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Often Overlooked, Outreach is Key

Guest Blog — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 21:00:37 +0000

When done correctly link building can be a very effective strategy for improving your site’s ranking in Google search engine results pages (SERPs). However, link building is a process that has many different intricacies and aspects and without paying attention and accounting for them all, you will not be successful. One of the most overlooked (and vital) aspects of link building is the practice of outreaching.

Outreach is the Key to Success

Outreaching is a term used to describe the process of reaching out to webmasters to ask them if you can guest post on their website or blog. This is a portion of link building that many take for granted and doing so can doom any kind of link building project before it ever gets off the ground.

While quality content and choice of anchor text both play significant roles in building effective backlinks, outreach is arguably the most important part of a link building project. This is because without proper and adequate outreach nothing happens. Even if you can write the best and most useful content ever put on the web, it will not matter if you can’t find somewhere to put it or someone who will publish it. If you can’t outreach effectively you will never get any further in the link building process.

Initial Contact

As with most interactions you will have, first impressions are crucial. Many webmasters receive thousands of emails every day and this could be your only chance to stand out or get noticed. There are a few things to keep in mind to maximize your chances for a response.

Be polite. This may seem like a simple and trivial thing, but you would be surprised at the egregious amount of outreach that gets rejected or ignored solely due to rudeness. Although link building can be mutually beneficial for you and the webmaster, you are still essentially asking them for a favor. The “golden rule” is applicable here and it is a good idea to take a second to read your email and consider how you would react if you were in their shoes, before sending it.

Another unforgivable mistake people constantly make is sending out emails with multiple spelling or grammatical errors. This is simply inexcusable as you are asking the person to let you write for their site. How can you expect someone to let you write for their website or blog if you can’t even write a decent email?

Finally, remember to always write like a human. This may be easier said than done, but if you keep this idea in mind when writing emails it will prevent you from writing things that sound spammy. Due to the influx of black-hat link builders and spammers, webmasters have become skeptical of outreach emails and they will ignore anything that seems unnatural.

Don’t Give Up Easily

As mentioned before, some webmasters receive an outrageous amount of emails each day and many are too busy to respond to every one. You can’t expect your outreach to garner a response immediately and unfortunately sometime you may not hear back at all. However this does not mean give up, it is alright to follow up. Now you still need to be patient and sending a bunch of follow up emails every day will only seem like spam, but it is alright to check in again if you haven’t heard back after a few days.

Webmasters are usually very busy and they sometimes miss things, or your message could get buried in an inbox, or mislabeled as spam. Sometimes it may take a few follow up emails to finally establish contact but staying persistent and not getting discouraged will give you the best chance for success.

Pitching your Idea

As crucial as outreaching is to the link building process, pitching your idea is equally crucial to the outreaching process.

Before you consider pitching an idea to a site, you must do some research. You need to have a good idea of what blog posts interest the audience of the site and what they enjoy reading. Also, this will give you a feel for what kinds of posts the webmaster tends to publish. This gives you the knowledge to explain how your idea will provide value to the site’s readership and shows the webmaster that you have taken the time to understand what their site is all about.

It is also a good practice to pitch a few different ideas (all relevant to the site) to give the webmaster a few different options to choose from. Informing the webmaster that you are also open to suggestions can be helpful as well.

Outreaching seems like a simple process, but if you don’t pay attention to the smaller details and keep in mind that you are dealing with other human beings your outreach will more than likely fail. If you aren’t successful in your outreach, your whole link building strategy will be derailed. In link building every portion of the process is important and you should put the same amount of energy and thought into outreach as you do into all other aspects.

Andrew Dennis is a writer at the relevancy first link building company Page One Power, who offers a guest posting service. When he’s not writing about link building and outreach, he enjoys being on the golf course where he spends most of his time in the rough.

Top Tools for Managing a Virtual Team

Jason Corgiat — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:00:25 +0000

Recently, we teamed up with Hiscox USA, a small business insurance company, to write a two-part guest blog about effectively managing a virtual team. While many of your are aware of the challenges associated with managing an office-based team, managing a virtual team takes that challenge to a whole new level.

Over the years, LeapGo, Inc. has become an expert at this feat. By focusing on streamlining communication, increasing collaboration, and minimizing costs, we understand the tools required to succeed as a virtual team and, more importantly, a business. Here are our top tool recommendations for managing a virtual team:

Project Management Software

Basecamp – We’ve trialed many platforms and Basecamp is our favorite. The new visually appealing, paper-like interface makes project management a breeze. You can quickly setup projects, create to-do lists and tasks, and collaborate with team members. The catch-up feature is useful for your eventual return to ‘the office’ (keeps an excellent communication trail) and the calendar’s colorful layout with drag-and-drop functionality is ideal for organizing projects by date.

Trello – This software has a similar look and feel to Basecamp, but instead uses sticky pad-like notes (known as “cards”) to organize and update projects. Trello’s cards carry tons of information behind them, including checklists, attachments, team members, and due dates so you can keep your project information all in one place. The interface is extremely intuitive and it’s easy to see the big picture of a project.

CRM Software

Infusionsoft – It may not be as comprehensive as Salesforce or some of the other CRM heavyweights, but Infusionsoft is CRM gold for small businesses like ours. By giving access to your virtual sales force, you can keep track of all your leads, use the built-in campaign software to initiate marketing efforts, and look back at the entire history of what you’ve done and with whom. It’s great stuff!

OnePageCRM – For sales-driven businesses, OnePageCRM gives you everything you need. It’s simple and straightforward and keeps you focused. The most rewarding feature is its proactive “Next Action” system that forces you to put a next step for each contact or lead. When you and your team need a little nagging or don’t want to forget what’s coming up, this software is definitely for you.

Contactually – This automated CRM tool is extremely useful for virtual teams when you have different types of clients and lots of them too. Contactually helps you organize contacts into buckets, prompts you to keep them top of mind, and has an excellent dashboard that lists all the recent happenings. Plus, it syncs nicely with Gmail, Outlook, and social media so you don’t waste time.

Pipedrive – When you’re focused on the sales funnel, then focus on using Pipedrive as your CRM of choice. This software uses clear reporting and a sensible left-to-right layout to help you track your progress from the initial idea to the final sale. Virtual team members can pop in at any time to see where you are in the “Sales Pipeline” and update with ease.

Communication Software

Skype – Most of you probably use this to catch-up with friends and family living far away, but Skype as a business tool is an absolute lifesaver. The most useful aspects are the free Skype-to-Skype calling and messenger chat that allow for quick and easy communication with anyone on a team. The program also allows for multi-person calls, has screen-sharing capabilities, and charges inexpensive rates for Skype-to-phone calls.

Gmail – On the email end, everyone has his or her own preferences (Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.), but we think Gmail is at the top. The interface is straightforward, it’s cloud-based location means space is virtually endless, and the Google docs sharing functionality is a bonus.

File Sharing Software

Dropbox – Have tons of large files to share with the whole team? Need a storage space where everyone from the team can access documents, like proposals, sales sheets, and templates? Dropbox, the cloud-based file sharing application, makes this possible. The interface and usability are as basic as it gets (no fancy imagery or complicated processes) which is why we love it so much.

Box – The Box is exactly what it sounds like – a place to store your files. Although it functions for personal use, it definitely has more of a business vibe. Beyond storage, Box is excellent for securely transferring files to clients, organizing all your project content, and keeping track of everything you or your team are doing.

