Category: Grow a Home Business

    Common PPC Campaign Mistakes to Avoid

    A pay-per-click (PPC) campaign can take your marketing to the next level. You can run PPC campaigns on social media networks like Facebook or on search engines like Google. Even some popular websites offer the ability for you to place PPC ads on them. But, if you want to be successful then you must try to avoid these mistakes.

    * Not Having a Goal – Your first job when you want to run a PPC campaign is to understand your goal. Each marketing campaign that you conduct will have a different goal. Some are to bring traffic, some are to spread brand awareness, some are to build your email list – but whatever your goal, know in advance what it is.

    * Not Making a Special Campaign for Each Channel – Don’t recycle an old PPC campaign to another network. Each network is unique and should be treated as such. The mood, the size of the images, the guidelines for the type of ad that will be approved, are very different between networks.

    * Not Niching Down Your Offerings – When you run any type of PPC campaign, it’s important to have only one CTA. Know exactly what you’re offering and to whom, and convey that in the imagery and copy of your advertisement.

    * Not Having a Clear CTA – Your call to action must be noticeable and clear. You want it to denote an action that gives a clearly defined benefit to the person viewing the advertisement. If it’s not clear, people will not click.

    * Not Using an Appropriate Picture – Don’t just use any picture; be sure to use the right image for the right advertisement. You want your PPC campaign to speak to your audience using images that they understand and that mean something to them.

    * Not Considering the Headline – Your headlines when creating a PPC campaign are critical to the success of the ad. The reason is you have very little space when it comes to PPC campaigns and you want every word to mean something and add value.

    * Not Targeting Narrowly Enough – Many people run ads and think they want to cast a wide net, but this can be far more expensive and lower your conversion rates. You want only people who really need, want and desire your offering to click through.

    * Not Setting a Budget – You need to know what you plan to spend before even getting started. Most platforms allow you to set your budget on a daily basis, or even a total allotment for the entire campaign. By setting the budget you’ll end up saving money in the long run.

    If you avoid these common PPC campaign mistakes, you’ll be a lot more successful with all your PPC campaigns. Avoiding mistakes in all aspects is not possible, but avoiding common mistakes is. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing. People with deep pockets have already done the work for you; all you have to do is set up a campaign for success by learning from others.

    Categories: online advertising Tags: Tags:

    Why Facebook Ads Work

    Facebook ads are inexpensive, effective, and something any small business owner should consider getting involved with. The reason you should be running Facebook ads, whether they are sponsored posts or other types of ads, is that they do work. Here is why.

    * People Live on Facebook All Day Long – People use Facebook on PCs and on their mobile devices, and keep it with them all day long. They take Facebook with them to dinner and some people never turn it off. This is a real chance to connect with your audience that you cannot pass up.

    * They Are Relevant Due to Extreme Targeting – Facebook allows you to target your individual audience down to their interests and gender, and you can even provide email addresses for the exact people you want to target.

    * Easy to Include a CTA – The tools that Facebook offers the people who want to run ads help to create compelling CTAs that your audience will be more likely to answer, whether it’s as easy as liking your page or downloading your app.

    * It’s Easy to Make Professional-Looking Ads – The tools that Facebook offers let you create professional Facebook ads without having the ability to make ads. They lead you through it with their system to make it simple, so you’re more likely to repeat the process.

    * Easy to Include Great Value – You can easily include enough information in each ad that shows the value of your offering. With just a few clicks you’ll have an awesome ad that your audience can see the value in.

    * They Offer Disruption with Significance – In many cases people are blind to advertisements, but on Facebook the disruption is noticeable and your audience will want to check it out. This is due to the ability to target the ads so closely to your target audience.

    * They Are Simple to Create – The ads are easy to create and it gets easier all the time. As Facebook makes the ads work better for business owners, and easier to do with a click of a button, they become more relevant, more valuable, and more useful to you as a business owner.

    * Easy to Run A/B Tests – Due to the ability to duplicate an ad and then easily edit to change one part of the ad such as the title or the image, you can run ads simultaneously. You can even target different audiences to find out which works better.

