Here’s what Marketing people should be THANKFUL for…
As a marketing person dedicated to the swimming pool industry, my job is to help you sell more of your stuff – new pools, renovations, maintenance and repair services, retail products, or whatever. So this year, I’d like to share with you some of the things I’m thankful for, because they make it easier for me to do my job, and help you sell more stuff.
Google Analytics
The world standard for website traffic analytics, this FREE software offers reams of data of all sorts, to help marketing people like me figure out (1) where your website traffic is coming from, (2) what pages they visit on your website, (3) how much time they spend on each page, and (4) when and where they leave.
Fortunately, that’s EXACTLY what I need to know to figure out which pages on your website are doing well, and which ones need help.
(Ask your web person – or us – if you aren’t sure whether you already have this installed on your website.)
Alexa.com
This free software will tell us in an instant how well your website is doing versus all other websites in the world. And more importantly, it will tell us how much traffic you are getting compared to all your competitors.
Isn’t that nice to know!
Now we can immediately see – without even talking to you or looking at your books – whether your website is in good shape, or in trouble.
iTracker 360
This low-cost software solves an annoying challenge that the PPC (pay per click advertising) world has struggled with forever: Return on Investment.
That’s because until this special tracking software came along, we never knew whether an “internet lead” come from a paid PPC ad or from a free organic search.
Without this software, you could see HOW MANY PPC leads came to your website, but you could not identify WHO.
Thus, if 100 Internet leads bought pools from you, you still had no way of knowing whether they were organic or paid.
Without that knowledge, you never really know whether your PPC ad budget is paying for itself.
Fortunately, once this software is installed, we can instantly see not only whether an individual lead was paid or free, but if paid, which campaign it came from, AND which keyword they searched in the first place.
Now, when an Internet lead buys a swimming pool, you’ll instantly know whether it was a free organic internet lead, or the result of a paid PPC ad. Hooray!
(If you are doing any PPC advertising, and software like this is not installed, you should request it immediately from your PPC agency.)
Honest, Transparent PPC Companies
I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but they exist. And there’s a super-easy way to spot them. (So incredibly simple, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t figure this out years ago.)
The reason so many people don’t trust PPC agencies is because it was impossible to see how much of your money was going towards Google ads, and how much of your money was going into the pockets of the agency.
Sure, they might TALK about a “budget,” but truth be told, without this trick, you could never really know for sure.
So here’s the super simple solution:
DO NOT pay everything on one invoice.
Insist instead that you pay two separate invoices – One to the agency for their fees, and the other one directly to Google for the ad budget.
Now you know EXACTLY how much they are getting paid, and how much is going to your ads.
(Just make sure the agency can’t transfer money out of the ad budget and over to themselves!)
Note – If the agency you are working with isn’t willing to agree to this logical arrangement, then you have your answer as to whether or not you are working with an honest, transparent PPC company.
The Super Simple “Drag-And-Drop” CRM from Keap
Most people hate CRM’s (and abandon them) because they are tedious to use. Fortunately, this CRM is so easy to use, a fifth grader could do it. Because whenever a contact moves from one stage to the next (such as from “the closing meeting” to “the SOLD stage”), you simply click on that contact, and drag him from the “#2 Closing Meeting” column over to the “SOLD” column.
Now the status is instantly changed, and the appropriate marketing automation is implemented, automatically. (That might include an automated email to the client, plus any number of internal tasks and/or messages or reminders automatically delivered to your planning and accounting departments, etc.) And now your management knows exactly the status of every single project you and all other salespeople are working on. Very nice!
| (Click here if you want a free demo of this simple new system.) |
I have many more things I’m thankful for…
…including powerful and compelling videos, powerful automation systems, talented and charismatic salespeople, and manufacturers who constantly strive to produce a better product, which makes selling and marketing all that much easier.
And most importantly, for our clients and faithful newsletter readers who make this all worthwhile.
But we’ve all got holiday things to do, so I’m going to wrap up here and wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving, and an incredibly productive and successful 2020 and beyond.
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