Convert Marketing Blog

Convert Marketing is Hiring! Marketing Analyst - Downtown Toronto

This is an entry-level marketing position, best suited for either a recent graduate or someone interested in exploring the world of Internet marketing.

The job begins at three days per week, but will expand as needed. The marketing assistant will be getting in on the ground floor of a booming firm. The work will grow with the company!

This is an exciting opportunity for a committed, hard-working individual with an entrepreneurial spirit. We are not looking for a clock-puncher. Please be a go-getter!

Job Description

The marketing analyst will perform a wide variety of tasks, from writing and administrative to working with clients.

Other tasks include:

-- Editing and formatting of final marketing pieces and documents for clients
-- Taking requests from clients for changes to documents, presentations etc.
-- Monitoring and editing of Google AdWords campaigns
-- Proofreading
-- Assisting with analytics reports
-- Clerical
-- Some accounts receivable
-- Sending monthly invoices
-- Filing

Qualifications

-- University Graduate (or equivalent)
-- Very strong written communications
-- Creative
-- Entrepreneurial spirit
-- Able to work independently
-- Good organization skills
-- Able to work well on a team
-- Tech-savvy enough to pick up new programs quickly
-- Able to quickly adapt and learn about new industries
-- Passionate about marketing

Nice to Have Skills

-- Formal Business, Marketing, PR or Communications training
-- Experience in setting up Google Adwords Campaigns
-- Experience with Photoshop/Adobe Illustrator
-- Experience with Quickbooks
**NOTE: please include writing samples with application (1-5 pages)

Please contact info@convertinc.com to submit your resume and writing samples.

Facebook Social Ads: A Great PPC Option for Targeted Advertising

Facebook Social Ads are becoming a popular PPC (Pay-Per-Click) option for businesses who are looking for ways of targeting specific demographics.  Sound interesting?  Here's how it works:

1. What to Advertise. First you choose whether you want to advertise a website or something on Facebook (like a business or product page).

2. Create Your Ad. Next, you write your ad with headline and body text.  You can even add an image.  You also have the option to add social actions to your add.  This means that Facebook will attach any relevant interaction that a user’s friends have with your brand or business on Facebook as the headline for your creative.  Pretty neat!

3. Choosing Your Target Audience.  This is what makes Facebook Social Ads really great.  You can target specific geographic locations, age groups, genders, education levels, relationship status, even sexual orientation.  You can also specify people by keywords included in their interests, music & movie tastes, job titles, etc.

For example, let's say you were a wedding planner.  You could opt to advertise to women within your targeted age range who are engaged.  Facebook even tells you how many people are included within your target demographic.

3. Setting Your Budget.  Similar to Google Adwords, Facebook allows you to pay for your ad per click.  You set your budget by the maximum you want to spend per day and the amount you're willing to pay per click.  For any given ad unit, Facebook chooses the best ad to run based on the cost per click. So if you're competing with other ads, your ad will be shown if its CPC (cost per click) is highest.

Facebook Social ads are a great PPC option for businesses, like restaurants, hotels, service industries, etc, who tend to target specific demographics.  It can be even more effective if you combine Facebook Social Ads with a Facebook business or product page, which is free for you to create.

Forbes Names Toronto as Top 10 for Business

Forbes recently named Toronto as one of its top cities to do business in, saying:

The economic heart of one of the world's wealthiest countries, Toronto is projected to keep humming through 2020.

It is no wonder. In the online marketing and website design industry, there is a lot of talent here. When I was on client side, deciding on interactive agencies from Toronto, Chicago or Atlanta, Toronto companies came out on top in terms of both talent and price (prices at times halving the US competitors.) I foresee that companies looking for a competitive edge while conserving costs will look to Toronto more and more as a wise strategic step. 

4 Things Not to Do in Live Chat Customer Service

Live chat is becoming a more popular way to provide customer service.  When done right, it can be efficient, personalized, and help customers get the information they need faster.  Done badly it can make your company look cold and uncaring. 

Here are 4 things not to do in live chat to keep you in good standing with your customers:

1) Over-rely on canned responses. I realize that canned responses make the process of live chat more efficient, but when you over-rely on these responses, customers can get frustrated.  The customer knows they’re chatting with a live person, but that person responds to them like a computer, which often comes off as insulting.  Here’s an example:   

Sharon:  Hi. I have a question about your Acme 2000 toaster oven.

Customer Rep:  I would be happy to assist you with any questions you have.

Sharon:  Ok. Well, I was wondering if you could tell me where it’s manufactured.

