• What worked before?
• What small thing can we change to try and hopefully make it better?
  • That worked! Keep doing it!
  • That didn’t work – go back to the start!
• We’re only showing the boss what worked.

Essentially, the “proven” method is — throw everything at the wall, see what sticks and hope we get lucky. And if you’re really lucky, you’re considered an expert at predicting things. Luck is not a successful business strategy in any other industry, so why is it acceptable for sales and marketing?

And why are we still doing it this way when there are powerful analytical tools that are free to use? A tool that gives you insight into hundreds of business data points. How many people visited your website? Who are they, with detailed demographics? Where did they come from? How long did they stay? Did they visit from a laptop, tablet, or cell phone?

Which pages got the most traffic – and why? How engaged were the visitors? Did they finish reading the blog? For how long did they watch your video ? Did they download anything? Was there an action that led them to your sales funnel? Did they find you on Google, from a direct mailer, a commercial, a billboard?

Actual real-time analysis of your marketing and sales efforts.

Why would you want to keep guessing?

A Learning Curve

Yes, I get it, there’s a bit of a work up front to get everything organized. But you’re entrepreneurs and small business owners, right? If you just wanted to focus solely on sales, you could work for someone else. But you want to change the world – at least most entrepreneurs I talk to do. And the best way to do that is by knowing your efforts are working.

That requires measurement. And the beauty is you don’t have to make educated guesses – or if you start there, it’s quick and easy to see if that guess was right. Remember back in high school, you were taught the scientific method, Hegelian dialectic, to be specific. You start with a hypothesis – find a counter antithesis – compare them and get synthesis – the best answer. And then repeat the process.

With Google Analytics, you can plug those variables in and let them analyze the immense amounts of data to give you the answers you need. It’s the ultimate strategic shortcut. Access to more information than you need – but giving you a true picture of who’s finding your business/website and why. You can even do a lifetime value calculation within the tool – showing which potential customers are worth investing in.

Setting the Goal Posts

I’m not going to take the time to explain how to set up Google Analytics. Alphabet has their own tutorial for that. What we’re going to walk through is something that should probably be done on paper first anyway.

Google Analytics has immense amounts of information you can delve into. But numbers on a page can quickly become overwhelming if you don’t know what they mean. So the learning curve for Google Analytics starts with pen and paper.

You need to break down your sales process to the basest level. The goal for just about everyone is more sales – i.e., more conversions from visits to sales, right? But what is each step of that process? What are the tiers or hierarchy of the funnel? How can you tell when a customer is ready to buy? What does it look like when they need more information? What behavior signifies another increment deeper into the process that leads to conversion?

And the really exciting part is, as I’ve mentioned already, this isn’t guesswork. You start with a premise – this is the behavior that means they’re ready to buy. So you track that goal in Google Analytics. And very quickly you can see if it’s actually true – or is there another step you missed or didn’t even know about before?

You see, Google Analytics can not only track your marketing, sales and site performance. It can also help you hone it down to the most precise measurements possible. Suddenly, you have a clearer picture of the best customer you can serve, and how to catch their attention.

This doesn’t take the place of solid strategy, but rather makes the whole process easier to implement and track.

Added Value

Want to know which topics are of interest to your ideal targeted customer? Look at the Google Analytics. Take an article that’s an overview and take a deeper dive. Much like the sales conversion breakdown, you can strip down popular topics to the bare bones and make 3-4 posts out of one subject.

Expand or combine your most popular posts into a lead magnet that potential customers can download. In one step, you show added value, convenience and credibility. Or do an email blast, highlighting the most pertinent information of your popular posts, with a link back to read more.

Don’t be afraid to repeat topics and material either. Blog posts usually have a limited life, and newer is automatically perceived as better by many. So cycle through your top posts every once in a while. It’s only going to make you look more useful to Google bots and therefore to customers when it rises to the top.

You can also add updated or additional material to a post that is evergreen and keeps getting traffic. It’s a fantastic way to keep older material relevant and, again, build credibility.

These are just a few tips for using Google Analytics to your best advantage. There are likely countless ways you can discover and set goals specific to your business that Google Analytics can track.

If you’d like more information on how to build that initial strategic “guesswork,” help creating buyer personas that match your ideal customers, or need expertly written, curated blog posts specific to your business, please reach out. We’ve built our business helping small businesses find and market to their audience.

Let’s Grow The Dream together!

But with recent law changes from the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) to the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) there are now significant limits and outright restrictions to using the easiest tracking indicator, a computer cookie. By the way, California just voted to upgrade to the California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) earlier this month.

Oh, and those changes may pale in comparison to Google announcing that it is actively seeking to create a stricter set of privacy standards for the Internet. These will be implemented in their own products – and likely span the rest of the online community. The main thrust – eliminating third party tracking cookies. Apple’s Safari and Mozilla Firefox already have some form of this cookie blocking in place. And both continue to develop their efforts to reinforce privacy and trust.

So what’s a small business to do?

Healthy Snack Alternatives

On the plus side, a survey conducted last year by Marketing Charts in Miami shows that seven in ten businesses still ultimately use email to track their customers’ interest and movement through the sales funnel. And like most small businesses, you’re even more likely to use this method.

Some 43% of business websites utilize cookies – some in addition to emails, obviously. But the businesses that do use cookies may want to look closely at shifting to rely on them even less. Especially since California various law changes are precursors to other state, if not federal regulations soon to arrive.

Larger businesses surveyed appear to be confident that the quantity of data they’ve already amassed will help them continue to identify customers and potential clients easily. Nevermind that this data was largely acquired via cookies, and moving forward will be severely limited.

Both Google and Apple are working on ways to accurate track conversions in a cookie-less environment. And as I mentioned two weeks ago, Amazon already has their own similarly aimed proprietary system in place. There is also a slim chance that Facebook will start sharing its data. Or much more likely, it will force more companies to use a Facebook-oriented login in exchange for their digital identity keys.

Homemade Treats

One thing that is becoming clear to me as more and more regulations are put into place… A strategic marketing approach is more important than ever.

There’s a cycle we see over and over across the generations. It’s not always obvious until you look for it, but if you pay attention, it repeats itself again and again. The most important factor to successful, ongoing sales, in ANY industry, is RELATIONSHIPS.

Let me give you a totally unrelated example from my own life. In addition to my work for Grow the Dream, I am an actor and a screenwriter. I moved to Los Angeles in 2012 to pursue my creative endeavors. I had a couple of acquaintances, which led to a small, unpaid job. But more than half of the acting and writing jobs I’ve had since then I can directly track to people I met at that job the first two weeks I was in town.

In the old days, sales were closed by a handshake. As the internet and other messaging systems built up, making it nearly impossible to breathe or think without encountering a marketing message, people turned to relationships. Social media started spanning the globe – and word of mouth became the most important aspect of attracting customers (once again). We call it different names – referrals, recommendations, word of mouth, built trust… but they all describe the Power of Relationships for success.

Guess what? That’s still going to be true. We tried to sidestep it, create tracking algorithms and fancy keyword cheats. But none of that worked as well as Relationships. With the cookies crumbling, it’s time to go back to basics – “This is a football.”

Organic Options

Don’t get me wrong – we still need to be businesses. Businesses need to grow. And to grow, we need to build NEW relationships. Relationships are built on knowledge, value, reliability and trust. You build trust by providing overarching value – especially when it’s free.

Free added value options can be in the form of Lead Magnets, educational blog posts and free teleseminars. Something you give in exchange for an email or phone number. The potential client gets something they can use and benefit from – even if they never do business with you again. You have a way to follow up; a means to remind them that they don’t have to go it alone.

Even if someone comes to your site and never returns or buys anything – they can become a referral source. A friend, neighbor or colleague of a one-time visitor needs something your company can provide. Luckily, that visitor has a lead magnet with your contact info – instant new customer.

Of course, organic search traffic is also hopefully a factor for your business. Whatever Google eventually comes up with to replace the cookie-tracking ad experience, you still need to create consistent content. Content that provides solutions to the questions that your ideal customer is asking. Relationships and trust are slowly built. But gradually potential clients become a customer, advocate, then evangelist for your company.

Yes, cookies may be going away. But the heart of strategic marketing isn’t. It’s as true today as it always was, and ever will be. If you need help building your strategic marketing approach or finding additional content for your website, please reach out. We’re here to help you Grow Your Dream.

So while economic pundits went on and on about debt spending, Bob Iger felt it was worth the $4-Billion to buy Lucasfilm; $4.24-Billion to acquire Marvel; and $71.3 Billion to take over competing studio FOX. It’s hard to believe now that Disney was the one begging for a seat at the table back in 1948 when FOX & Paramount owned most of the movie business, from production to theater chains.

No, Bob Iger didn’t think his company was too big to fail. He counted the cost and knew that combining those three entities, along with his own studio and their step-sister Pixar, would generate enough income – in the theme parks alone – to justify it within ten years.

Of course, he didn’t plan on a pandemic deeply cutting into the profits. But the company is stable enough to endure this time relying on other income, like Disney+, which outperformed their biggest expectations even before people were stuck with streaming-only entertainment. And they still have $12-billion a year in toy sales to soften the blow.

There’s Always a Price Tag

Before we dive in, let me clarify a couple things. Every customer has a cost. At the bare minimum, it’s the expense of generating the product or service you offer. So the raw materials and manufacturing to create a widget is a set cost. Every customer who buys that widget must, generally, cover those expenses. Preferably with a margin for profit. If your service is more intangible, like writing a blog or rebuilding a website, the minimum cost would be for the labor – or the value of your time if you’re a sole proprietor.

