September, 2011

SEO / Social Media — 4 Comments
29
Sep 11

The Top 10 Things I Learned At Content Marketing World

It’s hard to believe that three weeks have gone by since I attended the Content Marketing World conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Time flies when you’re busy directing the marketing efforts of a growing technology company!

First, I want to thank Joe Pulizzi (affectionately known on Twitter as @juntajoe) and the other people involved with The Content Marketing Institute for putting together such a fantastic show. This was the inaugural event and I was impressed with the overall quality of the line-up, venue, creativity and content (no pun intended) of the show! Next, I want to thank the brilliant minds who presented. You guys all did a great job at keeping the attendees engaged.

I learned so much at the conference I have 10 pages of notes! I thought for my blog post I needed to condense that down a little! I will share the top 10 insights I brought back with me from the conference below. I hope you enjoy reading this and I hope you consider attending the next Content Marketing World in 2012!

  1. You don’t learn how to be fascinating. You unlearn how to be boring. (via Sally Hoghead, author of Fascinate)
  2. We can’t always reinvent the product but we can reinvent the story. (via Sally Hoghead)
  3. Be human about your content. (via David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR)
  4. Email is not dead. It is still the strongest method of communicating. Get people to subscribe and give them content that keeps them engaged. (via Brian Clark, Founder of Copyblogger and Michael Stelzner, Founder, SocialMediaExaminer and author of Launch)
  5. Your content should be commercial free. Nobody wants to be converted. They want to be served helpful content. (via Brian Clark and Michael Stelzner)
  6. Don’t make up terms that do not come up in search. Always consider organic search in content creation. (via Jonathan Byerly, Director Online Content, Dell)
  7. It’s not your company’s story. It’s your buyer’s story. (via Ardath Albee, author of eMarketing Strategies For the Complex Sale)
  8. The buying process is not static. (via Ardath Albee)
  9. A content curator is part editor and part artist. (via Susan McKittrick, Analyst at Patricia Seybold Group)
  10. Surround yourself with “why not” people. (via Kevin Smith, Writer/Director/Producer)

So there it is. My short and sweet list of key insights from the Content Marketing World conference. If you were there and want to share your takeaways please comment.

Analytics / Call Tracking / CRM / Mobile Marketing / Offline Advertising / PPC / Search Marketing — No Comments
29
Sep 11

The Forgotten PPC Metric: Phone Call Conversions

Pay per click (PPC) advertising is used to drive traffic to your brand’s website, and is typically measured using online analytics. However, the most successful PPC campaigns are those that can capture and associate any form of lead conversion with a specific campaign, ad, keyword and landing page.

The missing, and often forgotten, piece to this lead conversion picture is the phone call. To effectively capture these offline conversions and tie them to your PPC campaigns, you need to integrate a call tracking solution.

PPC 360° — Tracking a Complete View

When you combine phone calls with online form completions, you can gather valuable insight into campaign performance that will help you evaluate your PPC campaign and maximize returns. Specifically, you can use this information to evolve:

  • Keyword Selection: With call tracking and web analytics, you can identify the keywords that are driving lead conversions. Use this information to understand what terms drive the highest quality traffic, and then build out your campaigns using these terms, and direct synonyms, to increase conversions. At the same time, cut back on, or eliminate, the keywords that don’t result in conversions.
  • Bid Management: With the top lead-producing keywords identified, you can better manage how much you are willing to bid on each for top placement. If you know a keyword drives conversions, you can use ROI to justify spending more money per click. At the same time, you can reduce spend on keywords that are not driving adequate lead volume.
  • PPC Advertising Budget: With call tracking and web analytics showing you all lead conversions, you can make informed decisions on whether you are receiving an acceptable ROI on your PPC investment, and compare its return to other marketing and advertising initiatives. Depending on PPC rate of return, you may consider allocating more budget toward your campaign, or conversely, shift budgets away from PPC advertising to other, more effective marketing campaigns.
  • Landing Page Design and CTAs: The most successful PPC campaigns have a clear call to action, for example make a purchase, fill out a lead form, download content or call for additional information. Evaluate landing page design and CTA performance based on both online and offline conversion data. What may look like the best CTA in online analytics may not prove the best when you account for phone calls. Understand how your audiences prefer to communicate and what resonates with them, and then prompt them to take action based on their preferences as to improve conversion rates.

