Barbara O'Toole

February 15, 2012
by otoole
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ONE EMAIL CAMPAIGN. FIVE DAYS. $390 in REVENUE.

by Barbara O’Toole

With an initial mailing of 62 emails, an artist tests his audience, his offering, and his price-point, and nets $455 in non-refundable income in just five days.

THE CAMPAIGN IDEA

After helping my husband, artist, Ken O’Toole, come up with a marketing plan for his art business, we wondered if he could help reach his income goals by simply teaching a two hour workshop once or twice a month, then targeting his email list of artists to promote the event.

After doing some market research, we came up with a workshop offering and created a landing page on Ken’s website for the event, along with a PayPal “click-here-to-pay” button for $65, just 10 days before the date of the first workshop (Saturday, January 30, 2012).

TEST – FIRST EMAIL (Jan 18)

For the first campaign email, he hand-picked 62 email contacts from his artist group to test the idea and gauge whether his topic and price-point were viable, etc. The email went out Wednesday afternoon, January 18 at around 3:00pm.

Multiple links in the email sent click-ers to the landing page. Here are details:

Emails Received: 62

Opened: 21 (34%)

Clicked-thru: 9 (43%)

Direct Feedback: 2 people emailed to say they would rather take a weekday evening class.

Results: 4 workshop purchases for $260 (19% conversion) 1 from a forwarded email

SECOND EMAIL (Jan 23)

For the final email notice before his first workshop, we resent to the first group of 62 and added Ken’s friends, family, and patrons segment of his list. We also added a sign-up to his website homepage specifically for future workshop interest and added 2 more workshop dates. (see #1 take-away below)

Emails Received: 383

Opened: 96 (26%)

Clicked-thru: 12 (12.5%)

Results: 2 workshop purchase $130 (16% conversion)

Social share features were added on this e-mailing, accidentally omitted from the first. Ken netted one sign-up for future workshop interest.

BIG TAKE-AWAYS

After reviewing the statistics provided in his EmailWerks account, we determined the following, which will help Ken market more successfully in the future:

The workshop purchase is definitely an “impulse buy.” Having multiple choices for dates and times available for buyers when they first come to the “landing page” will yield better results in future campaigns.
In doing the market research, we did not see any workshops with testimonials or comments from attendees, but we believe it may have helped our conversion rate to include them on the landing page.
Two of the five purchases were the result of forwardsso including a specific written call to action for “forwarding to a friend” in future campaigns will be included.
Ken has begun collecting a list of online art workshop posting locationsso he can share his future workshops with those entities. Likewise, by planning further ahead next time, he can prepare and distribute printed flyers for those locations in his area that will accept them.
Although the “no refunds, no cancellations”policy may have deterred some, Ken has decided to keep it as a best practice because setting that boundary beforehand makes for an extremely smooth administrative experience.
A sales promotion is as good as it’s offer, so attention was paid to the copywriting and composition of the landing page, as well as the composition of the outgoing emails. Ken is requesting a short written evaluation from his students and may add a follow-up email survey to future workshops.

Barbara O’Toole is a published author and founder/owner of Emailwerks.

EmailWerks provides a professional marketing email interface for advertising, marketing, and PR-savvy businesses who recognize the value and steadfastness of email in the marketplace. Powered by EMMA, a world-class email messaging platform, EmailWerks is owned and operated by O’Toole Marketing since 2006.

Permission to Reprint:

You may reprint this article in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include the following paragraph:

Reprinted from the blog of Barbara O”Toole, http://barbaraotoole.com/, featuring opinion, speculation, strategy, and creativity in the realm of marketing.

If you like what you read, please pass it along to your friends, clients and colleagues.

February 6, 2012
by otoole
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Number One Mistake in Managing Your Business Website

There is one comment that I hear often from small business owners. It is a comment based on an assumption. The assumption is as follows:

“I don’t have a lot of people telling me they found my website online so I must not have very much website traffic.”

