From the category archives:

Internet Marketing

3 Web Marketing Principles You Can Count On

by Adam Killam on May 26, 2009

There Are Two Kinds of Web Traffic

The first thing everyone should understand is that there are only two fundamental types of traffic: paid and unpaid. Paid traffic includes: online advertising such as pay-per-click marketing, and banner advertising. Unpaid traffic or natural traffic is traffic that your site receives without you having to directly invest in getting it there. Examples would be a well optimized website showing up in the search results for terms a phrases people are searching for, social media traffic that has resulted from people taking an interest in what your business offers, any press or coverage you receive from bloggers or main stream media that was not paid for.

A couple of quick thoughts on the two types of traffic:

  1. Ideally, every website would be promoted with a combination of the two.
  2. Natural traffic (unpaid traffic) still has a cost in terms of time and energy invested to create the content people are visiting in the first place
  3. Paid traffic is often short term while natural or unpaid traffic often continues to bring in traffic for an extended period of time. For example, a banner ad only brings in traffic as long as you pay for it but a well written blog post or nicely put together video on Youtube may continue to bring in traffic for years to come.

Investing VS Spending

Another fundamental concept is that every time you do something to grow your web presence, it should be seen as an investment and not an expense or cost. This may not be the proper way to look at it from an accountant’s point of view but I find that if you look at putting the money, time, and effort into marketing your site as an investment it’s easier to do. Your online marketing especially should be seen as an investment that needs to pay you a return. If there’s no potential return then what’s the point? I bring this up because many people still have the old advertising mentality that thinks that advertising and marketing is an expense that may or may not pay off. 

Aside from making it easier to do, there is another reason for adopting this line of thinking. That reason is that on the web, just about everything you do to promote your site can be tracked and if it can be tracked and quantified then a return can be calculated. 

Over time as you test methods of traffic generation against each other, you will build a portfolio of “investments” you can choose from where the return on investment (ROI) and expected results are clear ahead of time. 

Test Everything…then test some more!

The third fundamental concept of Internet marketing is testing. While you may not be able to afford every possible method of generating traffic, leads, and sales online at first, you can always start small, pay attention to the results and track your progress. 

Everything should be tested; from the color of your website, to your photos to your offers to various ad formats and advertising platforms etc. The list is truly endless but don’t let this overwhelm you. The key is to pick a few things (marketing tools or concepts) you are going to focus on and then make it a habit to test the various aspects of how you apply each one. For example, if you choose to build an email list and write a newsletter like this one, you might test various ways of asking people to join your list. You might test different subject lines, different content ideas, different calls to action and different offers. The key is continual testing and tracking of your results.

Really it’s about practice and refinement. The more times you practice a sales pitch to a prospective client and the more prospects you see and the more variations you use in the shortest amount of time possible the faster you will arrive at your destination. The great thing about the web is that just about anything can be tested, changed, updated and tracked and this can all happen in a relatively short amount of time. The other interesting thing about the Internet is that small adjustments in how you do things can often bring huge improvements in results. Case in point, in some of the Google Adwords ads I’ve written for my clients, simply by using a variation of a word – e.g changing the word “need” to “want” in the body of an ad – I’ve seen an ad pull 20-30% more clicks. On the web it is often about the small details and each of these details can be tested. 

You can also flip that statement on its head and come at it from another angle which is to only test huge changes. It’s sometimes too slow to vary every minute detail of a campaign or website for example. In this case you might be best served by making drastic changes and monitoring the results. They key again is to test, test, test!

Test your ad copy, test your landing page copy, test your email copy, email subject lines, and so on. If you’re launching a new site, test what domain name you will go with, test different page layouts and so on. There really is no limit. Yes, you have to be practical about how you use your time, just know that sometimes huge performance increases are a small change away. Also know that by testing and refining each aspect of your site and online marketing, as long as you track your results and keep what works, in time you will end up with compounded, positive results.

