The excellent Brad Geddes, Google-approved AdWords Seminar Leader and Friend-of-Trada, published an article in Search Engine Land this week: 8 Quick Ways to Increase Your AdWords CTR.

Lionhearted world travelers Anna Sawyer and Matt Hessler were so impressed with the article, they called in from their trip to Brooklyn, NY, home of groundbreaking rapper Biggie Smalls.

In this episode of Internet Ads Update, Matt and Anna comment and offer additions to Brad’s tips and (respectfully!) disagree with one of his CTR-boosting methods.

EXCITING BONUS FEATURE! Subscribe and listen to the podcast for a chance to win a $25 Amazon.com giftcard!

As always, we want to rap our love for your questions and topic suggestions. Leave them in the comments or email us at podcast@trada.com!

Have questions about Trada? Sign up for our webinar this Tuesday. One lucky attendee will win a $100 gift card!

Guest post by Marianne Pratt

More and more businesses of all types are taking advantage of pay-per-click advertising. But it can be daunting, especially if you’re trying to go it alone. You need to learn the language, the mechanics of how it all works and – most especially – the nuances of each step that will help you put PPC to work most profitably.

So maybe you’re just starting out. Or perhaps you’re already working in the PPC environment and have hands-on experience with AdWords, in which case it’s time to delve deeper or learn about the latest AdWords updates direct from the source.

Wherever you are in this continuum, you can gain the knowledge you need by studying toward Google AdWords Professional certification.

Create your own personalized Google AdWords Study Guide.

Customizing the process will assure you’re getting the most from this comprehensive opportunity to learn. You’ll find detailed study material in the Google Study Center, divided into 15 progressive chapters:

1. Introduction
2. AdWords account and campaign basics
3. Advertising formats and guidelines
4. Targeting and placements
5. Bidding and budgeting
6. Policies and ad quality topics
7. Billing and payments
8. Display advertising on Google’s Display Network
9. Display advertising on YouTube
10. AdWords Tools
11. Performance, monitoring and conversion tracking
12. Google Analytics
13. Optimizing performance
14. Managing multiple accounts
15. Selling and representing AdWords

Study one section at a time. You don’t necessarily have to learn everything at once. You can start at the beginning and work your way through the learning material with certification in mind, or pick and choose study topics based on your specific needs and interests.

To earn your certificate, you’ll have to pass the Advertising Fundamentals exam plus one of these three advanced tests:

• Search Advertising
• Display Advertising
• Reporting & Analytics

Not sure which one to select? Smart, savvy analytical skills are always valuable throughout the online marketing world. Just make sure your Google AdWords Study Guide covers everything you’ll need to know.

Google no longer requires hands-on “minimum spend” experience to take the certification test, but experience always helps. The real key, of course, is preparation. So as you’re structuring your personal Google AdWords Study Guide, pay particular attention to these competencies:

• Make sure you fully understand billing options and mechanics, Display Network and search targeting details, the various bid management and advertising options solutions, best practices for ad creation and the editorial guidelines.

• Know where to find information and reports in tabs.
• Become comfortably familiar with the AdWords editor.
• Watch the videos, which may cover information you won’t find elsewhere.

Talk to others who’ve taken the test.

Reach out to friends or make new friends that can help you learn about AdWords and specifically about studying for the test. You’ll find numerous online resources, including AdWords discussion groups. Linked In has one, of course, and there are several Google-based groups.

Joining these communities can also help you in your work, with friendly, knowledgeable advice for ongoing AdWords campaign design and management.

Know how the test itself works, to avoid potentially nerve-wracking last-minute surprises.

There will be lots of questions and limited time, so follow the same advice you got from teachers in school: answer everything you can quickly, then go back and revisit the questions you skipped.

If you have a second computer you can make it an “open book” test by using your second screen to look up answers. After all, an important part of learning is knowing where find additional information. But since it’s a timed test, prepare as if you’ll have nothing but your “test paper and pencil.” Do remember to assemble good notes to have at your fingertips.

Google AdWords qualification authenticates your PPC expertise and gives you additional credibility. That can open doors, letting you put your knowledge and imagination to work to expand your career. You’ll be more proficient at handling your own in-house PPC campaigns, or you can be the new expert at work. You may want to transform yourself from happy PPC hobbyist to paid professional.

