Domain URL (example: http://www.example.com) Do not use directories or filenames.
Last time, we looked at the off-page Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technique of link-building. While clearly this is the most effective method for increasing the visibility of your website, you should not neglect on-page SEO techniques to help boost your search engine results. On-page SEO revolves around the placement of carefully chosen keywords within your website content. There are many content elements that can contain keyword phrases, including headlines, subheaders, body content, images and links. You need to have a sufficiently keyword density on each website page so that search engines can figure out what topic(s) you are addressing.
While there is much to be said for hiring a competent search engine optimization expert to handle on- and off-page SEO chores, you can attend to many of these chores yourself if you have the time and enough knowledge. Here are a few things that you can do to help optimize your website:
Posted in Marketing, Search Engines
Tagged website
Successful inbound marketing requires that your website can be found online. No matter how good your website is, it’s valueless without traffic. That’s where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) becomes important – it comprises a set of techniques and activities that increase the visibility of your website. Website traffic is the top of the marketing funnel – without a lot of traffic, you will have trouble making a lot of sales. SEO is concerned with non-paid (also known as organic) search, as opposed to paid placement programs such as Google’s AdWords.
Let’s begin by concentrating on off-page SEO – things that you do to increase website visibility that don’t affect website content. Off-page SEO is accomplished through an inbound (or backlink) link strategy. The key is to get authoritative websites to link to yours. In the parlance of the industry, high-ranked websites spill link juice onto your site by linking to it. As you increase the number of inbound links from authoritative sites, you receive a higher rank from search engines, lifting you to the holy ground known as a Page One result. The top of Page One is the first place ranking – if you can get that slot, you are virtually assured of high traffic volume.
There are a number of things you can do to advance your link-building strategy:
Not all link packages are the same. You need to have your links originate from domains with a Page Rank (PR) of at least four. Page Rank is how Google measures the authority of a website. Domain-Pop offers packages with Page Ranks ranging from PR4 to PR6.
As you can see, there are a number of ways to boost your website visibility using backlinks. If you have the time and the talent to create a compelling daily blog posting, you may be able to garner backlinks slowly over time. To accelerate the process, use a high-quality paid-link service to boost your website towards Page One.
In our next post, we’ll look at on-page SEO techniques.
Posted in Backlinks, Marketing, PageRank, Search Engines
Tagged website
Today we are kicking off a series of articles on how to make your website a marketing resource for driving traffic, leads and sales to your business. You do have a website, don’t you? Surprisingly, up to 40 percent of small and medium-sized businesses still lack a website. Some of these companies have a presence on social media, but not having your own website is a serious omission within your overall marketing strategy.
A great website will increase your sales. If you lack one, you need to take remedial action to create a website that acts as an inbound marketing machine. In this series, we’ll point out important features to incorporate into a new website or to revamp and existing one.
The first thing to understand is that a website must be a dynamic part of your overall marketing strategy. This means that your website must include items such as searchability, social media, compelling content, podcasts, timely blogs and more. You can no longer depend on flashy graphics or an expensive AdWords campaign to permanently build traffic. Websites must respond to today’s consumers who want to gather information or transact a purchase on their own schedule, without the involvement of a salesperson. A website must be able to educate potential consumers, not try to sell them. Buyers are in control, and a well-designed website will cater to buyers with various forms of inbound marketing content.
Inbound marketing – where the consumer finds you – is much less expensive than traditional marketing, where you try to find customers. Studies reveal that the cost per lead for inbound marketing is up to 62 percent cheaper than that for outbound marketing. Think of the money you save by avoiding old-fashioned marketing techniques, such as printed brochures, data sheets, flyers, white papers, etc. Your website is instrumental in driving leads to your business – it is the place where blog traffic, social media, organic search and paid search come together to convert traffic into qualified leads and sales. Think of your website as an online storefront that attracts new business.
Marketing and sales is often pictured as a funnel that gathers potential customers, filters out unpromising leads and converts qualified leads into sales. So it makes sense to start with the very top of the funnel – getting found online. This is the province of Search Engine Optimization, and we’ll delve into this topic in our next posting.
Posted in Marketing
Tagged website
I’d like to wrap up this series on ROI (return on investment) marketing metrics by summarizing the key lessons we’ve discussed over the past few weeks. Each of these lessons will help you improve the performance, profitability and credibility of your marketing analytics.