When I ask the business owner how much website traffic they are getting, they cannot tell me, except to say they “don’t have time to look at website traffic reports.”

Imagine their surprise when they do examine their website statistics and find that they had 200 website visitors the month before. Only about 3 out of those 200 contacted them.

If I have 200 website visitors and I hear from only three of them, I have to wonder one of two things, 1. “Why is my website not converting better than that?” and 2. “What can I do to take advantage of the 200 visitors, possibly turning them into customers in the future?”

Let’s address each question separately:

1. Why is my website not converting better? In other words, why is my phone not ringing more?

This is a question worth examining, obviously. If you’ve gone to the expense of developing and maintaining a website, you might as well have one that works for you. There is not always one simple answer, however.

If this is a question that you believe is worth pursuing, here are some recommendations:

a. Re-examine the same issues you addressed when you first established your website. A lot has changed in the last two months, let alone the last two years. Has your website kept pace? For example, have you integrated the latest social media tools into your site? Facebook Fanpage? Video?

Your website visitor’s take – “Oh, this is a cool website. They’re using Facebook and looks like they’ll encourage good communication with their customers. Maybe I should try them out. Oh, great, and here’s a video that let’s me find out more about this business – almost like I’m meeting them in person!”

b. Generally speaking, how easy do you make it for people to do business with you? What calls to action does your website employ? What testimonials (social proof it is now called) are displayed and easy to find? How many steps do they have to go through before a sale is made? Is there more information you can give them to help them make a buying decision with you more quickly?

Your website visitor’s take should be – “Perfect. All the info I need is right here. I know exactly what to expect before I make a call or send an email to hire this company.”

2. What can I do to better take advantage of the people that ARE coming to my website monthly?

This is where so many businesses are missing out on potential new business. They do not have a “lead capture system” in place. They do not have a basic “sales funnel” set up to handle prospects. These terms are easy to search in Google for complete definitions, but suffice it to say that a lead capture system is being used by many, many successful online businesses.

The basic idea of the “lead capture system” is this: a desirable information package is offered to the site visitor as a “thank you” for finding the business online. This is often done in the form of an e-book or white paper or free report, which is delivered to the email inbox of the visitor when they supply their name and email address. Hence, their lead information is “captured” and can be used in future marketing campaigns.

Variations on a standard lead capture (as mentioned above) might be a free product or sample, a limited trial service offering, or some other way for a customer to “try out” your business.

Your website visitor’s take should be, ” This is great! This is information I can really use. If they give me this kind of great info before I even hire them, they’ll probably give me even better information when I’m paying for it! I’m confident my money will be well spent.”

The number one mistake in managing your business website is the assumption that you don’t have enough – don’t have enough traffic, don’t have enough time, and don’t have enough ideas. The truth is that you have everything you need. ~ Barbara O’Toole

——

Permission to Reprint:

You may reprint this article in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from the blog of Barbara O”Toole,
http://barbaraotoole.com/, featuring opinion, speculation, and strategy in the realm of marketing.

If you like what you read, please pass it along to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

January 2, 2012
by otoole
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Taking the Mystery Out of SEO: Top 3 Myths

I was shocked and surprised recently to learn that 90% of business owners polled by Forrester Research will include search engine optimization (SEO) in their 2012 marketing efforts.

My first reaction was, “Whoa! Really?”

Whenever I am approached by someone new about doing SEO work, I am regarded warily. My remarks are carefully scrutinized. Invariably, these questions are posed, “Do I offer a guarantee? How long will it take? How much will it cost and is a discount available?”

It dawned on me the other day. SEO vendors have become the used car salesmen of the internet. Nobody wants to deal with them, but everyone knows they have to at some point.

If you’re considering adding SEO to your marketing to-do list, here are the top 3 myths about SEO that may be erroneously guiding you. The tip that follows each may save you some “tire-kicking.” Following this article is a brief mini-glossary of terms covered(in italics).