You could even become a Trada Optimizer. Joining Trada’s unique crowdsourced crew let’s you work as part of a team on the advertising projects that interest you, based on campaign characteristics and/or your own areas of expertise. It’s a work environment that’s flexible, fun, stimulating and profitable. And to think it all started with your very own, customized Google AdWords Study Guide!

Photo courtesy of Flickr user albertogp123

Check out our other posts on AdWords- Google AdWords Certification: Passing the Test

If you’ve ever been to an industry tradeshow, you’ve seen them. Those booths that look like they have an interesting product you’d like to learn more about, but the booth set-up and staff say, “go away, we have more important things to do.”Tradeshows are a high stakes gamble with your precious marketing resources. Where else do you spend $20,000 in 2-3 days and take multiple people out of the office who could be working on other things, with virtually no opportunity to course correct once you’re there? If you’re going to make tradeshows a profitable marketing program, you have to bring you’re A-game or your risk blowing a bunch of money with nothing to show for it.

Here are 10 tips to make your next tradeshow a success:

1. Have a goal, and hold everyone to it.

In my view, tradeshows aren’t a branding tactic. Sure, there is value in having your brand visible to your prospects attending tradeshows, but at the end of the day, all of our marketing programs at Trada are about generating qualified opportunities that lead to sales.  So before you decide to attend a tradeshow, determine what it’s going to cost you, what your target cost per lead or close is, and then set goals for leads and qualified opportunities for the show. If you don’t think there are enough attendees at the show to meet that goal, skip it.

Everyone working the booth should know what the goals are and be held accountable for meeting them. It will set the tone for everyone working with the booth and keep them focused on the task at hand. Your booth team should track their progress to goals hourly throughout the show to be sure they’re on pace to meet the goal.

2. Get everyone on your tradeshow team in the loop and on message.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen people in booths next to ours show up late, with no clue about the show’s focus, session topics, show floor hours, etc. At Trada, several days before we leave for a tradeshow, the marketing manager in charge of the show will hold a meeting with everyone who’s attending to review the show logistics (location, floor layout, hours, etc.), goals, key session topics and messaging.

Then, everyone attending is required to practice pitching in a role-play atmosphere. Even those of us who have been with Trada for years need some brushing up on our latest messaging before we go in front of prospective customers. Don’t waste the first 2 hours of the tradeshow freshening up on your pitch in front of real prospects.

3. Don’t leave anything to chance.

As I said earlier, you’re about to spend tens of thousands of dollars in a couple days when you choose to exhibit at a tradeshow. Now is not the time to assume everything will “work out fine”. Track all of your packages to be sure they get to the show as expected. Pack extension cords and extra light bulbs for your booth. If you need an internet connection, make sure you have a back-up plan in case it goes down – load your product demo locally to a laptop, or have a PowerPoint demo version ready to go in case you need it. Nothing is worse than being on the show floor when you realize a key part of your presence didn’t make it or isn’t working properly. Expect the best, but plan for the worst.

4. Ditch the director’s chairs.

I don’t let my team order chairs for our booth. Ever. The reason is simple – when you get tired (and you will), you’ll sit down. And when you sit down, you’ll relax and disengage. The next thing you know, you’ll be sitting in the back of the booth watching prospects glance at your booth and walk on by. Not everyone will march right into your booth and engage with you. It’s your responsibility to engage them. You can’t do that sitting in the back of your booth.

And with the money you save by not renting chairs, you can buy everyone a pair of Dr. Sholes!

5. No phones, no texting, no emailing, no exceptions.

Remember when I said if you sit down you disengage? 10x that disengagement when mobile phones are involved. Nothing says, “go away!” like someone in a booth who’s on the phone, texting, or checking their email. I know it’s challenging to keep up with work going on at the office when you’re on the show floor, but you may as well stay home if you’re just going to work from the booth, because you certainly aren’t going to have good conversations with interested prospects.

And if you absolutely have to take a call, leave the booth entirely and talk somewhere else so you don’t reflect poorly on passersby.

6. Skip the padded carpet.

I know lots of exhibitors put a premium on paying for the super-cushy carpet padding, thinking that it’ll: a) attract more people to their booth who are looking for a soft place to stand and b) make life a little more comfy for their booth team.

In my experience, the people who come by your booth for a cushy spot to stand aren’t qualified prospects, so you’re wasting time chit-chatting with someone who’s probably never going to buy from you. And if your booth team is doing their job, they’ll be out in the aisle in front of your booth, so they won’t get to enjoy its cushy goodness anyway.

