Archive for the ‘Marketizing’ Category

« Older Entries

Should Your Business be on Pinterest—an Infographic

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

With Pinterest’s heavy traffic and ever-growing popularity, many brands have been making the leap and joining the site every day. For many, it has been a mecca for pushing traffic to their business, giving them a platform to develop a great community and offering a new way to connect with their audience and spread their brand. In seeing this potential, our clients have been asking, is jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon right for my business?

Make a Strategy

As with any social media site, it is important to educate yourself on the platform, learning what is involved in being a truly active member and how much time it would take to maintain your profile. Not all businesses are right for Pinterest. You need figure out if your offerings and capabilities are compatible for the site and then build a solid strategy before you make the leap. Joining any social media site takes time, effort and, in the case of Pinterest, awesome imagery and great content. So, is your business ready to make the commitment?

Check out our infographic to find out if your business is right for Pinterest. Then read below to learn the 4 incredibly important questions you should ask yourself to find out if your business is ready to join up.

Should Your Business be on Pinterest? Infographic by Zoom Creates blog nineteenfortyone.com

Below are 4 incredibly important questions to ask yourself to find out if your business is ready to join Pinterest:

1. Can you stay active on Pinterest?

Before joining in, it’s important to figure out if you have enough time and effort to stay involved and get the most out of Pinterest. Being active on Pinterest means, pinning, repinning, commenting, or liking images on a regular basis that are relevant to your brand. Daily activity is best, adding roughly 1-30 pins across a variety of your boards. These pins should be from your own content, other original sources on the internet and users on the site. All this activity takes time—a lot of it. Pinterest can become a time-suck for your business if you do not have a strategy in place for how you are going to use it and how much time in a day you will spend being involved on the site.

Worried you may not have the time to stay active? A great way to get pins on your board regularly is to invite guest pinners to collaborate on your boards. Just make sure they share the vision and values of the company and will pin content relevant to your business. People love to follow users that are active pinners—If you join the site and remain inactive, you’ll go nowhere. You will need to make sure you can allot enough time and effort into staying involved on the site to reap the greatest benefits for your business.

2. Do you have visually engaging imagery, or can you create it?

Pinterest is an exceptionally visual space. People go there to get inspired, collect and organize the things they find across the internet—and being able to contribute visually interesting content is vital. if your business is already producing great imagery, you have a jump start on what you need to be involved on Pinterest. If you don’t already have great images, it’s time to create them. You may consider hiring a professional photographer or graphic designer to help enhance the imagery on your site or blog if you’re not able to produce it yourself. The question is, does your business have the time, money and energy to create content? If yes, then Pinterest may be right for you.

Does your Business have visually engaging imagery? Zoom Creates Blog | Should your Business be on Pinterest

Eye catching images and content are one of the most vital parts of successfully marketing your business on Pinterest.

3. Is your target audience using Pinterest?

Before you jump on to Pinterest you need to ask yourself, who is my target audience? If it’s female, you’re at an advantage. About 80% of Pinterest users are female, so having a product or service that appeals to that demographic is important to your success with the site. You must consider if your product or service is something that will visually appeal to women or if it’s something a woman may purchase, find helpful or want to share. This is not to say that a male-oriented product may not do well, you may just have to change your approach and get creative with how you showcase your brand across the site. The key to being successful on Pinterest is figuring out how your business can fit into the lifestyle of the highly female user base. If you can, Pinterest may be for you.

4. Do you have more to share than just what you do?

Pinterest is all about content you share, not only the product or service you provide. Sharing your own products and services on Pinterest is great, but your page shouldn’t be limited to your own work. Users get turned off when a brand becomes too salesy. They want to see items that are useful or interesting to them, not just a product list. Pinterest is all about telling a story with your brand, using imagery and content to build a lifestyle around your business. It gives you a way to reveal more about your brand personality rather than just your product line.

Use Pinterest to clarify who you are by posting inspiring images, news, tips, infographics, customer photos, or products from other companies. Pins can be used to highlight aspects of your business that may not come to mind when people first think about your brand. For example, if you own a hotel, Pinterest would not only be a great opportunity to show off your property, but you could create boards of local attractions, best scenic areas, local deals, dining spots, or even tips on how to pack your suitcase. Sharing more than just what you do will give users more reasons to connect and follow your business.

