Most Seasoned Marketers are Amateurs too

I think when it comes to marketing, especially digital, we’re all in a similar situation to Hammond. Yes, most of us can drive a car. We’ve had lessons and years of experience. We think we know what we’re doing, but in reality when compared with the world’s best we’re all quite hopeless, as Richard Hammond discovered.

Yes, we can drive, but certainly not at speed. We lack the skills the best in the trade have. We can do bits of course, some good, some badly, but overall we all suck at it and the gap between the good and bad is huge. It’s not so much that clients aren’t getting some value from their marketers. It’s just that we’re far below the ideal of what’s possible today. Client expectations, fortunately, are low.

But like most things, it’s not the tools, but how we use them that’s going horribly wrong here. The technology is way ahead of what the market can understand or utilise. It’s not like learning Maths at school either. More like Latin. There can be many ways to get the right result or convey the right message. Marketing and advertising is a very complex artform and is poorly taught in the schools and universities too. They’re often teaching theoretical stuff that’s 5-10 years out of date.

Perseverance and willingness to learn is the key

We should realise, like Hammond, it’s only when we find our skillsets are inadequate and how far behind the ideal we really are. How far behind the best in the world who get 10x the returns for their clients. The differences between ‘the best’ and ‘the average’ effort is immense. From my direct marketing days I’ve seen two so-called ‘experts’ send out mailing campaigns to the same subscriber list, for the same product promotion. One got a zero response, the other over 250 a month later. Why is this?

It just means that often even the local ‘experts’ in their field can be found wanting and not know all the answers. it usually stems from the inability to learn ‘new stuff’. To experiment and learn from mistakes. This is a human condition and is not limited to consumer mortals, but well paid professionals too!

My top pick of ‘Experts’

Education is the key, but do not assume the established local ‘experts’ know it all. NZ is way behind in terms of modern marketing strategies and implementation. You need to look offshore. Finding those with an understanding of direct marketing helps.

Certainly there are those out there who really do know what they’re talking about. We’ve read hundreds of good marketing books over the years, including most of the works of Seth Godin. Waiting for your Cat to Bark by Brian Eisenberg is an essential read too and pushing the need for using personas, testing and analysis. (His techniques were used by that direct marketer with the 250 response, mentioned earlier). Another, less-known book is ‘changing the channel’ by entrepreneur MaryEllen Tribby.  She also takes on a global view of marketing and shows you how the different marketing media, when understood and blended together, can work really, really well. Here’s where to buy the book.

Data in marketing and promotional material is hardly new though. It’s been in use in the direct mail sector for a decades from around 1970. Back then the only data used was the persons name and address on the envelope and simple personalised letters being the sales offer.

Yet data in marketing was actually one of the reasons we started this blog back in 2008, showing what was/is possible. Back then was primarily still as it applied to direct mail, not so much online as my earlier articles showed.

Using Data is Hard Work

But just because we can do something wonderous with the technology, means little in the marketplace. I recall direct marketing super-geek Rafi Albo who was brought out by Xerox and gave some superb lectures to digital printshops in 2009. He quoted “the technology is always way ahead of the market”.  We tend to stick with the old ways longer than we should.

It often takes a generation to move forward. But just having kids using the net and digital toys doesn’t always work right in the business sense. There needs to be an underlying understanding of data and how humans interact with each other. The school kids won’t understand this. The successful digital marketer of the future will need to have a team approach. Those with an understanding of the technology, data and human nature.

Finding the right staff isn’t easy

As the Auzzie article stated, just finding the right people that can do this work, understanding the technology and sales aspects will be the major problem. Bringing in those from the UK or US it appears is the quickest solution – Those from markets that are 5-6 years ahead of ours who will know what do do without a lot of training and wasted effort. Get results within months, not years….

It’s unfortunate that we, like our Auzzie cousins can’t developer the skills and have training programmes in place for these opportunities. But like so many technologies now used here, it’s deemed easier to import the talent, than develop our own….

Essentially, this was the story of a small business owner who manufactured fibreglass swimming pools. The need to try something different to get more business occurred back in mid 2009 as his market and business slumped to a low point with orders drying up. At this point the company was already spending $250,000 pa on traditional advertising like Radio, TV, even some Google AdWords pay-per-click campaigns to help drive people to his website.  But none of this was providing many new clients.

Marketing Budget slashed – Now what?

At the time of this cashflow crisis, the business owner cut his marketing budget to about a tenth of what it was previously, with focus upon cheaper ways to find clients through informational blog posts and online videos, now commonly called “content marketing.”

Start Blogging – Solve Problems – Answer Questions

Although he started out with general information articles, the one that got most of his new business was entitled “The Problems with Fibreglass Pools” Perhaps without realising it at the time, there were loads of people putting this term into Google. As his article related exactly to this question, he quickly (within days) was on Google page one for this popular phrase.

The rest, as they say, is history. The floodgates to new business and customers had begun, just by answering a common question related to his trade. I can think of similar questions and topics that could apply to almost every trade or business profession. It made me think more about the articles I write here too. You may see a change in emphasis in the coming months.

We’ve spoken before on how easy it is to see what the popular terms are and then writing about them in your company blog can bring huge rewards… But don’t take my work for it. Read the Times article here….

Do as I say, PLEASE

Perhaps the comment at the end of the article intrigued me the most.  “Q. How have your competitors responded to all of this?  A. They still don’t really get it.” Which basically means even though people may know what to do to get more business, most still won’t change their old ways. It’s the human condition really. Fear of change, even when we know that change will do us good.

So, to that small group of entrepreneurs out there, take heed of this advice and learn from the experience of others. To me it’s just common sense, but not commonly applied….