1) Lay Plans for Your Future Success – Allocating sufficient resources to your marketing reporting is important to benefiting from the insights offered by the reports. Reports are not an end; they are a means of supporting decisions that improve profits, and to discover which strategies work best at increasing ROI. Planning involves setting goals and scenarios for all marketing initiatives prior to actually funding the initiatives. All programs must be measurable, and should benefit from insights developed during previous planning cycles.
2) Maintain Financial Credibility – Senior management cares about increasing profits and revenues, so use metrics that speak to these concerns. Be scrupulous in accounting for the costs generated by your marketing campaigns. You should create models of your revenue cycle that include lead flow, conversion rates, and sales rates.
3) Work Strategically – Know your measurement priorities before starting campaigns and make sure you include specific measurements for each campaign. Different measurements from different methodologies should be integrated so that you can leverage the unique strength of each strategy. You will see that multiple measurements have a beneficial cumulative effect. Review all expenses that relate to customer value and find ways to improve the profitability of each account.
4) Create a Successful Environment – Allow all interested parties to access critical sales, marketing and financial data. Select tools, such as dashboards, to display information that is relevant, important and urgent. Technology helps you extract increased productivity from staff. Invest in business analysis expertise to advance the precision of ROI analytics. If possible, hire and/or train experienced technicians who don’t mind experimenting with methodologies. Be sure to maintain good communications with top management.
5) Continuously Improve – It is essential to establish a long-term roadmap for increasing marketing ROI and boosting measurement capabilities. Your marketing and measurement processes should align with business objectives. Feel free to budget small pilot programs that experiment with new capabilities. The insights you develop should help you create a winning momentum, and will spur you on to continuously evolve your strategies for improving marketing ROI. Think of it as a never-ending process: you can always find ways to make things better.
Posted in Marketing
Tagged marketing
I hope that by now we’ve established the importance of ROI-based marketing analytics. The last dozen or so postings have discussed various aspects of marketing metrics, including nurturing a conducive culture within a marketing organization. As we wind up this series of blogs, let’s zoom in on four essential components to a marketing measurement system. Having any one of these components puts your department ahead of companies that rely on Excel spreadsheets and other ad hoc tools. Spreadsheets are handy for quick and dirty analysis, but are by no means sufficient for implementing a robust analytics process. With the right tools, an analyst’s time can shift from data collection and presentation to developing valuable insights and refined processes.
1) Central Marketing Database – highly detailed marketing data is essential for reliable analysis and forecasting. The data should be collected in and available from a central repository. Data should be organized by marketing campaign attributes: when the campaign ran, who it touched (contacted), its cost and benefits, etc. Nothing meaningful can be developed without first having high-quality data.
2) Time-Series Analytics – systems must store a sufficient amount of historical data to allow for trend measurement and comprehension. The system should allow for reporting on any arbitrary time period, rather than requiring a “snapshot” of previous reports or spreadsheets. Analysts often need to go back and inspect earlier periods in order to understand the big picture of performance trends over time.
3) High-Powered Analyzers – because most marketers are not business analysts, the systems that provide analytic data must be easy to use and have extensive built-in capabilities. Analyzing software is often packaged in the form of dashboards – visual displays of all the relevant information needed to measure and report effectiveness versus goals. Dashboards are set up to deliver information quickly and intuitively; you don’t have to be an expert to use one. At the same time, experts should be able to manipulate analysis systems to give them custom results when needed.
4) Ad Hoc Reports – as mentioned, trained business analysts should be able to design and generate ad hoc reports as needed. This requires the ability to comb the data in a flexible manner. Ad hoc reports are usually configured as tables and charts.
It is estimated that an automated system that allows Marketing and Sales to coordinate lead management business processes will see a 50 percent increase in conversion rates and a five to ten percent annual increase in revenue. Finally, here is a word of caution, provided by Bill Gates:
“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
Posted in Marketing
Tagged marketing
We have written a lot about the technical side of marketing measurement. But implementing a successful marketing measurement program requires a departmental ecology composed of the most appropriate people, processes and technology. It starts with the right people and the right culture. Without these two factors, efficient and advanced technology alone is useless. A savvy chief marketing officer (CMO) knows this, and asks tough questions about the people in his department:
1) What are the right kinds of employees needed to implement a culture of marketing measurement?
The CMO will first evaluate his current staff, and then look outside the organization to fill any gaps. Ideally, you could go out and hire a full-time marketing analyst to run your marketing measurement program. Doing so will accelerate the process. However, many CMOs are constrained to stick with the staff already in place. If that describes your situation, make your best choice based on skill set and temperament. Then, train up the individual and make sure they have adequate support and authority to get the job done.
