mt-magazine-Mar18

7 WAYS TO
ACQUIRE
NEW
CUSTOMERS
HOW TO GENERATE
LOCAL LEADS
WITH
YOUTUBE
ADS
ARE YOU
IGNORING
35% OF ALL
WEB USERS?
5 THINGS
YOU SHOULD
KNOW ABOUT
GOOGLE
IN 2018
An Adodo Consultancy Services Limited Publication

Contents
7 Ways to Acquire New
Customers
A stagnating business is more likely
to fail than one that’s growing. That’s
just common sense. Businesses that
experience new growth – in the
form of new customers – have an
advantage over businesses that are barely managing to hold onto
their existing customers. But attracting new customers is a must.
And it can be expensive. Up to 10 times as costly as retaining an
existing customer. But luckily for you not all customer-attraction
methods are expensive. Here are seven low-cost ways to acquire
new customers and grow your business.
Are You Ignoring 35% of All
Web Users?
If you tend to keep up with SEO and
search trends, then you know that
almost everything focuses on Google.
And why not? Google is by far the
largest search engine, snagging about
two-thirds of all searchers. But one-third of all searches aren’t
using Google. And that’s good news for you, because you (the well
informed business owner) can get a leg up on your competition
with a little bit of legwork. Sounds pretty good, right? Let’s get
into to it…
How to Generate Local Leads
with YouTube Ads
Most small businesses don’t have a
huge marketing budget. Sound familiar?
We get it. Advertising is expensive.
You want the money you spend
to stretch as far as possible – and that
means finding advertising opportunities that are going to get
you the biggest possible bang for your buck. There’s no shortage
of options. But YouTube Ads remain a very underutilized
option for business owners. And when it comes to generating
leads, these ads seem to be CRUSHING it for business owners in
the know.
5 Things You Should Know About
Google in 2018
If people can’t find your website,
they’re not going to buy from you.
It’s internet marketing 101. You can’t
expect people to purchase your products
or try your services if you’re invisible
to them. Google is the world’s top search engine. Essentially
that means that getting a high rank on Google can make or break
your business. Here are the 5 things you need to know to improve
your site’s rank and rise to the top of Google.
Welcome To MT
Thanks for checking out the latest
edition of MT, your online marketing
resource guide for local businesses.
Each month we will be covering topics
that resonate with local businesses
just like yours.
Our goal is simple. We want to
enable you to do big things online,
and it all starts by breaking down
the complexities of marketing your
business online.
It doesn’t matter if you are just starting
out, or an established business owner
in your local community, you can
always benefit from increasing your
brand’s visibility online.
To your Success,
Tim Glynn
CEO and head of fun
MT IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Adodo Consultancy Services, the leading
small business marketing service dedicated
to putting reputation marketing at the heart
of a local businesses marketing strategy. We
help small businesses connect with more
customers online.
If you want to build your business, you need
to market, it’s that simple. But you can lose
thousands of dollars if you don’t know what
you are doing. So we urge you to take action
with some of the strategies we recommend.
Feel free to reach out to us at any time.

7 WAYS TO ACQUIRE
NEW CUSTOMERS
A stagnating business is more likely to fail than
one that’s growing.
I mean, let’s face it. That’s just common sense.
Businesses that experience new growth – in
the form of new customers – have an advantage
over businesses that are barely managing
to hold onto their existing customers.
That’s not to say that customer retention doesn’t
matter. It does! But attracting new customers is
a must. And it can be expensive. In fact, research
shows that attracting a new customer can be
up to 10 times as costly as retaining an existing
customer.
But…
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. And, not
all customer-attraction methods are necessarily
expensive.
Here are seven (relatively) low-cost ways to acquire
new customers and grow your business.