Billing Software

FreshBooks – Most people use this software as an avenue for client billing, but we also use FreshBooks as a way for our virtual staff and independent contractors to log time, send invoices, and get paid. It’s super easy to use and integrates well with your everyday tasking. Plus you can use it on all your devices, like your iPad or smartphone, and you can quickly upload any non-digital receipts. We love it and know you will too!

oDesk – Although it’s not technically “billing software”, oDesk does help you handle the billing for any contractor recruited through the site. When you have dozens of contractors coming and going, the oDesk software does a nice job of capturing screenshots, tracking time, and confirming payments. Heck, anything that makes the daily grind easier gets a thumbs-up from us!

Feedback Software

Jing – When describing something isn’t enough, then take a snapshot with Jing because that picture is worth a thousand words, seriously. It’s probably the easiest little program around and it’s only made better by the editing tools (like arrows, text boxes, and a highlighter pen) that help you explain what you want. The tool comes in handy for when you need to make changes to email templates, new web page designs, or logos. It can get addictive so try not to “over-Jing” your team.

There are plenty of other tools out there that can help you manage a virtual team, but these are our favorites. They improve communication, keep projects moving in a timely manner, and help us maintain a team atmosphere.

Do you work with virtual team members? What tools are crucial to your success? We’d love to hear from you!

4 Quick Steps To Establish Blogging Benchmarks

Jason Corgiat — Thu, 30 May 2013 19:00:55 +0000

We’ve said it a million times: blogging is more than just writing. Your blog can be used as a business tool for sales, education, customer engagement, customer service, and much more.

But you can’t throw all your weight into a tool unless you know how it’s performing. You need to establish blogging benchmarks via metrics that help you measure the success of your blog. Fortunately for you, it’s easier than it sounds. We’ve even put together a 4-step how-to guide to get you started:

Step 1 – Settle On Your Blogging Strategy

What is your blog doing for your business? Is it supporting your marketing efforts? Is it educating customers? Is it designed to generate new leads? Before you can judge the success of your blog, you have to know what it is you’re measuring and why.

It’s important to note that “generating more traffic” or “gaining a higher search engine ranking” are not actually strategies. These are elements you measure based on your strategy. So think deeper, think about your business needs, and make sure you’re blogging for the right purpose. Once you can identify your blogging strategy, it’s time to define your blogging metrics.

Step 2 – Determine Metrics

The key here is that metrics need to be tangible. You have to be able to visually see the changes in data to measure and determine success.

For example, let’s say your blogging strategy is to increase customer engagement. The wrong metric would be a significant increase in “more engaging articles” because that’s not tangible (that’s just your objective thought). The right metrics would be something like bounce rates, page visits, and average visit duration, all of which can be seen and measured via the Traffic Sources section on Google Analytics. They could also be shares, likes, and pins, which you can get from your various social media outlets. These metrics relate to customer engagement because they tell you how much time your customers are spending on your website and connecting with your business.

Metrics will vary greatly depending on the objectives of your blog. If your blogging strategy is to improve sales, measure the product page views and sales increase on products advertised in your blog. If your goal is to improve customer service or education, look for a decrease in call volume or service-related emails. You get the point.

Step 3 – Establish Benchmarks

Now that you know which real data elements you’re going to measure, you have to establish proper benchmarks by which to determine success. The important thing here is to not overshoot especially in the beginning. You want to put practical goals around your business strategy.

For example, don’t expect average visit duration to increase ten-fold the second you start blogging with a purpose. Blogging strategies are often long-term pursuits, so think with a quarterly or half-year mindset. Look for small percentage increases or decreases in your metrics.

If your current average bounce rate is 85%, make your goal a single percentage point decrease (down to 84%) over a 3-month period. That’s a practical benchmark and one that you can certainly achieve. Plus, it’s better to achieve a small goal and be inspired than miss a larger goal and feel incompetent.

Step 4 – React To Your Results

Implement your strategy and measure your success. Did you achieve your goals? Did you improve customer engagement by lowering bounce rates, increasing page views, and elongating the duration of customer visits?

If you see successes, then your blog is most likely on the right path. Continue readjusting your benchmarks and building upon your blogging strategy. Look for bright spots too. Did one or two blogs stand out above the rest? Leverage that information to create an even stronger blog.

If you fail to see results, don’t keep going. Stop and analyze. Why did you not achieve your blogging benchmarks? There could be any number of reasons why your blog was not successful and often the data will tell you. Just remember that underperforming and missing your goals is not a bad thing – it’s useful information that will help you tweak and refine your strategy for the long-term.

Hopefully our 4-step how-to guide will help you establish blogging benchmarks for your business. You can also request a quote and LeapGo will be more than happy to help you develop and execute a blogging strategy and benchmarks for your business.

What are your blogging benchmarks? Have you seen the results and/or altered your blogging strategy in response? We’d love to hear from you!

Is Your Site Ready? Responsive Web Design for Mobile and Tablet Platforms

Jason Corgiat — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:31:06 +0000

Last month, data tracking companies IDC and Gartner both reported that PC sales were in grave decline as consumers migrated towards competing devices, particularly tablets and smartphones. While these smaller and more portable devices used to drive only a small percentage of a typical website’s traffic, today they are rapidly becoming consumers’ primary devices for web access.

As times and habits change, so should your website. Rather than dealing with the headache of developing and operating a separate mobile website, business owners should make their main websites “responsive” to these newer and smaller devices.

Understanding Responsive Web Design

What is “responsive web design”? It is a concept where designers create a website that is adaptable to all different types of devices, including desktop computers, mobile phones, and tablet computers. The goal of responsive web design is to make your website easily readable and navigable in any situation on any device. By doing so, you vastly improve the user experience and stave off the risk of losing traffic, sales, and your online reputation.

With such a fast shift towards non-PC devices, making your website design responsive is more important than ever. The problem is that many older websites are built on static wireframes where content doesn’t move when you increase or decrease screen size.

In order to be responsive, website content needs to sit on a fluid grid that allows for this flexibility. Therefore, depending on screen resolutions, the website dynamically alters to fit the device and present legible information.

Prioritize Content

Want a live demonstration of responsive web design? Test it on our website, www.leapgo.com! First take a look at our website on a standard desktop or laptop computer. Then bring it up on your smartphone or tablet and see our website in action. See how it works and looks great on every screen?

Here’s another demonstration. Bring up our website on your computer. With your mouse, alter the screen size horizontally or vertically and see what happens to the text and images.

Full size website:

Drag it smaller and this happens:

And drag it even smaller to see what smartphones see:

Same website, different layouts based on screen size and fluid movement the whole time.

Now try it on your own website. If your website is not responsive, it will be immediately obvious; little will change and you’ll have trouble seeing and reading it. If your website is responsive, you might notice changes occur similar to LeapGo’s website. Maybe the images in the sidebar disappear, the columns shrink as text begins to wrap, and the screen features a single column of information.

If your website is responsive, you also probably noticed that some above-the-fold content disappeared while the rest stayed. That’s the biggest challenge of responsive web design: prioritizing content. As your screen goes from big to small (or to a smaller device), you need to make sure your most important content remains at the top and shows up first. When your eye-catching copy, latest promotions, top products, or new videos disappear or fall to the bottom, you lose that pivotal user experience that you tried so hard to create. It may take some experimentation, but you’ll eventually strike the right balance regarding content hierarchy for all devices.

