A presentation for the Best of Richmond Knowledge session on 14th May 2010.
Hannah Smith offers business owners some insight into various Online Marketing methodologies including SEO, PPC, and Social Media.
A warning!Whilst I promise to try to avoid the use of geek speak I may slip up. If I do use a term that you don’t understand call me on it! Likewise if you have a question, or if you don’t understand anything please say so – chances are I’ll have lost several others in the room too.
Copy means words!‘Management speak’ – if you offer cleaning services, say so – don’t call them domestic cleansing operatives… Use the terms and phrases that your customers would probably use.
Quotesearcher (a client) are a financial services aggregator site – a bit like Moneysupermarket, Compare the Market etcKey features:Image of a carBenefits concisely expresssed via headline & bullet points (bullet points are your friend)
Trust indicators enstill confidenceOther examples include telephone numbers, bricks & mortar addresses (rather than PO Boxes) etc.
Mortgage Plus (a client) are a mortgage broker in Ireland. As you can imagine you need to give over a reasonable amount of personal information in order to get a mortgage – therefore making the website look trustworthy is really important.Key features:Lo-call numberCase study / testimonialRegulation detailsBricks and mortar addressPartner logosBullets
Make it as easy as possible for visitors to move around your site.
Play (sadly not a client… but one day, eh?)Make use of sensibly titled menu options and a prominent search box to make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for.
What’s a conversion?It’s whatever you want people to do on your site e.g.:CallGet a quoteBuySign up for a newsletterSo here’s the ‘rules’!Let people have a choice about how they convert – typically the more options you can offer the better. This also includes payment options if you’re running an eccomerce site.Make sure there’s an easy route to convert from every page of your site. That doesn’t mean you have to have a form on every page of your site, but a prominent button or link to drop the visitor straight into the conversion process is a great idea.
Liberate (a client) offer an outsourced call handling service. Essentially they will act as a receptionist for your business.Key features:Phone numberEmailRequest a call back formTestimonialBullet points
When it comes to online forms the rule of thumb is, the shorter, the better. Therefore have a think about what you need to know, versus what you want to know.If you do need to collect a lot of data then make the form as easy as possible to complete, offer help, explanations etc.
Lifesure (a client) – this is there caravan insurance quote formObviously they do need to ask a fair amount of questions in order to provide a quote, so you can see that we’ve tried to make it clear where the customer is within the process.We’ve also made use of mouse overs to offer tips / important information for those completing the form.You’ll also see an insurance award which they received (trust indicators)
PPC is also referred to as paid search, paid listings etc.
You decide which words or phrases you want your ad to appear for. You set a daily budget, and decide how much you want to pay per click on your chosen words / phrases. You are charged for each click on your ad. Once your budget is spent your ads stop appearing.Unlike traditional print advertising you are not charged for your ad simply to appear.
Now I promised you an ROI focus, so here we go!This is a pretty common place for people to fall down – because they haven’t done their maths first.PPC is easy to calculate ROI for, as you are in control over how much you pay per click. So here’s what you need to do.We’ve talked about conversions before – a conversion might be a purchase, an enquiry, a phone call etc, etc.
Sensible assumptions- You might be surprised at how low conversion rates can be online. On eccomerce sites conversion rates are often only around 2-4%. On insurance sites, rates to get a quote tend to be higher 25-50%, but obviously far fewer will actually buy. On B2B sites enquiry rates range from 2-4%.
Quick recap!
Ok, so on to SEO.Now SEO describes a process rather than an advertising medium.SEO affects the natural search results in the centre of the page.
So when considering undertaking SEO, the first question to consider is which terms to target.
There are lots of keyword tools out there, but this is my personal favourite!
So you enter your word / phraseBe sure to select UK & EnglishI normally check ideas containing my search terms as it tends to return a narrower set of terms
Select exact match!Make sure you look at local monthly searches rather than global!
Let’s imagine that we’re working for an insurance broker who specialise in Landlord Insurance… Here’s the resultsSo let’s take a look at how the results look for that term.
