Infinite options; finite resources

There is no lack of places to spend your marketing time and money. The key is to separate the productive options from the mere distractions, and then tackle the most productive options in order.

It helps to keep in mind the two most important results of your marketing efforts:

1. Drive more traffic (prospects) to your website, and

2. Turn more of that traffic into paying customers.

If you’re facing a marketing opportunity that doesn’t do one of these two things, you don’t need to give it anymore thought. Just cross it off your list.

But that still leaves a number of places to focus. How do you choose among them?

Website first

As I write this article, the website is still the heart of any good marketing effort. Most – if not all – of your leads and prospects will land on your website while they’re making a buying decision. It’s where they first get to know you. Multiple 3rd party studies have proven this to be true.

If you haven’t given much thought to your website lately, now is a good time to do it. Take a look at your bounce rate. If your website is driving most of your visitors away, fix that first.

Traffic second

Once you know your website is doing a decent job of holding your visitors, you can comfortably drive more traffic there. Work on this until you have a sufficient level of traffic to begin supporting your sales goals.

How much traffic is enough? That answer depends on how many new customers (for an ecommerce site) or new customer opportunities (for a lead generation site) you need to produce. I recently wrote a how-to article about this for the Cranking Widgets blog. You can read it for help on figuring out your traffic requirements: How to Be Certain You’re Spending Marketing Money Wisely.

Conversions third

Websites and traffic generation are the blocking and tackling of a good marketing program. Conversion optimization – moving more visitors and prospects to take the action(s) you want them to take – is where smart marketers begin to run up the score.

Once you’ve got your website and traffic generation humming along, you can focus ere. Get better at converting visitors to prospects and prospects to customers and you’ll quickly see the effect on your bottom line: more customers and lower acquisition costs.

The message: Avoid distractions

Distractions can kill your marketing budget. Few things really make a difference in getting paid. Focus on those. 1) Drive more traffic to your website and 2) Do more with the traffic you get.

It’s been a while since I’ve written about squeezing the most from your incredibly important website. More on that in the next article.

Meanwhile, how do you avoid marketing distractions?

But something went terribly wrong.

While we were building our awesome marketing machine, the sales closing rate was tanking. Turns out it was continuing a rapid downhill trend that had begun well before we got involved. And everyone was busy blaming marketing.

“These leads are crap.”

Every marketing person alive has heard that complaint an endless number of times. Sometimes it’s true; the so-called leads really are crap. Sometimes it means marketing is tossing leads to the sales team too soon. And sometimes, as in this case, it means the sales people and their sales process are out of touch.

In this story – which is, unfortunately, true – the sales process had not changed in over seven years; but both the market and the buying process had changed enormously.

Competition, much of it on the sleazy side, had piled onto what had once been a lucrative seller’s market. Buyers were not only overwhelmed with choices; they had also become wary of vendor claims. And, the internet with its easy-to-access information for all had made buyers much more savvy decision makers.

Our client was using order-takers in what had become a consultative selling situation.

Has your sales process kept up?

Granted, your market may not have shifted as dramatically as our client’s had; but I guarantee you it’s different than it was seven years ago.

Our client wasted valuable time – and lots of money – with a knee-jerk reaction to falling closing rates. They assumed it was a marketing issue. It wasn’t. In the end it was a leadership issue. But it was also a communications issue. Had marketing and sales really been working well together; had management been asking the right questions; maybe much of this could have been avoided.

If you’re a business owner, I’m sure you’re keeping a close eye on sales and closing rates. If you’re a marketing person, you should be watching those numbers too.

The reason I’m sharing this story with you is to send out two messages:

1. When closing rates fall, it’s dangerous to assume all leads are bad.

2. Never before have markets, buyers and buying processes changed as fast and as much as they are changing now. Your marketing programs have to keep up. So do your sales processes. Just because it worked yesterday doesn’t mean it’s going to work today.

Our client got these messages the hard way. You can avoid that.

When was the last time you took a good look at your sales process?

It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that every website owner wants more website traffic. But how much do you really need?

“As much as I can get” is the answer I often hear, but it’s not the right one.  In fact that’s is an answer that can lead straight to an ineffective marketing program.

Why not just drive as many leads as you can?

