Marketing Magic

I met Brian just before the Colts went to the Superbowl.  Brian’s not only a talented Word Press blog theme developer, he’s also a Colts fan who happens to live in the heart of Chicago Bear (the Colt’s Super Bowl XLI opponent) country.    Are all great minds Colts fans, or is it just an amazing coincidence?

Anyhow, Brian has since quit his day job and struck out on his own and he’s hit the ground running!!!  Last week, he launched an affiliate program where he pays commissions on sales of his premium Word Press themes.  Yesterday, Brian has announced his own version of March Madness…. offering fabulous prizes to his top affiliates in the month of March.

The promotion works on two levels:

a) It’s a great way to promote affiliate sign ups.

Sales is a numbers game.  In affiliate programs, 20% of your affiliate will generate 80% of your sales.  The more affiliates you have, the more sales they will generate.  It’s just that simple.

b) It’s link bait.

Not only must you sign up as an affiliate to join the contest, but you must also link back as well!

GREAT JOB Brian on crafting a compelling contest to promote your new affiliate program.

Various questions seem to pop up in groups within my practice. This past week, the topic that is poking its head above ground like a crocus in early March is the topic of Google Adwords.

To the casual observer, the Google Adwords program appears to be the key Effortless Marketing Magic.

• Not enough web site traffic? Google Adwords is the easy answer.
• Not enough sales?  Again, Google Adwords is the easy answer.
• Need a tighter target?  Google Adwords is the easy answer.

I have clients who are inquiring about Google Adwords before their web site development has begun.  Clients who have yet to provide documentation on their anticipated product and service offerings are already signed up for Google Adwords!

Like any other marketing tool, Google Adwords is the GREATEST THING since sliced bread when it’s used correctly.  When used improperly though, it is a recurring nightmare which will run up your credit card balances faster than a lovesick teen racks up overages on your cell phone minutes.

For example, I had one client who signed up with a self proclaimed “Google Adwords  Gurus”.    Long story short, my client ended up with a HUGE Google Adwords bill and not a single product sale or even newsletter sign up as a result.    Unfortunately, her experience is NOT unique.

In order to run a successful Google Adwords campaign, you have to have a clear target audience in mind.  You must already have mastered everything from writing compelling and selling content to meticulous order fulfillment.  You have to have a GOOD idea of what keywords your current visitors are using when they arrive at your site.   Only then are you ready to launch your Google Adwords campaign.

Even then, you have to THINK about where you want those ads displayed!  Long ago, when you signed up for Google Adwords, you were signing up to have your ads displayed worldwide.  Now, you can target your ads to a specific geographic location.  Some one should have told Arizona Furniture’s Adwords manager about that feature.

Backstory: Last weekend, I lost it.  My 14 year old cat compulsively chews on the pads of his front left paw.   (I blame myself as I had him declawed 13 years ago, shortly after he adopted us and made short work of my drapes!)  About once a month, he causes the pad to bleed and leaves a bloody footprints everywhere he steps.  (We’ve tried bandaging the paw, but it just makes matters worse.)  My tile floors clean easily, but my 2 year old beige microfiber furniture is stained beyond repair.  (So much for that scotch guard crap!)

Last Saturday, after I tried to spot clean the latest deposits… I had reached my breaking point.   I headed to my computer to begin shopping for leather furniture.  (Interesting note:  The cat is the reason we didn’t purchase leather furniture in the first place!  We feared he’d tear up the furniture with his hind claws.)

Back to Google Adwords and the Arizona Leather Furniture Company.  I head to Google and type in the search terms “wholesale leather furniture”.  Because I haven’t ignored Adwords ads for this search, I am presented with three sponsored links.  The ad’s content reads: “Quality Leather Furniture: Custom Made Leather Furniture To Fit Your Home & Lifestyle”

I arrive at the index page of the site, where I am assured that they ship nationwide.  Good, because when I click on store locations, I see their stores are clustered in the Southern California/Arizona area.  Since I’m in southern Florida, the headline encourages me to continue onward.  Then I click to see their offerings.  Well, the furniture is lovely but there’s no description of the product dimensions… no product description…. no price!  Suddenly, it dawns on me.  This site was designed to allow the Southern California resident to “pre-shop” the store from the comfort of their home.

Such a site is a GREAT idea, especially in highly populated areas where traffic congestion makes “pre-shopping” a necessity instead of a luxury.  However, displaying that ad to me, as I pre-shop in Southern Florida is a waste and an unnecessary waste at that!  How many shoppers residing in Maine, Missouri, Kansas and Virginia have clicked that ad?  What a waste and an unnecessary one at that!

