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Mobile Marketing: A golden opportunity

April 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you could go back in time and buy Apple stock when it first came on the market, would you? How about Google? Of course you would. We all would. But being able to spot golden opportunities like that when they first appear is not easy. If it was, we’d all be rich.

I happen to have a knack for spotting opportunities long before most people. Unfortunately, I haven’t acted on my instincts. Instead I’m always looking back and saying, “Damn, I knew I should have gotten into that when I had the chance.”

Now that I’m older and wiser and free of the constraints that have held me back in tne past, I can act on my instincts. And right now my instinct tells me that there is opportunity in mobile advertising. And I’m not talking just from the standpoint of someone who offers mobile marketing services. I’m talking about anyone who has a product or service to sell.

So why am I so excited about mobile marketing? All you have to do is look around. The smart phone has given people the ability to be connected digitally anywhere, anytime. And we are at the very early stages of a huge ramp up in smart phone use. In 2010 only 27% of mobile phones sold were smart phones. That number will be 50% by the end of this year. But smart phones are only part of the story.

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Adcenter Vs Adwords

April 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Microsoft Adcenter service is just a little over one year old, and in that time they have managed to take some of the search territory away from Google. And that’s a good thing.

I’ll be the first to admit that I have had my complaints about Microsoft. I dissed their MSN.com for their overuse of ads, information overload, and their habit of not replacing old content in my article “MSN.com: An example of what not to do.” I had some complaints about IE9 in my article “IE9 not ready for prime time.” I retracted most of my complaints in the IE9 article and now use IE9 for most of my browsing.

Now I’m ready to heap some praise on Microsoft. I’ve been using Adcenter for about as long as the service has been around, and my experience is that Google can learn a few things from Microsoft. One of the biggest differences between the two services is the interface. You need six months of training to learn how to get around the Adwords interface. With Microsoft everything is easily accessible. And their help files are actually helpful, unlike Google which has you running all over the web chasing one help file after another to find the answers you’re looking for. Even better is the way Microsoft uses videos to explain help topics.

When it comes to customer service, Microsoft wins hands down. Google’s customer service is non existent. With Microsoft I can actually pick up the phone and talk to a live person. Google doesn’t come close. They take days to respond to e-mails, and more often than not the response is a generic e-mail with links to help files.

Chasing Google

When Microsoft joined forces with Yahoo search last year, the move gave Microsoft approximately 30% of search, with Google taking up the majority of the remaining 70%. I fully expect that gap to close. It may even get to a 50/50 split within a year or two. Why? Because Microsoft isn’t just following Google’s lead. They’re coming up with their own innovative ideas.

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Click Here Online Marketing is Making News

March 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It’s not often that you get a chance to be at the forefront of the latest trends. Sometimes you just have to be at the right place at the right time. For me that time is right now. My company, Click Here Online Marketing, recently added mobile marketing to our list of digital marketing services. Mobile marketing is hot; it’s new; and it’s about to explode onto the scene. It’s so new that my announcement caught the eye of the local media.

Valerie Rieben, a writer for Adsaint.org, a marketing blog for St. Louis Professionals, just did an article on me and my company’s expansion into mobile marketing. Click the following link to read her article Mobile Marketing – The Hottest Trend Out There!

Valerie learned of my venture into mobile marketing from a press release I sent out. You can read the press release here at St. Louis Firm Adds Mobile Marketing Services.

When it comes to online marketing, there’s nothing wrong with tooting your own horn. It’s how information spreads. A press release, an article, a couple of comments, and you have several hundred dollars worth of free advertising plus some valuable backlinks. Why not let me do the same thing for you?

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We’ve gone mobile

March 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This time last year I was using a beatup Palm Treo for my mobile phone. Not that I used it that much. In fact, I had a pay by minute plan. My plan was for 25 cents a minute. My average bill was under $25 a month. The Treo bit the dust when I rolled my car, so I had to get a new one (as well as a new car, but that’s a whole other story). I settled on a Palm Pre. I was immediately impressed with the capabilities of this phone.