Petplan Pet Insurance shares more than what they do

Petplan Pet Insurance is a good example of a business that is sharing information beyond what they do. You wouldn’t necessarily think insurance would be an ideal candidate for a Pinterest page, but with all the boards dedicated to different aspects of our furry friends, they have succeeded in using Pinterest to tell a story about their company.

Should your business join Pinterest?

If you can answer yes to all these questions, you should definitely consider getting on board with Pinterest. This means you’ve got the drive, resources, and creativity to make Pinterest a successful marketing tool for your business. If your answer is no to the majority of these questions, your offerings may not be completely compatible with Pinterest. It’s going to take a lot more energy for your business to be successful on the site. You must then determine if the benefits are worth your time or if pursuing alternative social media or marketing options would be more of an advantage to your business.

For more pinteresting tips on Pinterest, check out my related post:
How to Increase Your Pinterest Followers: 20 Pinteresting Tips
How to Create Pinterest Images that People Love to Pin: 7 Pinteresting Tips

And as always, don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest, and of course, Zoom Creates.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Marketizing | 5 Comments »


3 indications your hotel’s SEO is destroying your bookings

Saturday, February 9th, 2013

Does your hotel website really need SEO help? Check for yourself before paying someone you’ve only talked to once over the phone.

Hotel SEO slimeball

“…and they didn’t even ask me what SEO meant!”

You’ve probably been told your hotel’s website needs Search Engine Optimization (SEO) but how would you know if this is true? Simple, how good your hotel SEO stands right now can be determined by following these three Google searches. Then you can feel confident on telling the person on the phone “We’re doing just fine, thank you!” 

1. Search for your hotel’s name.

Your hotel should be number one on the page. If you are not in the first position, this could mean your website is not optimized enough for your brand.

Search for hotel by name

The listings in the yellow boxes don’t count, those are paid ads. They may be yours, but probably not.

 

2. Search for hotels in your area.

For example, use the search term “hotels in Hillsboro Oregon.” Your hotel should show up within two pages. If it doesn’t, this may mean that search engines don’t believe your website is relevant enough for a search of hotels.

Search the area for your hotel

A hotel’s location is more important to the business than those medium size towels.

 

3. Search for your hotel’s address.

Your hotel should be the only listing displayed. If the results display other business names, this indicates that search engines do not know the correct address of your hotel.

Hotel Address Search on Google

At the least… you have to make sure your hotel’s address is correct.

 

Finding your true self

If you had trouble finding your own hotel with this search, your customers are not finding you either. These indicators reflect the need for local hotel SEO, a part of today’s standard marketing for hotels.ZoomKeeper Online Reputation Management Report

Our clients use our tool called ZoomKeeper. This reputation management tool shows how a company’s information is shared across the internet. ZoomKeeper monitors logistical information such as address and phone numbers as well as reviews on sites like TripAdvisor, Yelp and CitySearch. As a busy hotelier, you need one tool to help you respond to any negative reviews and give you the ability to share positive reviews on your favorite social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. And you need to know if your next client can find you with just a few clicks.

ZoomKeeper is free to try. Follow this link to receive a free ZoomKeeper Manifest report that will outline the following:

  • Number of different business names, URLs, physical addresses and phone numbers your hotel may have
  • How visible your hotel is on the internet
  • How many listings have accurate, incorrect and missing information
  • Display of actual errors found in listings
  • Aggregated review ratings with sources

Need to know more? Email me anytime. I’ll answer your SEO FAQs ASAP.

You can also get your FREE Manifest report here too.

Thanks to Keith at The Orenco Hotel for letting his hotel be exposed to the world.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Marketizing | 2 Comments »


How to Create Pinterest Images
that People Love to Pin:
7 Pinteresting Tips

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

How to Create Pinterest Images that People Love to Pin: 7 Pinteresting Tips

As a lot of people do, I love having my blog posts pinned or repinned on Pinterest. Not only does it make me feel great that someone is loving my work, but it also helps to promote our brand and business across a whole new platform. As a blog writer and a Pinterest lover, I’ve learned that the key to getting my work pinned is making sure my images are optimized for Pinterest. An optimized image can draw a user in, entice them to pin my content and, if I’m super lucky, even read my post. Now, what’s the trick to creating the most pin-worthy, optimized images?