2) What mix of skills should my staff develop?
You’ll need people with analytic skills, people that can assimilate, visualize and present large data sets and complex topics. Your measurement analyst must be able to make decisions, solve problems and work with imperfect information. Communication skills – writing, speaking, and visual presentation – are mandatory in order to explain project results in such a way as to enable an organization to learn from its mistakes. Your analyst will need to speak to individuals and groups directly and through electronic media. He or she will benefit from a flexible attitude towards experimentation and risk-taking. The analyst should ideally be both a technical wizard and an industry expert, though the latter is much more important in order to correctly interpret the collected data.
3) How do I set up an analytical culture?
Creating powerful analytic systems is not sufficient – you must get your entire company to use the provided information and base actions upon your conclusions. You will need to carve out some organizational time in order to discuss, disseminate and reflect upon your analytics. The time spent on these activities will be justified if your recommendations result in higher revenues. Base opinions on data, not power, and make sure your time is spent on data that really makes a difference. Top management must initially buy into the value of marketing metrics. Once you get that support, your effectiveness will help build and sustain the analytic culture. If you blow it, kiss your job goodbye.
Posted in Marketing
Tagged marketing measurement
Often, a company’s revenue team does not pay close attention to traditional marketing forecasts because such forecasts tend to be focused only on market size, not revenue generation. But suppose the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) could predict that, in the next quarter, the Marketing Department would generate an extra 30 deals worth $4 million in sales, sales that were currently not included in the sales forecast? Imagine further that the CMO’s compensation was tied to the accuracy of his marketing forecast? A CMO who could successfully predict his department’s contribution to sales would quickly become an esteemed member of the revenue team. But to pull off this feat, the CMO would need access to excellent data and a reliable methodology.
For a CMO to confidently predict future leads, opportunities and customers, he must have access to such information on a historical basis for each stage in the revenue production cycle. There are four conceptual components involved with making accurate marketing forecasts:
1) Identify the stages of the revenue cycles (names, prospects, qualified leads, opportunities, wins and losses, etc.) and then assess how each lead type (lead source, company size, industry, product line, channel, etc.) progresses through the various stages. The metrics of conversion percentage and velocity are relevant.
2) Assemble accurate inputs regarding the number of new leads for each lead type. The marketing team will use these inputs in their forecasting system.
3) Create and execute a model of how existing and new leads flow over time through the various stages.
4) Refine forecasts using management judgment.
The old saying with any forecasting system is “garbage in, garbage out”, so you will need precise estimates of the number of leads, by type, flowing through the system per time period. By modeling how existing and new leads convert throughout the various revenue stages in your current revenue cycle, you will be able to project revenue funnel results into the future.
Assuming you can estimate lead generation and conversion rates accurately, you still have to exercise some managerial judgment to contextualize your forecasts. For instance, in a larger company, the CMO will need to collect “bottom-up” data from each division in order to roll-up an accurate forecast. Since divisions may represent different types of segments (product, geographical, income, etc.), a good CMO will apply his knowledge of the economy and the previous accuracy of his divisional managers in refining the final forecast. The CMO will need to differentiate the following:
In sum, a CMO can increase his relevancy to the CEO and the board by making accurate forecasts on the contribution to revenues made by the Marketing Department. If you are looking for clout in your organization, produce rigorous marketing forecasts and stand by them.
Posted in Marketing
Tagged marketing forecasts
I’ve saved the final program measurement method for all you marketing math geeks out there who are comfortable with statistics. Market mix modeling (MMM) points to how sales results depend upon a number of independent touches (i.e. prospect contacts with a marketing department) as well as non-marketing factors. MMM uses statistical techniques such as regression analysis to measure marketing ROI. It is not commonly used – one estimate puts its usage at B2B marketers at three percent. Still, it can provide powerful insights when applied properly.
Here is a simplified example:
Let’s assume Company A has $165M in revenue, and spends the following on marketing:
We postulate that without its Marketing Department, Company A would have sales of $125M – in other words, $40M ($165M – $125M) of actual sales is generated by marketing. The company credits the Marketing Department thusly:
Given these facts, the MMM for Company A would be the following equation:
Sales=125M+3.0*Search+2.0*Display+1.5*Trade Show
With this equation, you can predict the sales effect derived from varying the three budget items. You later compare actuals to predictions to evaluate the accuracy of the equation.
