A recent customer survey we put out revealed that our clients would prefer to be educated on Google AdWords, SEO and online marketing strategy, so that they can learn how to make simple and cost-effective changes that will transform their business. Sixty-six percent of participants indicated they asked for more online business and marketing advice from their client manager, while 55 percent wanted further education on Google AdWords strategy.

There are plenty tips and tricks that business owners can learn and easily apply to help them make the most of their online presence. Business owners are mistaken in thinking that AdWords is a magic bullet.  However, there are so many other factors they should be applying to ensure they get the most from their online marketing strategy.  For example, a business may be receiving a number of clicks from a particular ad, but then what happens with that click? Do they navigate away from the page almost immediately? How long do they spend on your website and where do they go? Who is the person clicking on the ad anyway.

An effective internet marketing strategy is all encompassing, and should also include general business protocols and procedures. One of our clients received a phenomenal amount of clicks on his online ad, but not one translated into a sale. We soon discovered the reason – his staff never answered the phone!

In response to client requests for more education and information, we have launched a number of initiatives for clients and other Brisbane business owners, including monthly online marketing strategy sessions where business owners will walk away with thousands of dollars worth of value guaranteed.

 Join us for the following upcoming events:

April 26 – Web Conversion  – 6pm

Make your sales and leads sky rocket. Boost your revenue without spending any more money. Convert more visitors to your website to sales!

May 16 – SEO Tips and Tricks – 6pm

Discover how to optimise your website to drive more quality traffic to your website.

 May 23 – Web Conversion  – 6pm

Make your sales and leads sky rocket. Boost your revenue without spending any more money. Convert more visitors to your website to sales!

June 7 – Google Adwords – 6pm

How to make your Adwords work harder for your business, without spending any more on them.

Go to www.  www.benbradshawevents.com.au to book

Recently, I was interviewed  by startupsmart.com.au on the subject of adversity and turning it around so that it works for you, rather than against you. Adversity is definitely something I have become very familiar with over the years I have been in business, as I shared in a previous blog post, but I have most certainly not let it get in my way.

Here is the story.

http://www.startupsmart.com.au/my-best-mistake/early-starter-to-success.html 

While I am now identified as a self-made millionaire and internet marketing pioneer, I was not always featured on the national landscape of business and personal success.  

At the age of 17, I found myself with a pregnant girlfriend.  It was then I realised that I needed to do something drastic to turn my life around, and ensure that my children were not destined to a life that lacked in opportunity, and parents who lived on social security benefits.

With a very limited family budget and living on egg and lettuce to ensure our daughter was always well fed, I found an opening in carpet sales, where my father was employed.

Early on, I started to kick some serious sales goals, and enjoyed the feeling of achieving something for myself and my young family. Looking back, this was probably when I first got addicted to the taste of success.

It was ultimately the search for online visibility for his other passion, corporate magic, that led me to the path of online marketing. Having tested a number of methods for Google AdWords and stumbling upon gold, I  started SponsoredLinX. The business has incidentally grown a staggering 300% since its inception and is now Australia’s largest Australian owned AdWords Management Company.

However, the journey to success has certainly included a large slice of adversity, and even today as it grows, I encounter professional and personal tests on a weekly basis.

From a devastating office fire to former employees taking IP to other businesses, to even what on the surface could initially be mistaken as positive, such as growing too rapidly, I have ultimately learned how to deal the hand of adversity, and relish it.

I have always taken a yin and yang approach to business, in other words, I believe problems are all part and parcel of the job. How can you recognise and appreciate the good times if there are no struggles on the journey?

I feel it is important to keep a firm eye on the prize when disaster strikes. Knowing and reminding yourself what you are doing it all for, that’s what will ultimately motivate you to put in the hard work and see out the storm.

I also maintain that asking yourself two questions when you set out on a new journey, a new chapter or a new challenge will set any entrepreneur up for success.

What are you willing to do and what are you willing to sacrifice – those two questions ultimately hold the key.

One of the interesting things about life in general is that things seldom exist in isolation. Our surroundings, our environment and our situation all have an effect on us, on what we do and on how we behave, now and in the future.