Satisfy Your Customers

By making your website responsive, you’re satisfying the needs of all your customers no matter what device they use. You’re giving users the proper website experience without, for example, forcing them into a mobile site while they’re on a tablet (trust me, it’s the worst!). When your website is easy to read and follow, your customers are more likely to stay on the page, explore your content, and make a purchase or booking. It’s an easy way to boost satisfaction and increase sales at the same time.

While responsive web design is still in its infancy, it’s becoming more important by the day. Enabling this functionality for your website now will help your business profit in the long run. That’s why if you’re going to give your website responsive design, leave it to the experts. LeapGo is one of those experts. Request a quote and we’ll be more than happy to develop your website with responsive design in mind.

The Advantages & Disadvantages of Google Disavow

Jason Corgiat — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:00:33 +0000

Maybe Google has sent you a warning about unnatural links…Maybe the latest Panda and Penguin updates put your website in a lesser position…Maybe you or your SEO agency (accidentally?) used black hat SEO techniques in the past.

And maybe, just maybe, you’ve been lucky enough to hear about Google Disavow, the latest Webmaster Tool that allows website owners to request Google ignore poor quality, spammy, and plain old “toxic” links. Used correctly, it’s a productive asset for your SEO and link-building strategy.

The Advantages of Google Disavow

1. Removes harmful links to improve rankings

The primary purpose of Google Disavow, as mentioned above, is to request removal of unnatural and low-quality links that harm your site from a ranking perspective. It is definitely useful for websites who are exposed to these types of links and offers them a chance to clean up their act. Even the best websites are occasionally prone to this stuff, so it’s a good option to have.

2. Quick and easy power tool

It’s even simple to use too. You identify the links you want to disavow, load them into a simple text file, and upload the file to the tool. Within a few days to a few weeks Google will (most likely) stop following or recognizing those links.

3. It’s FREE

It’s way easier than requesting another website owner remove links for you – that can take weeks, months, or never happen at all. Worse, some owners request money to remove links and this is the last place you want to spend your revenue. Google Disavow is completely free.

Sounds great, right? Well don’t skip away to start disavowing links too quickly. There’s a bit more to this story then initially meets the eye.

The Disadvantages of Google Disavow

1. Removal of links not guaranteed

Google Disavow only lets you request that Google disavow the links, but Google has the final decision as to whether to follow along with your request (or in this case, not follow your links). Therefore, it’s not a guaranteed victory. If you really want to remove a link, you need to get the other website owner to do it for you.

2. The trouble of identifying low quality

To discover which links need disavowing, you can use link detox tools from software companies like Link Research Tools to find toxic and suspicious links or you can use your Open Site Explorer account to search, filter, and examine lower quality links. The really toxic links are easy to identify, but there are plenty that walk a grey line. If you disavow a link that was actually helpful, it can be hard to go back and reassert that link (or it will come back, but not carry the same weight).

3. The challenge of determining right quantity

Disavow too few potentially harmful links and you risk continued warnings and poor rankings. Disavow too many potentially harmful links and you risk destroying links that may actually have helped your website. At the same time, there’s no word yet on how Google perceives the quantity of links disavowed and as we said before, once you’ve disavowed links it’s hard to go back.

4. It’s NOT for every website

As Google’s Matt Cutts said about Google Disavow, “approach with caution”. Unless you have received a warning from Google, spent time building up paid links, or been involved in article syndication, you probably don’t have many low-quality links. For you, Google Disavow is not necessary. Google even added a warning message to the tool to think twice before using.

Now you’re probably feeling a bit more cautious. You can double check your website links by running a link audit and weighing the risks of your worst links. Remember, there are often better ways to spend your time improving your website’s SEO, so don’t even consider the Google Disavow tool unless you absolutely need it.

How To Use It

Download a list of links to your website and identify the toxic links you want to disavow
Create a text file of only the links you want to disavow in the format described in your Webmaster Tools Disavow links section
Upload the text file and Google will process the information within a few weeks

Have you used the tool and experienced any positive or negative results? We’d love to hear from you!

Top 25 Social Media Management Tools for 2013

Jason Corgiat — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:30:57 +0000

Over a year ago, we listed the top 25 social media management tools at the time. Boy, have things changed. While many of those tools are still relevant and useful (including some that made the list once again), there are tons of new ones out there making an impact and making it easier for you to manage all the noise. Here you’ll find the greatest social media management tools for 2013 along with an easy breakdown of their greatest benefits, unfortunate downfalls, basic costs, and networks they manage.

As you scroll though the tools, you’ll notice that there are a few big and interesting trends this year:

Growth in social CRM software and functionality; companies have a growing desire for better engagement with their customers
Robust reporting is now an integral part of most tools as businesses are beginning to really understand the need for insight and data
Automated and intelligent posts are increasing allowing business to give consumers the right information at the right time – easily and efficiently
Increase in Pinterest management tools, a site whose influence continues to grow

Dashboard and Social CRM Software

1. Hootsuite

Description: This software makes the list once again for its effective display of multiple social media accounts in a single glance. The drag-and-drop interface allows for seamless column organization and, in addition, it offers RSS integration, customized analytics, team collaboration, and easy message scheduling.

Best Feature: Single-screen Dashboard showing up to 30 social profiles

Downside: Extra (hidden) costs for analytics reports and multiple users

Cost Structure: Free for basic plan, $9.99/mo for Pro, higher cost for Enterprise solution

Networks:

2. SproutSocial

Description: Also topping the list again is this social CRM and management tool that is acutely designed for building customer relationships and minimizing your time spent on social media. They make it easy to post, provide solid monitoring, and offer excellent analytics reports.

Best Feature: Smart Inbox unifies all your social channels and profiles into one feed

Downside: Still can’t publish content on Google+

Cost Structure: $39/mo for Standard, $59/mo for Deluxe, $99/mo for Premium

Networks:

3. Jugnoo

Description: Founded only a few years ago, Jugnoo has the potential to be a juggernaut in the social CRM space. The tab-based dashboard is excellent for organizing conversations. The Social Post feature makes outward communication a breeze and the Social Hub feature aggregates all your social media outlets into one single site.

Best Feature: The Social Teams feature manages teams, strategies, and access for social media campaigns

Downside: Just came out of beta testing, so it’s still relatively untested

Cost Structure: Free for basic plan, $20/mo for upgrade, high cost for Enterprise solution

Networks:

4. uberVU

Description: This social media marketing automation software helps you monitor, post, target, schedule, and analyze social information related to your brand with an intuitive dashboard display. Its “Signals” listening capability is quite powerful and they make connecting with influencers a breeze.

Best Feature: Monitoring tool allows you to track competitor conversations too

Downside: Price point is high, although you do get a lot for your money

Cost Structure: Custom plans start at $499/mo

Networks:

5. Sendible

Description: A great management tool for tracking, managing and engaging with multiple social media accounts. The dashboard is designed like an email inbox making it easy for you to “send” messages (hence the name).

Best Feature: Smart Queues for managing your content publication

Downside: It’s email and newsletter templates are quite boring, in our opinion

Cost Structure: $9.99/mo for Solo, $29.99/mo for Marketer, $69.99/mo for Business, $99.99/mo for Corporate

Networks:

6. Nimble

Description: This social CRM and content management platform is really an all-in-one system for managing your inbox (send and receive emails and messages), social media (manage interactions on Facebook, Twitter, and more), and events (synchronize with Google Calendar).

