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Archive for the ‘General Marketing’ Category

Websites that don’t work

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

We have all experienced frustrating problems with websites that don’t work as they should. As an iPad owner I know this only too well. Try for example to complete complex forms online with an iPad. You can’t.

Today I experienced a strange twist to the “I’m sorry sir the system wont let me” scenario. I have recently agreed to buy a new car. One of the few treats I allow my business to provide me with is a nice vehicle. Although I am not sure if it has affected how some potential clients feel when they see me roll up in a smart car, perhaps it has.

Anyway I digress, today I telephoned my insurance company to get the details of my car changed and received a very frustrating response. The company concerned: Zurich insurance have been pretty good over the past few years, this year in particular when I have been bashed by other drivers, one in the rear when stationary and one when I wasn’t even in the car. (I did see it happen though as I was carrying my cappuccino to the car at the time!)

Zurich have been helpful, organised and efficient, in the main, until now.

Earlier this year Mercedes changed their model badging and altered the designation of the vehicle concerned although all other aspects of the car have remained the same, Mercedes tell me.

I asked for a quote on the new vehicle and the chap said he couldn’t find it on their system. The type of car wasn’t listed he said. So I delved a bit deeper and it appears that Zurich has forgotten to add the designation of this vehicle to it’s car database on their back office system. The system that powers their website.

My point in mentioning this is that website owners should do their damnedest to ensure that the information they hold on a database driven website, that in this case also runs their “real people”, should be meticulously kept up to date.

I along with all other ML300 owners out there lament that Zurich have forgotten us, even those of us who are existing customers.

Come on Zurich keep up with times, you have now lost business because your website is not up to date.

Is there a message for all website owners?

Some Google Adwords Myths.

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

I note some useful information released today by Google they wanted to put matters straight. I thought you might find it interesting.

“There’s lots of misinformation floating around the web about the way AdWords works, and our AdWords support teams get to hear most of it. Since many of the same issues seem to keep popping up again and again, we thought we’d run a blog series to help you separate the myths from the facts. We’ve tried to capture the most persistent of them here, but remember, if you ever have any AdWords questions, you can always pop over to the AdWords Help Center or AdWords Help Forum for an answer.

Myth # 1: Spending money on Google AdWords will influence my website’s ranking in Google’s free search results.

Fact: Google AdWords and Google’s free search results are entirely independent of one another. Spending money on AdWords won’t impact your ranking in Google’s free search results. Similarly, cancelling your AdWords account won’t lead to your website being banned from Google’s search results. If you’d like to learn more about what does go into ranking your website in Google search results, check out Google Webmaster Central.

Myth # 2: Google AdWords has declined my credit card.

Fact: Google itself doesn’t actually decline credit cards. The decline usually takes place at your bank, your card-issuing institution, or its payment processor.

If your credit card gets declined, your first step should be to check and make sure you’ve filled out the Billing Preferences page correctly. Some common mistakes include:
Missing or invalid credit card number or security code
Missing or invalid expiration date
Missing or invalid billing address and/or telephone number
Once you’ve gotten that squared away, make sure that there aren’t any problems with your card itself. Be on the lookout for issues with your:
Credit limit
Maximum amount per debit
Number of possible debits within a certain period
If any of these are too low for your AdWords account, contact your bank or card-issuing institution. You should also be sure that your card allows for online debits and automatic debits.

Myth # 3: Your conversion rate can impact your quality score

Fact: The conversion rate of your ads does not affect your quality score. Some advertisers using AdWords conversion tracking mistakenly believe that they should set an easy conversion event on their landing pages to artificially boost their conversion rates. In reality, this won’t have any effect on their quality score and will simply make it harder to measure the true value of their AdWords investment.

Myth # 4: The AdWords keyword tool suggests keywords to use

Fact: The keyword tool doesn’t make any kind of recommendations about which keywords you should be using. The keyword tool just analyzes related queries that might be of benefit to you and displays them. It’s up to you to decide which keywords you want to include in your account.

You should always assess the tool’s results in the context of your advertising goals. When you do so, the keyword tool can be a helpful way of finding new, meaningful keywords, including potentially profitable ones you aren’t currently using and those that you might have excluded as negative keywords in order to protect your click-through-rate.