It is somewhat of an arcane art to pick out relevant independent variables, even in this simplified example. Experience shows that it takes more resources to collect the data for your equation than to analyze it. The more independent variable you include, the more complex the equation becomes, but perhaps the more accurate as well. Here are some really good independent variables:
And anything else that seems relevant.
The MMM can very accurately measure each program’s impact on sales, weigh the impact of external events, and help the Marketing Department assess the efficiency and effectiveness of programs. However, the method requires a lot of data that can be expensive to collect, requires analytical skills, and invites too much focus on short-term sales changes as opposed to long-term brand-building strategies.
It’s not easy for the Chief Marketing Officer to choose among the different metrics we’ve discussed in this series. In fact, about 20 percent of B2B CMOs don’t even measure the ROI of their department. Furthermore, 87 percent of senior marketers lack confidence in their abilities to impact sales forecasts. The flip side is that if you adopt one of the five methodologies we’ve outline, you have an 87 percent chance of developing a competitive advantage. Remember, a few accurate marketing measurements are more valuable than a bunch of inconclusive ones. Our advice is to start small and refine your operations as you gain confidence in your methods.
Posted in Marketing
Tagged marketing
You can measure the impact of marketing programs by setting up two groups: one exposed to the program, and a control group that is not. With this method, you can test just about anything, though it can get pretty expensive as you add more factors. For example, if you want to measure the impact of an advertising campaign on one of your products, you can divide your customer base into two geographic areas. Expose one group to twice the advertising as the control group, and measure the buying patterns of the two segments. The difference in response is an indication of the effectiveness of advertising campaign.
You design a test by identifying one or more outcome metrics, such as profit, revenue, search traffic, lead, average selling price, conversion rates, etc. You can test just about anything, including:
In our previous post, we talked about measuring touches (contact events) in terms of lead-nurturing. You can design tests with particular lead-nurturing tracks (a series of touches) which allow you to measure the effectiveness of a multi-touch approach. Tests have to be set up such that you can determine statistical significance, otherwise you will not have confidence in the conclusions you draw. You don’t need to hit a 95 percent significance level, 80 percent will do for this purpose.
If you are mulling whether to set up a test program, keep in mind the costs and benefits. You will achieve a better understanding of a marketing program’s impact with a great deal of flexibility, and you can probably run the test for a relatively low cost as long as you set up a proper control group. On the down side, you will only be measuring specific tactics, not the effectiveness of all campaigns — the more you test, the more you spend.
A simpler, less rigorous approach is called “pre-post testing”, in which you compare results before and after a marketing program. This approach doesn’t allocate all the credit to the marketing touch since it assumes you would have some sales no matter what. This method is not good at measuring seasonal, cyclical and outside factors, such as the economy, other marketing programs, and sales initiatives. Pre-post testing will at least give you an indication about whether you are on the right track, but it is at best an estimate.
Posted in Marketing
Tagged marketing programs
Let’s continue our discussion of ways to measure the value of marketing programs with a look at somewhat more complex metrics, starting with allocation across multiple programs and people. This method acknowledges the importance of each marketing or sales contribution (touch) needed to close a deal, and tries to gauge the value of each touch. In this technique, you work backwards from the last touch (the immediately preceding event to a sale), such as a direct mailing in which the lead clicked to the website and made a purchase. Next, identify each significant preceding contact that contributed to the closing of the deal.
Now that you have a list of contributing touches, you need to apply an allocation methodology by weighting the importance of each touch point. There are three main allocation methodologies:
As a concrete example, let’s assume that we close a $200,000 deal that involved three influencers from the buyer’s company, as follows:
1) Influencer X attended a trade show and a seminar
2) Influencer Y went to the trade show only
3) Influencer Z received direct mail and clicked through to the website
You might divvy up the $200,000 credit by assigning half of it to the trade show and a quarter each to the seminar and the direct mail. Although somewhat more complex, this measuring method acknowledges all nurturing touches and lead generations. Its especially useful when the sales cycle is long and involves a number of touches, each of which deserves some recognition. You want to make sure that your value assumptions are not overly biased, that they don’t overlook less obvious contributors, and that you realize that you’re not getting an insight into the ways the different touches correlate or connect with each other to provide synergies.
Next time, we’ll examine a more precise, and more costly, method of program measurement: test and control groups.
Posted in Marketing
Tagged marketing programs