Best Feature: Social Profile Matches to help you find and connect with customers

Downside: Data is great at flowing in, but not always flowing out

Cost Structure: Free for personal (limited features), $15/mo per user for business

Networks:

7. ViralHeat

Description: Originally a social media monitoring service, this low cost alternative now offers robust analytics, post scheduling and management, URL shortening integration, and a new Smart Stream feature for identifying trends.

Best Feature: Sentiment Analysis allows you to see the impact on your brand over time

Downside: Analyses are mainly English-only

Cost Structure: Free for Personal, $9.99/mo for Pro, $99.99/mo for Premier

Networks:

8. Salesforce Radian6

Description: A behemoth in the industry, this social media monitoring tool does everything from social listening and advertisements to improving engagement and providing robust real-time reporting. Free training and customer support are top-notch and help you overcome the learning curve.

Best Feature: The famous River of News keeps you up-to-date at all times.

Downside: It might be good, but it’s expensive and only big businesses with large teams should consider this

Cost Structure: Starts at $600/mo for Basic, increasing for Professional, Corporate, and Enterprise packages

Networks:

9. AgoraPulse

Description: This Facebook-focused management tool surfaces once again because it continues to help you manage and increase your Facebook presence and now has Twitter integration too. Albeit a basic-looking dashboard, the software provides detailed statistics on your page’s performance, enables easy moderation and fan qualification, and creation of apps.

Best Feature: ROI tool to help you measure the value of your page(s) and fans

Downside: It’s not the prettiest tool in the world, but hey, beauty is only screen deep

Cost Structure: Starts at $29/mo and increases based on pages/fans

Networks:

10. Commun.it

Description: This social CRM is aimed at helping businesses build better Twitter relationships by analyzing engagements and identifying high-value members. Software will suggest followers, discover people via keyword search, and provide activity and engagement reports.

Best Feature: Advanced Targeting tool to find people based on language, location, or sentiment

Downside: You might need some analytical skills to decipher all the info

Cost Structure: Starts at $9.99/mo for 4 Twitter accounts, $199/mo for unlimited

Networks:

Specialty Software

11. ShortStack

Description: You can improve your Facebook presence by easily designing contest pages, polls, sweepstakes, and apps with this software. The layout is great and the flexibility is there to offer different content to different sets of fans/friends. Data collection is easy and it integrates with MailChimp too.

Best Feature: Ability to create custom Facebook pages with limited design skills

Downside: Inability to edit tab within interface once it goes live on Facebook

Cost Structure: Free for basic plan, other plans at $30, $75, $150, $300/mo

Networks:

12. bit.ly

Description: Yes, it shortens URLs for your Twitter posts, but now the service offers a lot more than that. You can now share, organize, bookmark and track your links too, giving you a whole lot more flexibility and analysis than before.

Best Feature: Bitmarklet which lets you share and save right from your browser

Downside: They haven’t solved the “spam” problem facing shorteners today

Cost Structure: Free for personal, Enterprise starts at $995/mo

Networks:

13. Buffer

Description: It’s the ideal scheduling tool for your social media posts. Upload your content and let the software automatically post it at the best times. Decent analytics are available, it works with Chrome and mobile, and it syncs up with a whole bunch of apps and programs, including Tweriod and Feedly

Best Feature: Optimize your Buffered post timings in conjunction with Tweriod

Downside: The free version is very limited, so you might as well upgrade to Pro

Cost Structure: Free for personal, $10/mo for Pro

Networks:

14. Feedly

Description: This content aggregator brings together all your favorite RSS feeds, blogs, and news and video sites and displays it easily for you to read, organize, categorize, and share (and is a good alternative to the soon-defunct Google Reader).

Best Feature: The visual display is inviting and layout is customizable

Downside: Sharing functionality is a bit limited and can’t use older browsers

Cost Structure: Free

Networks:

15. Wildfire

Description: This marketing software is still a leader in social promotions, allowing you to create branded ads and pages and promotions like quizzes and contests to encourage customer engagement with your business. The data and competitor tracking is very useful too. And yes, it’s more than just Facebook.

Best Feature: Easy targeting and preset distributions lists with Messages tool

Downside: If it was costly before, now it’s really expensive

Cost Structure: Promotions priced on a per promotion/per day basis. For suite, Pro starts at $2500/mo, Enterprise starts at $3500/mo

Networks:

16. Cloze

Description: This application unites your emails, social messages, and contacts into one single inbox. It isn’t just about eliminating clutter though – this utility scores your relationships to help you identify “Key People” which in turn helps you prioritize your communications and conversations (great for small businesses).

Best Feature: Organization of messages, with Key People first

Downside: Only calculates written interaction (not person’s shares, purchases, etc.)

Cost Structure: Free

Networks:

17. Reachli

Description: This social marketing tool enables you to share your visual campaigns (image-based ads) across social media channels and analyze the results. Its primary publication is Pinterest, though there are Facebook, Tumblr and others too. The goal is to increase brand awareness and ROI on your visual ads – it’s that simple!

Best Feature: The ease of setting up and launching a visual campaign

Downside: It’s mainly for images; other marketing suites have more capability

Cost Structure: Starting at $10/day, plus cost per click (standard: 15-35 cents)

Networks:

18. EdgeRank Checker

Description: The ultimate tool for analyzing your Facebook pages. Its Industry Report is now the industry standard and gives you insight into your page performance. Stats are easy to read, they provide recommendations on posting, and you are given an overall score on your brand.

Best Feature: New Real-Time Monitor on page activity, feedback, viral lift, etc.

Downside: There’s a lot of data and it can be overwhelming to sift through

Cost Structure: Free Plan, Pro Plan starts at $15/mo per page

Networks:

19. Crowd Factory

Description: This software platform, acquired by Marketo, allows businesses to create, deploy, share, and manage social campaigns, such as sweepstakes, polls, and refer-a-friend offers. You can integrate campaigns through multiple channels, including your website, email, and Facebook and analytics reports are informative.

Best Feature: Social CRM Database with profiles and segmentation analysis

Downside: Pricing was a bit high, even before Marketo acquisition

Cost Structure: Professional Edition starts at $499/mo, higher cost for Enterprise Edition

Networks:

20. Markerly

Description: This micro-content sharing tool allows you to highlight and share just a small portion of text – it’s like the CliffsNotes of content sharing. This micro-content can increase page views, boost virality, and improve readership. You can also monitor, engage, and measure your most influential followers.

Best Feature: Text highlighting – it’s fun and easy and makes you want to share

Downside: None yet to report so take advantage of this one

Cost Structure: Free

Networks:

21. Facebook Graph Search

Description: In an effort to revolutionize search, Facebook launched this new search functionality that will find people, restaurants, jobs, etc. through your connections using keywords and phrases. It’s still in beta mode, but it could have great potential for businesses looking to build relationships and promote products.

Best Feature: The Social Graph and its many interconnecting nodes

Downside: Hard to say yet, but privacy and integrity are always a concern

Cost Structure: Free, rolling out slowly

Networks:

22. Followerwonk

Description: This Twitter analytics app, acquired by SEOmoz, helps you search for new followers, compare your social graph with the competition, and track, analyze, and sort followers. It’s excellent for connecting you with Twitter users who might be great for guest blogging or for influencer outreach.