Below are 7 tips I’ve learned to create images that Pinterest users will definitely love to pin:

1. Choose Visually Appealing Imagery

The number one thing you can do is use images, videos or infographics that are visually interesting, beautiful, or aesthetically appealing. Pinterest is a place to come to get inspired, so a great looking image will be valuable to a user and will encourage pinning. The most pin-worthy pins use professional-looking photography and smart design. When creating imagery, make sure to use your own original content and/or purchase stock imagery to avoid any copyright issues. Beautiful and original content will always draw users in, enticing them to pin or repin your work.

2. Build Images at an Optimal Size for Pinterest

It is important to build your images based around Pinterest’s image size restrictions. Pinterest scales images to two different sizes:

  1. The thumbnail pins in the Pinterest feed are displayed at 192px wide with a variable height proportionate to the original image. If the pin is smaller than 192px wide, it will remain its original size and will display on Pinterest with gray bars on either side to fill the additional space. Pins can be no smaller than 81 x 81px.
  2. A larger, zoomed-in version of the image is also used on the pin detail page and has a width of 600px, again with variable height. If the image is smaller than 600px, the photo will be stretched to fill the space, which could cause for some unfortunate looking images.

How to Create Pinterest Images that People Love to Pin | How Images are Displayed on Pinterest

To get optimum looking pins, it is best to use a width of 600px and avoid having tiny, stretched or pixelated images. You can create images at any length you would like. Some people choose to use long images to give their pin more presence on the page. However, if your image is too long, people might not want to take the time to scroll all the way back up to repin your content.

3. Use Text on Your Images to Describe Your Content

Using text on images to describe your content makes your images extremely pin-friendly. Your text serves as a reminder to Pinners—when someone sees your pin, they will immediately know what your pin is about. They won’t have to rely on the description. This way, users will always understand what you pin is, even if your text description is changed or deleted.

How to Create Pinterest Images that People will love to Pin | Use Text on Your Images to Describe what You are Pinning

Use text on your images to describe what your content is about

4. Make Text Easy to Read

When creating text based images or adding text over a photo, you should make sure the text will be large enough to be legible in Pinterest’s thumbnail format. The text can get quite tiny, so testing the appearance of your images is key.

How to Create Pinterest Images that People Love to Pin | Previewing Your Pin before you Post

If your type is legible on the “Create Pin” window, it will look good across the Pinterest image feed.

There are two things you can try depending on your skill level. First, before you save your graphic, temporarily scale it so the width is 192px. If you can still read it, you’re all set to save your image. Second, If you have already created your image, try pinning the image from your preview area before you publish it to your blog or site. If it looks good in the description box, it will look good on the site. If things are hard to read, try enlarging the font or increasing the font weight.

Brand Your Pins

West Elm uses branding to show they are holding the “Pin it to win it” contest

5. Brand Your Images

When something is your own work, it is a good idea to brand your content by adding a logo or url to your Image. This lets users know where the work came from and serves as a way to get more exposure of your brand. People also might be fans of a specific brand, so seeing a logo can engage a user even further. Users will know instantly who created the image and where they can find it online. A great example of this is West Elm’s Sweepstakes Pin. They use their logo at the top of the pin, so users know exactly who is running the contest.

6. Link Your Pin to Something Great

Whether it’s informative, instructive, fun, entertaining or helpful, your pin should always link to something great. Many Pinterest users pin images to learn more, see related items, or just to reference linked content. When someone clicks on an image they generally want to see more great material or learn more about what has been pinned. People get discouraged by a pin that doesn’t have a back-link or takes them to somewhere unrelated to the image. If the URL is missing, you can add it under the edit menu for the pin. Also consider adding the URL in the description area. By providing a link to the pin’s original source, your pin is automatically more valued and more pin-worthy.

7. Create Thoughtful File Names for Your Content

Create Thoughtful File Names for Your Content

Create a thoughtful file name for your image. This will appear as your description when someone pins your content.

Label the images you publish on your site with information about what is contained in your pin. When someone goes to pin your image, this information will appear in the description of your pin. It is a good habit to spend the time to include your business, blog name, web URL and/or blog title within the image name. Descriptions shouldn’t be too long, aim for 200-300 character length to entice users to pin. This description will appear as keywords below your image and make your pins easily searchable.

