The Work Media Internet Marketing Blog

Think before you spend. That is today's lesson. We're talking about spending with regard to what you spend on advertising, especially online advertising. We have a large client who inquired about advertising on the front page of Yahoo!. Before we even looked into what it would cost, we knew this was a bad idea.

Yahoo! has massive reach. The home page gets nearly 2 billion impressions PER DAY. That is a lot of eyeballs. It's fairly analogous to advertising during the Super Bowl, both in terms of reach and expense. So yes, advertising on the front page of Yahoo! would give you an incredible amount of exposure and probably drive a lot of traffic to your web site.

But even if you are a big enough company to afford Yahoo!, is it the best use of your money? Probably not. For a fraction of the cost, you could run ads on dozens or hundreds of web sites much more closely aligned with your target market. For instance, if you are a financial services company, you could run your ad on many financial-related web sites, where people are already interested in your type of service, for pennies on the dollar of what the Yahoo! ad would cost.

You should apply this kind of thinking to all of your marketing. Ask yourself: am I spending my money on an advertising forum that will expose my message to the maximum number of people who are good prospects for my service at the best price? If you have lots of money to spend on marketing, we still think you should apply this kind of thinking. Spend your money on targeted advertising first, and then if there are funds left over, you can use those funds on a more broad, branding-oriented campaign.

If you could use some guidance with your pay per click management or search engine optimization, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, business advice, internet marketing, marketing, paid search, pay per click, pay per click management, ppc, search engine marketing, sem, Yahoo

You probably don't realize it, but you have the ultimate tool for business success right in front of you. Assuming you sell a reasonably high quality product or service, all you have to do to be successful is get people to your web site and then use the words on your site to convince your visitors to do business with you. Fortunately, there is a marketing technique that can accomplish both of these objectives:

Pay per Click!

Or, as we usually refer to it, paid search marketing. With paid search, you can find the marketing copy that turns visitors into customers. You can run multiple ads for sets of keywords (ad groups), with each ad linking to a different landing page. You can then use the landing pages to test different copy. Make sure you set your ad groups to display the ads an even number of times (turn optimization off). After a few days or weeks (however long it takes to generate a few hundred clicks), you will have some very solid data showing which landing pages (and which copy) generate the most sales or leads.

Once you have figured out what copy converts visitors into customers or clients, it is time to get more aggressive with your campaign. Direct all your traffic to the best landing page. Increase your budget. Increase your bids (although keep an eye on your return on ad spend - you don't want to bid too high).

One critical component of making this technique work is to make sure you have conversion tracking in place. This is very easy. All you have to do is place a snippet of code supplied by the search engine on your conversion confirmation page. This will allow you to make the connection between specific keywords, ads, landing pages, and conversions.

Many times in life, the things that work seem too simple to believe. Success is not about carrying out some complicated plan - it's about doing the simple things very well. Create a plan for your business based on the technique discussed in this article, and you are guaranteed to succeed. Just don't rush the process. Be patient, and make sure you have enough data to analyze before making any big decisions.

If you could use some help implementing a data-based pay per click management plan, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad writing, advertising, copywriting, internet marketing, paid search, pay per click, ppc, search engine marketing, sem, web site marketing

We are in discussions to provide search engine marketing services to a company with a very significant presence in numerous Latin American countries. One of their primary competitors has been making extensive use of Google's content network to distribute its marketing message to the same countries, so our potential client wants to do the same thing. In the course of a conversation yesterday, we discussed something which may be something you should think about for your own search engine marketing. And that is:

Should you go wide or go deep?

Here's what we mean. We don't want to launch an all-out marketing blitz in all of this company's market countries at once. We want to start on a fairly small scale, generate some data, and then start expanding. But is the best approach to take a single country and saturate it with search and content ads (going deep), or should we pick just a few target content sites and run ads on those sites in many countries (going wide)?

Each approach has its advantages. The deep approach will generate a lot of country-specific data related to lots of different sites and search queries. Chances are pretty good that what works with one country will work with another. So if we can generate enough data, we can probably create somewhat of a template that could be applied to the search marketing campaigns in the other target countries.

The wide approach makes sense if the advertiser already has a very good idea about what specific sites are effective for its marketing message. Our prospective client believes it knows at least one site that will be very effective, although we won't know for sure until we run ads and see if they result in converting customers.

Ultimately, like everything else to do with Internet marketing, it just comes down to testing. We don't know which strategy is best until we try some different things to see what works. Our suggestion in this case is to do both. By aggressively marketing in a single country AND marketing cross-country via a few select sites, we will learn very quickly which approach is best and can start doing more of it.

So ask yourself...should you go deep or go wide? The only way to find out may be to do some testing on your own.

