Josh Kerbel

From the “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus department”……   Sales and marketing don’t play well together

Forrester finds most b2b organizations not aligned

Cambridge, Mass.—Only 8% of b2b companies surveyed by Forrester Research said they have tight alignment between sales and marketing, according to a new report.

Who hasn’t heard this story?

Now don’t be sad
‘Cause two out of three ain’t bad
Now don’t be sad (Cause)
‘Cause two out of three ain’t bad

-Meatloaf – Two Out Of Three Ain’t Bad

Two out of Three Ain’t So Bad, but how about Two out of Eight?   That is pretty bad, but that is just how many online marketing agencies attempting to serve the Toronto market actually demonstrate their own competencies in PPC marketing strategies with their own PPC ad campaign……..

Shall we waste some more time on this subject?  Well, obviously you think so, because you are reading this post……..

The best way to tell if your online marketing agency is worth the money is to examine how you found them in the first place or if they were a word of mouth referral, you should take a look at how they use the Internet to find themselves  new clients.

Let’s do a specific search for something like…………….online marketing agency toronto

This brings up something that looks like this:

Let’s dissect some of the PPC ads……start by thinking, if I am looking to for an online marketing agency, I’m looking for a solution to a marketing problem I am having.  So what I want to see is an ad that is written so it speaks to my problem – personally, I have become really attached to the whole Problem – Benefits – Features type of ad.  Let’s get a little deeper and look to see if any of the ads do this

And now the ones on the side:

Its pretty safe to say that most of these ads don’t really follow the whole problem-benefit-solution model.  But what is more important here is how they handle the post click process.  They have my attention, now lets see what they do with it.  And behind link #1…..

Crappy PPC ad not withstanding, this page isn’t too bad. I would make sure the information capture fields were a little higher.  Now on to link #2 from Mindshape.  Well they have the info capture set up, but  they seem to want to do a few things with this page.  At least its not bowing down at the alter of blatant self indulgence.  They are set up to pull in leads with this page, just like the guys behind link #1………these guys have a clue.

I threw the rest of the ads in to a little poster.  Most of them are fails.   The one I am most surprised about here is PAGE ZERO…….considering they claim to have written the book on paid search, you would think they would know not to just throw PPC traffic a their home page.  Andrew, the owner of the company, has been around the net for ages.  Someone may want to give him a spanking for this poor set up.

So, 8 ads and 2 passes………from people who are supposed to be experts on this area. Um, ouch?

…..almost.  OK, what the heck, these guys @ Pluck are about as close to having a proper lead generating campaign in place as we have seen in the sector.  So it seems that Pluck is the winner of this lead generation derby………….

PPC traffic is driven to this page -

The top half

…and the bottom half.

And low and behold, it has some form field captures to capture some prospect information in return for a free report on the six pillars of social networking.  Prospects can now be funnel through the system to be better qualified.  If you down load the report, Pluck may think you are worth talking to about your problem and how they can solve it.  If you don’t sign up, they won’t devote any expensive manpower to you.

The lights are on and someone is finally home!

While the copy could be a little less self serving and there are a few too many links on the page to distract the user from completing the assigned task of filling in the information form, it is light years ahead of what we have seen from other social media consultants we looked at today

My advice to them would to be hold off on establishing your operating history until you have engaged the reader by addressing his or her  problems.

But at least they get it.  They seem to know what to do with someone’s attention once they have it.

Finally!

Click on the numerals to read Parts I, II, III, IV & V of this Question of the Day

I love the url – wegetsocialmedia.com – of their home page.  Yes, they just transported you right to their homepage.

Top of the page to ya

And now the bottom

Beyond the lack of any form of information capture on the landing page.  Who in god’s name wrote the self-serving copy?

Unless of course your problem is that you need to hire a firm with “a history of developing breakthrough social media strategies and activations for top marketers that include Pepsi, T-Mobile, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson, Mr Youth has been named as Social Media Agency of the Year by Mashable”, cuz if it is, I think these guys just solved your problems.

But you were just looking to hire a social media consultant.