In addition to that, you want to account for the expenses that brought that customer to you. Even if they’re just a walk-in, you had to pay for that space they entered. For the sign above the door or in the window, alerting them it wasn’t just a vacant room.

But we’re not talking about just one customer who buys one thing. As we discussed last week, there is much more to consider. Are your targeted customers looking for long-term solutions (a weekly blog post for years) or short term fixes (a luxury ride to the airport). And are they likely to be repeat customers (a termite inspection before you buy a home, and then contracting for quarterly treatments after it’s bought).

We need to also calculate the cost of keeping an existing customer (up to 5x less once established) and keeping the company name top of mind for later purchase decisions. As Grow the Dream has taught for years, you cannot rely on any marketing unless you have a measurable metric to determine its effectiveness. So we must calculate the basic expenditures, giving us a baseline from which to begin our measurements.

The 400 Blows

You’re probably familiar with that age old adage, “it takes 100 No’s to get a Yes.” And even though we’re aware that it’s part hyperbole, like the 10,000 hours rule, there is also a measurable metric truth to it. Not only must you take into account the cost of making a sale, you must also factor in the cost of all the attempts to make the sale that failed.

I mean, if you’re really up and running properly, you have sales clearing, and dozens or even hundreds of other not-yet-sales bouncing around in some part of the sales funnel you’ve built. Yes, time is also a factor. Time is money in foldable form. And we’re looking at the cost of all of the resources required to generate a customer sale.

In an ideal world, you would know how much is required to get one average sale, down to the second and the penny. You should also know the profit from each sale. Averages are good for this, because the more data you have, the tighter your calculations will be for both. With that info, you can calculate how many customers you need to have to break even, pull ahead and properly cultivate and grow your business.

To take that one step further, we want to look at the cost of acquiring and keeping your ideal customer. Averages are great, but the closer we are to the center of the target, the more valuable that client is to us. Your ideal customer may cost less in the long run than one a little to the left or the right, metaphorically speaking.

So those averages become one benchmark – always pressing to the higher standard of the ideal customer.

What Price Glory?

In an ideal situation, we would have as much data and detail as possible. Of course, we are seldom in an ideal situation, and, as the saying goes, if we wait for perfect conditions, we’ll never start. The great thing about a strategic marketing approach is that it’s a living document. We start with what we know, and build onto that. As we learn more, we adapt and develop it, with each iteration becoming more precise and, hopefully, actionable.

But we do have to start somewhere., so consider these elements that should be accounted for. Be as specific as you can. Barring that, try to have an estimation, at least, for the value of these resources and expenses starting out. If you’re starting completely from scratch, there are some good resources to make more educated guesses. I recommend Hubspot, Neil Patel, The Futur and business periodicals like Inc, Forbes, Fast Company and Entrepreneur.

Remember to consider the individual cost of things like your marketing costs. Online, print ads, direct mailers, search engine ads, social media – anything that brings people in. The expense of building your own website (even if you do it yourself). Renting or buying a building location or store front – even a mall kiosk or flea market table.

What are your follow-up costs? Do you need a newsletter? How about a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. If you start with a cheaper one, will it scale as you grow, or is that an expense to budget down the line. Or will you try and keep your own contact database? At the very least, the free version of MailChimp will keep you from getting dinged for spam.

Play For Today

Will you be offering classes or webinars? These can be both an expenditure and a source of income. You can use these purely for marketing purposes. Or you can leverage income from ongoing classes and extra-informative one-off’s. We’ve done both at Grow the Dream – in fact, it was a significant part of our business model in the past.

How will you leverage organic search traffic? It’s no secret that we believe developing a solid content blog is a crucial part of gaining this Google attention. Will you write it yourself? Will you contract it out? Even if you shift the focus of your topics once you’ve targeted your ideal customer,  starting with something is better than nothing.

You’ll need to identify and track where conversions happen on your site and in your various forms of attracting customers. Remember, if you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it. So make sure you have the means in place to identify where each customer came from. This is another area where you’ll plan for everything, but as you develop your marketing strategy, you’ll spend more on the most profitable areas of influence – the sources where most of your ideal customers come from.

The Conversation

Remember, a transaction or conversion is every time something of value is exchanged. So while sales are the ultimate indicator of success, knowledge of how every transaction happens is invaluable. Every time a visitor gives you their email in exchange for a lead magnet, you have started the chain of yesses.

It could start earlier, with finding you on Google, or a link from another website. You need to track it all. But not just that first step – even after they’ve found you or returned, keep track of where sales happen. The decision to put something in a cart – real or virtual – is another yes. Reading an entire article, especially one as long as this, is a time investment and another yes.

Filling out the contact form, agreeing to a brief sales call, signing up for an event. Keep track of it all.

While the City Sleeps

One thing often neglected in these calculations is connection. Do your sales require a certain level of touch? A convincing face to face interaction? Will automation do the trick or will it just serve to chase potential customers away? Is there an acceptable balance of machine-generated communication? Consider the cost of both using and rejecting automation.

Don’t neglect salary expenses, even if you’re a solopreneur. You need to pay yourself a reasonable sum for your time and expertise, otherwise you won’t have a business for long, especially if you have a significant other and/or children you’re responsible for. And don’t forget to line item any freelancers, independent contractors or lease expenditures.

This is not the time to skimp – be honest and if you err, err on the side of higher expenses, not lower.

Also, make sure you calculate a positive value for retaining customers. Just like the expense of keeping them around, you should track their continued value. This becomes especially important if you offer monthly, quarterly or annual products that can renew like gym memberships or Netflix.

This will also come into play heavily next week, when I break down the lifetime value of each customer. I hope you’ll join me. If you have quick questions or need clarifications, pop them in the comments. For longer, more specific questions, or to get more information on how we can help you grow your business, please reach out!

Consider the story of Carl. He started his own business and got lucky entering the market at the right time. His product was on the upswing, and for the first 5 years of his entrepreneurship, he never once had to worry if he could cover his bills. And he didn’t really learn much about business.

Just past the five year mark, he sold the company to a much larger conglomerate that was seeking to dominate the market. Carl decided to invest his proceeds into another business, in another growing area. He lost everything in about 18 months. He eventually got a job from that conglomerate and did okay, but was never really happy.

I said he got lucky for a reason. You see, Carl didn’t do his due diligence. He didn’t do his research, and he never paid attention to how his business was growing. And he had no lessons from it to apply to his new business.

It’s easy to sit back and blame the timing for why the second business didn’t work – and believe me, Carl did. But as the other old adage goes, “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Had Carl been better prepared, that preparation might have made the new opportunity as lucky as the first one.

What Lies Ahead

For the next few weeks, I’m doing a deep dive into the 7 questions all small businesses must ask to find and drive their marketing strategy, and how to track their effectiveness. The questions are often inextricably intertwined. And despite my efforts to separate them to find a better focus, there will be some repeated information. However, I’m going to do my best to present repeated information slightly differently, so if something doesn’t quite connect with you in this article, perhaps it will be illuminated for you in a later one.

One of my favorite screenwriting teachers, William Martell, has a disclaimer he puts in all his books – tools not rules. And like screenwriting, marketing strategy has no set in stone rules. But there are guidelines and best practices for both that can be adopted. Just remember, as long as it works for you, no one cares. Break whatever guidelines you want – as long as your marketing is working. And if it slows, come back and read these again to see if there’s “an ace you can keep” to revitalize your efforts.

Asking the Question

The obvious go-to answer for this inquiry, if you have an existing client base, is to just ask. “How did you find us?” “What brought you in today?” “Who referred you?” Sometimes you don’t even have to ask.

When I took a seasonal position at a Hickory Farms kiosk over the holidays, many of the people who stopped by volunteered their memories of shopping at the storefront as kids. Most of those year-round stores are now defunct, but, whether by chance or design, I’m not sure, the kiosk I worked at was two doors down from where the store had been years ago. Now it’s a Spectrum store.

And while this works great for a brick and mortar store (being at the foot of a busy escalator didn’t hurt either) a lot of us today do the majority of our business online. And after the learning curve of the novel Coronavirus, a lot more businesses are moving definitively in that direction.

The other factor to consider, regardless if you’re asking in person or in a follow-up survey, is that anecdotal evidence only goes so far. And it’s not as reliable as we’d like to think. Many people cannot recall where they first found our businesses. Or they may respond positively to even an unspoken suggestion to satisfy our curiosity or just to avoid the awkwardness of not remembering.

That doesn’t lead to measurable information that you can track,and tracking is the only way we can ensure we’re expending marketing resources in the best manner. Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) help us determine where we need to improve or change.

Just Google It

In the old days, we would rely on the yellow pages. The phone book was a quick, one stop shop for all of the local providers of whatever you needed. Need a hammer? Hardware section. Need a commercial? Video Production section. Even if a company didn’t pay for an ad on the page, they were listed, right along with the major players.

Nowadays, it’s both easier and harder. We have a mountain of information at our fingertips. And, customers have a mountain of information at their fingertips. It’s not enough to have a phone or even an email or a website. You have to find a way to cut through the clutter and noise so your customers find you.

We teach our clients to do this by isolating and focusing on their ideal customer. Who is the customer they can best serve, most efficiently, for the biggest impact, that can afford them. Then we narrow our focus to determine as many intimate details about this ideal customer as we can, so we know what they look like. We figure out why they need our client’s product and service.