    Facebook ads work for a variety of reasons. However, they will only work if you plan them out and spend the time ensuring that you run relevant ads. They must be of value to your audience, grab the attention of the viewer and include a compelling call to action.

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    Eight PPC Tactics That Get Results

    Pay per click (PPC) is often overlooked by small businesses because they don’t realize how effective a well-planned PPC campaign can be for them. But, a PPC campaign that has realistic goals can be very lucrative. Here are eight tactics that work very well to improve your business when PPC is used.

    1. Remarketing – It’s not just for big business; small businesses can also remarket too. Basically you sign up with an agency such as Google or something like Remarketing.com. They will provide the technology which puts a cookie on the computer that has visited your website but not converted. Then, when the visitor goes to other pages, they will see mention of your website.

    2. Build Your List – Instead of using PPC to sell the actual products you want to sell, use it to build your list. You can offer a freebie of some kind in exchange for an email address. Once they’re on your list, you can now market all your products and services to them instead of just one at a time.

    3. Local Targeting – Even if you have a national or international business, local targeting is a good thing to do. Write content that is focused on a particular location that has a high amount of your target audience.

    4. Segmentation – When you plan a PPC campaign, you want to segment your market down as small as you can for each type of advertisement that you create. You can use the tools available to target only certain people with the ads that you create.

    5. Make Better Landing Pages – When you plan a PPC campaign you should create special landing and sales pages for each advertisement. This will help ensure that you target the people that you want to target – not just with the ad that they click, but on the page they land. You can use software like LeadPages.net to make it simpler.

    6. Test Everything – Testing is important in all marketing and advertising, but don’t be tempted to skip it with PPC. Try two different PPC ads targeted to the same audience with just one minor thing changed such as headline, or use the same ad targeted to different audiences to figure out which responds most. The important thing is to only change one aspect at a time.

    7. People First – With all the focus on keywords, content, and technology, don’t forget that first and foremost you’re marketing to human beings; humans with thoughts and feelings and the ability to differentiate between a good deal and a bad deal.

    8. Study Your Numbers – Nothing is ever complete without studying the numbers. At various points during your PPC campaign, compare the results with your goals. If they’re not lining up then you need to adjust the campaign.

    Running a successful PPC campaign is easy for small business owners today with the tools available on Google as well as social media like Facebook. But, before you start, ensure that you have a goal in mind, and that you have prepared for the PPC campaign to be successful. Nothing is worse than having your site crash due to too much traffic, or the newsletter sign-up form not working. Be prepared, get ready, and go.

    Categories: online advertising Tags: Tags:

    Why You Should Run a PPC Campaign to Market Your Offerings

    There are numerous reasons why you should run a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign to promote your business. PPC campaigns are inexpensive and work wonders when you need a jump start. If you’re already working to earn traffic via SEO and other means, adding a PPC campaign to your marketing mix will bring added attention and energy to your offerings.

    1. Control Your Brand’s Message – When someone conducts a search of your business, they may find information that isn’t the first thing you want them to find. But, if you run a PPC campaign, that will be listed first and help you control better the message you want out there about your business.

    2. Rise in the Search Engine Results – Your SERPS are important, and if they’re slacking you can bring them back up with a well-planned PPC campaign. Not only will searchers see the organic search results, but they’ll see the paid ones as well. This means that they’ll see you a lot more.

    3. Your Competition Is Doing It – If you don’t run PPC campaigns, you’re going to be left behind by those who do. Your competition is running PPC ads right now, and due to that they’re likely outselling you many times over.

    4. It’s Inexpensive Relatively Speaking – PPC is not expensive. You have a lot of control over the budget. In fact, having a small budget can actually help you be more successful because you’re going to be careful about how much you put into it, only increasing your ad runs when you see a ROI.

    5. Fast-Track Buying Choices – Your customers are someplace in the buying cycle and decision-making process. If you run PPC ads you can speed up that cycle exponentially, causing them to buy faster than if you stick to organic means.

