One big question that continues to come up from sole proprietors and small business owners is “How do I measure the success of my business?” Here at NetBiz, we get this inquiry daily from clients. Measurements of success aid in quantifying marketing dollars spent and new product development. These measurements also work to point out flawed marketing tactics. It’s never good to be in the dark when it comes to your business’s performance.  There are a few stats or metrics that shouldn’t be overlooked. No matter what industry you’re in, these metrics will be valuable for measuring success.

1) Sales Opportunities

A sales opportunity is defined as a qualified sales prospect.   This metric is dependent on some type of sales or marketing activity. Different types of sales activities will produce different types of sales opportunities. It is important to look at the quality and quantity of sales opportunities produced from a corresponding sales activity.

2) Lead Conversion Rate

The ability of a company to convert sales leads to customers is measured by the lead conversion rate. While the first step is capturing leads, the actions used to convert sales must be highly considered. This metric is calculated by the percentage of customers produced from the total number of leads. The sales process is essentially a funnel. Converted leads represent the bottom of the funnel.

3) Customer Churn

Customer churn ( also know as customer attrition) is defined by the number or percentage of customers lost in a given period.  Cancellations on a recurring service will be the most common activity attributed to customer churn. If your business has a high customer churn, improvements in customer service, product delivery, and customer interaction may help lower the lost revenue.

4) Marketing Campaign ROI

ROI ( return on investment ) is calculated from the incremental sales volumes produced from an initial investment. With marketing, ROI is relevant to a specific campaign or overall marketing efforts. When considering this metric, define the specific scope of investment as it directly relates to sales. E-mail marketing,  digital media buys, PPC, SEO and social media are common online marketing approaches that can produce a quantifiable ROI. It is beneficial to test different marketing methods simultaneously and evaluate which methods have the most positive effect on the overall ROI.

5) Revenue Growth

Growth in revenue is one of the most important and basic metrics that should be tracked by a business owner. This metric is also one of the most honest representations of marketing effectiveness.  At the end of the day, if your marketing efforts can be quantified by revenue growth, you’ve done something right. It is calculated simply from the percentage increase in sales.

(Beginning Revenue –  Resulting Revenue)/ Beginning Revenue

Find Your Target

Any successful search engine marketing campaign must start with proper keyword targeting. This is something Netbiz does on various campaigns in order to improve the quality of search traffic for clients’ websites.  In order to convert sales and properly brand your business online, you need to be attracting a relevant target market. For example, it doesn’t make sense to attract Poodle buyers to your site when you’re a German Shepherd breeder.

Keyword Analysis

In the initial phase of  your online marketing campaign, it is essential to identify a target market based on your products and geographic sales area. These factors will play a huge role in finding the right web visitors. Buyer behavior can actually be tracked by the keywords they’ve used when searching on Google and other major search engines. To illustrate this, let’s take a look at 3 different search phrases and identify the searcher’s intent.

1) “German Shepherds” – This searcher is clearly looking at German Shepherds, and this phrase may get very high search volume. Since the search is on a broader spectrum, it may encompass a variety of consumers. Some may be serious buyers while others may be simply browsing the web for future purchasing decisions .

2) “German Shepherds  for sale” – This searcher has included “for sale” in the search which indicates purchasing intent.  While this phrase may get less search volume than its shortened counterpart, it may be more targeted for sales conversion.

3) “German Shepherd puppies for sale” – This searcher is conveying a need for a specific German Shepherd . The phrase could indicate that this consumer is deeper in the buying cycle. In addition, this searcher will not be appeased by browsing adult German Shepherds.

In summary, different keyword variations speak volumes to buyer intent. Different niche markets are defined by different keywords. When conducting keyword research , identify the targeted niche. With this information, it is time to evaluate some other factors such as search volume and competition. Below are some important points to consider when formulating keyword targets.

Look At Search Volume

One of the first things you should look at when choosing keywords is search volume.  It is imperative that targeted keywords have sufficient search volume to ultimately produce business conversion.   In theory, higher searched keywords will equate to more traffic and conversions for those ranking high in the SERPs. Make sure that there is enough search volume to produce targeted buyers.

