admin, Author at Webwise Marketing Solutions

April 17, 2014

PPC – Why Companies Should Consider Paid Advertising?

Online Advertising Paid Advertising, paid search, Pay-Per-Click, ppc 0

Online shopping has increased by over 40% in the last two years according to Nielson’s Global Online Survey. That is over 875 million consumers which represents a huge opportunities for new businesses.

Paid Search or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is an effective and powerful marketing tool which allows your company to create online brand exposure to your target markets. Additionally, PPC gives you the ultimate control over your marketing budget while allowing you to capture the attention of the booming number of online consumers who are ready to spend money on your products and services. Obviously you need to be there but it’s like having an advert in your local newspaper and only paying for the prospects that read it!

Five reasons to consider Paid Advertising (PPC) are as follows:

Targeted marketing – you don’t have time to waste pitching to consumers who may have no need for the products or services you provide or located outside your operating area.
Instant traffic – acquiring inbound links and domain credibility to move up in the organic results can take a while. Paid search offers a quick ticket to immediate visibility, and can be especially helpful for new and small businesses facing competition with national chains and long‐established brands. Local Ads do sell!
Marketing during the purchase phase – impulse shopping is currently a thing of the past since buyers are now thoroughly researching and performing price comparisons on even small purchases. With PPC marketing and custom landing pages, you can include specific messaging and resources that give consumers the information they need.
Measured budgets – only spend what you can afford. As sales and your profits increase, you can adjust your PPC budget accordingly.
Higher conversion rates – the number of sales and leads you will get per pound spent on PPC marketing exceeds the averages for traditional media like direct mail, telemarketing, TV and radio and it’s important to note that Newspaper, Trade Show, and Magazine advertising campaigns are extremely difficult to measure effectively.

Developing and maintaining a paid search campaign requires constant attention and analysis and while selecting a long list of keyword phrases and letting the costs accumulate may increase sales, this could be at a much higher cost than is necessary. By investing in PPC management services and targeting your advertising spend, your budget can stay the same while your sales increase and awareness of your brand builds a solid foundation for your company’s future. In tough economic times, the highly qualified, relevant traffic you need can be brought to your front door through PPC advertising.

Please contact us if you would like advice with regard to setting up your PPC campaign.

April 10, 2014

by admin

The Advantages of Blogs To Get Your Messages Across

Social Media blog, blogging, blogs 0

Although a website can be a very powerful business tool for distributing your information and messages, they can be complicated to edit and add information to for the average person. However, maintaining a blog and blogging is the quickest and easiest way to get your online message noticed and it can be placed in front of targeted audiences almost immediately. If you already have a website you either want to be heard or you want your message to be read and most businesses with blogs agree that is very easy to maintain and publish new information on the web since updating a blog is as easy as posting to a forum or sending an email.

The following points highlight the benefits of maintaining a blog versus updating or adding content on your website:

Blogs are active and websites are passive and with blogs you can broadcast your content via RSS every time new information is available. Normal websites must wait before they are discovered by search engines.
Blogs are faster and RSS syndication is instantaneous. Technorati and other blog search engines index your new content within minutes after you have published the content.
Blogs build readership and it is very easy for your blog’s visitors to subscribe to the blog so that they can be notified of any new content you release. Blogs also encourage repeat visits with content being delivered to your favourite reader or by email.
Websites are clunky and expensive whereas blogs are lean and cheap.
Updating a blog is a quick process and you can update your blog at an airport, while you’re on the move, whereas you have to call your webmaster and wait to update your website.
The media are more likely to find you on a blog.
You can learn more about your audience from a blog.
You market automatically with a blog but not with a conventional website.
Blogs have newer fresher content and have regular updated content that is usually more up to date. Blogs also tend to deal with breaking events and technology insights.
Interaction and participation – Blog conversations are encouraged and multiple viewpoints can be discussed and comments can be made easily from each page on the blog.

