Online Marketing Process

Below is the process that I follow when I set up Online Marketing Campaigns for my clients. The process covers the initial meeting, through the proposal and research phases, and on to monthly activities. You can read the entire page, or click one of the phases below to see details for a given part of the process.

Initial Meeting

For the initial Meeting, my goal is to find out about your business, and to provide you an introduction to online marketing. We’ll also cover how online marketing can directly positively impact your business. Below is what you can view as a general agenda whenever I meet a client for the first time.

1) Learn About Your Business

•  What Your Business Does and How it Operates
•  State of Current Marketing Efforts
•  Business Goals - relative to clients and revenue
•  Who is Your Ideal Client

2) Compare You to the Competition

I take a look at your online presence and I see how you stack up against the competition with regards to both organic (free search results) and paid advertising.

3) Online Marketing Overview

I like to give all prospective clients an introduction to the following areas and explain how each may (or may not) help the client meet their business goals

•  Pay-Per-Click
•  SEO
•  Local Search
•  Web Sites (Microsites, Landing Pages and Corporate Websites)
•  Analytics

4) Recommendations and Proposal

Based on our meeting, I will have a good idea of what your business needs to be successful and what your requirements are.

While at the meeting, I will give you some general price guidelines on what to expect based on the requirements that meet your needs.

From this point, I put together a proposal which will be in your e-mail inbox within 48 hours.

Research

Once the Proposal is Accepted, we move on to the initial startup phase. During Campaign Initiation, I learn even more about your business and your clients. I take an in depth look at the competition as well as your target clients.

1) Competition Research

Using freely available tools such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool as well as paid proprietary tools, I learn everything I can about your competition. Examples of Competition Research Tasks include:

•  Who are the competitors for both organic and paid search
•  What things are those competitors doing right and wrong on their website (and their landing pages)
•  What keywords are these competitors bidding on – and what keywords are effective for these competitors
•  What do competitors online ads look like? What ads appear to be working and what aren’t?
•  Competitor advertising and bid history – I look at what ads and keywords have stood the test of time and are likely to be successful for that advertiser.

2) Client Research

I learn everything possible I can about your target client so that clues to what ad copy and keywords may be most effective. I also learn about the geographic and demographic considerations for your client as we can target advertising campaigns based on both criteria. Examples of client research tasks include:

•  I work with you to build a profile of who the ideal client is.
•  What keywords would work best to reach this client?
•  What ad text is most likely to resonate with this client?
•  What is the demographic nature of this client?
•  What geographical target do we have for this client?

Ad Campaign Setup and Implementation

1) Build Advertising Campaigns

Based on the keyword and competition research performed in the previous steps, ad campaigns are put together in the most optimal way possible. Based on your requirements, your budget, and your business goals, the online advertising campaigns will be rolled out to Google, Microsoft, and potentially Yahoo.

2) Modify/Create/Build Website Elements

This will vary widely depending on client. But based on the current state of your website, I will add one or more landing pages to support the advertising campaigns. Landing pages will relate directly to the advertising campaigns and will encourage website visitors to convert into prospective clients.

3) Go Live

After the website has been tested, the advertising campaigns are turned on. The online marketing campaign is now live.

Ongoing Activities

After the initial setup, there will be a lot of activity monitoring and adjusting the campaigns for the first few months. From that point forward, things become a bit more routine. Some of the tasks below are performed daily, others weekly, and the remainder monthly. The ongoing tasks that I perform for clients include the following:

•  Keyword Research
•  Bid Management - Making sure that bids for keyword are optimal and adjusting as needed
•  Competition Monitoring - focusing on competition that is consistently advertising as they are likely successful
•  Top Keyword Phrases - identifying and emphasizing keywords that perform well and result in conversions
•  Ad Monitoring - Eliminating poorly performing ads and focusing on ads that deliver conversions
•  Brand Monitoring - continuously monitoring all references to your business brand on the Internet for both positive and negative feedback
•  SEO Ranking Monitoring - measuring how keyword phrases are performing in organic search
•  Monthly meetings - I meet with clients once monthly to discuss progress and future actions
•  Monthly Reporting - I provide detailed monthly reports to clients so that they can easily track online marketing campaign progress, effectiveness, and ROI
•  Negative Keyword Monitoring - exclude all keywords which bring unqualified traffic to the landing pages

Next Steps

  Compare Online Marketing vs. Other Advertising

See how online marketing compares favorably with traditional forms of advertising like the phone book. Online marketing is much more cost effective and flexible. Plus you can directly measure the results of online marketing and you aren't tied into an expensive term contract.

  Read a Case Study

View an actual case study - complete with screenshots and a link to the actual live website - which details how I worked with a client to create a website and supporting online marketing campaign that generates clients and revenue.

  Contact Me

Contact me directly to learn why an online marketing campaign is the most cost effective way to market your business. Phone: 303.909.2696 E-Mail: