Exciting news for businesses has emerged from Google; they have announced the launch of their new Google+ pages, pages specifically designed for businesses using Google+.

With a growing network of over 40 million members, Google+ pages are a great new internet marketing resource you need to implement and capitalize on today.  It can also give you an additional web property and links to your website which are important in today’s digital world.

Here are some quick and easy tips to make sure you gain the most from your Google+ pages and help you get started.

1. Setting up your Google+ account

Choose an accessible email address

Unlike Facebook, Google+ does not currently incorporate extensive administrative capabilities. To easily overcome this limitation, make sure you create a specific email address for your Google+ business page during the set up process to allow more maneuverability.

A common access email address will allow you to better monitor and manage the services provided by Google+ and offer you the opportunity to incorporate multiple member access and contributors to your Google+ business page, as well as monitor updates and allow direct communication in one easy to find place.

We often setup a gMail account that includes all of the Google services such as Analytics, AdWords and Webmaster Tools.  You can use this account for Google+ as well.

Create your page

To create a page, Google+ has made the set up process as simple as possible. Simply visit http://plus.google.com/pages/create and select ‘create a Google+ page.’

You will then be asked to select from one of the following:

• Local business or place
• Product or brand
• Company, institution or organization
• Arts, entertainment, or sports
• Other

After selecting your classification, complete your basic business information into the form as requested.

2. Customize your public profile

By customizing your public Google+ profile you will increase your presence online. Make sure customers know they have landed at the right place and why they should purchase your products by updating your profile with:

• Your tag-line – or business elevator pitch
• An image, such as your company logo
• Investing a little time to show off some good quality content
• Offer free downloads and incentives to potential customers

3. Promote your Google+ page

Once you have completed the basics of your Google+ business page, you will be asked to promote your page! This means you have completed the Google+ account activation, setup and have gone live to more than 40 million waiting customers!

All you have to do next is allow your Google+ business page to work for you! Great ways to continue in the success of your site is to focus on:

• Generating leads
• Always providing fresh content
• Reacting and responding to fans
• Become engaging
• Adapt your strategy as required
• Optimize your Google+ presence

Good luck incorporating these three easy steps to monetize your Google+!

The Google AdWords program is the centerpiece of Google’s internet marketing product line.  Free to use and easy to setup, it affords advertisers anywhere in the world to generate targeted traffic to any web property they designate.

One of the main features that people like about AdWords is that it’s free.  But that’s also one of the pitfalls.  Since anyone can setup an account, and you don’t have to know what you are doing, it is very easy to throw away money with pay per click at an astonishingly fast pace.  So this begs the real question, what is the real value of Google AdWords?

Benefit #1 – Instant Visibility

AdWords offers website owners the chance to establish true validity, along with online awareness and marketability. Let’s say you just launched a new website and wanted to have it show up in front of potential customers immediately, AdWords is the single best tool for accomplishing this.  Advertisers also use pay per click to gain visibility for things like new products, announcements, special sales or offers, and similar items that they may not rank well for in organic listings.

Sample PPC (Pay Per Click) Ad

Benefit #2 – Traffic & Leads

The sexiest benefit of Google AdWords is that is can generate immediate traffic, which can potentially increase the number of leads your business is getting.  It’s not unusual for advertisers to earn good, valid business leads within a few hours of launching a campaign.

Benefit #3 – Benchmarking

Savvy marketers use AdWords to create performance benchmarks for their website.  Because you control your bids, you can monitor the performance of keywords and use that data to create long term SEO strategies that can turn your paid keywords into natural rankings.   As a form of pay-per-click advertising, Google AdWords is a vital component of any search engine-marketing endeavor.

Drawback #1 – Buyer Beware

As stated earlier, Google AdWords can be scary because while it looks simple, being good at it takes time and practice.  After all, why do you think they created a Google AdWords Certified Professional program in the first place?

For instance, the simple act of bidding and placement is more complex that it appears.  If you bid higher than the competition, logic tells you there is a good chance you will earn higher placement for ads and keywords. But this is not always the case, as Google has a “Quality Score” which is generated based on how well your keywords, ad and landing page perform.

Drawback #2 – Long Term Sustainability

The other issue with buying visibility is that once your budget runs out, your ads stop appearing.  So over the long term, it is very important to figure out the key metrics from AdWords to determine your actual ROI so you don’t keep paying for advertising that isn’t producing the results you need.

The secret to determining “real value” – Google Analytics

In order to determine the real cost of Google AdWords, you have to base your decision on the actual results and performance.  And the best way to do this is via Google Analytics.

With any successful online marketing campaign, web analytics plays a pivotal role. These statistics allow you to monitor daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly web traffic rates. At the same time, it displays the number of hits that were generated via precise keyword and key-phrase searches and links.

If a particular set of keywords is not attracting web visitors that are converting into customers, subscribers or whatever goals you set, it is time to make changes to the campaign settings. You also have to concentrate on the keywords that are working well, while generating several variations and synonyms as well.

You can learn more about Google Analytics in one of our previous posts.

You Determine the Real Value

According to Avinash Kaushik, who wrote the popular book, “Web Analytics”, Google AdWords is a cost-effective solution to online marketing. Along with strategic SEO and advertising techniques, companies can effectively showcase their brands and products to mass audiences.

The real cost of Google AdWords, however, depends on your situation.  If being on the first page of Google for targeted phrases is of value, than you should have no problem coming to your own conclusion!

As a major search engine, Google has been the leader of the pack for quite some time and their constant innovations with things like Google Places are one of the big reasons why. From search to tools to advertising, the Google brand has expanded to unprecedented levels. And one of the most important changes Google has made in the last year has been with the changes to Google Local or Google Places as it’s now called.

By now I’m sure your familiar with the red pushpin on a map showing the locations of 7-10 of the businesses Google can find near the area you are searching for.  Here is a sample screenshot:

"pizza places Metairie LA" Google search results

You are also by now familar with the map which accompanies these markers:

Google Place Search

The Google Local tools recognize that to capture more regional businesses, there needs to be a simplified way to do it. Local businesses like ours deal with many challenges, from customer service, to product and service development and delivery to payroll. Because regional companies have so much to do, it is hard to focus on specific aspects of our businesses.

Google Local includes Google Place Search, designed to offer much more local content from regional advertisers. What this means for me is that I no longer have to spend my time trying to research and find local keywords, monitor the results, and modify bids for those keywords for my AdWords account.

Impact on Ratings & Reviews

The new Google Local format uses the location concept to find out what people are saying about my business in terms of reviews and ratings. These are two things I rarely had time to focus on in the past. This new tool finds all of that info for me so that I can use it to develop relevant Web content. I can also address the issues that I find by writing to consumers directly, which is something I used to have to pay a person to do for me.

Organic Positioning

The other aspect I really like with Google Local is that I can see the details that a local searching consumer is using to find my products and services. Google Place Search issues rewards to local businesses like mine with organic positioning when it finds complete and accurate content. For example, when it picks up a blog entry or article that I wrote, that info is considered and counts toward a higher placement by the search engine.

Since past attempts at organic positioning was something I wasn’t able to master, the new Google Local and Google Place Search has been a lifesaver in terms of leveraging the benefits of local SEO (search engine optimization) listing and placement. Now I can focus on continuing to build a richer rating and review level using these Google resources – which means my business will grow much more easily.

Google Market Finder is a terrific free tool designed by Google which allows users to take a look at local monthly search volumes for specific locations. It also includes the costs of targeting particular keywords in every market, including foreign ones. This has been very beneficial in terms of growing our business on a world-wide basis.

Find New Markets

The free Google Market Finder tool uses world-wide Internet search data to reveal the number of times that keywords are searched for, in 56 different languages. We use the tool to see where consumers search for our products and services. Then we evaluate the new potential markets by comparing the local search volume, estimated keyword price and the competition for each keyword in all markets. This is really helpful in planning our marketing budget for the best results.

Here is an example of how it works:

Let’s say your company manufactures a cool line of sunglasses and you are interested in selling them outside of the US.  And let’s say (just for example) that you had several Spanish speaking employees and could support new business from Latin America.