April 8, 2014

by admin

Generating Leads Using Twitter

Social Media generating leads, SMM, Social Media Marketing, twitter 0

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is in the process of becoming a mainstream advertising channel because it provides the perfect platform to find and attract people real-time that are looking for your products and services. Methods such as cold-calling to find your prospective customers are now being used less and less as prospects are waiting to be found through Social Media. Twitter is the social networking platform at the heart of this revolution so it makes sense to sign up to Twitter immediately so that your business doesn’t miss out on the opportunities. If you are already on Twitter then make sure that you are ready and willing to respond to the wants and needs of your prospective customers out there with your products, services and solutions. In order to effectively generate leads from tweets the following tips should help:

Use Twitter Geo-targeting – use Twitter Search to find Tweets in your region and use a Twitter Client like TweetDeck or Seesmic to receive real time results so you can reply on time. TwitHawk is a tool that finds tweets for you and this tool uses custom search queries to target potential clients and then sends you an email notification when it finds a match – it is perfect for those who simply don’t have enough time for Twitter.

Participate in conversation – always respond to Tweets directed at you or your organisation and try to respond to Tweets that are about your industry. Tweeters will feel special if they find a deal through Twitter, for example, if you run a pizza restaurant and you come across someone Tweeting about pizza, then you can respond with a Tweet like “@pizzafan come in and order a pizza from us and receive a free drink.” Using TwitHawk you can setup a list of auto-responders that can rotate in reply to Tweets but make sure you keep an eye on the results so you can reply personally when necessary.

Offer an alternative – turn your virtual followers into customers by offering something different on Twitter. A good idea is to distribute discount codes that are for exclusive use for those following you on Twitter.

Run a competition – offer a prize that will make your followers Retweet your message. Competitions run on Twitter are attractive to Tweeters because they are easy to enter and free.

Twitter marketing works and if you spend enough time with it you are going to reach a level that few businesses achieve without spending huge amounts on traditional media channels. If you become a thought leader in your industry on Twitter then people will follow you and they will be influenced by what you have to say and start buying from you because they will be confident that they are getting good service and a reliable product from you.

If you have any questions regarding lead generation using Twitter or if you would like more information on social media marketing please contact us.

April 3, 2014

by admin

Adding Value To Business Processes Through Social Media

Social Media business processes, Social media 0

In order to comprehend the fundamental concept of social media think of traditional mainstream media turned upside-down. With “top-down” delivery of content through traditional channels such as TV, radio, papers, magazines, media companies and advertisers are telling you what to consume, when and how to do it but at a fixed time and location. On the other hand, social media delivers content from the “ground up,” which is why it’s often referred to as a “grassroots” media. Said another way social media is all about content on demand – sometimes even in real-time, and always available to download and be watched, listened to when and where we feel like doing it.

In terms of Return on Investment (ROI), Social Media brings value to the following business processes:

Human Resources – social media boosts a company’s brand online, therefore attracting more job candidates, and if social media use by employees is encouraged (such as corporate blogging, running company Facebook group), and staff is happier and tend to stay longer. Bottom line is reduced employee turnover; lower hiring and training costs; lower costs for job advertising.
Customer Service – Social media means open lines of communication between consumer and company, so customer problems and needs can be addressed in a real-time, transparent environment. The result is accountability and trust by consumers and less customer churn, lower customer acquisition costs; higher customer conversion rates.
PR and Media Relations – Social media is used more and more by mainstream journalists, as well as journalists and bloggers, for spreading the news and views of a company with easy dissemination of photos, videos, and links. A higher profile means more business leads, more sales per customer and for corporate communications and shareholder relations, social media allows a company to keep close tabs on what the public at large, as well as investors, competitors and consumer groups are saying about it which leads to enhanced share value; online reputation management; crisis aversion management.