Then we examine what specific words or phrases that customer searches for online to find the client. Often phrased in the form of a question, what is the Jeopardy! answer they are seeking for which the client provides the needed solution. Then we create or help them create content that offers that solution to that question, thereby raising the odds that when the customer searches online, Google gives them to the client as the best answer.

The Google Advanced Round

The other ‘wonderful’ thing about Google is that it keeps track of everything. Almost literally everything. So along with creating content that the Google bots will rate as highly effective and regularly updated, we also teach our clients to use Google’s tools.

Specifically, the Google Analytics dashboard.

A small piece of code or image pixel is inserted into the client’s website. Then, even if the visitors deny cookies, Google can track a myriad of information about who comes to your website. It tracks how they found it, how long they stayed, what pages they visited and for how long, and where do they go when they leave your site. If they accept cookies, double the info collected.

Google Analytics is a fantastic tool for looking at and tracking customer’s past behavior. And a great way to predict future behavior as well. And it’s pretty reliable; no “past performance doesn’t guarantee future results” warning needed.

Just Another Fuzzy Face

Unless you’re starting today from scratch after reading this article, it’s more than likely that you have attempted other marketing ploys and strategies in the past. Maybe that’s even what brought you to this article. After all, why would you trust our team to develop your strategy if we don’t employ the same tactics ourselves?

The problem with most marketing and advertising out there is that it takes a shotgun approach. And on the surface, that makes sense. Shotguns are effective because one trigger pull blasts a whole lot of tiny pieces in a wide radius. And if you can guarantee that the best customers are right there in front of you, or at your networking meeting, great. A shotgun will do.

But usually they’re more spread out. Especially in our global economy. So, yes, one pump of the shotgun will get you 200 customers. And all of them combined could be worth less to your business and you to theirs than one high-level client.

Here at Grow the Dream, we prefer a single shot approach. Yes, you only get one client per shot, but if you do your strategic work properly, they’re the best client for you and you’re the best solution for them and their budget.

But that tactic isn’t workable if you don’t know what you sell or what your ideal client needs – or where to “hunt” for them.

Psychographics is the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological criteria. It’s the mental side of demographics – age, income, married or single. Demographics are what the Census collects. Psychographics is a whole new ball game. You combine both to create the ideal client profile. We’ll talk more about that next week.

Getting the Ball Rolling

As I said earlier, this is the first of seven weekly posts that will explore in greater detail the 7 questions all small businesses should be asking. We don’t charge for these articles, and I hope that they will help you narrow your focus and find new ways to succeed in your chosen business. I do ask that if you found it helpful, pass it on to a friend or business colleague.

We’d love to read your comments and any suggestions or burning questions you’d like answered. We want to serve you. We’ve built our small business helping other small businesses succeed and grow, following the model of our dearly departed friend Zig Ziglar.

And that’s the other side of the coin. You can read all the books and articles in the world, but if you don’t implement them or lack the skills to do so, they are worthless to you. If you need help, please ask. We have a variety of service plans – from training you and your team to tackle the marketing, to doing it all for you, top to bottom. If any of that sounds promising to you, please reach out. We’ll schedule a 25 minute call with one of our teammates to get you started right away!

If you missed any of the other articles in this series, the links to them are included below.

7 Questions Your Small Business Should Ask to Focus & Track Key Performance Indicators in Your Marketing Strategy

How Are Your Customers Finding You?

How Often Does Finding You Lead to a Transaction?

Are Your Customers Looking for Long Term Solutions or Quick Fixes?

What’s The Cost to Get a Customer?

What is the Lifetime Value of a Customer?

There are two main kinds of posts like this. Seasonal fixes, like a pest solutions company that sees a spike in readers of their 2013 post about Love Bugs every spring and fall (the insects’ mating season). Or our own post dealing with the most cost effective way to save audio files for your podcast. No, there’s no podcast season, per se, but there is an ebb and flow in popularity and people being inspired to start their own.

This kind of content lingers and continues to get increased attention over time because it doesn’t radically change.

Staying Fresh

The term, “Evergreen Content” of course, comes from the idea that, like an uncut fir tree, these articles are always fresh and green. It’s quality, useful content that remains relevant to readers no matter when they find your website. Therefore – evergreen.

So, for example, the series of recent posts that we did related to working at home and dealing with the novel Coronavirus will have a limited shelf life – and we all want it to be as short as possible.

On the other hand, our posts about marketing strategy and building your small business through an economic recession are still relevant 5, 10, even 15 years later! Even though the algorithms that govern search engine relevancy have changed and been updated through several iterations in that same time.

This is the second kind of evergreen post. Posts that build exponentially over their life, bringing increased value to your find-ability on Google and other search engines.

Obviously, you want as much of your content as possible to be evergreen – always fresh and inviting. But you have to find a balance. Otherwise, you may feel out of touch to customers dealing with pressing issues that need to be addressed today, even if they won’t matter a year from now.

Fresh and (Mostly) Easy

Like all the other content that will be posted on your blog or shared with your newsletter readers, evergreen posts have to come out of your marketing strategy. Who is your ideal customer – the one that balances out to provide you the most income for the least effort. What are they asking – how do they find you online – what questions are they searching on Google that you provide the answer for. And the third leg of the stool – making sure you’re tracking key performance indicators so you stay ahead of changes in the marketplace and your customers’ needs.

The beauty of a properly executed business marketing strategy is that it ensures that a good portion, if not the majority, of the posts on your content blog will be evergreen.

One of the first things that online marketers will tell you is to be specific and speak as if you’re talking to beginners. After all, experts are less likely to look for your content. Which makes some sense. But our way is better.

You do need to tailor your content for people who aren’t experts in your field. So, no, Neil Patel and Seth Godin aren’t popping by Grow the Dream to learn how to do marketing. But you also can’t come off as condescending or talking down to your customers. That’s a big turn off. Just avoid the jargon and particular industry-ese for your business. The potential client may or may not understand a term, depending on the level of research they’ve done before landing on your site.

Squint Like Clint

I also agree with narrowing your focus. As I’ve mentioned before, the riches are in the niches, and that’s a particularly great way for a smaller business to stand out. But you don’t narrow your focus for convenience or because you’re worried about confusing potential buyers – unless your target market includes a specific lack of knowledge.

You drill down to the specifics, the exact knowledge your potential customer is looking for because, well, that’s what they’re looking for. Think about it. The more specifically you address the needs of your ideal customer, the better chance they will find you. The Internet is like a virtual universe – ever more rapidly expanding. If you can narrow their search from 332-million+ results to a mere 7-million, you’ve increased your odds.

Or even better, if you can grab the #1 search position away from all your competitors, regardless of how many results turn up, do you feel lucky? Well, do you?

A Third Factor

There is another kind of evergreen content. It requires a little more work, but worth it if you’re serious about keeping fresh eyes moving to your website. There’s a great way to take advantage of certain posts and the credibility they’ve already gained in the “eyes” of Google.

I talked about the wrong way to do this a few weeks back. Just taking dates off your post, and/or leaving old, outdated numbers and whatnot might help you rank, initially. But ultimately it will just be a source of irritation for people who land on the page. And it makes you appear less trustworthy. And that’s assuming they do business with you at all.

For most of what we call evergreen content, the information provided or concept explained will be enough to keep it relevant. But there are some posts that rank high where parts of the article are dated. Sections are old and in need of a refresh. Or at the very least, an added comment pointing out that the numbers or information were true on the original date of publication and should be taken into account. I personally prefer to add the caveat that no newer data could be located, if that’s true (and believe me, I look).

But Wait, There’s More!

In a similar way, you can bolster the credibility and worth of old posts that are doing well by adding onto them. In addition to reviewing and refreshing anything that’s not accurate any more, you can add an update or two. You can add more graphics; Infographics; a slide show; additional related material, and even video or audio..as long as what you add enhances the user experience and offers more information or value to the person landing on the page.

In a study HubSpot posted in 2015, higher word count blogs tend to be considered of higher value for both readers and search engines. While I couldn’t track down newer numbers, from what I’ve seen, this is still the case.

By making older, high traffic blogs bigger and better, you retain the benefits of that traffic already directed to the page. You gain the benefit of being more helpful and providing additional value to someone who isn’t even your customer yet. And, Google tracks the changes, and will increase bot crawls to the page and any connected pages. While it’s temporary, that offers another minor boost.

In a way, it’s like doubling down on the evergreen-ness of the content.  

Reading the Signs

Another benefit to tracking which posts are evergreen and gaining the most traffic is that it gives you valuable insight into your ideal customer. At worst, it confirms that certain posts are on target. Your customers are searching for the answers you’re providing to their questions. The strategy is working.

What’s more – it allows you to hone even tighter into the most pressing things they need that they’re looking for you to provide. You might have three posts about Florida’s flying insects – more specific than all the insects – but still verging on general. But then you see that your posts on mosquitoes are really driving your converted traffic this month. It’s probably good to spend some time drilling down into that niche.

To take it one step further – you can take the time to create a highly targeted Lead Magnet for your best potential customers. Rewrite or just “reprint” the information from your top 5 or 10 posts. Then use it as a value trade-off to get customers onto your mailing list. And once they’ve “bought” a small thing from you, even for free, they’re more likely to remember you and put you high on their list of finalists.

The ultimate value of well-performing evergreen content is that more eyes find your website. And if your strategy is in place and everything is aligned, that turns into higher quality, more relevant, and consistently converting leads.