Put the Tips in Action

It’s time to start making the most out of your imagery. If you follow these tricks of the trade, Pinterest users won’t be able to stop themselves from pinning your content! Have more tips for optimizing your images for Pinterest? I’d love to hear them.

And as always, don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest, and of course, Zoom Creates.

Follow Me on Pinterest

For more pinteresting tips on Pinterest, check out my related post:
How to Increase Your Pinterest Followers: 20 Pinteresting Tips

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Design Love, Marketizing | No Comments »


Analytics Trending from Quantity to Quality: How Secure Search Means Parity in the SEO World

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

After the news that Chrome has moved to secure search, I can’t say that I’m unhappy. Aside from padding my illusion of there being more online privacy, I welcome this change mainly for one reason: Parity.

Leveling the Playing Field

I am excited for this change for the same reason I appreciate the play of Justine Henin-Hardenne, Damian Lillard, andDavid Eckstein. Who are they? you ask. Well they are three professional athletes, who compete at the top level of their sport, not because of their physical stature or god-given talent but because their determination and work ethic to improve.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/5330844.stm

Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin-Hardenne face off at the 2006 US Open Final. Photo from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/5330844.stm

The implications of Google’ secure search decision, without going into detail of how (see the link), means that webmasters and marketers will have less information from which to base their targeting efforts. In an effort provide just a little more privacy to its users, Google Chrome has disconnected the where (search term that brought them to a specific site) from the what, how and essentially who (their behavior on that site) that allows us to use analytics to essentially segment the populations of our inbound traffic and create profiles about people and target them in our marketing efforts.

What Does This Mean For The Underdog?

Dwight Howard, Mark Mcgwire, and Serena Williams just got a little bit smaller. You have to understand my bias here. My agency represents the Justine Henin-Hardennes of the hotel world. We compete in search engine rankings pages with the likes of Marriott Sharapova, Venus and Serena Hiltons and… Crowne Plazniaki; hotels that operate on an entirely different analytic scale. With this disconnect of information these analytical freaks of nature, (or otherwise) are scaled to more human size.

In the modern era of Search Engine Optimization/Marketing (SEO/SEM) the advantage is given to those who can make more detailed and accurate decisions based on analytics and testing of larger data sets. These new Google restrictions essentially shrink the size and detail of our competitors’ data sets. Whereas both my clients and our competitors have been subject to the same disadvantage, our competitors, will have a scalable disadvantage as they have been spoiled by the quantity of data that they manage which in turn has set them in their simple test and tweak ways. Anyone with enough consistent user data can throw something at the SEO wall and see if it sticks. The new advantage will be given to the competitor who is best able to: 1. Recognize what relationships exist, 2. Refine information from the remaining information channels into actionable data, 3. Creates accurate tests for better iterative results and 4. creates websites that intrinsically provide a great user experience.

The new advantage, the same as the oldest advantages, is a matter of the pursuit of quality of intellect and skill by asking why and how. At Zoom Creates we love the why. The Why is why we will adapt and find a relative advantage in this perceived disadvantage.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Between the Lines, Marketizing, Uncategorized | No Comments »


Multiple languages for your website, how NOT to do it.

Saturday, January 19th, 2013

Here at Zoom Creates we’ve been asked a few times if we can set up websites in multiple languages. “Yes” is our answer, but it’s always quickly followed up by a question about the page content. We ask, “Who is going to translate your content into these other languages? Would you like us to provide you with a translator?” Often, we get asked about automatic translation services, such as Google Translate.

“Google Translate is amazing. It can translate from your native language into (currently) 64 other supported languages, but how are you going to error proof it?” See, when you translate your copy into another language, you are trusting that bi-lingual person or service to get it right. If they botch your translation, you could suffer from looking like a fool to all the people who read your website in the new language, or you could even insult them without knowing. How are you to know exactly what the site says unless you are fluent in that other language?

So when you put that little flag icon on your site that implies “You can read all our pages in Italian”, people who speak Italian could be upset when all of your grammar is wrong, and your syntax is a mess. Your best bet is to hire a copy writer that can help you speak directly to your target demographic. Below is a fun little video that is pretty far removed for a real world example, but is still worth watching. Take it away Fresh Prince!

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Code Logic, Marketizing | 2 Comments »


How to find out if there’s analytics on your website?

