Today’s journey is about Internet marketing magic.

We start magically enough discussing PPC and money. Money isn’t money anymore. Money floats. Money is a VOTE for or against something. How can money be a vote against something? When you don’t make any of it. After a strange daydream driving to the office on a rainy and finally cold day in February I wanted to write about how being an Internet marketer and curator over the last twelve years has changed my thinking.

There is a problem knowing truth. Humans are dynamic systems with billions of social and biological inputs. How do we KNOW such a complex system?  In a Black Swan world do we ever know the truth? Wrong question asked in the wrong way for Internet marketers.

The web is magic. One of my favorite tools, Scoop.it, spiders the web based on keywords helping curate across many topics (see Curation Revolution on Sccop.it). Let’s see if we can find or understand Internet marketing magic further.

Internet Marketing and PPC Magic
Several years ago, determined to understand the unknowable, I experimented with Google Pay Per Click (PPC), the most immediate direct feedback system. I manipulated Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) up and down. First I moved standard ROAS from our default $3 to $1 to $6 to $1. Here is what happened:

• Internal P&L for PPC got healthy even fully loaded we made money on PPC ($3 to $1 was close to breakeven)
• Organic search (SEO) fell out of bed crashing and halting progress where we were climbing and sending existing #1’s down the page
• Catalog subscriptions tanked – our “B” conversion point was joining our email list for the “best deals” and we cut new names into the list by half
• YTD (year to date) vs. LYTD (last year to date) Sales Tanked – since PPC ROAS of $3 to $1 was in the history I was comparing against upping the ROAS to $6 to $1 hurt sales by about 30%
• Despite cleaning up our PPC profits and losses net impact of the move up to $6 to $1 was negative costing more than we saved by a large margin

Our next experiment was to move ROAS down to $1 To $1. Here is what happened:

• Internal P&L looked UGLY, fully loaded we lost a lot of money on almost every sale, but we were making it up in volume (little inside joke there since this month of almost $1 to $1 almost cost me a job)
• Organic search got better but wasn’t covering the differences due to SEO’s slow uptick (organic can be behind by as much as 90 days as spiders and links catch up) AND PPC doesn’t really help with link bait – the most important SEO lure
• Catalog subscriptions were up but they didn’t triple (figure our standard ROAS was $3 To $1 so catalogs and sales should triple if there was a one to one relationship between ROAS and either metric – there isn’t a one to one relationship between ROAS and anything so don’t look for it)
• Sales Improved but didn’t triple, sales almost doubled

Point of Diminishing Financial Returns
There is  always a point of diminishing returns, the place where putting in or taking out more only hurts. Our standard $3 to $1 ROAS kept internal P&L healthy. $3 to $1 ROAS was as close to a one to one relationship anything on the web ever becomes. We fed PPC at $3 to $1 ROAS and good things happened across multiple dimensions and, even better, we almost paid for the PPC investment on its face (i.e. without any help from other channels), almost.

Feeding other systems such as sales, email list subscriptions, white paper downloads, requests for product demos, traffic, time on site, pages viewed and lowering bounce rate is PPC’s purpose, its raison d’ être. Eventually more diversified competitors win because:

1. Customer acquisition costs are lower in aggregate for well diversified Internet marketers so they can afford to drive PPC bids up to a pain threshold forcing other less diversified Internet marketers to retire from the field
2. Since PPC is only one of many feeder systems for well diversified Internet marketers if PPC tanks well diversified Internet marketers have other options such as email, social, and mobile while less hedged competitors go out of business (and believe me PPC tanks on occasion for strange and undetermined and undeterminable reasons)
3. The forward momentum of PPC is seconds, turning PPC off turns traffic off like a light switch. Organic listings, in contrast, can last years. My Content Marketing Networks presentation on Slideshare was #1 for years, slipped to #2 recently but a nice run for a very long time.

Modeling Dynamic Systems
The terms “weather forecasting” and “weather prediction” tell a lot. Use of “forecasting” and “prediction” speak to a complexity beyond 2 + 2 = 4 linear modeling. Weather is highly dynamic or full of Bursts to use Notre Dame network researcher Albert-Laszlo Barabasi’s term from his book Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do.

Don’t think your website is burst-y? Here is a traffic chart from ScentTrail Marketing my blog:

Here is a graph I used in Content Curation Magic and Contest:

See the similarity.

ScentTrail Marketing creates a wave, a series of bursts.  My pattern is a burst followed by quiet. I have a great day job so don’t have as much ScentTrail content creation time as before.

Here’s the rub, all websites NOT led by brilliant, algorithm-creating Internet marketers are burst-y. Now look at the government’s chart for Amazon’s growth in ecommerce from my SEO and The Amazon Paradox post for my friend Bill Ross’s excellent LinchpinSEO site:

NOT BURST-Y

I can hear the 2 +2ers out there thinking this chart shows money not content so of course it is smooth. Amazon’s money chart serves as a proxy for all other charts such as traffic, conversion or acquisition. Amazon’s chart is also a perfect example of the first law of content marketing for Internet marketers: More and More, Faster and Faster, Better and Better.