For a company with unlimited marketing resources, getting as much traffic as possible would be fine. But most of us have a finite budget and a limited number of brains and hands to help. When you overspend on driving traffic to your website – or on any type of lead generation – you’re forced to spend less on equally important marketing activities such as traffic conversion, lead nurturing, and even customer retention.

So how much website traffic do you really need?

You can get an actual, realistic answer to this question with a little simple math. The amount of traffic you need to drive to your website depends on three factors:

1. Your revenue goals
2. Your average deal or customer value
3. How good you are at turning website visitors into leads and leads into customers.

Rather than laying out a formula and making you figure it out, we’ve put together a website traffic calculator to help you find your number. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Aside from the obvious internal news sources:

• product releases,
• awards you’ve won,
• upcoming conferences where you will participate or speak,
• new partnerships,
• new clients and major deals,
• company milestones (who doesn’t know that Facebook now has 500 million active users?), and
• leadership and organizational changes,

Nothing is stopping you from issuing a press release whenever you publish a new case study, white paper, or add a product demo on YouTube.

For press release inspiration outside of your company walls, look to:

National days, weeks, and months
If you sell security software, you’ll be interested to know that October is Cyber Security Awareness month.

October is also the month we celebrate free thought, right-brainers, and (drum roll, please) self-promotion!

Chase’s Calendar of Events is the most comprehensive reference I know, listing more than 12,000 special events, holidays, federal and state observances, historic anniversaries and more.

Your competitors
Piggyback off the PR efforts of your major competitors and score some free, easy publicity in industry journals.

True, editors tend to focus their attention on major players like Microsoft. But they are trained to write objectively and so welcome other sources and opinions to round out their stories.

With a little planning and forethought, you can have a press release ready to go out on the wire the moment your major competitor issues their own product announcement.

Stories making headlines at the local, national, and international level
Back in 2007 when a tanker fire closed two freeways near the Bay Bridge, I remember hearing that Citrix offered their conferencing software free of charge to local businesses with stranded employees. Their goodwill news made it all the way to Chicago where I live and has stuck in my head ever since.

Now that’s PR sticking power!

Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

#1: Maximize your membership in associations.
Most chambers of commerce, trade associations, and professional groups host online membership directories that prospective customers and partners will use to locate candidate companies.

Essentially free advertising, you’ll attract more eyeballs if your listing includes a website link where people can instantly learn more about you. And when your phone rings, you’ll have a serious prospect who already put you on their short list because they liked what they saw on your site.

#2: Take advantage of free advertising in search engines and online directories.
Not to be missed are the free company listings in the three big search engines: Bing’s Local Listing Center, Google Places, and Yahoo!Local, but don’t stop there. A quick search will turn up loads of industry-specific search engines, general business directories, and blog directories which are free to list, too.

Why bother with these lesser-known directories? Because they too, are vying for the top position in Google, and they probably have a bigger search engine marketing budget than you to get them there!

#3: Advertise your business in traffic jams, parking lots, and anywhere you go.
Stuck in traffic again? Take advantage of your down time by advertising your business and website URL to the highly captive audience around you.

For less than $20, you can get a custom, 19.3″ x 12.65″ full-bleed, color decal for your car window from Vistaprint.

As an Ebates member, you’ll pay half this price and earn 5% cash back. Membership is free, and Ebates takes care of everything… including sending you a cash back rebate check each quarter. Click here to join Ebates today.

Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

PR case study lesson #4: Make your press releases interactive
This is the first release where I experimented with video, and I was surprised to see how many people took the time to watch a software overview.

Here is an opportunity where you can wow your readers with a brief video that supports your press release content.

Who knows, the video might be the tipping point that gets your company written up in a trade magazine or more prospects in your sales funnel.

PR case study lesson #5: Load your press releases with choice keywords
Don’t, and you are missing out on an opportunity for free e-mail marketing — compliments of Google.

Many reporters, industry watchers, and your target market use Google News alerts to stay abreast of current events.

Populate your press releases with the keywords they are watching, and Google will notify them whenever you have news to report.

Conclusion
Critics will argue that measuring press release views and website visitors are weak marketing metrics. I agree, but it is also unrealistic to expect a press release to serve as your sales force.

Many websites today serve as a marketing hub, driving people into the sales funnel with content and calls to action. Qualified leads are given to sales to close the deal.

Press releases are only an entry point into this sales funnel. It is up to you to figure out how to move people captured by this one marketing tactic through it.