Myth # 5: Upper and lower case letters in AdWords keywords matter

Fact: The AdWords system doesn’t distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters.
“NYC” is the same as “nyc”
“Android Phone” is the same as “android phone”
For the sake of simplicity, we recommend that you enter all of your keywords as lowercase letters.”

This is an excerpt from Google itself who is generally pretty open about the various systems that run it’s operation.

There is more on Google own Adwords blog. Click on this link:

8 minutes for Google to index a blog?

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

I am not sure if this is a record but I may well claim it as one!

An existing client came in today to talk about iso 9001 and iso 14001. Well actually they came in to talk about us becoming iso qualified. We are going through the audit process now.

During the meeting the client – Interface NRM updated their new blog we have just provided them. This runs alongside their main website and is used a major SEO tool. (More on that later)

So Gavin updated his Blog at our office and then just by chance we did a search for the search term “iso 9001 and 14001 in Telford” not only was their main website number 1 in the natural listings. But they had another three entries on the first page, one of them being the blog they have just updated, 8 minutes earlier!

Now I know you will think it was luck more than judgement, but let’s face it Google has a massive task in keeping up to date with re indexing websites. For the Blog which by the way is only 1 month old, to be indexed and RANKED on the first page so quickly I think is a fantastic testimonial to the way in which we optimize our Blogs to be Google friendly.

If you would like Google to love your Blog as well. Give us a call, we have ways of making your Blog rather attractive to Google.

Business to Business Marketing thoughts – Part 2 – Telemarketing

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

Comments on the use of Out-bound Telemarketing

This operation is generally used to create leads from “cold calling”. It is often considered to be the poor relation to inbound enquiries and therefore is often completely overlooked or under resourced.

The reputation of “cold calling” has suffered through using unknowledgeable agencies to make direct contact and then not to be able to follow through on conversations as they have no training or extremely limited knowledge of the subject matter they are expected to talk about. This is particularly evident in technical industries.

Our own experience (Clickingmad) of telemarketing results in the following list of actions we undertake broadly speaking. These methods work in our industry and I feel they should work in others.

  • Recruitment of confident telephone users/ex salespeople
  • Training (Minimal) to establish a minimum knowledge capable of discussing the overall subject.
  • Gain contact data and establish to the initial contact information is correct (who? what? where? Etc)
  • Contact non technical decisions maker, discuss in the broadest terms who they are currently served by and there regular requirements looking for opportunities to pitch for their business.
  • Dependant on your organisation ask for the opportunity to discuss how you can help them.
  • Diarise for future call back and make full notes on CRM system
  • Follow up with email communication or brochure with personalised covering letter detailing the summary of the conversation, thereby increasing the apparent importance they represent to your organisation.
  • Ensure that the agreed action happens without fail to build the relationship.

The above will only work with the management will of the organisation focussed on the importance of the subject and being seen to be supportive of it.

Targets of numbers of calls, numbers of appointments (if relevant) and other benchmarks are needed to motivate the staff and to keep a tight rein on the activity.

Business to Business Marketing thoughts – Part 1 – Mailing Lists and CRM

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

These are potential clients to a business and are gained from a variety of sources; meetings, networking, website enquiries, referrals etc. They represent “warm” leads and should be treated as such.

CRM systems are only as good as the data they hold within them and then how you use that data in a proactive way.

Extract from the Sales and Marketing Institute website;

“Unfortunately, the information required to create these database[s] is often old, inaccurate, in too many different files/silos, held in the head of the salespeople, or not yet developed and recorded. This situation is further complicated by no one in the marketing or sales group assuming overall responsibility for the database. Therefore, the database responsibility usually falls to the keeper of the data or the MIS group who, as we know, are neither marketeers nor salespeople.

In a number of companies, this information may be accurate but nowhere on the file is the name of the key contact or decision-makers. If there are names, they are frequently those of the accounts payable staff.

It is widely accepted in the direct marketing industry that for B2B, 50-60% or more of the success of a direct marketing campaign is dependent on the list, yet many companies spend more time and money on the creative process, which is only a 10-20% leverage on results than they do ensuring that the mailing list is accurate.

Notes:

  • Ensure that any list is regularly checked for accuracy.
  • Ensure that you have all relevant data on the actual people who are the decision makers
  • Ensure that all contact is recorded accurately
  • Ensure that the contact with the prospect is regular and future action/contact is agreed with the prospect.

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