You’ve probably heard about a concept called Karma. Karma is the law of moral causation. What this means is that everything has a cause. According to the law of karma, we are the architect of our own fate. Then we have Newton’s Third Law of Motion, which states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Well, think of the Ripple Effect as a mash up of these principles.

We know all this as cause and effect. If you do something, something will happen. If you do nothing, nothing will happen. It’s the way the universe works.

And it’s the way the Internet works too.

So how does this impact on Google AdWords, you may be wondering? This is a good time to discuss the ripple effect. But before we do, understand that the ripple effect can massively affect and impact your online ad campaign as a whole.

Let’s look at a scenario to see how the ripple effect works when it comes to Google AdWords. I’ll use a very common situation that I come across almost every day. It is prevalent amongst those who are either new to Google AdWords or who don’t really understand the mechanics of how it works.

For example, if you were to lower your daily budget that you had set aside for your Google campaign, the first thing that would alter and cause a ripple effect would be the frequency with which your ads would be shown to users.

So what would that alter? You guessed it, your Click Through Rate, simply because the ad wouldn’t be displayed as often as before, meaning less people would potentially be viewing it. Make sense?

Now, this in itself would cause a ripple effect. Your AdWords Quality Score would be affected, which would require you to take action if you wanted your ad to remain in the same position as it enjoyed previously.

You may, for instance, need to increase your maximum bid per click. If you did this, you would effectively be paying far more per lead or sale, with the result that your campaign’s overall return on investment (ROI) would be lower. However, if you were new to Google AdWords you would probably have thought you had simply deceased your ad expenditure.

Can you see the ripple effect in action here?

If you have experienced the Ripple effect first hand in your own internet marketing, I would love to hear about it here.

Ben Bradshaw, Owner, Internet Marketing Pioneer

Internet marketing pioneer, Ben Bradshaw, will share his secrets to generating the most income from internet marketing strategies such as Google AdWords and Search Engine Optimisation, including how to increase your quality leads that will actually buy from you. Ben will also show you how to boost your traffic using social media as a channel for advertising, and you will discover the 7 SEO mistakes small business owners continually make and how to avoid them.

About Ben Bradshaw:

Ben Bradshaw is one of Australia’s online marketing and Google Adwords pioneers. He is the Director of Australia’s largest Australian owned AdWords Management Company, and one of Australia’s most sought after speakers and trainers on the subject. Ben is no stranger to success – not only is he now a self-made millionaire, author, one of Smart Company’s Hot 30 Under 30 among other prestigious awards, but he also holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest escape from a straight jacket!

Ben’s entrepreneurial approach and knowledge on the subject has resulted in his business growing by a staggering 300% since its inception and it is now Australia’s largest Australian owned AdWords Management Company. Just after it started, SponsoredLinX was approached to become one of only a very select few authorised Google resellers. Ben is now regularly quoted on internet marketing on Sky Business, in business publications like Smart Company and Dynamic Business and in major metropolitan newspapers.

What you’ll learn:

• How you can achieve the best results from your Google advertising with a low budget.
• The right and wrong keywords to choose for your ad.
• How to get more quality clicks on your ad that will lead to sales.
• How to place higher in both the organic search results and also in Google AdWords – increasing search results.

How to Promote Yourself at This Event:

Brochure or Product Sample Distribution: WNA Members who bring a door prize to this event are entitled to place their promotional flyers or product samples onto the seats for all the guests in attendance. Read details about how to participate.

FREE Expo Tables: Whilst making an online booking WNA Members have the option of securing a Free Expo Table. If the option doesn’t appear it indicates all spaces have been secured. Read details about how to participate.

Menu:

On Arrival:Pre-luncheon drink followed by cash bar.

Main: Beef tenderloin (250g) marinated with fresh thyme, pinot noir, cracked pepper and juniper berries pan fried in light olive oil with potato gratin, roasted purple eggplant, red capsicum, green zucchini surrounded by pan juices.

Alternative Main (Vegetarian): Mediterranean vegetable ragout served with fresh basil tomatoes, braised silver beet, asparagus, fresh tomato and herb confit.

