Trying to market your business, but think it’s too early to issue press releases and make social media worthwhile?  Think about it – is it ever too early to start generating interest and gathering information from prospects?  Of course not!  With a little creativity and the techniques outlined below, you can learn a ton, and create some valuable assets that will help you market your business now and well into the future.

But let’s get specific – what can you do?

Build up interest and audience.

Maybe you’ve seen some of these “coming soon” pages for products or apps that are not yet widely available?  This is a great way to generate interest for your product or service, and stock your email contact list and social audiences with early adopters (who tend to be willing to accept a product with a few rough spots in exchange for being the first to have access!).  Check out the example below.

This type of page lets you accomplish a few things:

• Quick and easy development cycle: Build a website landing page using tools like Unbounce or Optimizely to quickly create multiple versions of your “Coming Soon” page from a single template (you can create your own, or use one of the templates provided).  Keep it clean and simple; you want to create enough interest that visitors give you permission to engage with them again via email or social media.
• Test your marketing message: Use those “Coming Soon” landing pages to try out a variety of messages, tag lines, calls to action, lead capture forms, etc.. Determine if there are specific messages that are more effective at engaging the folks that will ultimately become your customers.
• Build up your social audience: Start signaling what type of product this is and who it is for. Worried you won’t have anything “worthwhile” to tweet or post about your business yet? No worries – follow and “like” other people or companies that are in your general area of interest, and share items from those sources with your audience.  Be sure to add a novel comment or perspective; don’t just pass on random items without showing how you add value!

Do social media via your personal network.

Share updates about your business via your LinkedIn status (not on LinkedIn?  You should be!). If you blog, use the apps on LinkedIn to display your blog feed on your profile. Participate in discussions on question and answer sites like Quora. Have lots of coffee meetings. Get honest, constructive feedback from your network, and listen to the questions people have after you tell them about your business. Ask people to tell you why it won’t work. Would they recommend it to a friend? Why wouldn’t they use it? How would they describe your business to their colleagues? Value and take to heart feedback that indicates you may not have it quite right yet. If you can’t get the people who find YOU interesting and worthwhile to engage with your business, how in the world will you capture the interest of busy, distracted strangers?

Lighten up about press releases!

It’s not the daily briefing at the White House, and you don’t have to have earth-shattering news to do a press release. Did you sign a new partner? Make a key hire? Attend an industry event? Write a new eBook? Expand your service offerings? All of these are worthwhile subjects for a press release, as they give you a chance to put your key messages into context, and hand feed them to social media and search engines. Press releases get extremely favorable treatment by Google, and are a great way for a your fledgling business to “own” Page 1 of search results for your key phrases.

One other note on press releases: you don’t need to hire a PR firm to do a press release (though there are lots of really great firms that can help when the time is right). Use one of the services on our Best Free and Affordable Press Release Services list  - they’re easy to use, and will often throw in some free SEO advice on your press release to help you get the maximum bang for your buck.

Looking for help with other online marketing, advertising, and social media questions?  Then check out the online marketing and advertising resources section of the Leadtail website. We’ve compiled lots of helpful information to help you market and grow your business.

And let us know how we can help. Ask your question on Facebook, tweet us @Leadtail on Twitter, drop us a line – or just give us a call at 888.330.3236

[Editor's Note: Special thanks to Karri Carlson for this guest post.  Karri leads Marketing & Customer Development at Leadtail.]

This isn’t “Mad Men” that cool TV show depicting ad agency life in the 1960s. So you don’t need to be Don Draper to write effective Google text ads. Instead, you just need to…

Start with the basics:

Every text ad has four elements, and each element has its very own goal (and character limit):

1. Headline: make it interesting and relevant to your prospects (up to 25 characters);
2. Benefit statement: why should prospects use your services? (up to 35 characters);
3. Call to action or key feature: convince them to act now! (up to 35 characters);
4. URL: where do you want to send prospects? Hint: don’t send them to your homepage.

For example, let’s take a look at how Google advertises its own services using text ads… since they should know what they’re doing right?

1. Google Search Advertising
2. Get Qualified Visitors to Your Site
3. Place Your Ad on Google Today!
4. www.Google.com/AdWords

1. Google Marketing
2. Online Marketing Was Never So Easy
3. Market Your Business on Google Now
4. www.Google.com/AdWords

We’ve added numbers to correspond to each text ad element (aren’t we helpful?)

See how Google marketing folks have written each of the ad elements in these text ads? That’s what you want to do. Not impressed? Trust me that each element in these ads has been carefully crafted to maximize you clicking… if you’re a prospect!

Now it’s your turn.

Here’s what to keep in mind when writing each element of your own text ads.

