#15: Creating Your Online Marketing Strategy I. INTRODUCTION In your last e-class, you learned how to get PR for your business. In this e-class, you will begin to learn how to create and/or improve your online marketing strategy. Specifically, we will give you an introduction to online marketing, teach you the critical browser-shopper-buyer framework, and let you know about the upcoming e-classes that will ensure you have a robust online marketing strategy that gives you competitive advantage. II. LESSON/EXAMPLES/EXERCISES EXERCISES TO COMPLETE Introduction to Online Marketing Online marketing strategy includes the strategies you can and will use to drive traffic (prospective customers) to your website and convert that traffic into qualified leads and/or customers. There are 3 core types of traffic: Organic/SEO: this is traffic for which you don t have to pay. For example, if your website ranks #1 on Google for a specific search term, prospective customers will click on your company s link on Google and visit your website without you having to pay anything. Paid (PPC/online media buys): Paid traffic is when you pay to drive visitors to your website. PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, is when you pay a search engine such as Google each time a visitor clicks on one of your ads. Another form of paid traffic is online media buying, which is when you pay websites other than search engines to refer traffic to your website. Social media (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.): Social media traffic is traffic/visitors that come to your website based on content you have posted on social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. There is technically a fourth type of online traffic, which is using offline promotional methods such as direct mail or TV to drive traffic to your website. These offline promotional methods were covered in e-class #13. #15 Page 1
The next few e-classes will be dedicated to improving your online marketing strategy. We will cover keyword strategy, which is critical to your success with both organic and paid traffic. We will also cover search engine optimization, paid online advertising, social media, and finally email marketing. This e-class will focus on the browser-shopper-buyer framework. Understanding this framework will make your online marketing strategy much more effective. The Browser-Shopper Shopper-Buyer Framework The first step in creating your online marketing strategy is to determine the goal of your website. For most companies, this goal is to achieve one or more of the following: Make sales (i.e., to get the customer to take out their credit card and buy your product or service online, or call you to complete the sale) Prompt offline sales conversation (i.e., to get the customer to call you to engage in a conversation about buying your product or service (particularly when there is a longer sales cycle)) To capture leads (to capture information about your website visitors so you can engage them in a sales process thereafter). We have found that the most successful online marketing strategy achieves not one, but all of these goals. And the framework which allows you to accomplish this most effectively is called the browser-shopper-buyer framework. Here s how and why it works. Most times, when someone first goes online to find a product or service they want to buy, they aren t ready to buy right away. Rather they start by simply gathering data. As a result, we refer to these individuals as browsers -- they are just looking around. Let me give you an example of a browser from a search engine perspective. Let s assume you decide you need a new desk. You may then go to a search engine like Google and search on the phrase desk or office desk. At this point, you are probably just a browser. You want to look around to see the types of desks that are available and how much they cost. #15 Page 2
If you immediately find the perfect desk at the perfect price, you might possibly buy it right away, but most likely you are just researching or browsing at this time. From your initial searching, you may have found that you want a mahogany desk with 4 drawers and a hutch. So, you return to Google or another search engine (either on the same day or possibly a few days later) and search on the phrase mahogany desk with 4 drawers and a hutch. At this point, we consider you to be a shopper. You pretty much know what you want, and now you are shopping for it. You re looking at different brands of mahogany desks, different features, and different price points to figure out which one is the best for you. At the end of this phase, you have figured out the perfect desk for you. That desk may be the Mahogany Plus Hutch Deluxe Desk with Leather Trim from Sullivan Corporation. Finally, in the last phase of your research, you do a Google search on Mahogany Plus Hutch Deluxe Desk with Leather Trim from Sullivan Corporation. At this point you are a buyer. You know exactly what you want to buy, and you conduct your final research to figure out who you will buy it from. You will find different online and/or offline retailers selling that desk. You will look at factors such as price, delivery times, delivery costs, warrantees, and return policies, etc. And then you will make your buying decision. The Importance of the Browser-Shopper Shopper-Buyer Framework Now let me show you why the browser-shopper-buyer framework is so important. If you were a desk retailer and all you advertised on were browser keywords (like desk ), you would drive a lot of traffic to your website. But most likely, if all your website did was show information and pricing on the desks you carry, you would make few sales. Over 95% of your visitors would just be browsing. They would do some research on your website. And most likely they wouldn t buy right away, and they would never return to your website. Likewise, if you only attracted shoppers, the majority of your website visitors still wouldn t buy from you right away. And once they left your website, they most likely wouldn t come back. #15 Page 3
