Digital marketing may seem like the enemy of print, but it’s a channel like any other to be used to grow and develop your business. Diane Costa from Marketing Mechanics, one of the Neopost team of experts presenting a Technology Showcase in Sydney later this month, tells how it’s done.
The game of digital advertising is becoming harder every day. More competitors, more digital advertising products and more new ways to capture leads and sell your products than you can poke a stick at! How do you find your way through the mountain of offers available through digital advertising? Which ones work, which ones don’t, how do you know which ones are right for your business?
Do you start with re-marketing, try a small online budget with YouTube advertising, trial the Google display network, or give programmatic marketing a go? Where to start on the game board is a big question to answer. To help you navigate through this digital pathway, I’ve developed some useful tips to get you and your business on the right track.
Firstly it’s important to understand you need a solid foundation to work from. Review your website. Is it mobile responsive as well as mobile optimised? Is your desktop site up to scratch? There’s no point investing in digital dollars until you get your foundations right. Sending potential leads to a website that is slow to load, or doesn’t show the exact information on the webpage the potential customer typed into a Google search query, will become detrimental to your business.
So first things first – Review your website and ensure it’s optimal. Remember to have a good call to action at all times on your website page or landing page; be it be an offer, discount, free trial, and an easy form for the customer to complete so you capture the lead - most of all make sure your phone number is prominent in a couple of locations – all of these need to be considered on the webpage to get the best return on investment when directing customers via an AdWords or any digital advertising campaign.
Google offers free speed tests as does pingdom. Speed is one of the keys, and people expect your site to load within three seconds, longer than that, they may click away. Try running your website through the Google developer tool here: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
This will immediately tell you what your score is for both your mobile and desktop sites and will also tell you what you need to fix. By gaining a higher score, it will assist with your SEO rankings as well so worth a visit.
Now you have all your foundations perfected, the next step is to sift through the barrage of digital advertising option. I recommend you firstly look at two main things; who you are trying to target (as in your target market) and what is your main objective once you have reached them.
Let’s use an example here:
You have a new product that’s state of the art, and you just know if you can get the word out there, people will call you, and you will grow sales by 10%. So that’s your objective. Your target market are companies with 20 staff or more, but you need to get to the person in that company who will be looking for your product. Maybe it’s the general manager’s personal assistant who has been asked to research on Google for companies who sell your new whizzbang printing product or maybe it’s the marketing manager who is looking for new ways to develop expo stands or display marketing materials for their clients. Once you have established these two objectives/outcomes, you can then make a more informed decision on which digital advertising platforms will best help your business and what messages to communicate in the advertising.
In general, you cannot go past Pay Per Click advertising such as Google AdWords because your target market is typing into the Google search engine right now as you are reading this article. They are typing in keywords matching the search for your new whizzbang printing product. These are hot leads, people ready to make some informed decisions on purchase. So it’s best you are there at the top and capture that person and direct them to a page specific to your new innovative product that matches the potential clients search query in Google.
Many companies make the error of simply sending people to their company’s home page, but remember, the 21st century has made us all an impatient lot, so when the potential customer clicks and doesn’t get the exact info they want without having to look, it’s a potential sale lost. Remember it’s not how much money you have in your advertising budget, and even being the highest bidder for your Google AdWords key words that will get you rated in the top three or so listings. Google also wants to ensure that pages advertisers are sending customers to are relevant, so sometimes the lowest bidder may have a more relevant page, pay way less than you for those keywords and get in the top position. It’s about making your AdWords campaigns work for you, and there are some great videos on YouTube on how to get the best out of Google advertising. Google also has an excellent help page here: https://support.google.com/adwords, which can shed a little more light into helping you get the best return on investment from your AdWords campaigns.
With mobile searches in Australia overtaking desktop searches in 2015, mobile advertising and having a specific mobile website can only benefit your business by offering a very fast and easy to navigate user experience for potential clients. Over the years we have seen clients spend anywhere between $300 a month to $ 100,000 a month on Google AdWords. The idea is to start with a smaller budget, make that work for you and then increase it a month on month as you improve your campaigns effectiveness. I know we all would not mind if we were spending $ 5,000 a month on Google AdWords if we were selling $100,000 worth of products / services in that same month, all delivered by Google AdWords. So start slower and build up.
There are so many ways to make digital marketing work for you and give you that edge you are looking for, and the best thing is your digital campaigns are entirely measurable down to the cent. How terrific if we could do that with all advertising! If you have a question you’d like to ask, feel free to drop me an email anytime or why not join one of our free digital webinars.
Good luck with your Digital advertising, but remember you have to be in it to win it!
Diane Costa and Marketing Mechanics are teaming up with Neopost Australia to offer a free Google clinic at Neopost 's Technology & Training Event, taking place on 20th & 21st July at Neopost HQ. Register for your free place.