Bid Management Tools

PPC used to pretty simple.

You just signed up, selected a keyword terms – probably used your SEO keyword list – put in a few bids, and hit go. Some tweaking here, some tweaking there. Life was good.

These days, with quality scores, ruthless levels of competition (including Google competing against the advertisers), a wealth of segmentation options, and complex analysis and reporting, PPC has become more demanding, necessitating the need for more in depth training.

• Should you bid on your brand? What match type should you use if you do?
• Do AdWords Site Links increase yield? Or do they charge you for what you were already getting free?
• Have you tested modified broad match yet?
• Have you seen Google’s new enhanced CPC bidding option?

When does it make sense to use any of those options?

Before you get down to detail, there are some higher level skills you should read up on, too. The fundamentals of PPC are similar to established channels. Because these channels have been around a long time, they’ve build up a lot of time-tested theory. You can apply much of this theory to PPC, without having to repeat the same mistakes.

1. Study Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is a form of advertising that communicates with the consumer using advertising techniques such as fliers, catalog distribution, promotional letters, and street advertising. The techniques are very similar to PPC. Direct marketers target a group of people, seek to convince them using well-crafted written/pictorial advertising, and try to illicit a response and/or purchase.

The great thing about direct marketing theory is that there is so much of it. Direct marketing has been going since the 1860s. In order to be profitable, direct marketing had to ruthlessly test what worked, and what didn’t, else direct marketers could blow through a lot of money in print and distribution costs.

There are a lot of great books on the craft of direct marketing theory, but one good place to start is Tested Advertising Methods, by John Caples. Whilst the examples offered by the book are getting a bit long in the tooth, the psychology underlying the approach – how to appeal to your market segment using effective copy and constant testing – is sound.

2. Understand Your Customer

PPC is a sales channel.

A lot of sales theory is directly applicable to PPC, particularly in terms of identifying your customer, determining what they want, and making an offer at a price they want to pay.

Sales relies on three aspects:

Quality Prospects – you need to target the people who are prepared to buy.

Your keyword selection process should involve weeding out keyword terms that sound like they are relevant, but do not convert.

For example, someone looking for “[keyword] coupon” has already made a decision to buy, they’re just looking for a discount before they do.

The person who searches on the keyword, but uses no qualifier, may be much further back in the sales funnel. They require a very different pitch to get them to the point where they are ready to give over their credit card details.

Sales theory, particularly relating to sales funnels, will help you pitch correctly.

Quality Presentation – you need to make a persuasive case. This comes down to your copy and landing page style. Are you responding to peoples needs, and are you doing so in a credible way?

Numbers – you need to get infront of as many people as possible, once you’ve selected quality prospects and got a quality presentation. Scale is near infinite in PPC, given the range of keywords and channels.

3. Understand Your Strategic Goals

What do you want your PPC campaign to achieve?

Whilst the obvious answer is “more sales!”, there are other ojectives you may wish to consider. You may want to increase market share, keep expenses under control, increase your profitability, increase your profit margins, or a mix of the above. Starting a PPC campaign without clear strategic goals makes it difficult to measure your achievement in a broader sense.

Another way of clarifying this aspect is to ask yourself “what problem am I trying to solve?” Are you trying to get more/better…..what? Why use PPC at all? Would another channel solve those goals more easily? Where does PPC fit into the overall business strategy?

If you have a regularly updated business case, it makes strategic planning easier than if you just wing it. A business case doesn’t need to be complicated. It can occupy a single page.

Be clear about where PPC fits into the broader picture.

source: http://ppcblog.com/high-level-skills-for-ppc/

If you’re great at PPC, then why would you sell those skills to others? Why wouldn’t you become an affiliate marketer, or set up your own site selling goods and services? What’s the point of working for a string of new bosses as an independent PPC consultant?

There are a few reasons why becoming an independent consultant can be a great idea. Lucrative, too.

1. You Get To See Deep Inside Other Businesses

Market research – good market research – can cost a fortune, but the consultant gains an intimate knowledge of their clients market. Not only do you get to see the data, you get to see the marketing and business processes that you can then apply elsewhere. Not so much spying as a valuable apprenticeship and research opportunity, for which you get paid.

2. Flexibility

The independent consultant gets to choose their own hours and projects. Unlike an employee, the independent consultant can choose their “bosses”. Don’t like the boss? “Fire” the client.

You can also choose your hours of work, when to take holidays, and where you work.

3. Focus On Core Skills

Crafting solutions can be a lot more fun than implementing them. Delivering goods or services can be a hassle, and require a lot of back-end processes.