However from the client perspective, once the order is filled, they sit down to enjoy their new creation, but after a few months there’s a sour taste in their mouth. Little traffic or sales inquiries off the new site. They then don’t have the courage to ask the provider they think they’re missing something, often because they know others are in the same boat.

Do you want to upsize to a BUSINESS PLAN?

Yep, most Websites projects today are still brochures. An outbound marketing channel. The design is all focused upon what we have to offer, the right wording, picture and visuals. Seldom any thought to what people are looking for or willing to interact with. No planning on how to get traffic to the site or if their product or service has a viable market.  It’s assumed the company’s business plan sorted this out before the web designer was employed. Sadly this seldom occurs.

The truth is just a few hours with Google and various third party tools lets us work out if you’ve got the right product, for the right market – Find that untapped niche. Work out if there really is a market need and what the competition is like – What it will take in terms of marketing investment to overtake them. See if you’ve any chance of making a success of your online storefront. The data even lets you quantify the risks and opportunities, making financing the venture easier… Amazing stuff.

Start with some good ‘realtime’ market research

Here’s an example. We took on another new client yesterday to rebuild her hopeless e-commerce site that has been running a year with few sales. We quickly determined the site coding is rubbish and Google hates it. (There’s another 400 NZ customers using this same ‘pretty’ platform, all with similar low-traffic, low-ranking problems). But the technology problem is really the easy fix for us. Generally a low cost upgrade to WordPress with an integrated cart does the trick. But better technology is not enough. It only provides a better foundation. Low traffic issues usually go much deeper than the website or cart technology used. Read my recent SEO Pyramid article for details.

Our clients website project started by researching the market opportunities. Seeing which sectors, products and related keywords would give her the fastest returns. We also looked at her competitors, looked at some data and made some assumptions on how well they were doing online too. Seeing where they were weak or strong. Not once did we have to talk about the website ‘design’ or cart ‘features’. Certainly site topics and copywriting strategies were covered, but only after we understood where the market opportunities lay.

It was all about strategies and how she could use the website better to get more people visiting and making money from it.  Market research is the first thing to do. Not the copy, design or coding. Theses things comes later in the project. The problem is that talking research or strategies is usually overlooked entirely. The site ends up being a branding exercise. And branding doesn’t pay the bills…

Ask Yourself a few Questions

This 3 minute video from the US sums up what we worked through with my client.

SEO and Traffic Building – The elephant in the room

When most business clients I know sit down to discuss a new website, getting good traffic and sales leads is usually top of their mind. Yet it’s the elephant in the room that no one talks about, with designers and developers avoiding it like the plague, content to point out that their creation is ‘SEO-optimised’ and the site is submitted to search engines…

A year later and minimal traffic, most businesses then get sucked into buying various local directory, SEO or backlinks services, most of dubious quality. Yet if traffic-building was openly discuss at the onset of the website build, all this would have been avoided. And the results obtained in a planned manner being WAY BETTER than having third parties working on it months after the site is built!

We’re ‘Google-friendly’ – Yeah, right

Even some of the largest web design-development companies here try to avoid the traffic discussion, content to say that their websites are submitted to Google and ‘SEO friendly’ etc. This all sounds wonderful, but assuming the web developer has done everything correctly (most don’t), it’s still just 20% of the ‘formula’ to a high search ranking and traffic.

SEO is one of the first things to work through, not a tacky add-on

We need to do much more in 2012. Online marketing has become extremely competitive today. But at the same time, if you do the planning, research and have a traffic-building program in place, more traffic and sales will come.

Am I right or wrong here? Am I the only one that can see the elephant?

Companies know the Yellow Pages is dead, with Google the modern day replacement. They then think about having a website, to ‘be found’ when someone searches for their products. But in the vast majority of cases, their website provides few leads or sales. Stories of small business websites getting under 100 visitors per month are common. Even some that have good traffic often get few sales leads.

Complexity is our real enemy

We’ve talked endlessly about SEO and why Google hates your site in earlier articles. The way to getting traffic is well known to us technicians, but seldom implemented in practice since most business still think a nice website will magically attract traffic if you add in a few keywords. Yeah, right…

It essentially is ‘rocket science’ and seen as being too hard, especially when you have several website and SEO ‘experts’ all disagreeing with each other. Today business owners have to learn to become technology experts too. Somehow they have to figure out the good web designers from the bad ones. The good coders, copywriters and SEO people too…

It’s little wonder that 65% of businesses today don’t even have a site. I’m told by businesspeople a 5 minute talk with most web designers, developers or SEO geeks quickly brings on a headache or strong desire to leave the room.

The old ways really were a lot easier

Now in our fifties, we know what the old world was like. In the old days a business just gave the Yellow Pages or local newspaper cash and they took care of everything. If your display ad and offer was good, the phone rang and leads flowed in. The problem for small business was they often couldn’t afford the bigger display ads than got the most leads.

Today you give the marketing money to a web designer, get a lovely website, yet leads seldom come. Unlike the Yellow Pages, it doesn’t seem to matter how much money you’ve spent either, be it $2,000 or $10,000. Talks with small business owners around NZ indicates under 2% of business websites here can be classified as being ‘successful’, producing a steady stream of leads or sales each week.

Brochure websites are dead and buried

That old ‘brochure’ website designed in Dreamweaver still promoted by many web designers is largely a waste of time and money too. They’re not suitable for business use. Here’s the modern, high-traffic website formula:

Small Business websites in 2012 need to be based upon a good quality CMS (preferably WordPress); be mobile-responsive; have webforms on each page; expert SEO work (typically a similar cost to the visual design aspect); keyword analysis; monthly content updates and traffic analysis; quality backlinks; social media; Adwords; Google+ local; email marketing campaigns; PR etc. And just like the print ad, have a good message or offer that elicits a response. Yikes!