7. Take your demo mobile with an iPad.

Shortly after iPads were launched, we bought a couple to bring to tradeshows and it fundamentally changed the way we did product demos in the booth. No longer did we have to take up space in the booth with tables, monitors and laptops. No longer did we have to interrupt our conversation with a prospect to drag them into the booth to see our demo. We were able to demo from wherever we were standing in a very natural way, and could pass the iPads around seamlessly to other team members in the booth. And we could take our demo with us wherever we went – on the show floor, to sessions, to lunch, etc. The form factor of an iPad is ideal for showing off your product. If you haven’t integrated an iPad or other tablet into your tradeshow repertoire, give it a try.

8. Save partying for the last day of the tradeshow.

We’ve all either experienced it ourselves or seen people walking onto the show floor the second day after the big sponsored parties dragging, droopy eyed and hung over. You’re definitely not bringing you’re A-game in this state, and it will show in your performance in the booth.

I think going out to parties in conjunction with tradeshows are a great way to meet others in the industry, and can be great team building too. But remember that you’re there to generate qualified leads, so keep the partying in check and get a good night’s sleep. You’re gonna need it to be ready for the next day! If you want to go nuts while you’re in a new city, save it for when the show is over.

9. Be on and engaged at all times

I don’t prohibit phones, chairs and padded carpet in the booth because I want to make it as uncomfortable as possible for me and my teammates working the booth. I do it because they all detract from the task at hand, which is getting everyone at the show excited about what we have to offer. Trada is an amazing company! I want everyone there to learn about us. The best way to do that is to be present and engaged from the minute I step onto the floor in the morning until we wrap up that night. People want to talk to others who are smiling, excited and inviting, and they’ll pass right by you if you don’t look like you’re excited to talk to them.

10. Route hot leads quickly

I’m always amazed at the number of times I stop by a vendor’s booth that has a solution that fits a need we have, engage in a great conversation, and then don’t hear back from them for weeks after the show. By then I’ve invariably moved onto another project or found an alternate solution. If someone stops by your booth and identifies themselves as a hot lead who is interested in buying right away, don’t let them get cold! We have a 24 hour follow-up SLA on hot leads. That means that each night after the show, someone is responsible for emailing those hot leads to the team back in Boulder to follow-up on. Some people might think this is too aggressive, but we’ve found that striking while the iron is hot yields the best results.

It’s human nature to be attracted to a crowd. The more people you have lingering around your booth to find out what all the excitement is about, the more other people follow suit. Before you know it, you’ll have a swarm of people at your booth and the energy level will go through the roof. Bring you’re A-game to your next tradeshow and be “that booth”! It’s not easy, but once you see the results, you’ll never want to do it any other way.

I’m sure you have your own list of tradeshow dos and don’ts. Share your ideas in the comments section below.

 We’re exhibiting at SMX West! Visit us at booth 319!

Guest post by Marianne Pratt

“Retargeting advertising” is a phrase that may seem rather mind-boggling at first, but it’s actually a subject you should get to know better.  “Retargeting” refers to using  sophisticated online targeting technology to repeatedly put your brand in front of searchers who have already shown an interest in your products or services but who have not yet become paying customers.

Because retargeting advertising campaigns are behavior-based and extremely refined, this relatively new marketing technique is growing in popularity with all types of marketers – both publishers and advertisers, especially retailers.

How retargeting advertising works.

• You visit XYZ website to investigate a product, maybe even go so far as to put something in your shopping cart, but you don’t buy anything.
• While you’re there, the XYZ website marks your computer with a “cookie” it then uses to track your online activity for the next several days or even weeks.
• As you continue to search, you see ads appear for XYZ’s product that you viewed.
• Is this a coincidence?  Not at all — you’re being retargeted.  It’s a very deliberate effort by marketers to stay visible and available to prospects.  Using retargeting keeps your brand and products top-of-mind, to attract browsers back and ultimately convert them to customers.

Use it to recapture and retain a prospect’s interest.

• Retargeting advertising is aimed at browsers who are more than just “window shoppers.”  They are specifically looking for and at your products, as evidenced by their visit to your website.  They are hot prospects.
• But it’s easy to get distracted when you’re searching online, therefore it’s easy for potential customers to wander off, costing you sales.
• Retargeting displays ads you know will interest a particular user directly to that person while they’re searching.
• Retargeting reinforces your brand and messaging to increase conversion rates.  Repetition has always been a vital aspect of any marketing effort, and conversion, of course, is what drives revenue and profitability.
• This is the ultimate in targeting, because it’s aimed at one individual at a time.  It nicely supports your ability to alter specific website content “on the fly,” giving searchers what you already know they want and improving your chances of further engaging those prospects through clicks and conversions.
• Although some privacy concerns have surfaced, cookies used to retarget prospects only identify their computer; they do not capture any other information.