PPC is mostly a high level marketing function, and the responsibility typically ends once the visitor moves to desired action.

The Big Problem With Consultancy

The world is chock full of PPC consultants!

Anyone can call themselves a consultant, so many people do. Assuming the consultant can do the work to a high standard, the most critical skill of the independent consultant – entering a saturated market with no barrier to entry – is the ability to sell.

How do you sell your services?

1. Identify Your Client

Do you want to work with big organisations or small? The approach you take will differ depending on your target market.

Small businesses tend to like dealing with other small businesses, as they appreciate the direct level of contact. Big business have larger budgets, but can be harder for the new consultant to engage – many large firms will work with preferred suppliers, and with established agencies.

Tailor your pitch and approach accordingly.

2. Craft A Point Of Difference

Why would they choose you? You may be great at what you do, but how do you convince others of your worth?

Points of difference can include:

• Geographic locality i.e. you can go and see clients in person.
• Industry vertical i.e. specialize in one particular industry
• Experience – have you got unique experience that you can highlight? Have you worked with people/clients of note?
• Awareness – if people have seen you name before, you stand a better chance of landing deals. This is why consultants speak at conferences, write blogs, write op-ed pieces for newspapers and other publications.

3. Demonstrate And Offer More Value Than Your Competitors

What are your competitors doing? More importantly, what are they not doing? Are there areas you can provide more value to clients than your competitors do?

Think about the points of resistance for a client. Put yourself in their shoes. One major point of resistance for the new independent consultant is perceived risk. Without a track record, the risk proposition for the client is high.

One idea for getting around this perceived risk is to give your services away for free.

Huh?

One local consulting agency I know of sold out to a competitor for a a tidy sum. When they started, they decided they needed a client list, so they offered their services, for nothing, to a list of preferred clients. The agency viewed this as a marketing cost. Once they had proved their worth, clients tended to stay on their books, and at very least, provided valuable experience and referrals.

Of course, you can’t work for nothing/discount rates over the long term, but such a strategy works well if you need to get a few good names – preferably industry leader names as opposed to unknown small businesses – under your belt.

4. Say What You’ll Do, Do It, Then Tell Them You’ve Done It

Actors often say you’re only as good as your last movie. In consulting, you’re only as good as your last gig. A bad reputation can be gained easily, and persist for a long time. So when you execute, stay focused on delivery.

The most effective selling method, by far, is good word of mouth. Each new gig gives you a chance to increase good word of mouth.

I hope this article provides you with a few ideas on selling your services.

The techniques you use very much depend on your own skills, history and ability. If you’re new to PPC, in terms of operating as a business, it’s often a good idea to work for a PPC agency before going freelance. This gives you valuable insight into the business of selling search, experience, and the opportunity to build up contacts.

source: http://ppcblog.com/what-is-the-key-skill-of-the-ppc-consultant/

Getting speaking gigs can be a mysterious and frustrating process, particularly if you don’t have much experience. You know the drill: Send pithy email offering yourself up (or copiously fill out online proposal form). Hit Send. Wait.

To find out what happens during “wait,” I interviewed a few content directors and program advisers, as well as some Web-seminar and teleseminar producers responsible for booking speakers.

Here is what they said, along with some sage advice on how to increase your chances of getting that breakout gig.

Be Patient

Long lead times for live conferences and events are the rule rather than the exception. Planning typically begins at least six months ahead of time but, depending on the size of the event or industry, can begin up to a year in advance.

Heather Lloyd-Martin, owner of SuccessWorks Search Marketing and program adviser for PubCon, SEMpdx, and major Direct Marketing Association conferences, explains: “There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes…. [W]hen we’re considering a speaker, there might be additional planning and logistics, and several layers of approval needed before we can confirm the slot.”

Lloyd-Martin says they approach A-list speakers first and then contact others who they think might be a fit. But, Unknowns, take heart. Lloyd-Martin says if she thinks you will do a good job and provide a fresh voice and perspective, she will bring you on.

Web seminars and teleseminars have shorter lead times (one to four weeks for teleseminars, three to four months for Web seminars) but can be even tougher to get in on because presenting virtually is much harder than speaking in person, says Marty Fahncke, a professional speaker and president of Conference Call University.

“If you are someone who feeds off the energy of people when onstage, the Web [seminar] or teleseminar format may not be for you. Keeping a virtual presentation moving and afloat requires the ability to sustain high, high energy for the entire session.”

Be Online

To be considered for either format, a robust online footprint is essential.

