Training Marketer

Last week, MarketingSherpa published a great “how-to” for all of those companies out there who are lacking in time or money and want to improve search results. They talked with an expert who revealed seven free SEO tools and one paid option to help save you time and money.

Will Reynolds, SEER Interactive Founder, gave the Sherpas a guide on how to sift through the numerous search tools out there to “distinguish the helpful and free ones from the useless and costly ones.” He shares the eight tools he uses on a daily basis, and only one costs money to use.

He warns to not rely solely on any one method and advises to use the tools like a team. Reynolds also tells people to know your business well enough to know when data from the search tools is flawed. He personally ignores up to 20% of the data returned by the free SEO tools.

Here are the seven free tools Reynolds depends on:
(Read the full MarketingSherpa How-To for complete information)

Google Advanced Search - Allows you to limit a search to: anywhere in the page, title of the page, text of the page, URL of the page, and links to the page. Reynolds thinks the most important one is “links to the page.” He uses the tool to target link campaigns and keep track of the competition.

Google Trends - Gives you a picture of keywords’ historic search volume on Google dating back years and illustrated with graphs. The tool is best used to decide on a keyword (ex. singular or plural?).

Microsoft adCenter Add-in for Excel 2007 - This tool is only free to adCenter account holders with Excel 2007 and is still a beta version. It can be used to measure MSN traffic directly from an Excel spreadsheet.

Rank Checker - A Firefox plug-in that takes keywords and reports your rankings on top search engines, including Google in other countries. The tool automates the process of manually going into each search engine and checking your rankings.

SeoQuake - Another Firefox plug-in best used for researching your competition. It can also help you determine why the competition is outranking you and give you reason to adjust your SEO strategy.

Today’s Hot Trends - A part of Google Trends that shows the top 100 fastest-rising search terms on Google. The tool can help you seize an opportunity or create a blogging strategy.

Yahoo! Search Assist - As you type in a term in the Yahoo! search box, Search Assist gives suggestion for related keywords, loosely based on word content and search volume.

And, one paid tool:

VoiceStar - For a cost of about $500 a month it can help you connect telephone conversations with online searches. The tool delivers traceable phone numbers in search ads. Reynolds uses this tool primarily for his business to business efforts, especially when large purchases are involved. Many people would rather pick up the phone and talk to someone when placing a $10,000 order.

Initially, all marketing has good intentions - to sell. But, at what point does bad marketing turn into plain stupidity?

Well, we’ve come up with a few examples for you. While there are probably hundreds of stupid methods out there, and some that haven’t been thought up yet, we cut it down for you a little.

Here’s our list of 10 stupid ways to sell along with some suggestions on how to raise your sales IQ:

1. Use a complicated message. Big words, lots of jargon, vague offers — the more complicated the message, the harder it will be for customers to figure out what you’re trying to sell.

Instead, get to the point and keep your messaging simple. Speak to the reader, use the word “you” in your copy

2. Focus only on making the sale. “We want your money now! BUY! BUY! BUY!”

The main focus should be on the value your product/service provides for the customer. We know you want to sell us your fancy new widget, but remember we’re people too. I  want to know how it will solve my problem and make my life easier.

3. Have a complicated purchase/checkout process. “You must register, fill out these 20 forms and give a blood sample before checking out.”

Make it easy for customers to buy your product and navigate around your site. You can have people register, but try to keep it as simple as possible. The more frustration a customer finds, the more willing they’ll be to find another vendor.

4. Think the sale is over at checkout. “Thanks for you’re money, see ‘ya later!”

Wrong. This is just the beginning of your relationship with the customer, nurture it. After the checkout, send a thank you with additional offers or introduce your newsletter, keep the relationship going.

5. Skip customer research. How do you know the best way to sell to your customer before you even know who they are?

Research is critical — knowing your target audience’s demographics will help you mold your message and communicate more clearly. A little time spent now on customer research will help you save money in wasted advertising later.

6. Bombard customer inboxes with dozens of promotional emails. Just because I bought from you today doesn’t mean I want to buy another one in a few hours and even more tomorrow or another fancy widget on Monday.

Emailing customers too frequently is an easy way to turn people away, fast. Even worse, making it difficult for people to unsubscribe can get you in trouble, possibly even blacklisted, a hard thing to bounce back from.

Instead, target emails to different customer groups in your list. If someone just bought yesterday, don’t send them an email tomorrow advertising something else. Look at your sales cycles and determine the best times to email — weekly, monthly, quarterly.

7. Use outside links (ads, emails) that land on unrelated or general landing pages. I clicked on the link for a certain book title I’ve been looking for, don’t make me search through an entire page full of products to find it. I’m lazy, impatient and won’t do it.

