15 Keys to Search Engine Marketing and SEO Success
November 14, 2010 by admin2 · Leave a Comment
Selling search engine marketing services, including paid search management and SEO (search engine optimization), couldn’t be easier. All that is necessary is to find an advertiser that meets most of the following fifteen criteria:
- The advertiser is not too big or small for your agency to handle. In other words, you can service the advertiser with your current service team.
- The advertiser is not a competitor to any of your other clients – while still working in a sector you can claim to have expertise in handling.
- They already have a live site and are not planning to replace that site in the short-term (unless you can also sell them web development services and compete for a new website build project).
- They have a site that they monetize, ideally through e-commerce, advertising, lead generation, subscription, or worst case – B2B.
- The have a budget and are not waiting for VC (venture capital) funding.
- They’d consider paying your agency’s fee in order to get access to your service.
- The advertiser prefers to outsource search engine marketing services rather than handle it internally.
- They have internal resources that can add pixels to pages, share analytics data, implement SEO recommendations and other odd jobs that may become necessary.
- They are continuing an existing campaign rather than starting from scratch.
- They have an agency now doing the work (proof of existing campaign and preference for outsourcing) but are dissatisfied and anxious (conveniently) to change right away.
- They are in a vertical which has more KW inventory than their current budget (in other words, room to grow).
- They’re interested in spending money to gain greater share of voice.
- Would be willing to scale their campaign.
- Likes you and your agency’s approach to servicing search marketing.
- Are willing to change their current agency’s responsibilities – if that agency is currently doing all their other work, they are willing to carve out some portion for you.
An advertiser that fits the above criteria would be a highly qualified prospect. Like any sale that requires finding very qualified prospects, the seller needs to be prepared to do a lot of prospecting for a long period of time. Most of the best prospects you find will not pass all 15 points, especially the part about being ready to change immediately. All of these obstacles can be extremely discouraging, and can make anyone wonder “Why should I bother?” Well, the sale that comes from search engine marketing is fantastic if you like a challenging, consultative, well-paying sale. It’s a sale that requires a high level of understanding of search marketing, necessarily high enough to impress the customer.
Since this sale has a direct impact on the revenue of the advertiser’s business, there is a lot riding on the outcome and so the sale usually involves meeting with company leaders – often the owner/s or the Head of Marketing. The career of a search marketing professional involves developing relationships with top marketing and management people at some of the biggest brands and B2B marketers – not a bad circle to keep company with!
About the Author
Steve Bookbinder, CEO and lead trainer for Internet Advertising Institute has over a decade of experience selling online media, search engine marketing, and advertising. He has written and co-written more than 25 books, articles and audio training programs, and is most recently the author, with Jeff Goldberg, of How to Be Your Own Coach.To read more about the topic in this article or explore the online training courses visit http://www.InternetAdvertisingInstitute.com
Internet Advertising Institute: The World is Changing, Are You?
e-Zine Article.com source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bookbinder
Seven Strategies for Selling Search Engine Marketing
October 6, 2010 by admin2 · Leave a Comment
How do sales professionals continue to succeed at search engine marketing over the long haul. This practical, quick-paced article provides seven effective strategies to ramp up and sustain a successful search engine marketing track record!
1. Start with a Great Target List
If you watch a veteran search marketing salesperson, you will see that they seem to be getting inbound calls and email inquiries from potentially ready-to-buy advertisers. Unfortunately, half will be less than optimal, not real prospects… but the other half will be first class opportunities.
Watching those veteran sellers, you may wonder what sort of magic makes them so effective. What is the real magic? The seller and his/her company have been prospecting for years. The odds of cold calling someone today and reaching the final decision maker is low. But you can sow the seeds today- make sure they already know about you, and make them impressed enough to remember to contact you when they are ready. So, if you want a successful career, think ahead to the advertisers you want to be working within the next 1-3 years and begin pursuing them- without appearing desperate. Each day, given 10-30 calls (especially if you are in your first year of Search Engine Marketing Sales). With this approach, you should have at least one good conversation with a decision maker at an advertiser worth talking to. 
2. Prospect Every Day
Although this seems obvious, especially given the point above, it can sometimes be difficult. Since you sometimes actually reach an interested advertiser, you will tend to lose prospecting time. The interested calls can easily go 10-45 minutes (although, ideally, aim for a call that is only a few minutes long and results in a face-to-face meeting). Those calls often result in the promise to send something. That something can take an hour to 3 days to prepare (see below). Managing your time so that, despite these needs, you still find time to prospect every day can be the difference between having a great 2nd and 3rd year and struggling every inch of the way for the next several years.
3. Prepare for Each Meeting Like an Investor
Before an investor will put their money into a company, they want to know everything about that company. Therefore, apart from the information you will glean online and from various databases, etc., you need to make sure you understand how big the vertical is, how big a share your target-prospect has and their plans (ideally budget) and timing to grow that share. This level of information can only be acquired from conversations with the prospect. You may even need more than one good conversation before you can learn enough about this advertiser. Remember, you are also trying to determine if this advertiser is a good fit with your own agency. Given your competition, you may never get a 2nd chance at getting that advertiser back.