SERPs = search engine results pages.So Moneysupermarket are first, but beneath them you can see various Landlord Insurance brokersYou can also see we’re competing against 1.1m pages – not too bad
So, back to the ROI focus.Is it worth us going after that term?
First look at what a no.1 position might bring you… Now these figures might seem a little scary, right now but stay with me.So Landlord Insurance gets 14,800 searches per month 40% of which is 5,920.
Now, as I mentioned before – with SEO activity takes time, so I’d typically look to calculate potential ROI over a year.I’ve used the following assumptions - £3000 per month in fees; 6 months to hit the 1st page, and a further 6 to hit No.1.Little or no income will be generated in months 1 to 6.Months 7-9 – assumed 7.5% of the search volume 14,800 x 3 x 7.5% = 3330. 3330 x 40% x 25% x £50 = £16,650Months 10 & 11 – assumed 15% of the search volume = 4440. 4440 x 40% x 25% x £50 = £22,200Month 12 – assumed 40% of the search volume = £29,600Obviously from month 13 onwards, the activity begins to show excellent ROI – almost £9 back for every £1 spent.
Quick recap…
SEO isn’t always the answer!So we’re stood in an Italian restaurant, so I thought I’d take a look at the likely ROI for SEO activity for this venue.So I’ve had a look at the search volume for a few terms:Restaurant – what might the problem be with this search term? Too general in terms of type of restaurant, and not location specificItalian Restaurants – No locationItalian Restaurants London – better, but probably not location specific enoughRichmond Restaurants – not type specific, but great from a location viewpointItalian Restautants Richmond – very specific – but no volume!
Oh dear.So we’ve got a local box – this is going to be very hard to overturn…Beneath that we’ve got review sites…
So it’s really crowded and very competitive.
Here’s how SEO & PPC stack up.Location targeting – with SEO you’ll need to include a geographic qualifier in your keyword – e.g. Richmond Restaurants. With PPC you can elect to just show ads in your targeted area. This means you can bid on more generic ‘restaurant’ searches and take advantage of the higher search volume.
Don’t think of it as an either or scenario – it isn’t necessarily.
A final note!
Peter Drucker was a writer, professor and management consultant. He worked with General Motors, General Electric, Coca Cola, IBM & Intel.
Shiv Singh authored social influence marketing for dummies.
When I talk about social media, the reaction is often – oh you mean twitter and facebook… and I do… kind of. But at it’s very core social media is about engagement, not selling.
So, let’s talk strategy.What do you want to get out of your activity?Once you’ve figured out what you want to do; try and set some measurable objectives. Then create a strategy to fulfil them.
Your customers might not want to talk to you via Facebook.
You wouldn’t gatecrash a party where you didn’t know anyone and go straight up to people and ask them to buy your product or service. So don’t do it online either.
Try to make it easy for people who do like what you do to spread your message.
Calculating ROI via social media is going to be tough. But not impossible.Think offer redemptions, recommend a friend, newsletter sign ups, followers, fans, blog comments etc.
Innocent do very well – 18,777 fans. Plus people look to be very engaged – people write on the wall, and innocent answer them.Innocent use the page for product launches, to promote their blog, competitions etc, etc.
Here they are on twitter too…And communicating… not just promoting.If I had a criticism I’d suggest they probably ought to follow more people back…
And here’s an example of a small business kicking ass.Psycho donut are a single donut shop in California. Not a chain.2,587 fans.People interacting on the wall.Fab competitions & offers – sing the Pink Floyd verse ‘Mother do you think they’ll drop the bomb” and get a bumper sticker. Fab.
And here they are on twitter… 858 followers.Promoting events, competitions etc.Talking to their followers, FAB.
Hmmm now Rentokil have undoubtedly made some mistakes in the social arena… (Google it, you’ll see) but I think their blog is nonetheless a great example of how to make a niche subject more mainstream.
So you do lots of different marketing activity, but how does it all fit together?
Your customers (and potential customers) are the same people offline as online. People may experience your brand offline, and search for you online.
Collateral = business cards, brochures, leaflets, direct mail, press adverts etc.Think about how you can make what you do offline, work online. So, if you’re speaking at an event you might blog about it, tweet about it, email people about it etc.