You could use the Google Market Finder tool to search this type of query, and the results would look something like this:

Translate Key Words

Now that you have identified the countries that had the highest search volume for the phrase “sunglasses” you could use the free Global Market Finder tool to automatically translate our keywords into the language of our choosing (in this case Spanish), for all of our new potential customers. Using the tool, we can also see where people are searching for our products and services. Then we can narrow it down to specific locations to target in our online marketing plan. For this reason alone, it is an invaluable service, since we are not fluent in other languages. We would actually need to hire someone to do these translations, which would be quite costly. By knowing where our target audience is, we can best take advantage of the world-wide marketplace to expand our business and take it to the next level.

Use With Google AdWords

Google Market Finder is particularly effective when combined with Google AdWords. The free Google Market Finder tool showcases all of the estimates of a suggested keyword bid, as well as the competition for each Google translation for that specific target market keyword. In this way, since we are already using a Google Adwords campaign, we can use the Google Market Finder to choose a precise location and language with which to display our ads.

Access to All Marketing Media

The Google Market Finder can be used as a powerful marketing tool to help reach our potential customers on a worldwide level. Used with ad formats such as search engines, mobile devices, video and TV, this tool is extremely helpful in targeting exact marketing locations to find the best audience for our business products and services.

Apparently internet marketers like us aren’t the only ones who wonder why you still get a new yellow pages book every year even if you don’t ask for it.  In San Francisco, a town often noted for being the first place to pass interesting legislation, the Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 in May to prohibit the distribution of yellow pages except to residents or businesses that want them and have “opted-in.”

Did California get it right this time?

Let’s be honest, it’s 2011 and with the strain on our global resources doesn’t it make sense to limit the unnecessary use of large quantities of materials unless they are really needed?  So while California takes their “green” living a little more seriously than a lot of areas, we have to at least applaud the effort to curtail businesses from handing out huge books that a lot of people don’t want or need anymore.

NEED is probably the operative word in this movement.  I remember a few years ago having a smaller yellow pages book in my truck and thinking it was a cool idea to make the book portable so I could find something while on the road.  But after the last 2 years who DOESN’T have a mobile friendly phone with the ability to “Google” anything you want from the intersection of your choosing (hopefully while at a stop light)?

Marketing implications

This trend toward being digitally mobile will have greater effects than just limiting the distribution of the yellow pages.  But the reality is many businesses will have to face what they’ve probably known for years – that relying on advertising in print publications isn’t going to be enough to effectively market their businesses.

The yellow pages have historically been a tool for driving local marketing efforts.  So what can businesses do to replace that type of exposure?  Here are a few tips for the digital age:

• Claim your “local” business listings on Google, Yahoo & Bing
• Participate in other local directories such as Merchant Circle or Insider Pages
• List your business on review sites like Yelp or Angie’s List
• Optimize your website for local areas and phrases
• Invest in a mobile friendly website
• Learn about new trends in text message marketing

Is the newspaper next?

Every Thursday the local newspaper throws a “freebie” paper in my driveway even though I’m not a paying customer.  I guess they are hoping that I’ll see it, flip through it and maybe become convinced enough to become a subscriber.  They had better not do this in San Francisco or the newspaper might be next on the list!

Over the weekend, I had an interesting discussion with my 53 year old neighbor who still “takes the paper.”  The topic was the newspaper, and how long we thought newspapers would still be tossed in driveways across America.  Watching what’s happening with the internet and mobile devices, it’s hard to imagine that newspapers in their current form last more than another 20 years or so.

And while I have no doubt that the news organizations behind them will last longer than that and serve a critical role in each local community, I’m convinced that the process of delivering their news via paper, trucks and people will evolve sooner rather than later.

We’ll just keep an eye on San Francisco to see when they make newspapers illegal next!

Don’t let these big trends pass you by

2010 marked a big year in the world of marketing, and the trends show a drastic shift in the allocation of marketing dollars from traditional outlets to the digital marketing world.  Among the notable milestones were:

• Spending on social media advertising is up around 30% from last year and is expected to top the $2 billion mark in 2011! Source: Mashable
• Spending for online advertising passed newspaper advertising.  Source: WSI
• Online advertising spending rose 13.9% for 2010 and is projected to pass the $25 billion mark in 2011. Source: EMarketer
• Mobile subscribers are estimated to surpass 5 billion in 2010 (that’s over 70 percent of the world population) and growing rapidly, led by China and India.  Source: MobiThinking

What does this mean for you?

