Hi, my name is Nicole, and I just opened a pet supply store in northern New Jersey – and I’m trying to gain awareness and traffic to my new store.   (Well, this not all true, but for all purposes of this post… it holds true).

As a small business owner, it can be hard to find the appropriate outlets for gaining awareness and foot traffic to a new store – especially when your business is in a suburban town of New Jersey (no pun intended).   One usually has to rely on word-of-mouth in order to gain exposure.  But in this age, where computers, cell phones, tablets and social media dominate – you cannot solely rely on friends of friends to get your name or brand out there.

Small businesses, like my pet supply store, are in need of exposure – exposure in the online space, that is.   That’s where search marketing comes in, specifically paid search marketing.

Paid Search marketing can be an extremely useful tool for small business owners, since you, the owner, can manage your own campaigns on your own.  Essentially, you can market yourself!  And yes, small businesses can compete with large businesses.   My pet supply store can play in the same advertising space as PetSmart, Petco, or even Amazon – as long as it’s done right.

Put Your “Thinking Cap” On

If you’re a small business trying to run a paid search campaign, try thinking of the following:

• First things first, Devise a Plan – What is the goal of your website?  What is the call-to-action?   It could be promoting a sale, new inventory in stock, an email sign up, or simply to drive potential new customers inside the store location

• How much money to invest?  Remember, this is a pay-per-click model, meaning each person who clicks your ad, will charge your business – or better yet…you!

• Is my website ready?   Do I have flash on my website? Is my site user-friendly?  Is there enough useful information on my site which I can build an effective campaign/ keywords?

• Be Relevant! –What are the most relevant pages to direct the user to visit? – and from here, how can I build out keyword lists/ ad groups/ ads campaigns that ties in with the page.

Those are just some of things to think about before and during creating a paid search campaign for your small business.   Of course, there are several other components that make up a paid search campaign, but these are just some ideas to think of.

Benefits of Paid Search for Small Businesses

The benefits.  Paid search is a useful tool that can be beneficial to not only small businesses, but any business that wants to establish a name for itself.   Here are some (definitely not all) of the benefits small businesses can gain from paid search marketing.

• Budgeting – As mentioned earlier, since paid search uses a CPC model (more often than CPM), you only accrue cost when someone clicks on your ad.  Therefore, the key to a successful paid search ad/ campaign is to be (once again) relevant.   Through paid search, the advertiser is also able to set daily caps, so that the engine would not go over a daily allotted budget.  The advertiser is also given the flexibility of changing caps whenever it’s necessary.

• Day-Parting – Day-parting is a nice strategic move for small businesses with limited budget, or for those who wish to only display ads during certain hours of the day.  The advertiser is able set up the time of day and/or day of week which they want their ads to be appear on SERPs. (i.e. I can set my ads to run only during 7am – 11pm Tuesday – Saturday and pause at all other times.)

• Location Targeting – Another strategic and also cost savings tactic.  Advertisers are able to have control on what areas of the world their ads are shown.   Since I have a small business in northern New Jersey, chances are, I only want to reach people in surrounding towns of my shop.  I don’t care to advertise to people in California or Tennessee, since they are least likely to visit my store.

• Customizing & Sitelinks/ Rich Ads – Probably the best part of paid search marketing is the abilty to customize ad copy and tailor it to your business.   The advertiser is able to create ad copy they want (as long as it abides by the Engine’s policies).   And now, Google and Bing/ Yahoo offer advertisers the ability to add sublinks to their ads.   Google Sitelinks or Yahoo! RAIS can help small businesses (or any business for the matter) display several links within an ad, driving users to more relevant pages based on the sublink.  For instance, I can have 4 sublinks driving to different pages (1) Sale (2) Email Sign Up (3) New Arrivals (4) Contest Sweepstake.   (*An important takeaway of sitelinks is that sitelinks (at least on Google) have been proven to show a lift in CTR for many industry verticals.   And of course, an increase in CTR can bring lower CPCs and higher average position.  Meaning, my small business has a great chance of showing in top positions alongside large name brands or possibly in the top position spot).

Of course, there are many more reasons as to why paid search is a viable tool for small businesses, but this is just a taste of the greatness that paid search can do for small businesses.

Paid Search for Large Businesses

Enough about the small – let’s talk about the big picture…

Like small businesses, paid search is probably even more crucial for large businesses.  Why?  Because everyone’s doing it!  It’s like a scenario of peer pressure in high school – everyone’s doing it, so you should, too!

Because of the complexity of large businesses, many either hire an internal team to manage their paid search initiatives or hire outside agencies (ah-hem, Razorfish).

Time to Use Your Noggin & Think BIG!