#1
UPDATE YOUR AUDIENCE RESEARCH
#2
KNOW YOUR COMPETITION
I’m always amazed when I talk to business
owners and they tell me that the last time they
conducted audience research was years ago.
That’s crazy. Audiences change. You’ve got to
know who’s interested in your products – and
why they’re interested – if you’re going to understand
how to bring your audience to your
site.
If it’s been a while since you conducted any
audience research, it’s time to get back on the
horse. For example, you can:
> Check your analytics and look for new
trends
> Create a customer survey and email it to
your list
> Do a social media survey
Competitor research is another key component
of customer acquisition. After all, you and
your competitors are vying for the same audience.
Knowing what they do and how they’re
doing it can help you pull ahead in the race for
new business.
A couple of easy tactics to use include:
> Tracking your competitor’s backlinks
and traffic
> Monitoring your competitor’s social
mentions
> Doing a complete audit of their websites
> Reading their blog and other marketing
materials
Ongoing competitor research will ensure that
you’re not losing out to your competitors.
These things will help you fine-tune your targeting.
You can also use them to create (or
update) a customer persona or avatar to help
you with your marketing.

#3
FOCUS ON BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES
#4
BUILD TRUST WITH YOUR
TARGET AUDIENCE
Another common mistake business owners
make is getting too wrapped up in their product’s
cool features at the expense of considering
the customer’s experience.
Let’s face it. A potential customer doesn’t want
to hear you brag about how awesome your
product is. They want to know what it’s going
to do for them.
Don’t tell them that a frying pan has a nonstick
surface. Tell them that it will simplify their
clean-up! That’s a simple example, but it illustrates
the point.
You can list your products features briefly, but
most of your marketing should focus on benefits.
Think about your customer (see #1) and
the problem they want solved. Then, explain
how your product will solve it.
If you know anything about marketing, then
you know about the Rule of 7. It says that, on
average, a customer must have seven interactions
with your brand before they’ll buy from
you.
The key to building trust is to use those seven
“touches” wisely. You’ll need to be consistent.
That means knowing your audience, having a
clear vision for your brand, and using the same
voice for all your online content, whether it’s
on your website or social media.
And speaking of social media, it’s ideal for
building trust. You can connect with your
followers every day without seeming overly
sales-y or obnoxious.

#5
PAIR WITH OTHER BUSINESSES
#6
CREATE A REFERRAL PROGRAM
You can’t expect your direct competitors to
refer business to you. That would be counterproductive
for them. But that doesn’t mean
that B2B referrals aren’t possible.
Try searching for businesses in your niche – or
in a related niche – that aren’t in direct competition
with you. Then, approach the owners
about the potential for a reciprocal referral
program or joint venture.
For example, if you sell dog training products
and there’s a company that sells cleaning
products for people with pets, you could pair
up to create special offers and referrals. You
might link to their site and have them link to
yours, and you could even create limited time
offers and specials.
The key is that you’ll get access to their customer
base and they’ll get access to yours –
and you probably won’t have to spend anything
to do it.
It’s important not to ignore your current customers
as ambassadors for your brand. After
all, who’s in a better position to tell new customers
about the benefits of buying from you?
The key is not to assume that your existing
customers will spread the word about you
and your products. They might do it without
prompting, but why not make it easy for them?
A strong referral program can bring you snew
business on a regular basis.
Many referral programs incentivize referrals.
For example, you might offer customers a free
product (or a free month of service) in return
for a referral. Or, you might host a special event
for customers who refer new business to you.
Make sure to specify the terms of any rewards
and to provide customers with what they
need to make referrals, whether it’s a supply
of business cards or brochures or a dedicated
URL on your website.

#7
CREATE SHAREABLE COUPONS
AND OFFERS
A referral program is one
thing. But what if you could
convince your existing social
media followers to spread the
word about your products in
return for a simple coupon?
You can! The next time you’re
running a promotion, encourage
your followers to share
it. Your call to action can say
something like, “Why keep all
the savings for yourself?
Share this post with your
friends and family so they can
get a bargain, too!”
The key is not to assume that
people will share your content.
They may not know that
it’s okay with you for them to
do so – so make sure to ask in
your call to action.
NEW CUSTOMERS AREN’T EVERYTHING...
But, if you want your business to grow, you’ll need to expand
your reach. These 7 simple tips can help you attract new customers
without blowing through your marketing budget.
Instead, you can use them to blow past your competition!