In a nutshell, it means that if you’re concentrating your marketing efforts solely on things that worked in the past it’s probably time to re-consider that practice.  And while we would never suggest abandoning “tried and true” marketing practices that provide ROI for your business, I would strongly recommend beginning to allocate some resources toward digital marketing so that you can begin to gain a foothold.

Every business is different, so it’s hard to make blanket statements.  However, as we walk the streets and see just about everyone spending time on their web ready mobile devices, it doesn’t take a big thinker to realize that this trend towards the digitization of marketing is not slowing down anytime soon.

5 components of digital marketing strategy

The whole idea of “digital marketing” is evolving, but if you want to get a holistic view of the concept, there are 5 core components:

1. Web properties – such as your company website
2. Building traffic – helping people find your website
3. Social media – joining in the conversation with online users
4. Mobile marketing – text and location based marketing
5. Measuring / Analyzing – evaluating results to determine ROI

Creating a marketing plan for 2011

So back to our original headline and the desire to find a marketing plan that capitalizes on the opportunities available in 2011.  Generally speaking, if you haven’t embraced the digital marketing components mentioned above, than it’s time to do so.  How much you do depends on your resources and goals, but continuing to avoid them will eventually put you behind your competitors.

Specific actions you can take include:

• Take a hard look at the ROI from your past marketing efforts. If your marketing practices from the last couple of years aren’t producing satisfactory ROI, it’s time to re-tool.  Many people are expressing frustration with increasing costs and decreasing results from traditional marketing activities.
• Look at how you could use digital marketing in your business. Every business is unique, and not all of these digital marketing opportunities make sense to invest in.  However, if you look carefully, chances are you could find 2-3 of these opportunities in your business that would bring new opportunities in 2011.
• Be realistic. In this economy, businesses have to be smart with their budgets and showing ROI has never been more important.  So if your company has an outdated website and low monthly traffic, than trying to tackle social media may have to wait.  Our recommendation is to find the opportunities that would have the highest impact and focus on those in 2011 without trying to do them all just for the sake of doing them.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Chances are you’re plate is already full depending on what your role is in your company.  Implementing major changes to marketing plans takes time and sometimes a little advice from someone who is not too close to the situation.  Don’t be afraid to bring in someone to help you understand the digital marketing opportunities and make sense of them in terms of how they apply to your business.

Why 3 listings of course!

In today’s world, talking about being first on Google for something is starting to get complicated. With the introduction of “personalization” of search, the items you see for a particular phrase will vary greatly from what I see when I search.

The good news though is that with the introduction of varied results, there are now more chances than ever for you to have MULTIPLE listings on Page 1 of Google for a certain phrase. So today, the real goal in the search engine marketing profession is to gain multiple listings instead of just focusing on one.

Go for #1 spots in all 3 areas

With Google, you have 3 possible spots that you could appear “#1” for a various phrase:

1. Natural, organic results – these are the regular, non-paid results that everyone knows and trusts.
2. Paid search ads – these paid placements appear at the top and to the side of relevant search phrases.
3. Local listings – in certain cases, Google is now displaying a set of local listings which are near to the locality of the place you have searched.

That’s not all – claim more spots with “Universal Results”

Have you noticed that when you search for something you get results that include news, videos and articles about the phrase in addition to regular search results? These are called “universal results” which are designed to give you a well rounded sample to choose from.

The good news is that companies can now shoot for multiple listings there as well with highly ranked videos, news items and articles or even social results from sites like Facebook and Twitter.

If you can’t beat them, join them

It seems simple – become the most relevant and Google will put your company on the first page. However, in order to know how to make Google recognize your website as the most relevant one, you would have to know the algorithm that Google uses to rank websites. That algorithm is a closely guarded secret, which is why there is no single recipe to the right mix of SEO, PPC, and keyword placement to get onto page one.

Our suggestion, go after multiple results on the first page so when you can’t win for one, maybe you’ll win for another!

