The 7 Deadly Sins of Web Marketing... and How to Avoid Them Shari L.S. Worthington, President...

The 7 Deadly Sins of Web Marketing...and How to Avoid Them

Shari L.S. Worthington, PresidentTelesian Technology Inc. Marketing, Web, & e-Business Services for the Technology & Manufacturing Markets

Author, e-Business in Manufacturing: Putting the Internet to Work in the Industrial Enterprise

© 2007 Telesian Technology Inc.

www.telesian.com

To Reach 50 Million People... Radio took 34 years Television took 13 years Internet took 4 years

2005: Google indexed 8 billion pages of information

So why can’t you just run some PPCs…?


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Sin #1:

A Dead-End Web Site

People rely on web for product and service information (nielsen/netratings)

83% of businesspeople start online US broadband reaches 72% at home 136 million adults researched medical

info 2006 Corporate web site must be focal

point of marketing program


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The Data Speaks for Itself

Driven by content and interaction Compelling & differentiated Updated frequently

Engage site visitors Actively pull prospects along buying

cycle Integrate marketing, sales, customer

service


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Speak to customer needs and desires “Cosmetics at a discount” OR “You could buy a new wardrobe with the

money you’ll save on our cosmetics” Develop rich content

How to articles, top 10 lists, podcasts Provide interaction

Webinars, discussion lists, blogs

Move Beyond “Me-Me-Me”


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Sin #2Ignoring the Search Engines Online search hit 5.7 billion in

January 2006 (nielsen/netratings)

Businesspeople & consumers rely on search engines

Natural search is very different from pay per click advertising


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NaturalSearchRankings

Pay Per Click Ads


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Search Share Rankings, January 2007Search Engine Searches

(000)Share

Google 3,862,374 53.7%

Yahoo! 1,629,995 22.7%

MSN 642,694 8.9%

AOL 388,966 5.4%

Ask.com 132,800 1.8%

My Web 65,819 0.9%

Dogpile.com 41,991 0.6%

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings


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Use of Search Engines

64% of businesspeople start research for new products & services on a search engine Budget items of $50,000 and more

53.7% of purchasers start 3-6 months out Smaller purchases of $500-$1000

77.4% of purchasers start 1 week – 1 month out

Source: Google


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Search Engine Marketing:Challenges Weak web site Confusion and deception

Search engine marketing SEO: Search engine optimization PPC: Pay per click advertising Paid inclusion Sponsored links Sponsored ads

Illegal tactics: “spamdexing”


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Search Engines: Who’s Who?

YAHOO!

Overture Inktomi

AltaVista

FAST

ASK JEEVES

TeomaGOOGLE

Pyra (blogs)VNU

Reed Publishing

MSN

LOOKSMART

AOL


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Natural Search vs PPC Ads

Natural search listings are chosen more often than sponsored listings 70% choose natural search listing prior to a paid

advertisement, but depends on search engine Bid position counts

For natural search, 59.7% of respondents chose one of the top 3 links

For paid search, 51% of respondents chose the top link.

Source: Google


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Search Engine Marketing:Best Practices Create a solid system architecture

that’s user & search engine friendly Fill with relevant content Start with SEO: optimize site code

and avoid illegal tactics Add Pay Per Click ad program to get

rankings fast


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Avoid Illegal SEO Tactics:BMW Blacklisted


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Sin #3

Not Targeting Your PPC Dollars Pay for performance, aka “pay per

click,” is target marketing at its best Not the place to push for volume Target the message

“Buy Gift Cards” OR “Motivate Employees with Gift Cards”


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Sin #4

Wasting Your PPC Efforts The price is right

Direct mail: $1-3 per impression PPC advertising: $0 per impression, $1-3 per

click Combined SEO & PPC: 6x response

Buy your way into the right search engine partnerships Overture & MSN Google & partner network


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B2B Search: Impact of Rank on Clicks

Source: Millward Brown for Google

05

101520253035404550

Rank 1 Rank 2 Rank 3 Rank 4 Rank 5 Rank 6

% Paid Search% Organic


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Impact of Text Ad Elements

Source: Millward Brown for Google

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Brand in URL Call to Action Benefit Brand in Title