This is another example of people confusing brand advertising with direct marketing.  I don’t care about you.  I care about me.  What can you do for me?  Does your being named social media agency of the year do much for me?  Well considering we don’t have a relationship yet, and you really aren’t attempting to build one here (No one likes a braggart), I’m not sure your campaign is going to get much traction with this sort of layout.

Again, you have my attention.  What are you doing with it…………beside distracting it with a whole pile of irrelevant links.

Let’s take a look where the top PPC ad takes us.

Abracadabra………..we are magically transported to…..Buddy Media’s home page?!?!?

Top of the page:

Mid Section

And for good measure, the lower portion (look at all those links):

I thought they knew social media?  Well maybe they do.  What I would question is do they know what to do with someone’s attention once they have it?

Beyond being the home page (vs. a specialized landing page) they don’t even attempt to capture some demographic/contact information from the user.  No attempt to get a potential prospect into the funnel.  The fact that I clicked on their PPC ad in the first place is reasonable indication that I am worth getting in the pipe and then filtering me out after.  Whatever they paid for the click is just a cost, not an investment…….

But I am glad they were mentioned on TechCrunch.

Ladies and Gentleman, a round of applause for Buddy Media.

Do social media consultants understand lead generation.  That my good readers is the question I am going to answer, or at least attempt to answer.

I’m going to make a basic assumption here, and feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but companies hire social media consultants in an attempt to drive sales, generate leads and increase brand awareness.

So one could safely assume that these guys should understand the on line lead generation/prospect development process. No?

Well let’s find out. Let’s go on a search to hire a social media consultant in Los Angeles and see how they take us through their lead generating/prospecting system.

-hire a social media consultant Los Angeles -

Google says what:

Now let’s take a look at the ads

#1 – Buddy Media – they are talking about some platform and I am looking for a consultant.  If I want a consultant, there is a good chance I may not know what a platform is to begin with.  You really have to think about your target market and aim for the lowest common denominator sometimes.

#2 – The Mr. Youth Agency – Congratulations, you won an award.  And that solves my problem how?  I need to hire a social media consultant

#3 Constant Contact – you bought who? why do I care?

#4 – Brandmovers -Er, what is “high performance”

#5 – Archrival – So you are experts.  Great.  Then you should already know what I think of your ad

#6 – Clarity Media Group – I’m glad you are using your media expertise and not your plumbing expertise – a blinding flash of the obvious.

#7 – EricHarr – You do social media?  Who would have thought that.  A social media firm that does social marketing that turns up when I do a search for a social media consultant.

#8 – Pluck – OMG………looks like someone gets it the idea of giving you something of value in return for some basic contact information.  I know it without looking at the landing page (I hope for their sake I know it).  They know that if i am looking to hire a social media consultant, I might be missing a few variables in my hiring equation – like my basic knowledge of social media.  And they are going to educate me….for FREE……………

When I originally thought if this article/search term, I thought I would see a number of well written direct ads.  After all these companies are working in a direct marketing/one to one environment.  Not so much.

What you don’t want are ads that encourage window shopping.  This is how you keep your costs down and your conversion rates up

In fact, I think a deeper dive is warranted to check out how these companies attempt to skim off interested prospects into their sales funnels.  Don’t you think?  Stay tuned for part II and we can dissect some landing pages…………………

Imagine you get a call from a prospective client in the online dating business who wants to meet you in about 12 hours and you need to have something semi-intelligent to say?  What are you going to do – FYI this is a live fire exercise

First off, I’d go get a coffee, pick my nose, curse a bit and then get down to business.

Some of you biz skool geeks out there might suggest a SWOT analysis.  To you I say, show me a SWOT analysis and I’ll show you a piece of toilet paper.  We need actionable intelligence, information, strategy and tactics.  None of that Porter’s 5 force crap -

First things first – let’s come up with a basic structure.  Say a 0/30/60/90 day plan.  Now of course, you could be totally off with this plan, but at least you have a plan to start with.  Also remember, since this company has online experience, you can’t just baffle them with bullshit.  You actually have to know something.