If you could use some help with your pay per click management, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad networks, advertising, internet marketing, local search marketing, paid search, pay per click, ppc, search engine marketing, sem, sponsored search, web site marketing

I'm still working on the specs for our Google AdWords management application. I have to say...even just doing specs for something like this is a laborious task. Trying to get everything out of my head and onto paper that I want the application to do is difficult. If I were a better programmer, I probably would have creates specs from the start for my own purposes. But it really helped me to get a feel for what we could do with the AdWords API by writing code and building the thing organically.

I'm now trying to work out the logic of how the application should make automatic bid adjustments. I have read where some applications of this type use complicated Wall Street-style algorithms to make adjustments. These applications tend to be very expensive. And I really don't think we need to worry that much about it. The situation is sort-of similar to stock trading - you can obsess over charts and technical analysis to make just the right trades, but in the long run, a steady and consistent investment plan will likely do just as well.

One problem with a single magic algorithm to make adjustments is that it does not take into account the goals of the advertiser. For purposes of our application, I don't see any way around letting the user set his own account parameters to meet his specific goals. Some advertisers may just want lots of volume, regardless of conversion rates. For those situations, obviously, a wide open, aggressive bid attack is called for. More often than not, cost per conversion is a major consideration. For those advertisers, it is critical not to bid too much. Different objectives require different strategies.

So how does this relate to you? We just want you to think about your goals while managing your paid search campaign. Do you just need the visitors? Is there a a major branding component to your campaign? Do you need to turn a profit on the campaign right away? Or are you in a position to lose money initially in order to get new customers in your system? It is important that you decide early on what exactly you want to accomplish with your paid search campaign.

Your goals will have a major impact on how you manage your campaign. If volume, branding, and name recognition are your major goals, then you will want to be aggressive, bid high, and try to position your ads as high as possible. Likewise, if you are trying to get customers into your system even at a loss, you will want to be aggressive, though possibly less so than with a branding strategy. If immediate profitability is your main concern, then you need to be much more concerned with the price you are paying for clicks and conversion rates.

If you need some help withpay per click management so that it accomplishes your goals, please contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, Google Adwords, internet marketing, MSN, pay per click, ppc, search engine marketing, sem, sponsored search, web site marketing, Yahoo Search Marketing

Welcome to the first Work Media blog post of 2008. We hope everybody had a terrific New Years!

We've been finishing up the Work Media 2008 marketing plan and it got me thinking about something very important when it comes to marketing, and that is measurement. Even though we're an Internet marketing firm, we will be using a number of different strategies for promoting ourselves in our local market, several of which are off-line. It would be foolish to exclude certain marketing venues just because they are not the techniques we specialize in providing.

But the question is: how do you know what combination of marketing strategies to use? There are many - search engine marketing (which we, obviously, heavily recommend), direct marketing, print advertising, TV, radio, etc. The first clue as to what methods to use is by finding out what methods are used by your most successful competitors, or similar types of businesses that are successful in your home market.

One problem is that the strategies used by your competitors may not be the same that work for your business. So ultimately what you have to do is try different things and track results as tightly as you can. You need to try and associate leads with the marketing techniques that generated those leads. A couple of ways of doing this is to use a special URL or phone number with different advertising campaigns. For instance, if you run a TV ad campaign, you might direct viewers to a URL like "www.mysite.com/TV". Then when you check your stats, you can see how many visitors you had to the "TV" URL, which will give you a good idea how effective the campaign was.

This strategy is not perfect. In the above example, someone could type your URL without the "TV", in which case you would not be able to make the connection. But this strategy is at least a starting point. A more accurate, but more complicated, way to measure ad campaign performance is to set up a unique phone number for different ads. Then you can tell which ads are working by how many calls come in for different phone numbers. There are a number of different companies that can help you set these phone numbers up and provide call tracking.

So when you are working out your marketing plan (you do have a marketing plan, don't you?), please keep in mind how you are going to measure performance. Finding the right marketing mix can mean the difference between success and failure for your marketing and your business.

For help implementing a successful marketing plan for your business, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, analytics, business advice, business planning, internet marketing, marketing, marketing plan, performance measurement, tracking, web site marketing

We are working on Work Media's 2008 marketing plan, so I thought that would be a good subject for today's blog post. I was listening to an audio program at some point in the last year that had a formula for a seven sentence marketing plan. This may be a Michael Gerber invention (I can't remember exactly who it was), but here are the seven questions to ask to create your seven sentence marketing plan:

1. What action do you want your prospects to take?

2. What is your competitive advantage?

3. Who is your target market?

4. What marketing weapons are you going to use?

5. What is your niche in the marketplace?

6. What is your "identity"?

7. What is your marketing budget (as a % of projected gross sales)?

If you use these seven questions as a mental diving board to think deeply about your business' marketing, you will be in good position to sketch out a more detailed plan. It might be a good idea to create one document that is literally a seven sentence plan based on the above questions (a sort-of thumbnail) and another document that elaborates in much greater detail.