In every one of these scenarios, increased revenue is the end-point of a strategic social media program’s development and careful implementation. If you have any questions with regard to using social media to add value to your business processes or if you would like more information on social media marketing please contact us

April 3, 2014

by admin

SEO Tips For Success

Search Engine Optimization Search Engine Optimization, SEO 0

The primary objective of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to attract more visitors to your website. However most experts also agree that organic search results are more effective for conversion and producing positive results and therefore websites that have a higher organic search ranking are usually more trusted by people for a service or product since it shows that the website has authority. The following steps, if followed, will improve your website rankings through SEO.

Research – Start your SEO campaign with keyword research and in doing so select key phrases that are highly relevant to the services that your business provides. Specific key phrases with 3-4 words are best if you want visitors that are ready to purchase from you.
Structure – Use keywords in your domain name, page names, titles, headings, folder names, etc.
Navigation – Use keywords in your navigation links and make your website easy to navigate both for search engines and visitors. Include a XML sitemap if your website navigation is complex.
Meta Tags – Use keywords and key phrases in the title, description and keyword tags. Each page in your website should have about 4 keyword phrases that are highly relevant to the content found on that page.
Content – Use keywords in your content and as a general rule use keywords 1-2 times in the first 25% of the text.
Local – Take advantage of local search opportunities by using your town, city, county and community names in your body text and on your contact page.
Valid Code – Validate your code and remove coding errors since these errors interfere with spiders crawling your site and they affect browser compatibility and usability. There are many online code validation websites available.
XML Sitemap – Include a XML sitemap for your website and submit the sitemap to Google Webmaster tools and Yahoo Site Explorer.
Links – Gain backlinks to your website from highly relevant blogs, authority sites, directories and other websites that are part of your industry.
Blog – Start a blog either as part of your website or on a separate domain and link to relevant pages on your website using your keyword phrases. Comment and participate on other blogs.
Web Analytics – Install website analytics on your website to monitor progress and monitor not only your overall visitor count, but which keyword phrases are bringing visitors and from which search engines.

March 11, 2014

by admin

Developing A Twitter Strategy And Plan

Social Media tweet plan, tweets, twitter, Twitter feed, Twitter strategy 0

Many Twitter users are actively tweeting but at the same time wondering whether or not it is doing anything for their business. It is important to adopt a strategy in order to avoid haphazardly tweeting at all hours of the day about everything from what you had for breakfast to news in your industry and in order to achieve this, a tweet plan is recommended. A tweet plan is simply a series of scheduled tweets used in conjunction with your real-time tweeting. The tweets in your tweet plan should be carefully put together to target your preferred audience with the desired result that every day you consistently brand your Twitter presence and attract the attention of the people you want to reach, providing them useful information. Tweets can be scheduled in advance so it makes sense to write them in batches when you have the time. The following steps will help put your tweet plan together:

