This comprehensive guide walks you through every step of the initial market research you need to do if you want to ensure the success of your business BEFORE you invest a lot of time and effort in building it.
Your initial market research is the most important step of building your business. If you learn how to accurately identify a profitable business opportunity then 90% of the battle has been won! Compared to this stage, acquiring a product to sell and building your website is child's play.
The #1 Reason People Fail
So many people think they can just skip this step. They think they already have a great idea for a product to sell online, or they figure they can just sell any old product and they will eventually be successful.
But when you DON'T know how to properly do your initial market research, your chances of growing a profitable online business are about as good as winning the lottery. In other words, pretty darned slim.
If you're just starting out, we urge you not to let your success be based on random luck.
Discover the proven step-by-step system that will enable you to recognize great money-making opportunities when you come across them. It really is the only way to guarantee your success right out of the gate.
The Internet Marketing Center Team
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Site Review: Make Sure Your Site is All About THEM
This week's we're giving a free site review to the last of our recent contest winners.
And Susan Mitchell of tinyterriers.com sells a product we just couldn't resist: PUPPIES!
Susan and her husband Don breed champion pedigree Yorkshire terriers. They have a website that offers some great information -- but we think they could dramatically increase their ability to profit from their website by implementing some key Internet marketing strategies.
In this review, we're going to touch on three main areas:
Their site headline
Their site salescopy
Their site opt-in offer
... and then we'll end with a few suggestions on how Susan can grow her site into an online content hub her target audience will love.
Before we get started, take a quick look at Susan's site: www.tinyterriers.com. That way, you can check out exactly what we're talking about.
Susan, we want to share first about all the things we liked about your site!
Your homepage copy reinforces the value of your product and adds credibility to your business. You write in a friendly, knowledgeable way that helps people feel like they know you and puts them at ease. And the pictures of your adorable puppies definitely encourage people to stay on your site and explore deeper. We couldn't get enough!
However, we also spotted a few key spots where a small tweak could make a big difference toward the success of your site!
Let's get to those now...
1. Your Headline
Simply put, your headline is the text at the top of your site, beneath your logo and navigation bar. It is THE most important element of your website because it's the first thing your visitors look at when they arrive -- and it's what makes them decide whether to stay or leave.
If you want to convince them to stick around, your headline should immediately communicate the biggest benefit of your product or service, and attract enough interest to draw readers in further.
Here's what your headline looks like right now:
While it's definitely a good thing to be welcoming to your potential customers, you do them a bigger favor by giving them more information about where they've arrived -- and why they should stick around to find out more.
A really good headline should accomplish some or all of the following:
Emphasize the key benefit of your product or service
Emphasize the biggest solution that it provides
Generate curiosity and pull visitors into your web page
Capture the essence of the main attractions or power of your product or service
For example, a more effective headline for your site might be:
As you can see, we use the headline and subhead to communicate several benefits to your visitors:
You will get an adorable new family member
Showing a champion dog is a source of joy
You won't have to deal with health problems
Your dog will be with you for many years!
All of these benefits do the work of attracting your visitors' attention and letting them know exactly how they will benefit if they remain on your site -- and learn more about your business.
Now let's take a look at the rest of your copy...
2. Your Salescopy
The copy below your headline needs to accomplish three very important things:
Identify with your visitors
Convince them of the benefits of your product
Compel them to take action
Most importantly, your salescopy should always be about THEM: your visitors.
You want to talk about their lives and their needs as you explain how your product will benefit them.
Susan, let's take a look at some of your copy as you have it posted right now:
You include some great information here, but right now it's a bit too focused on you as the business owner. You talk about what you believe, and what you have, and who you want to thank.
By reworking that copy so it speaks more about your visitors than it does about you, you shift the focus onto them. For example, instead of saying...
"We believe quality is our number one priority and we always strive for the very best, healthy, long lived dogs and puppies whether they're destined for the show ring or will be a much loved pet. Most of our adult dogs are from champion lines, and all of them are a big part of our family. If you're searching for your new best friend, click on the Available page to see what we have! Thanks for visiting our furry family!"