Look At Keyword Relevancy

While search volume is an important factor, it is vital that targeted keywords are relevant.  It is ideal to have a mass of visitors who have your product in mind. Once again, look at keywords and phrases to distinguish buyer intent. One phrase may produce a vastly different visitor than another similar phrase.

Look At The SERP

S.E.R.P – Search Engine Results Page

It is beneficial to get a feel for the different competitors that show up on the search page for your desired keywords. Take a look at competitor sites. This concept is much like using history to predict the future. If competitors are continually ranking or advertising under a specific keyword, it may mean that they’ve found a successful  target. Use this information for your own success.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) has become an effective way to interact with potential customers and provide value for a brand. Although there is not yet a definitive science to SMM, there are clear benefits in setting up a basic company presence on the major social networks. Here is a list of major benefits.

Branding – The first major asset in SMM is branding. Current consumers are utilizing the web as a research tool to learn about new products and services. Therefore, it is essential to have an online presence. This is not accomplished simply by having a website. With the use of brand profiles on social networks, companies can increase brand equity by simply being available to share new information about products and provide a gateway to their website.

Customer Engagement – With new competitors rising up daily, brands need a way to keep customers engaged. Social media is a relatively unobtrusive marketing communication platform that allows potential buyers to voluntarily interact with brands. Positive consumer interaction increases the chances of future sales and mitigates lost revenue from emerging competitors.

Increased Web Traffic and Search Engine Rankings – Brand websites live or die by targeted web traffic. SMM works to increase web traffic in three ways. First, effectively managed social media campaigns will produce referral traffic from the various brand profiles that have been linked to the site. Second, the increased branding from social media presence increases direct traffic. Lastly, SMM acts to increase link equity which in turn increases organic rankings on major search engines.

Low Cost – Social media marketing is an affordable option for companies looking to market on a tight budget. In contrast to traditional media buys, social media campaigns mostly involve in-house labor. The overhead involved in a campaign is comprised of initial setup costs and hourly pay for employees running the campaign.  The benefits involved can greatly outweigh the ongoing maintenance and cost.

Market Research – In addition to customer engagement, SMM can provide useful insight on preference for specific products and services. By tracking comments and feedback on social networks, companies can determine if customers are happy with their services. Social media can also be used to track emerging buyer trends for future product offering.

In summary, social media marketing can be a valuable asset for growth, PR, and marketing strategies. With networks like Facebook growing to over 400 million users, there is a large opportunity for businesses to effectively capture new buyers. Netbiz will be offering multiple levels of social media services to accommodate the growing need. If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to fill out the Netbiz inquiry form here.

Five bucks. That’s all you need to start an AdWords account. It’s so easy anyone can do it. Anybody can run their own AdWords campaign, yes?

Five bucks is all you need – unless you happen to work in a competitive industry like real estate, finance, insurance, or … plumbing?

Yesterday I had a great discussion with Tom Hale about the need to help very small businesses break the barrier to entry for AdWords. These small businesses are at a disadvantage in search marketing for a couple of reasons:

• They’re late to the game. AdWords started years ago. There are still small businesses that don’t know you can advertise on Google, and there are still businesses who don’t have Web sites yet (yikes!).
• They don’t have time. Mom & Pop shops often have barely enough time to run the basics of their business. How are they going to find time to set up an AdWords account and manage it?
• Limited knowledge resources. AdWords professionals will often make AdWords sound like it’s really easy, and for them, it is. Most people don’t live and breathe marketing though. AdWords is a mythical beast that they don’t know how to begin to slay.
• Limited financial resources. Many of the AdWords experts have learned their skills through expensive trial and error. Small businesses don’t have the extra cash. The ones that do allocate money to marketing often need to know exactly how much it’s going to cost each month so they can project budgets for the future.

I paint a dire picture there, but the truth is that even with these hurdles, the small shops still have a huge opportunity in AdWords and other PPC media. They don’t need a huge slice of the AdWords pie; because they are so small, they can get by with just a small piece of the overall market.