% Enterprise Apps


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Web Marketing Power Tips

Landing pages matter – a lot Know your objectives, then write copy Provide alternative actions: learn more,

register, buy Make pages skimmable, scannable Cross-sell Test different screen resolutions,

browsers Provide interaction options: phone, chat


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Target:largecompany

Source: MarketingSherpa 2005


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Target: mid-size company



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Target: small company



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Sin #5

E-mail Caught in Spam Filters

& Firewalls Spammers have created a huge

problem for legitimate e-mail marketers E-marketing’s enemy #1: Spammers E-marketing’s enemy #2: IT

IT’s best friends Firewall filters Anti-spam software


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e-Mail Marketing: Challenges “If it walks and talks like spam, it

must be spam” Minimize graphics Avoid attachments Know thy spam Don’t overdo the HTML Consider text-only & track click-throughs


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e-Mail Marketing:Best Practices Only use highly targeted, opt-in lists Nurture in-house lists with e-

newsletter Push to microsites for customized

content Be educational & compelling


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e-Newsletters Performance Metrics Average open rate: 30% Average click rate: 3-6% E-mail/direct mail combination can

lift rates by 3-10%



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Sin #6

Forgetting Lead Generation Basics Mail lists and message count for

most of direct marketing success Don’t let creative get in the way of

the message Determine campaign goal up-front:

quantity vs quality


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Quantity vs Quality: Likelihood of “Leads” Low

Company PR & events Banner ads, static web

Medium-Low Brand & product ads in print E-mail to purchased lists Industry trade shows


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Quantity vs Quality: Likelihood of “Leads” Medium-High

Product ads on search engines New product PR Highly targeted direct mail

High E-mail to in-house permission list Telemarketing


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Test Your Offers

Low: No offer (PR, brand ads) “For more info”

Medium-Low: Soft offer (related to USP) Low risk/high perceived value “Free flow calculator”

Medium-High: Lead development offer Free white paper (info of value)

High: Hard/closing offer Presentation, demo, audit


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Sin #7Forgetting the Back End

Capture qualified inquiries Nurture in-house database of

contacts Integrate online & offline

promotions Use technology to empower sales

channel


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Assortment of Reply Vehicles Web site forms

Request more information Sign-up for e-newsletter or RSS feed Register for event Download podcast

E-mail promotions E-newsletter offers


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Sell to No Lead Before Its Time Stop annoying the sales team Sort inquiries by buying stage

10-20% just curious or unqualified 30-40% early buying process 20-30% actively engaged in evaluation

and will buy soon 10-20% close to buying decision and

should be handed off to sales NOW


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Drip Marketing

Lead conversion process must nurture inquiry and match needs with appropriate information

Direct marketing strategy that involves sending out a number of promotional pieces over a period of time to a subset of sales leads Avoids sell-produce curve Grow best prospects with one-to-one messaging


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Drip Marketing Vehicles

Consistently send something every month to customers and prospects Postcards Newsletters, e-newsletters Customized letters & brochures Case histories


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Integrating Online & Offline Fundamentals remain the same

Segment the market based on product, service, channel

Customize the message to address specific segment needs

Measure and test…measure and test… Use technology to empower sales

Coordinate in-depth attacks “Push-button” sales tools


www.telesian.comSource: MarketingSherpa 2005


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What Works in e-Marketing?

Digital Marketing Tactic

Great Moderate Poor

Email to in-house lists

50% 41% 8%

Paid search engine ads

49% 40% 12%

SEO 25% 60% 15%

Ads in enews 10% 52% 37%

Ads on web sites 12% 49% 39%

Text-link ads 30% 44% 26%

Email to rented lists 7% 40% 53%Source: MarketingSherpa 2005


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Moving Beyond the “7 Deadly Sins of Web Marketing”1. Create an active, engaging web site

that is the focal point of your marketing programs

2. Embrace the search engines: SEO, PPC

3. Target your PPC $$ on the right prospects


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Moving Beyond the “7 Deadly Sins of Web Marketing”4. Capture contact information with

landing pages, attractive offers, and forms

5. Understand e-mail technology to avoid spam filters and firewalls

6. Remember lead generation basics7. Integrate the back-end


www.telesian.com

Shari L.S. Worthington, PresidentTelesian Technology Inc.Marketing, Web, & e-Business Services for the Technology & Manufacturing [email protected]://www.telesian.com

Author, “e-Business in Manufacturing: Putting the Internet to Work in the Industrial Enterprise,” ISA Press

The 7 Deadly Sins of Web Marketing... and How to Avoid Them Shari L.S. Worthington, President...

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