January 1, 2013

Customer Mind Reading

Wrapping your head around who your customer is can be daunting.  Knowing what you think they need is often different from what they know they need. A lot of small business owners blindly market their product according to there own assumptions about their customers, which more often than not can lead to a waste of time and resources. I’m surprised how complacent and seemingly indifferent some businesses are with their customer base. A business that has fundamental questions about their customer, I believe, is a business that isn’t serious about being profitable.

This wont work.

This wont work.

Reading minds is pointless. Want to know what your customers are thinking?

  • Ask them. There’s no room for timidness here.  User surveys, online polls, or any time you have any engagement with your customers, don’t hesitate to ask penetrating questions. “How can we improve our service? If you could have one problem solved, what would it be? What other needs do you have? ” Asking direct questions like these not only shed light on your customers, but also show your users how committed you are to meeting their needs.
  • Go to where they are online.  Social media is a goldmine for learning more about customers. Every niche imaginable has some sort of presence online where users praise or berate products. Facebook, Google +, twitter, etc… there’s ample places you can explore to learn more. And don’t hesitate to be a part of these conversations either, again, it shows dedication to their needs.

Discovering who you customer is will be an ongoing process, and could very well evolve over time as well. Who they are today, may not be who they are tomorrow. And accordingly, the services and products you offer today, may not be the same you offer in the future. Regardless, understanding your customer base will always be critical to your success.

 

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Filed Under: customers, Small Business Strategies, Social Media, Uncategorized
December 21, 2012

Sometimes Your Words Just Hypnotize me

 

The goal when delving into keywords research is to recognize the subject matter that matters most to your audiences, and find the specific language they use when looking for content online.

words

To get here, you need an easy system for keyword analysis. Try these three steps to unblock the fog of procrastination and confusion that surrounds the process of finding keywords for your online material.

1.  Choose possible keywords to begin your analysis.

2. What keywords have you been attempting to rank in the past?

3. What are some phrases and keywords you want to target in the future?

Remember that keywords are necessary not only for online SEO, but also for your total approach to content on your site as well. It’s increasingly critical to understand the exact language that your audience makes use of when they discuss their wishes and obstacles in your industry.

What words and phrases are popular in their spaces on social networks networks?

Bottom-line : Take five to ten keywords and phrases to start your research, keeping in mind that this list will only be a starting point.

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Filed Under: Keyword Advertising, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Small Business Strategies, Social Media Tagged: , , ,
August 10, 2012

Call-To-Action Tips

Every aspect of any marketing plan should always be pointing the audience to a clearly defined Call-To-Action (CTA), this is the final and most critical step you want your users to take to buy your product or service. When waxing on how wonderful your product is, it’s easy to get lost in the details and fail to effectively steer your potential customers into buying.  Here’s a few tips when creating a successful Call-To-Action.

  • STAND OUT. Make sure your CTA clearly stands out from the rest of the text. Easy, right? Use alternating colors, larger font, spacing…. anything that visually separates the CTA from the rest of your messaging.
  • Use Action Words. Think of this as the linguistic version of standing out. “CLICK HERE”, “SELECT THIS”, “BUY NOW”, etc. This may sound simplistic, but again and again, research shows buyers prefer simple and short text over complicated words or ideas.
  • Directions. Again, this sounds simple but people need clear visual aids to point them to buying, be it arrows or numbered steps. If you present simple and easy steps for people to follow, you’ll see an improved conversion rate compared to any convoluted process. Ideally 3 or 4 steps that are markedly obvious , anything more starts to get complicated and lends users to head elsewhere.

Like most online marketing, this is a type of art. The more you’re conscious of your CTA, the more you’ll see successful examples elsewhere and the more you’ll want to tweak yours accordingly.

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Filed Under: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Small Business Strategies
August 9, 2012

Want to make your own search engine? Google’s got your back.

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Searching the web can sometimes feel like you’re drinking from a fire hose. You can stop searching the whole web when you already know the answer is going to be on 1 of 15 sites you regularly visit. Even though you know that the answer is on one of those sites, you don’t want to waste your time searching each site. Well the group think at Google has been hard at work perfecting your own personal search engine. Enter Google Custom Search. This easy to use tool allows you to setup a group of sites to search at once. Yes it’s that simple of an idea, but let’s examine why it’s helpful.