... Say:
"If you're a Yorkie lover who's looking for a new best friend, you've come to the right place. At Tiny Terriers you will always find champion-pedigree Yorkshire terriers that are bred to be as long-lived and healthy as they are top show-dog quality.
These dogs have been raised from birth like family members and will make the perfect addition to your household. If you're looking for a new best friend, please click here now to see our available puppies."
The tweaks we made to the copy are actually pretty minimal... but they make your potential customer the star of the show!
This definitely doesn't mean we think you should scrap all the great information you provide about the principals and practices of your business, however.
Instead, we recommend you create an "About Me" page and include that information there, then feature the "About Me" link prominently on your navigation bar.
3. Your Call to Action
The next thing we'd like to talk about is your call to action. Right after your headline, your call to action is probably the second most important element on your site. The call to action asks your visitors to do something on your site... and tells them exactly how to do it.
If you're trying to sell something directly off your website, the call to action is the moment when you say something like, "Click here to order your copy today." Or if you're trying to get someone to sign up for something and give you their email information, you might say something like, "Sign up now to receive your free report."
Right now, Susan, your only call to action is this sentence, which appears in the first paragraph of your main copy: "If you're searching for your new best friend, click on the AVAILABLE page to see what we have!"
And people might not take action for two reasons:
The call is a little buried in that paragraph, which makes it difficult to see at a glance. You want it to jump off the page so your visitors can easily see it.
The only action you ask your visitors to take is to look at the puppies on your "Available" page. But if all the puppies have been sold, or the ones that aren't available don't suit the needs of your visitors at that time, that action might leave them at a dead end.
Your visitors might look at the puppies and think, "Aww... cute! But I was looking for a girl puppy..." and then leave your site to go somewhere else. And the chances that they will remember your site and return to it at a later date can be very slim.
For that reason we think your business would benefit from offering a more direct call to action, like this one:
By including a simple opt-in script on your site, you can collect the email addresses of your visitors with the purpose of letting them know when you have new puppies available for sale. This will create a huge demand for your puppies before they're even born!
Also, once you have your visitors' email addresses you can send them friendly relationship-building emails offering useful information about how to care for their Yorkshire Terriers. They will welcome your seasoned advice... and soon come to see you as a foremost authority on the breed.
Make your site THE hangout for Yorkie Lovers
Finally, Susan, we strongly recommend you consider adding a blog to your site. If you are thinking about revamping your site any time soon, we think you should look into setting it up on a WordPress platform.
There are many themes -- ready-made WordPress design templates -- available for under $100 you could use to build a site that is incredibly easy for you to update yourself... without having to rely on a designer every time you want to add a new photo or piece of information.
(Such as this one, for example.)
Why is easy updating important? Because your product inventory is always changing. Every time a puppy gets sold or a new litter is born, you want to be able to update the information on your site to reflect what you have to offer your potential customers.
By using a blog platform such as WordPress, you can easily add new content, images, even videos to your site without having to know any computer coding at all!
And by regularly adding fresh pictures and information about each puppy and posting blog entries that describe your breeding philosophy -- as well as a few tidbits about the life the puppies enjoy in your home before they meet their new families -- you'll turn your site into a visitor magnet for Yorkshire lovers.
They'll come back to your site again and again to see what's new with your puppies!
And when the time comes to sell the litter, all the puppies will be spoken for faster then you can say, "Who's a cute wittle doggy? Who? Who?"
(Check out the story of the Shiba Inu 6 to see how crazy people can get about sites that feature live updates about puppies.)
Well, Susan, we hope you found our advice helpful. Please keep in touch with us and let us know how it goes with your website!
And to the rest of our readers: if you already have a website, take five minutes to take a close look at your headline and copy.
Do they do a good job of speaking directly to your visitors and communicating the benefits of your product or service? Does your call to action tell them exactly what you want them to do on your site, and why?