The other nasty truth about online is how to resolve the poor conversion rate issue. Like email campaigns generally only 0-5% of visitors to a website will do anything. As marketer Winston Marsh once told me, when people get to your website, what do you want them to do? On most sites today, it’s not clear. Website conversions isn’t something younger designers discuss or know much about. Only old-school designers and copywriters know this stuff.

Buy Leads, NOT Websites – Use the Phone More

Our view is that businesses should be looking at buying leads, not setting up websites. Let the geeks sort out the technology and just supply the end results, being qualified sales leads. This is something that’s taking off in the US, yet just beginning here. (email us for details).

But for those intent upon doing it themselves, let’s go back to those conversion rate figures. The phone converts 30-40% of the time compared with 0-5% for online and digital campaigns. So, why aren’t people making greater use of the telephone in their promotions and followup? Have we become lazy? Are we being sucked in by what web designers and SEO experts tell us?

When we talk the telephone, we’re not talking about outbound telemarketing here. Simply how we can use online to get people to phone us, as opposed to filling in a webform or sending an email inquiry. And how to use the phone plus email as a more effective followup tool.

The phone converts 30-40% of the time compared to 0-3% for online

It comes back to Winston’s comment. When your ideal client gets to your website or Facebook page, what do you want them to do? What process to capture and nurture that lead do you have in place?

You need a LEAD GENERATION and Sales SYSTEM

Here’s that old podcast from Winston that brings all this together. It’s a brilliant, little-known trick. Take a listen.

Winston Marsh Website Tips

Fill in your details below to learn about BUYING LEADS instead of websites, or the SALES SYSTEM described by Winston.

In 2012 you need a marketing plan and a sizable budget to get traffic to your new webstore… And don’t get fixated upon ‘getting traffic’. The real trick is how to convert all those website visitors into actual sales.

Planning is the key. Before you talk to any web designer or write a cheque for a fancy shopping website, there are two essential things to everyone should do first. And this phase can take 3-6 months…

Step 1. Define your Target Audience & Market Potential (1-3 weeks)

Google and other tools can help define this based around what people are searching for online and examining competitor websites. Discover which niche you need to focus upon for best return. Analyse the data. Talk to others.  Some expert research could save you tens of thousands of dollars. Dramatically improve your changes of success online.

Step 2. Build up your client list (3-6 Months)

Established retail and online stores have the benefit of a current customer base. But if you’re starting fresh online with a new product or service you start with nothing.  The truth is you need a professionally built site and then do some serious online and offline marketing. But even before all this, you need to build up a client base. You should do this before you start talking to any shopping site designer. (Contrary to popular belief, most web design companies know little about business marketing or list building – They can’t help you here).

Here’s the plan. Start with setting up a low cost WordPress business blog, (approx $1,500) with an integrated email marketing system and multiple opt-in forms with autoresponders. Perhaps include one or two ‘teaser’ products using paypal. A similar amount ($1,500) also needs to be spent on expert SEO, ensuring Google loves you and starts to send you qualified traffic.

You’ll also need to establish yourself on various industry forums, Linkedin, Facebook, perhaps Trademe. Where appropriate include traditional marketing options like letterbox flyers, direct mail and signage too – Whatever the initial contact method, send them to your blogsite to subscribe and build up that prospect list.

Start writing weekly blog articles and send out regular emails to subscribers that educate them about your upcoming product or business service.  N.B. This phase is built up over 3 or 6 months – Before you’re at the stage of spending any money on a professional webstore. But at this point you have an idea of what works and what does not. Where to invest and which areas to avoid.

Step 3. Now you can Build your Store (3-6 weeks)

Your business blog can now be updated to include better branding (approx $1,000) and advanced eCommerce features. (approx $3,000-$5,000). And because the domain has been running a few months, it will already be nicely indexed in Google. If your SEO work has been done right the past few months, should have a good domain authority and ranking too -  Meaning you’ll almost immediately start to get good organic search traffic for your new products or services in your new e-store.

You’ve also got your large prospect list too, collected online over many months. You can now get some good early online sales quite quickly using email marketing with coupon incentives. You should immediately utilise Googles Adwords to get even more qualified traffic. (N.B AdWords needs to be expertly setup for best results).

With the right ‘systems’ in place on your sites, your new clients could help you sell more too, spreading the word online. In some sectors, social media can play a big part. This referral traffic is the best sort of traffic you can get. We’ve setup shopping sites that during the checkout, they can reward customers with extra discount if they refer the site to their friends via Facebook or Twitter.

Different, but it’s a plan that makes sense

All this is the basis for selling online that is well structured and designed to get sales on day one of the store going live. It’s a far more cost-effective and lower risk option when setting up to sell online. The alternative are those that setup a cheap template-based $50/mth subscription store, that gets no Google ranking, or those who invest $10-15k on a more professional looking site, that also disappoints. Both will often wrongly conclude that  ‘online selling’ doesn’t work.

Realise that website designers know very little about building traffic, or business marketing.

The truth is they’ve just done it all wrong. The problem is they put all their faith (and money) into the hands of a web designer, instead of building an online strategy first.

A traffic and list-building strategy is required before any store is built. Tips were outlined in a recent marketing training forum in the US. Here’s a snippet from a couple of the esteemed speakers… We’ll present more from this in future articles.

This sort of crazy strategy is promoted online too. A recent article on Webpronews entitled “People Prefer Branded Facebook Pages to Branded Websites“. Their survey indicated that “50% of people find brands’ Facebook pages more useful than their websites” Somehow 50% implies a preference for Facebook.

