Melbourne Google Engage June 2013. Left to Right. David Booth, Mark Thomas (me), Lara Mattatia and Mike Rhodes

Google Engage is a program for online agencies that offers the chance to learn the best implementation and methods directly from Google. These events  are invaluable and all zen¹⁰ team members attend.

Each event covers topics from a first hand view at Google as well as insights and best practices from leading international agencies.

At last month’s Google Engage event it was my privilege to be a guest speaker on an industry panel to discuss the tools and strategies we use to market our own agency.

These are the same methods we use to help our customers grow profitable businesses.

The fact is that if you are any good at what you do you are already busy…..but you know you need systems that introduce, nurture and close business from new customers to grow. Especially in tough times.

Here are the zen¹⁰ basics we use for our own online marketing

– design a great website that converts

– do great work and blog about ……..often !

– optimise for a few important keywords

– use AdWords to target high value clients and ruthlessly measure cost per acquisition

– remarket to those who visit your website but don’t connect the first time (hint – those ads that follow you around the internet no matter where you go)

– use an internal sales system to help your sales team be productive, follow up and close business…….especially if you are the sales team ! (I personally use OnePageCRM with immediate results to the bottom line)

With a few simple (not simplistic) steps you can develop a system that becomes the foundation not just for next weeks sales, but next month, next quarter and next year.

Thanks to the Google Engage team and my fellow panel members for a great day and if you are interested in how you can improve your online marketing, feel free to contact me for a personal chat.

Mark Thomas
Director zen¹⁰

Natural Sleep sought the help of zen¹⁰ to develop a new landing page to coincide with Google Adwords sale campaigns.

The new landing page has kept the same style as the main page of the website but has been stripped of all links to the main website, thus enhancing lead generation.

The new landing page includes the standard online enquiry form (where most leads are created), lightbox effects for both Google Maps and video commercial, simple design and online exclusive gift offer.

When it comes to luxury bedding that wont cost the earth, Natural Sleep are your first choice! www.naturalsleep.com.au/autumnclearance

If you are after effective website design, contact zen¹⁰ Australia on 1300 798 901.

Once upon a time in the bad old days when people shared a phone (can you imagine?) advertisings greatest successes were convincing us Santa was coke-can-red and that diamonds were scarce and precious.

It did this through good old fashioned commercial artwork, posters, billboards and print advertising.

This was an imprecise process where boards of big companies threw money and alcohol at young creative people who tried to manipulate our cultural sensibilities with artwork… Artwork! Every now and then it worked, sales went up, backs were slapped and cigars were smoked.

Nobody really knew whether the agency’s campaign really did sell more sugar water that year, or perhaps it was just the record heat that summer, or the strategic distribution of vending machines? Or the fact that one of the ingredients was a highly addictive drug. Maybe. Who knows? Who cares? The people in accounts appear to be happy.

Ahh for those simple times. Now everyone actually cares where their advertising money goes and whether or not it works. Thanks Google. Now we actually know when the ads don’t work, which ones do work, and even which ones generate revenue. This is called “attribution” by us internet marketing boffins. It sounds good, but what it really means is that we agencies can’t include spin about how well, or poorly a campaign is doing. The data just tells you. Yeh, awesome.

So, in the ever increasing arms race of online advertising this attribution model relies on a simple assumption – that you can track someone from the AD to the SALE. Sounds simple. But if you know people, you know we are not always simple. People are growing insensitive to advertising. People are researching purchasing decisions – for days or even weeks and months. People are using multiple devices, phones, tablets, computers etc. People are using alternative currencies and payment methods. People are using apps instead of websites. People are using more than one social network. People are sharing links over email, sms, mms, www, scraps of paper, qr codes and carrier pigeons. People are – *gasp* – clearing their internet cookies and disabling tracking capabilities in their browsers.

Goddammit people. It’s like you don’t want to be advertised to! What’s a global international privacy-mining mega-corporation to do?

There is a battle going on right now, and it’s all about the big players learning how to follow you. They want to know you. They want to know your friends. And for most of us, we are making this all too easy. Our digital breadcrumbs trail behind us all the way to the advertisers gingerbread website where we throw ourselves willingly into the attribution fires. Um, I mean conversion reports.

On the one hand, this is unsettling and sneaky. The advertisers have insights into us that even we don’t realise. On the other hand, if you have to see advertising anyway – wouldn’t you rather see stuff you are statistically more likely to enjoy? Or does this represent a greater homogenisation of culture where the lowest common attraction pushes us towards more fat pills, teen pop stars and the ubiquity of Mickey Mouse and his buddies?

Disney starts advertising to you before you are born, with a range of products for expectant mothers. Then you get disney baby bottles, socks, nappies, rattles, lunch-boxes and school backpacks. Disney wants you. They want to know you, and they want to follow you from the day you are born, to the day you click CONFIRM ORDER on the online checkout. How’s that for attribution?