If your answer is "no," or "maybe," set aside some time this week to work on strengthening your site copy. Your bank account will thank you for it down the road!
**We do not have a partnership with WordPress or iThemes or benefit from recommending them in any way. We just think they're great products you should know about.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Talk to Us!
As always, we welcome your input on all our content.
Is there a particular topic you'd like us to address in an upcoming issue of the newsletter? Do you have a question about how to start an online business or make money on the Internet? You can tell us at:bizz@amiwired.com
Showing posts with label Gasta Keywords. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gasta Keywords. Show all posts
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Gasta Keywords:Why Profitable Keywords are the Cornerstones of Your Internet Marketing?
Keywords are ground zero. They are essential to your online success. You must get your keywords right or it's game over before you even get started. Mainly because keywords are the most important element of your online marketíng.
It can't be emphasized enough, especially to beginning online webmasters or marketers, choosing the right profitable keywords will largely determine whether or not you succeed with your online endeavors. You simply must get this element right or your marketing will be in big trouble.
What are Keywords?
Lets start at the very beginning, keywords are the exact words someone types into a search engine to find what they're looking for on the web. Some keywords are valuable / profitable, while others are virtually worthless.
Profitable keywords are the ones that convert into a sale, a lead or potential client/customer for your company or product. These are the words someone is searching in order to buy a product or hire a service. Someone searching for "honeymoon vacatíon packages" is probably in the market to book a honeymoon vacatíon and could turn out to be very profitable for the right website or business.
Profitable keywords are the ones where the searcher is in the right "mind-set" or frame of mind to buy what they're searching for on the web. Tailor your marketing online to target these profitable keywords and it can spell success.
So what's the whole process for finding or choosing profitable keywords to use in your marketing? Lets look at some ways to proceed...
Number of Keyword Searches?
You need to find out how many searches are made for your chosen keywords each month. Simply use WordTracker or a site like SEOBook. These will give you a preliminary number of searches made each month for your keyword. Highly popular, well-searched keywords with hundreds of thousands of searches each month will be extremely hard to rank for because you will have stiff competition from major companies with limitless resources.
I like to pick less popular keywords that get only a couple of hundred of searches each day because my chances of getting on the first page greatly increases. But don't get fixated on the number of searches, some keyword phrases that only get four or five searches daily, can still be very profitable.
For serious keyword research in a particular niche market I like to use Brad Callen's Keyword Elite which is professionally designed software that makes all your keyword research so much easier. But there are plenty of free keyword tools you can use. One handy keyword tool is Google Adwords external suggestion tool which will help you find valuable keywords.
Commercial Intent of Keywords?
But how do you know if a keyword is profitable? Well, one convenient tool is from MSN which helps you with "Detecting Online Commercial Intention" of keywords. Just type in a keyword and it will give you a percentage or probability your keyword query has commercial benefit or intent.
Conversion Rate of Keywords?
Once you have your chosen keywords in place, next you want to have a landing page that converts those keywords or traffic from those keywords into buyers or leads for your online business. This is another crucial element of your online marketíng - you must have a landing page or content/site that converts into a sale or you obviously won't make any revenue.
Keep in mind, if you're into affiliate marketing, you main goal is not to sell but to "pre-sell" your products or services. One effective way I have found to do this is to give potential customers/clients valuable information they can use in making their final purchasing choice. Comparison sites do well, as do review sites, top ten sites... potential customers use the Internet and keywords to not only find products but more so, to find information on those products. Your goal should be to provide this valuable information to make their task a little bit easier for them and they will reward you with a sale.
Long-Tail Keywords?
Long-Tail keywords are simply that: long three or four word phrases that searchers use to find what they're looking for on the web. Because they are highly specific, long-tail keywords have proven to have better conversion rates than general keywords. This is also just common sense, someone searching for a "2005 ford mustang convertible" may just be in the right mind-set to buy such a vehicle; as compared to someone searching for a more general keyword phrase such as "sports cars."