Are you Ignoring 35% of All
WEB USERS?
If you tend to keep up with
SEO and search trends, then
you know that almost everything
focuses on Google. And
why not? Google is by far the
largest search engine, snagging
about two-thirds of all
searchers.
Two-thirds is a lot, but do you
notice what’s missing there?
If you remember what you
learned about fractions, it’s
not that hard.
Got it?
That’s right! One-third of all
searches aren’t using Google.
And yet, amazingly, most
businesses aren’t considering
other search engines at all!
They remain laser-focused on
Google.
That’s good news for you, because
it means that by taking
other options into account,
you can get a leg up on your
competition. Sounds pretty
good, right? So, let’s talk about
it.

WHAT SEARCH ENGINE ARE THE MISSING 35% USING?
If not Google, who?
That’s probably what you’re wondering. You might think
that that elusive 35% is split among several search engines.
That’s right – but it’s also wrong.
You see, as of 2015, Yahoo made a deal with Bing.
Approximately 51% of all Yahoo searches use
Bing. And, since Bing and Yahoo are responsible
for about 35% of all search traffic, that means that
optimizing for Bing can help you capture people
you might miss by thinking only about Google.
Bing and Google have a lot in common. But, if
you search one of your keywords and compare
the SERP, you’ll notice some differences. Addressing those
differences can help you stand out from your competitors.
“
The key is to do it without
messing with your
Google rank.
“

ADVANTAGES OF OPTIMIZING FOR BING
Before we walk through how you can optimize for Bing searches without affecting your Google
rank, let’s talk about the main advantages of optimizing for Bing.
1.
You’ll face less competition
than on Google.
Remember, most businesses
aren’t thinking
about their Bing rank. That
means if you take the time
to optimize for Bing, you
can outrank your competition
and grab the lion’s
share of traffic from Bing
searches.
2. 3.
Traffic from Bing has,
on average, a higher
conversion rate than
traffic from Google. It’s
hard to quantify the reasons
for the difference, but it may
be that Bing users tend to be
older and more affluent than
Google users.
Bing is much more
open about their
ranking factors than
Google. Instead of guessing
about what will help your
site to rank, you can simply
refer to what Bing has said
about it and optimize your
site accordingly. In other
words, they’re pro-SEO.
These things point to a clear opportunity for business owners who want to find a low-cost but
effective way to attract more traffic.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR BING RANK
Now, let’s talk about what you
can do to improve your rank on
Bing. Many of the things that
work for you on Google will
also work on Bing. The trick is
to tweak your SEO just a bit, so
your site maintains its Google
rank and moves up on Bing.
MAKE SURE YOUR SITE IS INDEXED ON BING
The first step is to make sure
your site is properly indexed on
Bing. If it’s been around for a
while it probably is, but if your
site is new, it may not be.
Start by doing a search for site:
www.yoursite.com on Bing.
That will show you how many
of your site’s pages have been
indexed.
If they’re indexed, you can
move on to the next step. If
they’re not, you should go
ahead and submit your site
here.

TELL BING HOW OFTEN TO CRAWL YOUR SITE
Next, tell Bing how frequently to crawl your site. If you look at Bing’s Webmaster Tools,
you’ll notice that the default setting is standard. That’s fine if your site is static; but, if it’s
large or you update it frequently, you should dial up the crawl rate for the best results.
SUBMIT A CLEAN SITEMAP
Bing has only a 1% tolerance for dirt in your sitemap.
That means if you want your rank to improve,
you’ve got to clean it up and submit it. You
can do it on your Webmaster Tools page.
Another option is to include a link to your sitemap
in your Robots.txt. However, the benefit of doing
it through Bing is that you’ll
get error messages if there
are problems with your
sitemap. That means you’ll
be able to clean them up
as you go.
USE STRAIGHTFORWARD KEYWORDS
If you know anything about Google, you know
that LSI and context are nearly as important as
keyword use. That’s not the case on Bing. They
put a higher premium on exact keyword matches
than Google does.
Fortunately, this is a change you can make without
hurting your Google rank. You’ll want to increase
your keyword
density a bit, but not so
much that it affects the
quality of your content.
Using those same keywords in
tags – the title tag is hugely important
on Bing – is essential, too.

