The three little words “return on investment” may be the stuff of every marketers’ dreams or nightmares, depending on how their campaigns and initiatives are performing. Every company has limited resources and in order to justify continued expenses and expenditures, marketers are increasingly pressured to provide a reason, through excellent ROI, to keep or increase their budgets. In fact, nearly two-thirds of CMOs believe that ROI will be the principal measure of performance by 2015.

As many marketing initiatives increasingly position themselves online, where clicks, conversions, traffic, purchases and other deliverables can be easily measured, ROI will grow as a primary means of measurement for marketing. Additionally, this numbers-driven “yardstick,” gives marketing executives the opportunity to provide hard numbers and data when competing against other departments for budgetary funding. Marketing budgets are often the first ones cut since there previously was no way to see how efforts and initiatives were affecting the bottom line. ROI helps combat that lack of awareness.

Marketing campaigns are considered investments by many businesses, with the expectation that a certain amount of profit, conversion or traffic should be the result of the money spent. As with any other venture, measurements are needed in order to ensure that the campaigns are worthwhile investments.

What components you will need to calculate for a quick “temperature reading” on ROI for your marketing campaign. The math for ROI calculation is generally fairly straightforward, and depending on what you’re measuring, sometimes the analytics tool you use to gather data can do the math for you.

The basic components of an ROI calculation can be a challenge to figure out, but should at least include revenue or conversions generated by a specific marketing campaign, and marketing-related expenses—including manpower and hourly wages. Profit margins on product should be included if the marketing is product-driven. You’ll also need to determine the value of each new conversion (newsletter sign-up, registration, etc.) if you’re not measuring purchases. For example, each new registered member averages to $1000 in sales over next two months; so one registration is worth $500 a month, even if you’re not measuring direct purchases for that particular campaign.

These elements are needed for a very quick read on how your campaigns are performing, so that you can get a sense as to whether or not you want to continue, adjust, or kill the initiative.

By SK (FED Architected Agile Template) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

However, measuring ROI on marketing campaigns can be challenging. Getting an accurate read on your marketing ROI can be rather tricky as there are many moving parts that need to be taken into consideration.

When to measure. Depending on the campaign, the results may not be immediate. The money spent today on this advertising campaign may not result in major conversions until a week from now. Last month’s advertising spend may still be leading to the spike in traffic this month. As there isn’t a set time limit on the effects of a marketing initiative, it can be difficult figuring out firm numbers for each effort.

More than one point of attribution. Unless you are running one campaign at a time, in complete isolation from any other efforts, you may not know if it was this particular initiative alone that lead to the conversion or purchase, or if it was the three previous efforts that led this customer to finally convert. It can be difficult to attribute a new customer or purchase to just one campaign.

Spending levels. ROI changes at different spending levels. Unless you’re investing exactly the same amount of money and time into each campaign, comparing ROIs would give you an inaccurate read on performance.

 External variables. Your marketing efforts aren’t working in a vacuum—many outside factors, either from your business or the world at large, can have an effect on how your campaign performs. Panic about a potential financial crash can tank the ROI of an effort that would otherwise be successful during calmer economic times. Conversely, an upswing in consumer confidence and spending, may inflate ROI.

 Focusing solely on ROI may sell the marketing campaign short. While looking at cost of investment and return can give you a quick overview of how the marketing efforts are performing, it also overlooks many important factors that also play a part in the reach and influence of the marketing campaigns.

 If you do need a number to determine whether or not you’re overspending or under-spending on a campaign, consider measuring return on marginal investment instead. It can quickly give you a sense of whether you need to adjust your spend—and all you need to know is if the ROI is positive or negative.

 Every marketer, online or otherwise, needs to have some sort of gauge for their performance, especially in a numbers-driven business world. ROI can help provide those much needed numbers; but keep in mind that it may not reflect the big picture and overall affect of marketing efforts.

Dave Landry Jr. is an investor and small-business owner, contributing to National Debt Relief, a proven agency supporting those in financially dire situations.

Link building is a project, often long and lengthy in nature. Good link building campaigns employ diverse strategies to build backlinks over the course of months, with diverse goals and objectives.

It doesn't take thousands of backlinks to rank. The goal in link building should be sustainable activity that will continue to result in good links that make sense, without creating abnormal patterns or high link velocity.