Study your website traffic logs religiously to find long-tail keywords that turn into a sale. Target these long-tail keywords in your marketing. Even buy PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising in the three major search engines - Google Adwords, Yahoo! Marketing and MicroSoft AdCenter - for these valuable/profitable keywords.
And build higher rankings in organic search for these long-tail keyword phrases. It's really not that difficult for long phrases, especially if they're related to your site; many times you can reach the top spot in a matter of days, especially in Google.
How to Rank High for Your Chosen Profitable Keywords?
Of course, the million dollar question is: HOW do you rank in the top spot for your chosen keywords? I believe the key to ranking high in the search engines (especially Google) is to be persistent in building your rankings for your keywords. Take a long-term view or approach, sometimes it may take months, even years, to rank in the top Five for your highly competitive keywords.
The best strategy is to "stick to it" and keep building relevant links to your keyword landing page. Create related blogs with valuable content linking back to your keywords. Write keyword related articles and distribute them all over the web. Create Google Alerts for your keywords and then place comments/links in the newly formed pages on the web that Google is indexing.
Be pro-active, download the SEOQuake toolbar and find your main keyword competitors. Check out their links and then go out and get the same links. Write better, higher quality content than your main competitors because Google always rewards great content. Plus, use the free Addthis.com button and let your visitors bookmark your great content in all the social bookmark sites and build your keyword links for you.
Do keyworded Press Releases with your embedded links and spread them all over the web. Get these Press Releases into Google news and other important places on the web. PRWeb.com is really a great place for your press releases since you can embed your keywords in your links.
If you can try to get your most important keywords in your domain name. Many SEO experts argue the merits of this but from my own experience and marketing - it is much easier to rank high for your keywords if you have them in the domain name. Again, it is just common sense, if you have your main keyword in the domain, this keyword is obviously telling the search engines this is what your site is all about. I have even bought domains and created sites specifically around certain keywords just to rank high.
Always remember, you have to be persistent, I have been fighting some keyword battles for over four or five years! For really profitable keywords, it can be a constant struggle to remain on the first page, but the trick is not to give up, just keep fighting away at your competitors. Persistence usually pays off in the end and those profitable keywords will have your links in the top spot. Make ranking high for those profitable keywords your number one marketing strategy. Concentrate all your marketing efforts towards getting plenty of quality traffic for those keywords and you will succeed online.
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009
It can't be emphasized enough, especially to beginning online webmasters or marketers, choosing the right profitable keywords will largely determine whether or not you succeed with your online endeavors. You simply must get this element right or your marketing will be in big trouble.
What are Keywords?
Lets start at the very beginning, keywords are the exact words someone types into a search engine to find what they're looking for on the web. Some keywords are valuable / profitable, while others are virtually worthless.
Profitable keywords are the ones that convert into a sale, a lead or potential client/customer for your company or product. These are the words someone is searching in order to buy a product or hire a service. Someone searching for "honeymoon vacatíon packages" is probably in the market to book a honeymoon vacatíon and could turn out to be very profitable for the right website or business.
Profitable keywords are the ones where the searcher is in the right "mind-set" or frame of mind to buy what they're searching for on the web. Tailor your marketing online to target these profitable keywords and it can spell success.
So what's the whole process for finding or choosing profitable keywords to use in your marketing? Lets look at some ways to proceed...
Number of Keyword Searches?
You need to find out how many searches are made for your chosen keywords each month. Simply use WordTracker or a site like SEOBook. These will give you a preliminary number of searches made each month for your keyword. Highly popular, well-searched keywords with hundreds of thousands of searches each month will be extremely hard to rank for because you will have stiff competition from major companies with limitless resources.
I like to pick less popular keywords that get only a couple of hundred of searches each day because my chances of getting on the first page greatly increases. But don't get fixated on the number of searches, some keyword phrases that only get four or five searches daily, can still be very profitable.
For serious keyword research in a particular niche market I like to use Brad Callen's Keyword Elite which is professionally designed software that makes all your keyword research so much easier. But there are plenty of free keyword tools you can use. One handy keyword tool is Google Adwords external suggestion tool which will help you find valuable keywords.