Tuesday, January 15th, 2013

What is Analytics?
Analytics data captures a lot of telltale information about your site’s visitors like where they come from, what pages they viewed, and how long they stayed. This is useful information, especially if you are preparing to launch a new site, brand, or product.

Is there Google Analytics on my website?
Your web developer may have already set up analytics for your site. Most likely they will have used Google’s free reporting software: Google Analytics. In this post I will show you how to check if your web developer added Google Analytics and where you can go to add it to your site.

Good Software Developers

An image of our lead developer enjoying the fact that analytics is loaded on our clients websites.

How to find the analytics code snippet:
Open a new browser window and go to your website. Do you see the analytics? Of course you don’t –it’s in the code! You will have to find the code that the analytics references (if its there.) While your website is still open, follow the directions for your particular browser below. After you input the command, a new window will open with the source code of the website your website. It’s not that hard and you won’t mess anything up.

Directions to find browser source code:
Firefox:
Click “Web Developer” in the “Tools” menu, then click on “Page Source”

Google Chrome:
Click “Developer” in the “View” menu, then click on “View Source”

Safari:
Click “Preferences” in the “Safari” menu, choose “Advanced”
Click the checkbox “Show Develop menu in menu bar”, close window
Click “Show Page Source” in the “Develop” menu.

Internet Explorer:
Click “Source” in the “View” menu

Are you the Google Analytics code I’m looking for?
Development code is called a language for good reason. If you don’t know the language it can look like gibberish. If you have ever traveled abroad, you know that a few key phrases is all you need to travel in country. Our key phrase for this adventure will be “UA-”. This is a prefix for what Google calls the “Property ID”. UA stands for “Universal Analytics” number and Google uses this as a way of tracking most of your visitors interactions with your website. If you have Google Analytics hooked up to your website you will find this in the code.

Feel free to go line by line to find it but for folks who believe that time is money, use the “Find” command in the Source Code window. The easiest way to do this is by using a keyboard shortcut. For PCs use “Control+F” or for Macs use “Command+F”. Then type in “UA-” the “Find” text box without the quotes. You are looking for  this text of Google account prefix followed by six numbers, a dash and another set of additional number(s), the last set is usually just one number.

Google's Universal Analytics code

It’s a lot easier to find things when there is a huge red arrow pointing at it.

Yes I have analytics, wait no I don’t. What do i do?
If you see this number, than Google Analytics has been setup for you and you will need to ask your developer or webmaster for access to this account.

If there is no reference of this number in the code you probably don’t have it. There are other types of analytics software that a developer may have set up for you, but these are often times very expensive and the bill on your credit card statement would probably clue you in before you read this. It’s not hard to add Google Analytics to your website, but to set up tracking, you need to have access to the source code for your website. This will usually take a developer to help you out, an emotionally secure developer, like the ones we hire at Zoom Creates.
See first image above.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Code Logic, Marketizing | 2 Comments »


​The Web Diet

Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

The Web DietIn any diet you need to cut the fat in order to see results. After recently starting a new diet, I’ve realized that I’m no longer eating for taste, but eating for fuel. This means giving up the “fluff” that might taste great, but that also does nothing for my figure.

To get results, sometimes you just have to streamline and give the body what it needs to run at its highest efficiency. The same goes for your website. A healthy site cuts out excess. It should be the site you need, not necessarily the site you want. Remove the bulk and nourish it with stronger, leaner content, a thoughtful design, and a healthy organizational system. If you fueled with all of these “ingredients” it can thrive and achieve a look and feel that will appeal to your target audience.

Looking to get lean? Check out The Web Diet breakdown:

CONTENT:

  • Make it useful. Your content should be helpful and relevant to your audience or potential customer. Always consider your customers’ goals and what they are looking for.
  • Say it well. Make sure your site contains well written, credible, and original content. If you’re not a great copywriter, hire a professional. Keep information updated and fresh to give your audience a reason to come back.
  • Make sure it’s accurate. Use good grammar and spelling, duh!
  • Keep it short. To draw in your visitors, keep your text to a minimum. People have short attention spans—they skim and want to get to pertinent information quickly.
  • Give a call to action. Let users know what to do next—buy, contact, email, or sign-up. Help them make their next decision and get them to do what you want to them to.