This mindset is often hard to sell, and can be difficult for those used to link building of the past. Yet building confidence and trust is absolutely vital to a successful link building project.

There are five different strategies worth examining at the start of any campaign, which will help build confidence in a fresh link building project. They are:

• 404 Pages and Link Reclamation
• Competitor Analysis
• Fresh Web Mentions
• Local Link Building
• Past/Current Relationships

Local Link Building

Local link building is a commonly untapped resource, which can lead to quick yet quality links.

Not every website will be able to take advantage of their locality, but it absolutely should be scrutinized at the start of a fresh link building campaign. I covered this fairly extensively in a previous article, "Local Link Building: An Easy Win".

Now let's explore some great strategies to build local links, as well as why they're worth pursuing.

Why Local Links Matter

If a site has any potentially local customers, it's definitely worth the time to invest in a little local link building. Especially when you consider the effect of localization in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Google will boost your site in the SERPs (for searchers in your area), if there's even a hint of local intent in the search. If your business has any chance of selling to local customers you're letting a great opportunity slip through your fingers by not pursuing at least some local links in your link building campaign.

Especially since local link building can result in really great links.

So, how do you build these local links?

Local Link Building Strategies

Local link building isn't wildly different than industry based link building, except that the relevance/focus is shifted. I'm a big believer in the importance of relevance in link building.

The relevance in local link building centers upon location, rather than niche.

If a link building company, for example, were going after industry based links, the relevance would be link building > SEO > online marketing, from narrow to broad. In local link building the relevance would be city > region > state.

If you can find double relevance – a website that is relevant both to your locality and to your industry – so much the better. But it isn't absolutely necessary when building local links.

Other than that, all the same link building tactics you might use in normal link building apply, although keep in mind the inherent value you will already have to local sites, since you share the same community.

Here are four common local link building tactics, which can work for any business.

1. Interact Locally

Helping clients get active in their community is one of my favorite tactics for building great local links. Typically these links take a little more time and investment, but the payoff can be huge both online and off. This works best for sites that are more invested in local.

If you're looking for quick and quality links this might not be your go-to link building tactic, but I still urge you to at least consider it.

A list of potential ways to involve yourself in the community, with the opportunity for great links:

• Host, sponsor, or participate with a local charity.
• Create, host, or sponsor an event, association, or club that ties into your industry.
• Start a local scholarship for high school students.
• Interview an important community member or group.
• Feature an important community member or group on your blog (assuming you have one).
• Start a discount/product partnership with a local group (if applicable).
• Contact your local media and offer your expertise as a source for future work.

Now some of these could technically be categorized as paid links, such as obtaining a link by directly sponsoring an event. But would Google count that as a paid link, or hidden advertisement? Not currently, and I don't believe they will anytime soon. However if you are worried, you can always ask that the link be nofollowed.

Paid links are an endless rabbit hole, and the issue isn't quite as white and black as Google would like it to be. There are many ways to build great links that technically involve the spending of money, but I wouldn't classify as a "paid link".

Regardless, all of these activities can lead to absolutely superb local links. Links that are acquired through valuable actions, not just tactics or online strategies.

However, most of these will require a real investment into the community. Not bad, although if you're looking for solid early campaign wins this might not be the most straightforward path, especially if your website only has tenuous connections to your local community.

2. Create a Community Resource

Creating a community resource is a great route for local link building, notably for websites that will otherwise struggle to build local links.

So, if your site doesn't have much of a local presence, you haven't interacted much locally, and you'll struggle to justify why your site should be considered a community resource, creating a community resource might just be the way to go.

Here are some examples of community resources you can create (fairly easily) that can still net you great local links:

• A map of local:
  • Tourist attractions or sights worth seeing
  • Pet-friendly locations
  • Free Wi-Fi spots
  • Outdoor attractions
• A local guide to:
  • Best restaurants in the city
  • Must visit bars/pubs
  • Things to do in the city
  • Cultural attractions
• A calendar of local:
  • Governmental meetings
  • Charity events
  • Sports events
  • General entertainment events

Those are really just a few convenient ideas that should get you thinking. Bonus points if you can make a creative local resource that is relevant as well to your industry.