Firstly, what sort of people. what sort of Facebook pages and what sort of Websites are we comparing here? It’s likely more a reflection on how bad business websites are today than any intrinsic benefit a facebook page provides.

How bad is your website? Checkout Websitegrader.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Facebook, but sending prospects from offline media to Facebook pages alone, as opposed to their website has me beat. I can’t think of a reason why anyone would or should do it.

It would actually be logical to display both their Facebook and website url, then let the consumer decide – Monitor and track things to see what is actually working and with whom. Our research tells us that in most industry sectors, most will go to the website first.

Website First, then onto Facebook

Firstly, Facebook is a big forum site, not a normal website used for branding or promotion. We also cannot as easily brand the site or guide or track visitor activity. Sure, it can be really good for viral marketing campaigns in some retail sectors and a great way for existing customers to either praise the product or let of steam.

In fact there’s a lot of research that tells us that Facebook is best used to engage existing customers. allow them to share their stories, even provide referrals. The company website is way better for lead generation and for getting new customers via search. 

So, if a company wants to utilise the power of Facebook, then get new visitors to go to a special landing page on the website first, with an offer, then links through to Facebook to checkup on their ‘fan base’ and talk from happy customers that already use their product or service. This is logical.

The other reason for this strategy, is that unlike your own website, Facebook have rules around what you can and cannot do in terms of business promotions on their pages – Remember, it’s THEIR SITE, not yours. Most are totally unaware of these limitations. In fact for a while, if Facebook detected a graphic that looked like it was a promotion, it would downsample the image and make it almost unreadable.

It’s not a Facebook vs Website thing here. It’s about doing what makes business sense.

But as an initial destination, most of the Facebook pages I see do not give a good first impression. It’s a bit like trying to have a conversation with a new client at a football match. There’s often too much going on around you.

The other thing is that most of the TV campaigns I see make no provision to account for those that come via a TV ad. There’s nothing to help track and engage those specific customers. Note this is a problem with normal websites too, but only because those that run these sites are too lazy or uninformed to setup a specific landing page.

Strategy or just too lazy perhaps?

Maybe I’m reading too much into this. Perhaps sending them to Facebook wasn’t a strategy at all? Perhaps the marketing manager found it just too hard to have the website updated for the TV campaign. Perhaps there was only money allocated for the TV ad, not a website makeover that complemented the TV promo. This is common. Facebook is certainly the easy, zero cost option.

Some marketing people tell me that they get more inquiries from Facebook than their website so therefore Facebook is the place to send people. Often though, this is more a reflection of how bad their website is in terms of design and usability, than the fact that Facebook is superior in some way. You need a good modern CMS Website, as well as a good Facebook page.

Sadly, there’s no excuse for a bad  ‘static brochure’ website today as content managed (CMS) websites have never been cheaper or more flexible now that we’ve tools like WordPress available. And WordPress can interact with Facebook in ways that will astound… Still, as a marketing tool that brings in sales, Facebook I believe is somewhat over-hyped…. What say you?

This gem we got from conversion scientist, Brian Massey. In a recent article he reminded us how important it is to not only have the right visual images on our site, but also the ability to conjure up the right picture in peoples minds. Have a good story to tell that they remember. His biting words remind us of what’s going horribly wrong today when we create our new business websites.

“A good writer can create better images than a graphic artist…”

To read the full article, visit Brians website or listen here Copywriters

It’s not just about good stories and mental pictures. Good copywriters bring Personas into this equation too. Tweaking the copy [stories] to appeal to the four personality types. It’s a major factor in the design of all high traffic ecommerce websites today, typically doubling sales conversions.

p.s. Personas, not demographics

Some think this is about demographics. i.e. Tailoring the sales pitch based upon your age, income, race, location etc – The stuff that Facebook or a direct marketing company uses. To quote Brian from his searchengineland article, “Personas tell you about motivations and behaviors that anyone of any income, ethnicity or age might have…  Personas are based on how customers make decisions and what inspires them, or drives them away.”

It’s a bit of both. It starts with having lack processes in place. It normally starts with the way incoming leads are handled. Generally, if it’s an enquiry on their sites using a form, it’s sent to the email address of the sales manager. Many managers are either busy or out and about and unable to respond immediately. At best they will forward the enquiry to another staff member to follow up later that day. More delays.

Other times it’s the technology. The form either doesn’t work or gets trashed by the spam filters.  Many forms don’t even include an automated response (auto-responder) back to the client!

To prevent it being lost or overlooked, the sales lead also needs to go to a central repository that can be securely monitored. A CRM system. At least have it sent to more than one person or email address!

Lost or just Lazy?

But as the articles explains, for those few leads that are responded too,  the delays in responding is the killer. Customers these days want instant results and feedback. An email or web enquiry should be responded to within 5-10 minutes, not hours or days. Companies with 5 or more staff appear the worst offenders.  Generally the bigger they are, the worst they get at lead management.

There’s certainly ample technical tools available to help prevent sales leads falling through the cracks, but few companies have them. Usually it’s because in the building of a website, there’s no communication between the sales people and the web developer. The company often doesn’t know what’s possible and often the developer may not be keeping up with the latest tools, happy to supply the default system used for years. Developers are more concerned with layout and coding, not site traffic or your sales results.

Most websites are still about branding, not sales

Few websites are designed with the needs of customers, sales or sales processes in mind. Most websites are essentially a branding exercise and any leads that come via this channel, deemed a bonus. Any client interaction I was once told, is for the company Facebook page! Too often, by the time it reaches Facebook, the damage has been done, with dissatisfied customers spreading their distain over your lack of service or interest in them…

What’s the fix? Have a System in place

Certainly staff training is the first thing, then technology to help, ensuring no lead is lost.