Top 3 SEO Myths

1. I can do SEO once and it’s done. (Just like I did my website.)

This myth is, no doubt, perpetuated by the same folks who put up their websites in 2005 and have never looked back. Google’s number one mission is about delivering a quality user/customer experience. Your next website visitor is also Google’s customer. How will a website qualify for a ”top-three” spot on Google if Google does not see your website continually improved and updated?

Have you noticed how quickly the online landscape changes these days? Many people still are not aware that Google purchased YouTube several years ago. Naturally that purchase has impacted how videos come into search play online.

Google’s response to Facebook’s take on a great user experience has been their “Plus One” initiative, tested and launched in September of 2011. Google’s purchase of Android was their mobile response to Apple’s iPhone. In November of 2011, they launched “GoMo” to help ensure their Android mobile users (and all their customers) will have a great user experience.

Common sense: Way too many changes happen daily to assume that a one-time SEO fix will get the job done. So, if you have a limited marketing budget, is SEO really your best option? Would it make more sense to keep your current site updated with relevant content and/or make your site mobile friendly?

2. I need lots of keywords, lots of links, and I better have a guarantee from whomever I hire for SEO.

Keywords.

It’s been a year or two since keywords came into play in a major way in search parameters. ”Keyword” is still a valid term. Keywords are still used. Keywords are just one type of meta tags used in the source code of your webpages. They no longer figure very strongly in the search algorithms used in the major search engines.

There are differences of opinion on what meta tags, if any, do matter. Most recently, I’ve heard the “title tag” is given the most weight of the tags.

Common sense: Regardless of which meta tag is most impactful today, all of the other criteria combined far outweighs the significance of any one type of tag.

Links.

Another holdover from several years ago is links. First they were called reciprocal links, then called backlinks, and now we hear of the importance of on-page or internal links.

For more information, you can Google “Google’s Panda Update” and read up on how it is no longer the best idea to have a pageful of links, no matter how relevant, without accompanying descriptive text to validate relevance of the content to your reader, who, never forget, is also Google’s user.

Common sense: Regardless of which link type is most impactful, all of the other criteria combined far outweighs the significance of any one type of link.

Guarantee.

Common sense: Unless your SEO provider has inside information on upcoming changes from major online players like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple, and knows what your competitors are going to do next, how can you expect a valid guarantee of results in your online space?

What you should expect is reaching a realistic goal that you and your provider agree is possible. A goal is different than a guarantee. Goals are typically achieved by employing best practices.

3. I’m not getting traffic to my website ’cause I don’t get inquiries about my products and services. I need SEO to generate traffic.

We see the logic here. Realistically, though, more traffic does not always translate into more customers. Does your website have at least one major call to action? How effective is that call to action? Do you know what your current average monthly traffic statistics are? How much of that traffic is converted into customers currently?

How do you invite prospects to interact with you? Do you give multiple communication options? In other words, do you make it easy for prospects to connect with you?

Common sense: If you’re going to spend big bucks on SEO services, wouldn’t it be good to know how well your current website is converting prospects into customers FIRST?

And speaking of your customers, one quick way to increase sales by 20% and more – start sending a regular branded email or monthly ezine to them. Offer them a VIP first-look at your newest product, ask them for referrals, and thank them. Do it regularly and consistently and your bottom line will improve in like manner.

MINI SEO GLOSSARY

backlink: a link out on another website or other web property (like a link on a blog post or your Facebook fanpage), other than your website, that links back to your website to lend it authority and validate the content on your website

call to action: a common term that means to tell your reader/prospect/customer what you want them to do

converting prospects into customers: process of moving a possible customer into your sales pipeline to turn them, ultimately, into a paying customer

internal link: refers to a link within your webpage, website or web property that links to somewhere else within that same webpage, website or web property

make it easy: the act of making it as simple as possible for prospects to become customers and for customers to refer others to you; i.e., a “no-brainer”; what you want your website and all marketing efforts to do

meta tags: what a keyword is; other meta tags include title, description

on-page: refers to the landscape of text and content within your webpage or website

reciprocal links: links coming from other websites and web properties to your website that you should link to only if very relevant to your web visitors

relevant content: the text, tables, images, links and code that make up your website, giving and showing your visitors valuable information about your products and services; what Google likes to serve up to all its users/customers

search algorithms: the fancy math formulas that search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, Firefox, and Chrome use to display pages and pages of search results to you

source code: goobledygook that your webpages are filled with behind the scenes; HTML, JavaScript, XML, PHP, Perl, CSS to name a few of the more common codes

title tag: the meta tag that contains the title of your webpage

—–

Permission to Reprint:

You may reprint this article in your print or electronic newsletter. But please include
the following paragraph:

Reprinted from the blog of Barbara O”Toole,
http://barbaraotoole.com/, featuring opinion, speculation, and strategy in the realm of marketing.

If you like what you read, please pass it along to your friends,
clients and colleagues.

June 14, 2011
by otoole
0 comments

10 Factors to Focus on to Improve Google Local Search

Subtitle: Even the Experts Say, “Digital Marketplace is Overwhelming!”

This morning I was directed to an article by SEO and web design expert, David Mihm, in Portland, Oregon. When I got to the following statement, I was so relieved! It was like getting a doctor’s diagnosis when you finally have confirmation for what you suspected all along:

“And boy, did Google’s Local results get complex this year– specifically in October 2010 with the launch of “Blended” Place Search, which shows a hybrid of Place-related and website-related snippets on the search engine result page.”

So, it wasn’t just me! Google’s Local Search results have become more complex! The image shows what we would typically see from a local search result, BEFORE the “blended searches” were rolled out by Google last fall.

The article goes on to describe how the author conducted a survey of 33 experts, asking how to improve one’s ranking in Google Places. It explains the ranking methodology used and how results were tabulated, etc. The following is a compilation of the top 10 recommended factors to focus on to improve rankings in Google’s local search:

Physical Address in City of Search (PLACE PAGE)

Manually Owner-verified Place Page (PLACE PAGE)

Proper Category Associations (PLACE PAGE)

Volume of Traditional Structured Citations (IYPs, Data Aggregators)* (OFF-PLACE/OFF-SITE)

Crawlable Address Matching Place Page Address (WEBSITE)

PageRank / Authority of Website Homepage / Highest Ranked Page (WEBSITE)

Quality of Inbound Links to Website (OFF-PLACE/OFF-SITE)

Crawlable Phone Number Matching Place Page Phone Number (WEBSITE)

Local Area Code on Place Page (PLACE PAGE)

City, State in Places Landing Page Title (PLACE PAGE)

*IYP’s refers to “Internet Yellow Pages” - Note: This is more so an issue with Drs., lawyers and other professionals who often have multiple variations of their name on YPs and directories or heavy marketers that have lots of different phone #s all over the web.

Of course, you are welcome to explore th full article at your own risk. I caution you, it may be a little overwhelming! http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

June 10, 2011
by otoole
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How to Overcome Top 7 Marketing Struggles

Recently, I conducted a survey of a group of twenty marketing and sales professionals, some sole proprietors, others were employees from for-profit and not-for-profit environments. Their responses to the question, “What do you struggle with most when it comes to your marketing efforts?” prompted the following thoughts from me.

Planning
This is so important and must be made a priority like anything else you schedule into your calendar. This time you schedule time for yourself – to plan! Set goals. Quantify them and follow through, even if you “dont feel like it!” Remember, be the “Master of your Emotions.”* Establishing good habits is key to success in any area of life.

Building Awareness for Your Brand or Cause & Educating
There are so many tools to help us with this today. It’s likely your audience wants the information but they may be picky about how they receive it. Look at all the ways you have to share it with them now – facebook, email, texting, webinars, videos, man! Encourage them to share and some of your work is done for you.