Best Feature: The Venn diagrams to compare followers, relationships, and more

Downside: Lots of information to sort through, so learning curve can be steep

Cost Structure: Free for basic, $99.99/mo for Pro

Networks:

23. SocialFlow

Description: This tool is excellent for managing your Tweets and Facebook posts, using scientific algorithms to determine the optimal posting through its Cadence Optimized Publisher. It also features a Crescendo Attention Buying Platform for identifying ideal keywords for ad buys.

Best Feature: Attention Score measures audience receptiveness to message

Downside: The cost is high and might be impeding to smaller businesses

Cost Structure: $99/mo per account, higher cost for Enterprise solution

Networks:

24. TwitterFeed

Description: This tool is quite simple really. It allows you to connect your blog, via an RSS feed, to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn so you can have automatic updates when you complete a blog post. Advanced settings and simple statistics are available. Every serious blogger should consider this tool to increase traffic.

Best Feature: Its simplicity

Downside: The name is deceiving – it’s more than just Twitter

Cost Structure: Free

Networks:

25. Pingraphy

Description: This relatively new tool is made for managing your Pinterest “pins”, enabling you to select images, conduct bulk uploads, schedule timing, and track metrics. Most importantly, it helps you track followers and find the most influential ones.

Best Feature: Bookmarklet lets you pick up pinnable images from any webpage

Downside: Analytics are quite basic for now

Cost Structure: Free

Networks:

Not sure which software or tool works best for you? Most of them, if not all of them, come with a free trial option. That’s something we always recommend too – try it before you buy it! What works for one business may not work for your business and vice versa. Do the trial, narrow down your options, and pick the software that helps you organize and sift through all that social media clutter.

At LeapGo, we have employed many of these tools to manage our own social media and know the challenge of social media management facing today’s businesses. If you need assistance with your business’ social media management, you can request a quote from LeapGo.

What do you think of the list? Are there other social media management tools that should be on our list for 2013? Tell us below:

Volusion vs BigCommerce vs Shopify – A Detailed Review for 2013

Jason Corgiat — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:00:51 +0000

Even experienced web developers will readily admit that deploying a full-fledged e-commerce storefront can quickly become a complicated nightmare. Shopping cart solutions like Magento and Prestashop can take weeks of hassle and development time to integrate into an existing website. Oftentimes, it makes a lot more sense to opt for an all-in-one e-commerce solution when putting together an online shop. Comprehensive hosted e-commerce services take a lot of the headache out of the equation, which is why they’re so popular with both amateur developers and professionals alike. Finding the right tool for the job, however, can be daunting.

Choosing a Hosted E-commerce Provider

First off, consider the size of the business that your shopping cart will need to accommodate. You’ll have to base your decision to some degree on the size of your business’s operations. If you don’t expect to grow beyond a certain number of sales per month or support more than a certain number of customers, the issue of scalability factors into the decision less when you’re window shopping for a hosted e-commerce system. If you’ve set your sights on limitless growth, you’ll need a hosted e-commerce program that can grow with your business without any show-stopping hiccups.

Next, you’ll need to think about ease of use and administration on the back end. Not all hosted e-commerce solutions are created equal when it comes to user-friendliness. Even though the entire point of such programs is to facilitate the easiest setup and management possible, no service can make every conceivable tweak a push-button affair. If you’ll need highly customized designs and functionality, think about how expensive it will be to hire a professional to do the work if a plugin or theme isn’t available. Before pulling the trigger on any system, review how flexible it is in terms of design and configuration.

Last but not least, one must consider price and value. This isn’t entirely a cut-and-dry issue based strictly on dollars and cents. What looks like a good deal on paper may not seem like such a bargain further on down the line. Identifying the best bargain for your specific circumstances requires you to carefully research each feature of a number of competing hosted e-commerce platforms and compare their respective pricing structures before taking the plunge. For the first-time entrepreneur or small-scale startup, getting the best deal on a hosted e-commerce platform is the most vital consideration.

While there are dozens of solid shopping cart systems available online, the market is dominated by three highly respected programs. These are Shopify, Volusion and BigCommerce, each of which brings quite a bit to the table in terms of functionality and value. Each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the right program for your particular situation will depend on the factors alluded to above. The following in-depth analysis should make the decision a little easier. We’ve take the trouble of ranking various aspects of each platform on a scale of 1 to 5 to indicate overall relative quality.

Primary Feature Overview

Shopify

In many ways, Shopify is kind of like the WordPress of hosted e-commerce installations. It’s both feature-rich and incredibly easy to use, allowing merchants to quickly configure their online shops as they see fit. Shopify’s versatile drag-and-drop functionality allows for hassle-free creation of product pages and collections. It can also be used to publish articles and blog posts, making it a full-fledged CMS as well as a shopping cart. Shopify supports payment processing via PayPal, Google Checkout and every major credit cart by default. Thanks to its solid foundation built on the excellent Ruby on Rails framework, it’s responsive, stable and secure all at the same time.

Shopify also makes branding and promotion fairly painless, thanks to its robust SEO tools. Featuring keyword tag suggestion utilities, the expected XML Sitemap engine and a whole lot more, it’s quite adept at getting your online shop found quickly. Additionally, Shopify boasts automated backups, a stellar Content Delivery Network and 128-bit SSL encryption. Regardless of how expansive or complicated your online store happens to be, you won’t have to worry about the integrity of your data with Shopify. Most importantly, Shopify doesn’t rest on its laurels and is constantly rolling out new features like Free Shipping coupons that continue to improve the platform as a whole.
Score: 4

Volusion

As with the other web-based e-commerce platforms detailed here, Volusion abstracts away the back-end code and makes site administration about as easy as can be. Written in ASP.NET, Volusion is a Windows-based e-commerce system that’s simultaneously powerful and user-friendly. Its one-page checkout format is the stuff of legends. Like Shopify, Volusion offers SSL certificates and payment processing. It’s 100 percent PCI compliant, boasts unlimited product listings and is backed by a hardy CDN running on the Akamai network that ensures reliable shopping cart performance under any circumstances.

Volusion places an emphasis on presentation, delivering a superlative end user experience that leads to higher conversions than many competing shopping cart platforms. Thanks to the vZoom image resizing feature, potential customers who are browsing your inventory can get an up-close look at your products. It also boasts built-in product comparison for easier shopping and decision making. Volusion comes equipped with intelligent inventory tracking via their SmartMatch technology. Other notable bonuses include advanced analytics and ROI tracking as well as affiliate program management tools. Furthermore, theme layouts are optimized by default for mobile devices, and Volusion includes plenty of SEO tools for achieving high SERPs rankings.
Score: 4

BigCommerce

BigCommerce

All in all, BigCommerce delivers the most helpful support of all if you need assistance troubleshooting your e-commerce shop. Their documentation is incredibly thorough, and users can get Live Chat assistance 24 hours a day during the business week. On weekends, Live Chat is available between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Central time on Saturdays and 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Central time on Sundays. Users can also contact a toll-free technical support line during daytime hours or submit a support ticket for immediate help from BigCommerce’s well-trained staff.
Score: 5

Weaknesses & Drawbacks

Shopify

Easily the most glaring disadvantage of Shopify is the 2 percent transaction fee per purchase of the base plan. Unlike its competitors, Shopify takes a cut of the action unless you are willing to pay a lot for the most expensive plan available. In addition, some of the optional third-party apps are on the expensive side. The back-of-the-envelope arithmetic doesn’t work out for vendors with lower margins and volume. Keep this in mind when you’re planning an e-commerce site for the long haul.