The amount of tracking options and data we can collect is immense today. For example, we can know how many visit our websites, and if they fill in a form, collect not just the form entries, but also hidden data on the time, date, their location, IP address, what search term they may have used to find your site, the Adwords campaign used, the page visited, number of visits and even the time spent on your website before they filled in the form. All valuable insight to begin any sales conversation.

Such data can not only be sent to multiple recipients via email or mobile, but also dumped automatically into an online CRM system for both managers and staff to view securely online, within seconds. Even low cost systems, like the amazing Zoho CRM have their own mobile app to make things easy, allowing sales staff to log phone conversations too. Modern online CRM systems like Zoho are neat since that can have rules and tasks assigned as to what needs to be done and by whom. e.g. To send triggers based upon time, relevance or services, even text messaging alerts. The lead management options are endless.

Make Data Collection and Tracking a Priority

It’s not just enquiries that can be collected online. Companies should constantly survey their clients on how they’re doing. Tools like email and WordPress forms can make this easy, allowing webforms and multi-page survey forms to be built quickly, at little cost. For those with an online store, customers can be rewarded for such things, perhaps automatically getting coupons for their efforts.  Such forms I can often add to most modern WordPress sites for under $500.

Much of this work could be done by the website owner and not require much intervention by a web developer once the initial campaign is setup..  The cost to add these extras often isn’t high. Once costing tens of thousands, can now sometimes be added in for much less if part of the original CMS website building spec. Our low cost WordPress CMS sites can now integrate intelligent forms and Zoho CRM options with ease. Their mobile app (right) being a key lead tracking and management tool for any salesperson or sales manager.

A website should be there primarily to get sales or sales leads. If companies aren’t aware of what’s possible or what management options are available, then nothing will change. For details on these valuable lead tracking options, email us zn.oc.gnitekramlatigidnull@nivek

Up until 2008 building a business website used to be a lot like getting the old company annual report designed and printed. It was an expense, an annual overhead you put up with, simply there because the law required it and you needed to impress someone. There was no thought of it having a specific ROI and there were no significant costs occurring after the project as done.

However you can’t use this buying model today. Building a website is much more like buying a new car now. There’s lots of different sizes, models, options and manufacturers. Each has their own sales pitch and claims. It’s not just the model, design or upfront costs you have to worry about either, but all the running costs.

You don’t exactly need a license, but you certainly need a lot more understanding of what it is you’re buying – To avoid being ripped off as there’s no WOF, checklists or performance guarantees included with modern websites. The risk of buying a lemon is very high, even with the larger, ‘reputable’ developers – Which means you’ll be stuck with it for years to come, since unless it’s a high traffic shopping website, you can’t sell it to someone else. It’s been made for you alone.

I have a very long prospect list of NZ small business websites, most designed by well known and respected local developers that get virtually NO traffic and generate NO sales leads. I doubt this was the business objective when these sites were sold to them. These websites, like most of these businesses, are stagnating. Any small business that is not constantly marketing today, won’t last long.

Now, why did we need that website?

As I said, with websites, there’s no guarantees, other than how nice it can look visually, since this is the area most are fixated on. Getting traffic and generating business results is apparently, not on the ‘to do’ list! Many fools still believe Google will send them traffic simply because it looks nice and the designer stuffed in some keywords, then submitted their site to search engines! Yeah, right

This is where we are with online now. It’s much like the wild west.

Here’s a more complete list of what you now need to consider to promote your business online. And because many of your customers are now spending more time finding out about you online and not through your brochures, yellow pages, newspaper or radio ads, you really don’t have a choice. Here’s the top items and some indicative costs, based upon a small $500,000 – $2m turnover business. If your operation is bigger than this, scale accordingly.

• Website design / visuals – The visual/branding side only (Allow $2,000 per annual)
• Website development – The backend coding and CMS features ($2,000 per annum)
• Search optimisation -  Onsite and offsite SEO work (typically $2,000 per annum)
• Website hosting -  Including coding upgrades, backups and security ($75/mth)
• Online Storefront – Optional ‘module’ to the above, to sell online. ($2,000-$4,000 per annum)
• Website Marketing – Blogs, website articles, email campaigns, social media ($500-2,500/mth – outsource or inhouse)
• Search Marketing – SEO upkeep, AdWords, pay-per-click etc ($300-900/mth – inhouse or outsource)
• Offline Marketing – PR events, signage, articles, sponsorships etc ($500/mth – outsource or inhouse)
• IT overhead – ISP connection fees, cloud apps, email, online CRM etc ($250-500/mth)

Most companies only consider the first two, which are often bundled in as one proposal by web designers. And often it’s not an annual cost or rebuild, but thought of as project that only needs to be done every 3-5 years!  In other words, set aside say $500/year for our online presence and marketing efforts, when they really need at least 20x this amount to be effective and get a return.

A nice looking website just attracts traffic, as if my magic, right?

Certainly how to get traffic and all the related upkeep items are not on the website design list. It’s seldom discussed seriously, aside from a quick mention around ‘keywords’ and ‘website submission’. Certainly the hosting is thought a commodity item that shouldn’t cost more than $10/mth for a 100% reliable service that never fails. As for writing about your company each week on your website and other blogs, email marketing, or keeping up your Facebook or Linkedin presence is seldom discussed. Yet these are all key items to getting traffic and being found online today.

The cost total

So, what’s the annual cost of having and running a high traffic and highly successful small business website today? That’s one that is generating 10, 20, even 30 leads per week…  If you look at my list, it’s around $15,000-30,000 per annum investment. And this doesn’t include the in-house costs for someone to manage it all. Most companies end up hiring a marketing assistant ($40k/yr) for this.