Simply create something useful that doesn't currently exist – but first make sure there's public interest. Don't waste your time creating the resource before you're sure you'll be able to get a few great local links from it.

Local governmental sites, colleges, schools, libraries, and community sites are great places to find resource lists. Vet them to see what sort of resources they list, and the probability of your potential resource being included.

Check out this page from NYU, featuring local online resources for undergrads. This is typical to colleges; you can see the potential power of local links.

Also, this guide from Geoff Kenyon of Distilled provides step-by-step instructions on how use Google Maps to create local links, along with a few other strategies worth checking out for local link building.

3. Leverage Local Relationships

As I mentioned before, part of the reason local link building can result in quick, quality links is due to the inherent value of being local.

This means leveraging relationships you've built locally. SEER wrote a fantastic guide on 35 local link building opportunities, and after #9 they're all about leveraging relationships by providing a testimonial in order to secure a link.

Now obviously you shouldn't be providing a testimonial if you didn't truly value or appreciate their service. But if you did? Share the love and get love back.

Here are a few ways to leverage local relationships in order to secure a healthy local link:

• Provide an honest testimonial for any local businesses you interact with, including:
  • Service providers
  • Local restaurants
  • Local vendors
  • Local charities
• Participate in their events
  • If you've already established a relationship, odds are they'd be happy to have you participate in events they're involved with. Great for getting links back from local blogs.
• Further the relationship
  • This might not result in an immediate link (unless they blog about it or have a list of "sites we like"), but it certainly can't hurt.
• Ask for inclusion on their resource list
  • Plenty of local companies will list "preferred vendors" or "partners" – if you have the relationship, see what it will take to be included. Sometimes it just takes asking.
• Ensure proper linking
  • Often in local your website/company will be mentioned but not properly linked to by other companies. This is especially true for older/established websites – check to make sure every link is solid.

4. Join Local Resource Lists or Directories

Getting included in local resource lists is one of the best ways to clue Google into your local authority. So, if you've already worked to establish local authority, or your website is a true resource for your locality, there's nothing left to do but outreach.

Find local sites that have authority within your community, that also host lists of local resources.

Sites such as:

• City government pages, including:
  • Official city websites
  • City/county libraries
  • Chambers of commerce
  • City council websites
• Nonprofit/charitable organization within your locality
• Local associations, groups, clubs or organizations
• Local media coverage, including:
  • Newspapers
  • Magazines
  • Popular bloggers
  • Radio websites

Take a moment and think about who you would consider a true authority within your locality. Who has immediate credibility? Who is immediately recognizable?

These organizations' endorsement will give real weight. And, if you're willing to invest the time and energy, it can be surprisingly easy to acquire a link from these websites, provided you can succinctly describe why you deserve to be on the list.

There are also a number of websites that host directories of local companies, which should be worth pursuing:

• Yahoo Local
• Bing Local
• Google Places
• Yelp
• Angie's List
• Merchant Circle
• Yellowbook
• ThinkLocal

And so many more – just check out HubSpot's post on 50 business directories for local marketing.

Summary

Local link building is a great avenue for early campaign link building, particularly if your website has any chance at netting local customers.

Furthermore, local link building is often overlooked and underestimated. I've had powerful experiences building local links, helping clients shoot to the top of the SERPs for regional terms and local searches.

If you're starting a fresh link building campaign today, but aren't quite sure where to start, try looking into some local link building. It might just be easier than you thought.

By Jon Ball

VP of Business Development

Page One Power

SUMMARY: It can be a common marketing misconception that in order to evolve an email program, radical new ideas must take the place of former tactics. In a happy marriage of new and old, wedding and events supplier Koyal Wholesale launched its new summer product line combining proven and untested content tactics.

See how Koyal Wholesale integrated its products with social media content in its emails for a summer product email campaign, increasing revenue by 16%. by Courtney Eckerle, Reporter

CHALLENGE

CAMPAIGN

Step #1. Customer-centric tactics

• Colored Mason jars


• Chevron-patterned table runners


• Sequin table runners

Retargeting

Step #2. Integrate email and social channels

Step #3. Integrate video content into sends

Importance of integrating social media

RESULTS

• 12% lift in open rates


• 10% lift in conversion rates


• 16% lift in revenue

Creative Samples

1. Product email


2. Contest tab


3. Video integration email

Source

Related Resources

Small businesses are becoming a larger target for criminals seeking to access sensitive data because attackers are well aware that small businesses have limited resources or personnel dedicated to information system security. In an effort to combat cyber-attacks, the Department of Homeland Security established October as National Cyber Security Awareness Month to educate the public about cyber security and to prepare the nation in the event of a cyber-incident.