Amazon’s chart is smooth because the most amazing content creation engine the world has ever known isn’t burst-y. Amazon is built to make Google happy generating more and more content, faster and faster, better and better. Amazon’s content creation process is THE key to great Internet marketing. Amazon will reach 1B pages in Google’s index by August, around the same time Facebook crosses the 1B subscriber mark.

More and More
If you aren’t watching Google page spread using a tool or the site:YOURSITE.com command then your marketing team is missing one of the three legs of Internet marketing. All Internet marketing sits on a three-legged-stool of CONTENT, COMMUNITY and CAMPAIGNS leading to CONVERSION. The Internet marketing stool is business model agnostic (B2B or B2C).

Faster and Faster
Google CEO Eric Schmidt supplied one of my favorite stats. We create as much content now in two days as from the cave until 2003. Every two days we create the same amount of as in MILLIONS OF YEARS. Moore’s Law states integrated circuit power will square every two years even as costs go way down. You don’t have to look very far to see Moore’s Law’s impact (Google, Facebook, Amazon). Expect more speed faster. Compare Moore’s Law chart showing the gain in integrated circuit power to Amazon’s smooth rise and the relationship becomes clear:

Better and Better
Google created PageRank, named after founder Larry Page, to index the web. Google’s bot establishes a score from 0 to 10 for every web page. Google does not and will probably NEVER index every web page; Linked: How Everything Is Connected To Everything Else And What It Means also by Barabasi shares that only about 2/3rds of the web will ever be in any search engine index.

Before reading Linked I used to tear hair out over my Google page count. Our site had over 10,000 pages, but our Google page count rarely moved about 5,000. Our “lost pages” were probably Google knocking pages out because they weren’t unique, well linked or both. Other “lost pages” float in a Sargasso Sea moving slowing further out never reaching Google’s shores. Isolated, unlinked and alone these un-indexed pages are NOT what any Internet marketer wants.

“Better and Better” is only partially what you do. Better is mostly about what others think about what you do. “Voting” on “better and better” takes many forms including traffic, LINKS and Facebook LIKES. This means any Internet marketer’s job is creating content capable of springing legs and walking around the world.

Modeling Dynamic Systems – The Cool Psychedelic Part of Internet Marketing
Ken Kessey and the Merry Pranksters (c. 1964) were Internet marketers before there was an Internet to market:

The psychedelically painted bus had its stated destination as being “further.” This was the goal of the Merry Pranksters, a destination that could only be obtained through the expansion of one’s own perceptions of reality. They traveled cross-country giving LSD to anyone who was willing to try it (LSD was legal in the United States until October 1966). Wikipedia

I inject the sixties for more than a smile; the Pranksters idea of “further” as a process rather than destination is prescient. Systems as dynamic, diverse and alive so the Internet require different processes, different ways to understand what those dynamic Internet and web systems are trying to tell us. Weather turns quickly. Here is a quote new friends at CurationSoft helped me recover:

“I’ve seen tornadoes roar up on dusty Texas plains. I’ve run from a black storm’s vengeance, furry and terror. No Texas tornado has anything over the content storm heading at each and every one of us.”

Curation The Next Web Revolution on ScentTrail Marketing

Collapsing Content Network Space/Time
We’ve arrived at our “further” for today. What occurred to me driving to work listening to Jim Stengel, a fellow P&G alum, speak about VALUES in his excellent book GROW: How Values Power Growth and the Good To Greatness of them is the web and the wisdom of crowd system the Internet creates requires a new value system, a paradigm shift. Valuing new metrics and web paradigms is NOT to say core values don’t begin any Internet marketer’s (or content curator’s) journey since establishing values is THE KEY first step.  The way we THINK is what we lucky few Internet marketers control. A wise and smart friend, Rich Kurnik, once told me, “If we can’t change something that seems uncontrollable change YOURSELF, change your thinking and feelings about it.”

Rich’s idea perfectly describes the mental paradigm shift necessary to become a GREAT Internet marketer. Here is my attempt to build on Rich’s wisdom:

Hope today’s journey was magical, if not tomorrow is sure to be because Internet marketing is getting more and more magical faster and faster.

Martin
—-
Martin Smith (@ScentTrail)
Director Marketing

(even if you can’t make this meeting SIGN UP for Internet Marketing Relativity to make our next one)

Location:

Atlantic BT Offices (3rd Floor)
4509 Creedmoor Road (across street from Macy’s Crabtree Valley Mall)
Raleigh, NC 27612

Topic: Infinite Inventory: Why Amazon Dominates Ecommerce

Dinner: We will have pizza from Bella Mia.

