involved in charity work.” – Mashable
• “As far as any of us know, one’s Klout score is determined by college interns, each feverishly rolling a pair of ten-sided dice, and then that number is allowed to oscillate within a random but bounded range every day to give the appearance that something’s going on.” – CNNMoney

3. More on target

when it comes to measuring what everyone wants to know anyway: mentions by others (influence), mentions of others (outreach). And Kred actually shows you how it arrived at your score. Imagine that. With the Klout Score, it is largely unclear what is being measured.

4. More accurate

due the massive amount of data used to calculate its score (which goes back 1000 days!). Kred also takes into account offline/non-public influence factors.

• “The company pays (dearly, apparently) for unique access to Twitters full “fire hose” of tweets, synthesizing them to sort influencers by communities of interests, as opposed to Klout’s topical “+K” categorization. Like Klout, the company assigns an influence score, but it also grades by how much you share the love, a metric it calls “outreach level.”” – Adweek

5. More potential (potentially)

to be liked and used/trusted by the majority vs. Klout. No one knows for sure how social media scores will play out, but people like transparency and are compelled by the concrete. Kred offers both. Klout lacks both.

• “[Klout] has been taking a lot of fire from critics after making some changes to the way it calculates that influence – an algorithm update that resulted in lower Klout scores for many users. This led to howls of outrage on the company’s blog, as well as a number of posts arguing that Klout scores are effectively meaningless, since no one really knows how the score is calculated.” – GigaOM
• “Like most people who gave Klout a try for the first time today, I really have no idea how it works. But that’s okay, because I’m pretty sure my Klout score doesn’t matter at all, to anyone.” from the article entitled: ‘Nobody Gives A Damn About Your Klout Score’ – TechCrunch

Measure social media success by what matters – your social media influence “today vs. yesterday” (e.g., Is my influence improving or declining? Why? And by how much?). Kred measures this. And as for Klout, well no one is quite sure what it measures.

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