Customer Rep:  I’m sorry.  I don’t have that information available at this time.

Sharon:  Can you get that information?

Customer Rep:  I’m sorry.  I don’t have that information available at this time.

Sharon: Alright. Then who does have that information?

Customer Rep:  You can call the 800 number on our website and ask to speak to a customer service  representative.

Sharon: Aren’t you a customer service representative?

Customer Rep: I’m sorry I have been unable to help you today. Please visit again soon.

You can imagine how frustrating it would be on the receiving end of these unhelpful canned responses, but this sort of thing happens quite regularly in live chat customer service systems.  In this case, the rep would have been better off trying to find the answer to the question or at least providing an explanation why the answer is not available.

2) Information overload. When people ask a simple question, they usually want a simple answer.  Sometimes, the canned responses that are used have way too much information.  Here’s an example:

Bob:  Hi. I have a question about your company’s paper products.

Customer Rep:  I would be happy to assist you with any questions you have.

Bob:  Does your company use recycled materials?

Customer Rep:  Paper accounts for 40% of all municipal waste. The U.S. alone uses 100 million tons of paper a year & use is increasing.  Recycled paper means less trash, lower taxes & other disposal     costs. Recycled paper uses 55% less water & helps preserve our forests.  That’s why the Acme paper company is committed to using 100% recycled materials to produce its paper products.

The length of the rep’s response in this example is ridiculous considering that the customer was really only looking for a yes/no answer.  While there may be cases in which a rep might have to provide all this extra information, they should be instructed to give simpler responses when it makes more sense.

3) Ignore the customer’s tone. Every customer on live chat is different.  Some make jokes to lighten the conversation.  Others use sarcastic remarks to express their frustration.  Here’s an example:

Matthew:  Right, I get it. It’s not covered under warranty, even though the sales rep failed to mention    that it wouldn’t be under these circumstances when I asked about it.  Thanks for nothing.

Customer Rep:  Thank you for contacting Acme.  Your business is important to us.

In this case, the rep chose to offer up their usual polite canned finish in response to the sarcasm, which if anything, would irritate the customer further.  The rep should have offered up some kind of apology and explanation even if they weren’t able to satisfy the customer’s desire.

4) Be inhuman.  I understand that it’s easier for customer service reps to be robotic in their responses.  That’s why it’s very important to school them to follow the spirit of each individual conversation, not the letter.  If they’re going to use a canned response, they should tailor it to the situation as appropriate.  If a customer makes a joke, they ought to acknowledge it in some way.  Reps should do their best to give personalized attention to each customer as though they were standing right in front of them.  That’s the whole point of live chat.  If a customer wanted a canned response they would have consulted your website’s FAQ.

Reviving Dormant Brands

I have always been fascinated by people who buy nearly bankrupt companies, turn them around, then sell them for a neat profit. Now, there are companies out there that do the same thing for brands. Take River West brands for example. They are bringing back Salon Selectives. Daneen from Spoiled Pretty quotes the following:

"The re-introduction of Salon Selectives represents a great opportunity for our company," said Dr. Eugene Zeffren, CEO of SSB, the company that distributes and markets Salon Selectives. "Our research shows that the brand still has over 80 percent awareness among our target consumers. These women don't just remember the Salon Selectives name, they retain a host of other positive associations, including the apple scent and the customized hair care message - they can even sing the jingle."

So - with its reintroduction, Salon Selectives does not have to start from scratch. It already has 80% awareness! This is every marketers dream to work with (and now that jingle is going to be in my head for the rest of the day ;)).

On their Brand Properties page, there is a wide variety of options, including Coleco, Underalls and Eagle Snacks. From a business strategy perspective, these seem to be strange bedfellows, but River West goes into an interesting explanation of their value proposition:

What do the brands below have in common? If you're looking for manufacturing synergies, you won't find any. What ties them together is this: they were all once big businesses and important parts of Americana during their first runs, all went off the market completely or close to it at one point in time, and all of them have returned or will soon return to the marketplace thanks in no small part to the work we do at River West Brands.

River West does more than simply re-release the brands, it actually creates new value.  Jennifer Wells from Report on Business discusses this example:

Take the case of Brim coffee, a dead brand until River West came along. There was high consumer recall of the product and its advertising motto: "Fill it to the rim with Brim." Better yet, says Mr. Thomann, fewer than 10 per cent of survey respondents remembered that Brim was a decaffeinated coffee. ("Fill it to the rim" played on the notion that you needn't worry about the jittery effects of caffeine.)