This shouldn’t surprise most people. Many companies had few problems spending $10,000 on the yellow pages advertising alone a few years back to bring in new clients and a similar amount on newspaper ads. But now they’ve got it into their heads that this online stuff, for the most part, is free. Just build a simple brochure website every few years and we’re done.  Sorry to disappoint…

p.s. Like everything in life and business, you can’t avoid putting in the hard work. But the neat thing with online, is that with good research, there are ample ways to define which market you should target and processes to use to reduce the risks.

.

According to Google, who have done expert analysis, most business websites are not optimised for mobile devices. They take too long to load and are poorly laid out, with users either waiting too long or having to zoom and scroll to get the needed information.

Google recently introduce a new website to help.  www.howtogomo.com Check it out.

We’re failing – and it’s costing sales

Our own analysis indicated that under 5% of sites here pass the test and somewhat ironically, restaurant sites are some of the worst offenders. Why is this? It’s because most websites are built using old, dated architecture and no thought for the mobile user. It is assumed that the mobile browser will somehow handle it.

The other options is to have your own Mobile App. In the US these are very popular and they produce bottom-line results too. Once costing thousands and months of work, for small businesses like restaurants, these can now be built quickly and for a relatively low cost.

For a quote on upgrading your business for the mobile user, email me at zn.oc.gnitekramlatigidnull@nivek

Recalling my 7 years working in the marketing department of a big NZ corporate, any online or print marketing was always about branding. In spite of the large amount of money spent, we could seldom attribute particular sales to an actual marketing promotion. This it seems, is the norm… With just a few notable exceptions, companies with 100+ staff often struggle to get things done in a quick and efficient manner when it comes to online or advertising. The sweet spot for online marketing, it appears, are those smaller companies with just 10-35 employees.

Branding Doesn’t Get You Much Website Traffic

Promotions and marketing for branding alone is a luxury small business cannot afford. Small business must get a return on every dollar spent and hence need to look at online marketing quite differently from their bigger competitors – Be more focused upon results and customer service. This flexibility means it’s becoming common for small businesses to do great online if they plan it well. They can end up with many more sales leads from being high on page one of a Google search result – their far bigger competitors at the bottom.

Corporate email promotions have the wrong emphasis too, with poor content and very low conversion rates. I’ve long programmed my email system to put these in the trash. They’re still in the old world of ‘push marketing’, not customer engagement. This presents opportunities for nimble small businesses to do better, on a limited budget – Propel them past their bigger competitors.

Here’s the quick summary on the six key areas small biz should focus on to get more leads and sales in 2012:

• Write weekly, engaging website content. (Provide helpful stuff, not just product promos. Use WordPress. Hire a copywriter.)
• Have an SEO strategy – Adhere to modern practices. (This is a vital, but complex area – Get me to help set it up)
• Dump the Yellow Pages – Use Google Adwords (Done well, AdWords has 5-10x the return of Yellow, Finda or Gopher)
• Monitor Website Analytics to help tune your promotions (Critical – I can provide you easy-to-understand weekly reports)
• Build up and engage with your Facebook community (Several tutorials available, or outsource to specialists)
• Build mailing lists – Have weekly mailouts with a follow-up strategy (Easy way to boost sales and leads. In-house or outsource)

Follow-up is the Key

That last item where I mentioned the term ‘follow-up’ is perhaps the hidden gem in all this. Few companies, large or small, do good follow-up. (Ourselves included). Today there’s lots of ways to track who opens your emails and visits your website. A strict follow-up strategy via personal emails and phone calls is one of the most cost-effective ways to turn visitors, into lifelong customers.  Read my recent ‘Salespeople – Be Gone’ article for some more common sense ideas on this topic. (click here)

If you want details on how to implement all this, give us a call on 09 889 0785 or email zn.oc.gnitekramizenull@nivek

An independent investigation into the NZ Yellow Pages New Online Services

Yellow Pages new CEO, Scott Pomeroy has a grim task ahead. Transforming Yellow into a true online marketing services provider. One of his first stated goals is to work closer with Google and they recently signed up to become a Google AdWords Reseller. Earlier Yellow CEOs talked about working with Google too. Here’s an article dating back to 2009 which just resulted in Yellow using Google maps technology.

Yellow, Selling Google Services?

Yellow Australia (owned by Sensis), signed up as an AdWords reseller a year ago. However the success of this arrangement is unclear and seldom reported on. Like Yellow here, they’re trying everything they can to stay relevant and in the game.

Frankly, I can’t see it working well, especially in the first year. There will be major conflicts between the old and new. Working out the sales incentives will be the big one. Yellows own products will have a sales rep commission that will be hard to match with Googles AdWords, unless they mark up Adwords beyond market rates. And what happens when business clients discover this, or realise that the say $300/month they spent on their new Google AdWords, is getting them 5x more leads than their current $300/mth Yellow Pages listing, which they’re still locked into? Selling a vastly superior competitor offering, alongside your own outdated one isn’t easy…

YellowToolBox – New Online Products and Services

Aside from re-selling Googles Adwords, the other new ‘product’ to come out is Yellowtoolbox, hastily thrown together over the last couple months. They only purchased the domain name in August, meaning there wasn’t a lot of planning involved. And it shows.

Toolbox is the place NZ business and Yellow customers are asked to go to for an affordable website and a social media presence. In concept it’s a good idea and there’s much hype around it from Yellow reps, but few real-world results yet with only a handful of their 100,000 small biz clients signed up. I suspect there will be a lot of special deals, time payment arrangements and service bundling, which Yellow has a history of to ensure clients are locked in – Preferably to both their online and obsolete print offerings.