An important part of having a plan is LOOKING at the plan periodically. I'll admit that we have historically been bad about creating a nice plan and then having it sit in a shelf collecting dust. I know we're not the only ones. But let's change our ways, starting in 2008. You've got about two and half weeks left this year to do your brainstorming and create your plans for the new year. So get your marketing plan created and look at it periodically to see if you're on track. It just might make a huge difference in your performance for the new year.

And of course, make sure you have an Internet component to your marketing plan. Search engine marketing is the only form of marketing that can immediately place your message in front of people who are looking for exactly what you're selling.

If you need some help developing a strong Internet marketing plan, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net. We specialize in helping companies find just the right combination of strategies. We would love to help you.

Labels: advertising, business advice, business plan, business planning, internet marketing, marketing, marketing plan

The human mind is a wondrous and complicated thing. It is also completely unpredictable. When it comes to writing ads for paid search marketing, you might think you know what copy will cause people to click your ad...but you really don't. We've preached this before but it bears worth repeating - the only way to know what works is by testing. Here are some different things you can test that could have a profound and unexpected impact on the success of your ads.

Capitalization. Most marketers capitalize the first letter of every major word in the title. You should try that as well as not capitalizing any letters. Do the same with your display URL.

The order of content. Let's say you have an ad with both an offer as well as a deadline. Try running ads with the offer first and with the deadline first.

Dynamic versus static content. Most search engines now allow you to dynamically have the keyword that triggers the ad placed in the headline or copy. Usually, this will result in higher click-throughs, but not always. Experiment to see what works for you.

The display URL. Try using "www" versus leaving it out. Try just the root domain name versus a domain that includes a sub-folder with keywords. For example, "www.yourdomain.com" versus "yourdomain.com/keyword".

Adjectives. For example, "easy" versus "fast". One of the two will probably trigger many more clicks. The only way to know the right psychological trigger is to test both.

Call to action. Visit now...Buy now...Learn more. These are all different ways of specifically requesting that the reader of the ad click the ad to visit your web site. Try different calls to action as well as not having a call to action to see what works best.

If you experiment with the above elements of your ads, you will have a much better chance at discovering the ad copy that generates the highest click-through rates as well as conversion rates. Another important part of this analysis will be only changing a single ad element at any one time. For example, if you change both the display URL and the call to action at the same time, you won't know which change causes a chance in the performance of the ad. This kind of analysis will not only drive the most traffic to your site, it will save you some money because ads with higher click-through rates can be displayed above ads with lower click-through rates even if the placement bid is lower.

If you need professional advice for managing your paid search campaign, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad writing, advertising, copywriting, Google Adwords, internet marketing, marketing, paid search, pay per click, ppc, search engine marketing, web site marketing, Yahoo Search Marketing

Here are five pieces of advice for your blog (you do blog don't you?).

1. Go deep. Here's what we mean - unless you're the kind of writer who is so fascinating that people will hang on your every word no matter what you say - and it's probably a safe bet that you're not - the best way for you to attract readers is to focus on a narrow subject. Pick a niche and stick to it. Become known as a top expert in a very narrow field.

2. Establish relationships with other bloggers in your field. Now, I will admit, we are terrible about doing this. We publish this blog but do little posting of comments to other blogs, which is what we should be doing. My only excuse is that we're so dang busy we do good just to get this blog posted. But YOU should do better. Spend some time reading and commenting on others' blogs and you will help drive traffic to your blog.

3. Use traffic-generating keywords in your blog. Set up an account at Nichebot.com, then use it to find keywords that generate a lot of traffic. You might also want to go to some of the social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and look in the tag clouds to see what tags people are using for blogs in your industry. Using these keywords in your blog will increase your blog's exposure and drive traffic to it.

4. Monetize your blog...subtly. Use in-text links to link to products or services for which you are an affiliate. You will probably have much more success with this style of link than a more obvious banner or AdSense-style link. Not only will you generate more clicks, but it will seem less like you are advertising than simply making recommendations. If your readers trust you, then they might just take your recommendations...and make you some money.

5. Blog a minimum of three times per week, and ping your blog out to various directories every time. If you don't have time to effectively author and promote your blog, then you need to find someone who can do it for you.

Work Media offers a blog authoring and management service. If you need some help with your blog, feel free to give us a call at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, blog, blog marketing, blogging, blogging advice, blogging service, internet marketing, keyword research, keywords

Facebook has just released a new advertising platform called Flyers Pro ads intended specifically for serving targeted ads to Facebook users. Rather than serving ads based on keywords, like search ads, the ads are served based on user profiles. For example, you can choose to display ads to users who, according to their profile, are fans of a certain TV show, movie, or sports team. You can also target them based on where they stand politically - liberal, moderate, or conservative (what about Libertarians like me?).