Beyond financial considerations, potential buyers should also be aware of Shopify’s limits on the number of products supported in cheaper plans. Another problem is its relatively pedestrian social media integration and cross-platform support, which can occasionally be patchy. Nowadays, social media and mobile marketing are the keys to promoting any brand online. An e-commerce site should display flawlessly on any device whether it’s a smartphone or a PC. As it stands, Shopify’s mobile and social capabilities could be better.
Score: 3

Volusion

The greatest drawback of Volusion is customer support. Many users are less than satisfied with the responsiveness of the company as far as addressing concerns goes. As alluded to previously, Live Chat support isn’t always helpful and responses to complaint tickets can take a long time to come. If nothing major goes awry and you know how to troubleshoot most issues as they arise, this shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Most users, however, would prefer that their hosted e-commerce service provider make hands-on support a priority just in case.

The other major weakness of Volusion is the fact that their framework isn’t as flexible as BigCommerce. While tweaks can be achieved with enough work, messing around in the back end can break functionality in unexpected ways. Furthermore, their entry-level Mini plan is severely limited. The design capabilities of Volusion leave a lot to be desired if you really need something custom. Lastly, users must buy their own SSL certificates to process credit cards, which means an extra $80 – $1000/year at the minimum in addition to your monthly bill.
Score: 2

BigCommerce

As far as disadvantages are concerned, BigCommerce has the fewest issues with technical support, performance and reliability. Still, that doesn’t make it perfect. For one thing, it takes more effort to come up with a unique design due to the utilitarian default templates. Again, setting up a BigCommerce site isn’t quite as simple as with Shopify, even though it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work through the process. However, this point is partially negated by BigCommerce’s excellent customer service delivered via a number of different avenues.

Besides the mildly more complicated setup, BigCommerce suffers from the same beginner plan limitations of most hosted e-commerce platforms. You get what you pay for, after all. Probably the most vexing thing to those not familiar with BigCommerce going in is the extra legwork required to add certain capabilities to any given shopping cart. Fortunately, it’s possible to take advantage of the rich plugin ecosystem available to BigCommerce users to enable any desired functionality.
Score: 4

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Obviously, the right hosted e-commerce platform for your online business will depend heavily on a number of different factors. It’s tough to give catchall advice on which system to choose that will be widely applicable to every scenario. However, some basic generalizations can be made based on the above information. If you’re looking for simplicity over total features, the best choice is Shopify. If you’d like to find a happy medium between customization and ease of use, Volusion is a solid option. If you need a hosted e-commerce CMS that can handle everything you throw at it, BigCommerce is undoubtedly the best option.

The Wrap

Picking the best hosted shopping cart program for your project is just the beginning. Once you’ve made your decision, you’ll need to leverage the built-in features of your chosen platform to make your shop a success and perhaps engage a marketing firm. Fortunately, each of the aforementioned e-commerce systems boasts plenty of documentation and support to help you ensure that your store eventually thrives. These hosted e-commerce platforms are the best of the best, and it’s difficult to go wrong regardless of which one you eventually select. With the right hosted e-commerce system, your vision can be achieved with the minimum of pain and frustration. Your business goals and resources will be the ultimate guide in deciding on an ecommerce platform. We tend to lean towards BigCommerce in most cases because in the big picture they offer all the functionality you need, a reliable platform and good all around support to back things up.

What are your thoughts? Do you have experience with any of these? Questions we might answer? Please leave your comments and questions below!

The Definition of the Perfect Ecommerce Website Design

Jason Corgiat — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:48:44 +0000

It’s easy to get carried away when building an ecommerce website and even more so when designing it. You add beveled and bubbly text, shadows and underlines, clip art icons and real-life photos, and before you know it your website looks ridiculous. Unless there’s a method to your madness, those excess digital designs are probably adding little value to your website.

If you’re still debating, just look at some of the world’s most accomplished ecommerce websites – Amazon, eBay, Zappos. What do they have in common? They adhere to the philosophy of function over form. They have the funds to do anything they want, but they use it towards making it work rather than making it pretty. In other words, they dedicate their sites to improving usability for the consumer as opposed to studding their sites with 3D effects.

You have to treat your website like you would treat a brick-and-mortar business that has no staff. Make it easy for consumers to get in, grab what they came for, and get out. Make the experience enjoyable BECAUSE it’s so easy.

Right now, you’re probably thinking, “Wait a second, aren’t you website design company?” You might call us that, but I prefer the term website development company. There are many ways to explain the difference but for the purpose of this article I’ll put it this way:

The statement “make my website look beautiful” might be answered this way:

A website design company would say – “OK! We can do that!”
A website development company would say – “Why? Who’s the target audience? What is your existing brand image like? Will a beautiful design add value to the user’s experience?”

You can see the difference. We’re a website development company that asks the right questions and now has the answers for the perfect ecommerce website…

Transparent Homepage

Think about Olive Garden for a second. When you pull up to their restaurants what do you see? A big sign that says “Olive Garden – Italian Restaurant” and a building designed like a Tuscan villa. Before you step inside, you know exactly what kind of food experience you’re about to get. This same concept of transparency must be applied to your website: from the moment someone lands on your homepage, you need to be as direct, clear, and authentic as possible before users even begin to click.

So when a new visitor lands on your website you’ll need to answer these questions:

Who are you?
What do you sell?
Why should I trust you?

Everything you do should be built around the answers to these questions, because if you can’t answer these questions, then how will you move potential buyers further through the funnel?

You can answer these questions through a combination of means, none of which is a long-winded explanatory paragraph. A solid design, high-quality graphics, strong branding elements, hard-hitting titles, obvious navigation controls, well-known security symbols like Veri-Sign, and clearly stated privacy policies and guarantees are all simple, yet more effective ways of telling people who you are, what you sell, and why you can be trusted.

Because that’s what transparency is all about – trust. Trust makes a user more willing to stay on your website, browse around, and make purchases. If you can design an ecommerce website homepage that delivers transparency, you’re already halfway down the road to perfection.

Just look at the homepage for Columbia Sportswear. What do you see? High-quality imagery with people wearing Columbia clothing in action, info on the latest sports technology, and a reference to the company’s roots (“SINCE 1938”). The logo, photos, and titles are all right there in your face. That’s transparency:

Intuitive Navigation

After landing on a homepage, a user needs to know what to do next. It’s your job to make that possible. By providing a well-organized and intuitive display of tabs and drop-down menus, users can quickly scan and find the portion of your business that they seek. The faster they can move through your products and services, the easier it will be for them to transact on your website. You can even encourage faster navigation by adding convenient “past purchases” or “similar products” sections in the sidebar as they search.

The best way to display tabs is to work with the way people read (so left to right and up to down). That means putting your most important information in the upper left corner first. This will also help you keep your most important information “above the fold” or before the bottom of the screen where users have to scroll to see more.

