Facebook Marketing Principles That Will Set You Free

admin    Facebook     Facebook, FREE, Marketing, Principles

Facebook is one of those phenomenon online that the smart marketers can’t ignore. It’s currently the #3 rated website online according to Alexa.com, and in the last month it has been ranked #2 (as of September 2009, when this post was written), right behind Google. We all need to acknowledge that Facebook has become the #1 trend online, and if you pay attention to it in your business, you’ll be able to improve your bottom line dramatically.  What I wanted to do is give you some tips and insights into how I personally use Facebook, as well as give you some references for some great information that will help your Facebook promotional efforts. 

First, I wanted to ask a question.  What are most people using Facebook for?  It’s simple, you just have to realize that social networks are there to do just that, socialize.  People don’t want to be badgered by business offers on their Facebook accounts again and again.  I’m constantly annoyed on Facebook by people who send me ‘opportunity of a lifetime’ messages, and you probably are, too.  (If that’s you, you need to stop it immediately.)

Your goal should be to improve the lives of the people around you, and that will automatically make the right people attracted to your business.  So it’s fine to send out marketing messages, just make sure they’re beneficial to your friends, and not just trying to sell something.  ADD VALUE before you do anything, and people will instinctively be attracted to looking at your business offers on their own.

This concept doesn’t just apply on Facebook, it also applies in life.  Haven’t you been pestered by that annoying guy in Church, or in a business meeting who’s just out to get a sale?  I have.  It is extremely irritating and invasive, just as it is to get the same canned marketing pitch on Facebook day after day after day.

I want to be clear about the way I use this website.  Facebook is not my main marketing strategy.  Essentially, when I get new subscribers to my traffic newsletter, I find that person on Facebook If I have time, and I add them as a friend, sending them a personal hello message.  Simply by saying hello and letting people know I’m a real person, I increase my customer purchases bo two times.  Don’t you think that’s an easy strategy?  The next step is to simply keep in touch with people who take the time to say hello personally.  I don’t really go out of my way, I just respond to personal emails a few times per week.

Quite frankly, I don’t know why more people aren’t doing this.  I’ve made a lot of great friends this way, and A LOT of money, without annoying a single person.  Try it, and let me know how it works!

Just keep this next idea close to your heart, and you’ll prosper online with Facebook.  Give with abundance, and you’ll recieve with abundance as a result.  This IS the way attraction marketing works.  Perhaps I’ll see you on Facebook.

Direct Response Marketing and Search Engine Marketing (sem) Principles

admin    SEM     Direct, Engine, Marketing, Principles, Response, Search

I produce Pay Per Click how-to training sessions geared to help online marketers increase their search marketing ROI. As Chairman for PPC Summits, I meet online marketers from around the world, and there is one common theme that seems to reoccur frequently: the myth that SEM is some kind of rocket science. What most marketers don’t understand is SEM falls under the category of Direct Response Marketing.

SEM is just another form of direct response marketing and many of the same principles apply. Successful marketing messaging resonates with the intended audience and the same controls apply to search marketing campaigns.

Here are some direct response marketing principles that should also apply to your SEM campaigns:

• It takes work. Successful marketers have to constantly test response rates: copy, keywords, placement, pricing, messages, landing pages…

• You have to test. In direct response marketing, testing rules is never-ending. Just like testing in direct mail, the cost of the campaign can be justified if the lift in the conversion rate is enough to offset the expense. If the lift in conversion offsets the cost of optimizing the pages, keep testing and roll out new ones.

• You have to track results. Just as savvy offline marketers can tell which piece of mail and from which specific message a customer converted, you have to be able to tell which keyword, message and referrer drove your sale. Tracking is easy to do on PPC, harder on search engine optimization, but critical on both.

• Creative is key. Google rewards those with high click-through rates on PPC by better placement, and the way to get high CTRs is to write great copy that resonates with your audience. Similar to an offline campaign, online creative (i.e., your search listings) should be tested frequently.

• It’s all about the benefit. Successful marketers sell on benefits, not features, and look for the messages that play on their customers’ emotional responses to their product or service. Over time, you will discover offers that work only online, but like offline marketing, it comes through the same test-and-learn discipline.

• The “Lead to Sale” conversion rate is important. Just as in the offline world the key to conversions from search is providing the right hook in your listing at the right phase of the buying cycle, and then converting that lead into a paying customer with the right offer on your landing page.

• Analysis is your friend. Like any good offline campaign, you learn a great deal from analyzing your testing and conversions. One set of keywords can perform significantly better than the rest; but because even changing a keyword from singular to plural can have dramatically different results, you have to test and analyze each variable separately.

• It’s all about CPA or CPL. All search engine marketing campaigns need to be analyzed by cost per acquisition (CPA) or cost per lead (CPL).

• Create customer loyalty. Search engines are looking more and more at how many websites link to yours.. You need customer evangelists driving more sales, and links can provide that.

Direct response marketing skills and experience are some of the key drivers in SEM campaigns. There are some nuances of SEM that you can only learn by experience, but if you go into it with the mindset that these rules apply you will demystify the whole experience.

PPC Summit Boston March 3-4, Vancouver March 31-April1, London April 14-15, San Francisco May 19-20, and Los Angeles Sept. 2008.