spa conference presentation
TRANSCRIPT
Effective Digital Marketing
David Harrison
MD
What are we going to talk about?
How you can increase the return you get from your website.
What you need to do to meet that objective.
What your site should do
A good site should meet 4 key criteria:
It should:
• Attract Visitors
• Convert Visitors into potential Customers
• Fulfil those potential customers needs
• Retain those customers for the future
Attract Visitors
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Pay per Click Advertising (PPC)
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Banner Advertising
• Offline Marketing
Attract Visitors:SEO
Google is the dominant force in “Search” as we all know.
Remember that Google has a job to do – it needs to supply its users with what they are looking for.
It does this by returning search results that it perceives to be the most relevant to the search query.
If your content “matches” the query it will have a chance of being displayed …
CONTENT IS KING!
Of course it is not quite that easy!
The more your page is “recommended” the higher it will rank – a recommendation in Google’s eyes is a link … it will also allocate a score to the quality of links to your site.
SEO in 2 Minutes!
Tags – hidden pieces of code that tell Google what your page is about
Eg:
<meta name="keywords" content="sheetplant, association," /> <meta name="description" content="The SheetPlant Association - Taking your business into the 21st Century" /> <meta name="generator" content="Joomla! 1.5 - Open Source Content Management" /> <title>Welcome to the SPA website</title>
The <title> tag is really important!
Content – Google can only read text – it does not care that your site is the most beautifully designed piece of work on the web! Your text should reflect your title …
Your first text is: Welcome to the SPA website
SEO in 2 Minutes!
If I search for SPA website however you are not on the first few pages!
… because there is a competitor phrase!
… SPA is a treatment and is very competitive!
If I search for Sheet Plant Association however you are of course Position 1 – this phrase is in the text on the front page….
… but you probably already know the address of this website …
If I search for “corrugated sheet plant” the SPA site is Number 5 – change the title to “Corrugated Sheet Plant Association” and you’d likely be Number 1!
The higher you are, the more clicks you get …
SEO in 2 Minutes!
… so think what your customers will be searching for and then tailor your tags and CONTENT to reflect that …
The SPA site will have links coming in from RELEVANT sites (other members) so its AUTHORITY will be higher …
… so its position will be higher
… so it will ATTRACT more visitors …
Attract Visitors: Pay per Click
Pay per Click (PPC) is exactly what it says on the tin – you pay an amount of money when someone clicks on your advert …
It is worth remembering however that only 60% of searchers will click on these paid ads, so you are not reaching your full market …
Attract Visitors: Pay per Click
How your ad is written is important – it is an advert, so needs to be appealing!
Running ads in conjunction with an SEO program is sensible … but if you are ranking high in the organic rankings there is little point in also paying for that click (www.wer.co.uk) …
PPC is excellent for targeting those “long tail” searches … those phrases that are not searched for as often, but if searched for will lead to good conversion rates …
PPC is really easy to measure … if you pay £1/click, convert 1% of 100 clicks to an order worth £1000 it is worth doing …
If you are paying £10/click the maths are somewhat different!
… but you can easily work out what your CPA (Cost per Acquisition) is!
Attract Visitors: Any interest?
There is no point of course doing either SEO or PPC if there is no interest. The following table shows the number of searches on just a couple of phrases, so the interest is certainly there!
Attract Visitors: Social Media
We have all heard about Social Media! Quite a few of us will use it.
Is it of any use in a B2B context?
Yes … and No!
The main channels are:
• Blogging
What is it in reality? It is really about “engaging” with your customers and/or potential customers …
Attract Visitors: Social Media
If you need your house decorating and don’t know a decorator yourself, you might do a number of things:
• Ask a friend
• Search online
• Look in Yellow Pages (some people still do!)
Which one carries more weight? I would suggest the recommendation …
Social Media is essentially an online version of recommendations …
If people speak well of you people will believe in you more … if people speak ill of you (and they will!) they will believe in you less …
So you should at least be monitoring what people are saying about you!