There are other ways to implement easy navigation too. Include a visible search bar for users with specific needs. Create an accessible FAQ section for curious visitors and make your customer service number readily available for concerned visitors. The eBay.com homepage is a great example of intuitive navigation, with a huge search bar/button across the top and popular categories listed on the left:

Powerful Imagery (and Videos)

Ecommerce is far from perfect. While your customers can buy your products from anywhere in the world, they lack the ability to touch, hold, smell, taste, feel, rub, or accidentally break your products (ok fine, that last one IS perfect). That’s why photos, as well as videos, are crucial for the sale of your product. They bring your products to life and make it possible for consumers to make educated purchasing decisions.

Therefore you need your photos to be as awesome as possible. They should have a high resolution, vivid color, large size, viewable angle, and overall comprehension. And you want to use a plain background (rather than an image) to make sure they stand out on the page. Your videos should also be high resolution, show your product in use, and inspire your consumers rather than just inform.

Where do you need photos and videos most? On the product detail pages, of course. The best ecommerce websites offer photos from different angles with different color combinations and offer videos that showcase the product in action. That extra effort equates to more sales. Just look at what Zappos.com does to a simple shoe. They offer three different color options, seven different photo angles, plus a video! If that doesn’t convince you, then nothing will.

Well-Organized Content – It’s More Than Just Words

Images are great, but content is king. Written content defines an ecommerce website because it provides all the relevant information for your customers to enable an easier purchasing process. This content can bring products to life through descriptions and stories, it helps answer nagging questions, and it spells out processes that might be initially complex; all things that people want and need to know.

But content isn’t just about writing good quality descriptions under your products. It’s about putting the right content in the right place for the right person. Think about it – not everyone reading your website needs or wants to know every bit of content you provide. Take Kohler, for example, who sells toilets. They probably have homeowners, designers, plumbers, and architects all reading the same content for the same product. How do you create and provide content for all these different audiences on the same page?

The solution is through content organization. The key is to use the space on your website pages to section off certain information for certain groups of people, allowing them to skip over or hide it as they please. Sub-headers, linear formations like boxes, tabs, buttons, and drop-down menus all enable this organizational process to exist, so use them wisely.

Check out a product on Kohler’s website to see how they arrange content to describe a toilet to different audience segments. For instance, an architect might look for the “Dimensions” section, a plumber might seek out the “Parts, Service, & Support” section, and a homeowner might focus on the “Features” section.

(Ya, we just showed you a $6,600 toilet!)

Obvious Call-To-Actions and Customer Service

You measure an ecommerce website’s success by its ability to do commerce, or in layman terms, to sell. The call-to-action is the phrase, link, or button that prompts a user to make a transaction, whether it’s calling the company to request a quote for service or adding a product to the cart.

The perfect ecommerce website has a clear and concise call-to-action. The CTA is designed to be as obvious as possible (without going over the top). It is also listed in consistent places throughout the website. Don’t have the “Contact Us” email or “add to cart” button in different places. Remember to utilize the header and footer sections too as they stay consistent throughout the entire website.

When a customer has difficulties making an action, what’s the first thing they do? Call customer service. For this reason, your customer service button or phone number needs to be just as obvious as your purchasing CTA. Customer service is vital to the success of every ecommerce business and deserves the same amount of attention as everything else, so put it somewhere obvious like the header or footer.

Take a peek at Amazon.com for an example of obvious and strong CTAs. The shopping cart is always in the upper right corner, all the CTA buttons are consistently yellow, and the “Help” tab stays at the top – very hard to miss:

Straightforward Checkout

For any ecommerce website, check out is the final and most important step in the purchasing process. Unfortunately, this is where too many websites lose business and customers. Make the process too complicated with too many steps, checks, and clicks and your customers will get bored, confused, or deterred. Offer too few steps and safety features and they’ll question your legitimacy.

The process of checking out has to be as straightforward as a convenience store checkout counter: walk up with the item, pay for it, and leave satisfied. The perfect ecommerce website designs its checkout process with these three easy steps in mind:

Review items for purchase in a checkout cart or section
Pay for items in an easy-to-follow and noticeably secure platform
Be provided with a confirmation/receipt and have it sent via email too

At all times, users should be informed of the three-step checkout process via a breadcrumb trail above the checkout process. Similar to seeing the length of a store’s checkout line, seeing the steps it takes to checkout makes a customer more comfortable transacting.

Google Analytics is used by many ecommerce websites to track where customers are aborting the checkout process. Check out their video on the importance and challenges of the checkout process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sk7cOqB9Dk

Page Consistency

With dozens of pages per website, it’s easy to see why pages can vary from one to the next. However, backgrounds, fonts, colors, and overall design need to be consistent throughout the entire website. Consistency reminds customers that they are still on the same website, makes it easier to navigate, and also increases visual appeal.

One of the biggest challenges ecommerce companies face is having their checkout look like the rest of the website. Spend the money and get an SSL certificate so you don’t use the “shared” one allowing you to keep you checkout under mywebsite.com rather than the URL changing to mywebsite.bigcommerce.com. Consistency, like transparency, helps to build trust with the consumer. A well-designed and well-organized website proves that your business cares about its reputation as well as its customers.

As I always say, your website has to look professional enough to take design out of the equation. If you follow these simple instructions above, your website will have all the design it needs and become the definition of the perfect ecommerce website design. You can also request a quote and LeapGo will be more than happy to help you develop the ideal design for your ecommerce website.

What do you think? What have you seen on an ecommerce site that you love? What do you hate? Tell us below:

Google Launches Adwords Enhanced Campaigns – What It Means To You

Jason Corgiat — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:37:56 +0000

Ten years ago all your online customers were connecting from a desktop computer. Today, your customers are connecting from desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, in the home, on the go, and who knows where else. Marketing your business to all the different devices at different times was once a complicated process involving multiple campaigns. Now Google Adwords’ Enhanced Campaigns simplifies that process into a single campaign and make your ads more contextually relevant to each device and user.

What do Google Adwords enhanced campaigns mean for you and your business?

Minimized Campaign Setup

In the past, you might have set up three campaigns – one for PC users, one for mobile phone users, and one for tablet users.

With enhanced campaigns, you now set up a single campaign and manipulate it across all devices, locations, time of day, and other aspects. That means less campaigns you need to keep track of and more time to focus on your targeting and tracking.

Easier Device-, Location-, and Time-based Targeting

In the past, you would have a separate campaign for each device, every specified location, or each segment of the day.

With enhanced campaigns, you can now use a single campaign to target consumers based on their device, location, or time of day. For example, you can promote your new ecommerce website to someone on a desktop but promote a click-to-call campaign on their cell phone. If you’re a retail store, you can target ads to cell phone users walking nearby. You can also adjust bids higher when your store is open and lower when you’re closed. This flexibility makes targeting easier and the single campaign makes it easier to follow too.

Better Conversion Tracking

In the past, it was difficult to measure phone calls and app downloads directly from your online advertising, as well as determine specific clicks on your Sitelinks (reporting was provided on the whole).

With enhanced campaigns, you can determine how many customers called the number directly from your ad or how many downloaded your app (whose icon can now be displayed for download on your ad). You also get more detailed reporting and comparisons on your Sitelink extensions, including statistics on what part of the ad people clicked. This will vastly improve your ability to adjust ads and optimize conversions.

Improved Mobile Features

In the past, mobile bids were adjusted automatically. In addition, advertisers were footing an increasingly large bill for customers who dialed directly from click-to-call ads. Not anymore.