At NetBiz.com, we’ve been helping very small businesses be successful with AdWords for seven years. Our entry-level pricing for AdWords is a flat rate. There are a lot of SEM marketing companies who rail against the flat-rate model, saying that it’s not transparent enough, that it’s not flexible, or that it’s otherwise inferior.

Without getting into all the back and forth, I’ll make these two points:

• The client who pays $75 per month for a highly targeted term like “Poughkipsie Luxury Homes” doesn’t care about the cost when she gets featured in a national magazine article because of her advertising (This is purely an example – we didn’t actually charge that price for that term – but we did get a client into a national magazine for a ridiculously low amount of money).
• Google recognizes the need for some sort of predictable pricing model. Ad Age did a story on Google making a limited offer on flat-rate ads in San Diego and other test markets.

So, the question remains. How can we, as advertisers, help very small businesses solve the barrier to entry problem in a way that is transparent and helpful, while still making money?

One of the struggles that any sales organization has is training a sales force to sell a product, but not overwhelm a client with technical detail.

Last year our Client Services Manager, Michele, created a document for our sales floor that helped them better understand our Search Engine Placement (SEP) product. It outlines what we do, and what we don’t do, for our clients.

This document is distributed to each new sales employee on their second day of training, and they are expected to know it and understand it, so that our customers know what they’re getting when they sign up for our services.

Today I thought I’d share it, so that you can get a better understanding of how NetBiz.com does business.

WE DO resell Adwords, Bing & Yahoo Search Marketing.

WE ARE an AdWords Qualified Company.

WE DO NOT get wholesale pricing from the search engines.

WE DO NOT have contracts or partnerships with the search engines.

WE DO get additional services from the search engines:

Gold Team Status with Yahoo.

Dedicated Account Management Team with Google.

These services often get us faster, better service than an individual advertiser would get.

WE DO NOT use this to affect our clients’ costs or our guarantee.

WE DO guarantee first-page placement with the provision that the client’s Web site passes a search engine review and complies with editorial policies.

WE DO NOT guarantee the top 3, top 5, or top colored box (this, along with the column on the right, is known as the “Sponsored Links” section).

WE DO sell Google “Exact Match” and Yahoo “Standard Match” by default.

WE DO NOT offer Google “Broad Match” or “Phrase Match” or Yahoo “Advanced Match” without Manager Approval and pricing validation from the NetBiz Corporate Office.

WE DO guarantee Internet exposure.

WE DO NOT guarantee leads, search activity or click-throughs.

WE DO work on a month-to-month agreement, allowing customers to cancel at any time.

WE DO NOT offer one-month trials.

WE DO bill automatically on the anniversary date of the initial sale.

WE DO NOT set up billing for only one month or prevent recurring billing from going through on the anniversary date. If the client wants to interrupt billing they need to contact our billing department prior to the billing date.

WE DO use historical data provided by the search engines for our pricing.

WE DO NOT share this data with clients or prospects because it would not be “apples to apples” to our campaigns. Most professional search marketers know that the data that Google provides is only an estimate and cannot always be accurately relied upon.

WE DO advise our clients that pricing is subject to market influences.

WE DO NOT guarantee that a price is “locked in” forever.

WE DO guarantee the term will be online within 10 business days.

WE DO NOT guarantee the term will be online any time prior to 10 business days.

WE DO periodic account evaluations.

WE DO NOT set expectations with prospects or clients that they will receive traffic reports on a set schedule. Our high-dollar accounts ($1200 or more total SEP cost per month) are the exception, but the Account Management Team will set those schedules.

WE DO make adjustments to client accounts based on evaluation results. The Customer Service Department will determine the best course of action to help the client’s campaign get the best results.

WE DO NOT determine the best course of action from the Sales Offices. Sales does not have the information necessary to best determine how to improve a client’s placement.

WE DO place our clients on U.S.-specific searches only by default. We place our Canadian clients on U.S. and Canadian searches. International searches are evaluated separately and are considered separate search terms.