Prezi: Infinite Inventory Prezi

Meeting Hashtag: #ABTMeetup  on Twitter

More on Meeting: Internet Marketing Meetup in Raleigh

Atlantic BT: Raleigh Internet Marketers and Web Developers.

About Martin: LinkedIn

What is Google Boost?

Google Boost is a new advertising platform that Google has begun to roll out to all industries across all cities in the world.  In short, the platform allows you to pay for placement at the top of the page when an individual searches for a keyword that matches your industry. In the example shown below, you will notice the individual has typed “Asian restaurants San Francisco.”

The Business Case

Another way Google Boost can help (or hurt)

If you take a better look at the Google Boost ad, you will notice five yellow stars. By now, most Internet users are familiar with the yellow stars and can quickly associate that with reviews. The following report performed by Kudzu.com tries to show how important consumer-generated media (CGM or in layman terms reviews) really is.

When 600 users were surveyed in December 2008:

86% of shoppers said product evaluations and reviews influenced their purchasing decisions.

Of those 3,000 conversion focused users, 2,820 – 2,910 are searching online for your product / service before setting foot into your store. Of the 2,820 – 2,910 visitors 2,425 – 2,502 are allowing reviews to influence their purchasing decision.

So, if you start getting reviews that are negative it may be wise to hire someone who takes care of your online reputation management. It is also a good move to give some perk to customers who choose to give your business feedback / review online.

Why Google Boost then for this audience segment?

I would like to expand on point #6 because it is 100% necessary to have one when targeting online shoppers. In the previously shown screenshot,  the UVP is that they use, farm-fresh ingredients.

Let’s assume the example business we own is a car repair shop. There are five competitors who will most likely rank within the top half of the Google page when the user searches for “car repair in Raleigh.”  Having your Google Boost ad say, “Car Repair Shop located in Raleigh.” is less effective than delivering a clear UVP such as, “Car Repair Shop with Competitor Price Matching.”

Oh…nobody trusts pay-per-click…right?

Takeaways

• If you are a local business who relies on customers, I’d recommend getting started today.
• The pay per click market is growing. Google Boost is similar to a pay per click system and I maintain that it will have a high chance of growing alongside that market or turning into pay per click altogether.
• The majority of people making purchases are doing research online for local shops prior to the trip to the location.
• Have a Unique Value Proposition ready if you want to create a Google Boost advertisement.

Please feel free to comment with any questions or counter points.

Create a Marketing Timeline

Have a plan.  Start by laying out a detailed strategy for at least the first two quarters of the year.  This way you can begin to budget and allocate internal resources needed to make the strategy successful.

Keep What Has Been Working

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.  Keep doing what has been working in the past.  You may be able to make a few minor adjustments to make those marketing tactics even better.

Test a Different Marketing Approach

If every year you decide to do the exact same marketing, you will never really know if other types of marketing are more successful.  Marketing tactics have changed drastically compared to 30 years ago…even 5 years ago.  Don’t be afraid to try different things.  Even if your marketing budget is small, do the research, understand where your target market is communicating, and find a new way to reach out to them.

Here are a few things you can try:

• Sponsor an industry newsletter
• Write a guest blog post for a well respected, high traffic blog
• Host/Sponsor a local meet-up in your area
• Invite clients and potential clients to your office for a Free Seminar
• Create a great piece of content that you can give away on your site (white papers, free tools, etc.)
• Test different discounts, special offers, promotions

Monitor, Analyze, Adjust…Repeat

In any marketing campaign it is important to be able to measure its success.  In order to do that, you need to define what you consider a conversion.  Is it a download? A contact form submission? A phone call?  For traditional media it can be a bit harder, especially for radio, TV, and billboard advertising.  But for the Internet everything is trackable!

Make sure you have a good analytics program to track what people are doing on your site.  You may want to invest in a phone tracking solution, so you can track calls that originate from your website.

Once you have a significant amount of data, it is important to analyze it by seeing which campaigns were more successful.  If certain marketing programs are generating more business and a better ROI, start allocating more budget towards those campaigns.  For the campaigns that did not return a positive ROI, you could try tweaking things like messaging, offers, keywords, etc.  Sometimes a simple tweak can bring back a big return.

Marketing Trends for the Upcoming Year

Forrester Research reported that Internet Marketing spending will increase another 13% in 2010.  More and more companies are starting to shift their advertising dollars from traditional media methods to things like search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media, video creation, e-mail marketing and mobile marketing.

We are really starting to see a major shift in how companies are marketing their products and services.  With social communication tools like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube; companies are able to track and monitor the progress of their Internet marketing campaigns unlike traditional marketing.  In this down economy, business owners are being smarter with their advertising dollars.  Make sure you do the same and invest is marketing programs that are well-researched, targeted and measurable.