    6. Paid Traffic Converts – Even though earned traffic is awesome, you have to get a lot more earned traffic before conversions take place than when you pay for it. This is true with one caveat, and that is ensuring that your ads are targeted and well planned out.

    7. Promote New Products or Services – When you decide to switch things up and promote something brand new to an entirely new audience, running a PPC campaign is a fast way to get up to speed in the new niche.

    8. Build Your Email List Fast – Anytime you want to freshen up your email list by adding new members to it, you can do it easily by running a PPC campaign designed to get more subscribers by marketing a white paper or other type of free offer.

    9. Damage Control – Is bad press getting you down? You can use PPC to cover up and push down bad press in the search engine results. Just run multiple PPC campaigns using Google AdWords and Yahoo! Bing Network, using the terms that the bad press is attracting. In this way you can push the bad press out.

    10. Building Traffic – Pay per click is an excellent way to build traffic to your website. What’s more, you can choose the targeted traffic you want to be taken to your website, which will build up the traffic with more responsive visitors.

    Running a PPC campaign can jump-start or refresh your marketing efforts, no matter what kind of business you have. PPC works wonders if you take the time to learn about your audience, understand your goals, and place the campaign where your audience goes.

    Categories: online advertising, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Eleven Tips for a Successful PPC Campaign

    Running a successful PPC campaign requires thought, research, and a deep understanding of your audience and your products. Plus, you need to have a real handle on what your budget is for running a PPC campaign. The only time you should go over your budget is when you are earning a high return on your investment. With these tips you might just manage that.

    1. Know Your Products – To create great ads, knowing the benefits that your product offers the buyer is imperative. You need to be able to explain those benefits easily to your customer and/or your copywriter to ensure a successful campaign.

    2. Study Your Audience – All successful marketing starts with understanding who your audience is, what they want, need, desire and how much money they can afford to spend on solving their problems. This research will ensure a successful campaign.

    3. Create Audience Personas – Within any one audience for any one product or service, there are sub-audiences. If you can narrow down a targeted audience to a specific persona, it will make it easier to write ad copy.

    4. Segment in New Ways – PPC allows you to target your audience by segmenting in new ways, including location, sex, income level, interests and more. Use the segmenting features of the platform you want to choose to ensure a truly targeted campaign.

    5. Promote Various Stages of Your Product Funnel – Use PPC for building your list, and for selling other products higher up on your product funnel too.

    6. Craft Exceptional Landing Pages – Using software like LeadPages.net, create landing pages that are well written, well targeted and that work for your needs and the audience visiting them.

    7. Create Targeted Ads – Using the information you have about your product and your audiences, ensure that your ads are targeted to the right consumer. Use images, copy, and even colors and font to make them right.

    8. Use Remarketing/Retargeting Technology – If you have a lot of visitors to your site who don’t convert, a great way to increase conversions (some say by 30 percent) is to engage in remarketing. That means that if someone visits your site, a cookie is downloaded to their computer, which will deliver ads for your website.

    9. Use Keyword Match Types Correctly – Avoid “broad” match types because you want to really narrow down your keywords to specific keywords to better qualify those who will click through. For example “broad match” will allow part of a word to trigger other words that aren’t relevant to your PPC campaign.

    10. Diversify – Google AdWords, Bing and Facebook are all good places to run a PPC campaign. Instead of using just one, try running on all of them or picking something different from AdWords to see how it goes.

    11. People over Keywords – It’s very important to remember that a real person is going to read your advertisement and click it, and then read whatever is on the other side such as a download page, a landing page, or something else.

    Finally, it’s important to realize that you must have goals, as well as understand the technology you’re using. And, if you don’t know where to start, remember that there is help for you. There are services, apps, contractors and more that will help make running a PPC campaign more successful.

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    How to Use the “Dimensions” Report in AdWords

    AdWords offers many reporting capabilities that are of great use in ensuring that your PPC campaigns have the most return on investment. One of the reports you have available is the “Dimensions” report. This report offers insights into your audience such as demographics, paid versus organic search, which search terms are working, what time of day people are viewing your website, and more.