I like news. You like news as well, but we don’t trust just any news source. Let’s say hypothetically, the latest riot has erupted in a neighboring nation and you want to know what is happening now. Of course your first turn is Google. Unfortunately the websites that come up on the front page don’t seem to jive with the facts you have already gathered. To save yourself from mass media monsoons you have saved a mental list of websites you can trust to give it to you straight. One by one you search the first few but and they don’t seem to have the latest news, or it’s just the Associated Press story that doesn’t contain any new information. What is one to do? The answer is simple, Google’s custom search engine creation tool.

This tool can be effectively used for anyone trying to reduce the flow of information and limit it to a finite collection of sources. I currently have one custom search setup to only parse the top 20 local sites in the Missoula Montana area. Stripping away the national search results saves me minutes off of each search when I am looking for local information. Without the the custom filter in place many results that appeared in searches about Montana have Miley Cyrus attached to them. Oddly enough there was State that existed well before Billy Ray’s daughter made the name Hannah Montana the center of every 13 year old girls existence. With Google Custom Search I can put a nozzle on the media hose and focus it on the zany characters in Missoula Montana and not on the Disney Channel’s cash cow.

The power to leverage Google’s unfathomably powerful search engine is could be considered a power users tool. After examining at least one person’s search habits (one browser’s history) I created a list of sites that our mystery subject frequents. As it turns out most of the subjects interests are geeky at best. Marketing sites seem to dominate, followed by IT and science focused news sites. After cleverly crafting a few key search terms the research team discovered that nearly every topic the subject was interested in, existed on one of the 15 websites we added to our custom search engine. Clearing the clutter with a custom search engine can definitely make life easier. Stop passively searching and embrace the power the awe inspiring light of Google’s custom search engine tool!

 

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Filed Under: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Small Business Strategies
July 24, 2012

Radio listenership isn’t decreasing, it’s moving to digital.

From movies, to television, to books, products see increased use when they become available in more places. New data from a national survey of female radio listeners aged 15-54 shows a similar scenario for radio. While  time spent listening to broadcast radio on an-over-the-air receiver fell from last year’s level,  metrics rose for listening to broadcast streams online and on  smartphones. This online study conducted by Alan Burns and Associates in May from a sample of 2,010 women concludes that radio listening isn’t decreasing, it’s just shifting to other devices. Listening to radio on smartphones is becoming significant with 13% of women reporting listening to AM/FM radio via this format  virtually every day, up from 8% last year. One in four listen daily to broadcast radio online, the same number that listen daily to online custom music streams. Seven in ten say they tune in daily via an over-the air receiver. On a weekly basis, listening to radio on a smartphone nearly doubled from 15% to 26% while usage of broadcast streams via computer or laptop rose from 34% to 43% and weekly over-the-air tuning declined from 95% to 87%. Nearly half (47%) agreed with the statement

“I can foresee a day when I won’t need or want to listen to music on radio because I can get it online and/or on my phone.” The survey also found that radio stations that give their listeners effective ways to express their opinions have a significant advantage. The top difference between heavy and light listeners is that heavy listeners are 86% more likely to appreciate feeling that their opinions matter. “Knowing that one’s opinion matters is also a prime motive for women who cooperate with ratings surveys so a radio station that solicits listener opinions, and gives its listeners the sense that they’re being listened to, is going to be more attractive to both heavy radio users and likely ratings respondents,” consultant Alan Burns says. Other major characteristics of heavy listeners are a tendency to like air personalities and morning shows, feel well understood by at least one radio station and spend more time in their cars than lighter users.

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Filed Under: Small Business Strategies Tagged: , ,
July 16, 2012

Are TV or Online Video Ads more effective?

Recently we’ve  been working on a project requiring the setup of a pre-roll or gateway video that plays an ad before the intended video content plays ( think YouTube ads).  As we developed the prospectus, we had to make a rough estimates to the effective click through rate (CTR) . Using a 2011 study from YouTube, we discovered that 50% more people engage with  a Gateway (Pre-roll) video than traditional tv.

In 2011, YouTube partnered with Ipsos and tested across 2,400 people to find that two screens are better than one. As it turns out online ads had 1.5X the effective brand recognition than their TV counterparts. It could be speculated that online customers have reduced “background noise” while viewing online as TV can sometimes be considered a passive event. In addition, online video ads can be targeted towards specific customer groups and tracked where TV based advertisements are cannot be tracked, nor do they have a direct call-to-action like “Click for more info.”

All in all, it’s a wise investment to spend the money on quality video production and use several video outlets, including online and television based media, to leverage an effective campaign. Your message and the quality of the message being delivered is just as important as the media you use.

There are quite a few insights in the study below, take a look:

The impact of YouTub Pre-Rolls and TV

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Filed Under: Small Business Strategies
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