How to Integrate Call Tracking into Your PPC Campaign

The reason for integrating call tracking into PPC advertising is clear: it provides a full picture of campaign performance, helping you make informed investments.

Here are four quick steps to get started with call tracking for PPC.

  • First, work with a call tracking provider for initial setup.
  • Add call tracking numbers throughout your website, either by manually placing them on individual landing pages or integrating a call tracking Javascript snippet into your website’s HTML code.
  • Next, integrate call tracking into your PPC advertisements. Google offers a phone number ad extension, or you can also integrate numbers into ad copy or within the imagery of display ads.
  • Finally, assess complete ad performance and conversion rate by feeding your call-tracking data into web analytics and PPC platforms. Depending on the call tracking solution used, this data can be automatically piped into your PPC account dashboard.

With call tracking integrated into your PPC campaigns, you can have a complete view of conversions, even when a lead picks up the phone to call. Analyze your campaigns; test new keywords, ads, bid strategies and landing pages; then evolve based on conversion data, and start the process again.

What successes have you had using call tracking for PPC?

 

Features, Tips, & Announcements / SEO / Social Media — No Comments
27
Sep 11

Key Takeaways from Attending SMX

September has been a good month for Mongoose Metrics. We recently attended the Search Engine Marketing Expo East in New York City where we learned some valuable insights about SEO and SEM. The show’s focus included content marketing, SEO best practices and upcoming trends in social media. Since not everyone could attend the show, the marketing team at Mongoose would like to share some Key takeaways from SMX.

Keep it Simple

This applies to Search Engine Optimization specifically, as Tony Wright (@tonynwright) at SMX outlined the 4 C’s of SEO to outrank your competition:

Code – Make sure it is clean! Cleaning HTML code will help reduce page size and increase accessibility

Content – Good and effective content is key to higher SEO rankings

Connections – Linking to other sites and developing that relationship will help search engines find you faster

Conversations – Social media is now more important than ever – so keep those tweets, Facebook likes and comments coming!

Be sure to integrate the 4 C’s of SEO  to continue improving the visibility and organic rank of your website.

Users are Now in Control

As marketers, we know to focus our message to our audience and our customer. Something has happened within the last year or so that is starting to alter this mentality. Why? Users are now in control and we need to be one step ahead. Understanding what’s going on across all channels is imperative to your marketing success.

 

Photo Credit: Bright Edge

Before it made sense to post an advertisement on Facebook and hope some of your target audience would see it. Now, with such a user-driven environment, we need to be in-tune with what our customers are tweeting, where they are checking in, what they are liking, who they are following and what circles they’re creating. If we keep throwing information in their faces without rhyme or reason, they will simply block our efforts and never think twice about us. I listed some of Jim Yu’s (@jimyu) tips for making sure you don’t get left behind in leveraging social media for SEO:

Tip #1: Measure your social SEO

  • Are your social media pages ranking in search results?
  • Are you doing SEO on your Facebook page?
  • Do you have a Facebook and Twitter presence?

Tip #2: Add social buttons to your site

Add social networks you are active on. Listed below are some of the most popular.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon

Tip #3: Optimize your Facebook page for SEO

  • Add plug-ins
  • Use your brand name in all wall posts & tweets
  • Try to engage your audience as much as possible through likes and shares

 How to Make the Most of Your Content

Everyone has a light bulb moment – when suddenly everything makes sense. After listening to the great panel of speakers: Loren Baker, BlueGlass, Jay Berkowitz, Ten Golden Rules, David Kidder, Clickable and Stefan Tornquist, Econsultancy – I kept thinking about one specific part of the discussion – content. It all starts with a content marketing strategy and here are the industry’s suggestions on making the most of your content.

Cascade your content: You have a great article/newsletter/webinar – Take key topics from that and split into a few blog posts. Dissect those blogs into multiple tweets – tweet about key topics in those blog posts. Share those topics on LinkedIn or Facebook and distribute that content.