IMPROVE YOUR CLICK-THROUGH RATE
Bing pays a lot of attention to user behavior. If
users click your site and then hit the back button,
it will affect your Bing rank.
You can check your CTR and bounce rate on
Bing from your Webmaster Tools dashboard.
BUILD MORE BACKLINKS
Google tends to place more emphasis on the
quality of backlinks than the number of them.
Bing does the reverse.
You can’t disregard the quality of your backlinks
without negatively impacting your Google rank.
But, by adding additional backlinks, you can positively
impact your Bing rank.
It’s also a good idea to do what you can to improve
the quality of your anchor text in your
backlinks. Don’t overdo it – that can hurt you
with Google – but contacting a few webmasters
to ask them to use keywords in the anchor text
can help you with Bing.
USE SOCIAL SIGNALS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
Unlike Google, Bing comes right out and says
that social signals have an impact on the SERP.
That means anything you do to boost your social
media impact will help you with Bing.
The best way to capitalize on this is to monitor
your social signals, attract new followers, and do
whatever you can to amplify your reach on sites
like Facebook and Instagram.
IGNORING BING USERS IS A BAD IDEA...
By taking a few simple steps to boost your Bing ranking, you can out-maneuver your competition.
When you think about it, it makes no sense to simply ignore a third of all searches – so stop doing
it and give Bing the attention it deserves!

HOW TO GENERATE
LOCAL LEADS
WITH YOUTUBE ADS
Most small businesses don’t have a huge marketing budget.
Sound familiar, right? Advertising is expensive. You
want the money you spend to stretch as far as possible –
and that means finding advertising opportunities that are
going to get you the biggest possible bang for your buck.
There’s no shortage of options. And one option that you
may have overlooked is something that you’ve probably
spent a lot of time on as a consumer.
I’m talking about YouTube ads.
ly. Sound about right? And when
you do, you’ve seen the ads that
run before videos. You’ve probably
also noticed ads that display with
your search results.
Well…
When it comes to generating
leads, those ads are CRUSHING it.
You probably visit YouTube often – maybe you even dai

YOUTUBE AD STATISTICS
Let’s start by checking the numbers. We’re
warning you – what you’re about to read may
shock you, especially if you’ve been spending
money on local TV ads and other high-cost
ads.
>YouTube has more than one billion users
– almost one-third of all internet users
> 45% of users watch more than an hour of
YouTube videos per week.
> More video content is created online in 30
days than has been created by all major US
television networks in 30 years.
> 46% of all users act after watching a video
ad.
We could quote dozens more facts like these,
but these are sufficient to illustrate the point.
Video advertising is hugely popular and hugely
effective.
Now, let’s talk about how you can use YouTube
to generate local leads.

KNOW YOUR AD TYPES
The first step is knowing what your ad options are on YouTube. There are three to consider:
1. TrueView In-Stream Ads are the ads you’re
probably most familiar with on YouTube. These
are the ads that stream before a video. They often
come with a “Skip Ad” option that displays
after five seconds. One thing you may not know
is that if a viewer skips your ad, you won’t pay
for the view. That’s key if you have a limited ad
budget.
2. Discovery Ads show up in YouTube search
results and look just like other videos. To get
viewers to choose your ad, you’ll need an
eye-catching thumbnail to grab their attention.
Here again, you’ll only pay if a viewer clicks on
your ad. You won’t pay to have your ad displayed
in the search results.
3. Bumper Ads are very short ads that
can’t be skipped. They’re most often targeted
to mobile users, and they’re ideal
if you have a message that can be conveyed
in just a few seconds.
You’ll need to decide which ad format is best suited to your company.