If you need help with strategy or need to work on developing your best strategy, please reach out. We’re here to help small businesses succeed and grow their dreams. And if you need a team to help you execute your strategy and produce consistent, professional, evergreen content that reaches your ideal customer, we can help with that too.

There was only one problem…

Okay, Make That Two

Considering most small business owners have been in this position, you’ve probably already guessed what that problem was. As we all know, the two most valuable resources for building your small business are almost always the ones that are in shortest supply: Time and Money.

Yes, you have the same number of hours in a day as everyone else, but when you’re just getting started, you lack the ability to leverage other hours. That means, even though you have your 24 hours, you have to divide that time between several very pressing priorities, including sleep and family relationships.

It will come as no surprise to you that I’m going to suggest that we apply some strategy to the situation. After all, our company is based on implementing and teaching Strategic Marketing Solutions.

We know there are dozens, if not hundreds, of ‘voices’ in your head, reminding you that you need to do this or that right away. But to really manage things, it would behoove you to take a few days to a week and map out how to best tackle all of those concerns.

After all, what good are free resources if you never have time to use or even look at them?

Think of it this way – time and money should be working FOR you, not the other way around. By strategizing and prioritizing, you’re able to eliminate to-do lists and focus on what is really important. You’ll also have a clear justification for ignoring (temporarily) minor problems that arise, instead of rushing to put out fires that may die down on their own.

Remember to schedule time for family, for critical tasks that must be completed each day, and for researching & learning new skills. Leave a little flexibility, but the more detailed and specific you make your schedule, the clearer and more focused you will be and the faster you can start to see your goals come to fruition.

This list, while extensive, is by no means comprehensive. There are countless other resources you’ll likely be able to find online for the various areas I’ve outlined, but I’ve tried to stick with the ones that we have used here at Grow the Dream and can recommend, and those I’ve seen clients use to some success.

Pre-Launch Business Planning

Typically, most small business owners will have already done this work prior to finding this article, but for those of you still in the planning stages, or looking to find financing for your business’s expansion, this will help to get you started.

• SBA.gov – The Small Business Administration is an invaluable government resource to get your business journey started and continued. They provide everything from loans, to free classes and training, to finding mentors to help you and your business succeed, and so much more. It’s the first stop I recommend all new business owners make, even when they’re still at their survival job.
• Bplans.com – This wonderful site provides sample business plans, representing nearly every industry—from caterers to construction companies and beyond. I recommend taking advantage of their examples to tailor the advice and pre-planning work you’ll do with the SBA.
• Enloop – Taking your cue from the above resources, Enloop allows you to easily create a professional looking business plan complete with 3-year financial forecast reporting. And they’ll score that plan for free as you work and develop it. Your first business plan is free, with affordable subscription rates for additional plans and added features.

Content Blog Publishing & Web Design:

One of the most powerful tools you can have in this day and age is a business website – one with a regularly updated content blog. And while there are lots of different ‘free’ (often ad supported) website builders out there, few are as powerful, optimized and easy to use as…

• WordPress.org – An open source blogging tool and so much more. 31% of all websites across the world utilize WordPress for their primary website design. It’s so popular that many hosting companies have it as an easy install in their back office infrastructure. It’s fast, easy to use and get started with and has an incredibly powerful behind the scenes algorithm that will literally launch your site into the top search engine results. If you download and install it yourself, make sure you’re using the .org version Yes, the .com doesn’t require you to provide hosting, but it lacks the bells and whistles you’re going to want to use. Which brings us to…
• WP Engine – Our top choice for your managed WordPress hosting. WP Engine’s basic plan starts at $35 a month, but it’s super fast, incredibly secure – with CDN and SSL included – and can handle up to 25,000 visits and 50 GB bandwidth use per month. It’s also easy to upgrade as you grow and expand and offers additional tools for marketing optimization. And there is a crucial benefit of WP Engine – DAILY website backups. And you can force an additional backup at any time. No more lost data!
• Namecheap Shared Hosting – This is a great solution if you’re on a tight budget or extremely risk averse when getting started. Namecheap can get you a domain name, WhoIs Guard, and hosting for as low as $3/month. Their top end is less than $10. They aren’t as integrated as WP Engine, and they only backup your site twice a week, but it’s a great deal for the beginner. And you can always port your site over to WP Engine or another hosting service with minor effort.

Once you have WordPress installed, you’ll see that there are literally thousands of plug-ins and add-ons you can take advantage of – many of them free – to customize your users experience. But there are three free ones right off the bat that you should activate as soon as you log in to your Admin page.

• Askimet – One thing you’ll run into as soon as you launch your blog are countless comments from hacker sites, trying to use your blog to propagate their spam and viruses. You likely won’t have time to deal with them, and this is the solution. Akismet is a comment spam filtering service. Akismet utilizes a learning algorithm to spot and isolate blog comment and pingback spam. Even though Akismet comes pre-installed, it is not activated by default. Once you activate it, though, all those spam comments and pseudo-links will be shuttled off your site into a virtual ‘holding area’ where you never have to look at them again.
• Jetpack – While Jetpack doesn’t come automatically installed, I highly recommend it. Jetpack is the ultimate toolkit for WordPress. It gives you everything you need to design, secure, and grow your site in one bundle. Jetpack adds secure logins and protection from brute force attacks, automatic social sharing, and can increase your site’s load times. It also comes with free themes, image tools, and rich content.
• Yoast SEO – Even though WordPress is already well-built for Search Engine Ranking, there is always room to improve, especially when humans are involved. The Yoast SEO plugin helps you to optimize your website for search engines in two ways.
  • If you insist on keyword SEO (we recommend long tail and strategically targeted blog posts), Yoast can make sure your posts have those keywords.
  • Yoast also evaluates and recommends tips to improve the readability of your posts and pages, such as making sure your page is broken up into readable chunks, you’re not using too much passive voice, utilizing transition words and writing at your users’ typical reading level.
• ConvertPlug – It used to be rather difficult to build an offer or “don’t go” pop-up within your WordPress install. You had to know a bit about coding and languages, etc., and it was frustrating for many business owners. That all changed with ConvertPlug. Now for only $21, you can build a fully functional popup for your website, all within WordPress. This isn’t as critical as the above plugins, but it is a good one to have.
• Grammarly – Grammarly automatically detects grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and style mistakes in your writing. And not just your blog posts. Grammarly can be installed in most web browsers and works within Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, WordPress and Microsoft Office. No more spelling errors, typos or misused grammar.
• Co Schedule’s Headline Analyzer – This site does exactly what it promises, evaluating your headline to see what works or doesn’t. For example, this post has one of our more generic headlines. It earned a 58. Why is this important? Because the headline is the first thing everyone sees. When my sister worked in advertising, she would generate no less than 100 headlines for every ad she generated. It’s estimated that five times as many people read the headline as click through to the article. If you want people to read your article and visit your site, you need a great headline
• Hemingway App – The Hemingway App is similar to the readability score you’ll find in Yoast. But it goes a little further – identifying superfluous words (yes, I see the irony), hard-to-read sentences, and passive voice.

Email Marketing

Once you start getting customers – or even visitors – coming to your site, you’ll need a way to keep in contact with them. Of course, we recommend you use a laser-targeted Lead Magnet to offer in trade for their email, but even if they just sign up for your mailing list, that’s an important contact to keep track of and communicate with.

• MailChimp – MailChimp started as an email marketing service, and that’s still its best feature. Build custom emails from scratch or using a variety of pre-built templates to keep in contact with your clients, and potential clients. It’s free until you top 2000 subscribers or 12000 emails sent in a month. You can upload a CSV customer list, or import from a bunch of other platforms to build your list. MailChimp tracks each email, how many opens it got as well as click-throughs, invaluable information for evaluating your strategies. And you can also use MailChimp for remarketing. One client I worked for would periodically send special deals to their most active customers to bolster responses. Send an email right away, or schedule it for later. With a paid account, you can sync the email to the users’ time zone, send in batches, and reach out to customers who clicked away from your site with unbought stuff in their cart.
• Aweber – Aweber provides many of the same tools as MailChimp, for a small cost. But it also specializes in e-mail autoresponders. You can automatically send follow up messages to your subscribers after a set amount of days and at whatever day of the week and time you choose, and build and integrate signup forms as well. The sign up forms can also be coded into your website. And you can test drive it all for just $1.

“Virtual” Assistance

Just because you’re going it alone, or with a small team, you don’t have to settle. These apps and tools will help you appear larger and function more efficiently, providing lots of leverage for growth.