And finally, if you mostly attracted buyers, if you offered the right product at the right price, you would make sales right away. However, the volume of your sales would be relatively small, since thousands of times more visitors search on the browsing keywords such as desks versus buying keyword phrases such as Mahogany Plus Hutch Deluxe Desk with Leather Trim from Sullivan Corporation. So, here is the solution: capture leads when they are still browsers and shoppers, so that you convert them into buyers, and you contain the leads so they only consider you when they are ready to buy. Let me give you an example of how this would work. Let s say the visitor searched on office desk or mahogany office desk and came to your website via an ad you placed or an organic listing of yours (based on what they searched, you can tell that they are either still just a browser or shopper). On your landing page, you would offer a free report. (Note that your landing page is the page of your website that visitors first come to upon clicking on a link to your site (this may or may not be the same as your home page )). This free report would be entitled something like 7 Traps to Avoid When Purchasing a New Office Desk. Such a title would be very compelling to new desk buyers and on average, 30% - 40% would happily give you their email address in return for a copy of the report (sent to them via email as a PDF file). This response may be 20 times higher than the 2% of people that will typically buy from you right away (and those 2% still may buy from you right away, but with the free report, you ll also get the names and email addresses from 28% to 38% more folks who are interested in buying a desk from you but aren t quite ready to buy). Once you give them the free report, you will be the one that educates these prospective customers. You (in the report and via automated follow-up emails) can tell them the pros and cons of different desks, and influence their decision on which desk to buy. In doing so, you will be the one to take these prospective customers from browsers to shoppers to buyers. And in doing so, you will position your company as the company to buy from. You will position your company as the trusted advisor. You will teach the customers what they should look for in a product and vendor; and that vendor will be you. So, when they are ready buy, they will buy from you. In many cases, they will not even consider your competitors, since you have educated them and nurtured them and make it simple for them to buy from you. #15 Page 4
Creating Your Free Report or Lead Magnet As shown above, creating and offering the free report is a key part of the browsershopper-buyer framework that can give you significant competitive advantage. The key to the free report is to come up with a compelling title that solves a pain that the visitor has. Importantly, the item you offer for free doesn t necessarily have to be a free report. It could also be a free video, or a free audio file. We generally prefer that the free item be in digital format so there s no variable cost to delivering it, but if the potential value of your leads is significant, you can consider free items (e.g., product samples) that require you to manufacture and/or send items in the mail. Collectively the term we use for this free offer is a lead magnet which implies that because of the strength of the offer, leads are happy to give you their names, email addresses and/or additional information. The exercise below will help you create your lead magnet. Step 1: 1 Create a compelling name/topic for your lead magnet. Think of an intriguing topic that prospective customers would be compelled to get. Here are some examples: 10 Ways to Lower the Cost of your XYZ 7 Tricks Most Vendors Play on XYZ Customers (and how to avoid them) The Biggest Threat Facing XYZ Customers Today Write potential lead magnet names and/or topics below: #15 Page 5
Step 2: 2 Determine the format you will use for your lead magnet. The format that typically converts the highest (e.g., gets the highest percentage of visitors to give you their contact information in return for it) is a free report. But as mentioned above, other options are a free audio file or video. Another option is a free Webinar. Tools and Tips: Audios: Three easy ways to create a free audio are to: Record yourself speaking into a microphone Record someone interviewing you (give them the questions beforehand) Record an interview you do of someone else (a customer, a well known industry expert, etc.) One service we use is RecordMyCalls.com. This service allows you to record phone calls/interviews you do. The calls are automatically saved as MP3 files that you could offer as lead magnets. Videos: Videos can quickly be made via computer video cameras and then uploaded to YouTube or another video playing website. Reports: If you are uncomfortable writing a report, you have a few options. One is to record yourself speaking the report contents, and then get the recording transcribed. You can then turn the transcription into a report. One transcription service that we have been satisfied with is idictate.com. Another way to easily create reports is to outsource it. You can find ghost writers on websites such as odesk.com or guru.com. Write down the format of your lead magnet below, and finalize its name: #15 Page 6
Step 3: 3 Create a landing page that offers the lead magnet. There is a whole field of study called landing page optimization on how to create the perfect landing page with the highest conversion rates. The key elements of a landing page include: 1. It has a clear headline with benefits on why the visitor should review the page 2. It includes a hero shot, which is a visual representation of the lead magnet you are giving them (99designs.com and Hatchwise.com are two great websites to find graphic designers for your hero shots) 3. It is simple; if you give the visitor too much information to review, too many choices, and/or require they give you too make data, your conversion rate will decrease dramatically. Keep the page extremely simple and to the point. While you can decide to build a landing page that ONLY includes the lead magnet offer, you may also decide to include the lead magnet offer on other pages of your site. For example, you may want to include a block of space on the right side of each page of your website that includes the lead magnet offer. In this case, the principles above still apply; make that block clear, compelling and simple, and include a hero shot. III II.. CONCLUSION In this e-class, you learned the browser-shopper-buyer framework which can make your online marketing strategy MUCH more effective. You created the name and structure of your lead magnet and learned how to incorporate it into your website as a landing page. Now, create your lead magnet and get it live on your website. In the next few e-classes, you will be given techniques and strategies to build on the browser-shopper-buyer framework. In the next e-class, you will learn about keyword strategy to ensure that you drive targeted customers to your website. #15 Page 7