I confess to knowing little about Facebook. I used to play in a band, and we used MySpace to promote our band. But in the last couple of years I've just been too busy to spend much time engaging in online social networking. So the whole Facebook phenomenon has pretty well passed me by. Another part of it is that I am already on the outside of the age range of heavy users of the service.

According to Facebook, the oldest age with at least 1 million Facebook uers is 24, and the age with the most total Facebook uers is 19. I'm 34, so I'm on the outside looking in.


BUT...I am an Internet marketer. So now that Facebook is opening itself up as a marketing medium, I'm interested. The way ads in Facebook are targeted is completely different from search engines. Will it be effective? Who knows? But it's definitely something that advertisers should try out. I know we will. Like all forms of marketing, it will take a lot of testing to find what works (if it works at all), but it is a low cost form of marketing that should be explored.

If you could use some help with your online marketing, please contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, Facebook, internet marketing, paid search, pay per click, ppc, sponsored search, web marketing, web site marketing

Work Media has opened up shop at our new offices on 2nd Ave. in Nashville. We have a "sister company" now, in Frank/Best International ("FBI"), a successful advertising agency with some very large clients that include Honda Power Equipment and AKG Microphones. Our relationship with FBI allows us to offer a full array of services, including:

Search engine optimization

Paid search marketing

Public relations campaigns (both online and offline)

Online Video advertising

TV advertising

Print ad campaigns

In other words, we are now a full-service shop. We can accommodate all of your needs. We believe the next wave to hit the advertising industry will be integrated shops that can provide clients with both offline and online advertising services. Work Media is proud to be one of the first (if not THE first) companies in Nashville to be on the cutting edge of the advertising industry. We have access to not only the technology to create cross-media campaigns, but also to the brain power of advertising industry veterans with years of experience creating successful campaigns for some of the world's largest companies.

So what can we do for you? Call us today at 888-299-4837 or stop by our offices at 705 2nd Ave. S. in Nashville. The Work brothers (and our new partners) are ready to go to work for you.

Labels: advertising, internet marketing, marketing, Nashville, paid search, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, seo

LowerMyBills.com has raised quite a stir in the world of online advertising the last few years for its crazy ads featuring people dancing or creatures acting goofy. The company spends $80 million/year online running those ads. But it has paid off because the company (from what we understand) is very successful.

The company's ads often feature several identical shaded-in figures who are dancing in sync. The ads are annoying but they have accomplished their goal of getting the attention of the viewer.

Recently, we have noticed that other companies have started running ads that are almost exactly the same - shaded in figures dancing in sync. Personally, when I see the ads, I think of LowerMyBills. They've been so aggressive in running those ads that just seeing that style of ad automatically triggers thoughts of the company. Which completely defeats the purpose of having another company run the ad.

In our opinion, you do no good for your company by copying ads from already established ad campaigns. If you want to borrow the general idea, then that's fine - but you need to mix things up! Create your own wacky characters. Create your own style. Because if all you are doing is perfectly copying highly successful ads from another company, really all you're doing is emphasizing the success of the original company.

So think of your own ideas. Or if you're going to borrow ideas from others, give it your own touch. Put some effort into your marketing, and you will be much more successful in the long-term.

If you need help implementing an online marketing campaign for your business, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, banner ads, branding, internet marketing, online branding, search engine marketing, search marketing

It is possible to weld the core business motive of generating profit with virtues such as charity and environmentalism. Not only is it possible, it is advisable.

If you incorporate an element of charity into a marketing campaign, such as giving a percentage of earnings to a particular charity, it gives you the opportunity to tap into a whole new network. It also gives you a hook for public relations purposes. It goes without saying that the charity should be one that you have researched and want to be associated with.

Having an environmental element to your marketing is another great way to gain the participation of socially aware prospects. People who are devoted to a particular cause are aggressive about dissiminating information in support thereof. So if you associate your marketing campaign with that cause, then you will win the loyalty of and help from the people who believe in the cause.

If you can combine the above elements with a discount or money-saving offer, then you compound the effectiveness of the offer. You will also have all of the makings of a strong press release campaign. Online PR can be used to distribute your message to thousands of web sites. If you push the right buttons, you can generate a ton of traffic from environmentally-conscious individuals who will be receptive to your offer.

If you need help crafting a socially responsible marketing campaign and message for your business, give Work Media a call at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, charity, email marketing, environmentalism, internet marketing, marketing, pr, publicity, social media

You've probably heard that Google has recently purchased Double Click, an ad network management company. Well, in keeping pace, Yahoo! has just announced the purchase of Right Networks, an online ad exchange. Both deals greatly increase the respective company's reach by increasing the total ad inventory available.

So what does this mean to you?