Commercial Intent of Keywords?
But how do you know if a keyword is profitable? Well, one convenient tool is from MSN which helps you with "Detecting Online Commercial Intention" of keywords. Just type in a keyword and it will give you a percentage or probability your keyword query has commercial benefit or intent.
Conversion Rate of Keywords?
Once you have your chosen keywords in place, next you want to have a landing page that converts those keywords or traffic from those keywords into buyers or leads for your online business. This is another crucial element of your online marketíng - you must have a landing page or content/site that converts into a sale or you obviously won't make any revenue.
Keep in mind, if you're into affiliate marketing, you main goal is not to sell but to "pre-sell" your products or services. One effective way I have found to do this is to give potential customers/clients valuable information they can use in making their final purchasing choice. Comparison sites do well, as do review sites, top ten sites... potential customers use the Internet and keywords to not only find products but more so, to find information on those products. Your goal should be to provide this valuable information to make their task a little bit easier for them and they will reward you with a sale.
Long-Tail Keywords?
Long-Tail keywords are simply that: long three or four word phrases that searchers use to find what they're looking for on the web. Because they are highly specific, long-tail keywords have proven to have better conversion rates than general keywords. This is also just common sense, someone searching for a "2005 ford mustang convertible" may just be in the right mind-set to buy such a vehicle; as compared to someone searching for a more general keyword phrase such as "sports cars."
Study your website traffic logs religiously to find long-tail keywords that turn into a sale. Target these long-tail keywords in your marketing. Even buy PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising in the three major search engines - Google Adwords, Yahoo! Marketing and MicroSoft AdCenter - for these valuable/profitable keywords.
And build higher rankings in organic search for these long-tail keyword phrases. It's really not that difficult for long phrases, especially if they're related to your site; many times you can reach the top spot in a matter of days, especially in Google.
How to Rank High for Your Chosen Profitable Keywords?
Of course, the million dollar question is: HOW do you rank in the top spot for your chosen keywords? I believe the key to ranking high in the search engines (especially Google) is to be persistent in building your rankings for your keywords. Take a long-term view or approach, sometimes it may take months, even years, to rank in the top Five for your highly competitive keywords.
The best strategy is to "stick to it" and keep building relevant links to your keyword landing page. Create related blogs with valuable content linking back to your keywords. Write keyword related articles and distribute them all over the web. Create Google Alerts for your keywords and then place comments/links in the newly formed pages on the web that Google is indexing.
Be pro-active, download the SEOQuake toolbar and find your main keyword competitors. Check out their links and then go out and get the same links. Write better, higher quality content than your main competitors because Google always rewards great content. Plus, use the free Addthis.com button and let your visitors bookmark your great content in all the social bookmark sites and build your keyword links for you.
Do keyworded Press Releases with your embedded links and spread them all over the web. Get these Press Releases into Google news and other important places on the web. PRWeb.com is really a great place for your press releases since you can embed your keywords in your links.
If you can try to get your most important keywords in your domain name. Many SEO experts argue the merits of this but from my own experience and marketing - it is much easier to rank high for your keywords if you have them in the domain name. Again, it is just common sense, if you have your main keyword in the domain, this keyword is obviously telling the search engines this is what your site is all about. I have even bought domains and created sites specifically around certain keywords just to rank high.
Always remember, you have to be persistent, I have been fighting some keyword battles for over four or five years! For really profitable keywords, it can be a constant struggle to remain on the first page, but the trick is not to give up, just keep fighting away at your competitors. Persistence usually pays off in the end and those profitable keywords will have your links in the top spot. Make ranking high for those profitable keywords your number one marketing strategy. Concentrate all your marketing efforts towards getting plenty of quality traffic for those keywords and you will succeed online.