    Using the Dimensions tab in AdWords is rather easy to do, though sometimes overlooked. You just click on the tab and then you can choose from a variety of different reports that provide the information mentioned above.

    * Geography – Where are your audience coming from? What state, country and if it’s concentrated in a certain location, why? If you can identify the why of most things, you can repeat it.

    * Labels – Using labels might not have seemed important until now. If you use labels, you can get a good idea about how each different ad is working with this portion of the report.

    * Paid versus Organic – It’s always nice to know how much of your revenue is generated from paid search versus organic search to better understand your ROI for pay-per-click ads.

    * Search Terms – What search terms were used to find your online real estate? Did they find you via paid search terms or other search terms within your content?

    * Time – When are your visitors most likely to click through your ad?

    * Top Movers – Set up the report to cover a specific time frame. For example, did you just do a concentrated PPC campaign on Facebook and you want to know what the effects were during the dates you were running it?

    * URLs – If you set up designation URLs, this is a great way to determine which URLs are getting the most traffic and which URLs are performing at a higher volume with the most ROI. Why are certain URLs performing better than others?

    These tabs allow you to understand your reach, how many unique visitors you’re getting to, and how often people come back. You can also figure out how often people are viewing your ads, and adjust the frequency if needed. In addition, you can even view by labels that you’ve assigned different information. Comparing labels will help you know what is working and what is not working.

    The Dimensions tab and reports are simple to use and offer great insight into how your PPC campaigns are working. The insights that you can identify will enable you to take your PPC campaigns to the next level and make them work harder. As you study the information you can make changes on the fly to improve your AdWords campaign like never before.

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    How to Expand Your Service Business to Include Products and Your Product Business to Include Services

    When you first started your business, you probably thought you’d just do it one way. You’d provide services or you’d provide products. But, now you want to expand your business to include both. How do you get started?

    Believe it or not, you do it the same way you would if you were starting a brand new business. The only difference is that you have plenty of information to help you succeed.

    Add Products to a Service-Based Business

    Let’s say you’re a graphic designer who builds web pages and makes banner and advertising graphics. This is a service that you enjoy doing, and you work mainly with book authors. You need to figure out what type of products they buy and need.

    * Survey Your Audience – Ask them what they want. You may get some insight that you never even considered. They may already know some graphic design and website products they want but can’t find.

    * Brainstorm Ideas – Depending upon your skills, or your access to skills, you can create different types of options. Perhaps your audience needs an easy way to make memes and graphics without you. That might be scary, but that’s how software like Canva.com was created.

    * Narrow It Down – The project management system Basecamp.com used to be known as 37signals, and they were a web design firm. They soon realized that they could earn more money providing a product (software as service) like the well-loved project management software, using the skills they already had.

    * Tell Your Secrets – One thing service providers might not realize is that other people may want to do what they’re doing. Write a book as a product, or create a course as a product, that can be sold to a new audience that will buy it and implement it.

    Add Services to a Product-Based Business

    Let’s say you have a product you created such as PLR – private label rights articles, blogs, videos and so forth. Now you want to add a service possibility to the offering. You can do that easily. You just need to think about what your audience may need.

    * Ask the Audience – Send your audience, those who have purchased from you, a short survey asking them what their main issues are with putting the PLR to use.

    * Collect the Ideas – Make a spreadsheet of the ideas that come forth from the survey. Now, add some to it that you have thought of based on reading their ideas.

    * Assess Your Skills – What can you do from the list provided? Perhaps someone mentioned not understanding how to edit PLR. Can you provide a service to edit it and post it for them?

    * Determine Your Time Ability – Can you find outsourcers who can do this for you? Can you make it financially feasible? Ask your audience what they’re willing to pay to help you determine if the idea is viable.

    The important thing to do is to never assume that something will work. Always research every idea by asking your audience, then doing a test market study by having a small launch before moving forward with a huge time investment.