Then a little over a month ago I started reading about how companies are using mobile phones to market products and services. I knew that most smart phones can display regular web pages. But have you tried navigating a regular website on a smart phone. It’s damn near impossible. Yet few companies have given any thought to catering to the mobile market.

“Why do I need a mobile site? Anyone with a smart phone can see my site online.”

My experience with Adwords and mobile devices tells the story. The bounce rate from mobile users on most of the campaigns I’ve run are abysmal (in the 90% to 95% range). I stopped running campaigns on mobile for most campaigns. Now I know why the bounce rates were so high. People don’t have time to pinch and scroll all over the place to find content. If they’re on their phone, they want the content formatted for their phone.

So after searching around I found the perfect solution. You can see it in action by loading this site into a mobile browser. Got an iPAd? This site looks downright awesom on an iPad.

But the mobile website is just one part of the equation. There’s 2D bar codes, SMS text message campaigns, PPC ads for mobile, and location based social media.

At the end of 2010, 27% of the phones in the U.S. were Internet capable. By the end of this year that number will be 50%. By the end of the following year just about every phone sold will be Internet capable. If you haven’t received a discount or special offer by text message, don’t worry you will. And I plan to show companies just how to do it.

For more information on how you might benefit from a mobile marketing campaign, visit our mobile marketing services page.

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IE9 not ready for prime time

March 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Anyone who designs website will tell you that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is the one browser that causes everyone problems. Their browsers are so bad that probably half of the websites you visit have special code that allows the website to display normally in an IE browser. So I had high hopes when IE9 was released. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear they learned anything from their past failures.

One of the first things I checked was to see how IE9 rendered pages that used CSS3. I thought for sure that this would be part of the new browser. Surely they wouldn’t put out a browser that doesn’t support the latest technology. But the pages I checked didn’t seem to render any differently than all of the other IE versions.

Then Microsoft touts that the new browser is much faster than any other browser on the market due to the fact that it uses the computer’s graphics processor. Here is a screenshot taken with IE9 on an MSN website.

Go ahead and click on the image to see it in full size. I’m seeing messed up font displays like this on 30% of the pages I visit. Some pages load blazingly fast. Others seem to take forever. If a page is just text and images, IE9 is fast. If the page has to load javascripts and plugins and additional code, IE9 is as bad as IE6.

Then there are the lack of inovative features. You would think that a new browser release would add something exciting to the Internet browsing experience. Well, if fuzzy font rendering is exciting then they succeeded.

One thing missing, as far as I can tell, is a sync feature for your favorites. Most of us use more than one computer. And when we are using multiple computers and bookmarking different sites on different computers, it would be nice to have a feature like Chrome has where I can log on to my Google account and my favorites are automatically synced. I don’t have to do anything. If IE9 has a similar feature, I haven’t found it.

Then there is the auto fill function. You fill in a user name and password and the browser asks if you want those login credentials stored. I’m sure it’s there in IE9. I can’t imaging them taking it out. But so far I haven’t figured it out. I have to keep searching for my user name and password for every site I visit.

So what has you experience been with IE9?

Update:

I’m not afraid to admit it when I’m wrong. I jumped the gun a little on this one. Turns out that most of my complaints weren’t valid. Setting up autofil was a snap. I discovered that IE does have an automatic sync feature for favorites through Windows Live Mesh. Still not sure about the CSS3, but I’m guessing that the source code for the sites that use CSS3 is what has to change. And the display problems I have are more likely the result of the browser being ahead of the graphics cards. The browser is so new that not all sites support it. Once everyone gets on board, I think this browser has a lot of potential. So I take back everything I said.

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Why hiring a PPC management company is a good idea.

February 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Are you a DIY? If you’re familiar with the acronym, then you probably are. DIY stands for do it yourself. Now a handyman I’m not. But that hasn’t stopped me from trying to save money by taking on a task I’m unqualified to do.

This past Christmas is a perfect example. I was setting up the Christmas tree when my wife had a melt down. She wouldn’t let me put the tree up and plug-in the lights unless I called an electrician.

