Using the same marketing techniques as the pros can cut your marketing budget in half.

For small- and medium-sized business, knowing where to spend the marketing budget to get the best ROI can be a challenge. Take your cue from America’s top corporations: Move your marketing dollars to the web. With the right strategy and technology, your campaigns can produce fast results backed up by a level of business intelligence that allows you to refi ne your messaging on the fl y to increase conversions and drive down costs. Using these techniques can cut your total marketing budget in half, according to Arman Rousta, co-founder and Principal of Blueliner Marketing Services, an interactive marketing firm with offi ces in New York, Chicago, India, and China.

Below are three winning online moves he says you can make to get maximum ROI from your Web presence.

(For more on online marketing, see these companion pieces: Search Engine Savvy, Online Marketing Case Study Andrew S. DiMino; for an in-depth exploration, read our Success Guide to Online Marketing.)

NATURAL SEARCH OPTIMIZATION (NSO)

What is it? Also known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), NSO includes all the techniques used to get your site noticed by search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Why use it? The number one way Internet users fi nd Web sites is through search engines, so achieving a top organic search ranking is arguably the best way to drive traffi c to your site. It was the number one strategy used by the pros in 2006, according to a report* released by the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO). Search drives traffi c to your site 24/7/365.

How to get started: First, make sure your site has lots of relevant content, and add fresh content on a regular basis. (Your human visitors like this, too!) Next, avoid using Flash for navigation elements, and skip the Flash “intro” page; since search engines can’t “see” the text or links within Flash, it creates a barrier to getting the rest of your site noticed. For those who know some HTML, review your code to be sure that the meta-titles (invisible pieces of code that help search engines categorize your content) of every page are unique and accurately refl ect its main theme. Check to see that the most important headline on your page (which should be enclosed within what coders call H1 tags) and the page content contain the keywords you believe users will be searching for. Finally, if your site doesn’t have a site map, now’s the time to add one, and if you do have a site map, consider optimizing it for Google. (See www.google.com/support/ webmasters)

Don’t try “tricks” such as keyword stuffing (filling your page full of keywords to the point that the text no longer makes sense), using hidden content, multiple >h1< tags, or link farms (pages that are merely long lists of links to other sites). Any of these can get your site sandboxed (excluded from search results altogether), leading to a costly loss of traffic. And don’t risk a temporary drop in rankings by doing a major redesign that changes the site structure, page names, and content of your whole site at once. Instead, change your site gradually over the course of several months, and inform important sites linking to you if any of the links they’re using have changed. Timeframe: “We can get your site top Google rankings in fi ve days,” should be the last words out of a potential NSO consultant’s mouth before you show her the door. Don’t expect to see signifi cant results from NSO work for anywhere from three to 6 months. It isn’t unusual for companies to contract for one-year NSO engagements.

Your Investment: If you have an intermediate knowledge of HTML, you can probably do some of the most basic NSO work on a small site yourself, but larger sites or sites in a highly competitive category will need the help of an expert to win. Depending on the size of your site and your industry, Rousta says costs can vary from $500 to $15,000 a month during the terms of your engagement. NSO isn’t a one-shot deal, either; plan on re-evaluating your position and strategy once a quarter after that if you want to stay ahead of the pack. One warning: although the algorithms search engines use are complicated and ever-changing (see Search Engine Savvy), if your NSO consultant treats his trade like a mystical art and can’t explain what he’s doing for you in layman’s terms, that should be a red fl ag that you’re probably working with the wrong person.

Measuring the ROI: Estimating ROI from site optimization is diffi cult because it is a long-term investment, but Rousta and other experts are convinced it is the most cost-effective marketing technique when done properly, bringing increasing returns over time. And if you’re doing it right, NSO also makes your site as friendly to visitors as it is to search engines.

* “The State of Search Engine Marketing,” February 2007; Radar Research, LLC and Intellisurvey for SEMPO (www.sempo.org)

PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC)

What is it? PPC ads (or ‘paid placements’ as they are sometimes called) are displayed alongside organic search results. Your ad will only display with search results for the terms you bid, and no matter how many times they are displayed, you only pay when your ads are clicked.

Why use it? Unlike NSO, with PPC you control (through the amount you bid) where your ads appear, how much each click costs, and when your listings will be shown. If you want to get your site or brand noticed immediately, or you have a time-sensitive campaign to run for a sale or special event, PPC is the way to go. That’s probably why paid listings, although not used as often as NSO by the firms queried in the SEMPO study, accounted for a whopping 86% of total spending. How to get started: Google, Yahoo, and MSN all have do-it-yourself PPC programs, but even though it seems easy, don’t make the mistake of rushing into PPC. “A good paid campaign requires strict attention to which keywords are converting surfers into customers and how much you’re paying for them,” Rousta warns.

