Marketing

Let’s face it: people don’t usually get too excited about the idea of taking an online survey. They may not have the time, they’re distracted by their to-do list, or they simply don’t see it in their inbox. But for a small business, there is no better way to improve your products, services, customer satisfaction—and your business as a whole—than by getting feedback directly from the source.

Here are 6 easy-to-implement tips to entice your customers and members to improve your survey response rate.

1. Make your survey as short as possible

Think through your survey carefully. Only include the questions you absolutely must have the answers to—5-10 questions is the sweet spot. One way to do this is to choose a specific survey topic, like a particular event or promotion, and focus on that.

2. Tell recipients upfront how many questions are on your survey

If you tell the recipients how many questions there are, they know what to expect. Adding questions causes the completion rate to drop. By being upfront, you’re reassuring recipients your survey won’t take up too much of their time. (more…)

Getting new customer leads is a common problem that many new and existing businesses face. They may have a great product or service, but not the right marketing plan and process in place. There are many different ways to generate leads. The most notable ways include word of mouth referrals, advertising, forming alliances, networking, public relations, social media to some extent and then good old direct sales (i.e. cold calling). The method that’s most appropriate for your business will depend on the size of your company, your industry, budget and specific goals.

Online PPC Advertising Campaigns

The quickest method by far will be advertising through Google in a pay per click (PPC) campaign. With the Google Adwords platform, advertisers are able to market to customers through sponsored text listings that are triggered by targeted keywords. For instance, a mobile application development company may target a phrase such as, “find a mobile application development company in Los Angeles.” When searches for that keyword phrase are entered, the web development company’s ad may appear below the search box or to the right of the organic listings (non-paid). (more…)

Make sure your year gets off to a great start by doing a quick audit on your search marketing campaigns. Here are a few quick ways to improve the health of any AdWords account:

1. Use separate campaigns to target search, display and mobile ads

When you create a new campaign in AdWords, it will show your ads on the Google Display Network (GDN) by default. While this is a great place to find more customers, you should have separate campaigns for showing your ads on search results pages and on GDN so that you can take advantage of the best practices for each. Also create separate campaigns for ads that appear on mobile phones so you can point users to your mobile landing pages.

2. Ad groups should have multiple ads and under 20 keywords

If you’re frequently editing your account, its structure can get out of shape. Ideally all ad groups will have at least 2 ad text variations and no more than 20 keywords. When you have multiple ad texts, Google can automatically show the best performing one to get you more clicks and conversions so it’s a good idea to always be testing multiple ad variations. If you find an ad group with too many keywords, chances are you can split it into smaller ad groups where you can create ads that are more relevant to their keywords. (more…)

Eric Spellmann continues to be one of the highest rated speakers at our national America’s SBDC conferences. His unique view that small business websites should “do” something pushes against the standard “online pamphlet” view of most web design companies. He believes your customer’s websites should be driving qualified leads and sales on a weekly basis. Eric speaks at a number of other national and state conferences nationwide, but enjoys running one of the most successful companies in the country. He truly believes in the SBDC mission as it helped him start his own company many years ago. To contact him, visit his website at ericspellman.com.