DESIGN:

  • Give a good visual impression. You would dress up for an interview, so do the same with your site. First impressions are important, so put your best foot forward and create a design that is clean and visually appealing.
  • Set the tone. The visual appearance of your site will give your audience clues to the type of experience they can expect. White and clean could signal professional and credible, while colorful and textural could read unique and creative. Make sure your tone is in line with your business goals and your audience needs.
  • Design to your audience. Your look and feel should speak to your target audience. Choose photos and graphics that add visual appeal and makes sense for your viewer and your product or service.
  • Keep it simple. Your design should let viewers focus on your message. Let your message breathe with adequate white space. Your color, fonts and imagery should lead the user where you want them to go.
  • Make it readable. Make sure your text size and font is legible and has enough contrast for easy reading.

ORGANIZATION:

  • Logical Navigation. Put navigation where your audience would expect it—generally at the top of the page. Choose navigation language that is logical and makes the most sense for your viewer. Pages should have clear names so users can intuitively move through your site. Limit the number of items in your main navigation—aim for 5-7 links.
  • Create Hierarchy. Content should be arranged to make the most sense. Break information into sections or paragraphs. Group like elements and put information where users would expect to find it. Hierarchy allows viewers to easily scan and absorb your content.
  • Make it easy to find. Don’t bury key information in your site. Users should be able to get what they want within 3 clicks or less.

Diets aren’t always the easiest, but the results are worth it. Remember, don’t do something just because you can—cut out the bulk. Focus on what is most important to fuel your audience and make your site fit their needs. Relevant content, purposeful design and logical organization will keep your site thriving and keep viewers coming back.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Code Logic, Design Love, Marketizing | No Comments »


Zoom Creates Swag

Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

Who doesn’t love free stuff? A few months ago, we had the opportunity to represent at a swanky New York Hotelier Convention. Sure, we could have ordered some Beer Koozies and tri-color highlighters and called it a day. But we’re Zoom, and while many of us like beer, that wasn’t the vibe we were going for.

Putting our collective heads together, we talked about the kinds of things we liked to get when attending conferences, and how often the tchotchke’s never even make it out of the bag — After all, unless you’re Greg, most of us can only drink one beer at a time. At this point, we could have gone online and ordered 350 pre-printed bags, but some of us have control issues, and we wanted them to be just right. Conferences can really suck the life right out of you, so we opted for an Energy theme.

First on our list of “Must Have’s” were chocolate covered espresso beans. We found ours at K&F Coffee Roasters right here in The PDX. When I told Shirley what we were doing, she called back and offered us Hotel sized bags of their amazing Organic Bella Selva coffee as well. Next up were some kind of energy bar. After extensive research, I found Larabars, which came in a wide variety of flavors and are made from whole ingredients — Just the ticket, but I was having a hard time finding them in bulk, so I started making calls and got hooked up with Stacy J. at their corporate office, she not only found us variety packs of the smaller .78 oz size bars, she shipped them to us for free. As in, completely free! All we needed now were Emergen-C pouches for the participants to put in their water bottles, which we located at the Downtown GNC.

Once I got done “hand crafting” our bags (all 250 of ‘em), it was time to insert the goods.

Not only were these mostly fun to make, they were a huge hit at the conference — It’s always a good sign when people sneak back for more. We’ve done similar projects for a few other clients, personalizing them with monogrammed golf balls and tee’s or thumb drives and snacks, they’re a creative way to get your name remembered and stand out from the crowd of Koozies and highlighters.

A big, huge thanks again to our cross marketing partners, K & J Coffee Roasters and Larabars, you went above and beyond anything we expected, and we were already fans!

Healing Nicely From My Iron Wounds,
Mrs. Knightly

Posted in Design Love, Marketizing, ZoomCreates.com | No Comments »


Google Adwords Campaign: Don’t use your company’s name as a keyword.

Thursday, June 14th, 2012

We had recently taken over an AdWords account for a client in the hospitality industry. Due to a non-disclosure agreement, let’s call this client “Portland Zoom Hotel”. That has a nice ring to it. The client was happy that potential guests were showing up to their hotel’s web site, but the hotel did not feel confident that they were getting a return on their investment using this Google AdWords campaign. We told them that we were more than happy to take a look into their AdWords campaigns and then suggest changes that we deemed necessary for success. So we took a look. And the campaigns they had running were horrifying.