By Titus Hoskins (c) 2009
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Gasta keywords:Fathom SEO
Do your keywords support your site? Unfortunately, the answer is no for many people choosing keywords for search engine optimization purposes. According to Mike Murray of Fathom SEO, people depend too much on tools such as Keyword Discovery, Google Keyword Tool, and SpyFu. These tools can be helpful, but there is also a great amount of research on your part that needs to be done.
There must be a web page to support every keyword. Similar words do not count; they must be exact. Make sure your keywords are a good investment. If you choose the wrong keywords, you’re going to lose money and waste time.
Mike refers to people who do this as “people with their heads in the clouds.” He says people who dream up keywords are not going to have success in their efforts and need to come back to earth and be practical.
Mike suggests looking at the following factors when selecting a keyword list:
- Keywords in domain name
- Website analytics
- Competitors’ rankings
- Inbound links
- Where you ranked today, which page ranked, and on what search engine
Also, look for value in your PPC campaign. If someone is paying for a keyword, then it should be taken under consideration for your SEO program as well. It is possible that the same keywords could work for both programs.
Lastly, don’t look at who is ranking number 1 or 2. Look where websites are ranking that are similar to your site. You could be comparing your website, which is operated by 3 people, to a website that is run by a large corporation. Mike recommends first looking at the website’s age, size, and other factors before taking action. You may need to address other issues on your website to compete effectively.
SEO is a long process and the investment into keywords should not be taken lightly. After looking at the above factors, let’s again ask the question: Do your keywords support your website?
There must be a web page to support every keyword. Similar words do not count; they must be exact. Make sure your keywords are a good investment. If you choose the wrong keywords, you’re going to lose money and waste time.
Mike refers to people who do this as “people with their heads in the clouds.” He says people who dream up keywords are not going to have success in their efforts and need to come back to earth and be practical.
Mike suggests looking at the following factors when selecting a keyword list:
- Keywords in domain name
- Website analytics
- Competitors’ rankings
- Inbound links
- Where you ranked today, which page ranked, and on what search engine
Also, look for value in your PPC campaign. If someone is paying for a keyword, then it should be taken under consideration for your SEO program as well. It is possible that the same keywords could work for both programs.
Lastly, don’t look at who is ranking number 1 or 2. Look where websites are ranking that are similar to your site. You could be comparing your website, which is operated by 3 people, to a website that is run by a large corporation. Mike recommends first looking at the website’s age, size, and other factors before taking action. You may need to address other issues on your website to compete effectively.
SEO is a long process and the investment into keywords should not be taken lightly. After looking at the above factors, let’s again ask the question: Do your keywords support your website?
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Gasta Tech News: Online Media Shift gears up.
By Robert Moskowitz part 1.
March 24, 2009
Consumers of offline media are shifting to online media by the millions. And while advertisers' dollars are following them, publishers have not yet figured out how to generate the same levels of revenue from online advertising as they traditionally have from offline.
According to Michael Hirschorn, for example, writing in the January/February issue of The Atlantic magazine, "Already, most readers of The [New York] Times are consuming it online. The Web site… boasted an impressive 20 million unique users for the month of October… The print product, meanwhile, is sold to a mere million readers a day and dropping….
"The conundrum, of course, is that those 1 million print readers … are worth about five figures a page to advertisers, [and] are far more profitable than the 20 million unique Web users, who… could support only 20 percent of the [newspaper's] current staff…"
A canary in a coal mine, the nation's "paper of record" is thus struggling financially, another victim of an economic atmosphere that grows increasingly unable to keep today's print publications alive.
Since they depend very heavily on such publishers to reach their prospects, it's important for advertisers to understand why access to 20 million online readers yields only 20 percent of the revenue commanded by access to one million print readers.
The commonly held view is that online avails are heavily underpriced, providing extraordinary ROI that is totally unreflected in the rate card.
"While I understand where you are going with this argument," says Matt Spiegel, CEO, Omnicom Media Group Digital, "it isn't that straightforward. First, most of the time, the online and offline versions of the ads are not truly that similar. Second, calculating ROI isn't as simple for traditional channels like print."