The Yellowbox site itself is visually lively, but the coding is poor and SEO non-existent. It’s slow to load and virtually invisible on Google.

If companies don’t have the skills to grow their website traffic, they can just throw money at it

It could take a long time to get this new website to show up in normal Google search result for website design, video or Facebook marketing. The Yellowlocal website has the same problem. Just because they have ‘the brand’ and some cash means nothing online when it comes to getting traffic. Everyone starts at the bottom. Website traffic has to be earned. Somewhat ironically, the solution to running any new website with a poor online profile and crappy SEO coding, is to advertise using Googles Adwords, which Yellow does an awful lot of.

NBR reminded me recently that Yellow are still the largest single buyer of AdWords in NZ. Yellow likely spends tens of thousands every week promoting it’s own second-rate yellow.co.nz online directory on Google. On average, they run around 60 different ads at a time on Google, directed to different categories on their Yellow online directory website. It likely boosts their traffic considerably.

Now there’s even more cash pouring into promoting its new website services, with cost-per-click ranging from $2 to $5 each!  I’ve recorded 66 different ads displayed for the new toolbox site, examples below.  (Now they’re an AdWords reseller, will they get discount? If so, at what point in the future will Google expect to make up the shortfall?)

But Google is in a win-win game. If companies (or their hired web designer-developers) are lacking SEO skills and ignore Google’s guidelines, the result is a website that can’t be found.  i.e. A low ranking and little traffic. Website owners will often end up buying search traffic instead, using Googles popular pay-per-click AdWords service.

High Google Rankings and Expert SEO

The Yellow websites sales pitch video quite clearly says “…You’ll Get High Google Ranking… Expert SEO…” Good to hear. But we have definative data that shows the opposite is true in most cases. Should we advise these clients they’ve been short-changed, or should I tell the Commerce Commission? Maybe the SEO and High Google Ranking is an option?

Yellows 12, proudly displayed showpiece client sites, aside from some commendable Youtube efforts, are mostly cheap designs, poorly optimised for Google search. In fact it was hard to find keywords or pages they ranked well for. The best was fashion-recycle that ranked for 2 keyword phrases. Unfortunately, their main competitor ranked for 79. Like Yellows own toolbox site, it means these sites will seldom show up on page one of an organic search for phrases that could bring them new business. The only solution to this is to have the client spend thousands more on specialist SEO work and/or buy some AdWords online advertising.

A Cunning Plan Maybe?

Maybe this is the secret strategy. e.g. Sell badly coded, non-optimised websites to guarantee that customers will at some point need to sign up for the more costly Yellow-supplied Google AdWords. If true, it’s a really cunning plan, as Blackadder would say…. However I suspect there’s really no plan at all. They’re floundering around in a new market they know little about, with low quality offerings, using their name and reputation to woo hapless customers in.

But Yellow aren’t the only people building cheap, poorly optimised websites. Most NZ small business websites running today fit into this category. If they build up their know-how and sales skills, this is a nice opportunity for Yellow and their new AdWords service.

Or Maybe We’re Dreaming…

Are Yellow grasping at straws? With limited budgets and skills available within the company for website building or SEO work, Yellow are likely doing what most big corporates do in this situation. Promote a new digital service, then outsource as much as possible to local amateurs, or to India, to maintain margins. Much of the AdWords work, if it does take off, will probably be done in India or the Philippines. It’s a low risk strategy, since these contracted staff can be quickly dispensed with if the new services don’t work after 6 or 12 months.

Sales is not so easily outsourced. Building the skills to sell adwords and online will be a challenge. Selling or re-signing people up to simple entries in print and online directories is one thing. But the selling of Websites, Social Media and AdWords another. I worked for Xerox for many years as they migrated from copiers to digital printing, forced upon them by technological change. Most of their salespeople struggled to adapt. It took more than just a handful of new product training sessions.

Google AdWords – Who Benefits the most?

It’s not just about profit margins, but also advertising effectiveness.

What’s not often realised, is that the cost, quality and results of AdWords campaigns varies widely. User polls tell us that around half of AdWords users love it and get amazing returns, the other half say it’s erratic and far too costly. Why is this?  Margins aside, it largely depends upon the skills and instructions given to the person setting it up, then maintaining it each month. There’s also numerous tricks around the offer, landing pages, CTR optimisation, use of forms, analytics etc. Done right, it’s much more complex than making the old paper or digital display ad, which is what Yellow staff are familiar with.

For example, we recently rebuilt a clients costly $1,500/mth Adwords campaign, that resulted in a  $700 per month saving, for the same number of click-throughs, in this instance being over a 1,000 per month. It won’t be in Yellows (or Googles) best interests to setup and provide such super-efficient, highly optimised campaigns! What’s best for the client, isn’t always ideal for the service provider. Financially it would make sense for Yellow to set up ‘less effective’ AdWords for their existing clients, be it deliberately to gain more income, or through plain lack of skills. 

To Know the Future, Look to Auz

For a look of things to come, here’s a commentary from Australia last year entitled Yellow Pages Scam. It’s a conversation between a customer and their Yellow Pages (Sensis) rep selling Google services. Expect similar ‘misrepresentations’ here in NZ – Especially when they pitch their new Yellow Page Website offerings that supposedly have good SEO. (Yeah, right). The average customer will be totally confused and likely just take Yellow at their word.

It’s all profit-focused. In one case AdWords was ‘resold’ by Yellow Pages Australia (Sensis) who billed AdWords at $27,000 pa, which should have cost around $500-700/month if the client had done it themselves. Resellers can legally do this. New, naive small business customers just don’t know enough to argue. Commentators suspect that Sensis is targeting industries with low tech knowledge. They’re also informing them they have a ‘special’ relationship with Google and can guarantee them a number one ranking…

What’s the Yellow Offering? Is it too Late for NZ?