That memory gap has left River West free to seek a reformulation of the beverage, which the company hopes to relaunch no later than the first quarter of '09. The new coffee will be caffeinated and pumped with vitamins and minerals - "Fill it to the rim with Brim because it's filled with goodness."

I find this idea very compelling, since it shows the true value of brand building. Once the mind becomes familiar with a brand, that familiarity is precious psychological real-estate. As the market-place gets more and more cluttered, the value of that psychological real-estate on old brands keeps on growing.

The Power of Storytelling - AlbertaCondos.com

I find one of the most powerful tools in marketing is storytelling. While a lot of marketers still want to focus exclusively on statistics and product facts, I think that since emotion plays such a strong role in the sales process, the story is now more important than ever. Whether it is through customer success stories or through fictional product-walk-throughs, a story helps bring a company to life.

Client

We were approached by Corey O'Neil, the CEO of AlbertaCondos.com to create an online presentation for him. The presentation was meant to show some of the features of his private sale service. As we learned more about AlbertaCondos.com, we became more and more intrigued by his value proposition. We decided that instead of creating a "this is what we do" presentation showing a feature and benefit on each slide, we wanted to create an avatar couple, moving through the condo selling process, showing the benefits along the way. This method was more fun to watch, and the narrative shows the advantages of private sale every step of the way.

Solution

You can see the final presentation here. Graphics were provided by Viewpoint Interactive. Not only were we able to tell a story, but we were also able to add some backgrounds to the presentation that said "Alberta" such as rolling hills and oil rigs. We also had a bit of fun adding an avatar of the CEO Corey O'Neil into the presentation, giving the service some personality. Think about how much more interesting marketing could be if more people told stories instead of listed benefits! To learn more about storytelling, you can see Ardath Albee or Seth Godin.

4 Adwords Ad Writing Tips to Improve Conversions

When writing Adwords ads, you have very little creative room to work with.  You have to make your point quickly within a tiny space.  Oh, and there's a good chance there are other ads next to yours competing for audience attention.  Here are a few tips to help make your ads stand out and convert to sales better.

Ad text should reflect keyword phrases.
Text that is the same or very similar to the keyword phrase that has been entered into Google is highlighted within Adwords ad text. This makes the ad stand out more on the page, as you can see in our example.  This also makes ad bids cheaper due to increased relevance.

For example, if the ad group primary keyword phrase is “Toronto flowers,” you could include phrases like “Toronto fresh flowers” or “Toronto wedding fowers”, etc. The ad text would then always include the primary keyword phrase “Toronto flowers,” which would be highlighted no matter which keyword phrase in the ad group gets searched.

Test several versions of ad text.
By testing several versions of ad text, you're not putting all your business’s eggs into one pay-per-click basket. It allows you to evaluate which ones perform best for your business. This allows you to test different selling points and wordings. You can then make modifications to the campaign after it's been running awhile.

Differentiate from the competition.
Check out what your competition is doing for their ads on your chosen keywords phrases. This allows you to create ads with messages that stand out against the competition.

Use geo-targeted keyword phrases (when relevant).
With geo-targeted Adwords campaigns, we always use the targeted location in the ad text.   Even if the keyword phrase doesn't include the location.  If a person is shopping around for a Toronto flower store, they will be more likely to click your ad if they see Toronto within the ad text.

These are only 4 Adwords ad writing tips, but if you implement them well, they bring about noticeable improvements to your ads' conversion rates.

How to Do Viral Marketing Using YouTube

YouTube is a great way to do viral marketing for a website. It is by far the world’s most popular online video site, holding over 500,000 user accounts and hosting over 6 million videos. With so many people on the YouTube band wagon, it’s worth it to consider whether or not it can be used to help promote your website.

Here’s how it’s done:

Step 1: Create an intriguing, relevant video. This is the hardest part. You have to come up with a video idea that intrigues, whether it does so by being funny, interesting, or shocking. Not only that, it should somehow relate to your business and get people interested in learning more about your product or service.

A perfect example of a viral marketing success using YouTube is Blendtec’s “Will It Blend?” campaign.  We talked about this company previously in another article about viral marketing. Five days after posting their videos on their specifically-designed website, they had 6 million views on YouTube.

“Even though we had the best blender in the world, people didn’t know who we were. We wanted to demonstrate the power and durability of the Blendtec blender,” Tom Dickson, Blendtec’s company founder says. “For years I’ve been doing a test where I start the motor and jam a piece of timber into the blades and test the strength of the drive component, the electronics, and the blade itself. We thought it might be fun to try out some other things that people might find amusing. “

As their video popularity on YouTube grew, Blendtec’s online sales grew by 500%.