• Grasshopper – There’s not much more offputting for a client than trying to call your office and getting your cell phone or just a generic message – or worse, some random number comes up that they can’t call back. The Grasshopper Virtual Phone System fixes that. It can provide a local or toll free number, unlimited extensions, live call forwarding, on hold music, and name directory. And it shows your business name on caller ID when you’re calling out. Need to receive a fax? Give them the Grasshopper number and you’ll get an email with the document. You may be a solopreneur, but you’ll give off the impression of being a Fortune 500 company. Prices run from $30 to $90 a month. And they might even waive the $25 setup fee.
• Evernote – Evernote is a cloud-based software service designed for creating, organizing and storing various media files. Whether it’s a text document, a photo, a video, an audio file or even a web page, Evernote keeps all of your stuff stored up in the cloud – so you can add to your notes and access them from your computer, your tablet, or your phone, all synchronized.
• Slack – Slack is an all-in-one collaboration hub that allows you to connect your team(s), unify systems, and drive business forward through extensive communication tools. Slack stands for “Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge,” and it’s search feature is one of the best benefits, especially if your email inbox is as full and old as mine. While I personally prefer BaseCamp, it’s a little pricier for small business owners just starting out, and this is an article about free low-cost tools. Slack, on the other hand, provides ample tools for most small to medium sized businesses for free.
• Due – Due focuses on a complete payment solution that includes time tracking, online invoicing, digital wallet and credit card processing. It’s great for freelancers as well as small business, allowing them to track time spent on projects and port it into an integrated invoice and billing system.
• Google Tools – I could do a whole post (and I might someday!) just on the wide variety of tools that Google offers, mostly free of charge, to help you organize your life and business, grow your client base, utilize better advertising, etc., etc. If you haven’t already, check out Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Ad Words, Google Analytics, Google My Business, and of course, Gmail. For even more powerful tools, at a reasonable price, check out G Suite.
• Trello – Trello is basically the Pinterest for Business Planning and work tracking. Trello organizes your projects into boards for easier collaboration. This is great if you have a virtual office team, because everyone can see what’s being worked on at what stage on the ‘white boards’
• Airtable – Airtable is a spreadsheet-database hybrid, with the features of a database but applied to a spreadsheet. This tool helps you organize information in truly elegant ways. While it does boast a paid service, the free version is plenty powerful enough to be valuable.
• Dropbox – Before Google Drive, we all relied on Dropbox. It’s a cloud-based, virtual file cabinet for all sorts of media files that can be accessed, edited and shared, based on the permissions you set.

Social Media Management

There’s almost no cheaper way to spread the word about your business and build a following than through the popular social media platforms. But that can easily get overwhelming without help and, again, you only have so much time in your day. These tools can help:

• Buffer – Buffer allows you to schedule social media posts across a variety of social media platforms, without having to pay a penny – although there are more features if you upgrade. You can add one profile from each social media channel, and schedule posts across all of them at once. If you’re only managing a few social profiles and want to stick to a small budget, Buffer might be right for you. Once you’ve really started to expand, you can upgrade to…
• Hootsuite – If you’re working with a large team or multiple client companies and websites, HootSuite is probably your best option. While it started primarily as a Twitter scheduling app, it has expanded far beyond that now. Just like Buffer, you can schedule posts across many social media platforms, as well as many profiles. Hootsuite also provides analytical tools so you can see how your posts are being received and spread – an essential metric to track. It also starts free with options to upgrade for as low as $19/month.

Building Graphics:

Images are what makes your content and website stand out among the crowd. But if you can’t afford to have a graphic designer on retainer or absorb the cost and learning curve of the Adobe Creative Suite, these tools can definitely assist.

• Canva – Canva is a tool that makes it possible to design anything and publish anywhere. It utilizes a user-friendly drag and drop tool and thousands of customizable templates to create everything from blog graphics to business card, resume and letterhead designs. And you can even get feedback and collaboration from other Canva users.
• Pablo – Pablo was built by Buffer to help people create and share more dynamic, visual social media posts. You pick an image, a font, type in your post and voila! In under 30 seconds, you’ve got a pretty post that you can download or connect right into Buffer to schedule or post.
• GIMP – GIMP is an open source, open access graphics manipulation program that’s free and purports to be similar in style and scope to Adobe’s Photoshop. Honestly, as a long-term Photoshop user, I’ve found GIMP to be much less intuitive and a lot more of a learning tool to use. To be honest, neither one is easy to use, so tread carefully before jumping into this particular rabbit hole. Also, Adobe now offers limited access on their Creative Cloud subscription service, starting at $13/month.
• HongKiat.com – In addition to providing several free vectors and templates to build infographics, HongKiat also has lots of inspiration, tutorials and guides. If you want to use these valuable visual information slides, this is the place to start.
• Visme.co – For $20/month, Visme gives you tools to build and download infographics, more detailed PowerPoint or Keynote presentation slides, web banners, demos and even animations.
• Visual.ly – Their service is not free, but their portfolio is – if you can’t afford to have them build your graphics and infographics, they’re still a great source of inspiration for the ones you’ll build yourself.

Free Images:

So where do you get all the wonderful pictures for blog posts, quote backgrounds and banners? You may be tempted to just do a Google Image Search, but that’s a good way to ‘accidentally’ use someone’s image without permission and find yourself on the wrong end of a cease and desist case. Try these instead:

• FreeImages – Once known as Stock.XCHNG, Free Images is the free site that runs parallel to GettyImages – the largest provider of official images in the world. Free Images boasts over 2-million users that contribute their images for free use with permission and/or attribution. Just pay attention to the details on any photo you’re interested in.
• Scx.hu – Now in partnership with Adobe, this is the other side of Stock Exchange. This site specializes in more stock photography while Free Images is more broad.
• Wikimedia Commons – with proper attribution, you can download and use any of the 48-Million images made available through Wikipedia’s creative commons use license.
• Flickr – This user generated photo sharing site has a huge array of images available for free with or without attribution. Check out the creative commons section of Flickr and read the usage terms to make sure your photo usage is on the up and up.
• Pixabay – If you’re feeling bored by the typical line up of free stock images online, Pixabay is a great resource to shake things up. The images here have a slightly more more indie feel compared to the more generic vibe of traditional stock images.
•  Unsplash – Unsplash boasts stock images that don’t feel like stock images. They’re updated every 10 days. Their collection of free to use, no attribution images may establish a personal connection with your audience that typical stock images can’t quite reach.

Video Editing Tools

Video used to cost a considerable amount of money and needed to be planned out well in advance. Not so anymore. Check out our series of Best Practices for Shooting Video, then use these resources to edit and shape.

• Blender – The Blender Project is a free, open source 3D and video editing creation suite. Be warned, this one comes with a bit of a learning curve. But if you want to create 3D images or even experiment with simple CGI, it has all the toys – modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking.
• Wideo – This online video creation tool enables you to create, edit, and share compelling videos at no cost. Create animated videos with images, objects, movement, shapes, text, and audio.Perfect for simple and short video clips.
• Wirewax – For a simpler approach to video editing, check out Wirewax. The free version allows you to work on videos up to 10 minutes in length.

Marketing & Analysis

In addition to GoogleAnalytics and Facebook Audience Insights, there are a few stand alone tools that can help you analyze your marketing efforts as well as hone your ideal customer profile.

• SurveyMonkey – SurveyMonkey provides free, customizable surveys to help you drill down on anything. Plus, you can upgrade to get more extensive data analysis, sample selection, bias elimination, and data representation tools. It’s a great way to not only see if you’re on track with your content, but if there are aspects of your perfect client you’ve missed.
• BuzzSumo – Among its many uses, BuzzSumo can help you find blogging or social media influencers in your niche. You can use it to expand your list of content blog post topics. But you can also find potential guest bloggers or marketing partners you can work with to expand both of your businesses.

While you may be the only person working at your small business at the moment, there’s no need for despair or panic. Utilize these tools to look and act like a bigger fish in your pond. There are always creative ways to expand your business and reach. Take these suggestions and create your own success, on your terms.

Pay-Per-Click, is at its most basic, paying for placement. It’s a fee you’ll pay Google or Facebook to make sure people – presumably those who are prospective customers – see your advertisement. The nice thing about PPC, is that it can be very narrow. Unlike traditional advertising efforts – TV, radio, billboards, etc. – that are broader in scope in the hopes of catching the right person’s attention, PPC can be very tightly targeted – even to just one person. The other advantage – which can also be a negative, as I’ll explain later – is that you only pay for the ad when someone clicks on it.

Don’t be confused or misled by the varying terminology some marketing companies use to describe Pay-Per-Click advertising. Whether it’s referred to as cost-per-click, CPC, paid placement, paid search, guaranteed placement, or sponsored listings, the results are the same.

Another element of the PPC process is that you “bid” for the ads. Not like eBay, but you set a price ceiling that you are willing to pay for each click. If another company comes along and bids higher, you will get less exposure as Google gives them primacy. Which is why some search terms cost upwards of $1000 per click.

Facebook PPC ads are rather obvious. I always thought Google’s were as well with the little green (formerly yellowish orange) box at the side of a link that says “Ad.” But there’s a prevailing theory online, spawned by a study a few years back, that as many as 50% of people searching on Google don’t realize it when they click on an ad in search results.

On Facebook, the ads appear on the right sidebar, or in your newsfeed on mobile. Google places them at the top of all search results, which is one of the reasons they’re considered so valuable, even though they’re labeled as sponsored results.

Pay-Per-Click ads also stop posting if you stop paying for them.

So is Pay-Per-Click EVER worth it? The short answer is yes. Sometimes it’s worth it. Sometimes it isn’t. Hence the “ever” in our title. How do you decide if it’s right for you? That’s what I’ll break down for the remainder of this article.

A Tale of Two Platforms

There are two primary places online where PPC is going to matter – Google and Facebook. Search engine and social media. Sure, there are other search engines, and social media platforms, but considering Google and Facebook dominate 80-90% of their industry, with everyone else WAY below that, it makes sense to focus our attention on the places we’ll get the best results.

As we talked about in an earlier post, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to using Google Ads versus Facebook Ads, and ways you can use the data and success from each one to improve the performance of the other.

There are also different rules and strategies that can be applied to making them work. So while some of what we’ll discuss will be applicable to both platforms PPC campaigns, I’ll make note of when they diverge as well.