Here are 9 cyber security tips for small business owners:

1.      Use the FCC’s Small Biz Cyber Planner to create a cyber security plan

The Small Biz Cyber Planner is valuable for businesses that lack the resources to hire a dedicated staff member to protect themselves from cyber threats. The tool walks users through a series of questions to determine which cyber security strategies should be included in the planning guide, and generates a customized PDF that serves as a cyber-security strategy template.

 

2.      Establish cyber security rules for  your employees

Establish rules of behavior describing how to handle and protect personally identifiable information.  Clearly detail the penalties for violating cyber security policies.

 

3.      Protect against viruses, spyware, and other malicious code
Install, use, and regularly update antivirus and antispyware software on every computer used in your business. Such software is readily available online from a variety of vendors.

 

4.      Educate employees about safe social media practices

Depending on what your business does, employees might be introducing competitors to sensitive details about your firm’s internal business. Employees should be taught how to post online in a way that does not reveal any trade secrets to the public or competing businesses. This type of safe social networking can help avoid serious risks to your business.

 

5.      Manage and assess risk

Ask yourself, “What do we have to protect? And, what would impact our business the most?” Cyber-criminals often use lesser-protected small businesses as a bridge to attack larger firms with which they have a relationship. This can make unprepared small firms a less attractive business partner in the future, blocking potentially lucrative business deals.

 

6.      Download and install software updates when they are available
All software vendors regularly provide patches and updates to their products to correct security problems and improve functionality. Configure all software to install such updates automatically.

 

7.      Make backup copies of important business data and information
Regularly backup the data on every computer used in your business. Critical data includes word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases, financial files, human resources files, and accounts receivable/payable files. Backup data automatically if possible, or at least weekly.
 

8.      Control physical access to computers and network components

Prevent access or use of business computers by unauthorized individuals. Laptops can be particularly easy targets for theft, so make sure they are stored and locked up when unattended.

 

9.      Secure Wi-Fi networks

If you have a Wi-Fi network for your home business make sure it is secure and hidden. To hide your Wi-Fi network, configure your wireless access point or router so that it does not broadcast the network name, known as the Service Set Identifier (SSID).  In addition, make sure that passwords are required for access. It is also critical to change the administrative password that was on the device when it was first purchased.

Click here for a list of cyber security events and webinars. 

Source: FCC's Cyber Security Tips for Small Business

 

Other Related Resources

Federal Communications Commission – Cyber Security for Small Business

Learn more about National Cyber Security Awareness Month

OnGuardOnline.gov- Federal government’s website to help protect you online

The study, published Monday by the Direct Marketing Association, an industry group, was authored by John Deighton and Peter Johnson, a Harvard Business School professor and a Columbia University adjunct professor. It counted some 650 companies working in the personal data business.

The survey is part of an offensive strategy by the DMA, amid growing consumer unease about privacy online. “We’re seeing more attacks, more questions about the use of data-driven marketing than ever before,” said DMA vice president Rachel Thomas.

Taking a page from lobbyists for other industries, such as petroleum, DMA officials said they hoped that demonstrating the economic value of data would make policymakers think twice about pushing laws that clamp down on the industry.“If public policy decision makers muck around in this area, we really really believe they will do it at their own peril – and at the peril of the growth of the US economy,” said DMA CEO Linda Woolley.

The study tallied the value of the data market, including revenue generated from online ads themselves, from email subscriber targeting, and what publishers make from selling information to brokers.

It examined both online and offline direct marketing. Traditional offline marketing, provided by direct mail companies, was about a $93.6 billion dollar industry in 2012, the study said. The digital data industry includes firms that place tracking “cookies” on websites, companies that help target ads through an email address users provide to news organizations, and Web giants that track users’ purchases and searches to serve up targeted ads.

