How To Start Getting New Business From Google By Tomorrow

Getting to the top of the free or natural listings (on the left hand side) of search engines takes time and know-how but there is a much quicker, simpler way to start getting new business from Google – advertise!

Here are 4 Good Reasons Why You Should Advertise with Google Adwords;

1. Your ad will appear at the very moment someone is looking for your solution to their problem using the most popular Search Engine of all
2. Your ads can be up and running in just a day
3. You can control how much you spend and pause the ads whenever you like
4. You can quickly learn which search phrases are the best for your business

There are a few things you need to know before you get started:

With search engine advertising (also referred to as paid search and cpc – cost per click advertising) you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

The ads are at the top, to the right and now at the bottom of a page of listings.  The listings on the left are there naturally ie because Google has decided that those web pages are completely relevant to the searched for phrase, you don’t pay when someone clicks on one of these natural listings, you get there by search engine optimising your website for them.

You decide how much you want to bid for each keyphrase and this determines where on the page your ad appears.  If you’re the highest bidder you’ll appear at the top of the listings.  If your bid is too low it won’t appear on page one at all.  Depending on your market and the results of your keyphrase research you may want to start bidding £1/click and then adjust it depending on where your ad appears.

Your ads will appear at precisely the moment someone is looking for a solution to a problem you can solve.  They will be timely and relevant and with a strong, compelling offer and a website that converts those new visitors to buyers Google Adwords offers businesses a controllable and affordable way to find new clients.

Get the most from your campaign and spend your advertising budget wisely by following these 8 Budget Maximising Tips.

1.        Do your keyword research first.

Spend some quality time deciding which search terms or Most Wanted Keywords you would like your website to appear for.  Read my post How To Help Google Find You for more details on how to do this research.

2.        Add Google Analytics to your website

When your campaign is up and running, you’ll want to know where your new visitors went in your site and how long they stayed etc.  Google’s analytics programme will help you learn all about your visitors and how to improve your site and the campaign.

3.       Optimise your landing pages

You don’t want your ads to just click through to your generic home page.  You want them to go to a page that includes an offer or information that is specific to the keyphrase you are targeting.  So create some new pages that are very focused and which ideally also include a free report/voucher/offer/article which visitors must sign up for.  This way you not only get a new visitor but also an email address so that you can continue the conversation with them.  Creating specific landing pages also improves your ad ‘Quality Scores’ which can reduce your bid price.

4.        Limit your daily spend

When you’re starting out with Google adwords it’s wise to limit your daily spend to just a few pounds a day.  I generally begin with a maximum of £5 a day and then see how that goes depending on how much the clicks are costing.  This means you don’t risk spending too much money on keyphrases which may not generate any business for you.  Once you are convinced that you are seeing a good return on your investment then you can increase your daily budget.

5.        Only bid on exact keyphrases

To begin with only target exact keyphrases [they’ll be listed in square brackets if they’re exact] rather than broad matches.  This means that you’ll only pay if someone actually typed in that precise phrase rather than a phrase that included those words.  You can open it out later once you have a good idea of how your campaign is running.

6.        Limit your location

If your business is very local then only advertise in the areas you serve.  You don’t want to pay for an ad that’s been clicked on in Hull if you only offer Garden Maintenance in Surrey. You can limit your advertising spread by town or country, just bear in mind that the smaller the area, the fewer the number of clicks you’ll get.

7.        Make your ads very specific

If your product is a luxury item, make that clear in your ad, you don’t want to pay for a click from someone looking for a cheap or DIY product.  If you have a special offer on include it and it’s price in the ad.  Remember you’ll pay for this click even if someone immediately leaves so you want to cut out as many wasted clicks as possible.  Test two or three different ads at a time.  Delete the ones that don’t generate clicks and add new ones which improve on the ads that are working.

8.        Monitor your campaign closely.

Once you start your ad campaign running, keep a close eye on it.  If you find you’re not getting enough clicks you’ll need to tweak your ads.  If you’re getting lots of clicks but for less relevant phrases you’ll want to reduce your bid price or remove those phrases all together.  For the first week or two you’ll be checking your progress every day making sure you’re only paying for the clicks you want.  This is the beauty of online advertising.  You can pause the campaign, increase or reduce your daily budget and edit your ads whenever you want – you are in control.

