I recently launched a new Google Adwords campaign for a client. This client had tried Adwords several years ago with a trial campaign that they ran for several months. They didn’t have any noticeable success with it and turned it off. The account sat for several years with no action until the client hired me. I had asked the client about opening a new account, but they preferred to use the original account. I had not seen significant problems with using an existing account with another campaign in it, so I loaded the new campaign into the old account.
I started turning ad groups on and thought it was curious that the majority the quality scores were twos. There were a few ones mixed in, as if that were any better. I was used to new campaigns starting out with a quality score of seven, so this was not the norm. I tried increasing some of the bids to see if this would alter the quality scores and it did not. With a quality score of two, my new ads weren’t even running. No client wants to hear their ads aren’t running, they want to see results. Continue Reading
In the first part of our saga, “Creating a Real Estate Website to Sell Your House,” I discussed how I created two websites to market my house. With the foundation built, now it was time to roll out an online marketing campaign for www.531CumberlandSt.com and answer the question “Can you sell your house using online real estate marketing?”
The first thing I did was list the house myself with an online MLS listing service. For $195, I got the same exposure that my real estate agent did. (Believe me, I checked all the top rated sites before and after. I can verify my MLS listing was everywhere my agent’s MLS listing was.) I researched the top real estate websites and the top for sale by owner websites and started placing ads. Many of these sites don’t charge for the listings. In fact, I only paid for two of them. In addition to the more traditional real estate websites, I also placed ads on Ebay Classifieds and Craig’s List. Continue Reading
Last Fall I finally made the decision to put my house on the market and relocate. Since I didn’t know anything about selling a house, I interviewed several local real estate agents. I picked the one that I thought had the best handle on the market and could get my house in front of qualified buyers. But after only two showings in seven months, I started to lose my patience.
I asked the real estate agent what marketing had been done to move my house. I was disappointed to find out that 5 ads in the local newspaper was the extent of the advertising. Now in all fairness, let’s not forget the For Sale Sign that was pitched in my yard or the two open houses that were held. My agent also told me I was on “hundreds” of websites through the MLS listing. But, seven months later, I’m still sitting in my house. Continue Reading
David Meerman Scott in his "Duh, Winning!" t-shirt
This is yet another reason why I love David Meerman Scott. (Again, don’t tell my husband.) Who else would give us a webinar entitled, “Marketing Lessons from Charlie Sheen?” I just got done participating and it was packed with awesome information that any small business owner can use today to improve their online marketing efforts.
David started with a footnote to the webinar that he wasn’t necessarily agreeing with Charlie Sheen’s lifestyle choices. He was looking at his recent efforts to promote himself from a marketing standpoint. There is a method to his madness (Charlie’s madness that is). Let’s face it, we can’t argue that Charlie has received more media lately than one man deserves. But David pointed out several key reasons why. So what can we learn from Charlie? Continue Reading
The URL Dr. launches affordable custom web site design and hosting services. The web site themes being offered are designed in WordPress. Three levels of service are being offered from Do It Yourself for $9.99 a month to Full Service with online marketing starting at $199 a month. The system features an online video learning center with instructional videos to walk customers through the set up, management and marketing of their web site. Online marketing videos covering pay per click management, search engine optimization, and social media will be added in the upcoming months.
I took part in a great webinar today, The Science of Email Marketing. Dan Zarrella, an award-winning social, search, and viral marketing scientist at HubSpot and author, presented some fascinating facts related to email marketing. I highly recommend viewing the entire presentation, but if you don’t have an hour to spend this week, let me repeat his top takeaways. Continue Reading
I just read “Why Your School’s Social Media Strategy is Falling Behind.” This fabulous article from Fathom SEO discusses social media strategies in higher education. While every university and private school in the country should read this, there are a great many takeaways for small business as well.
When you consider that Facebook has more than 500 million active users, Twitter has 175 million registered users, and every day nearly four years worth of video is uploaded to YouTube, it is quite obvious that you can not ignore the importance or impact of social media. Unfortunately, for many small business and schools, they just haven’t figured out how to make it work for them. Continue Reading
In the upcoming week, I’m paying tribute to one of my favorite online marketing and pr gurus, David Meerman Scott. I love David Meerman Scott. I’m not afraid to admit it (although please don’t tell our spouses). Love and admiration aside, I think David’s books are a must read by any small business owner and / or anyone that deals in online marketing and ecommerce. So, I’ll be reviewing my favorites in this book review series that I’m calling: “Don’t Hate Me For Loving David Meerman Scott.”
“New Rules” details how the internet has completely shattered the rules of traditional marketing and public relations. It’s not about contacting the press to sell your story. It’s not about posting a brochure of your product offering. It’s not about using propaganda to sell your wares.
The New Rules are about having a voice and taking part in a conversation. It’s about solving problems for people and educating. It’s about establishing yourself and your company as a trusted resource, an expert at whatever it is that you do. It’s about new ways to reach people. Continue Reading
I recently launched a new Google Adwords campaign for a client. This client had tried Adwords several years ago with a trial campaign that they ran for several months. They didn’t have any noticeable success with it and turned it off. The account sat for several years with no action until the client hired me. I had asked the client about opening a new account, but they preferred to use the original account. I had not seen significant problems with using an existing account with another campaign in it, so I loaded the new campaign into the old account.
. Steve has been using video clips in his blog since 2004. That’s before YouTube, by the way. He covers all the basics and goes way beyond. 