Ted Ellet, SVP, group media director, at DraftFCB in New York, an agency offering creative, accountable marketing programs, suggests that, "The reasons why you might be doing something online vs. offline are so different that it's not necessarily fair to compare the ad prices. There are many different possible explanations for why prices might not be equivalent."
"It's not a black and white situation," confirms Seb Maitra, SVP of media, analytics, search, in the Boston office of Hill Holliday, a national communications agency. "If you just compare CPMs for online display ads to TV or radio ads, you can make the argument [about price imbalances] from a CPM standpoint. But look at the content and real estate you get: A 30-second TV spot allows you to tell your story in a much richer way.
"Sure, offline is probably priced on the high side," Maitra acknowledges, "but I wouldn't necessarily say that's true, carte blanche. Think about outdoor ads. Depending on the location, your noticeability, particularly on a highway, is about 2 seconds, which is about the same time span as a display ad on a web page. And the CPMs are also very comparable."
Online ad salespeople talk about engagement, but there's also distraction. A full-page ad or a page-dominant ad grabs a huge amount of mind share. In contrast, a web page contains many distractions: embedded links, active graphics, scrolling text, video, and more. Your online ad fights for attention in ways your offline ad simply does not.
And there are other differences that can justify discrepancies in relative pricing…
A branding ad, for example, doesn't require measuring the number of people who see it. The mere fact that you have a quarter-page ad on the Op/Ed page of Friday's New York Times is huge. It's enough to attract many of the people who are important to you. When advertisers think beyond reach/frequency/eyeballs to focus on their desired outcomes with specific target audiences, the argument that online is so trackable begins to lose force, particularly in light of current cable TV experiments with similarly specific ad targeting. Savvy advertisers know it's more important to figure out the relative contribution of each ad in a series that nudges prospects toward a purchase. Just knowing an ad has been delivered to a computer is a sub-par argument these days.
In addition, there is relatively little competition for specific audiences in the print world. How many other offline availabilities deliver the same audience as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, or TV's "The Oprah Winfrey Show"? In the online world, however, there may be literally thousands of websites all delivering the very demographic you seek.
March 24, 2009
Consumers of offline media are shifting to online media by the millions. And while advertisers' dollars are following them, publishers have not yet figured out how to generate the same levels of revenue from online advertising as they traditionally have from offline.
According to Michael Hirschorn, for example, writing in the January/February issue of The Atlantic magazine, "Already, most readers of The [New York] Times are consuming it online. The Web site… boasted an impressive 20 million unique users for the month of October… The print product, meanwhile, is sold to a mere million readers a day and dropping….
"The conundrum, of course, is that those 1 million print readers … are worth about five figures a page to advertisers, [and] are far more profitable than the 20 million unique Web users, who… could support only 20 percent of the [newspaper's] current staff…"
A canary in a coal mine, the nation's "paper of record" is thus struggling financially, another victim of an economic atmosphere that grows increasingly unable to keep today's print publications alive.
Since they depend very heavily on such publishers to reach their prospects, it's important for advertisers to understand why access to 20 million online readers yields only 20 percent of the revenue commanded by access to one million print readers.
The commonly held view is that online avails are heavily underpriced, providing extraordinary ROI that is totally unreflected in the rate card.
"While I understand where you are going with this argument," says Matt Spiegel, CEO, Omnicom Media Group Digital, "it isn't that straightforward. First, most of the time, the online and offline versions of the ads are not truly that similar. Second, calculating ROI isn't as simple for traditional channels like print."
Ted Ellet, SVP, group media director, at DraftFCB in New York, an agency offering creative, accountable marketing programs, suggests that, "The reasons why you might be doing something online vs. offline are so different that it's not necessarily fair to compare the ad prices. There are many different possible explanations for why prices might not be equivalent."
"It's not a black and white situation," confirms Seb Maitra, SVP of media, analytics, search, in the Boston office of Hill Holliday, a national communications agency. "If you just compare CPMs for online display ads to TV or radio ads, you can make the argument [about price imbalances] from a CPM standpoint. But look at the content and real estate you get: A 30-second TV spot allows you to tell your story in a much richer way.