Likewise, it is unrealistic to assume that all of your press releases will be winners. I have observed press release views as high as 1,960 and as low as 395.

How well your press release performs will depend on your ability to “spin a story,” your target market, the day and time it is issued, and what else is happening in the world. A long-term press release program will iron out any inconsistencies.

Press releases are not a silver bullet, but they have evolved into an easy, low-cost, and measurable way to reach your target market online.

Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

What effect, if any, did the press release have on website traffic?

The second chart answers this question.

Both the total number of visitors and total number of unique visiting sites nearly tripled the week of distribution.

Further analysis reveals that 71 percent of the visitors during this period were first-time visitors, and the site’s higher-than-average traffic rates lasted four days.

Online browsers found our paid press release on the first page of Google’s search results. And our paid press release continues to hold the number one spot in Google News for that keyword search.

Somewhat surprisingly, the number of people that viewed the software overview video also spiked one day after distribution. Unfortunately, the testimonial video did not fare as well.

What can we take away from this one case study example? Here are five PR lessons.

PR case study lesson #1: Expect a paid PR service to outperform free PR distribution services
When I compare the results of this press release to others I have done, the free distribution services performed better than expected. Normally, the paid PR service I use outperforms the free services by a factor of 4:1 or greater.

Are the premium distribution services worth the extra cost? You be the judge.

Granted it is not a complete, apples-to-apples comparison, but the first press release issued 14 months ago cost $380. Eighty-five media outlets picked up the story and we observed a two-day spike in web visitors (340 percent and 200 percent, respectively) immediately after distribution. Pre-release traffic levels resumed day three.

The second press release cost $99. Fifty-six media outlets picked up the story and we observed a four-day spike in web visitors (290 percent, 270 percent, 207 percent, and 165 percent, respectively). Pre-release traffic levels resumed day five.

If your goal is to minimize cost and maximize website traffic and eyeballs, a lower-cost PR distribution service fits the bill.

If on the other hand your goal is to strictly create a news archive to boost credibility and SEO, then the free PR distribution services are perfectly acceptable.

PR case study lesson #2: Low-cost and no-cost are not binary options
Companies can expand their reach by issuing press releases over a combination of paid and free distribution services.

In this one example, the free services accounted for 34 percent of the total press release views. We would have missed this significant audience if we had ignored the free distribution services.

PR case study lesson #3: Don’t expect long-term results from one release
Like any form of advertising, a single press release will yield a short burst of traffic.

To maintain momentum, you will need an overall PR strategy that involves distributing multiple press releases over the course of many months.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of this case study on August 3rd. If you can’t wait until then, you can download a copy of the entire case study by following this link:

http://su.pr/1dlOoF

Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

+++ Late-Breaking Update +++
Five weeks after this press release was issued, it continues to demonstrate sticking power with the search engines.

A Google search performed just 10 minutes ago lists this press release in the coveted #1 spot of Google’s organic search results. Moreover, the release listed is not from the paid PR service; it’s from one of the freebie PR services! Amazing.

“It’s too expensive.”

“I don’t see the value.”

“We don’t have anything newsworthy to write about.”

These are just a few of the comments I hear from clients when the subject of PR comes up. Most people still believe that press releases are only for large corporations with deep pockets. But it’s time to put away those antiquated notions and recognize that a press release program has a place in any size organization.

Press releases not only work to build company credibility (something you need especially when you’re starting out), they are a source of new website traffic, they help boost SEO rankings, and they can be a relatively cheap way to reach your target market. Yes, I said cheap, because I’m not talking about the big-three PR distribution services. I have found that you can have just as much success (sometimes more so) using a combination of low-cost and no-cost PR distribution services.

Without giving too much away, I wanted to share with you the results of a recent press release I did for one client. The primary goal of this particular release was to announce a new software version, but they also wanted me to weave into the story some tantalizing information about a new international partner. Pretty standard stuff.

I issued their press release through two of my freebie PR distribution favorites and one paid PR service, which cost just $99. I also embedded two videos in the press release distributed over the paid service: a software overview and video testimonial, and I pushed the press release out to several social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, and Digg.

In total, the press release generated eight Google News alerts and attracted more than 500 eyeballs over a 10-day period. As you can see from the chart below, the paid PR service outperformed the two freebie PR services by a factor of 2:1. The press release issued over the paid service was picked up by more than 56 online media sites, including Google News and channel behemoth ChannelWeb.