YOUTUBE ADVERTISING
BEST PRACTICES
GRAB USERS’ ATTENTION
FROM THE START
Now, let’s look at some simple things that can YouTube advertising isn’t the place to indulge
in a slow build. Your ad must grab
help you generate tons of local leads with You-
Tube Discovery ads. ads can be longer – as much as two minutes viewers’ – but make attention sure immediately the content is if engaging. you want
That’s the only way that you’ll keep a viewer’s attention them and to get stick them around. to click your call to action.
Keep Your Ads Short
There are a few ways to accomplish this.
Bumper ads are necessarily short. You’ll be limited
in how long they can be – usually, they’re one that targets your audience’s biggest
One is to start with a provocative statement,
less than 10 seconds.
pain point.
In-Stream ads can vary in length, but keep in
mind that viewers will be able to see how long
your ad is as soon as it appears on their screen.
They may be willing to sit through a 30-second
ad if it interests them, but unless you really
grab their attention, they’re not going to sit
through a two-minute ad before watching the
content they came to see.
Another option is to use storytelling in your
video. If you tell a compelling story, people
will keep watching to find out how it ends.
But with this option, you will need a killer
script for your video. If you can’t write one
yourself, hire a pro to do it for you. It will be
money well spent.

DON’T WAIT TO DISPLAY
YOUR CALL TO ACTION
Keeping in mind that you have limited time
to capture your audience’s attention, it
makes sense not to wait for the end of your
video to display your call to action.
Remember, your goal is to get people
to click your CTA. By displaying it on the
screen early in your video – and then again
at the end – you can maximize conversions.
You may even want to include several calls
to action – especially if your video is long.
Place them when the content in your video
is likely to spur action. You don’t want to
overdo it but it’s important to make it very
easy for viewers to take the next step.
OPTIMIZE YOUR LANDING
PAGE FOR VIDEO VIEWERS
Where will the people who view your ad
end up if they click your call to action? If
you want to use YouTube advertising to
generate leads, you’ve got to make sure
that your landing page is optimized for
the people who see your video.
First, make sure that the content on your
page matches what’s in the video. You
don’t want people who visit to be confused.
Next, link viewers to a page that’s intended
for lead generation. That means that
you should have an opt-in form or appointment
link on the page. Nobody who
lands there should have to guess what
the next step is. It should be clear.

5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
in 2018
If people can’t find your website,
they’re not going to buy
from you.
Sounds simple, right? It’s internet
marketing 101. You can’t expect
people to purchase your
products or try your services
if you’re essentially invisible to
them.
Google is the world’s top
search engine. They also own
YouTube, which is the second
-largest search engine. That
means that getting a high rank
on Google can make or break
your business.
So, all you need to do is focus
on the things that are most important
to Google and you’ll be
home-free.
Except…
Google’s algorithm is proprietary.
That means we don’t
know exactly how Google determines
rank. They’ve shared
some of the bits and pieces but
not the entire picture. Marketing
& SEO pro’s make a living
reading between the lines connecting
the dots to help their
clients get the highest rank
possible.
Here are the 5 things you need
to know to improve your site’s
rank and rise to the top (or as
close as possible) on Google’s
SERP.