It means the sooner you adapt to the new world of Internet-driven advertising, the better able you will be to take advantage of converging media. Face it - Google and Yahoo! are no longer search engines or directories. They are full-blown media giants who are steadily increasing their reach, both on-line and off-line. Being an informed advertiser experienced in the use of search engine interfaces gives you the cutting edge advantage. Soon you will be able to purchase search engine ads, TV ads, print media ads, billboards...all from a single company, using single centralized media management control panel.

Don't fear the future. Be on the cutting edge. It starts by running a simple pay-per-click text ad campaign. Where it goes from there, is only limited by your imagination and willingness to learn.

If you would like help entering the world of search engine marketing, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad networks, advertising, internet marketing, marketing, paid search, pay per click, ppc, search marketing, sponsored search, web site marketing

You need to think of all of your marketing efforts as an integrated campaign - TV, radio, print, search, online content networks...it all needs to support one another, and it all needs to be tightly focused on achieving some kind of objective.

Now that video is a mainstream feature of the Web, you can make multiple uses of any video you shoot. For instance, let's say you shoot a TV commercial. If the commercial has some element of humor or takes on a very serious topic, then you could re-package it as a video for use on YouTube and similar sites. With any luck, some people will find it, like it, and start passing it around. Then you could repackage it into a short video ad for use on the Google content network. We have found that, up to this point, video ads generate fewer clicks, but it may turn out that those clicks convert at a higher rate than text ads. We don't have the data to back that up yet, but it's a hunch.

As far as the marketing message itself, you should decide on a single converting event and create all of your marketing material so that it emphasizes that single event. Singularity of focus will go a long way toward helping you accomplish a goal with your marketing. If your message is watered down and you give people too many choices, your campaign will not be as powerful. For instance, let's say you have created some kind of free downloadable item that you want to give away on your web site as a means to gather email addresses. Your marketing related to this should all focus on the single event - getting people to your web site to fill out a form and download the item. Your TV ads should focus on it, your radio ads should focus on it, your print and online ads should focus on it.

Think about it: if all of your marketing is consistent in look and feel, and if it all points to a single event...that's powerful. Which do you think would make the most impact? A standalone TV ad asking the viewer to do one thing, a print ad asking them to something else, and a search engine ad asking something else again - or all three ads asking the viewer/reader to do the same thing? Just like singleness of purpose is a key to success in life, it's also a key to success with your marketing.

If you would like help implementing a cohesive, integrated marketing plan, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, conversion strategy, marketing, search marketing, TV advertising, web marketing

Today we thought we would tell you about some people whose work you need to seek out and study. Copywriting is possibly the single most valuable skill you can develop to be successful in our marketing, and the following list is just a few of the all-time greats whom you can study to learn how to write strong sales copy.

Dan Kennedy. One of our favorites. Dan is a marketing genius who has a straightforward (sometimes mean) style and is very entertaining to read and listen to. He has lots of products for sale at his web site. You can also find Dan's books in bookstores, with titles such as No B.S. Wealth Building for Entrepreneurs. http://www.dankennedy.com

Brian Keith Voiles. Brian wrote what is possibly the single best book on copywriting, called “Advertising Magic”. It is for sell on lots of web sites. We couldn’t figure out the official web site for the book (Brian doesn't really seem to do much self-promotion). But there are lots of places to buy it online if you search.

Jay Abraham. Possibly the top and most expensive marketing expert in the world. He also has lots of products for sale at http://www.abraham.com. His products are expensive, so you might want to seek out used copies of his books and audio material.

Claude Hopkins. In the 1920’s, Hopkins wrote a book called Scientific Advertising. It is a brilliant, ageless book that boils advertising down to a set of principles that will greatly increase your chance of success. You can find it for free if you search for it online.

There are many more fine copywriters, but if you look into the work of the above men, it will set you on the road to being a much better copywriter. Strong ad writing is very, very important to the success of your Internet marketing campaign. So we suggest you put the work into getting better at it.

For help writing copy for your marketing campaigns, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, copywriting, internet marketing, marketing, web marketing, web site marketing

An email I got this morning reminded me of a couple of good Internet marketing principles, so I thought I would talk about it.

Not too long ago, I owned an old Dodge Ram truck. I bought a part for it that I had not been able to find from a web site called AutoPartsWarehouse.com. Since then, I have received emails from them fairly regularly. Most of the emails are general in nature.

Today I got one with the following headline:

Get 5% OFF on all DODGE RAMCHARGER parts for 5 Days only + FREE Shipping

This email and headline illustrate a couple of important points about successful marketing:

1. They are using segmentation to send me emails based specifically on my past purchases. They know I have bought parts for a Dodge Ram, so they are sending me messages about Dodge Ram parts.
2. The offer is specific and contains a deadline. Deadlines are important because without them your prospects will delay on making a decision. I only have 5 days to save 5% and get free shipping.
   