The one digital marketing acronym everyone should know

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page. When you type a phrase into Google or any other search engine, the results for that search appear on a new page in your browser. This is the SERP, and for businesses concerned with online marketing, being on the first SERP is one of the top priorities.

Why it matters to businesses

Let’s face it, who looks past page 1 for anything on Google? If a customer has to go to the second page of results to find your website, they are far less likely to find you or to conduct their business on your site.

What a typical SERP looks like

On the SERP, you will see three types of results.

• On the left side of the page is where one can find natural or organic listings, those which are placed there because the search engine finds them to be the most relevant to your search terms.
• Above those are the sponsored links. Companies pay the search engine to be placed in these positions.
• On the right side of the page are the paid advertisements, the PPC ads.

Which is the best place for my business on SERP?

Everybody wants to be #1 on Google for their dream phrase, but sadly everyone can’t be first. Even so, there are strategies for placement on search results pages that may benefit you such as occupying multiple positions on the page. Today we look at sponsored results, regular organic results and local results as 3 opportunities to show up on the page. Stay tuned to future blog posts to learn more about this.

How to evaluate how “good” is your website?

When we talk to new clients, most of them fall into one of 2 categories. First are the people who know they have a lousy website and need a new one. We applaud these people for being reasonable and open to suggestions.

However, the 2^nd crowd thinks their websites are great. And we have to be careful with this because websites are sometimes like children, in that only a parent can call them ugly without fear of a fist fight.

The brutal truth

At the end of the day, the goal is to get people to your website and get them to become customers. And the truth is that if your website isn’t good enough, your online marketing efforts may be largely wasted. And in today’s economy, that’s a luxury most of us can’t afford.

Questions to consider if your website passes the “smell test”

• Does it engage visitors quickly? You have about seven seconds to convince someone who comes to your website that they want to stay, and this time includes load time.
• Does it load quickly? Not only does load time count towards engaging visitors, it also affects the way that search engines rank a website. Slower sites are ranked lower, so ensuring that yours loads quickly is a necessity.
• Does it have great content? When the visitor feels engaged with the site, they want to read more and take part in conversations on the website. They are more likely to turn into customers when they find your site interesting, and more likely to return regularly.
• Does it set you apart from competitors? This is more than great graphics or pleasing colors. Smart design involves placing the information in a way that will lead to conversions, such as clearly telling visitors how your are different than everyone else that offers the same service.

Don’t Ignore Your 2010 Business Card

Remember, your primary digital asset is not your Facebook page or your Twitter account or a really great email ad; it is your website. Take the time to make sure that your website is representing your business well and serving as an effective business tool.

Once you have developed a smarter profile for your company and an individual profile for yourself on LinkedIn, you are ready to move to the next level: making LinkedIn work for you.

You can get value from your LinkedIn profile and affiliation by utilizing direct marketing, drawing upon the knowledge and experience of other members, researching potential employees or associates, and using LinkedIn to find the best service providers.

Tips for making LinkedIn work for you:

1.  Direct advertising. LinkedIn offers highly targeted advertising that is text-based and relatively inexpensive. You can get started for less than $50 and choose the audience for your ad based on a wide variety of factors including company size, seniority, and industry. For more information regarding direct advertising on LinkedIn, check out https://www.linkedin.com/directads/

2.  Use your knowledge base. You have connected with other professionals and joined groups with individuals who have knowledge and experiences that you do not. Ask them questions about anything that you are researching, from health insurance as an independent contractor to the best Smartphone for your industry. Save time by asking people who have already researched the problem and tried one or more of the potential solutions.

3.   Research people before you meet them. LinkedIn offers insights beyond simply performing a Google search with a person’s name because you can look at a specific profile rather than a broad and generic search. Check out their background, work experience, or find people that you both know so that you will be able to create common ground during a first meeting.

4.  Find service providers using the research available on LinkedIn. You can see recommendations by others in your area or your industry, and you can ask questions to determine which provider has the strongest reputation.

No such thing as free

The one thing each of these tips has in common is that they are something you can do for free.  Like many free online marketing websites and tools, LinkedIn doesn’t cost you anything to join.

But make no mistake about it – using LinkedIn woks best when YOU work IT.  Meaning it doesn’t cost anything to join – but it does require an investment of your time in order to be successful.