With enhanced campaigns you have the ability to adjust your bids on mobile devices. That means you can greatly increase the chance that your ad is seen and clicked. And now when customers call directly from click-to-call ads, there are no longer fees.

BUT, There Are Downsides To Your Control and Cost

In the past, you could target campaigns to different operating systems (iOS or Android), create a mobile-only or tablet-only campaign, or target specific keywords to certain devices.

With enhanced campaigns, each campaign will target all the devices by default. The inability to opt-out of specific devices or operating systems means your costs are bound to be higher per campaign (all else being equal). Plus, your keywords will now have to be embraced across all devices.

Despite a few downsides, Google Adword’s Enhanced Campaigns should make your campaigning much more effective. In particular, better tracking capabilities also means you will have a better grasp of what’s working and what is not.

Currently, you have to opt-in to get enhanced campaigns, but come June 2013, you’ll automatically be rolled into the program, as will all your campaigns. It may be the latest enhancement from Google, but as the Internet and devices continue to evolve you can expect plenty more to come.

What do you think about Google’s Adwords Enhanced Campaigns?

LeapGo can manage your paid search campaigns. Learn more about LeapGo PPC Management.

Choosing Your PPC Strategy – Outside Agency or In-House Staff?

Jason Corgiat — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:16:46 +0000

With the constant evolution of digital marketing and the impending creation of new competitors, driving traffic to your website has never been more important. Understanding and utilizing digital marketing strategies is vital to the success of any website and one of the key drivers remains a strong pay per click (PPC) strategy.

Big growth leveraging paid search requires an even bigger plan and there are two main paths you can take: Hire an outside team to run your PPC strategy or assign an internal team (member) the task of managing your PPC plan. Which is better? You’d probably expect us to tell you it’s hiring an agency, right? The truth is that it depends on what you have and what you need. Check out our totally objective comparison on outside agency vs. in-house staff. No hidden sales pitch, we promise!

OUTSIDE AGENCY

Knowledge –

Pros: Most agencies have previous PPC experience, meaning they can employ best practices (often gained working with other clients) to generate immediate growth. They can help you think outside the box and their up-to-date knowledge on techniques and trends can be priceless in an ever-changing web-based world.
Cons: Yet they often don’t know your business half as well as you do. Getting them up-to-speed, directing them to the proper keywords (particularly if you’re a niche business), and maintaining their focus on your most urgent needs can be a struggle if it’s not managed properly.

Resources -

Pros: Instead of consuming your own staff with the tedious tasks and rampant reports of PPC, an agency’s account manager can dedicate his or her time specifically to your needs. From a cost perspective, there’s always an agency willing to work within your budget, whether you plan to spend $1,000 or $100,000 per month.
Cons: A typical account manager has multiple accounts, so no matter how special you think you are, the account manager’s priority is not always you. Therefore, you may have to contend for his or her time and moments of critical thinking. Choose an agency that has a clientele of similar sized businesses. It’s tempting to hire an agency based on their client list but you don’t want to be the smallest fish in the pond when the agency gets busy.

Alignment -

Pros: PPC agencies often have experience in other channels of digital marketing, be it social media management or mobile marketing. If you truly like an agency’s work, you can hire it to tie the rest of your online and mobile strategies together under one roof and that alignment is crucial.
Cons: On the flip side, hiring an agency could lead to conflict or cause confusion, particularly if you already have other players running other aspects of your online and mobile strategy. When you have multiple parties going in different directions, maintaining course can be a hassle. Furthermore, if you’re working with multiple marketing agencies, you have to make sure there is someone to manage the relationships and coordinate efforts across multiple channels.

IN-HOUSE STAFF

Knowledge –

Pros: Nobody knows your business like you do and having someone on the inside with industry-specific knowledge is irreplaceable. If you’re in a niche market, for example organic clothing, your staff will often know the niche keywords and unusual terms, as well as where to target your ads online.
Cons: Knowing your business is an integral part of PPC, but knowing the ins and outs of PPC is even more important. If you don’t know how to research keywords, how much to spend and bid, or how to analyze the metrics, then you won’t know what is working and what is costing you precious dollars.

Resources –

Pros: There are two resources to consider in-house: human capital and monetary budget. From a people perspective (and depending on your breadth of business), a PPC strategy requires at least one internal person with complete focus and dedicated work ethic. From a cost perspective, an in-house staff member can more readily monitor your spend and be quicker to push the ads or pull the reins.
Cons: As said above, dedicating a person or people can be good for focus, but it can be a sacrifice too. Running your PPC strategy can be an everyday task, not to mention that understanding PPC means your staff should be constantly learning their newfound craft. Cost should not be forgotten either. It is not just PPC spend, but the salary and benefits of your in-house staff that have to be considered too.

Alignment –

Pros: If you already have a team running online and mobile marketing strategies, then you can easily tie PPC into your overall business and company strategy. Plus, as a manager, you can better control the direction of the keywords, ads, and spend. Thus, a quick shift in direction is neither a problem, nor an argument.
Cons: Yet anyone who’s been in business long enough knows that it’s hard to get your head out of a rut – you do business the same way year after year and you struggle to think outside the box. The way you run your PPC strategy could end up in the same boat if you keep it in-house.

MAKING THE CHOICE

Outside Agency: If you lack the experience, could use the additional resources, and/or need help defining your over-arching digital marketing strategy, an agency is probably the wiser decision. They have the expertise and the account managers readily available to help you grow. So how do you choose the right agency?

Start by asking the right questions: What is their past experience in PPC? Do they have specific knowledge of your industry? What are their reporting metrics? Can they provide proof of past success?
Determine your monthly budget. This includes setup fees, agency management fees, and most of all, ad spend. Make sure the agency can work within your budget.
Be open about your company goals and your expected ROI. This way you can ensure the agency will help you reach your target(s). Don’t just ask for things like “more traffic” and “increased business”. You need to know real numbers to have real goals. If you don’t know these key metrics yet, a good agency will help you establish realistic benchmarks.
Understand the metrics! Each agency will have a different structure of reporting results and it’s imperative that you understand it so you can ask the right questions and help make the necessary changes.

In-House Staff: If you have the manpower, can fit this into an existing strategy, and/or are confident in your ability to run PPC campaigns, then in-house is a smarter path to take. You will have more control over and more insight into your successes (or failures). So how do you manage the strategy and staff member(s)?

Pick the right person(s). Put this critical task in the hands of someone who understands digital marketing and your specific digital marketing goals.
Put a plan in place. Every business objective needs a strategy of some sort and this one is no different. Start by answering the basic questions: What do we want to spend? How much time do we want to dedicate to this? What are our initial keywords? What are our goals and anticipated ROI?
Pick the right bid management software. There are dozens of great ones, but you need to find one that will help you optimize your keywords, lower your cost per click, improve your CTR and conversion rate, and drive more traffic.
Adjust reports to help you reach your results. Whether you’re looking at Google Analytics or your software-specific reports, you need to customize reports to align with your goals. There are plenty of metrics to stare at, so make sure you’re staring at the right ones.
Research and read about the latest trends and technology. The web is a vast landscape and there’s always something new, whether it’s a major search engine update, a new way of bidding for ads, or a new popular website on which to focus your attention. Take the time to give your staff proper training and updates, whether it’s taking the Adwords Certification Program or signing up for an industry e-newsletter. The more you know, the better.