Dessert: Trio of petit fours – baked berry, passion fruit, and e’clair served with almond biscotti and dark chocolate mousse.

Note:Meal will be served with fresh dinner rolls and followed by coffee, tea and chocolates.

Special Diets:
Special dietary requirements are to be indicated in the comments section of your booking form. Due to venue policy we are required to give 3 working days notice prior to this event for final numbers attending and any special diets that are to be served on the day. Sorry, but any special diet bookings received after this time cannot be guaranteed. To discuss further contact us onT: 1800 052 476.

Tickets:

Members$75.00  |  Visitors$125.00

Read more:http://www.womensnetwork.com.au/networking-events.cfm?event_id=320&page_id=15#ixzz1kvG1CxAn

Siri, which is a new app on the iPhone 4S, is set to quickly gain momentum this year as users discover the convenience of an app that acts entirely on voice command.

The great thing about Siri is you talk to it just like you would a normal person. So, you might say ‘please phone John and tell him I am running late’, or ‘where is the nearest petrol station?’  The phone then answers the request the way a personal assistant would.

Because Siri searches the web using location services to give users information and the best options based on the request and location, I feel that an app like Siri rising in popularity has the potential to remould internet marketing and the way businesses use it today.

My instinct is that businesses will need to ensure they are correctly listed on location services and on review sites such as Yelp, as these are the sources that Siri will be searching for the responses to user commands.

Siri also utilises online ‘answer-engine’ Wolfram Alpha that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer as a search engine might.

This indicates to me that businesses who have been putting a lot of energy into SEO and Google AdWords over the past few years may need to look at these other sources that Siri uses so they don’t miss out on potential clients who may find them in this manner. 

 2012 is also likely to be the year that mobile websites become standard.

Most businesses don’t have one because they don’t realise that mobile websites may well be their most important marketing tool, due to their extremely high conversion rate. When people search for information on a business on their mobile, they are likely to be out of their home or office and in a position to do business immediately, rather than just browsing.

Mobile websites are simplified versions of a website that contain the necessary information in a format suitable for a mobile phone, eliminating the need for scrolling to get a complete page view.

This article explores exactly why all business owners need to make internet marketing an important and measureable component of their overall business strategy.

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/sales-and-marketing/adding-online-marketing-to-your-business-plan-12012012.html

 If you ran a bakery that produced 50 different cakes, pastries and breads each day, how would you know which ones were in demand if you didn’t measure how many of each you produced each morning and how many of those you were left with at the end of the day? Let’s assume you wanted to introduce a new type of bun that you came across while holidaying overseas. How would you know how many to bake each day if you had no idea if it would meet with the approval of your regular customers or not? You could be wasting time and money baking a huge batch based only on the fact that you liked it when on holiday. The only way you would know is if you were to test the bun in your market place.

Testing and measuring is not just for products in the retail environment. You should use it for everything in your business; your business name, your positioning, your product line-up, your advertising, your keywords, your culture, your image … even your newsletters, blogs and websites.

 How would you then go about measuring the effectiveness of an Internet ad online? You’d track everything with Google Analytics. Now here’s the interesting thing. Many businesses get this far and then sit back. They do nothing with the information they have received regarding their ad campaign.

The important thing is not to HAVE the information but to TAKE ACTION on it. You have to do something with it. You must understand that if you do nothing, nothing is going to happen. It’s only by doing something that you are going to get closer to the results you are after. It’s only by taking action that is based on solid market intelligence, feedback and research that you will be able to zero in on the outcomes you aim for.

 It’s one thing to take action based on what you THINK your target market wants or what keywords they will be searching for; it’s quite another to base your actions on what you KNOW your target market wants and what keywords they actually respond to.

 These days it is remarkably easy to get all the statistics you need about your online marketing activities. Google Analytics is a powerful Web analytics tool that gives you all the information you are ever likely to need about how people find your site, how they navigate through it and how they become customers. Once you know this, you can then set about improving or fine tuning your content so that your results improve.

 You will receive many reports that will enable you to see whether you are getting better results to keywords in different cities or regions. Histograms tell you who your most loyal visitors are and who your least loyal ones are, the percentage of new visits as well as the percentage of visitors who bounce. I particularly like the tutorial called Conversion University, which details visitor loyalty, average page views, time on site and visitor recency.