    Categories: Grow a Home Business, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags:

    Online Marketing Tips for Home Business Owners

    As a home business owner you need to continuously market your business. There is a saying for all businesses and it is “always be marketing.” This is a very important thing to remember, because it’s true. Even if you think you have enough clients or customers, you may not a month from now, and the marketing you do today will pay off tomorrow. Here are some online marketing tips to keep the marketing going.

    * Know Your Goals – You need to start by knowing your goals. Each type of marketing that you do will be designed for a different goal.

    * Evaluate Where You Are – Determine where you are now in terms of your content and all aspects of your marketing. Punch up the things that need to be punched up and pull back on the things that need to be pulled back on.

    * Use Appropriate Tags – Meta tags, header tags, and alt tags are all still important when it comes to getting attention for your website from search engines. Check everything to ensure that all your tags are set.

    * Learn to Understand Your Analytics – Whether it’s Google Analytics or social network analytics, it’s important to familiarize yourself with them so that you can use them to improve your marketing efforts. No matter how small of a business you have, understanding the metrics can help you tremendously.

    * Join the Chamber of Commerce – That might seem like weird advice for online marketing, but usually you can end up on their online list which can give you a credible link back to your website.

    * Get to Know Your Competition – Always get to know who your competition is and what they’re doing. You don’t want to copy them, but you can get ideas from them on what type of marketing works. Plus, you can look at their offerings and figure out how you can make them better.

    * Improve Your Website – Once you build your website and it works, you’ll be super happy and feel done. But, when it comes to websites, you have to keep updating them continuously. Improve your SEO, improve the layout, and keep improving the content.

    * Post Videos Online – A great way to move offline activity into online activity is to post videos online. Post them on YouTube, Facebook, and your blog. People love watching short videos from one to three minutes long.

    * Post Images Online – Still images are a big hit online too. Post a few pictures of the “day in the life” of your work and you’ll be more relatable to your peers and to your customers as well. It’s a good way to tie in different events to your products and services.

    * Blog Regularly – The more you can blog, the better, but it’s important that you have something to say too. Don’t just put up something for the sake of putting up anything. Be sure to create a blog post that has a reason for being and a goal in mind.

    * Read about Your Niche – The more you can read about your industry and niche, the more you’ll have to add to it. You can learn about your industry from magazines, books, blogs, and other types of publications.

    Keep marketing in all the normal ways such as online social networks, blogging, and social networking. Try adding in a new way of marketing each month to find out which type of marketing works best for you.

    Categories: Marketing Tags: Tags:

    Tools Needed to Be a Successful Virtual Assistant

    Being a successful VA doesn’t really require that much in the way of tools. The barrier to entry is extremely low, but there are certainly some tools that are helpful and that will make your life (and your clients’ lives) easier. This list is not exhaustive and you may have tools you love and would like to share too.

    * Bookkeeping and Invoicing Apps – Without a doubt, one of the most important aspects of being a VA is keeping track of your income and expenses, plus being able to send invoices to your clients. Today, it’s easier than ever. PayPal.com, GoDaddy, and QuickBooks offer tools for this purpose.

    Links:
    GoDaddy Bookkeeping – http://www.godaddy.com/Online_Bookkeeping
    QuickBooks – http://www.intuit.co.uk/

    * Relevant Software – Depending on what type of services you will offer, you’re going to need a list of software. If you plan to do graphic design, you might want to sign up for Adobe Creative Suite, for example. For sure you’re going to need word processing software like MS Word, or Open Office.

    * Password Keeping App – It’s likely you are going to have a lot of accounts to sign into as a VA. You’ll have your clients’ plus your own, so an app that helps you keep track of passwords is essential. A good one to get is Lastpass.com.

    Link – http://www.lastpass.com/

    * Computer, Laptop, Monitor(s), Etc… – Some virtual assistants enjoy having a super-fast and up-to-date desktop computer with more than one monitor. It is very helpful to have more than one monitor to help you get more done in less time.

    * File Backup and Sharing System – It’s important to be aware that file backup and sharing are not the same thing. You’ll need something like Dropbox.com for saving files, and for sharing with your clients. Plus, something like Mozy.com to back up your computer and files.