Much like small businesses, you should think of the following when creating Paid Search campaigns for large businesses:

• The Goal – What is it that the brand offers? What does the company want to sell to the user?  Maybe the large business is a department store that sells shoes, clothing and furniture.   Do you want to focus on all departments the store offers?  Or just a single segment?

• Budget – What is the brand budget?  How much is the company willing to spend on agency fees (if hiring external help)?

• Landing Page – What pages will the users go to?  Because of the complexity of larger businesses – there will usually be several campaigns and sometimes accounts in order to segment the different categories of items the department sells/ or business caters to.

As mentioned earlier, the main idea of managing paid search campaigns for small and large businesses does not differ by much.  However, if you are managing for a larger business – you are managing at a grander scale – with larger budgets, etc. which requires more attention (usually by several people).   Since many large businesses are using paid search as a tactic, this makes it even more of a reason for why other large businesses need to use paid search as well.

Benefits of Paid Search for Large Businesses

• “Preventing other advertisers from eating your lunch” – As Razorfish Lead Account Manager, Amos Ductan, puts it.   Basically, if your competition is there, you should be there, too.  No one wants there lunch stolen, right?

• Paid search & organic work together – Many studies have shown that paid and organic listings working together help to increase traffic to the site, increase visibility and overall, increases brand awareness – businesses, in general, should not solely rely on organic listings as a way of promotion.

• Customizing – Paid Search allows businesses to customize ad copy – optimizing copy with add-ins like sitelinks, location extensions, product extensions, call extensions, etc.

• Targeting – Large businesses can choose to target users by demographics, psychographics, IP address, in order to write and tailor ad copy to niche audiences.

• And the list goes on and on and on…

In the end, Small & Large Businesses live happily ever after.

Whether tall or short, narrow or wide, small or large – paid search marketing can be useful tool for just about any business size.   There are many external caveats that can make search a complex tactic to manage.  But, with handy tools and creative minds – small and large businesses may both see success in using paid search as a medium.

Brainstorming is an absolute must in any team-oriented environment. It’s even more important for marketing agencies. Working in low-energy silos produces incomplete strategy. However, crafting the perfect brainstorming environment is no easy task. Below, you will find the three crucial components of an effective brainstorm.

The Controller:

This is possibly the hardest role – compare it to an improv comedian; you have no clue what will be said next, but you have to stay on your toes, react quickly, connect relevant information, and keep the energy flowing towards the end goal. The Controller keeps the group laser focused on the goal and situation. They help frame the conversation and organize data flow. The Controller must be able to identify when there’s a loudmouth in the room and transfer that energy to other group members to create a more complete, well-thought-out answer.

Also, The Controller must be able to ask the right questions. This may be the most important aspect of a brainstorming session. Without the right questions, everyone will run around willy-nilly with their responses. For complex issues, good Controllers will breakdown the problem into mini-problems and ask appropriate questions for each. This helps the group digest the full situation without becoming overwhelmed.

Idea Tanks:

Idea Tanks have a tendency to be those “head in the clouds” type people…and they’re so necessary. Idea Tanks tend to be generalist and have a very broad understanding of the marketing problem and the marketing opportunities. Idea Tanks have the critical responsibility to think without inhibition. The craziest-sounding ideas CAN be the right ideas. Idea Tanks should strive to push the limits of what’s possible, within the framework of the problem or situation. This role’s output is often a program-wide integrated solution that builds upon a key concept or idea. Often, it starts with someone randomly exclaiming a tagline, and everyone in the group stops, thinks, and grins like they just solved an Einstein-level equation. Think: Imported from Detroit.

Devil’s Advocate:

This role may often include multi-channel specialists, those employees who have expertise in one or two channels and know their limitations. They spot weaknesses in the Idea Tanks’ suggestions by identifying side effects in the near, or not-so-near, future.  The Devil’s Advocate also keeps the Idea Tank on the ground. At times, Idea Tanks are a little too romanced by their own ideas and need someone to pull them back to Earth. The Devil’s Advocate attacks critical thinking head on. Editors are great for this since they are trained to spot errors and gaps in cohesiveness.

It’s not always clear who is who at first, but it is paramount that you get there quickly. The Controller can help with this by simply taking charge and framing the problem at hand, in an easy-to-understand format that facilitates rapid ideation. Increasing the voice of each role, limiting the needless noise in the group, and organizing energy around well-stated end goal will ensure your brainstorming sessions are productive.

As a continuation to the post Moments of Truth to Equity Clicks, let’s start thinking about the Multiplicity Factor of Pageviews for Digital Branding.

Maybe we’ve been thinking about pageviews all wrong, or at least not giving them enough credit. The measurement of “time on site” has been used often to evaluate branding campaigns, but many marketers are beginning to move away from that metric.