Increasingly, offline and online worlds are blurring: Direct mail companies buy demographic information from digital data brokers; Twitter and Facebook offer user data to television broadcasters. There are also newer forms of digital advertising, including mobile, which so far accounts for less than two percent of the market, the researchers found.

All these activities may be subject to more regulation in the near future. Hearings on data brokers and consumer data mining have been held in both houses of Congress over the last year. Nine major data brokers, some of which work with advertisers, are the target of a U.S. Federal Trade Commission probe whose results will be published later this year.
 

You’ve seen the signs. They’re not as obvious as the colorful placards on chemical tanks, but they’re right there in your Analytics. They’re warning you about threats to your website.

There are four main hazards. And just like the numbers on those hazard signs, there are ways to identify them. There are ways to keep your site safe. This is a guide guide to find and eliminate the mistakes that are hurting your website. These are the Website Hazard Guidelines.

FLAMMABLE

Some websites fail to spark interactions. If your site has a high bounce rate and low time on site, it may be difficult to use. Here are three usability problems that will keep pageviews from exploding:

1. Descriptive Navigation: Does your navigation on your site look like this? About, Services, Blog, Contact, etc. If so, then you have the same navigation as millions of other websites. Use descriptive labels and let visitors see what you do at a glance.
2. Internal Links: Linking from one page to the next from within the text of each page will guide visitors through your site. Internal links are both useful for visitors and good for SEO.
3. Difficult to Update: Keep the home fires burning or visitors have no reason to come back. Updating the site should be easy, fast, and free. If it’s not, the site goes cold. Load fresh kindling into your blog regularly.

RADIOACTIVE

Websites can cause reactions in visitors, leading to email subscribers, lead generation, and e-commerce customers. But many sites don’t. If your site has a low conversion rate, it may be one of these three conversion rate optimization problems:

1. Clear Contact Information: Your phone number or link to your contact page should be in the top right of the site in your header. It should also be in the bottom right of your footer. This is a standard web design convention that makes it easy for visitors to take action.
2. Simple Signup Forms: Visitors don’t want to fill out long forms. There is an inverse relationship between the number of form fields and the conversion rates. Keep the contact form simple and the value propositions clear. That’s how to avoid a conversion meltdown.
3. Thank You Pages: Visitors who acted once are likely to act again. Your thank you page is a chance to let visitors subscribe to your newsletter or follow you on social media. The ideal conversion is a chain reaction.

CORROSIVE

Setup problems can eat through your stats like acid. If you’re seeing major problems in your Analytics, like missing or inaccurate statistics, it may be a setup problem or a fundamental issue with your site.

1. Filters Not Set Up: A steady trickle of false traffic may be dipping into your traffic stats. It’s from you and your office. Don’t dilute your stats. Set up filters for your own IP addresses in Analytics, and all your stats will be more accurate.
2. Goals Not Set Up: Sadly, this is one of the most common hazards in web marketing. Setting up goals for leads and subscribers will let you see your conversion rate. Don’t erode away your most important metric. It only takes a minute to set up.
3. Bad Robots File: This hazard will dissolve your search traffic into nothing overnight. If your robots.txt file says “noindex” then your site will never rank. Pages can also have robots tags that do the same. Another corrosive: a sitemap.xml file that says Disallow: /*

BIOHAZARD

Some sites are full of life. Others look as if a virus swept through and left no trace of human existence. If your site has a low conversion rate or few social interactions, it may be lacking that personal connection. Here are three biohazards that threaten your web marketing.

1. No Social Interaction: Every site needs a pulse. Embedding a Twitter feed is a way to show something current, even if the web pages rarely change. Blog comments are even better. Make the site a center for dialog to avoid this hazard.
2. No Testimonials or Social Proof: It’s hazardous if every drop of your web copy was written internally. Mix in the voices of happy customers in testimonials and reviews. This social proof can increase credibility and conversions.
3. No People Pictures: Showing pictures of the team is a way to build trust. Remember, there is at least one thing unique about your business: you. So show your faces with professional photos. Stock photography is a weak antidote.

Safety First

It’s dangerous out there. One slip up and you may need a hazmat suit to clean up the mess. The key is to be alert. Be aware of the hazards, and bring your site up to code.

by Andy Crestodina