1
Backlinks to Quality Sites Still
Carry Weight
In a Q & A session from March of 2017, Google
revealed their top three ranking factors. Backlinks
were number one. Since Google rarely comments
publicly about their algorithm, we can’t
say for certain that backlinks are still number
one, but it’s safe to assume they’re very close to
the top.
A backlink is any link that leads from another site
to yours. If you want backlinks to have a positive
impact on your Google rank, they must be from
authority sites. Multiple links from the same site
won’t help you since Google evaluates backlinks
based on domains, not volume.
Remember that spammy backlinks won’t
help you. In fact, they may hurt you. When a
low-quality site links to yours, Google may associate
your quality site with their low-quality
content or practices. Instead of buying links or
engaging in other “black hat” practices, focus on
organically building quality links.
2
Content is Still King
The next most important ranking factor is your content. Google’s aim is to provide highly relevant,
quality content to searchers. The better your content is, the more likely it is that your site will rise
to the top of the SERP.
Not all quality is created equal. You can signal quality to Google by doing the following things:
Use keywords properly. Keyword stuffing won’t
help you, but using keywords in your URL, title
tag, H1/H2 tags, alt tags, and in the first paragraph
of your content will.
Make your content long enough to be satisfying. There’s no
specific word count to aim for. Instead, your goal should be
providing visitors to your site with the information they’re
looking for. If you do that, they’ll be satisfied
– and your rank will reflect it.
Make your content comprehensible.
By that, we
don’t mean making
sure people can read
it. Rather, it has to
do with providing
context for your
content. The use
of Latent Semantic
Indexing (LSI)
words can help. In
other words, remember
that your content
doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
To earn a high rank on Google, your
content must be relevant and engaging.
If people who find your site
through Google are happy with your
content, they’ll show it by staying on
your page and engaging with your content.
Their behavior in relation to your content
– combined with the other content
factors here – will tell Google what it needs
to know about your site.

3 Mobile Responsiveness is a Must
The next thing to consider is whether your site
is mobile-friendly. As of 2017, more than half of
all Google searches were conducted on mobile
devices. That’s not something you can ignore.
If you’ve been paying any attention to developments
at Google, you know that their Mobilegeddon
update in 2015 penalized sites that
weren’t mobile friendly. As of 2018, not being
mobile friendly will have a negative impact on
your Google rank.
Mobile users expect the sites they visit to be
easy to use – whether they’re accessing them
on a smartphone or a tablet. They’re not going
to frequent your site if:
> They must wait too long for it to load
> The buttons are too small for them to use
properly
> They must scroll horizontally to read your
content
> They can’t access the same content they can
on a computer
The takeaway here is that mobile users matter,
and your site should reflect that.

4 Slow Loading Pages Will Drive Users Away & Affect Rankings
Web users are notoriously impatient. People
who visit your site will expect it load quickly. If it
doesn’t, they’ll find another site, instead.
Since “quickly” is a relative word, let’s talk about
what it means. One study found that 47% of
web users expect a site to load in two seconds.
Of those, 40% will navigate away if the site takes
longer than that to load.
You can test your site’s speed with Google’s
Page Speed Insights tool. If it’s too slow to load,
you’ll need to address the situation. Some things
that may affect your loading speed are:
> Poorly optimized images
> No Content Delivery Network (CDN)
> No caching plugin (WP Rocket is an example)
Minimizing your site’s loading speed will ensure
that mobile users won’t navigate away from
your site out of frustration.

5 HTTPS is a Must
You probably know that, as of
2017, Google is penalizing sites
that aren’t secure. That means
that if you aren’t already using
HTTPS, you should be.
HTTPS provides a secure user
experience for your site. Sites
that use HTTPS display a webicon
of a lock. Those that aren’t
secure get a message stating
that the site isn’t secure, instead.
Switching to HTTPS requires
buying a security certificate,
installing it, and rerouting traffic
from your HTTP site to the
new HTTPS site. Once you do,
your site will display the lock
icon and you may get a boost
in your Google rank, too.
GOOGLE’S ALGORITHM IS PROPRIETARY…
But that doesn’t mean that you can’t take steps to improve your site’s
rank. The five ranking factors listed here are key to moving up the SERP –
and getting the search traffic you deserve.

NEED MORE
TARGETED TRAFFIC?
Your business has its own unique needs and challenges when
it comes to generating more customers online.
We can help position your business in front of more customers online.
Solutions designed to meet your needs and exceed your expectations.
Connect with us today, for free strategy session
(valued at $197) no strings attached!
www.adodo.co.uk 0115 9701471