3. It contains the word "FREE", which is one of the most powerful words you can use in your marketing.

How could you apply these principles to your own marketing? Do you segment your customers and send them specific messages based on their past purchases? You should.

Do you carefully craft your marketing messages to get your prospects' attention? And do you place time limits on your special offer?

Do you email past customers on a regular basis?

These are all very basic principles of modern marketing, but if you just master the basics, you will be VERY successful.

If you need some help crafting a thorough Internet marketing plan, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad writing, advertising, copywriting, email marketing, internet marketing, marketing

Google is making a lot of people very happy...and some people very sad. In a move that could begin a momentous swing for the way TV ad space is purchased, Google has announced a partnership with EchoStar Communications to launch a new system for purchasing ad space on TV channels on the EchoStar network.

In the new system, TV ad space will be auctioned on a CPM basis using an online interface much like the current AdWords system. Within 24 hours, the advertiser will know if he won the auction, where the ads ran, how many ads ran, how many households saw the ad, and EVEN IF THE HOUSEHOLD WATCHED THE ENTIRE AD OR ONLY PART OF IT. Using this information, advertisers can make adjustments to their campaign until they find the optimum combination of TV channels, times, and ad creative. In the world of TV advertising, that kind of quick feedback is unheard of. It combines the power of on-the-fly pay-per-click campaign tweaking with the massive reach of broadcast TV.

Google claims that there will also be a happy result for the consumer in the form of more relevant advertising, as advertisers adjust their campaigns based on the feedback they receive. To us, the argument from the consumer side is weak because consumers are already flooded with 10 thousand commercials a day - we don't think it matters to consumers if they view more relevant commercials. In addition, TV commercials are often filtered out or bypassed anyway. Which brings us to another point: is TV advertising dead anyway? Is Google beating a dead horse?

The answer is "no". Even if Google is entering an industry that is declining, TV advertising in some form or another will always exist. By giving advertisers a strong platform to place ads, and much better, quicker data about the performance of their ads, Google is bringing new fire to an industry that badly needed it. And eventually the world of TV will figure out a way to force-feed ads to consumers who zip through commercials...and Google will be there with its technology, making it easy and efficient to use whatever the next phase of TV advertising looks like.

In addition to the ad purchasing platform, Google will run a marketplace to hook up TV advertisers with TV commercial producers. Similar to Spot Runner (discussed yesterday), it gives any small business the ability to purchase an already-created commercial and personally brand it - drastically cutting ad production costs.

We are excited about the new TV ad platform because it moves the world of advertising closer to one universal system in which advertisers bid on ads to run on-line and off-line, with almost instant feedback to improve their ad campaigns. And you better know Work Media will be on the front-lines, helping advertisers figure this stuff out.

For help creating your own state-of-the-art marketing campaign, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, cable TV, google, Google Adwords, internet marketing, marketing, TV advertising

We're diverging slightly today from our normal course. We're all about Internet marketing here at Work Media world headquarters. But we're not just Internet geeks...we're marketers. We have spent a lot of time studying all forms of marketing, and not just the on-line variety. With that in mind, we thought today we would talk about a couple of cheap ways to do TV advertising.

In general, we are opposed to mass market "image" advertising. You can spend a whole lot of money for very little results. It is also far less measurable than online advertising. However, if you are careful about how and where you buy your air time and use TV advertising in conjunction with Internet or direct marketing, it can be a powerful addition to your marketing mix.

The two low-cost ways to advertise on TV that we are going to talk about today are: 1. Making your own commercial and purchasing discounted air time; and 2. use the services of a one-stop TV ad aggregator.

To do things on your own, you will first need to find a way to create your own commercial. Given today's cheap cameras and video editing software, this is much more feasible that it once was. But you will probably get a better result if you seek the assistance of someone who knows what he is doing.

Assuming you are able to create the commercial, the next step is buying airtime. First you should decide in advance where you would like your commercial to run. You need to target prospects who are strong candidates for your product or service. If you run a financial-related business, for instance, your best bet may be something like MSNBC - a channel that focuses on financial news.

You should try to establish a relationship with a salesperson at the TV station. If you can find one who is young and still trying to build his client portfolio, then you have a better chance at getting some deals. Once you have a relationship established, make it known that you need discount airtime and are flexible with regards to when your ads run, as long as it is on the appropriate channels. You may be able to pick up discounted airtime near the end of the month. TV stations fill unsold airtime with commercials of existing advertisers - for free. They would rather sell it to you at a discount than give it away for free.

The other option is to use the services of a company like Spot Runner. Spot Runner lets you customize a pre-created commercial with your own logo and voice over, and then lets you pick specific airtimes on specific channels. The interesting thing is that they can help you target your ads down to the neighborhood. The company already has everything in place - all you have to do is fill in the details.