Based on an evaluation of the reports from Google Analytics and Google AdWords, we could see that the visitors to the web site from an the AdWords campaign were fairly satisfied with the site overall. They viewed multiple pages, spent a good amount of time on the site, and seemed to have a good conversion rate.

Of course, that wasn’t the horrifying part. What was shocking, was that out of the 47,000 paid visits that the AdWords campaign brought to the hotel’s web site, 38,000 of them used variables of the search term “Portland Zoom Hotel.” This means that searchers looking for the Portland Zoom Hotel which used its name as a search term had been clicking on the paid advertisements instead of the organic result that would show up naturally. The Portland Zoom Hotel paid $22,000 over a 20 month period for visitors who had every intention of going directly to their web site—paid advertisement or not. It would be like a business paying a person to stand at the entrance directing customers who are already on their way in.

Thanks guy, I know.

Advertising is about making consumers aware that your business exists and that it provides a service that they need or desire. Traditional advertising such as television, radio and newspaper is a kind of shotgun blast form of advertising. It can reach many people in many types of backgrounds, as it holds no bias. It doesn’t care if a person has interest or not, it will try to sell to everyone. Digital marketing, like Google AdWords, is a completely different animal. With Google AdWords, you are advertising to consumers who have definitive interest in your product or service.

Off the top of your head, can you name the hotel in Kona Hawaii on Palani Road? No? No you can’t. If your Aunt lived in Kona Hawaii on Palani Road, chances are that you do not know that the wonderful Kona Seaside Hotel is there. If you wanted a hotel in Kona on Palani Road, you would probably use the search term “Hotel in Kona on Palani Road” not “Kona Seaside Hotel” because you didn’t know that it was there to begin with.

I can see my Aunt’s house from here.

The same thing for the poor Portland Zoom Hotel. For someone who has never been to Portland and is interested in finding a hotel downtown, they may use a search term such as “hotel in downtown Portland.” If a person knew nothing about Portland, they would never use the search term “Portland Zoom Hotel” because they have no idea that it is there. Only searchers who know about the hotel would use that term. More often than not, using a business name when searching in a search engine like Google, will bring that same business’ web site to the top of the Google search engine results page. There is no reason to pay for it.

To spend your advertising budget wisely, bid on keywords that are descriptive to your business. Not the name of your business. In the case of the Portland Zoom Hotel, we told them to choose keywords that relate to their hotel itself ; such as, “hotel in Portland” or “hotel for families.” These keywords drove qualified consumers to the site that may have never previously heard about the Portland Zoom Hotel.

Just in case you don’t believe me, try this: If you have a Google Adwords account, go to the Google Adwords traffic estimator.  In one line enter the description of your business, then on the next line underneath it, enter in the name of your business. Click “get estimate”.  Enter $100 for the Max CPC and $1000 for the daily budget, why not, you’re rich right? If the daily impressions are more for your business than the description of your business is, disregard what I’ve said in the last seven paragraphs and put some money in your budget for your name brand. In all honesty, It probably won’t be more. In fact there are very few times it is. The term “Coca-Cola” is searched nearly 10,000 time a day in America; whereas the term “soft drink” is searched for a mere 8 times. This is rare, not all of us are Coca-Cola

“Zoom Creates” doesn’t even have any daily impressions (yet), compared to “creative agency” which has a lot. Well looky there… the number of the beast. Some say the industry is a devilish lot.

This is for you Greg.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Marketizing | 6 Comments »


Amazing Print Ads

Monday, January 31st, 2011

In the digital era, it seems that print ads are a thing of the past. Not so! However, I do think (my opinion only) that it is that much more important for print ads to be striking, attention grabbing and quickly informative. In a world where staying on a web site for 10 seconds is unheard of, viewers are accustomed to efficiently absorbing information from a variety of sources and will click off, turn the page or look away when the subject matter is not immediately of interest. So, with that in mind, D-Lists has compiled a list of their favorite print ads and I’d like to pass on the findings to you. Enjoy!




















Caption: Put yourself in a mink’s place. Don’t buy animal skins.
Animals suffer like we do!




Caption: Put yourself in a pig’s place. Help us stop anesthetic-free pig castration.
Animals suffer like we do!

Tags: , ,
Posted in Marketizing | 1 Comment »


« Older Entries