Maybe a pageview can deliver the same message, or more messages, in an even more impactful manner than print insertions. To that end, you don’t hear of print advertising being measured in “time on page” or “time before page flip” (read: sarcasm). You read flowcharts and see insertions by campaign by publication by weeks, months, and quarters. The placement of these print insertions throughout the publication also plays a vital part in delivering your branded message. To make a rough comparison, digital pageviews are print insertions within the publications that your brand owns.

Think about and compare the consumer’s experience with these two mediums (visualized below).

During section A, a consumer is exposed to an offline television spot or print ad. If only section A existed, the brand experience and delivered messages would stop here until the television spot aired again (frequency).

However, sections B, C, and D illustrate how digital can augment the brand experience and extend the equity chain.

Section B, the connection from offline to online, can take on many different forms: Display Media, Paid Search, Organic Search, Facebook ads, etc. Search can create a bridge for offline mediums or it can start the journey.

In section C, we see the multiplicity factor of pageviews for your brand. This section can act as three additional uninterrupted insertions.

Lastly, section D is where your excellent brand experience pays off even more. Your consumer shares their experience with friends, family, colleagues, and more. This stretches your marketing dollars and expands your brand’s reach. Summed up from the movie The Social Network, “The question is, ‘Who are they going to send it to?’”

The actions taken in sections B – D are also consumer driven and engaged, while section A is much more passive.

This process of digital branding presents numerous points to be discussed, but these four should help frame your brand’s thought process for digital branding:

1. The Power of Sequential Delivery

Let’s examine the flow of a theoretical magazine.

Starbucks, CONTENT, McCafe, CONTENT, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks. You are Starbucks.

You have to contend with quite a bit of noise between your messages.

Now imagine this process as a consumer browses online (with a heavy dose of multitasking).

Facebook, Bank of America, Facebook, Facebook, Email, Yahoo News, Email, Facebook, Google…

Now begins the power of sequential delivery with an engaged consumer (and why none of this is linear).

Starbucks (Search Ad), Starbucks (Landing Page), Starbucks (Pageview 2), Starbucks (Pageview 3), Starbucks (Pageview 4).

If you have a good content strategist and user experience lead on your team, you can make these five insertions into an advertising masterpiece and leverage the power of sequential delivery.

Moreover, ever watch a P&G-sponsored event or Guiding Light? It would seem that over 80% of these ad inventories are spots for P&G products. From a corporate point of view, this ability to leverage synergies among numerous brands’ target consumers offers a unique opportunity to maximize R&F (reach and frequency) across the P&G portfolio, while driving down holistic costs.

2. The Psychology of Consumer-Driven Actions

Passive or engaged. Is the bond between consumer and brand stronger when the consumer clicks through their own journey and drives the experience or when a consumer is being shouted at? Yes, that’s an extremely biased way of asking that question, but the answer also seems quite obvious. Think about your days at school, sitting in a classroom. Many have always performed with the “If I write it, I’ll remember it” strategy. The visual, or photographic, memory stems from an engaged student taking physical actions to remember information, feelings, and experiences that are relevant to them. Or, that are perceived to be relevant in the future, i.e. final exams.

The same holds true for your consumer. Put your brand’s offering into a relevant context for your consumers, and allow them to create their own experience with a unique set of feelings. This will help facilitate better recall for your brand at time of purchase.

3. Take your brand 20% and let your consumers take it the next 80%

While watching NYC blizzard coverage on CNN from the comfort of my Kentucky home over the Holidays, one of the broadcasters made an excellent point about the cleanup. He encouraged each and every person to do just a little shoveling and snow clearing around their sidewalks and street drains to ensure melting snow did not create floods or ice. His rationale was that NYC has a few thousand workers on the cleanup, but there are millions of people living here who can each do just a little to help flip the situation for the better.

This same philosophy works in marketing communications, too. You have a few advertising mediums and a handful of ad variations within each trying to reach millions of consumers. Meanwhile, what if the millions of consumers begin communicating these messages on behalf of your brand? Not only will this add a meaningful layer to your marketing communications, it will also elevate your brand’s reach to levels that you can’t grasp within scarce budgets.

4. The Poor Man’s ROI

These days, we’re all poor. We have developed a new competency: The Scarcity Mindset. It’s been said that recessions drive innovation because creativity is an absolute necessity needed to stay afloat in the economy. This time, in the age of measurability, we have developed a new type of innovation within analytics, one that mandates “ask not what your marketing dollars can do for your brand, ask what your consumer can do for your marketing dollars.”

For example, let’s say Starbucks received 39,684 likes from their website alone. How can we formulate a model to calculate the ROI of this? Consider the following:

# of likes or shares

Average # of friends for Facebook user

Show rate of your friends’ likes in activity feeds

Average CPC (and CTR) or simply CPM of ads on Facebook

Example:

39,684 likes  x  400 friends  x  50%  x  $5 CPM = $39,684.