Presentation Tools
And speaking of educating, here are a couple of free tools you may really benefit from:

Join Me Screen Sharing
This is a great free screensharing program you can use on your computer or phone, so your prospect or client can see what you see on your computer screen. So, no need to schedule an in-person, just ask when they can meet you online. http://join.me
My BrainShark
This is a PowerPoint on steroids! Turns your presentation into a mini-video. I love it because you can create your PPT as usual, upload it to your free account at http://mybrainshark.com, then anyone can look at it when you give them the link. You don’t have to involve your webmaster at all! It has some cool features, like allowing you to pop in a .pdf file or a Word doc in the middle of digital video.

Following Up
This is tough and a lot of people struggle with it. (Many never develop a good follow up process.) It is a process that can become a habit. Decide the best way for you to follow up. Write it down. Step by step. What happens to the contact info when you first receive it? What method do you use and what do you say? Write it all down. Then write down the second follow up message. How is it delivered? What does it say? Most importantly, what do you want someone to DO when they get this message? What action do you want them to take? Write that down. What about the third message?

Do you see how this is beginnng to take shape? This process is called developing your “sales funnel.” Hint: Go to Google and type in “How can I fill my sales funnel with leads?” and see what comes up!

Finding Your Target Audience
Some folks know exactly WHO they are trying to reach, but just need some help (and research time!) to FIND them.

One consideration, of course, is whether or not you can meet them in person. Can you trek out into the world to meet these folks on their territory? That is ideal. Then you can sincerely and genuinely just ask. Go to the information desk. Let another person try to find out who the gatekeeper is for you. Be persistant. Once you have a name, you can search for other contact info. (Social Media makes that easier).

Go to the events that your audience goes to. Maybe it is an association they would logicaly belong to? Attend the chamber events that your target’s company belongs to. Maybe the company PR person or sales rep can help you identify who you need. Hint: Facebook and LinkedIn have groups, communities and search boxes. Enter the company you want to target. See what you can find.

Building Relationships
Sales experts tell us that this is what it’s all about – building those relationships. When you have a heart for what you are doing, the best advice you can hear is, “Let your heart lead you.” It’s great to develop a strong “sales funnel” ’cause people learn a little more about you with every message they receive. Don’t forget your existing customers. Build a process to routinely ask for referrals and continue developing your relationship with them as well.

Soliciting Referrals
Referrals made by your existing customers are the best, of course. But what if you’d like to encourage others to refer people to you? This is a classic feature of many premium networking groups that make giving referrals part of their criteria for maintaining your membership.

Is it possible that you could set up an affiliate program? An affiliate program is where you get a commission if you refer someone to the company of whom you are an affiliate. If you have some terrific, high-energy advocates of your business, put them to work formally on your behalf by paying them a commission each time they refer a sale.

* This is the reference to the book, “The Greatest Salesman in the World,” by Og Mandino

April 29, 2011
by otoole
0 comments

Royal Wedding Guest Book – Brilliant Lead Generator

Guestbook: Lead Generator

(April 29, 2011) I admit that these days, if it is not happening in my email inbox, I may not know about it!

I might have missed the royal wedding altogether had it not been for my sister-in-law’s comments at a recent family gathering. I dashed home and looked for more info online.

It was quite brilliant of Yahoo to take advantage of the onlookers, like me, by posting a beautifully ornate online “guestbook.” Everyone knows that its only polite to sign the guestbook when you go to a wedding.

Signing in was made even more enticing and engaging by allowing you to add “advice” for the newlyweds as well. Brilliant!

Who wouldn’t want to go through the receiving “queue” and wish the couple well or give a little advice? And it’s a virtual queue as well - with no waiting, no wonderng what to say, no concerns of propriety in addressing the couple properly.

In addition, signing the guestbook puts your name in the hat for a sweepstakes. Ah, yes, there’s the sponsor!

I haven’t traced down who exactly was behind the “guestbook” campaign – Yahoo or another sponsor of the sweepstakes – but whoever it was, I’m certain they’re reaping the rewards. There are already 11,000 “likes” at this writing. ~ Barbara O’Toole