netPRpro Organic Buyer Targeting

HOW DO YOU WIN IN A DOWN ECONOMY?

You expand markets to compensate for decreased demand. You create new uses/markets for your products. You re-purpose your products to replace previously used tools and methods. YOUR GENERATE MAXIMUM EXPOSURE. In a time of uncertainty it is critical to be seen as the market leader. Market leaders are perceived to be a safer bet to become a reliable supplier, offer better products, prices and service. With 70-100% of buyers researching a purchase using Search Engines. You need to be where your buyers are searching for suppliers. That used to be the Yellow Pages.

Today it is Google, Yahoo and Bing. You have to generate effective organic exposure on the 200-300 SERPS that relate to your products. You have to brand the sales funnels. If 75% of the SERP click-through is organic why are you spending 100% of your search budget on Pay-Per-Click to reach 25% of your buyers. Why are you targeting traffic phrases rather than buyer phrases. Don’t waste your limited resources. Capture Top-10 organic positions to becomes the market leader and in the process you legally, ethically and sustainably push your competition out of the decision set.

Measuring Anything but the Real World?

Two worlds define Search Marketing: “Paid” and “Organic” amazingly companies have chosen one and their buyers have chosen the other. So which world is the real world?

Multiple independent research studies have shown that search engine users prefer  organic results 3 to 1 over paid results based on their click-throughs. Search engine users are looking for “information” not ads. 75% actually click on the organic results of a search engine results page SERP.  In order to maintain the integrity of their result pages, search engines have decided to open for bidding positions on the 25% side of the page rather than become a paid directory and offer the 75% click-through side of the “editorial” page. Why? Probably because advertisers that want to reach their buyers will bid for any exposure they can get on a valuable page that attracts people that are searching for their products and services. In comparison to traditional media “the buy” looks targeted and delivers results that beat direct mail response rates. Companies and agencies are hiring “25% specialists” for their “25% strategy” until their 25% interest becomes 100%, ignoring the very real 75% world. It’s all sounding pretty good until you focus on what’s missing.

From an advertiser perspective what kind of strategy finds it acceptable, even preferable to target 25% of the buyers and ignore the other 75%? How do you not address 75% of click-through?

But that’s what ad agencies and search engines want businesses to buy. For over 100 years advertisers and agencies have chased the “holy grail” of “advertising, accountability”. Advertisers and agencies seem to be willing to buy anything that claims to offer “accountability”. Paid Search let’s you count the clicks, easy instant accountability. “Analytics” give us the numbers, charts and graphs tell the tale. It must be true.

So how do you explain it? It feels a bit like a shell game except with the shell game the odds are higher. Companies, budgets and ad agencies are so focused on the PPC pea they don’t notice they are being pick-pocketed. by Don Lokke - netPRpro, Inc. - 972-490-5167

(Source: netPRpro.com)

Traffic vs Buyers

Marketers are still following the traffic. It was true of radio, TV, magazines and billboards. It hasn’t changed. advertisers are just renting an audience they don’t own. The question is, “Can you afford to rent an audience forever?” The first dot.com bubble saw IPO and venture capital chasing traffic rather than building infrastructure until the money ran out. Google, Yahoo, Bing and Digital Display Networks are still selling traffic. The assumption is that you have to buy traffic to get buyers. Not true. You can target buyers at a fraction of the cost and get astounding ROI. You just have to know where to look. It takes a different strategy than what’s being pushed by “traffic sellers”. They like big numbers. They sell big numbers for big numbers. Small numbers just aren’t cool. But for most companies 10-20 new customers can double sales. 10 new clients a month represents 120 a year. So what does it mean when you have to target 10,000 or 100,000 to get 10? Someone’s targeting is off. by Don Lokke - netPRpro, Inc. - 972-490-5167

(Source: netPRpro.com)

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tumblr, MySpace and others

Their audiences are worth the time and energy we commit but always remember. “What they give they can take away.” Any account, group or page can be temporary. Rules change, owners change, objective change, social culture changes. Like a 30-second spot during the Superbowl, these are not marketing infrastructure investments. They are temporary exposure vehicles. But if you put the same content on your own site you risk being labeled as “spammy”, ask JCPenney. Some of these sites get it but most do not. Commercial use of their services unless it leads to  purchasing a banner or word ad is “unacceptable use”. There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the value of product and commercial information to the institutions of search and social media except when the staff of these digital giants are trying to make a purchase decision. Otherwise the very thing that most consumers want and search for is somehow not in vogue or socially correct.  How many people would search or gather to chat if it wasn’t related to a purchase they planned? Would these sites have any power or audience at all without the backbone that consumer interest lends? by Don Lokke - netPRpro, Inc. - 972-490-5167

(Source: netPRpro.com)

33% Sales Increase in a Down Economy

That’s what happens when you get your name out and your competition doesn’t. Ask Decorative Concrete Supply, Inc. Phone calls, warehouse traffic and orders. Not web site traffic. Instead of landing pages, buyers were landing in their warehouses to pick up supplies. Why? Targeting… Branding… Everywhere contractors searched they found the same name. Decorative Concrete Supply told their story by targeting buyers not traffic. Old story, new technology but the reaction is classic. No PPC, no SEO, no re-targeting, no landing pages. 33% sales increase across 4 top-10 US metro markets without a single dollar spent in traditional advertising. It’s not a fluke, miracle or luck. It’s just targeting buyers not traffic and knowing where your sales take place. You have to get the strategy right. - by Don Lokke - netPRpro, Inc. - 972-490-5167

(Source: netPRpro.com)

What if your web site is NOT Your Best Sales Pitch?