On the Plus Side

According to the latest data, 93% of all web experiences start with a search engine and Google processes about 5 billion searches per day (I’m actually watching the numbers as I write this, and at 11:30pm EST, they’re at 5.5 Billion already). That’s a lot of people accessing the web looking for a ton of things, including, hopefully, what you have to offer. Definitely one for the win column of Pay-Per-Click Ads on Google.

While the numbers are always changing – and Mark Zuckerberg begins threatening to raise prices – the average click on a Facebook PPC ad is around .30. That’s a low price for a potentially large click rate. And it gets even better if you dig down into the system. One of our associates found a way to legally game Facebook’s algorithm and ended up with over 2000 clicks for less than a penny apiece.

Regional businesses rank well – if you are a florist in Sarasota, FL, you don’t need to advertise everywhere, or across a wide swath of customers (especially if you’re already got a great content blog in place). You just need to target ads in the Sarasota-Bradenton area. Maybe Tampa Bay, if you’re feeling ambitious. But the point is, because they’re regional, they’ll likely be more affordable to bid on for PPC.

The riches are in the niches. PPC Ad campaigns that are designed with a clear goal or a niche objective tend to be highly successful. The more specific your search strings are targeted, the better chance you have of getting good leads for a low cost.

If you’re bidding on PPC ads in non-competitive markets, you also have a higher chance for success. You can use PPC to succeed in more competitive areas, but it will cost you. Again, the more specific you are about who your target customer is and what they are looking for, the better PPC will work – along with all your other online marketing efforts.

If you’ve already figured out and built one or more laser-focused Lead Magnets with specific landing pages (which Facebook already requires), you can point your PPC Ads there, and easily use the verbiage you’ve already written or some variation of it for the copy.

Because of the ability to tightly target with both Facebook and Google Ads, you can organize PPC campaigns that target your potential customers at all stages of your Sales Funnel.

In the Negative Column

Although some people do still click on Ads, most people (up to 94% according to some analysts) skip right to the organic results.

It can get expensive – especially if you haven’t done the strategic work.

No matter how cheap clicks are, if they don’t become customers, then they’re money wasted. Like any marketing effort, you’re going to have to sift some of the wheat from the chaff, but your goal should be to get as much wheat and as little chaff as possible. Especially if you’re shelling out big bucks for clicks.

While you only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad,
you always have to pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Whenever someone clicks on your ad, you still have to pay Google, regardless if a sale was made or not. Including if, for whatever reason, the page they are redirected to has the dreaded 404 error. Not only will you pay for the click, but Google and Facebook  may, justifiably, ding you for a less than ideal quality web experience.

Google and Facebook don’t care what your conversion rate is – that’s your business. But you better know it, because it can quickly bottom out your bottom line. More on that in a moment.

Choose your words carefully. Thankfully in 2016, Google AdWords increased the number of characters you can use in an ad to 30-30-80. That’s Headline 1: 30 characters, Headline 2: 30 characters and Description: 80 characters. Then you get essentially 15 characters each for a link and phone number.

But even with the expanded description and subheading, you still have to work to make the digital real estate count, especially if you have a long company name, or want to squeeze in a call to action.

It’s a Numbers Game – Literally

The single most important thing you need to do before you embark on a Pay-Per-Click campaign is have knowledge of your metrics.

Just like any other marketing effort, you MUST have a way to measure its effectiveness. With PPC, you should also know the metrics of your business. I talk a lot about the necessity of doing your strategic work to determine your idea customer and what their pain is. But the other important aspect of strategic work is the ability to measure your efforts and knowing the how effective your business efforts have been in the past – and this takes center stage BEFORE you begin doing PPC advertising.

You’ll need to know and track a few things right off the bat:

• What is your average customer worth — for one sale and/or for a lifetime?
• What is the cost of moving someone from complete stranger to buying customer – and to a lifelong evangelist?
• How long is your sales funnel process – and can someone be inserted into it late?
• How well does your website convert sales?
• What’s your goal with PPC? Growing a recent launch? Name recognition? Online presence to supplement your brick and mortar?
• How much can you afford to pay for each customer?
• How much can you afford to pay for each click, whether it becomes a customer or not?

Obviously, some of those items overlap a bit, but you need to know the numbers before you start, and you need a way to track the results as the campaign goes. Infusionsoft or another CRM is the key to maintaining these metrics before, during and even after the campaign. Otherwise, you could spend a lot of money for a little value. Or worse, you could be leaving a LOT of money on the table because there is a larger market that you’re just unaware of and not reaching because you’ve limited your total budget and cost per click drains it too quickly.

You should also consider, not only the value of a sale to a customer, but the value of transforming them into a constant source of referrals. This can be done with positive feedback on Yelp or Google of course, but I’m talking about their finding so much value in your company and what you provide that they’re always sending you new customers.

Conversion rate is the single most important metric for determining the value of a click.

Why is that? Because a minor uptick in conversion, either on your website or in the follow-up process can increase the value of a click by making it cheaper. In fact, considering the average small business’ conversion rate, improving that process (which again, your strategic work will help with) can double or even triple the value of each click. And if you’re targeting that click effectively, the effects can be exponential.

Another way to maximize your conversion efforts is to not limit yourself to just one campaign. Now, I’m not talking about muddling your brand by sending multiple divergent stories, products and goals that mostly serve to confuse your prospective audience, but testing and retesting the wording of the messages you’re sending. Start with your strategic work, and stay consistent, but try out other ways of phrasing things to see if one of them works better for PPC.

One study even found that using a quote from a customer as your headline or in your description can increase click through rates 5-10%.

And by the way, when applied properly, a Facebook Audience Insights Lookalike audience can lead to a lower PPC cost than Google AdWords, with a significantly higher conversion rate.

Not a Stand-Alone Strategy

Expert marketers agree that for almost every business, the best use of PPC advertising is as a supplement to other online marketing efforts.

That means you don’t abandon your content blog, your incoming, interlinking and outbound links, your lead magnet and landing pages or your managing and facilitating customer feedback. You put them all together, working in tandem to build your businesses. And if you’re smart, you use Infusionsoft to automate and coordinate as much as possible, so you have more time to focus on your customer.

Rising Tide Lifts All Marketing Boats

Some people will tell you that the only way to guarantee your place on page one of Google for your search terms is use Pay-Per-Click advertising and outbid your competitors – even the huge multi-national ones – for the highest sponsored ranking. And that’s true – MOSTLY.

The problem with this approach is it only deals with single word search terms, or at best two to three word phrases. As we’ve shown in the past, the best way to get ranked highly in organic search results is to answer the questions your prospective customers are asking. Which leaves behind one and two word phrases and launches us into long tail results.

Most people don’t search for, for example, “dog trainers” in their area. What they do search for is “how to stop my dog peeing on the carpet” or “how to get my dog to stop barking at night.” Especially since the advent of Siri and Alexa and ‘Ok, Google,’ people are searching more and more often by the use of a question.

Which, if you’ve done the strategic work, you know how to answer.

Of course, you will write a content blog post that answers that question. But guess what else? You now have not a word or small phrase, but a question that your customers are asking – and you can purchase Pay-Per-Click ads for that question. Your organic reach will increase. Your PPC ads will be more effective and almost certainly cheaper. And because the content is relevant, clicks on both the ad and the organic result – which might even end up right after each other on the same page – will elevate your search engine rankings even after you stop the PPC campaign.

All for just a little work to discover who your ideal customer is.

Perhaps more than any other form of advertising, traditional or online, Pay-Per-Click Ads offer the most control and transparency – if you know where to look. And if you know what to look for, and how your business works best, PPC can be a valuable asset in the growth of your small business.

Maybe you’re not getting the response you were expecting. Or you spot a logjam in the funnel at some point. Or something else is happening. For some reason, the website visitors are not turning into the paying customers you were expecting. Luckily, with software like Infusionsoft you can pinpoint exactly where the process is succeeding and failing. But the question remains…

Why is it failing?

One thing we’ve found over the years at Grow the Dream is that sometimes as small business owners, we focus too closely on the end result and not enough on the process of getting there. And that’s no surprise. As a small business owner or solopreneur, you don’t have a huge marketing department, or advertising group, or sometimes even an office manager to keep track of some of the smaller issues.

If you’ve followed our recommended marketing approach – key word strategy – you know where to begin – with your strategic work: determining your ideal customers, the questions they’re asking that you can answer and how to answer those questions in a way that they ‘hear’ and gain value from the answers, even before they start paying you. A crucial part of the strategic work, though, is on-going testing. This isn’t ‘set it and forget it’ marketing any more than it’s ‘cookie cutter’ or ‘one size fits all’ marketing. So once you’ve established a starting point, A/B testing is a great way to refine and develop your focus to reach more of your perfect customers.

It may help to think of online marketing as a cross country road trip to your small business success.

Your initial strategic work has helped you map out a route to your perfect customer. But no route may be the perfect, or only, one, and, in doing your strategic work, you may have also found some side paths, shortcuts or alternate routes that also seem to lead to your ideal customer. Some of them may be minor route adjustments and some more extensive. There may be an alternate route that can get you there a little quicker, but speed isn’t always your goal. What if a different path could provide free accommodations, with friends or family? Or, to really stretch the analogy, lets you check out the world’s biggest rubber band ball? If those things are important to you – or, rather, your ideal customer, how do you choose the best overall route?