Attract Visitors: Social Media
People buy from people …
So if you create a “human” face to your business you should increase people’s trust in you and they will be more likely to buy from you …
… theoretically …
… but creating this “human” content takes a lot of time, and it needs to be done regularly, and it takes resources to do it!
Is it worth it?
It does probably depend on what you sell and who you sell it to …
Marriott sells late rooms via Twitter …
Marriott’s CEO writes on the company blog …
Marriott maintains an up to date Facebook page
Attract Visitors: Social Media
Are these channels appropriate for cardboard?!!
Some of you may have different customer types who would appreciate social media engagement …
… but ALL of you can benefit from better Google rankings … Blogs provide a great way of adding fresh content to your site … FAQ’s, new machinery, new processes … all of these can be stories that help your rankings ..
… so our advice with regard to Social Media is to start with blogging …
Attract Visitors: Banners
We’re not big fans of banner advertising!
We’re not sure it really works!
… it does however consolidate your brand recognition …
… so if there are industry related sites where they sell banners, it may be worth looking at … but it would be near the bottom of our list!
Attract Visitors: Offline Marketing
It is really important that campaigns are co ordinated across online and offline campaigns so messages are consistent.
If you send out a flyer with a new product launch perhaps, back it up with some sort of web campaign – an e-shot, a blog post, a FB post!
… but do it across all available channels … you simply can’t be sure where people may read or at least see your message these days, so use as many channels as possible!
If you are a large company ensure that Digital and Traditional marketing departments are communicating efficiently with the same goal rather than trying to score points for their own discipline!
Attract Visitors: Summary
Find out what your customers are looking for and then ensure you give them what they want!
• Correctly optimised web content
• Appropriately targeted and well written Adwords
• Fresh Content via Blogs and Social Media Channels
• Campaigns co ordinated with offline
Convert Visitors
What do we mean by a conversion?
When your visitor does something!
• Buys something
• Books something
• Enquires about something
• Signs up for something
• Makes a ‘phone call
• Subscribes to your RSS feed
• Likes your FB page
Convert Visitors
Why will people convert?
Because you give them a reason to do so!
• Good Content
• Easy to find information
• Calls to action
Your site needs to be attractive on the eye, structured to aid conversion and easy to use.
Think about when you use the web – why do you like some sites and not others. Look at the “big” sites – Amazon, Ebay, Asos – they tick all the boxes above!
Fulfil Visitors
This is more appropriate when you might be selling something – if you say you’ll deliver in 24 hours make sure you do so …
… but if someone sends you an enquiry make sure you reply
… if someone signs up for a newsletter make sure they receive it
… if someone re tweets your tweet, say thank you …
None of this is rocket science, but it is amazing how many expensively built sites don’t do it well … look again at people like Amazon though for the best possible model – if they are ever late delivering they just refund the postage immediately … so you don’t think ill of them …
Retain Customers
We all know that getting business from an existing customer is easier than getting it from a new customer …
… so use your site to stay in touch
• Email Marketing
• Blog Posts
• RSS Feeds
… Special Offers, Industry News, Product Developments … TELL people!
Summary
Running a successful website requires time and effort, but if it is done properly it is a highly efficient way of gaining and retaining business.
The site needs to ATTRACT, CONVERT, FULFIL and RETAIN – get all 4 steps right and you will be successful … get one of them wrong and you may not necessarily fail, but you won’t be maximising your sites potential!
A little bit of a pitch!
Morello is a full service Digital Marketing Agency.
We design, develop and market sites across a wide range of sectors.
If you’d like to talk to us about how we can help you improve your own online presence, I will leave a number of cards at the front here.
Our web site is at www.morellodigital.co.uk
Our ‘phone number is 01743 244204
Our FB page is www.facebook.com/morellodigital
Our Twitter name is @morellodigital
… and Tim tells me that SPA will subsidise any work we do for you to the tune of 10%!
Any questions?