With those tips in mind you can run a Google adwords campaign that will start bringing new visitors to your website quickly.  It will cost you in advertising budget (unless you have one of those handy Google vouchers) but the education you’ll also get will be enormous.

You’ll find out which ads and offers work best, you’ll discover if your site and promotions convert browsers into buyers or not.  Most importantly you’ll learn which keyphrases convert into new business and are worth your time and effort search engine optimising your website for.

So why not fast forward your marketing this week and get your site listed on Google?

Marketing Goal for the Week  

Follow Google’s easy instructions here www.google.co.uk/AdWords and my 8 tips and get your advertising campaign up and running this week.  Depending on your business, it’s likely to be much cheaper and more effective than advertising in any other medium.

Goal Complete!

Three Ways to Help Your Business Stand Out

When I ask my clients at our first web briefing meeting what is unique or different about their business, they will often tell me that they provide fantastic customer service, that the quality of their product or service is second to none or that they are the cheapest…

But most consumers expect great customer service, quality and value for money as standard now, so these are no longer areas where it is easy to differentiate.

When you know what makes your company really different from the rest you’ll be able to convey that uniqueness clearly and the benefits of working with you rather than anyone else will quickly become evident to all your prospects.

So this week I’m encouraging you to take some time out to think hard about what makes your business different from your competition – why should anyone do business with you?

Once you know your USPs (Unique Selling Points) inside out, helping your business stand out becomes much easier.  Here are three low-cost ways to promote your differences;

1.        Develop a signature product, programme or service which is unique to you and your business. 

It’s all too easy to want to be all things to all people, but filtering what you offer down to one remarkable and benefits driven service which becomes synonymous with you is a very effective way to stand out from the crowd.

It might be a workshop, a specialised coaching session or a small sample of your most popular product.  Give it an eye catching and memorable name.   If you make your “thing” a fairly low cost offer then it also provides a less risky way for your prospects to get to know more about you and once they experience what you do at this level, they’ll be more receptive to hearing about your more in-depth programmes or more expensive products.

It’s then vitally important to communicate the direct and tangible benefits of your signature product to your customer.  Try to convey a vision of how they will feel after they’ve been served by you.

2.        Share your uniqueness with the world

One of the main challenges a small business faces is a lack of budget for marketing and advertising.  Social media offers a low-cost way to talk about your business and reach a far wider audience than you would otherwise be able to afford.  But social networking can be a fairly slow burn process in terms of seeing a return and it can take up a lot of your time.

In spite of this, a very good reason to start engaging with social platforms and especially blogging is to establish and position yourself as an authority on your area of expertise or as an insightful aggregator of information on it.  Having a clear, ‘education driven’ strategy makes it far less intimidating to get started and allows your prospects to get to know you and what you stand for before they contact you.  Maintaining a helpful, keyword rich blog, although time consuming offers solid search engine optimisation benefits and can extend your reach further than a static website would manage on its own.

But most importantly, when your prospects read your blog they will get to know your unique perspective in a much more personal way and if they like and appreciate what you have to say, they’ll be far more likely to do business with you rather than the faceless corporate that you’re up against.

3.        Follow up

One of the great benefits of doing business with a small company is the personal service you can enjoy.  We’ll often throw in complementary extras and favours for our clients which larger companies would not.  We can also offer a much more personal service and one of the nicest ways to stand out is to  follow-up with your customers after they’ve done business with you.

A handwritten note or friendly gesture of appreciation is the most affordable way to do this, whether it be included in the package containing your product or sent after your project is complete.  It can be a tough one to remember to do, but very effective in terms of encouraging referrals and future business.  One clothing shop I use wraps the dresses I order in beautiful tissue and they add a pack of “Love heart” sweeties to the top.  I rave about businesses that employ little touches like these to friends and family as they’re so uncommon in this day and age.

What little extra can you add as a follow-up for your clients that will really make you stand out from the crowd?  Make sure it’s low cost and as personal as possible, if you can combine it with asking them to review your service and provide a testimonial then you’ll make the effort involved even more worthwhile.

Your Marketing Goal for the Week:

1.  Write down three unique selling points about your business.
2.  Stick that note to your wall and mention them to all potential customers.
3.  Consider implementing one of the three ideas above to promote and celebrate your uniqueness.

Goal Complete!

I’d love to hear what your unique selling points are.  Let me know by adding them in a comment below with your website address.  I’ve started by adding mine!