 The other thing I like about Google Analytics is that it is free. All you need to do is to sign up and start collecting data.

 If you can keep this in mind, first and foremost, here are some good pointers when creating your web content.

I would suggest you first start by getting a feel for exactly what type of words users looking for your business use when they search.

For example, if you are a plumber, it would be useful to know if your potential customers search for, plumbing or plumber. You can do this by making use of a magnificent tool called Google Insights for Search. Log on to http://www.google.com/insights/search/#  and enter the first keyword you want to research (plumbing). You should select what to search (Web search), then choose your country, state and time period you want the search to cover. You can also choose which categories you want to search or you could select all categories. Hit enter and you’ll see a graph showing you exactly the number of times plumber has been requested as a key word in a search. Then do the same for the word plumber and compare the two.

 Apart from the obvious, you’ll be able to see industry trends. For instance, whether the industry you’re interested in increasing in search results or not. You’ll also be able to view predictions for the period ahead. This is all very powerful stuff that wasn’t available until recently.

 When writing content for your website, understand that it must be all about your keywords. Your content must be dense with keywords. But there is a skill to this as you also need to ensure that it isn’t overly complex, as this will put readers off and turn them away. It must remain useful, informative and interesting, without smacking of heavy-handed marketing. That’s not what most people want to see. They want useful or relevant information and not hype.

 One of the secrets to writing good web content is to keep it short and to the point. You must resist the temptation to write in essay style. Dot points work well, so too does lots of white space. Short and sharp is the name of the game because most people don’t want to spend hours looking at a Web page –  they want to dive in, get the information they want and then move on, ideally to another part of your website but possibly to another site altogether if they haven’t found what they are looking for.

Have you noticed that you tend to read in a different way online to other forms of media? If so, you’re not alone. Most people seem to have Attention Deficit Disorder on the Internet. They tend to scan more than read, and this is particularly more so with women. This is something you need to take into account when writing your content. You need to provide bite-sized pieces of information rather than every chapter and verse. Understand that at best you’ll only have around 5 seconds to impress your reader enough for them to arrive at a decision. It is during this 5 seconds that they are viewing your page that they’ll typically decide whether to click back or carry on looking at your site.  That’s really not a lot of time.

 You also need to factor into your understanding that approximately 50% of visitors to your site will bounce. This means they will check in, have a quick look around and bounce back out and onto the next page that their search turned up. We refer to this as the bounce rate.

 Once again, remember that the writing on your website needs to appeal to your readers, get your message across and keep them there long enough to buy from you.

Interestingly, many of these products were very popular with users, including Google Wave. Wave is a browser-base tool that mixes e-mail, with Instant Messaging and real-time online collaboration elements. At the time of its launch in 2009, Google Wave was described as ‘one of the most ambitious services that Google or anyone else has cooked up.’

I think the reasoning behind this particular product’s discontinuation is that Google Plus has provided a solution for many of Wave’s current user functionality demands.  And while the other products canned hadn’t really taken off as hoped or predicted, I am not sure that right now is the time to make this announcement, with facebook continuing to grow in popularity, despite Google Plus carving new ground within the Google framework.

However, overall I agree with Google’s reasoning for shutting down the other products – that users were searching for more integrated ways in which to work.  These days, people don’t have the time to manage their online presence across multiple platforms – they want their answers and tools in one convenient place for a more economical user experience.

Google are already leading the way in this regard with the development of Google Plus, and therefore eliminating the need for stand-alone products, such as the now discontinued Google Bookmarks List - a service which allowed users to share bookmarks with friends.

On the other hand, I feel some gaps existed for Google advertisers to find the most effective keywords for their business, and my company, SponsoredLinX, were days away from launching a tool, to be used in conjunction with Google, offering this functionality.

To conclude, while Google’s discontinuation of a number of its products may seem like a negative move for the company and industry, it is in fact a strategic move to bring a lot of its functionality under one operating platform. How this is perceived by users will all depend on how successfully Google manages to convey this message.