That’s great, but what effect, if any, did the press release have on website traffic?

You’ll have to wait until my next posting on July 20th. In the meantime, check out my story, “3 Tried-and-True Free Press Release Distribution Services,” to see three of my favorite freebie PR services.

Sue Anderson-Lenz
Marketing Lure, Inc.

Having long ago paid my dues in a marketing world where we spent money – big money – based on the loudest (or highest paid) person’s opinion, I have learned to embrace any marketing tactic whose cost and contribution to sales I can measure. Pay-per-click advertising is as measurable as it comes. It is, in fact, as measurable as the closing efforts of your sales team.

2. Pay-Per-Click Is Highly Efficient

Assuming you’ve set your campaign up correctly, your pay-per-click ads on search engines appear right in front of people who are actively looking for you. At the moment they are thinking about it. When you have the very best chance of getting them to take action.

This saves you time and money for two reasons. One – you don’t have to waste effort grabbing someone’s attention away from whatever they’re doing. These people are already looking for you. You can jump right into the conversation. Two – because they’re looking for you they’re already a step or two – at least – into the buying process. You’re closer to the sale from the get go.

3. It Provides Nearly-Instant Feedback

Where other direct response marketing tactics – direct mail or print advertising – have a built-in lag factor between launch and response, reaction to pay-per-click advertising happens NOW. Depending on your market and the search volume it produces, you can know what’s working and what’s not working in a matter of hours. While others are waiting to see what works, you already know.

4. Pay-Per-Click is Cost Effective

Even with increasing online competition and the resulting increase in click costs, pay-per-click advertising can still deliver new leads and traffic to your website for a lower cost-per-conversion than any other marketing tactic I know of. That includes email marketing.

5. You Can Spend Even Less By Being Good

You’ve got to love a marketing medium that actually rewards you for being successful. Google, in particular, goes to great lengths to figure out which advertisers are getting the best response from its searchers and lets them pay a lower price for a higher ranking. Looked at from the other direction, if a PPC campaign is not performing in the eyes of Google, that advertiser will pay more than the competition for the same position on page one.

6. It’s Easy to get Better

Another benefit of the measurability of pay-per-click advertising is the ability to test pretty much everything. From keywords, to ads, to landing pages you can easily and consistently improve your results by constant testing.

7. It’s Controllable

Some marketing tactics require you to invest a lot of resources – both money and people – with no guarantees you’re going to get any leads or new business out of it. (Think trade shows). Not so with pay-per-click. The wise PPC marketer begins with a test campaign, tweaks that campaign to get the better and better results and learn while doing so; and then expands – or bails – accordingly.

Too Good to Be True?

Maybe. Pay-per-click advertising is awesome and good and delivers all of the fabulous benefits I mentioned above. But it ain’t perfect.  We’ll look at the downside in my next article.

Have you read our latest PPC report, Will Pay-Per-Click Advertising Work for Me? If not, go ahead and download your copy. It’s free.

This isn’t a slam against anyone not understanding pay-per-click advertising. If anything, I’m outing myself for being guilty of using jargon, that’s not the point of this article. The point is: A lot of people don’t know what pay-per-click advertising is. Some of them are reading this blog.

So I’m going to take the time to talk about it. Mainly so I’ll have a place to send someone the next time they ask me what paperclip advertising is. I don’t know how to make it interesting so I’ll make it short.

If you’re reading this bog, chances are good you’ve used a search engine plenty of times yourself. You type a phrase into a box, click Search, and wait a few seconds for the results page to appear.

What you may not realize is the results page shows you two different types of listings.

The listings in the center of the page are organic (also called natural and / or non-paid) listings. These are descriptions of web pages the search engine thinks are relevant to your search term, and the order of the listing is based on a complex and well-guarded algorithm known in its entirety to very few.

The listings in the right column and sometimes at the top of the search results page are actually paid listings – often called sponsored links. The advertiser pays a fee every time someone clicks on the link. This is “pay-per-click advertising”.

You also see pay-per-click ads on websites and blogs – often below or above a heading that says “Ads by Google”. These can be text ads much like you see on a search engine:

Or display ads like this one:

And that is pay-per-click advertising. Thank you for sticking with me.

Oh. Pay-per-click advertising is also called PPC advertising. Don’t let it fool you.