Each of the engines provides a keyword tool that will give you a sense of the relative popularity of different terms on its site. Spend some time using them to estimate the number of clicks per day at various bids and with different keywords before you jump into the PPC waters. When writing your ads, be sure that the main title contains the keywords you’re targeting; this greatly increases the ad’s click-through-rate (CTR).

Finally, don’t make the mistake many beginners do of getting caught up in the eBay-like excitement of bidding for a top spot: Although it’s natural to want to be number one, it’s often not the best investment. For instance, if the top bid for a term is $1.25 per click and the second spot is bidding at $.75, it makes a lot more sense to bid $.80 than it does to spend another $.46 a click just to be the “top dog.”

If you can’t commit to managing your bids on a daily basis, you should consider hiring a paid media consultant. They’ll usually charge a percentage of the total spend per month (anywhere from 10% to 25%), but you can avoid costly mistakes by bringing in an expert right from the start.

Timeframe: The great thing about using PPC is the instant gratifi cation; your campaigns will begin to produce results within the fi rst few hours of launch. Then you’ll spend the next weeks and months refi ning your bids and trying new terms to bring costs down and conversions up.

Your investment: Depending on the keywords you bid, prices can range from pennies to up to $40 per click. The good news is the total investment each month is completely up to you. It all depends on how much traffi c you want to drive and what you are willing to spend to get it.

Measuring the ROI: Aside from the promise of immediate results, the other reason top online marketers love PPC campaigns is the ease of tracking their return. Assuming you have a good analytics program in place (don’t overlook Google Analytics – even though it’s free, it has some of the most advanced reporting available), you’ll know exactly how much each “click” eventually nets you and which search terms those clicks came from.

E-MAIL MARKETING

What is it? This form of marketing involves the use of e-mail to build your brand, keep visitors coming back to your site, and promote products or services.

Why use it? Simply put, while 50-60% of all Internet users fi nd what they want with search engines, 90% of them use e-mail.** There’s no quicker way to reach an audience. Compared to “snail mail,” it’s more inexpensive, immediate, targeted, and easily-measured.

How to get started: First, build up a database of subscribers by offering users the chance to “opt-in” to one or more newsletters or special offer categories on your site. Then send them frequent e-mails targeted to the interests they expressed when they signed on. Consider using a “double opt-in” method, in which subscribers have to respond to an e-mail to confi rm their interest after the initial “optin.” While this two-step process will defi nitely reduce the number of sign-ups, it also helps prove you are not a spammer, and can keep you off the “blacklists” (blocked senders list) of major Internet service providers. According to Rousta, most e-mail campaigns have open rates of about 20%. But to get the best results, he suggests doing what’s called “A/B testing”: Pick 10% of your mailing list and split it in half. Send group A one e-mail offer, and group B another. Next, fi gure out which e-mail offer is more popular, then send that to the entire list.

You should never try to manage a large e-mail list yourself unless you have special expertise and the time to work with the various ISPs should you fi nd yourself blacklisted in error. Instead, outsource e-mail list management to companies such as Constant Contact or Cooler E-mail. Using their web-based interfaces, you’ll be able to deal with all the non-technical aspects of sending e-mails yourself, while they juggle the details of bounces, removing users who unsubscribe, adding new users who sign up, and offering proof that you are using industry practices should any spam complaints arise.

Timeframe: The amount of traffic your site gets will determine how fast your list grows, but even while it is still small, treat your subscribers well, offering them special coupons, sales, or free information. Remember: they asked to hear from you on a regular basis, so they are the most likely to buy and keep on buying.

Your investment: You can get started for as little as $15 a month, and send out thousands of e-mails for less than $100 dollars. One good investment you may want to make early on is purchasing leads from a reputable partner through a double opt-in, co-registration process. (This means that while users register for something on another site, they are also given the opportunity to expressly opt-in to your e-mail list.) You could pay up to $.50 per name for such an arrangement, but it will give you the chance to grow your list faster than you could on your own, especially if your site is new.

Measuring the ROI: Like PPC, it’s fairly easy to measure your return on e-mail marketing, especially with the in-depth reporting offered by many of the e-mail service providers. But don’t just track ROI from each e-mail sent - track it by customer over time; you want to know not only if your efforts are increasing sales, but if they are increasing sales per customer.

**according to eMarketer, July 2006 (www.emarketer.com)

 Print This Post   |   Send this to a friend