    * Website – It’s imperative that you have a professional website to be a successful VA. You need a website that is not a free one, but one with your own domain. It is highly recommended that you use something like self-hosted WordPress.org to build your site. There are a few builders that work such as New Rainmaker, but it will be more expensive.

    Link to New Rainmaker – http://my.newrainmaker.com/portal/

    * Comfortable Chair – You are going to be sitting a lot to do your work, so a comfortable desk chair and set-up is very important. Don’t forget to get up and stretch every 90 minutes or so, and walk around and get your exercise in. It can be dangerous to sit for more than four hours per day. A good chair and moving around can help eliminate some of these issues.

    * Calendar System – Keeping deadlines is very important for a VA. You will need a good calendar that will work on your mobile device. Google Calendar is actually a really good choice, but there are other types that even allow your clients to schedule appointments with you, such as TimeTrade.

    Link to TimeTrade – http://www.timetrade.com/

    The tools an individual VA may need will change depending upon their niche. For example, if you’re a VA who takes phone calls during lunch for a client, you’ll need a system that enables you to do that. The best course of action is to make a list of what you will do each day, and then ensure you have the tools that you need.

    Categories: Outsourcing

    Where to Learn What You Need to Know

    When seeking to become an expert in a niche, it’s important to realize it’s not going to happen overnight. You’re going to have to do your time like everyone else – learning, building, and becoming the expert that you want to become. However, don’t let the daunting hill ahead of you stop you. Before you know it, you’ll be at the top of that hill and you’ll never look back.

    Read Books

    There are likely books and opinions out there already on your niche. It’s important to read and soak in a variety of ideas from those who are already experts. Knowing the prevailing wisdom and how it came to be will help you on your journey to becoming an expert, and will also aid you in forming your own thoughts and opinions.

    Get Experience

    As you are learning from other experts, you’ll want to implement what you’ve learned. There is no such thing as an expert on a topic who has not tried it or done it. Put into practice the theories you’re learning about. Test out some of your own ideas, see what works and what doesn’t work. This is the foundation by which you’ll become a sought-out expert, because you have proof that you did xyz and it worked or did not work.

    Join Mastermind Groups

    A mastermind group usually consists of a leader who is an expert in a particular niche. You don’t have to join a group that is in your niche; instead join a group that is designed to help you achieve in your own niche. For example, if you need to learn more about public speaking to help promote your ideas, join a public speaking mastermind group.

    Take Courses

    Today you don’t have to even leave your house to take courses to learn the things you want to know. You can take both accredited and unaccredited courses to become an expert. Courses are offered by even MIT that are not accredited. The important thing is that you learn what you need to learn in a manner that enables you to learn a topic quickly.

    Stay Focused

    While you’re involved with learning it can be easy to be distracted from your mission. Your mission is to become an expert in a particular topic and niche, not to become the best public speaker. So don’t get your head turned just because you find learning something exciting – stay the course.

    Hire a Coach

    For some people, hiring a coach that can help them stay focused on doing what they set out to do can be helpful. The coach doesn’t have to be an expert in the area you want expertise in either. Instead they should be an expert in helping people reach their goals, whatever they are. However, it does help if the coach is cognizant of your field a little.

    Practice

    You’ve heard your mom say it, “Practice makes perfect” and it’s true. The more you practice something and gain experience in something, the more likely you are to become an expert. Don’t just do it once a week; do whatever it is every day. They say it takes 10,000 hours of studying and doing to become an expert, so don’t waste any opportunities.

    Don’t Give Up

    It’s important to persevere and not give up. You may become an actual expert before the public accepts you as an expert. This is to be expected, but can be difficult to handle. Just keep going, keep promoting, and keep learning and it will happen. One step forward each day will culminate in gaining what you set out to gain.

    As you embark on your rise to expert status, you’ll likely find that there are roadblocks impeding your ability to get to the top. But, you can overcome all of them with perseverance and focus on the goals that you have made.

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