Select your preferred audience – before you begin drafting your tweet plan, give some thought to who you want to connect with on Twitter since there are many different types of people who could help your business. You will probably have best results if initially you choose just one or two of the following suggestions: prospects, clients, referral sources, joint venture partners, business network and suppliers’ network.
Decide tweet frequency – before writing your tweets, you need to decide how many timeless tweets you want to publish each day and your decision should be based on your current Twitter presence and how many real-time tweets you usually send each day, your audience and what they like. The tweet plan’s main purpose is to get you on the radar of the people you are most interested in reaching but you still need to engage with your audience so don’t make the mistake of relying solely on the scheduled tweets in the tweet plan to connect with people and expect to build your business. In addition to timeless tweets you still need live tweets to engage with people since live tweets help you to connect with people in a way that brings them beyond Twitter and leads them along the path you want to take with them.
Decide on plan longevity – After deciding how many tweets you want to put in your tweet plan each day, you need to decide how many weeks you want to run your tweet plan and schedule tweets in advance. Again, this will depend on certain business factors and your audience. The two important considerations are how much time you have and how quickly you can process the feedback you get from your audience to include in your next tweet plan
Keyword research – use keywords in your tweets to send a consistent signal to tell others who you are, how you want to connect with them and what you want to talk about. When choosing the keywords to use in your tweet plan, remember your preferred audience, the people you most want to connect with on Twitter and importantly you want to use the keywords they use. The easiest way to write your tweet plan is to choose the number of keywords to correspond with the number of scheduled tweets you want to publish each day. So if you decide on 5 daily tweets in your tweet plan in Step 1, you should try to come up with 5 keywords. This means your scheduled tweets will provide your preferred Twitter audience with useful information every day on each of these 5 keywords. Suggestion: When choosing your keywords, keep Twitter’s 140 character limitation in mind. Use short words or word strings.
Vary the format – you will be able to write many timeless tweets on the same keywords when you use different formats and another good reason to use different formats when writing your timeless tweets is to add variety since you do not want your Twitter feed to become boring. The following are examples of different formats you could use:
- Relate a problem – qualifying questions
- Present a solution – business tips
- Focus on benefits – definitions
- Useful links to my blog
- Fun links – market research questions
- Resource links – useful 3rd party resources
- Quotes
Write your timeless tweets – you want to write your tweets to provide your preferred audience with the information they are most interested in therefore each tweet must be unique content because Twitter does not allow duplicate tweets. This next step of writing a series of unique tweets is simple if, for each tweet, you keep your preferred audience in mind, use one of your keywords, and use one format to write your tweet. Remember to include hashtags and limit your tweets to 120 characters to make it easy for others to retweet.
Choose your times – you don’t want to publish all of your scheduled tweets at once as this does not look “natural” in your Twitter feed and you would only reach the audience online at that time. Ideally you want to spread your tweets out throughout the day and you will also be publishing the majority of your tweets in real time. By spreading out your scheduled tweets, they will appear in between the other tweets in your Twitter feed.
Schedule your tweets – Now it’s time to schedule the publication of your tweets at the times you have chosen. There are many tools available to do this but the two most popular ones are SocialOomph and Hootsuite.

If you have any questions with regard to using Twitter for your busiess or if you would like more information on social media marketing please contact us at info@webwisemarketing.xyz

February 11, 2014

by admin

Social Media Basics For Success

Social Media Social media 0

Regardless of whether you are a business or an individual, you probably come across many complex challenges associated with social media. These can sometimes be overwhelming and the temptation is to ignore them however if you do decide to tackle them where do you begin? Rather than becoming paralyzed, understand that there are four simple, yet critical steps to social media:

Listen: Listen to your customer and conversations around your brand.
Interact: Join the conversation.
React: Adjust your product or service based on feedback.
Sell: If you listen, interact, and react this will happen with less effort.

Companies often enter the social media fray and jump straight to step four – selling. This is the worst thing you can do, and it won’t be effective. You must start with listening since without listening, you won’t achieve success with the other three steps and as many have said before, there is a reason we have two ears and one mouth. After listening, then you have the appropriate baseline and credibility to join the conversation. Imagine if you were at a housewarming party and walked up to a group of four people already engaged in a conversation and said, “I’m not sure what you are talking about, but here is what I want to talk about.” You don’t want to be “that person” at the housewarming party and you don’t want to be “that person or company” in the socialsphere. Even those who have fully bought into listening, are you really practicing it? Does your MD receive a one-page weekly summary or “listening report” that gives high level data on what is being said about the product, service, or brand? What do people like? What don’t they like? Do you have a similar report for your competitors?

Many get the listening and interacting part correct, but then they commit a terrible crime. They don’t do anything (react) based on the suggestions and information gathered? If 90% of the people complain about a certain aspect of your product or service, it’s imperative that that issue is resolved, and resolved promptly. Conversely, if 90% of the conversation is centred around certain aspects of the product or service that people love, then it’s imperative that this information is placed in the appropriate hands (PR, production, sales, customer service).

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