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Seven Quick Steps to Measuring Your Results on Twitter

by Adam Killam on January 30, 2009

Interested in tracking your results on Twitter? Want a quick and easy way to test headlines, copy and determine what your followers are most interested in?

twitter

Here are 7 easy steps:

  1. Create a free account at www.budurl.com
  2. Find a newsworthy story/blog post and shrink the story’s URL using Budurl
  3. Paste the shortened link into Twitter and write a catchy intro
  4. Post the story
  5. Monitor clicks via your bud account
  6. Rinse and repeat to test various copy/stories
  7. Divide total number of clicks by total number of followers to determine what percentage of followers respond to each link/post

Bonus tip: use the notes section of Bud to better track the URLs and stories you’re following

Bonus tip #2: in the notes section, paste in the exact wording you used when posting to Twitter to keep track of Twitter copy that your followers respond to

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Frugal is the new Cool

by Adam Killam on January 28, 2009

I was speaking with a PR firm client last week who mentioned “Frugal is the new cool” and decided it was time to tone down the look of the site. I keep an eye out for trends (as one must do in social media and web marketing) and given the current state of the economy I’m taking his message to heart. 

I wore a less flashy watch to a meeting today and will be tweaking the site in the coming week or so to see if I can simplify it a bit (yes, it’s already quite simple and I can do better!).

With all the talk lately of recession, marketing in tough economic times etc etc, it makes sense for marketers to be a little less flashy and focus their messages more on the bottom line and how they can make and save their clients money.

For me, that means the site needs to be less about adding widgets and more about focusing on good, solid, valuable content that my clients will find applicable to their businesses.

On that note today’s tip is:  go back to basics.

Practical applications:

  • Update and simplify your web site’s theme / design 
  • Don’t be afraid to use or go back to plain text emails or simplified HTML
  • If blogging or using Twitter, focus on practical tips and less theory (marketers are the most guilty of breaking this one)

I think going frugal is a trend we’re going to see catch on and stick for the next couple of years. As more ideas on this topic come to mind, I’ll post them here.

What steps are you taking to “go frugal”  in 2009″ 

Post thoughts to comments.

Update: Read about the New Frugal Google

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Ideas on Tap

by Adam Killam on January 23, 2009

Last night I attended Ideas on Tap at the Yaletown Brewpub.

“Ideas on Tap is a light business networking event for hi-tech professionals in Vancouver plus internet advertisers, social media marketers, bloggers, video game developers and other fans of the tech community.”

The turnout was great (I’d say about 200+ easy) and people were friendly and willing to chat about all things tech. Twitter was of course the topic of many conversations on account of the fact that so many of us locally in the industry have met online first and then face to face at events like this. Funny how it works these days, you meet online first and then in person.

I met @shanegibson, a local speaker, sales trainer and author and @johnchow, a local blogger who has gained international renown for his money making ideas and tactics over at www.johnchow.com. I also spoke with @chrisbreikss and @cydb of 6s Marketing (who hosts the event) and a ton of other cool locals including friends from Wallup Creative and more.

The event was a blast – always great to put faces to names and to meet new and interesting people in the social media / web marketing sphere.

So what’s next up for the local social mediaratzi? Everyone’s heading to Word Camp Whistler for the weekend. Unfortuneately I won’t be attending but may meet up with the gang for beers as I’m heading out the door myself to hit Whistler to do some boarding this weekend.

If you’re up there get in touch: @adamkillam 

Cheers!

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Barack Obama and the Whitehouse’s new blog

by Adam Killam on January 20, 2009

Barack Obama became the United States’ 44th President today. At exactly 12:01 PM, which according to the U.S constitution is when the incoming President elect becomes President, the Whitehouse launched a new blog.

“Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. I’m Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog.” stated the first post.

“The New Whitehouse.gov” as they’re calling it will focus on communication, transparency, and participation.

Obama’s use of Twitter, Facebook and Salesforce.com Ideas has already proven his team’s ability to take advantage of the social web to reach out and gain support from and communicate with the people. The addition of the new blog to Whitehouse.gov is another great step in the right direction for the new President.

Congrats Obama. We’re all watching!

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