One strong budget-minded use of TV advertising is to direct the viewer to your web site. Your web site can explain way more about your business than you have time to explain in a 30 or 60 second commercial. However, don't just direct viewers to your front page. Create some kind of special offer, create a landing page devoted to it, and promote the URL to the landing page in your ads.

For help creating an aggressive, multi-pronged marketing plan, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, branding, cable TV, internet marketing, marketing, TV advertising, web marketing, web site marketing

We thought we would take the time today to talk about some online advertising methods we are either already doing or are thinking about implementing.

We are working with a mortgage lead generation business that is using Google video ads. We are running the ads on news web sites local to our target markets. Google video ads are bought on a cost per thousand impressions basis, although it's still a bid model. So far we have had limited success due to lack of sufficient impressions. We are dealing with fairly small markets, so we don't really have enough data yet to make any conclusions. Our feeling is that given enough exposure, the video ads would be very effective at both generating traffic and brand building.

We are looking into using www.turn.com. It is a CPA ("Cost per Acquisition") ad network. In other words, you determine how much you are willing to pay for the accomplishment of some kind of action - a newsletter sign up, a sale, etc. - and that is what you pay. So rather than paying for just a click to your site, you are paying for the conversion, thus eliminating risk.

We are also looking at trying out some ad networks. One that looks interesting is www.mediatraffic.com. The way Media Traffic works is that the advertiser's offer is displayed in a popup or popunder window to users who have downloaded utilities by Vomba Network. The company claims there are 7 million of these users. Advertisers bid on keywords and URLs used by the Vomba Network users. When a match is found, it triggers the ad.

If you would like help running a more sophisticated Internet marketing campaign, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad networks, advertising, branding, google, Google Adwords, internet marketing, marketing, web marketing, web site marketing

Pay-per-click marketing is a fantastic way to engage in a targeted advertising campaign - this you probably already know. But what most people don't think about is what a quick and cost-effective testing ground search engine marketing is.

For example, if you sell a product that has very little actual cost of production (such as an information product), there is a price point at which you would generate the most revenue. It's probably not the lowest price you could charge, and it's probably not the highest (although it could be). It's probably somewhere in the middle. The difference between $49 and $59 could mean thousands in additional sales, but you have no idea what the right price point is until you test it.

That's where ppc comes in extremely handy. In the old days (the 90's) of direct marketing, you would have to conduct expensive sales letter campaigns to uncover such data. It took weeks and cost a considerable amount of money to run a split sales letter campaign to test two different offers. With pay-per-click, you can begin generating data today, and the cost can be as little or as much as you feel comfortable spending to find out what you need to know.

Here's how to do it:

1. Set up an ad campaign in your favorite search engine.
2. Run two or more ads for each ad group, with each ad linking to a landing page with a different offer.
3. Within a week, if your product and landing page copy is decent, you should make some sales.
4. Compare the revenue generated by each landing page. The one that generates the most revenue is probably the optimal offer.

You may want to run the test campaign for more than a week. The more data you have, the more confident you can be in your results.

This procedure can be used for any product or service.

For help using paid search engine ads to test your offers or other variables, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: advertising, internet marketing, marketing, pay per click, pay-per-click, ppc, search engine marketing, search marketing, sem, sponsored search, web marketing, web site marketing

A recent article in MediaPost.com titled "Hiring Line: Keep Your People Happy Before Someone Else Does" touched on the fact the new media advertising industry (such as paid search) has zero unemployment and workers are very hard to find and difficult to keep. There are just not very many people with any kind of experience in this industry.

So if you are reading this and are looking for a direction for your career, we encourage you to consider search engine marketing. There are basically two paths you can take: natural search engine optimization (SEO) or paid search marketing (pay-per-click, or PPC).

SEO is the process of optimizing web pages to achieve high natural search engine rankings. There is some talk about the diminishing importance of SEO given the rise of social search (sites like technorati.com and del.icio.us), but we think it will be a while before you can disregard natural search. Look at it this way: as long as people continue continue to use computer-based search engines like Google and Yahoo, and as long as your competitors are ranked in those search engines, then you need to be an aggressive competitor and get your site to the top of the rankings.

PPC is the process of running paid search ads alongside natural search results in the search engines. As search engines continue to make it more difficult to generate natural rankings, paid search has become more and more important. It is the single most targeted form of advertising there is. You place your advertising message in front of people are looking for exactly what you have to offer. PPC now includes image ads, video ads, and various other formats. But in its most basic form, it is still the use of words to compel the reader to take some action. It's an advertisement.

SEO and PPC involve two different skill sets. Although there is an element of copywriting in both, SEO involves coding, knowing how to write clean HTML and use stylesheets for formatting, as well as a lot of manual labor in the form of generating links to a web site. PPC is more like a traditional advertising medium, although you have to be skilled at managing bids, which involves some math.

