For several years I have been helping small businesses in the Omaha area with online marketing. Many small business owners are interested in Google’s Adwords program but just don’t know where or how to get started.
I have an exciting new service that I am offering – a 3 hour on-site Adwords training session for up to 2 employees of any local Omaha business. For just $199 you’ll get quality training on the basics of the Adwords interface, training on picking out key words, and setting up your web site for maximum conversions. If your Adwords account is new (within 2 weeks) I have a $100 new account credit that can be applied as well.
Here’s a basic overview of the session.
Intro to Adwords – why the marketing works.
Setting up your account.
Setting up your first campaign
Proper targeting geographically
Proper key word research and bidding techniques
Proper landing pages on your web site.
Effective Ad writing.
Please contact me if you are interested in setting up a time for me to come train you or your employees. You’ll need a computer with a connection to the internet and a quiet spot with no interruptions as I cover quite a lot in 3 hours of time.
Steve 402-210-3283
So, you want to have a better online presence, you just invested in a new web site, or you just plain don’t know where to begin marketing your site online? If you haven’t heard, Google’s Adwords program is still considered one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site. And it’s not just any traffic, it is very targeted traffic – the kind of buyer who is researching your product or service and is ready to buy. You don’t have to show up at the top of Google’s organic search (though it can help) in order for this type of marketing to work wonders for you. That is what makes this a great option for even the smallest of businesses – no contracts, no minimum payments, just try it, and if you see the ROI on your advertising, then continue using it.
Some tips:
Optimizing your landing page – not only does this help with the conversion rate of your visitors that have been directed to your site by Adwords, it helps with the natural search. It will also benefit your advertising campaign with a higher click through rate and lower cost per click.
Writing a great ad – and using keywords within – this will also help clickthrough rate and help with your cost per click – it ultimately will help your conversion rate.
Selecting targeted keywords – the bottom line – these are what trigger your ad. If you don’t do the research to find what your customers are searching for, you will not have a very successful campaign. Most small business owners either lack the skill, or the time to do the proper research – which is why it is best to hire a Google Qualified Individual to assist in setting up and managing your campaign. I have found that many times, I can pay for myself with a combination of increased conversion rates and lower cost per click.
I am an Omaha, Nebraska Google Qualifed SEM professional.
I am increasingly noticing mobile browsers showing up in the stats of my local web sites. Is your site ready and available for mobile – iPhone, Blackberry or other phones?
A mobile site is a good thing to add to your existing site for your mobile user’s convenience. A mobile site is much lighter in its code and graphics. This makes it load faster and delivers to the mobile user only the most pertinent information about your business or service. The mobile site should also be designed to fit the variety of screen sizes for mobile users.
Adding a mobile site to an existing site is perhaps the best way to make your site mobile ready, with a button on your home page to direct the user to the mobile version of your site. There is also code that you can put at the beginning of your page to detect a mobile browser – also a good solution.
If you have questions about getting your site up to speed, allowing it to be seen clearly on “the third screen” give me a call!
Steve – 402-210-3283 in Omaha.
Lots and lots of blogs have been written about this medium of marketing – I really don’t know where to begin.
I recently helped a non-profit ministry get started with a Facebook profile, and helped them start a group. One notable problem – the gentleman had not taken other advice about being consistent with e-mail newsletters, blogging and other types of on-line presence. He was thinking that Facebook would be the “silver bullet” so to speak.
Well…suffice it to say, it still takes consistent effort to gain friends and update your group page, etc. Not something that this person is willing to commit to, unfortunately. If you want to do some of this type of marketing, you must be willing to put effort into it and grow your online reach by working it several times a week – it is a social medium that builds relationships. If you, as the principal of your business can not commit to this, you should consider appointing an employee to do it, or hiring it done. Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks can be a very powerful medium for your marketing without a lot of expense if implemented properly. I know of several local Omaha businesses who are doing this very successfully.
Hope everyone has a great week!
Right now I am offering an Search Engine Optimization Package that is Available for a Limited Time Only.
For Just $599…
You get:
- A 1 hour Face to face meeting
- Page Title Tags Generation
- Keyword Research and Selection
- META description and marketing tags
- Geographical target market tags
- Main Content Suggestions
- 1 Custom Written Article & Syndication
- Submission to top search engines and directories (Google, Yahoo, MSN)
- Entry into Google Maps
The above steps will drastically improve your site’s overall “search engine friendliness” as well as letting the search engines know your site even exists!