So let’s stop screwing around and get to Day 0

Day 0 – Quick Site Overview/Traffic Patterns/Audience Analysis

• I looked at your site through different computers/browsers/operating systems and found I had issues logging in.  Could the flash be too much?  Have you tested flash vs non-flash entry
• Always Free Call Out?  Not quite true since all real interaction requires payment/registration.  Has this performance been tested
• Looking at site in different sized browsers shows that some important content is off the screen for the sake of a larger header.
• Pop Under Ads – Have alternative ad formats been tested.  Many of the triggers for the pop under ads seem to be little “tricks” that would start to annoy regular users.  Is there a calculated trade off between visitor loyalty and revenue?

Now for some off the cuff  data analysis

• Let’s look at at Alexa to see how our potential client stacks up against industry leaders – err……..not very well
• Google Trends didn’t even have enough data on the site, er not good – for them or me, but the big players in the site are doing between 70 and 280K in unique visitors a day, and it generated some keyword ideas/niches  for campaigns.
• Google Insight localized pockets of interest around the globe for keyword and phrase searches that were logically related to our client’s product and they aren’t coming from where you might expect

Here I am going to make an assumption, based on my skill set as a marketer and guess that the client is looking for me to help, in one way or another boost sales and overall profit.

Let’s see if we can put some profiles to our customers with Google’s Ad Planner, all the better.  Now that we have data for our client.  We can use this is coming up with a mock strategy to show the client we at least put a bit of insight and effort into earning their business.  So many times when you are looking to hire a consultant, the consultant shows up and says “Hire me because I have done X, Y and Z and I am great”.  My preference is to say “Hire me because I can help you solve for X, Y and Z (As well as A, B and C which you didn’t even notice as being problems)

Now once you get some demographic information for your site (or a proxy for your site for that matter) you really have two choices when building a campaign.  Do you:

• Steal – Build a campaign that targets prospects who are already active in your market – steal them from your competition.  Use their demographic data to target their current customers.
• Find – Look your internal demographic data or the demographic data of the market you want to target and build a campaign like that.  You might find that you end up promoting on sites you’ve never imagined.

Day 1 to 30 – Historical data analysis and Orientation – GET ACTIONABLE INSIGHT

Introduce myself to existing accounts.

In order to develop new accounts and plan/optimize existing campaigns, I would like to accomplish the following

1. Discuss the goals of the site with the higher powers.  Determine what the desired outcomes for the site are (boost net profit, sign ups, top line revenue, etc)?  How are these quantified within the business
2. How do you segment your users?  How does user behavior differ across the segments?
3. Determine overall the cost of lead/customer acquisition and the lifetime value of a customer across the different segments – time/referral source – search, PPC, email/geography/time on site/page views
4. Analyze internal site search data – shows user intent (misspellings, products you don’t provide but might want to)
5. Examine metrics that are being used to determine if desired out comes are being achieved (Consider days/visits to purchase/length of membership/willingness to upgrade) and how site facilitates the different behaviors of different segments – get actionable insights.  This forms the basis of marketing plans going forward
6. Once data has been segmented, analyze the step by step conversions along the way, setting up account, uploading pictures, filling out profile, making friends. See if there is any relationship between the completion of these tasks and a prospect becoming a paying customers.  If there is a relationship, then develop a method to foster the completion of these steps.  Consider breaking these down into separate goals to measure.
7. The whole point of the DAY 1 to 30  Process is to be able to answer “What are my:

• Objectives?
• Goals?
• Metrics?
• KPI?
• Targets?
• Segments?

Essentially you are looking to develop customer personas

Day 31 to 60: Build Campaigns

Using a combination of the existing in house metrics, segments  and externally generated information to create new promotional campaigns to steal and find prospects.  Can you acquire new customers at a reasonable cost

Steal: Advertise on your competitions’ sites if they let you

Find:  Segment new markets geographically using Google Trends and Insights.  For example your product may be hot in the Czech Republic and South Africa.

Develop creative – Image ads/PPC ads

Refine capture method – if you are selling an online service, consider giving a free trial or split test it against current prospect conversion system

Day 61 to 90: Execute, Monitor and Revise

Roll out the campaigns and see how they work.  Determine if you have targeted the proper outcomes and work down your checklist from there.  The end result being how do you answer the question “Do your persona’s hold up to actual testing