A few weeks ago, my 6 year old daughter came home from school more excited than usual. With wide-eyes and a high pitch tone, she said to me, “Mommy, mommy, I have a great idea!” I stopped what I was doing and gave her my full attention.
She then continued, “If we find a pot of gold, you won’t have to work so hard anymore.” So with sincerity in my voice, I replied, “Where should we look for a pot of gold?”Of course, my sweet, innocent daughter gave me the only obvious answer, “At the end of a rainbow.”
It amazes me that my daughter wants for me, the same thing I want for all of my clients – to help them find their pot of gold. After all, isn’t online advertising all about helping clients increase their revenue? The real question is where do I find that magical rainbow?
Unfortunately, neither life nor online marketing is that simple. If you want to be successful in online advertising, like any treasure, you have to do the work of searching and digging to find the gold. Below are 5 tips to help you find your pot of gold.
1. Determine Your Goals.
At the end of the day, everyone has the same business goal – make more money. To be successful, we need to figure out what it will take to make more money. How many phone calls do you need to close a deal? How many visitors must come to your website before they make a purchase? How many brochures need to be downloaded in order to advance to a proposal stage? How many newsletter subscriptions … the list can go on and on.
Although these questions and the answers are as unique as each business, the fact remains that this information is the foundation to online success.
2. Develop An Online Marketing Strategy.
Most companies are very cautious when it comes to spending advertising dollars; however, many businesses have neglected the most effective marketing tactic available: strategic planning of their online presence.
An online marketing strategy will help position you to your target market as well as provide you a roadmap to achieve your financial goals (your pot of gold).
3. Go Outside The Box.
There are two comments I frequently hear when talking with new clients or prospective clients. Both of these drive me absolutely crazy.
- I want to do it because everybody else is doing it.
- I want to do it the same way everybody else does it.
I’ll admit that referring to another company who has been successful is definitely a great place to start, but it should never be the end point. The problem with this mentality is that if you are only doing what everyone else does, you will only be as good as them.
To find your pot of gold, you must be better than them. Therefore, it is essential to try different things in different ways. This concept also applies to best practices. Best practices are a perfect place to start, but if you want to be truly magnificent, sometimes you have to push the boundaries.
4. Integrate Online Marketing Tactics.
Studies upon studies have proven that isolated campaigns do not achieve desired results in today’s online world. The reason is that consumers depend on their online community to help make purchasing decisions.
By combining Paid Search, Display, SEO, Social Media and A/B testing your website, you maximize your online presence and visibility for potential clients. You will monopolize the first page of search results and your perspective customers will see you in the organic and paid search results, on various websites and blogs, and they will be able to connect with you in social media, watch your videos, read what others say about you, etc.
All these tactics work together, and together they have a more synergistic affect than each tactic has on its own. This combination builds trust toward your company and they will think of you as an authority in your field.
5. Test… Test… Test!
Arguably, the single most important thing you can do to exceed your revenue goals is to test anything and everything. Test your message. Test your ads. Test your tactics and combination of tactics. Test your call to actions. Test different budgets. Test different colors. I think you get the point. The bottom line is that you don’t know what you don’t know. The only way to figure it out is to test… test… test.
By this time you may be wondering how I know that these 5 tips will help you find your pot of gold. The reason I know these tips will work for you, is that at DirectiveGroup we execute on the above tips. And every month I hear many of our clients expressing their gratitude as they tell us “We had another record breaking month!”
Don’t take my word for it. Send us an inquiry and we will arrange for you to talk directly to our clients.
