Your New Year Internet Plan - Part 2

Written on the 25 February 2008 by Tracey Voyce

Welcome to Part 2 of the Bloomtools internet plan - giving you 6 more great strategies you can use in your own business to get more customers, make more money and save more time.

July Start an Adwords campaign

You've probably noticed that when you conduct a search in Google, there are some businesses that get their site listed at the very top of the page or down the side.  These ads stand out from the rest of the results and usually get clicked on the most.  These are Pay Per Click (PPC) ads that the businesses pay for using a system called Adwords.  This program involves businesses bidding on keywords that they think their prospects will type in the search engines, so if those words are typed in, their ad appears at the top.  Adwords is reasonably cost-effective because the business only pay each time their ad is clicked on.

Other search engines have their own advertising programs, but Google Adwords is the most popular (NB/ Google's market share in Australia is 68.9%). If generating sales leads online is of value to your business, and your business does not appear high in organic (free) listings for important keywords, then we recommend that you sign-up for an account and start advertising as soon as you can millions of people search with Google, so put your brand in front of them with paid search engine advertising.  You should bid on keywords that you know your target market use (see your keyword anlaysis from April) and write short, punchy ads that will attract people to your site.  

To really get your money's worth out of Adwords, you need to devote a fair bit of time to researching, writing your ads, creating your landing pages (see August strategy) and monitoring your progress, so it may be an idea to get professional help.  Bloomtools offers a full Adwords management package click here to learn about it.

August Develop landing pages

So in July, you've learned all about Google Adwords and have started advertising through it.  If you have bid on the right keywords and have written pretty good ads, then you're probably getting lots of clicks through to your website.  But what happens when people arrive on your site?  If you're not using specific landing pages, chances are they aren't taking any action when they get there and you aren't getting any results from your advertising.  

A landing page is a page on your website that has a particular purpose such as sell a product or get newsletter or event sign-ups.  It is designed and written specifically for the target audience you are aiming to attract and will guide them through your goals process. This landing page is linked to your ad on Google, so when someone clicks on your ad they are taken to the exact page they are interested in, rather than having to find their own way their from your home page.  For example, if you have an ad for 'summer dresses', your ad should link to a landing page that shows all the summer dresses you sell, with a big, bold 'buy now' button.  Landing pages are also useful if you are targeting a specific niche market, for example summer dresses for the fuller figure. Landing pages are effective because they make it easy for prospects to find what they want and keep them focused on the action you want them to take.

If you need help with creating landing pages, contact Bloomtools, because we have a great Landing Page Manager that will help you get the most from your Adwords campaign.

September Start using ecards
 

It's a fact close to 7 out of 10 customers that left a business did so because they felt unappreciated.  If you don't want your business to suffer the same fate, you need to show your clients that you value them.  A great way to do this and to keep your brand awareness high is to send ecards to your clients.  An ecard is an online greeting card that you send via email.  Sending personalised ecards on occasions like Christmas and Valentine's Day, as well as the client's birthday or anniversary with you, will put your brand at the top of their mind and make them feel special.  Including their name is the minimum, and if you have any other information stored on them (location, last purchase) then use that too if you can.

Many businesses and organisations send ecards, so they are now widely available from specialist companies or through email marketing software like the Bloomtools Ezy Communicator.  The ecards within the Ezy Communicator system are professionally designed so they will enhance your brand image and you can automate them to be sent on particular dates so you can set and forget quick and easy to organise and the increased client loyalty will be a great boost to your business.

October Set up automated letters

Automation is one of the best things about the Internet.  With many email marketing software you can automate everything from ecards as mentioned above to payment reminders.  Automation is great for streamlining your client management processes.  For example, you may automate a series of 4 welcome letters for new clients over a 10 day period, as well as birthday ecards to go to all current clients and a special discount voucher to go to clients that haven't made a purchase in a while.  You can automate all of these things in a email marketing program like the Bloomtools Ezy Communicator, which will cut your administration time and keep your clients happy with little effort.

Set aside some time to go through all your processes and see what regular letters can be converted to automated emails to save you time and money.  And be creative think of new ways you can use automation to regularly communicate with your clients.

November Build your database of contacts

The biggest asset in your business is your database of contacts.  The bigger your database, the more opportunities you have to generate sales.  So you should always be trying to grow your database with fresh new contacts.  However, most people won't just give you their precious details for nothing, so you have to offer them something valuable in return.  Here are some easy strategies to get the contact details of your prospects:

• Send a monthly email newsletter and have a sign-up box for it on the front page of your website
• Run a competition that requires the person's details for them to enter
• Write an ebook or whitepaper and give it away to prospects in return for their contact details
• Encourage your current subscribers to send your newsletters or emails to their friends
• Think of every point of contact you have with potential clients and put some kind of sign-up at each in your store, email signatures of staff members, ask people you meet at networking events.

Remember, with the current spam laws in Australia, you can't send a person emails without their permission, so always ask before you put them in your database and tell them what they can expect to receive from you.

December Publish an ebook

As mentioned above, writing an ebook and making it available on your website is a great way to generate leads for your business.  Ebooks are also a very effective way of educating clients and positioning yourself as an expert.  An ebook is an electronic book a book, report or document that people can download and read in a program like Adobe Reader.  The best and most successful ebooks are those that are helpful to the reader a how-to guide, insider's industry knowledge or expert tips and advice.

The first step in creating an ebook is to choose a topic you are knowledgeable about, then plan out your structure and start writing.  The easiest way to publish you ebook is to purchase PDF converter software so you can save your ebook as a PDF document that people can easily download from your website.  Once it's ready, promote it as much as you can an ad on your homepage, give it to your alliances to give away to their clients and add it to online ebook directories.

So there you have it an entire year's worth of online marketing strategies to keep you busy.  These activities have the potential to be a huge boost to your business, so make sure you give it a go!  Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or would like to use some of our products to help you implement these strategies.