"Sure, offline is probably priced on the high side," Maitra acknowledges, "but I wouldn't necessarily say that's true, carte blanche. Think about outdoor ads. Depending on the location, your noticeability, particularly on a highway, is about 2 seconds, which is about the same time span as a display ad on a web page. And the CPMs are also very comparable."
Online ad salespeople talk about engagement, but there's also distraction. A full-page ad or a page-dominant ad grabs a huge amount of mind share. In contrast, a web page contains many distractions: embedded links, active graphics, scrolling text, video, and more. Your online ad fights for attention in ways your offline ad simply does not.
And there are other differences that can justify discrepancies in relative pricing…
A branding ad, for example, doesn't require measuring the number of people who see it. The mere fact that you have a quarter-page ad on the Op/Ed page of Friday's New York Times is huge. It's enough to attract many of the people who are important to you. When advertisers think beyond reach/frequency/eyeballs to focus on their desired outcomes with specific target audiences, the argument that online is so trackable begins to lose force, particularly in light of current cable TV experiments with similarly specific ad targeting. Savvy advertisers know it's more important to figure out the relative contribution of each ad in a series that nudges prospects toward a purchase. Just knowing an ad has been delivered to a computer is a sub-par argument these days.
In addition, there is relatively little competition for specific audiences in the print world. How many other offline availabilities deliver the same audience as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, or TV's "The Oprah Winfrey Show"? In the online world, however, there may be literally thousands of websites all delivering the very demographic you seek.
Monday, 23 March 2009
Gasta Opinion: Cheap is top reccession keyword
"Cheap" is not a dirty word
Old school best practices for writing brand marketing copy have included the omission of terms that may reflect poorly on a company, including the term "cheap" to describe a product or service.
But is this practical in the world of SEO? In these seemingly dire economic times, search volume for phrases that include the term "cheap" has spiked. In an iMedia article published last May, Craig Macdonald at Covario cited comScore research (from December 2007) indicating the search phrase "cheap airfare" alone is worth about $8 million.
According to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, the average monthly search volume for the phrase "cheap insurance" typically amounts to 673,000 queries. Last month, the number of queries for this term rocketed to 2.7 million. Likewise, the average monthly search volume for the phrase "cheap car" is traditionally about 1 million queries. Last month, the volume exceeded 3.3 million.
So, as you consider incorporating adjectives such as "affordable," "budget," "inexpensive," "low-cost," and "thrifty" into your SEO strategies, consider this: There is a growing number of brands weaving the keyword "cheap" into their on-page SEO elements. Many are even incorporating this term into their marketing copy
Take a look at some of the brands that are capitalizing on the word "cheap" in their SEO strategies. Could your organization benefit from giving this previously taboo word some renewed consideration?
Old school best practices for writing brand marketing copy have included the omission of terms that may reflect poorly on a company, including the term "cheap" to describe a product or service.
But is this practical in the world of SEO? In these seemingly dire economic times, search volume for phrases that include the term "cheap" has spiked. In an iMedia article published last May, Craig Macdonald at Covario cited comScore research (from December 2007) indicating the search phrase "cheap airfare" alone is worth about $8 million.
According to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, the average monthly search volume for the phrase "cheap insurance" typically amounts to 673,000 queries. Last month, the number of queries for this term rocketed to 2.7 million. Likewise, the average monthly search volume for the phrase "cheap car" is traditionally about 1 million queries. Last month, the volume exceeded 3.3 million.
So, as you consider incorporating adjectives such as "affordable," "budget," "inexpensive," "low-cost," and "thrifty" into your SEO strategies, consider this: There is a growing number of brands weaving the keyword "cheap" into their on-page SEO elements. Many are even incorporating this term into their marketing copy
Take a look at some of the brands that are capitalizing on the word "cheap" in their SEO strategies. Could your organization benefit from giving this previously taboo word some renewed consideration?
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