Reap the rewards.

Studies show retargeting advertising can be quite effective.  Both publishers and advertisers can use this technique to achieve significantly more, and more effective, impressions.  This broadens exposure for your brand and your specific products or services, leading to more better-qualified clicks, which ultimately produces stronger conversion rates.

• Publishers can grow revenue by collecting additional pay-per-click fees.
• Advertisers can grow revenue and strengthen ROI through increased PPC responses, because more effective targeting assures most efficient ad placements.  These ads are certain to appear in front of guaranteed-interested shoppers.
• Even searchers themselves can benefit, by seeing more ads or messages that are interesting or relevant to them rather than a random assortment of superfluous and therefore annoying “spam” ads.  This helps browsers shop more easily, and it makes the most of their browsing time.

Retargeting advertising can offer excellent opportunities to expand and sharpen your marketing.  But the technicalities of making it work properly can be daunting.  A professional online marketing firm can help you design one or several retargeting advertising campaigns that will smoothly support the rest of your marketing, to help you  reach sales goals sooner, with greater return on your investment.

Don’t forget to follow Trada on Twitter!

Guest post by Marianne Pratt

Figuring out just the right keywords to use for your pay-per-click advertising can seem as elusive as finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. The good news is that there’s more than one needle out there, and there are plenty of tools to help you find the sharpest ones. You just need to conduct a little keyword research.

The best keywords for search engine optimization (SEO) and PPC are not necessarily the same, so you need to think differently and research specifically for PPC. Success depends on selecting the words and phrases that will be most effective and also cost-effective.

It’s all about ROI. Your ads need to be seen, but they also have to attract clicks and generate sales. Betting on the wrong keywords can be extremely costly, a total waste of advertising resources.

Your keyword research goal is to find choices that are specific enough to your business and products to separate you from your competition. Using a variety of specific keywords can help maintain ad display frequency while keeping cost per click (CPC) lower. Look for even more specific “niche” keywords, as they can be even more valuable.

Keyword finders can help.

There are a number of online tools you can use – some are even free — to identify potential keywords and phrases for variously-targeted PPC ad groups, confirm the probably value keywords and generally make sure you aren’t missing out on new search trends. Try:

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool.
• WordTracker.
• Google Sets, which suggests keywords based on a particular theme.
• Keyword Map, which lists synonyms to your keywords. This is especially useful for separating yourself from competitors.
• WordStream Keyword Niche Finder, which identifies long tail keyword variations. Extending tails on your current keywords can better-target your ads.

Get more ideas by asking customers what words or phrases they’d use to search for you.

Keyword competition is an important consideration.

The cost of PPC advertising is based on supply and demand, just like the overall business environment. The greater the overall and industry-specific popularity of a given keyword, the greater the “competition.” In other words, you’ll have to bid higher for the most sought-after keywords. That’s why specificity and less competitive words are so important.

Less competitive keywords generally draw less traffic, because there are fewer searchers for those words, but less competition can be more budget-conscious and generate more effective results.

It’s much harder to achieve top ranking using the most competitive keywords, so evaluating your prospective keywords’ competitiveness helps determine your smartest choices. To help figure this out, you can:

• Check the age of competitive domains. Older, established ones are your toughest competition.
• Use Google search for “allintitle” or “inanchor” to see how many pages are currently optimized for your prospective keywords. Obviously, more means more competition.
• Analyze keyword research results to see if those in the top 10 are home pages or inside links. The latter are more competitive.
• As already noted, use keyword suggestion tools to find alternatives that might be more competitive and provide better ROI for you.
• Look at sponsored ads that use your potential keywords. Are the advertisers your direct competitors?

There’s no substitute for testing,

Using tools to conduct keyword research can only take you so far. Only you can assess the potential value of suggested words and phrases, because that depends on your unique business and products and your specific PPC goals. Realistically, the only way to get truly accurate information is by trial-and-error.

Tracking and analyzing your PPC results will tell you which keywords are attracting the right responders, those you can convert into buyers. Monitoring the effectiveness of keywords can tell you not only which ones drives traffic but which ones drive sales.