I recently sat down with Esti Grinpas (left), owner of BobsTropicals.com, a NetBiz.com client. Esti was so excited about what we’ve done for her business that she sent her rep a huge bouquet (see video below), and I wanted to know what generates that kind of enthusiasm. The following is a short excerpt from our interview.

Tell me about your business.

Some of our flowers, like the Heliconia, can grow 20 feet tall. We’ve grown them since 1990. I have relationships with growers all over the state of Hawaii and I started shipping their flowers, and they ship some of ours as well. When the recession hit, sales went down and my husband went back to work, leaving me to run the business by myself.

How did you come in contact with Netbiz?

Someone called me. I get a lot of calls,and usually I hang up, but this time I didn’t. I decided to listen and then I asked if I could learn SEO from you guys. I want to learn how to do it myself instead of hiring a company to do it.

I signed up for Search Engine Placement originally, but I was really interested in SEO. I am so thrilled with Rory [Kaluza, my sales rep]. He really went out of his way to explain to me what he’s doing and what I can do to partner with Netbiz. He sent me tons of information on keywords, Title tags, and other stuff that I didn’t know.

Why did you send flowers to Rory?

I’m totally stoked. I know now that I can find myself on the Web, where I couldn’t before. I’m really impressed and surprised that I allowed that phone conversation to continue, but I’m glad I did.

My search engine rankings have come way up. I did the Web site myself, but I couldn’t figure out how to get my site to appear on the search engines.

The following is a short video of Rory Kaluza, Esti’s rep here at NetBiz, talking about what NetBiz did for her and how it worked.

A culture shift is happening at NetBiz.com. We recently launched a new NetBiz community for our customers at NetBiz-Community.net. We are hoping that by giving our customers a place to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly, we will be able to show our customers how much we care about their needs. We plan on taking the feedback we get from the NetBiz Community and applying it to our business practices. Not that we haven’t had customer concerns as a primary focus before, but now we have a way to open up that feedback to a public conversation. It’s a little scary for us, but this will impact NetBiz in a major way and we are really excited about it. Here are some of the possibilities for how this will affect NetBiz.

The Conversation

The biggest impact that the NetBiz Community page is going to have is opening up interactivity. We’re all very busy here (as are you if you’re a small-business owner), but we want to make the ongoing discussion a higher priority. We are committing staff (read: me, for now) to listening and responding to what people are saying about us online. We want you to know that we care and we respond to your thoughts, praise and critiques. While it takes time to integrate community and social media throughout NetBiz, we have the commitment from our CEO down to focus on what our customer community is saying. We hope that you’ll stick with us as we learn how to do it.

Sales

NetBiz has always been a sales-centric organization. Our salespeople are hard-working, cold-calling, closers. They’re the primary way that we bring new customers into NetBiz, and we’re proud of their accomplishments. We also realize that we have room to grow in how we train our sales floor. The NetBiz Community page gives us an opportunity to get feedback from our customers on their interactions with our sales people. In a recent customer satisfaction survey, we discovered that while a large number of our customers feel that our sales staff is respectful and understanding, and that they take the time to clearly explain our services and policies, we have some opportunities to do better. The community page is part of our response to that opportunity.

Customer Service

We understand that sometimes you just want a quick answer to a question without having to pick up the phone and dial a number. While our hard-working customer service staff will always be here for you (888-847-2226), we wanted to make it easy for you to get quick answers to common questions: You can now search the community page for your answers. In addition, you can see how other NetBiz customers are reacting to challenges as they arise, as well as our own responses to those issues.

Success Stories

It’s easy to find negative stories about companies online. Stories of companies getting punked by social media are rampant. Many of the companies that are having success in today’s environment are finding ways to empower their customers to share their successes. Our community page makes it easy for customers to share positive experiences as well as raise issues, and we plan on encouraging our customers to do that.

Development

The products and services we offer are ever-evolving. The Internet moves and changes rapidly and we are moving with it. We want to hear what you have to say and then mold our products from that feedback. From Search Engine Placement to our Semi-Custom Web site designs, we want to know what you like and what you don’t so we can continue to create a great product for you.

Please visit NetBiz-Community.net and let us know what you think!