As Scott Pomeroy, CEO of Yellow Pages NZ said in that recent interview. “The success of it [Adwords] will now depend on how well Yellow executes.”  Based upon their execution of their new Toolbox website services, I’m not optimistic. Yes, there is a dire need for a major organisation with a big client base to sell AdWords here. I’m just not convinced that Yellow was the best option for Google.

It’s difficult to see what Yellow has on offer that isn’t done better (and cheaper) by someone else. What’s their value proposition? Yellow have dabbled in lots of new technologies and services over the years. In spite of the money spent and grand promises made, none have been a standout success, or even turned a profit. Years back, profits from the print division would carry things through. Now that print is dead and cashflow has dwindled, options are limited. They missed their opportunity window.
They should have taken the deal offered by Google back in 2006 when Google wanted access to the Yellow Business listings and database which would have been worth a lot to Google. It could have been a really great partnership too, but Yellows pride likely got in the way. They thought they could actually compete with Google in the online space…. Now they’re on the back foot, begging.

End of an Era

It’s looking like a sad ending on the horizon for what was a fine NZ-owned company I once loved. I sincerely hope the Yellow-Google Adwords ‘service’ does work out for them and their clients, but there’s a big learning curve ahead for all. New services always take twice as long to get into profit than any business or marketing plan allows for. Two years is typical. Can Yellow, in their fragile financial state, really wait that long? I’m less optimistic over their new toolbox products, which will appeal only to the most desperate or gullible.

Many Yellow customers have been suitably ‘conditioned’ to have low expectations

Sadly, there’s lots of people out there who happily take Yellow at their word and not want to know about all the geeky SEO stuff I’ve outlined above. They trust Yellow. I also suspect that many of their customers are used to paying out hard-earned money each month, for few returns. They’ve been ‘conditioned’ to have low expectations, which may be what will keep Yellow in the game longer than they deserve.

Yep, it’s hard work turning around an old, fading corporate and keep customers happy. Good luck Scott. You’ll need it.

p.s. This time last year I predicted the demise of Yellow pages, after they posted one of the biggest corporate losses in NZ history.  Read about if on my Ezimarketing website. A year on and little has changed. The banks simply can’t keep Yellow afloat forever…. The really interesting factor is Scott Pomeroy. He has previous experience with struggling companies and may be in the role just preparing the groundwork for Yellow to shut up shop. He was the CEO of a failed Yellow Pages Publishing operation in the US.. Obviously, if the Yellow board was really serious about online initiatives being the way forward, they would have appointed someone with a more appropriate background.

I think this is the fear many small business owners have too. If they hire a new person to boost fledgling sales, will they do the job? At an average investment of over $70k per annum, for small businesses in particular, taking on a new salesperson is a high risk option.

Could the internet replace the salesperson?

Some say it can. Here’s a delightful interview with marketing guru and business trainer Winston Marsh a few years back. Winston is a popular speaker and marketing trainer in Auzzie, working with small business owners in australia and NZ to help them promote themselves in traditional as well as online channels.

Here he talks of a simple strategy of how the internet can be better used in small business, often replacing the need to hire a costly salesperson. This strategy is so obvious and simple, I’ve yet to work out why everyone isn’t doing it!
Winston Marsh Tips

With website and ecommerce building costs now at an all-time low, starting from just $1,800, there’s no excuse not to get started immediately. Just email us here for a quote

“As for what I call owner-build websites, I have marketing/sales/SEO packages which include no design at all – other than helping them determine how many landing pages to have, and their best keywords, BEFORE designing the site. And analysing what the competition is doing, which very few pure designers even ask about (so I’m told)… The two most important factors in a website are content and links, neither of which has anything at all to do with graphic design.  …..anyone focused on the bottom line should build their own [content-managed] site, then hire somebody to help them with the marketing and search aspects…”

There’s two issues here. One is to build a site that can be found. Technically, a simple WordPress site using a nice Studiopress  theme is all that’s needed. This means the design costs can be slashed by 50-80%. This type of raw site (without much content) could be up and running in a day at minimal cost, usually under $500.

But where the real costs will come in as mike said, is in training the client to run the site and add their own content. (Content is always the killer). They will need lots of assistance with the technical side of SEO too as well as paid search marketing (AdWords). And then there’s other toolsets like email and/or Facebook, to keep them ahead of their competition and generate more leads. This is all content and marketing effort. Very little design.

As we’ve said before, for every $1 spent on ‘design’ another $3 or more needs to go into client training and site marketing.

Many customers see real benefits in building a ‘brand’ and having a site that is special. Unique. Customers saying ‘wow’ when they arrive at the website front page. Design and visuals can do this. I think if you’re in some sectors like finance or you’re selling high value goods, where trust and credibility is important, going the extra mile to get the look right is critical.

Online is a team effort now

Although I agree with everything Mike Hihm says, I still see benefits in using a skilled graphic designers as well as copywriters for many projects. For myself, it seems the sites I ‘show off’ more to prospective clients, are those where we’ve worked closely with, or for, local graphic designers. However all this just emphasises that when it comes to online, design is but one factor to a successful business outcome.

ADDENDUM

As a footnote to this article, Mashable recently posted a story entitled “4 Strategies for Working With Designers Without Killing Each Other

This mirrors my own views, showing that designers and developers have different goals, priorities and outlooks when it comes to website building. But as this article shows, the differences can be easily overcome. And this article will become pre-requisite reading for any new web or graphic designer we work with. It may help them better understand where us geeky ‘developers’ come from. Why site architecture, code, content and SEO is just as important as visual design.  The designer is but one voice in how a high traffic website is built.