“Broad match” is a good way to start. You can attract searchers using variations of your keywords, and study results to see which ones produce the most responses. Use that information to refine your ads and boost results.

Keyword research is an important first step. But in the end, the keywords that perform “best” for you are those that prove to be most profitable, delivering the strongest ROI.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Jennconspiracy

Interested in PPC? Download our eBook: The Paid Search Primer

Have you ever wanted to change something on your website because you have a hunch that it will perform better? But maybe you aren’t a developer, and you’re unsure if it will ACTUALLY improve your conversions or for whatever goal you’re aiming.

Optimizely to the rescue! Simple, fast, and powerful. Optimizely is a dramatically easier way for you to improve your website through A/B testing. Create an experiment in minutes with their easy-to-use visual interface with absolutely no coding or engineering required!

Why You Need It

1. Super Easy

Enter the URL, create versions of the page you’re testing, and test! It REALLY is that simple. You can choose the element you want to change, (font size, color, the message, etc) and see which version performs best!

2. YOU Can Do It!

“It’s awesome!” says our Marketing Manager, Anna Sawyer. And that’s because SHE can do it herself! With Optimizely, there’s no need for a developer or coder to change the page.

3. Real Time Analytics

Optimizely provides real time analytics so you can set goals and work toward them! Want to increase your conversions? See how your changes perform and get you toward your goals. It’s DIY.

Tips for Using Optimizely and Basic A/B Testing

Try One Variable at a Time

If you test more than one variable at a time, you aren’t giving a fair chance to each change. Like a science experiment, you should only test one variable, because you will never be able to identify which change is causing your page to perform better or worse.

Try Paid Search Terms

PPC experts know that testing is vital when it comes to paid search terms. You test for the best keywords that will give you better conversions and keep your costs low.  You’ve tested all of these keywords for your ad campaigns, now what? Use them on your website! Try out the phrases that are working for you in paid search, on your website.

Give it time

Give your experiments with Optimizely time to run. You have to give each test a fair chance. If you test for one day, you’re not going to get the same feedback as if you test for a period of days. Give your tests time to gain thousands of impressions- this will give you a better idea of what works!

Test, Test, Test!

So you tested one variable, you’re finished right? NEVER! Just like paid search, you have to constantly be testing. Messaging that worked last month may not work this month or in three months. You can always improve upon your work, so know that nothing is ever a finished project. TEST!

 Check out our other Marketing tool reviews on Raven Tools and Crowdbooster!

Check out Trada’s other posts in our online marketing series: How to Market Your Business on Twitter, How to Market Your Business on Facebook, How to Market Your Business with a Blog, and  How to Market Your Business with Video. Leave us a tip of your own on marketing with email, and the best comment will win a $25 Amazon gift card. Comments must be made by Sunday, January 29 at 11pm ET.

E-mail marketing is an extremely effective tool — if used correctly. I learned from the lessons of hard knocks on what to do and what not to do. As with everything, it’s always better to ask the experts. This time we asked experts from Marketo, SendGrid and social media agency Room 214 for their thoughts on how to use email marketing, understanding regulations and how to create email marketing lists.

Meet the Experts:

Tim Falls, a Community Manager for SendGrid, an email delivery system that simplifies the process and produces better results. Check out his SendGrid’s blog and follow him on Twitter @timfalls.

Maria Pergolino, Sr Director of Marketing at marketing software automation system, Marketo.  Check out the Marketo blogs and follow Maria on Twitter @InboundMarketer.

Ingrid Getzan, Group Practice Director at social media agency Room 214. Check out the Room 214 blog, Capture the Conversation and follow Ingrid on Twitter @igetzan.

Email marketing is one of the most heavily regulated online marketing components. What do companies need to know before getting started with email marketing?

Ingrid Getzan: Companies need to know the very basics;  go with a trusted email software company, don’t buy lists, don’t use certain words in the subject line that will be marked as spam, know an acceptable frequency to send emails, and most importantly, know your plan.

Too many businesses send out emails because they think they should, without having a clear agenda of what they would like to communicate. There is no better way to get blacklisted then sending out irrelevant or spammy emails – a sure way to kill your email marketing efforts immediately. Sit down and figure out at least a 6 month plan of what you want to tell to your subscribers. Figure out why they want to receive your email and make the information within your email valuable to them. Don’t just pick a template or extend promotional offers to them – make it exclusive and worth their time.