We want to hear from you! That’s right, all of you. Client, prospective clients, and others. We recognize that you have questions, and we want to give you a voice.

The video above is a quick demo of our new Netbiz Community page. You can see it live at Netbiz-Community.net.

On the Netbiz Community page you can:

• Ask Netbiz your questions about search engine marketing and how we do what we do.
• Give suggestions on how we can improve or on new services you’d like to see us offer.
• Report issues with service or products.
• Give praise to our hardworking people who are striving to Make the Internet Easy for you.

We’re looking forward to your questions and feedback!

Google has a very strict no-spam and no-malware policy when it comes to the sites that they allow to advertise. Because of that, we cannot place sites that have viruses or other malware. This issue comes up from time to time, so I wanted to address it here.

The above picture is the warning that Google gives people when they are surfing the Web and click on a search result that may contain malware.

Malware can be added to your Web site by downloading templates for your site or in code installed for various applications, according to Google’s help forums.

Common symptoms of malware can include:

• unwanted URL redirects
• pop-up ads
• altered Google search results
• the addition of unwanted browser toolbars or side-search bars
• slow speeds

Note that even if your site does not contain malware, pop-ups and slow speeds can make Google’s automated bots think that your site may contain malware.

When we sign up a new client, Google checks that person’s site to make sure that there is no malware. If Google suspects that there is, they will not allow us to place your site in the sponsored link results.

If we tell you that Google has detected malware on your Web site, you’ll need to have your Webmaster remove the malware, and then request a manual review by visiting Google Webmaster Tools. Until that happens, Google will simply not allow us to advertise your site for you.

In their help forums, Google links to a number of services that can be used to detect and remove malware from a Web site. Neither Google nor NetBiz.com can vouch for these sites’ usefulness, but they are popular services.

• Spyware Doctor: http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/
• Sunbelt Software CounterSpy: http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Home-Home-Office/CounterSpy/Download/
• Kaspersky Lab Internet Security: http://www.kaspersky.com/kaspersky_internet_security
• Norton Internet Security: http://www.symantec.com/norton/internet-security
• Lavasoft Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware.php
• MacScan (for Mac users): http://macscan.securemac.com/

Many small-business owners know that getting their site on the first page of Google is the key to online marketing success. Read on to discover three great tips for achieving first-page placement.

1. Build a great Web site: Some companies spend a ton of money on advertising, but fail to invest in having a great Web property. With a large chunk of all purchases (including purchases made in brick and mortar stores) beginning with online research, making a poor Web site investment is a bad business decision. A well-built Web site with good content is more likely to show up in Google’s search results than a poorly built one.

What makes a great Web site? That’s a topic for a whole series of other blog posts, but you can start here with some of our graphic design team’s tips on what business owners usually miss on their Web sites.

2. Pay Google to be on the first page: Google currently generates more than $20 billion in revenue, money they make by selling ads. You know those highlighted areas at the top of the search results, and the column on the right side? Those are paid advertisements. You can pay Google using their AdWords program, and your Web site will show up in the search results.

Of course, there are thousands of people just like you who want to be there, so Google has invented a complicated bidding system that requires a fair amount of time spent learning how to use it, and then there’s maintenance of the account. Large corporations hire teams just to do that for them. As a small-business owner, you might just hire someone to do that yourself, which brings me to my next point.

3. Pay someone to get you on the first page of Google: Whether you hire someone to manage your Google AdWords accounts or hire someone to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for you, it’s easy to invest some serious cash in Search Engine Marketing.

When you hire someone to get you on the first page of Google you should find out exactly what they’re going to do, how they’re going to do it, and how they’re going to be accountable to you. If they are managing your Google AdWords account, it’s fairly easy to track how many clicks you are getting and whether you are getting any sales from the money that you are investing.

If you are spending money on SEO, you should find out how your Internet marketing company will be helping you. Are they building links, tweaking your Web site, making videos, or all of the above? When will the deadlines be for delivery of service and how will you pay them?

There are many qualified Search Engine Marketing professionals out there to help you get your site on the first page of Google. Make sure that you feel comfortable with the company and individual that you are working with and that the communication lines are open.