It will also help drive quality, targeted traffic to your site – which turn into quality, targeted leads!
This is a trial promotion that I am offering to only a select few and it is available through Friday, March 6th!
Call me at 402-210-3283 for this special package – Steve
Permission-based marketing is kind of a buzz-word in the marketing world these days, but it is a truly important concept to your business.
Opt-in email lists are one source of marketing that should not be overlooked. When a customer opts in to your list, they are granting you permission to market to them. The customer has initiated a relationship with your business and wants the information, products, or services that you have to offer.
The concept is powerful because the customer has requested the relationship because of their interest in your orgainzation and will respond at a much higher rate to your advertising and marketing directed at them because of this.
I won’t speak much about Text Message Marketing, but it is a growing concept in marketing, reaching a different demographic. Convergence of technologies is making the cell phone a viable marketing medium.
Please contact me for a free consult on your email marketing plan, or even the text marketing idea…you will be hearing much more of this very soon! Steve 402-210-3283
I have been working with several businesses in Omaha who have hired me for my online marketing expertise, either in the PPC arena, or for SEO services. Several things amaze me when I speak to new clients – usually, they don’t understand the value of the SEO process, since oftentimes it involves changes to their website. The average business owner does not understand the on or off site processes.
On site processes to SEO:
- Tags, Titles and code changes
- Content, copy and key words
- links and urls
Off site Processes for SEO:
- Backlinks
- Directory Listings
- Blog comments
These processes should both have attention paid to them as they are important to the overall site optimization.
All of these, of course, take time and energy to accomplish, and I always say you should put at least half of your online budget towards some form of SEO. It takes time and skill to get your site found on the net. Please call me if I can be of assistance in your SEO program. Steve 402-210-3283
Hope you all had a great year on, and off the web! If you have not already stopped to reflect on 2008 and ponder some goals for 2009, it’s not too late. You should write a quick plan for each web site you own and plan to dedicate time to seeing the plan through. I am doing it today, even though I have significant work that needs to be completed for clients. I feel that this activity is an important part of my online success for the year. Also, I want to put many of the things I have learned, and the ideas that Chris – a colleague of mine at CGMTechnologies.com – have come up with, to work. We are truly motivated to lose the day job, and help others along the way do the same thing.
If you are an internet marketer, or you have a brick and mortar store, setting these goals is good – they help you evaluate where you wish to focus your resources.
If you have a desire to learn Adwords, need someone to help you implement an SEO strategy or need consulting to help make any of your goals happen, I am in Omaha, and happy to help. As you think about your marketing for 2009, think of a a few outside the box strategies – here are a few that I am thinking of for the new year:
- Opt-in Text Messaging.
- YouTube videos – I can help you produce these and place them on video submission sites.
- Content Writing for SEO for local businesses.
- Directory submission for local businesses.
Call me if you would like info on how any of these strategies can work for you – on or off the web. Steve 402-210-3283
PPC is not new to most internet marketers, but it is a new concept to many small business owners I work with here in Omaha. I’ll give you a quick run down of how it works.
PPC or Pay Per Click is best demonstrated in a Google search. Typically the left hand side of the page is the natural results of your search, while the right hand positions are the paid positions – advertisers can place a small, 4 line text ad there – and they only get charged if someone clicks on the ad.
The nuance to this is that the advertiser has to bid on how much they are willing to pay for their ad to appear.
These ads are highly effective if done properly because they target the exact items and keywords that your customers are searching for. Also, you can see immediate results in traffic, and hopefully sales on your site.
Am an Adwords Certified Individual, helping businesses in Omaha, Nebraska, if you would like to learn more, please give me a call at 402-210-3283. If you become a customer, I have currently, a $100 credit to your new Google account waiting for you.
Many times I get asked what the best way to get links from other sites. Do Follow comments provide some of the best links back into your site if done properly. Here’s a quick rundown:
Find some blogs or forums with high page rank that are do-follow (meaning the code is written such that the search engines will follow the link to your site)
Leave a comment or post with a link to your site, preferably in anchor text.
Things to do to ensure effective backlinks:
Leave valuable comments – there is NOTHING a webmaster hates more than spammy comments.
Comment on relevant posts to the content on your site.
Build slowly – Google looks at backlinks over time, if you all of a sudden have 500 in one day it looks fishy-spread them out over time.
How to find these links – I have launched a brand new site called SEMAddict.com – we have a free instructional video outlining a method on how to find the best pages for backlinking.