Maria Pergolino: Get familiar with Can-Spam Laws – this goes far beyond the laws in your country, extending to anywhere you market.  Just because you are in the US, doesn’t mean can ignore laws in other countries you sell your goods.  To learn about Can-Spam Laws, check out this great guide by the FTC.  

Make sure you have a strong privacy policy, and post it online for all your subscribers to view.  A sample of Marketo’s privacy policy can be found in our online trust center.

Remember that regulations should not be your only motivator for following email best practices.  Companies who go beyond regulations and implement best practices including sending relevant information, personalizing content, and creating list growth through quality content will improve deliverability ensuring better ROI from email marketing programs.

Tim Falls: Establish a foundation of understanding:

Familiarize yourself with the “best practices” by…

- following the most reputable blogs out there (deliverability.com, returnpath.net, blogs of the leading companies in the space)

- reading the legalese and introduce yourself to the the technical requirements – CAN SPAM Act of 2003, DKIM, SPF. You don’t have to memorize or be an expert in it all (the ESPs do that for you), but be aware of it all!

At a fundamental level, you must understand what email receivers expect from email senders. By email receivers, I mean ISPs (Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, Verizon, Comcast, etc) and end recipients (consumers/individuals, companies/organizations).

ISPs are watching – know what they’re watching for, such as sending rates, content characteristics, sender identification/verification, recognized IP addresses, etc.

End recipients are your critics – once your email makes it past an ISP’s gates, you still have to pass the tests of the recipient. Did they opt in (or do they remember doing so) – i.e., are they expecting an email from you? Is your content interesting/valuable? Even if they opted in and have never attempted to unsubscribe from your email, there’s nothing stopping them from clicking that “Report SPAM” button! It’s always good to simply ‘put yourself in their shoes’, as the old adage goes, and ask yourself, “would I want to find this email in my inbox?”

What techniques can a company use to assemble an email marketing list?

Maria Pergolino: I believe the least effective way to grow a list is through list purchases.  Instead, grow your list with quality thought leadership promoted through your website, social media, and paid programs (both online and offline).  Starting small is okay if you don’t have a big budget or lots of resources.  What you’ll see is list growth that turns to pipeline and ultimately revenue, allowing your budget to grow.  This will allow you to continue to grow your list at the rate you need to provide demand, ensuring a ‘well fed’ sales team.

Tim Falls: In my opinion, you should only assemble a list by collecting email addresses in a very deliberate and transparent manner. Examples of email-gathering practices that I would deem acceptable: when a new customer creates and account or signs up for your service, when a customer makes a purchase, when a person subscribes to your newsletter or RSS, when a visitor to your site downloads a white paper or case study, when a prospect fills in a “contact me” form, when a person registers and/or attends an event you’ve hosted or sponsored…and the list goes on.

Note: In any of these cases, the person providing his/her email address should be unmistakably certain that he/she has “opted in” to receiving future email communications from your company.

There are tons of ways to purchase lists, partial lists or single email addresses. Some seem more legit than others. I advise marketers to lean toward the extreme side of caution – as I alluded to in the previous answer, I only want to send to someone that is expecting my email.

Ingrid Getzan: Begin with the basics – a sign up form on your website in a noticeable position that is accessible from every page, such as in the header or footer, asking just for the visitor’s email address (use a follow-up email or other opportunities to gather information from your subscribers at a later time). Also, make sure to have a sign-up landing page that can be linked from updates on Facebook and Twitter. A company can also design a tab on Facebook exclusive to signing-up for their email newsletter.

Other strategies include a link to sign up in email signatures (for everyone in the company), a call to action on printed materials and running a PPC campaign.

What metrics should a company look at to determine the success of their email marketing program?

Ingrid Getzan: I really don’t think it’s that necessary to move past the basics, unless you’ve already mastered them, which may actually be nearly impossible as there is always room for improvement. Open rate, click-through rate, bounce rate, and conversion rate for ecommerce companies (or non-ecommerce if goals are set-up in Google Analytics). It’s always fun to play around and figure out more detailed stats such as subscriber retention rate and click-to-deliver rates, but again, it’s the main four that really should be the focus.

Maria Pergolino: Many companies use email marketing as a way to engage those already in their database, so measuring results by lead source doesn’t work in this case.  Instead, look at which emails drove those in your database to take next steps like asking for a demo, signing up for a trial, or emailing a sales rep.   And definitely don’t rely on unsubscribes or open rates to determine if emails are working.  These stats only help you improve the quality of your emails, but don’t determine if your emails drove revenue for your organization.