“The first thing I’m going to do is type your name into Google,” says Fahncke. “I really want to see a book, but at the very least I should see examples of you being quoted by the media and links to whitepapers and articles you’ve written. Next, I’ll type in a few key phrases that would make sense given your topic. If you’re truly an expert in your field, your name should appear on the first page.”

MarketingProfs’ Web-seminar producer, Shelley Ryan, adds, “It’s best if I have come across your name already on social-media and networking [sites,] such as Twitter and LinkedIn. I want to know what you’re tweeting, are you interesting, are you engaged in conversation within the industry?”

Ryan says when considering someone for a slot, she will Google a candidate’s name to see what she can find out, and go to the candidate’s website and read the bio.

As for websites, all agree that a good one may not get you the gig but a bad one can lose it for you. Ryan recounts an incident with a Web expert she was considering for a presentation.

“He had a pretty good reputation and some interesting things to say about lead generation, and I thought, Gee, maybe… To find out more, I went to his website, but I didn’t stay long. It looked like his nephew had built it for him.”

Traci Browne, president of tradeshow marketing firm Red Cedar Publicity and Marketing, books speakers for organizations, including the Business Marketing Association Philadelphia. She says she looks for online evidence of expertise but will contact the organizers of conferences in which speakers have presented to before to find out what the audience response was.

Says Browne, “In this day and age of Flip cameras, it is almost not acceptable to not have a video sample of your presentation—or several samples. We’re not looking for high production values; we just want to see if you’re a good speaker or not. A video will show us how dynamic you are.”

Lloyd-Martin says she tries to get a sense of a person’s personality and what that person will be like in front of an audience. She also emphasizes that title and position do not guarantee someone is going to be a good speaker (a statement that everyone I interviewed agrees with).

“We’ve had really high-level executives read straight from their notes, which the audience does not enjoy. They might have a fantastic message, but if people tune out, it gets lost,” Lloyd-Martin says.

To avoid that scenario, she taps her network to find someone who has heard the person speak before or has been on a panel with that person. If she doesn’t have contacts, she said, she might dig into what the person has done online.

“Everyone’s an expert and being promoted as [an] expert. But if I go online and find that the person has never written on their topic, and I can’t find any information about them beyond LinkedIn, I have to wonder if they are really who they tout themselves to be,” she says.

Make Contact

How people want to be contacted varies. For example, Ryan prefers to be contacted directly by the speaker, rather than by a public-relations (PR) person or handler.

“Talking directly to the presenter allows me to start a relationship as well as to get a sense of what that person is going to be like for a broadcast.”

She doesn’t have much patience for candidates who play hard to get. Case in point: “If a Guy Kawasaki [founder and managing director of Garage Technology Ventures and co-founder of Alltop] or Seth Godin [best-selling author and renowned speaker] can pick up the phone and call me directly…”

Lloyd-Martin doesn’t mind working with representatives but cautions, “Build a relationship with me but don’t hammer, or I’ll be thinking, If I bring on this speaker, I’ll be bringing on this obnoxious PR person, too. Can I handle that?

All agree it’s a good idea to ask what the preferred form of contact is in the initial email and to abide by it.

Browne urges candidates not to underestimate the power and purpose of the online proposal application form, which she uses as a screening tool. “If speakers can’t be bothered to fill out the form, chances are they won’t put much thought into their presentation, either.”

All agree that if there is an online submission form, it’s safe to assume that is the way the organization prefers to receive your application.

Other things on which the interviewees agree: (1) Email is the best way to make initial contact, and (2) dispense with the clever subject line (which might be construed as spam) and get right to the point.

If you don’t hear back within a few days, it’s acceptable to send a follow-up email. If there is still no response, then call the person to make sure the email has been received and didn’t get caught in a spam folder.  Remember to leave your email address on the voice mail so the person can check.

Pet peeve: people who enable email return receipts. Don’t.

Engage

Browne says proposals from association members and those who have a booth at the show definitely carry more weight. Her advice: “If you do get a booth, rather than staffing it with a salesperson handing out tchotchkes, consider offering free 20-minute mini-consultations to discuss solutions to pain points of participants who might be prospective clients.”

Similarly, Ryan says, MarketingProfs recruits first from its network of member contributors and often will invite candidates to write an article for the site to gauge interest in the topic based on click-throughs and reader feedback.

Speaking is one of the best ways to connect directly with decision makers in your industry. Following the above-noted guidelines will help you better connect with the decision makers who can put you in front of an audience.

source: http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2010/3451/get-a-speaking-gig-how-event-producers-decide-who-gets-onstage/?adref=znnpbsc42310