If you seriously want to get in the search engine marketing industry, we advise you to become skilled at both SEO and PPC. You will become a highly desired employee and will have no trouble finding employement (well, that partly depends on where you are - search engine jobs are not found here in the South yet like they are in other areas).

To learn SEO and PPC, you are largely on your own. There are few training courses on the subjects. The best way is to learn it is to set up a web site for yourself, get your hands on as many books on the subjects as you can, and just start experimenting.

Labels: advertising, internet marketing, pay per click, pay-per-click, ppc, search engine optimization, seo, web marketing, web site marketing

When writing copy for your web site (or any other marketing piece), don't assume that the reader will understand why he should do business with you. Don't overestimate the intelligence of the reader. Write in such a way that a person who doesn't know anything about your industry will understand what you are saying. Don't worry about insulting anyone's intelligence.

In addition to producing more sales, a detailed letter written for a wide audience will be easier to read. It will flow. The reason is that reading on a computer screen is more difficult than reading on paper. It's hard on the eyes. So short sentences and short paragraphs, along with bullet points and other visual effects, are easier to follow.

Use stories, anecdotes, facts and figures to make it crystal clear to the reader why she must do business with you. You probably won't accomplish this by listing the details of what you do or sell. You must convert those features (of the product or service) into benefits (to the customer). Provide an inventory of all the benefits that will accrue to the customer. One after another. This is no time to be modest.

Give proof that what you say is true. If you have specific training, education, or certifications in your industry that are evidences of your status, then tell about it. If you have specific experience and have accomplished certain results, then tell about it. You will do this after discussing the benefits. In essence, you are trying to entice the reader into purchasing from you, and then using concrete evidence to reduce skepticism.

The final dot that needs to be connected is what action the reader needs to take. Again, don't assume that it will be obvious to the reader what he should do. Tell him what phone number to call, when to call, what email to use, when to email, what web site to go to, etc. etc. etc. Using the ideas of scarcity ("supplies are limited") or time constraints ("Offer ends this Friday") are ways to prod the reader into action. People naturally procrastinate, so you have to do something to force action.

If you would like some help writing sales copy for your web site, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad writing, advertising, content, content creation, conversion strategy, copywriting, internet marketing, marketing

Yesterday's post got us into that direct marketing kind of mode. The weather in Nashville was beautiful so I (Jerry) spent some time in the afternoon sitting outside reading a Dan Kennedy book, No B.S. Wealth Creation for Entrepreneurs. Highly recommended, as are all of Kennedy's books. Anyway, in keeping with the theme of applying direct marketing concepts to your online marketing, I thought I would spend a little more time talking about headlines.

Following is a short list of classic, proven headlines that you can modify to your own situation:

How a New Kind of Clay Improved my Complexion in 30 Days

How I Improved my Memory in One Evening

6 Types of Investors - Which Group Are You In?

A Little Mistake that Cost a Farmer $3,000 a Year

Advice to Wives Whose Husbands Don't Save Money

Are You Ever Tongue-Tied at a Party?

Discover the Fortune that Lies Hidden in Your Salary

Who Much is a Little Leak Costing Your Company?


One thing these ads all have in common is that they pique the curiosity of the reader without giving away too much detail. Each one is a little bit of a mystery. The point is to make the reader want to read more to find out the detail. Each play on a concern or problem that the prospect has, and implies that reading more will reveal the solution to the problem.

The headlines should also be tied to your "USP" - your Unique Selling Proposition. This is the thing that separates you from others in your industry, and the reason someone should do business with you. Jay Abraham has a technique for creating a USP that is very simple but does a great job in helping you discover the USP for your business. Here is what you do:

1. Get a couple of sheets of paper and a pen.
2. At the top of one sheet, write "You know how..."
3. At the top of the other, write "Well, what we do is..."
4. Then just fill in the blanks.

For example, if you are a stock broker, you might say:

"You know how some stock brokers don't ever call you to let you know how your portfolio is doing?"

and then respond with:

"Well, what we do is call all of our clients every Friday afternoon with a report about how their portfolio did that week."

You could then build your USP around the idea that you provide superior customer service by calling all of your clients weekly to discuss their portfolio. This could then be tied into a headline such as "Does Your Stock Broker Ever Leave You Wondering What's Going on With Your Account?" Your headline then feeds into your marketing content where you explain about the extra effort your firm puts into maintaining communication with your clients.

So start with your USP, and then use it to create a powerful, provocative headline which leads into benefit-packed advertising copy. Do this on your web site, your emails, and all other forms on online marketing.

If you would like help implementing an effective online marketing campaign for your business, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: ad writing, advertising, content, content creation, conversion strategy, copywriting, internet marketing, web marketing, web site marketing