Conduct interviews internally: Interview sales and product development to find out what’s new – exciting and note-worthy within your company and write about it. If you find it exciting, there’s a good chance people who follow your company will too!

Update and optimize content so that it spans both search and social: Social media and search are completely integrated; use this to your advantage.

Don’t just post content, make it actionable: One way to ensure social success is to let people know you’re aware and there is an actual human behind the computer. Use Twitter to promote others, talk about current events, answer people’s questions and talk about what is important to you. Before long, making content actionable will become second nature.

If you attended SMX and would like to share your experience – please comment below. We’d love to compare notes.

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No Comments
21
Sep 11

Integrating Call Tracking Into Mobile Apps

Mobile app use is exploding with downloads expected to grow by 144 percent by the end of 2011. In addition, studies from CEM4Mobile Solutions and Nielson Smartphone Analytics show that mobile apps tend to see higher engagement levels than mobile websites.

For marketers, this type of growth and engagement offers a great opportunity to reach and connect with target audiences through branded apps and in-application advertising. However, like all marketing tactics, it’s important to have a monitoring platform in place to measure success and ROI of these mobile initiatives.

App Advertising and Call Trackingcall tracking image of mobile phone

The convenience of click-to-call options increases click-through rates on mobile ads by six percent. Therefore, when activating a mobile app advertising campaign, consider integrating call-tracking numbers to capture and track these call conversions.

Below are some tips for getting started with call tracking in mobile apps.

Use a Relevant Phone Number

Consider the location of your audience when selecting which phone number to use on your ads or within your app. If the app appeals to local audiences, you’ll want to use numbers with local area codes. However, apps used by audiences from across the country, or world, will likely generate higher engagement from toll-free numbers.

Integrate a Compelling Call to Action

Tie the tracking number to a compelling call to action (CTA) that is relevant to the app and its users. Consider audience needs and interests, and what you can offer them that they will find intriguing, helpful or entertaining.

For example, Scotts Miracle-Gro tailors its app content and CTAs based on the users’ geographic location, shopping preferences (i.e. what kind of store they shop in—such as hardware stores, nurseries or mass merchant) and grass type.

Could you do something similar with your mobile offers? Determine ways to customize your promotions to offer value, rather than using untargeted CTAs like “call us today.”

Make Your Phone Number Pop

To further capture the attention of mobile users, add a graphical element or use a contrasting color in your CTA. The goal is draw the users’ eye to the number with prominent placement and noticeable design.

Track Landing-Page Conversions

Put a prominent, unique call tracking number on any mobile landing page to which your campaigns drive visitors. This will enable you to associate resulting calls with the related mobile app or ad, and visitor paths.

In addition, by tying web analytics to this page, you can gain insight into click behavior and online form conversions.

Your Thoughts?

How do you track and measure the success of your app advertising campaigns? Have you implemented call tracking? Why or why not?

 

 

 

 

Analytics / Call Tracking / CRM / Integration / Offline Advertising / PPC / Sales — No Comments
14
Sep 11

Less is More…Funneling the Right Sales Leads for Higher Conversions

Poll your sales team: Would they rather receive three well-qualified leads from marketing next month, or 15 cold ones? Well-qualified leads will win every time.

Even with sales cycles lengthening and becoming more complex, a 2011 SiriusDecisions survey of B2B sales and marketing leaders found that top-performing companies are using business intelligence technology to approach the sales pipeline with an emphasis on identifying higher-quality leads.

The concept may seem counter-intuitive, but less, better-qualified leads are actually easier for sales to work with:

  • Sales representatives have busy calendars. Filling them up with calls or meetings with non-qualified leads is a waste of time and resources.
  • Cold calls or reps that come off as too aggressive too early in the buying cycle may turn off potential customers that are not ready to make a purchase decision, ruining chances of future sales.
  • When marketing is able to hand a lead over to sales with a complete history already established, it leads to a shorter process for the rep, and shorter sales cycle overall.
  • Sales can tailor messaging to leads that have qualified themselves, making each interaction more effective.