The Key is A/B Testing

Much like a map legend, A/B, or split testing takes a portion of your audience and exposes it to an alternative – whether it’s a different landing page, a different email headline, a different call to action, a different offer for your products or services, or even just an adjusted color scheme.

You can either test two options on similarly sized samples simultaneously, or you can test a new approach on the entirety of a group, comparing it with the results of the initial campaign under similar circumstances.

Although I recommend that everyone start small with A/B testing, the beauty of it is that it’s never truly done, and split testing should become not an occasional adventure, but a regular journey you take with your online marketing materials, always looking to improve your impact and narrow your focus.

A/B testing helps you do one of two things, which are themselves intricately linked – it improves how you approach your ideal customer, by gaining a better understanding of who your ideal customer is and what they truly want.

We want to better understand the customer, so we can better serve the customer.

Let’s start with how you approach your ideal customer.

There are six key factors to taking a complete stranger who found your company on Google to making a sale and beyond. Each one can be improved and developed using A/B testing, with one exception.

Motivation

Unfortunately, so far there is no way that marketers have found to increase motivation. Your prospects either have it or they don’t. And when we try to encourage an unmotivated buyer into making a purchase, we come off as the slimy, pushy used car salesman everyone loves to hate, no matter how innocuous our approach. But a good thing to remember, is if the person found your website by searching for the key terms you are marketing, there’s a good chance they’re at least somewhat motivated to buy. So we want to cement the beginnings of that relationship as quickly as we can.

The best way to do that? Find a way to:

Increase Perceived Value

This is where the beauty of the Lead Magnet comes into play. By offering something of true worth to a prospective customer long before they start paying you, you are raising the perceived value of your company. If the content of the Lead Magnet is also relevant, it raises your profile in the eyes of the prospective buyer.

If your Lead Magnet lacks value, relevancy and urgency, the prospective customer will perceive your business as less worthy. Even the exchange of an email or the time to fill out a simple form should be rewarded with a benefit, so as to keep increasing their perception of your value.

But don’t stop there. Build value to:

Raise Customer Incentive

Keep building and reinforcing your business’ perceived value by offering better incentives as the prospect inches their way down your sales funnel to becoming a customer. The more incentives you offer that are of value to the prospect, the easier they will move, and the less you’ll have to worry about the other side of the sales equation:

Reduce Customer Friction

Friction is defined as psychological resistance to something in the sales process – whether it’s obvious or in the prospect’s subconscious. Sometimes it’s cost, but more often there is just something about purchasing from you that elicits fear for whatever reason.

The easier you make it for the customer to purchase, while continuing to build credibility, the more likely they are to convert to a sale down the line. Because you never know what can get you to:

Reduce Customer Anxiety

As much as we like think of ourselves as businesses, the fact is, even if your product or service is B2B, you’re still selling to a person within that business. And people have irrational fears. You’ve heard this before – we buy based on an emotional reaction, then justify our decisions.

So there’s not always a clear cut way to reduce anxiety, because even the customer might not know why they’re reacting that way. They’re trusting their gut without recognizing that multiple factors that have nothing to do with this sale are affecting their judgement.

But if you can overcome the anxiety and friction, you’ll be able to:

Increase Rate of Conversion

While this is our bottom line, we have to remember that’s not our customers’ goal. While it’s difficult sometimes, the best way to increase conversions from prospect to sale and then to evangelist, is to put ourselves in our customer’s shoes to master the first five marketing and sales factors.

So at this point, you’re probably wondering ‘Why the Marketing 101 lesson?’

The more you learn

about your ideal customer,

the more you can test

and refine.

For one, it never hurts to review the basics. And… Each of these five factors is a sign post on your road trip that can lead to a new path, a worthy detour or an actual shortcut. Plus, by digging down into each factor and how you can adjust it with A/B testing, you’ll be learning more about how your ideal client thinks, reacts and makes decisions.

Everything Can Be Tested

• Branding
  • While you will want to try and keep your branding as consistent as possible, it’s okay to veer off your main focus to test both the branding and how it works in each piece of your marketing.
• Email/Newsletter blasts
  • Headline & subheading/Subject line
  • Personalization
  • Contents
  • Call to Action
• Website
  • Design
    • Functionality
    • Ease of navigation
    • Ease of getting assistance
    • Value to customer up front
  •  Copy
    • Value to customer up front
  • Landing Pages
    • Headline/subject line
    • Copy
  • Testimonials?
  • Mobile traffic vs. desktop traffic
• Blog Posts
  • Headlines
  • Graphics
  • Copy
  • Voice
• PPC
• Lead Magnets
• Telephone Call Scripts
• Social Media Ads

I know that all of that might seem overwhelming at first, but the good news is that you don’t have to tackle it all at once. In fact, you can’t. And if you want to do it right, you shouldn’t!

Test One Thing at a Time

Remember what I said about small and large changes? To truly get in deep and get effective results from A/B Testing, you can only make one change at a time. How else can you measure the impact of each test and sample results? Even small or subtle changes can make a difference in the long run.

Go For the Greatest Impact

It’s sometimes crazy what some businesses discover while split testing. Even to the point of slightly changing the punctuation – a comma instead of a semicolon (true story) – can alter conversion rates.

However, you have to start somewhere, so test the bigger, more apparently impactful things first, then work your way down to the smaller stuff.

Know what you want to test and why

This might seem obvious, but you wouldn’t believe how often even larger businesses leap into A/B testing, having no idea what they’re testing or why. Another good reason for the Marketing 101 lesson.

Know your desired outcome

Yes, converting a prospect to a sale is the primary goal, and the ultimate indicator of the success of a split test, unless you’re testing why there’s a traffic jam on the third level of your sales funnel. While conversions are the ultimate goal, you need to get the prospects moving again to accomplish that. So always be clear on what you hope will change in the process that will ultimately lead to a successful outcome for whichever piece you’re testing.

Create your hypothesis, but don’t be married to it

By the same token, you should start each A/B test with a desired outcome and a theory of why whatever it is you’re testing could be improved. However, you HAVE to trust the data. Don’t try to fudge or manipulate it to fit the conclusion that you’re hoping for – you’ll only cost yourself results in the long run.

Use a large enough sample

While there’s no numeric indicator of how sizable your sample needs to be to get an accurate measure, it does have to be significant. Otherwise, how can you be sure that the testing is giving you the correct results? A good rule of thumb would be to test at least half of your regular visitors, email subscribers, etc.

If you finish the test with too few prospects, you might confuse results with random chance. To truly learn from the test, you need the high level of confidence that comes with statistical validity – you want to make sure your sample group is a true representation of what would happen if instead of testing, you launched the change for your entire audience.

Timing is Everything

Along with making sure you have a large enough sample, it’s important that you let the test continue until you have sufficient data. Don’t get impatient and end the test early. Let it run its course so you can accurately judge the difference between plan A and plan B.

Some marketers recommend ending on the same day you started, so an A/B test that started on a Tuesday will last two weeks – 15 days, to also end on a Tuesday.

Also, you’ll want to run the test when it’s reasonable to assume that you will actually get a sample to test.

Document, measure, adjust and repeat

Just like shampoo instructions, Split Testing is a process that grows value with repetition. Like any other marketing effort, you need to track its effectiveness, with measurable metrics. Keep track of each test, what was changed and the final result. Also keep track of when you are doing it – weekdays, weekends, what month, what stage of the sales cycle.

You want to be a connoisseur of data, so that you fully understand what it means and what steps to take next, whether to test some more, implement the changes, or just leave it alone.

Never stop… Testing

Really, A/B testing is never really complete, because there are always more things to test, more ways to narrow your focus and find the best route to your ideal customer, and let the marketing take you there.

In the end, even if you discover that the best route to go is the one you were already on, exploring the side paths and shortcuts will help broaden your creativity – leaving you with more options to draw from in the future. And a better understanding of the customer you’re hoping to serve.

1. You’ve taken the leap to get a handle on your Internet marketing, did your initial strategic work, built your home page in WordPress, and developed your first Lead Magnet. But now you may second guessing yourself, wondering if it’s working, or proactive enough to realize that you need to have some basis for judging the efficacy of your work.
2. OR, you’ve done some or most of those things, but you’re stuck now, trying to figure out what to offer as a Lead Magnet and doing “just one more piece of research” (which, let’s be honest, is code for procrastinating) before jumping in with both feet.

If that’s you, here’s your kick in the butt: read this post for the full breakdown on Lead Magnets, then click over and grab the Checklist of 5 Top Tips for Lead Magnets and get started.

For the sake of both types of people, parts of this post will cover some familiar ground, but just the edges of it, so keep those other links handy.

But first, let’s answer a question that some of you may be asking…

Why Do I Even Need to Measure My Internet Marketing?

At this point in my career, the answer to this question seems obvious. But it didn’t until the day I first did some training with the Grow The Dream Team (then known as Epiphany Marketing).

We were going over various aspects of setting up your website, strategic work and developing methods of attracting customers. And in the midst of it, David Johnson said something to the effect of, “Without measuring the performance of your content, you can’t really tell whether your marketing efforts are actually successful or not.” At the time, it felt like a lightning bolt hit me.

Of course, if you don’t have some way of measuring whether or not your work/content/marketing is working, how can you know whether or not it’s working. But you’d be surprised how many entrepreneurs and small business owners run their hearts out day after day after day, never knowing if they’re truly moving the ball forward or which efforts are having the most impact.