Google Adwords is a GREAT way to issue “virtual invitations” to discover your business.  If your business is limited by the constraints of geography, you can limit who sees your invitation thanks to Google’s ability to target geographically where your ads are displayed.   In other words, the Arizona Leather Furniture Company could have specified that their ad only be displayed to people logging in from IP addresses in the SoCal and Tempe areas.  The only value I can see in not limiting the geographical locations for the ads’ display is so that some marketing firm can report big numbers to their client… with an equally big Google Adwords bill on the side!  (That’s what happens when you pay your agency a % of spend instead of on a % of results.)

Without a marketing plan in place… without a well defined, tightly targeted audience… well… Google Adwords then becomes just another way to drain cash from your accounts.

Recently, I’ve had a couple of clients express a desire to purchase/create their own email newsletter delivery software to run on their own hosting account. I’ve also had more than one client pass through my practice having pursued that path previously, with disastrous results.

In college, I picked up a second major in economics because I discovered that I had taken most of the courses required for a major without trying. I just really loved both micro and macro economics and what I learned in those courses have served me well, even two decades later.

In my course of study, one of the concepts covered was that of economies of scale. According to Investopedia:

Economies of Scale: The increase in efficiency of production as the number of goods being produced increases. Typically, a company that achieves economies of scale lowers the average cost per unit through increased production since fixed costs are shared over an increased number of goods.

It’s this economic principle that comes to mind when solo entrepreneurs decide to launch their own newsletter delivery/email broadcast service.

Quite simply, Marketer’s Choice (a.k.a. 1 Shopping Cart/Professional Cart Solutions/Kickstart Cart, etc.) is able to leverage economies of scale in their favor. For only $29 per month, you can subscribe to their service AND let them handle all the headaches that come with managing your own email newsletter list.

OR you can pay several hundred or even thousands of dollars (one client reported a quote of $3000) to have a custom application built for you.

The problem, as one client of mine discovered, is that the initial creation/launch of the software is just the tip of the iceberg.  Today’s effective email newsletter software is tomorrow’s invitation to hackers to find the security holes in your system.

Some of the biggest names in the internet marketing use either a version of 1Shopping Cart or Aweber to deliver their email newsletters.  Hopefully, some day, newsletter email will be a thing of the past thanks to RSS feeds.  Until then,  most web site owners would be better served to use the above mentioned services than try to develop their own.

Last December, I joined a local gym. I had made a commitment back in June to add weight training to my exercise regiment… something that wasn’t happening on a regular basis, thus the gym membership.

December is a great time in the gym. Everyone who is working out at that time is “hard core” and committed. You don’t have to wait for machines in the off hours and the staff gets to know your name rather quickly.  Then, the calendar switches and suddenly… it’s a whole new ball game… for about 3 weeks!

I spent the first week of the year on the opposite coast… but when I returned, I saw a gym filled to overflowing with ‘New Year’s Resolution” people. As a result, I didn’t need to bring my new MP3 playerto the gym… there was PLENTY of entertainment to be had by watching the over zealous newbies throw themselves into achieving their fitness goals.

I watched on gentleman literally flop around on various machines which are lined up in front of the treadmills.  As I watched his arms flail loosely, I found myself wondering if he had taken advantage of the two introductory sessions with a personal trainer that every member receives.  Surely he hadn’t, or he wouldn’t be flopping around so.  I then briefly thought of my acupuncture client and made a mental note to discuss ways my client can reach the gentleman I’m watching who will certainly be sporting SOME sort of soft tissue damage in the near future.

I then began to think of all the people I’ve heard utter the words, “I’ve tried advertising for my business, but it just doesn’t work!”  I realize that this gentleman will soon be uttering his own version of that phrase, except his will go, “I’ve tried exercising but all I got was a shoulder/elbow/knee injury.”

Make no mistake, advertising and marketing WORK when done with proper form.  When you understand the underlying principles, then it’s actually easy to pull together a marketing campaign.

If you need proof, look no further than the pharmaceutical industry.   Thirty years ago, it was UNHEARD OF for a drug company to advertise directly to patients… now, drug manufacturers spend BILLIONS running ads to educate the consumer about the “solutions” offered by a particular medication.

Advertising works best when you tightly target your message and keep the end consumer in mind.  Drug companies do a WONDERFUL job of this.  Anyone who has watched more than 15 minutes of football can tell you how Cialis differs from Viagra.

Advertising at its worst is accomplished dancers who twirl and spin with the hopes of enticing you to purchase the tires made by the company whose logo appears at the end.   They would have been better off giving away $10 bills to everyone who waked into their dealer’s stores nationwide!

If your marketing isn’t working… take a step back and begin with identifying your target customer.  If your answer to that question is “everyone”… then I encourage you to pick up a copy of my book, Beyond the Niche.   In it, you’ll not only learn why you should tightly target your customer but ways to identify and target those customers.