The all important headline

Your headline has a big job. Namely, to break through the search results clutter and grab the attention of prospects before they move on. Did I mention that you only have a split-second to do that? Clear, concise, and engaging headlines work best. And when in doubt use keywords since those reflect what your prospects are actually searching for!

Your benefits statement…  it’s not all about you (sorry!)

Everyone likes to talk about themselves. I sure do. But your customers actually care about themselves more than they do about you. Keep that in mind when writing your benefit statement. For example, why should prospects use your services? Maybe they’ll look beautiful and feel good too. Or make tons more money. How about impress their friends and family? Now those are benefits!

Give them a good reason to act now!

Congrats on getting them to notice your headline and for hitting the “me” button with your benefit statement. Now it’s time to say why you’re unique and drive them to action. How about: “Free Quote and Overnight Delivery” or “100% Organic but Supplies Limited”. You get the idea!

What about your URL?

Did you know that the URL is the second most visible element in your text ads (after your headline)? It’s true! So make sure and capitalize the first letter in each word of your URL so it’s easier to read. And if you’re sending prospect to a landing page (smart!) that has a long URL… then take advantage of the fact that Google lets you display a special shortened URL.

Some other comments and helpful stuff

Remember, you still need to find out what works best given your prospects, products, and competition! Try different headlines, benefits, and calls-to-action. And don’t be stingy in using keywords in your text ads when you can. The bottom line: just keep testing which text ads and ad elements generate the most clicks from your prospects.

Want to learn more? Here are some helpful blog posts to keep you moving down the path from novice to “Mad Man”.

Should you do SEO or paid search?

Don’t make these search engine marketing mistakes

When it comes to paid search, don’t be number one

Four basic emotions to sell anything

And don’t forget we’re here to help. Always feel free to give us a call at 888-330-3236.

Which three letters bring on sweaty palms and sleepless nights for business owners and web masters everywhere? IRS?  FBI? Good guesses, but the culprit is… SEO.

If you do it wrong or put it off, then your website will spend its days lost in the endless pages of search engine results, like a message in a bottle floating in a vast, dark ocean.

But what if you crack the code on the secret language of meta keywords, H1 tags, and inbound links? Will all the riches and glory of Page One Google Ranking await you?

Well, no.  As with most things, good SEO is less about uncovering “the secret”, and more about taking the time to understand and implement best practices… and then to keep applying them religiously over time.  (Sorry!)

This leads to the big question regarding your website’s search engine optimization… do it yourself or hire an SEO expert?

According to a recent Marketing Sherpa report, just over half of businesses manage their SEO in-house, while about 45% use an outside expert or are considering one… So whichever way you decide to go, you’ll have plenty of company!

Here are a few pointers to get your started down the path to SEO success.

If you’re going to do your own SEO…

• Learn the basics first. Invest in a couple good books on SEO.  There are lots, so find one that lays out the material in a format and style that works best for you.  Browse Amazon to see what other readers are recommending, or just head to the business section at your local bookstore and flip through what’s there.

• Subscribe to SEO information sources. Get a daily stream of advice, tips, and tricks from experts.  Check out this list of 15 good SEO blogs, or if Twitter is more your thing, follow TheSEOList, a great curated list of folks that tweet about search engine optimization.

• Don’t approach SEO as a one-off project. Instead, think of it more like going to the gym – consistent effort over time is what will bring results!  If you need more traffic right away, you should read our previous post, Should You Do SEO or Paid Search?

If you’re going to hire an SEO consultant…

• Educate yourself on what you’ll be paying for. This article from Search Engine Journal, What’s My SEO Charging Me For?, is a great place to start.

• Ask (smart) colleagues for referrals. Part of an SEO consultant’s job is to understand your business and customers, so finding someone who has worked with businesses like yours before can really help get things moving quickly.

• Remember there are no SEO guarantees. Be wary of any consultants making claims that guarantee you a specific ranking or position. Search engines are complex, the algorithms are nuanced, and results take time. Reputable SEO practitioners will happily agree to goals and measurable milestones, and factor these into your billing and payment terms.

And in either case…

Don’t worry about every possible tweak you could make – just start with the basics and you’ll be well on your way. So wipe off those palms, get a good night’s sleep, and we’ll see you on Google’s Page One!

(P.S.  We’re here to help… so feel free to give us a call at 888-330-3236)

What? I’m being charged $6.65 per click! I don’t understand what happened (I really didn’t) with my search marketing program. I only knew that my credit card showed I’d been charged $665 for a marketing program that I thought would cost me $150. Yikes!

So what happened here? First some background…

When advertising on search engines (yes, there are more choices than Google) you’ll be buying advertising space on a “pay-for-performance” basis. This means you only pay if someone clicks on your ad when it shows up in search results you care about. Pay per click. Sounds pretty good right?