Tim Falls: Delivery first – did it make it to the inbox?! In order to determine this, you’ll want to be aware of any bounces, blocks, invalid email addresses, IP (or, eventually, domain) blacklistings, etc. If none of these things are occurring, you’re probably in there!

Once you’re confident that your messages are landing in the inbox, examine your open and click rates. If those aren’t looking so hot, check out your rates of unsubscribes and spam report. If these are high, go back to the drawing board and evaluate your list hygiene and quality of content.

What suggestions do you have for a company looking to improve their open and click-through rates?

Maria Pergolino: Poor open rates are typically caused by poor deliverability, bad lists or uninteresting subject lines.  Poor click-through rates are typically caused poor segmentation or bad content and design.  Try to isolate each of these to determine the culprit, and then implement best practices to improve results.

Tim Falls: Open rates: Subject lines are big – they should be appropriately worded, informational and concise.

Click rates: Content should be valuable, compelling and of interest to the audience. Make your calls to action clear and recognizable.

Open & Click rates: Target your messages – segment your audience into smaller, distinct groups, based on whatever demographic information you have available and that is relevant to your efforts. After segmentation, you can tailor your messages to those segments much easier. Higher levels of relevance lead to better results!

Ingrid Getzan: The key is to find out what works for your business. This sounds basic, but many businesses follow the ‘Tuesday – Thursday morning’ rule when sending out an email. Just because a larger business has reported they get the most open rates at that time, doesn’t mean your business will. You may even come to find that Saturday or Sunday morning works best. A good baseline to start is to figure out through your analytics what time of day most purchases are made or when you have the most traffic to your site. Secondly, figure out the day of the week. It’s a little tricky to navigate these stats in Google Analytics, but once you know the formula, it can be done easily.

After you know the most popular day and time for your business, begin by sending emails exactly at that time. Then, begin to A/B test other times, with the same subject and same email, to determine what produces the most successful open rates. Once you figure that out (and you’ll want to revisit every 6 months or so), then move to testing subject lines. The next stop, tackling  click-throughs, in which the options really are limitless. Test your call to action, your layout, your landing pages – everything. Test, test and retest is really the only way to improve. It’s a never ending spiral, but just remember you can always improve.

What matters more? The design of the email or the content in it?

Ingrid Getzan: Can I say both? Pretty please? Okay, then, both! Depending on what your message is, one month the design could be more important and the next, the content (think newsletter versus promotional email if you send both). Play with it and figure out the best balance for your subscribers, and what the best balance is for what you’re attempting to convey. You may find this changes, constantly.

Tim Falls: Both are important. But you should focus on creating good content first. Once you have that nailed, then you can make it pretty. Plain text emails aren’t all that bad, and, by following best practices, you will always include a plain text version of any HTML email you send.

Maria Pergolino: I believe the content is more important than design.  Often our best converting and revenue driving emails are text only, proving to us it’s the content that is key!

Anything else you think marketers should know about email marketing?

Tim Falls: Reiteration: put yourself in their shoes! Before you send an email to thousands of people, look at that same email from the perspective of one of the PEOPLE on the list. Would you invite it into the friendly confines of your inbox?

Maria Pergolino: We didn’t talk much about deliverability.  Email deliverability is often seen as something that should be left to the email service provider, but the majority of your deliverability is caused by who you email to or what is in the email.  Make sure you brush up on your deliverability know-how to ensure your efforts in email marketing don’t go wasted because your email doesn’t make it into the inbox.

Ingrid Getzan: It’s still extremely powerful – and fun. Always test, and always improve.

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Google’s 2011 earnings were announced recently as “disappointing,” but they still made $37.9 billion in advertising revenues. Have you ever wondered which industries are contributing the most to that number? Our friends at Wordstream have put together a stellar infographic detailing who spent what in Google AdWords, as well as the top five biggest spenders in each industry. Check out the infographic below, and head over to Wordsteam’s blog to see Larry Kim’s analysis of the results.

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Guest post by Marianne Pratt

Are you finally ready to give pay-per-click (PPC) advertising a try? Maybe you’ve dabbled in PPC but your efforts need a boost. Or perhaps you’ve put your proverbial toe in the water and now think PPC may be a career opportunity for you. Knowing how to get started in PPC will ensure your next steps take you where you want to go.