Here’s some background. The outlet where I wanted to plug-in my Christmas tree had had a slight problem with a space heater. It was cold in the room so I bought a space heater and plugged it in. It was nice and cozy. But then my wife smelled something burning. She started snooping around and sure enough, the outlet where I had plugged in the space heater was hot. It was so hot that it melted the plastic outlet cover. It was so hot that you could feel heat when you touched the wall. “You need to have this checked out,” my wife insisted.

“You know how much electricians cost?” I replied. I then proceeded to do my own examination. I even remembered to pull the circuit breaker before I started probing around. “Everything looks fine,” I said after shining my flashlight into the mangled mess of wiring. “But maybe we shouldn’t plug in the space heater in this outlet anymore.”

This had all happened the year before I wanted to setup the Christmas tree. My wife would not allow me to plug anything into the outlet unless I called an electrician. Well, since there was no other logical place to setup the Christmas tree, I relented.

So the first thing I do is go on the Internet and type in Electrician +St. Charles (that’s the county where I live). Since I’m in the PPC management business, I have an affinity for businesses who use the technology. Sure enough there were one or two electrical businesses running ads. But since I’m in the business and I know that there is a cost associated with me clicking on the ad, I did the polite thing and copied the URL into my browser. Sure enough there was the electrician’s website. Problem is this electrician was in Florida. He apparently had no clue that he was advertising his local service all over the nation and probably wondering why he was spending so much money and not getting any new business.

But back to my story. I eventually had to go to the Yellow pages to find an electrician (If anything this goes to show that there is still room out there for businesses to get into PPC advertising with little or no competition). So the electrician checks out the outlet and tells me that it needs to be replaced. He also informs me that the problem was caused because the wiring in the great room is not sufficient to handle the voltage requirements of the space heater. “Really,” I mumbled. “Humh.” He went on to explain that to save money home builders often use lower weight wiring in the living rooms and great rooms. He then told me it was perfectly fine to use the outlet in the dining room because that wiring was able to handle the voltage.

“Well, while you’re here could you also check out this outlet in the laundry room?” This particular outlet was a three way outlet but it wasn’t working. I tried fixing it myself but I could only get it to work with one combination of off/on. The electrician took one look and informed me that I had hooked up the wiring incorrectly and it was a good thing he had checked it because it could have led to some serious problems. I wasn’t going to tell my wife but she found out anyway.

The moral of this story is that if you want something done correctly, hire an expert. Don’t be like me trying to do my own electrical work or like the guy in Florida throwing money out the window.

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Display Advertising: Google vs Bing

February 18, 2011 By 1 Comment

Whenever I get a new client who has a product or service that is right for the Google display network, one of the first things I do is suggest creating a display ad. And the usual response I get is, “I’d love to but I can’t afford something like that.” Well, if we’re talking about display advertising with Bing, then they’re probably right. But if we’re talking about display advertising on Google, now that’s a whole other story. So how much of a difference is there between the two services? Let’s look at an example.

Here is a display ad I came across on MSN.com:

This is an animated ad. You can tell by the circular arrow in the upper right corner. If you missed the animation you can hit the arrow and play it over again. Now here is a similarly sized ad on the Google display network.

This particular ad doesn’t have animation, but it very well could. The first ad, the ad on MSN.com, will have cost at least $5,000 or more to run (based on impressions and not clicks). Bing normally requests that advertisers have a minimum budget of around $10,000 a month before starting a display advertising campaign. So what about the display ad on the Google network? How much would an ad like this cost? My guess would be somewhere between .50 cents a click to $1.00 a click.

That’s right. There’s about a 1,000,000% difference in cost between the two ads. How can that be? It’s one of the little known secrets in search advertising. You could also pay hundreds or thousands of dollars on display ads and banner ads on specific sites. It’s the way things used to be done and people are still paying those outrageous fees, even though the click through rates on such ads have either stabilized or have begun to drop.