“Too many raw, unqualified leads can create a clogged marketing and sales process and an unhealthy sales funnel.” —Why Your Sales Force Needs Fewer Leads, PointClear, LLC

qualifying leads through call trackingToday’s marketing and sales business intelligence technologies—including web analytics, call tracking, and CRM systems—enable marketers and sales reps to work together to maintain a tighter pipeline-to-quota ratio and grow sales.

Complete Analytics Qualifies Marketing Leads

Spending on online advertising specifically aimed to generate leads has grown by $12 billion in the last four years. Once you have a lead’s attention, tracking activity and scoring leads is made simple through comprehensive analytics that measure online and offline activity.

Web Analytics

Consumer buying habits indicate that overall, 43 percent of consumers go online to research before buying. This number increases for technology purchases, as well as other complex purchases.

Track online activity to target your most qualified leads. If marketing can remove the qualification process from sales’ plate by placing leads into a nurturing program, assessing actions, and profiling the most qualified prospects, it can confidentially deliver a narrow list of well-qualified leads (and their lead history) to sales.

Call Tracking

Web analytics are great, but all is lost when a lead picks up the phone. When a lead calls, he or she is taking a proactive step in the decision-making process, and you should have the technologies in place to track and report on these prospects.

Integrating call tracking with marketing activities through one-to-one and Javascript integration, you can monitor offline lead activity, including how leads found you and what prompted them to call.  Analyze these reports to score and qualify leads that reach out to you by phone.

CRM Systems

What tools are best used to house lead history, and combine efforts of marketing and sales? A sound customer relationship management (CRM) system is a necessity to make the process between marketing and sales flow effectively.

Track lead timelines, history, actions, touchpoints, demographic and firmographic information, who’s responsible for the lead (sales vs. marketing), and more with CRM software. You can also use a CRM to evaluate and prioritze all leads in your database.

Good Lead, Bad Lead.

Another challenge for marketers is defining a qualified lead. Once you have compiled your lead history, what should you look for, and what information should you provide to sales?

What determines a qualified lead will change for specific business cases, but here’s a list to get started. Consider these parameters when building lead forms so you have the information needed to evaluate:

  • Budget
  • Decision-making timeline
  • How the lead found you
  • Lead history, interactions and touch points

Have you found success with a “less-is-more” approach to sales leads? Share your experiences in the comments below.

 

Features, Tips, & Announcements — 3 Comments
9
Sep 11

Tips to Track Leads from Presentations

Events, tradeshows, webinars and training classes are likely a part of your marketing mix. However, it can be hard to measure the impact these activities have on sales without proper reporting solutions in place. For example, do you know how many new business calls you received as a result of these presentations?call tracking for presentations

In this post, we overview how call tracking can provide you with greater insight into the topics, audiences and delivery methods that offer the biggest lead potential.

Presentations and Call Tracking

Integrate unique call tracking numbers into your presentations to automatically associate calls with specific marketing initiatives. This allows you to more readily track resulting conversions and evaluate the success of individual events.

Tracking numbers can easily be added to contact slides within your presentation or to event-specific landing pages on your website. When designating and tracking numbers, consider the following:

Differentiate by Presentation Delivery Method

To determine the best-performing presentation format and delivery method, we recommend using a different call tracking number for each presentation type. For example, you may give a presentation at a conference and then post the slides online. In this case, consider using a different number for each format to gain more in-depth reporting.

Keep a Dashboard of Related Event Details

Within your call tracking dashboard, note specific presentation and event details, including: audience, venue, geographic location, crowd size, event promotions, and whether it was a paid or free opportunity. In doing so, you’ll be able to identify trends, and better determine the kinds of engagements that drive the most qualified leads.

Look at Leads Collectively

Placing a call is one of many ways that a lead can contact you after viewing a presentation. Therefore, it’s important to note that call tracking is only one piece of the solution when evaluating event success. Be sure to integrate it with web analytics, onsite feedback and social media metrics to get a more complete picture.

Collectively, this information can be used to determine which events and presentation formats are worth your investment in the future. This can be particularly helpful for paid speaking gigs that may not be worth pursuing if you don’t generate new business.

Your Thoughts?

How do you measure the effectiveness of your presentations? Have you tried call tracking? Why or why not? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.