Used properly, PPC can make your marketing more efficient, producing greater search engine visibility, more traffic, higher quality leads and quickly quantifiable results. Just being able to track and control your advertising can do wonders for your ROI.

Follow these basics on how to get started in PPC:

• Do your homework. Google is the easiest place to start, because they offer lots of help. You can even earn an AdWords certificate.
• Set goals and identify metrics to analyze results.
• Make your ad concise, with an attractive call to action. Link deeply, directly to a product or special landing page, not your home page.
• Use limited keywords to start, to make the most of your initial budget and learn the most from your early efforts. Use specific terms that describe specific products. See what people are using to find you by reviewing your site search logs, or use Google’s keyword tool. Negative keywords are important, too.
• The great beauty of PPC is amazingly detailed targeting (or negative targeting). Take advantage of this to avoid wasting potentially prodigious amounts of time and money. Target who and when, and use geo-targeting for where.
• Establish a budget that makes financial sense based on the potential revenue and profit margin you’ll derive. Manage your budget with term selection and bidding. Set a budget cap for the first few weeks to get an idea how your campaign is going before you make any changes. If your budget caps are too restrictive, lowering your bid amount should bring you more clicks for the same total cost.
• Evaluate everything. Make an Excel spreadsheet to track data so you can conduct basic research and analysis on your early efforts and manage your campaign. Use free tools such as Google Analytics or Facebook Insights. Retain what’s working best and eliminate everything else. If your campaign is successful, consider increasing your PPC budget to generate even more response.
• Give it time to work! You may have to wait a couple of months or even longer to see truly meaningful results.

To be successful, you need to optimize every aspect of your campaign. So understanding how to get started in PPC is crucial, but it’s just the first step. You also must learn how to move forward – fixing problems, identifying and making course corrections, becoming a more sophisticated PPC marketer — to create the strongest impact and reach your advertising goals.

Who should handle your PPC campaigns?

• You can do it yourself, saving on fees for creative work and management. But your time spent on learning and ongoing campaign monitoring cost money, too.
• You can hire a pro, whose knowledge and experience will probably generate better results sooner. You won’t waste resources on needless experimentation, and you can stay focused on managing the rest of your business.

Your decision depends on which kind of investment makes sense for you and how badly you want to become a PPC expert.

Maybe you do want to become an expert.

Remember, there’s a difference between a hobbyist and a professional. Making the transition should be a conscious career decision, but there’s plenty of help available.

Entry-level work generally includes:

• Assisting with campaign design and management
• Customer interaction
• Opportunity to learn about sales and marketing in general
• Potential internships, paid or not

You could work for in advertising, marketing or PR, for an agency, individual business or non-profit organization. Different environments will let you learn from more experienced professionals or spread your wings and take charge right away. You’ll need a positive, outgoing attitude and the ability to communicate in person as well as online.

Some tips:

• Use your skills to research opportunities and options online. There’s a plethora of resources including blogs, discussion groups, webinars, print and e-Books, videos, etc.
• Do some networking, both the face kind and via Facebook, Twitter and Linked In. Join the Linked-In group PPC Pro People, an international community of thousands of PPC pros.
• Find a mentor or coach.
• Clean up your social media act first. Stupid, silly postings just make you look unprofessional and immature.

Understanding and following up on how to get started in PPC depends entirely on your current status and your goals. But whether you’re looking to expand your company’s online marketing, improve your current efforts or take the professional plunge, you’ll find it can be a profitable journey.

Looking for more PPC resources? Download Trada’s eBook: The Paid Search Primer.

Search Plus Your World is causing quite the kerfuffle since its US release last week, and we’re being bombarded with burning questions! How does it work? How can I, as a marketer, capitalize on Search Plus Your World? And is this just a slippery slope toward a dystopian alternate-universe future where the education we get from the internet is inconsistent with that of others’ and is subject to factors outside of our control?!

In this 8-minute podcast, intrepid world-travelers Matt Hessler and Anna Sawyer call in from their trip around the world to offer practical advice for digital marketers. This week, they’re in orbit above New Zealand in the International Space Station with a macro view of the potential effects Search Plus Your World will have on Planet Earth. They cover:

- How does Search Plus Your World work?
- What does it mean to marketers?
- What are steps marketers can take to protect their place in the organic and paid search rankings?

As always, your comments, topic suggestions and compliments are like the rich oxygen that fills our lungs. Leave them in the comments or email us at podcast@trada.com!