Miguel Angel Tolsa
It seems that investing part of your advertising budget on the internet is no longer something extravagant to do, or at least it seems that way...
The voice of some customers still rings in my head saying: "we do not want to sell on the Internet because it lowers the category of our brand, it doesn't go with us because our brand is made for stylish people".
Those years are over and we now not only go to online stores but we also look for information on any topic or need on the network: service, companies, jobs, products.
Therefore, investing on PPC (Pay per Click- pay only for each click that a person makes in your advertisement) is a strategy that is increasingly growing year after year. In many companies, talking about investing in Google Adwords - Google's advertising platform- and in Social Networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc., is an everyday topic. The investment made on the latter gets to a point where it really makes us think twice about investing on them.
Do you know if you are investing wisely on your PPCs? Let's start from the premise that you want to use Social Networks in order to increase your company's sales. It sounds easy, but you'll have to put in a little more than goodwill.
We will share with you 3 important reasons why you should stop and think about it whether you are already investing on PPC or you're considering the option since, if you don't do it the right way, you'll sooner or later fail.
In other words, your attempts will not work if:
Reason n.1- You are not investing on the best
The king of the PPC is without a doubt, Google Adwords. A platform that allows you to have control of everything. Absolutely everything. From the simplest keywords or investment made for each click, to more complex planning and constant optimization of each campaign, which translates into costs reduction. It has an extensive network of websites where you can place your ad (in Mexico almost 99% of the websites offer space to Google Adwords) and you have the option to appear or not appear wherever you want to. In addition, you can add animated ads or videos, they have their network with YouTube plus, a great etcetera
Reason n.2- You have no landing pages
The big step comes when people see the ad, click on it and ... they arrive at a landing page. For Google, a landing page is that web page at where it will take all those people that were interested in your products or services. If you have an online store, let's say a flower shop, and you advertise in Adwords: "red roses", Google will understandably send people who are interested in buying red roses to your site. No the the site of yellow roses or even roses in general.
A company or institution that doesn't have that possibility (a landing page), must decide to which webpage will these people be redirected. And here is the interesting thing: where to send them? to a contact us page, have them copy the phone number and then have them call? what if this person needs your product or service but can't make a phone call right then? It would always be better if you redirect them to a webpage that is created exclusively to turn those visitors who were interested on your ad, into leads, prospects, or potential buyers.
If you came all this way and your site is not ready to receive and tend your customers properly, you would've definitely lost time and money on your campaign. It's like paying to get advertised on a magazine and when people get interested in your ad and come to visit your store, they find that there is no one there to make the sale. Or it's as if you had hung a sign at the shop's door saying: "Sorry, we're out to lunch, come back later".
A landing page is a web page that becomes a 24/7 sales staff. Based on a simple form that customers will fill-in, you'll know who you are talking to, name and last name. Person to person. Because people buy from people. If your website doesn't have any landing pages, it's like going on a blind date and not asking for your date's name.
Reason n.3- Your sales team is not ready for it
If you've managed to overcome these barriers, you will then have to work with a sales team that is ready to get in touch with your potential customers. Depending on the kind of company and product that you offer, some clients might need to receive an immediate call or some kind of assessment in order to evaluate how much interest they have on what you sell or if they are a fit for your company, in other words, if they are in the end, your "ideal client".
Some will come almost without knowing a thing about your products or services. Others -most of them-, will come having already investigated you on the internet and knowing a lot about you. Your sales team should not only know what kind of treatment they should give to each one of them, but they should also be able to respond with the information that better solves the need of your clients since, in the end, all a client wants is to solve a problem or satisfy a need.
Wrapping things up
A good amount of people have told me: "I'll have a stand at an Expo" And I respond "So?", to which they answer, "It'll grow my clients' database with the information of those who attend" The conversation goes on: "Did someone from your company actually worked with last year's database?"... "No".
What usually happens is that nobody in the company works with that database. The sales teams are left behind year after year and thus, loose effectiveness. In a sentence: they no longer close the great amounts of deals that they did in the past.
Websites have evolved a lot, from being a simple "brochure" that offered information, to becoming a powerful online office. One that opens 24/7, 365 days of the year.
So what are you waiting for? take that step and increase your sales with your website. If you really want the investment that you made on online advertising to work, it must be linked to a strong strategy and a well-thought-out methodology.
Reasons n.2 and n.3 are a key part of an Inbound Marketing methodology since they can help you attract and convert clients and thus, increase your company's sales. Make your company's ROI increase in an undeniable way.