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My first Squidoo lens

February 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I believe in the principle of practice what you preach. And one thing I encourage my clients to do is to create backlinks to help in SEO. One way to do this is to contribute content to high ranking websites and blogs that point back to your site. A backlink from a top 100 site like Squidoo.com is worth more than a thousand backlinks from a link farm. So what’s Squidoo? It’s a place where you can publish content that is indexed separately from your own site. I just did my first Squidoo lens. You can view it Squidoo.com/the-sceret-to-online-marketing-success.

I’m a big fan of publishing articles on your own site instead of other people’s sites. For one, it takes time to create quality content. It took me about four solid hours to write that first Squidoo lens. But if it get’s picked up by the search engines, I will get five quality backlinks to my site.

Another reason for publishing your own content is that it contributes to making your site an authority site. An authority site is one that provides quality content on a specific subject. Authority sites rank higher with search engines.

So the bottom line is to be smart when you give away content. Make sure you’re getting something of value in return.

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Got your Adwords coupon, now what?

January 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ever pass by a highway billboard sign where the advertisement is for the billboard space? Google has been doing a lot of that lately. They started a few months before Christmas and haven’t stopped. They’re everywhere. Like the one on the left, which I got off of YouTube.

I’m guessing that a lot of people have seen these ads and have decided to give AdWords a try. I’m also guessing that there are a lot of frustrated people out there. Sure they make it sound simple. Add some keywords, write an ad, set a budget, and that’s all there is to it. Right?

Well, not really. The truth is that anyone who has a product or service to market online is probably smart enough to figure out AdWords. That is if you have a lot of time and patience. I’ll let you in on a secret. Google does a top-notch job with their search engine technology. You practically have to be a rocket scientist to work there. But when it comes to customer service, let’s just say that no one at Google has figured that one out yet. Try finding a phone number where you can talk to an actual person when you have a question. Try sending an e-mail to support and see how long it takes to get a reply. And when you do get a reply, I’m willing to bet that you’ll get a generic answer along with a bunch of links to help files.

But let’s say that you actually got through the initial sign up screens and wrote your first ad. Whoo hoo! All you have to do now is watch the money come in, right? Wrong again. I work with AdWords and Microsoft Adcenter every day. I’m constantly learning new things and techniques and new ways of analyzing data. And I’ve been doing this for two years. Do you really think that your one ad with a handful of keywords is going to be able to compete with the professionally managed campaign that your competitor is running. Admit it. You need help with Adwords. Be smart and hire a professional. When you need a tooth pulled, do you pull it yourself or do you go to a dentist?

Your decision to get into search advertising was a smart move. Now let me show you what you can do with it. Learn more about our AdWords services at Click Here Online Marketing.

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The power of video

January 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you’re looking for creative ways to market your product or service, you should definitely be looking at adding video into your marketing mix. Videos allow you to tell your story in ways that text just can’t. With video, you can condense detailed product descriptions, diagrams, and explanations into short two or three minute video clips that keep your visitors interested and engaged.

If given the choice, most people will choose watching a video over having to plow through pages of text. So rather than talk about why your product or service is better than the competition, why not show them.

Read on to learn about how you can incorporate video into your online marketing efforts.

Video Dos and Don’ts

If you’re marketing a product, don’t use a talking head to describe the product. Feature the product instead. Try to keep your videos under three minutes. When it comes to videos for online use, you don’t have to spend a lot of money on high production videos. Just about any consumer-grade camera will do. If you do want to step it up a notch, you might want to invest in a tripod, a light, a wireless microphone, and a camera that has audio input capability. The last thing you’ll need is video editing software. There are a number of inexpensive software packages to choose from.

Marketing Your Video

Once you have your completed video, it’s time to put that video to work. You have three choices when it comes to making the video available for view. You can upload the video direct to your server and provide a link to the actual video. You can upload the video to a site like Vimeo, which is advertisement free. Or you can upload your video to YouTube.

There are advantages and disadvantages with all three choices, but the advantages of using YouTube make it the better choice. First, by using high traffic keywords, you can expand your marketing efforts well beyond your website. Your video on YouTube can attract thousands of views that you might not get if the video was only available on your website. And if you’re willing to spend a little on advertising, you can get even more exposure through promoted videos.

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