What if a web site is NOT your best shot at a sale? Are we are talking digital advertising heresy? Not really. Just stating the obvious. Sometimes it’s just more effective to direct a response to a phone number or a store visit. Forget retargeting, analytics and web site traffic.No one ever bought a car on the web, sold a house without a tour, or experienced fine dining online? A lot of the digital marketing gurus would have you drive every possible buyer to your web site, a landing page or social media page. Is that the only strategy they know?

What’s so wrong if the purchase decision gets made a million miles away from a web site. What if the sale has to take place in person. What if phone calls, RFP’s and store traffic are better than web analytics. What if all they are doing is putting extra steps between you and the sale so they can get credit?

Sometimes simple gets it done. Just like the old days when the best conversions came off the self and stuffed the cash register. Real “analytics” count phone calls, successful bids, and bank account balances.  - by Don Lokke - netPRpro, Inc. - 972-490-5167

(Source: netPRpro.com)

The Sales Cycle is Broken!

It happened 14 years ago. Buyers stopped looking in the Yellow Pages and started searching Yahoo, AOL and later Google. All the research was screaming “Before they make a purchase decision they search the Internet.” All the traditionally trained advertising executives and marketing directors heard the sound but they didn’t know what it was. It was the sound of the sales cycle breaking. They claimed that the audience for traditional media was becoming too fragmented, traditional media didn’t seem to be delivering like it used to. TV was broken, radio had lost it’s grip. Nobody was reading. They made their PowerPoints and pitched it to save their accounts. But they missed it. Buyers still saw the ads on television, radio, billboard and in magazines but they were going to the internet and what they found there closed the deal. Major advertisers spending their media dollars sending buyers to their internet competitors. The little guys we cleaning up because all they could afford was the relatively cheap search exposure they could get for free. For a lot of companies it’s still happening. They won’t last long without a killer strategy. If you only take one line away from this paragraph, get this. Internet winner takes all. - by Don Lokke - netPRpro, Inc. - 972-490-5167

(Source: netPRpro.com)

Search - Social - Display - Content. So What’s Your Strategy?

Once you understand search marketing, social network marketing, display advertising and content publishing… What is your strategy? You have to get beyond the mechanics of the vehicles and find the most effective way to harness these tools to improve your business. How can you leverage the channel to go beyond the basics. The only way to get past traditional advertising and marketing is master the new communication channels. Isn’t it time? If your buyers are spending hours a day on their iPhones, computer screens and navigating the digital maze you are not connecting with traditional media. You can’t play tennis with your feet stuck in concrete. Every day that you wait is a day you are losing market share, sales and your business to your online competition. - by Don Lokke - netPRpro, Inc. - 972-490-5167

(Source: netPRpro.com)

Are You Targeting the Right End of the Search Funnel?

If you are targeting traffic and you aren’t too picky or the budget is unlimited, go for short-tail, top of the funnel search phrases. Competition is high because more than one category is bidding and because many advertisers are targeting traffic and not buyers. Traffic looks good in analytics and there are a lot of search marketing gurus that make make traffic their goal. Most advertisers really want buyers not traffic. To get the buyers with the least waste you have to target long-tail search phrases with lower traffic but higher conversion. Because most competitors and their agencies are targeting traffic rather than buyers the competition and the cost is lower. It only makes sense that a more effective strategy gives a better ROI. - Don Lokke - netPRpro, Inc. - 972-490-5167

(Source: netPRpro.com)

Buyers Shop by Drilling Down

Most searches start at the top of what is called a search funnel with a short search term like “Mustang”. At this point in the search we really don’t know if the person searching is looking for a horse, a car, an island, a sports team, or a song. Lot’s of traffic but because the term is not better defined, lots of waste. Advertisers bidding for paid search positions can lay claim to high traffic by targeting a short-tail phrase. An interesting thing happens if you let the shopper complete their search. They drill down to get the answers they need to make a purchase decision. They narrow their search by adding words. Maybe “Mustang Island” and then “Mustang Island Vacations” and next “Mustang Island Vacation Packages” or “Mustang Island Texas Vacation Packages with Fishing Guides” Now that’s a Long-tail search. Long tail searches have higher conversions and are more likely to be on-target. Shoppers that search for “Mustang Island Texas Vacation Packages with Fishing Guides” are much closer to a purchase decision than shoppers that search for “Mustangs”. Long-tail SERPS are where the buyers are. - By Don Lokke - netPRpro, Inc. - 972-490-5167

(Source: netPRpro.com)