Using this example, the math works out to conclude the value of a like is a perfect $1.

The more friends a user has or the higher the show rate for a given user’s network increases the value of a like, assuming CPM remains constant. This is the incremental value to your advertising, which can be modeled further to deliver the incremental value to your business (once media mix modeling catches up, that is).

Digital branding should focus on augmenting the brand experience to create a longer equity chain. Marketers and media planners must start thinking forwardly and resist the temptation to simply weight marketing mixes heavily in Section A. Use the bridge mediums… the grass is always greener on the other side.

“Tell the story.” This line is as common in the agency world as “promote synergy” is (or should be) in the client world. Colleagues of mine have often joked that we were going to buy t-shirts that read: I told the story and all I got was this stupid t-shirt.

However, as annoying as it can be to hear that time and time again, it’s also correct time and time again. Digital marketers of all kinds, not just the Searchies, should have an intimate understanding of data analysis. This will enable you to tell the story, receive client buy-in for your desired next steps, and train newcomers to think in such a manner.

Usually, why something happened and what you plan to do about it is more important than the mere fact that it happened. So, how do you arm yourself with the right tools necessary to tell the story?

Answer: Download this Analysis Matrix and Analysis Matrix Cheat Sheet.

Data Analysis Matrix Directions

Read from left to right, then down to left… and up again.  Don’t worry, this is explained and diagrammed below.

For example, if you notice your CTR has decreased 20%, move along the top to the ‘CTR’ column. Then, move down to each numbered square, move left to the corresponding row, i.e. ‘Clicks’, and examine the relationship. If you determine there was a change in ‘Clicks’ as well, seek to understand if there’s a reason ‘Clicks’ changed to truly understand the root of your analysis. Now examine each numbered square in the ‘Clicks’ column. You know that the ‘CTR’ square is related, so you can skip that. You’ve determined that your impressions held steady, so skip this too. That leaves the ‘Avg. CPC’ and ‘Avg. Position’ squares. Did your Avg. Position change? Did that change your Avg. CPC?

If yes, you can start forming the story that new entrants came into the auction or current participants raised their bids, pushing your ads down on the page, leading to a lower CTR and a loss of Clicks. Most likely, your Avg. CPC may have declined due to lower positioning, so your recommendation to restore and improve your CTR and Clicks could be to boost bids, raising your Avg. CPC and consequently raising your Avg. Position.

The key to telling the entire story is to analyze the data until you hit a wall, or the independent variable. The variable with the highest percentage change should equal the sum of all percentage changes of each dependent variable beneath it. If it doesn’t add up, you’re not finished. When you hit this, retrace your steps to understand each and every relationship, and then tell the best darn story you can!

If the internet is making brands more accessible, shouldn’t modern brands act like real friends, real partners, and encourage real dialogue? This is why modern brands must be “always on” or “always there.”

Traditional branding consisted of laser-focused messaging and execution according to a well-crafted, yet ever-changing, media plan, the brand-to-consumer bible of sorts. As in, we do our branding in these channels during these times (and we really hope our target consumer listens).

That’d be like calling up my most trusted friend and having him say, “Oooh sorry, Nick. I’m actually only flighted between August and November. Please check back then.”

If modern brands are built around purpose, then it’s time we act like it. Agencies and marketers, more than ever, are the modern brand. Our voices are the brand voice.

What are those moments that consumers turn to us? When must we be present, regardless of scale? For modern brands, which is more important: mass exposure to a passive audience, or always being there for a captive audience? The answer is both… for now.

Your “always there” brand does need to prioritize somewhat, though. To begin the modernization of your brand, you still have to allocate marketing dollars strategically. The following will lay out five stepping stones for the modernization of your “always there” brand.

To start, build a solid foundation for your modern brand in your website. Think of your website as your modern brand’s home. When you invite guests to your home, there are certain expectations from your guests and certain manners the host should demonstrate. Remember the above: you are the brand you “manage”, so these certainties should not change. Also remember, from a previous post, the concept of bridge mediums in Digital Branding, the mediums that take your consumer from their home to your brand’s home.

Next, a mixture of bought and earned media: Search, Display, Social, and Mobile. Why these four buckets? Because your consumer, almost regardless of demographic or industry, spends the vast majority of their time interacting in these environments. This enables your modern brand to meet the “always there” standards. Wherever and whenever your consumer is in need, your brand is “always there.”

Modern brand communication platforms are perfect blends of bought, owned, and earned media. And the key concept behind these platforms is the purpose to be “always there.”

So, when your brand receives a call from your consumer, are you there to answer the call?