If You Can Measure it, You Can Improve it

The next notable benefit of measuring your efforts is that the smaller the element that you measure, the more precisely you can fine tune your efforts and pinpoint just what is working and what isn’t. And by knowing specifically what isn’t working leads to making it better.

Marketing based on guesswork and speculation just doesn’t work!

Measuring the performance of your content: blogs, emails, Lead Magnets… is critical to creating or fostering better content for your audience. When your content is guided by your strategic work and the metrics of performance, it is more likely to connect with and be useful to your target audience. And, as you might recall, the better the content, the more qualified your leads coming out of it. More on that in a moment.

So What Metrics Should You be Watching?

While my approach to this is going to be specific to Lead Magnets, hopefully you’ll see that these metrics will be among the top ones to track for all of your content marketing.

1. What is the percentage of visitors who come to your site that exchange their email address for your Lead Magnet?

While I listed this first, as I have presented it here, it is one of the least effective metrics for you to track. But I want to get some misconceptions out of the way first, then you can see how I rework the minutiae of this metric to get more actionable data.

The popular concept of Lead Nurturing teaches us that the higher your QUANTITY of leads, the higher is the chance of converting more customers!

I couldn’t disagree more. Mostly. Allow me to explain. You know the old adage, “Practice Makes Perfect”? We learn this as children, but as we get older, we realize that there’s a built in caveat – Proper practice makes perfect. If you’re practicing the wrong way, you’re never going to improve.

By the same token, yes, the more leads you have the higher chance of converting some. But we don’t have time for “some.” The whole point of the Lead Magnet is to grab as many actual potential buyers. Otherwise, why not just go around the mall or a sales conference, collecting as many business cards as you can, then email every single one of them, regardless of their business or trade and hope that “some” of them are interested.

The caveat here is Quality Leads. The higher number of qualified leads you have, the higher (and it should be much higher) number of them convert into buyers. Don’t throw spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, serve it in an Italian restaurant to people who are likely to be interested in eating spaghetti.

2. What is the percentage of people who signed up for your Lead Magnet who actually followed through the 2-step process and downloaded it?

If they’re not following through, it may be taking too long or is too complicated for them to download, or they may be self-qualifying. But if your Lead Magnet is laser focused, as we’ve discussed, they shouldn’t even be interested if they’re not planning to open it. I know this one’s a little vague on what your action step should be, but you’ll have to determine for yourself, based on how well you know your target customer , if your Lead Magnet is too broad or your delivery system is flawed (you DID do your strategic work, right?)

3. How soon do they open it after downloading it?

Again, if you’re giving them a laser focused Lead Magnet that promises (and delivers) specific answers to the pain they’re feeling, they’ll want to open it immediately. If not, drill down deeper.

4. Does it provide them with immediately actionable and useful information?

Are you overdelivering? This may seem counterintuitive at first, but people are judging your authority and credibility from the second they click on your website. When they discover that you will give them more (actual) value in exchange for their email than other companies will give them for a fee, that increases the likelihood that they’ll remember and buy from you when the time is right. You want them to be shocked you’re giving it away for free. THAT’s how much you want to overdeliver.

5. Are people finding your site because of the Lead Magnet?

While some folks would call this SEO, I call it making sure your Lead Magnet is tightly focused to attract the kinds of customers who need your product or services. This is the ultimate expression of the strategic work – they searched for an answer and Google brought them to your doorstep. Plus, Inbound marketing is generally 60% less expensive than outbound marketing but exponentially more valuable.

6. Are people telling other people about your site (sharing on social media, etc.), especially because of the Lead Magnet?

This one’s less important, but a nice confirmation that what you’re doing is right. Too often Lead Magnets are created to appeal to the lowest common denominator – trying to grab the masses instead of the qualified few. As you can see, I don’t think that’s helpful at all. Lead magnets fail when they only generate subscribers. They should be something that attracts lifelong customers. Even if your product or service tends to be a long-term or even single time purchase, you want the customers who buy from you to become fans. Telling other people about you, becoming an evangelist for your business? That’s the highest compliment, and most effective marketing you can’t buy.

Is That All? (Silly Question!)

There are a lot of other little metrics you can look at like Return On Investment (ROI) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Conversion Rates, Cost Per Visitor, Revenue Per Visitor, Dwell Time and Bounce Ratio.  But here’s the thing. You’re a small business owner or entrepreneur, which means your time is valuable as well as limited. So you can only keep track of one or two things at a time – trust me, I’ve tried to do more.  That means for each step of the process, you need to only pay attention to the metrics that matter the most to that part of the system.

And here’s another hint – for most of the additional Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), I listed in the above paragraph? You’re probably already tracking them and may be unaware. Google Analytics, MailChimp Reports, and Infusionsoft monitors all of this for you. Most CRM (customer relationship management) systems will track some or all of your customer’s journey. By integrating everything, you can just bring up the appropriate report when you need to look at it.

Another analytic that Infusionsoft handles well is determining your customer’s Lifetime Value (LTV). One of the metrics you’re going to have to track at some point is what percentage of visitors from any source return to your site to buy? By tracking your customer’s journey, you can see each step as they descend through your sales funnel and pinpoint the exact content that ‘flipped the switch’ in their brain to buy from you. But that’s a discussion for a later post.

Taking Everything to a Higher Level

Remember, the things you must measure for your Lead Magnet – or any other content – is not what you hope or expect to happen, but what actually happens. You need to track outcomes. You need to measure RESULTS.

If you’re still unsure of where to start, work backwards. You’ve done the strategic work, you know what your ideal customer wants. You want to give them a good taste of how you can deliver that to them in exchange for their contact information so you can continue building a relationship with them.

That’s step one.

Of course, your ultimate goal is for them to buy from you. No matter how great your Lead Magnet is, it’s unlikely that the one piece of material, in itself will sell them. It’s fine, you expect that. So what happens next?

Did you know you can build a Lead Magnet inside a Lead Magnet? This is when it starts getting exciting.

When you’re ready to take everything to the next level, you can map out the steps it takes to get the final commitment from a prospective customer. This will be based on the strategic work and honed by the data you’ve collected from WordPress and your CRM.

Then you can go through each step, identifying what action or commitment you need from a prospective customer at the level below to elevate themselves. You can even nest decisions within one another, for a faster process. Then you can track for each step whether or not they take that action – and how close they got before they dropped out.

By analyzing that data and adjusting your Lead Magnets and content appropriately, you can get the maximum effect from a limited effort. Especially if you’re automating the process.

And that’s when your business starts to skyrocket. I’m assuming you’d see that as a good thing.

We love the entrepreneur and small business owner. But today we at the Grow the Dream Show have examples of a little guy getting it wrong and a big corporation getting it really right.

First, an example of Pure Killer Content by a major corporation.

SC Johnson’s Ziploc Division created a Facebook post that, reasonably enough, is aimed at selling their meat and potato product, Ziploc bags. Like all good content, it keeps it uncomplicated with a great visual.

First, they start with perfect, simple artwork.

The picture is two-part, top and bottom. The top part is a heart-shaped muffin pan with broken crayon pieces dropped into the muffin hearts. The bottom part has the melted crayons in the shape of muffin hearts, one sitting on a crayoned up page.

But heart crayons no longer fit in a crayon box. What to do? Why, pop them in the Ziploc bag naturally! Below the heart crayons in the Ziploc is the tag:

DIY TIE-DYE CRAYONS

Remove paper from crayons

Bake in muffin tin for 10 min at 275˚

That is the image. You can absorb what it is about in a two-second look. The Facebook text above the photo artwork continues to keep it simple.

“The DIY crayons make awesome gifts. Pack them in Ziploc snack bags and let your kids take them to their friends at school.”

So who buys Ziploc bags? Think about it…. Yup. Moms. And moms by definition have children, who at some point are big crayon users. This marries the product to a creative idea aimed at the perfect target market.

It’s a home run, and the engagement proves it. Ziploc’s Facebook page began filling up with people who posted pictures of what they did with crayons in different muffin shapes, getting more and more creative.

It’s fantastic engagement, beautiful branding, seamless marketing, and it all began with Pure Killer Content.

Bottom line: Know your target market and take time to do your content right. It’s worth it.

How It’s Not Done

On the flip side of that is an example of the WRONG way to automate a campaign by not taking the time to do it right.

Programs such as Socedo are automated social media lead generating platforms. They are designed to allow users to find their target audience on specified social media and engage them through a fully automated campaign. Thus, hopefully, you fill your pipeline.

But if you are lazy and expect a magic app to do all your work, you are going to hurt yourself. Laziness will kill campaigns on lead generators such as Socedo, just like it kills anything else.

Here’s one that Grow the Dream Show co-host David Johnson received and recently told about:

“Hi, David. I’ve been enjoying your tweets business and thought you might like to try…” (insert sales pitch here.)

David replied, with a hint of sauce, “So my one question is…How is Socedo working for you?”

Smack. The guy got it and sheepishly admitted he need to change things up a little. Yes. More than a little.

We all get these and our reactions are uniformly negative. If you send out junk like this, you’re going to get a lot of unfollows regardless of how good the app might be. If you’re going to use automation, and it may be a good idea to do so, at least change the message! This is horrible content that can create a boomerang campaign.

Using automating apps can be effective, but they require time on the marketers’ part. You really, really need to customize the messages. Just inserting your key word into your existing template message carelessly is a dead giveaway to the recipient that you are lazy and don’t care about them.

Unfollow.

Take the time to create something good, and useful to the recipient, carefully tied in to your product or service.

Like Ziploc did.