Here’s a video in which he blends a golf club:

In addition to blending light bulbs, toy cars, a crow bar, a garden hose and other common household items, Dickson has even gone on to promote other companies’ products by blending them in his videos, including an iphone, a Wii remote, and a Weezer album together with a can of beans.

Step 2: Connect it with your website. Once you have shot your video, be sure to include your website’s URL somewhere in the titles. This way when people pass it along to others, either by email or by embedding your video on their sites, the people on the receiving end can go to your site for more information.

Step 3: Give it relevant tags. When people search for new videos on YouTube, they enter keywords into the site’s internal search engine. These search terms are connected to the ‘tags’ that are connected to each video to turn up relevant search results. When you upload your video, be sure to enter tag words that are people are likely to search to find videos like yours.

Step 4: Pass It On. Don’t just rely on people finding your video through YouTube. Pass your video link along yourself. You can do this by posting it on social networking sites like Digg or Reddit, posting it on forums, adding it to a Facebook page, even emailing it to your friends. If you are going to post it on a forum, make sure it’s relevant otherwise your posting may be deleted as spam.

Good luck with your YouTube viral marketing projects!

When Choosing a Domain Name, Choose Wisely

Choosing a domain name is almost as important as choosing a company name.  In fact, domain name availability should be an important consideration when a company names is being chosen.  There's nothing worse than finally deciding on a business name only to find out that you can't get an appropriate domain to go with it.

Your business name is usually considered the number one pick for your domain name. People will generally try "www.yourbusinessname.com"   first when searching for a commercial site. If it’s difficult to spell, it's a good idea to register misspellings of it too. Choosing a domain name may not be as easy as this, particularly if you have a common name for your business. You can try abbreviations/ variations of your company name, if your first choice is unavailable.  Some  people  use hyphens (i.e. "www.your-business-name.com") but this practice makes it hard to remember and awkward to tell people your domain verbally. 

When conducting business in an international environment, .com domain names are usually considered the best. If you’re only conducting business in one country, you can use country-specific endings like .ca. in Canada. There are other endings like .org, .net., .biz, etc., however, when a person knows of your company they’ll usually check .com first.

One last thing to consider when choosing a domain name is that the name can't be mis-read as something other than what you intend.  This can lead to misconceptions about your site's purpose.  I remember coming across one site that sold pens as its business.  The company name was Pen Island.  Naturally, the domain they went for was www.penisland.net, which can be mis-read as... well, you get the idea.  Some companies do this intentionally to get attention, but it often just gets the wrong kind of attention.

Giving People What They Want - The Pink Rose Problem

I was at the SES Toronto conference the other week, and a speaker went in front of the audience and showed his results for the search term "pink roses". He went through all of the Google PPC ads for pink roses and noted that very very few of the sites that had PPC ads on the search term "pink roses" actually provided them on the ad's landing page! We saw red roses, we saw white roses, sometimes we even saw orange roses, but pink roses were always a click away or more away. And this is the pink rose problem.

It got me thinking - are we really at a point, where someone can use Google as a universal interface to get whatever they want within one click? Maybe we are, since when there is no additional clicks, any good marketer knows that their conversions go up. Conversions go up, and cost per acquisition goes down. And everyone is happier.

One industry that has recently impressed me is the online rug selling industry. I recently was doing some searches on Persian Rugs, since we used to have a beautiful Persian in the house that I grew up in. I clicked on a landing page belonging to Rug Man and found the following display on the landing page:

It was amazing to see - that counter to what their competitors were doing (sending me to the homepage so I would have to root around the site myself to find the persians), they gave me the persian results right away.

I then executed searches on other rugs - and of course as a child of the 70s the shag was the first thing that came to mind. I found this landing page at Area Rug Universe:

Although Rug Man's landing page was slightly more impressive, since it had a short introduction on persians before it went into the rugs, it is still great that I can type in what I am looking for and instantly get the results that I want - without learning about how to navigate a new site's infrastructure to get started. This is straightforward to do from a technical perspective, since you can simply pre-fill the query for that ad in the search parameter. Which begs the question - why don't more people, from more industries create lading pages liks this?

As more marketers wake up to the world of user behavior and provide them what they are looking for quickly, maybe we will get closer to that world where everything we want is available to us within one click. Because... the world definitely needs more pink roses.