Landing pages are a great place to focus your sales, don’t waste them. By clicking on the link, you already know the customer is interested. Keep the sale going and keep your focus clear. Tell them about the main features of the product or service, give them links to find more information, and tell them how to buy.

8. Send people to a “broken” Website. Broken links, missing pages, tons of error messages, poor content - clean up the house before you start bringing guests over.

Instead, spend some time and maybe a little bit of money fixing up your site, be proud of it before you start sending customers there.

9. Fail to respond to customers quickly. “The current wait time is approximately 735 minutes. Please stay on the line, your call is important to us.”

Click.

When a customer calls or sends an email with a question, be sure to respond as soon as possible. Not only will the customer appreciate the attention, but you’ve started a good relationship and established your company as one that cares about it’s customers.

10. Create a Website and then ignore it. This also goes for blogs, online networks and groups.

You put in all of that effort way back when, why throw it away? There’s nothing sadder on the Web than finding a blog that hasn’t been updated since January 24, 2005.

It’s worthwhile to keep your blog or network going, even if you only have time to post once or twice a week. Producing constant keyword-rich content will add value for your readers and make you very attractive to search engines.
Take a look at your marketing and sales activities from the viewpoint of an outsider. How have your past marketing ideas failed? What stupid sales ideas are you still keeping around?

Patch-up the cracks and fix your leaky pipes - your customers will appreciate it and you’ll see the results when all the sales start rolling in.

You created a Website to increase sales and enhance your business, and have been spending money promoting it all over the Web. Even with all the advertising dollars you spend, your Website could slowly be “leaking” those dollars away, drip by drip.

So, how do you protect your investment and make sure you’re getting the best out of your Website?

Bill Gadless at the B2B Web Strategy Blog shared five ways your Website could be losing you money. Here’s a quick summary of each:

1. You have an unclear, out of date message that could be “out of synch” with your brand. People will lose interest in your site and leave.

2. Your content is bland, unfocused and lacks important keywords. All lead to disinterest for both human visitors and search engine spiders.

3. Clear calls to action are missing. With no clear path to purchase, people will go to a different site where it’s easier to buy.

4. Your landing pages don’t compel the visitor to continue browsing your site or the offers are unappealing.

5. You’re unable to track sales from entry point through to the confirmation page. This critical data could be showing you where your site is falling short.

Take a look at all of these aspects of your Website and try to see where you need to patch up some leaks. Once a person clicks on an ad and lands on your site, it is up to you to keep them there and close the sale.

What makes a White Paper valuable? Jonathan Goodman of the HRmarketer.com blog recently asked that exact question (via LinkedIN Answers) in the “Hiring and Human Resources” category.

Answers rolled in, not all from HR professionals, but a variety of “industry folks” voicing their opinion on the topic.

Here are a few outstanding quotes:

“The value of vendor white papers to HR officials is inversely proportional to the amount of vendor promotion in the white paper.”

“The pros will be exaggerated and cons will be omitted. The bias never goes away in any white paper…I always feel that I am told half truth.”

“White Papers are only valuable if they contain information that is otherwise very hard to find.”

“I believe that, white paper[s] should never be written just for the sake of writing but always for the sake of answering somebody’s query or dilemma.”

You can read all of the answers on the LinkedIN Answers page.

The conclusion - most professionals read White Papers with skepticism, asking “What are they trying to sell me?” in the back of their minds. But, the responses also show that White Papers still hold communication value, especially on the Web.

Through experience, Goodman advises to take pride in everything you publish. He also reminds us that credibility is something we earn from our readers and their trust should never be taken advantage of.

The last line of this post on Seth Godin’s blog stuck with me today, long after I was done skimming today’s headlines.

“Sometimes, the web is more of a cocktail party than a club meeting.”

Do you strategically think about who is reading your information on the web? Is it a returning customer, potential customer or someone who landed on your site by accident? Do you have a relationship with that person or hope to have a relationship?

Godin asks these questions of his own blog writing. He writes for avid readers who own all of his books, and also for those that stumbled upon his site, having found his post on Digg.

You have to assume, like Godin says, that the web is like a cocktail party. Be aware that many have never been on your site before and if they have, they still may not know your full story.

With each piece of web marketing you put out and web content you write up, think about who will be reading it. Put yourself in their shoes and think about what they want to hear from you. Your message and marketing will be more effective if you know who you’re writing for.

Once you figure out who your readers are and whether you’re hosting a cocktail party or formalized business meeting, write effective web content.

Here are Ernest Hemingway’s Top 5 tips for Writing Well (summarized by the folks at Copyblogger.com):

1. Use short sentences.
2. Use short first paragraphs.
3. Use vigorous English. Use powerful words.
4. Be positive, not negative. Say what something IS rather than what it ISN’T.
5. Throw the garbage in the wastebasket. (Read the full Hemingway quote)