Tag: Boston Web Marketing

Dance with the one that brought youAugust 30th, 2016

Most companies are successful because of a specific product line or service that their customers need and enjoy. But then companies want to be bigger, better and more profitable. This is fine as long as they stick to what they do well and which enabled them to be successful in the first place.

As an example, in a former life I was a racehorse trainer. One of my favorite tracks growing up was Rockingham Park, located in southern New Hampshire. Nicknamed the Saratoga of New England, it was a beautiful little track and in its heyday featured some of racing’s great horses, jockeys and trainers. Seabiscuit even graced the once proud track.

Sadly the track burned down in 1980. A group bought the track and re-built it. They actually did a nice job and the track re-opened in 1984 with a nice clubhouse and facilities. Sadly the ownership was not satisfied with racing and thought that slot machines and/or a casino would be the key to big money. So they let the product go down hill. The nice clubhouse became a smokey, smelly mess. They failed to reach an agreement with horsemen and the track ended racing. They had charity gambling and simulcasting as the plant got more and more disgusting. The casino legislation the owners sought for so long would not pass and finally the facility will close this month.

The moral of the story? As the title says: Dance with the one that brought you. Had Rockingham’s owners stuck to racing and trying to develop and improve the product, rather than seeking bigger and better things they would have been successful and still operating. Ironically, their competition, Suffolk Downs in Boston closed so there would’ve has zero competition today. The shame is the area around the track was a big vacation spot, one of the biggest in New Hampshire. Now all that’s there is the remnants of a once great track which soon will be torn down and developed. Just what the world needs, more retail…

Bottom line: although it’s fine to grow and change and add to your core offerings, remember what got you there to begin with. Never lose sight of that and you will be successful.

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5 Pay Per Click Ad TipsDecember 14th, 2015

Here are simple tips to improve your pay per click ad performance and save your company money.

1. Check your ads: I was looking at car dealer’s ad which enticed me to click. When I did I was sent to a page which says “no cars found”. Now this dealer is spending a lot of money for clicks and he’s probably losing potential customers and definitely throwing money away.
2. Set Proper Location: If you are a local or regional business, make sure your ad is only set to display in that area. Too many people’s forget to set up their ad to display near their location. Your ads should only be set to display in places you do business. For instance, Bob the plumber from Boston MA shouldn’t be having ads display worldwide.  My guess is Bob isn’t flying to Beijing to unclog a toilet. Every click outside your business area is money down the drain (so to speak)
3. Set Time Ads Display: I am not a big fan of ads running 24 hours a day. I think that most clicks in the middle of the night are probably just people fooling around, tire kickers, and perhaps people outside the country using proxy servers. How much business have you received from somebody clicking on ads at two or 3 AM? I pretty much think you’re better served having your ads running during normal business hours and perhaps a couple hours before after.
4. Remove Keywords you don’t need:  When you’re in your ad words account and you’re finding suggested keywords, sometimes we add some without realizing that those clicks will not lead to business. For instance, if you are selling business products rather than consumer items, a click on someone looking for a consumer product that will not bring you business is a waste of money and a budget killer.  By sorting on your clicks you can see where your budget is going, if those dollars are being spent on a keyword that are questionable, try pausing it. You can always turn it on later if you find that you were mistaken. But more money get spent on that keywords and that is what you want to avoid.
5. Avoid Wholesale Changes: People tend to panic when it comes to their pay per click accounts. If they’re very successful, and then see a bit of a downturn the thinking it is to go in and blow up the account. I am here to tell you not to panic because that is the nature of the beast. There are definitely periods of ups and downs. But if you are having good luck with your ads and are getting business from them give it time. Perhaps tweak your ads and keywords, but don’t destroy what you have worked hard to achieve.

Bottom line: Pay Per Click Advertising (Definition: PPC) is not an exact science. It takes monitoring, tweaking and paying constant attention to your account. Taking these five common sense tips, you can save money and hopefully be far more effective with your advertising spend. Of course, this is the tip of the iceberg, if you need more assistance contact us today.