So…have you planned your 2010 marketing strategy?

Colleges and Universities across the country are starting to offer Internet Marketing as a degree.  The question is: “Is it worth it to get a formal education in Internet Marketing?”

Rhea says:

This industry moves too quickly to study it in a formal classroom setting. You have to be in it everyday, testing, learning, sharing, succeeding.

I thought that was an excellent point.  By the time you finish your degree, the entire internet marketing landscape will change.  There will be new tactics to rank well, new tools to help analyze websites, and new mediums to reach your target market.  On the other hand, a formal classroom education would be useful to understanding the core fundamentals of internet marketing.  Things like keyword research, competitive analysis, content development, link building, site structure, etc., are always going to be aspects of internet marketing that will never change (at least for the foreseeable future).

With that being said, I feel that you do not necessarily need a degree to understand the fundamentals of internet marketing.   There are plenty of specialized classes and training seminars that will teach you the basics of Internet Marketing/SEO.  Once you understand those basics, that’s where experience will come into play.  The only way to apply these basic concepts is by jumping right in and working on websites.

From an employer or Search Marketing agency standpoint, I would love to get some feedback as to what you feel is more important – Classroom Training or Experience?

Here at Atlantic BT, we’ve always been an industry leader for web design, internet marketing, programming, SEO and web hosting.  We really want our new and improved blog to be a valuable resource for you to learn more about what we do, what’s going on inside the industry, hints and tips, and just about anything and everything else having to do with this niche.  This new blog has many tools to help us do that, first feel free to subscribe to our RSS feed, it will make it easier for you to stay completely on top of every new post we do.

Next, take a peek at the top of the site where it says “Site Tools.”  By clicking that, you will find the drop down menu that is absolutely jam-packed with ways to help you share anything you find interesting on this site.  You can share any post you wish with the world with a simple click of a button.  Having trouble reading the text or your eyes aren’t quite what they used to be?  No worries, even that can be adjusted.

Take a look at our new and improved Portfolio while you’re here, I think if you’re looking for the fastest and most impressive way to see what we do, and how we do it, that is a one click way to achieve that.  The bottom line is, this new site will make staying on top of everything in this industry even easier and more fun.  Be sure to check out…

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Analytics

Start by installing Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free web statistics solution that allows you to track your website visitors and their actions. You can learn a lot about your market just by installing Google Analytics and studying the data.

How people find your site? Search Engine, Referring Site, Email, Direct.

Where people are from? Country, State, City.

What people are doing on your site? See which products/services are being viewed the most, see which page people are leaving your site from, see how long people are on your site.

What actions people complete on your site? Fill out a contact form, download a file, view a specific page, sign up for a newsletter.

Surveys

If you have been collection an in-house marketing list, send them a survey to find out how you are doing. This is an inexpensive way to collect feedback from your current customers and make adjusts based on their comments. Here are some things to ask in your survey.

What can we improve on?

What new features would you like to see on the website?

What products or services would you like for us to offer?

Which products would you like to see on sale?

Tiger Direct did a really good job of listening to its customers for the 2008 holiday season. They let their customers choose which products they wanted on sale. They took a survey and made the top 10 products, their holiday specials.

Forms

Creating a contact form is a simply way for website visitors to contact you and submit their information. This can also be an easy way to have people opt-in to your newsletter. Keeping the number of forms to a minimum will be a good way to increase the number of conversions.

Directory and Listing Submission

There are a number of free directories you can submit your website to, to help gain inbound links to your website. Start by submitting your local business listing to Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Also look into niche directories that cater to the same target audience.

What percentage of profit is allocated for online marketing?

A landscaping company charges their commercial clients $10,000 per season for a large account and is willing to dedicate 10% ($1,000) to acquire each new account. In this case $1,000 worth of online marketing is allocated to bring in $10,000 worth of new business.

What percentage of actions results in a sale?

Based on prior sales and conversion data gained from testing it is determined that 10% of contact forms or phone calls turn in to a commercial account valued at $10,000.

What percentage of visitors takes action (contact form, download, phone call, etc)?

Using web site statistical tracking like Google Analytics we can determine the ratio of visitors to contact form submissions. In this case 5% of all visitors to the site fill out a contact form requesting more information or a price quote. Based on the 5% contact form conversion ratio we determine the target cost per acquisition (CPA) is $50. How much should you pay for each visitor?

The target CPA for a contact form submission at $50 and it is determined that 5% of all visitors result in a contact form conversion. Based on this data we deduce that each new visitor to the website has a value of $2.50. This value really translates to the cost you can pay for each visitor and still remain profitable.

Knowing how much a visitor is worth to your business, conversion ratios, and potential profit from a sale allows you to determine if your marketing dollars are being spent effectively and how to allocate your marketing budget for the highest return.