Totally is… but buyers beware! You need to know what you’re doing AND keep a close eye on your advertising campaign as things can move really fast. Why? Because you’re competing against many other advertisers that also want their ads to show up in those same search results.

So what you pay for those clicks can be pretty volatile (translation: get expensive fast!) And the best way to manage your ad campaign pricing is to first decide on the key elements of your bidding strategy:

• Maximum bid price: What’s the most you’re willing to pay (or bid) to have your ad show up when someone types in your target keyword phrase? The higher your maximum bid the more often your ad will show up in relevant search results. But the more you’ll pay per click!

• Average bid range: What are others (your competitors) bidding? Most search engines will show you the average range that other advertisers are willing to pay. This gives you a sense of how expensive those clicks are going to be.

• Daily cap: This is the most you want (or are able) to spend on a daily basis for advertising. If you set your daily cap at, say, $50, then your ad will keep showing until you’ve generated $50 of clicks for that day. No more.

Now back to our story…

I’d set my maximum bid price at $6.65 even though the average bid range was $0.73 to $1.54. I figured this assured me the top positions for my target keywords (resulting in lots of clicks) and would only be hit if pricing was really bid up. But I wasn’t too worried about that since the average bid range was much lower.

To protect my pocketbook, I set my daily cap at $25 so there was no way I could accidentally pay for more than $25 worth of clicks on any given day.

And then I got really busy… with clients, life, cool and fun stuff. You name it and I was busy doing it. Plus I was happy seeing lots of quality clicks coming from my search marketing campaign. Two weeks later I decided to check my credit card and… well you already know the rest of the story. = (

What mistakes did I make with my search engine marketing program?

• Setting the maximum bid (way) too high. You should set your maximum bid at the most you’d truly be okay paying. In this case, I should have set my max bid at $1.50 given the number and quality of clicks I was looking for.

• Assuming the average click range reflected the highest bids. Remember that the average bid range is just that… average! There will be lots of advertisers that are willing to pay (much) more than the average to get their ads seen the most.

• Not keeping a close eye on the search campaign. You need to check back often (daily or multiple times a day for new campaigns) to see how your ad campaign is doing and make adjustments accordingly. You can always increase your maximum bid if you need more clicks or if the quality of the clicks is better than expected.

• Having a daily cap that was too high. You should set a low daily cap to begin with and then increase it over time as you get a sense of the trade-off between the number of clicks and the price per click (PPC). But always use a daily (or weekly) cap as things can change quickly… and trust me, my surprise would have been much worse if I didn’t have a $25 daily cap in place!

• Not first testing and learning what works best. Sometimes it’s best to start with a low maximum bid and then move up as you better understand the quality and volume of clicks you’re getting. In other cases, it may make sense to start with a high maximum bid to get in front of lots of prospects to see if your ad performs well. You can then lower your max bid over time. The important lesson? Test, test, and test!

Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes… so that my “out of pocket” investment ends up being your marketing gain.

Stay tuned as I’m sure I’ll be making plenty more mistakes that you can learn from… = )

Site maps are sexy. Yes they are. Maybe not to you and me… but the search engines sure like them and that’s all that matters. Of course, your website visitors will appreciate them too. But (as usual) we’re getting ahead of ourselves…

What is a site map and why do you care?

Just like the name implies, it’s a map of your website. Or said another way, it’s a web page that contains direct links to every page of your website and:

• Makes it easy for search engines to find (index) all your pages while providing powerful clues as to the type of content on your website. This means it’s more likely that your website will show up in the right search results!

• Helps visitors see the breadth of information on your site and makes navigation easier by giving them another way to find what they’re looking for.

• Shows a bird’s eye view of things which helps when you’re planning to add new pages and sections to your website.

Are you ready to create your very own site map?

If you have a fairly simple website (say, 50 pages or less) then just create a web page and add your links in a clear and organized bullet point format. Start with your main sections (e.g., Products, Support, About Us) and then add the links underneath that correspond to those sections.

Your website more complicated than that?

Then use one of the free or affordable site map tools such as: Free Sitemap Generator, Sitemapper, AllWebMenus, and XML Sitemaps.com. Besides quickly generating a regular site map, these tools can also create an XML site map (learn more) to submit to search engines. This will come in handy if your website is new or if you’ve recently made a bunch of changes and need to tell the search engines.

When done right, your site map will look like a table of contents or maybe like Yahoo! Directory with each topic having its relevant links under it.

Now just add a “Site Map” link to your website navigation so that it shows up on every page of your site. That way the search engines and your website visitors can always find it.

It’s time to create your site map… but don’t take too long. The search engines are waiting!