4. Create a Presentation that Tells Your Agency’s Story
The normal flow of events leading to a sale with a new advertiser goes either through the RFP process or through a process led by the search agency. The RFP process gives the customer total control, the other gives the agency total control. Either way, you are likely to need two presentations. The first is either the RFP response or your agency’s initial presentation; the second will include the agency fee structure. If you are involved with an RFP, you will likely be presented with a variety of categories (for example Proprietary Technologies, Bid Management Strategy, Service Team Structures, etc.) with a series of detailed questions below each. Your answers should tell a story how your agency services accounts. If the sale is outside the RFP process, then the focus still needs to be on telling that story: the story of how your agency’s philosophy of servicing accounts is a superior fit for that advertiser.
5. Create a Sense of Urgency
Assuming the advertiser is trying to improve the ROI of their search campaign, the seller needs to be specific about the advertiser’s timing for those changes. Even if the advertiser’s goal is to increase their Share of Voice of search traffic (and conversions) to their vertical next year, the good search seller can build a sense of urgency in the client. How does one do this? By building a backward timetable.
Let’s say it’s currently January, and the advertiser wants to take advantage of the 4th quarter traffic increase. By describing each and every step leading up to October/November/December – along with the amount of time needed to test and optimize each step (including keywords selection, creatives, matching strategy, landing page, etc), you can easily show that advertiser that January is almost too late!
6. Involve Your Team of Experts Pre-Sale – Without Wasting Their Time 
If the seller is the smartest person in their agency, then the advertiser will suffer having to work with a not-as-smart service team. On the other hand, if the service team is a bunch of rocket scientists that the advertiser never meets, then the advertiser may have trouble visualizing the benefits of working with them. What is the answer? Make sure you as a seller appear well-informed, but then top yourself by introducing the advertiser to at least one member of either management or the service team – ideally both. Consider the introductions of other team members a great “next step strategy.”
7. Stay Involved While Handing Off Campaign to Your Account Management Team
Some agencies ask their sellers to stay involved after the sale – some even insist that the seller joins weekly Account Manager calls. Other agencies ask that the seller cleanly hands off the advertiser, turning to focus on the next sale. Either way, the seller is well advised to make sure they schedule a conversation (or 2, 3 or 4) during the first week/month of the new advertiser’s campaign with both the Account Manager and the Client. The last thing a search seller wants is to learn – too late – that the advertiser was unhappy and unable to get resolution through the account team. However, there are two sides to every story – make sure you know the Account team’s story too. It just may not be a good fit.
About the Author
Steve Bookbinder, CEO and lead trainer for Internet Advertising Institute has over a decade of experience selling online media, search engine marketing, and advertising. He has written and co-written more than 25 books, articles and audio training programs, and is most recently the author, with Jeff Goldberg, of How to Be Your Own Coach.To read more about the topic in this article or explore the online training courses visit http://www.InternetAdvertisingInstitute.com
Internet Advertising Institute: The World is Changing, Are You?
e-Zine Article.com source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bookbinder
Conquering the Sales Callback Challenge
August 3, 2010 by admin2 · Leave a Comment
Getting Prospects to Respond to Your Sales Calls 
Overview
The major challenge most sales professionals face: how to get the call-back. We all know without this critical step, the rest of the sale will never occur. This article provides an inside track on solving this problem-some dilemma. Join us for another terrific sales training resource.
Introduction
When trying to set up an initial meeting with a prospect, you should both call and email the person. Combining these two approaches will make your message a more memorable as well as easy to respond to for both email and voicemail people. The key to this approach is to use the same wording for both messages and send them at the same time. Both the voicemail and the email should include your name, phone number, company name, reason you are calling, and your phone number (again).
“Reason for Contact” Statements
Your “reason for contact” statement should be the shortest possible description of your lead source. For example, if you received a referral from Roger Smith, your reason statement should be something like “regarding Roger” or “regarding Roger Smith.” If you acquired the lead from a trade show, the reason statement should be “regarding the trade show;” if you met at a networking event, the reason would be “regarding last week’s conversation.”
Keeping It Simple and the Same
According to studies where sellers carefully tracked their ratios, shortening the message to a single word or a short phrase seems to work the best. For example, if you are selling your product or service to an insurance company, you would leave a message for that says “Re: Met Life.” When they call back (and they will), you can finish the thought by saying “We’ve done a lot of work with insurance companies like Met Life, and I thought we should get together to discuss.” Again, the key is to use the same wording for both messages and send them at the same time.
Getting the Call
Do not type your entire sales pitch or toss your manifesto in the emails you send to fresh prospects (avoid the “See the attached 400 page document on why we are so great”). Emails should read more like reminder notes you leave for your spouse or roommate. The business version of “please don’t forget milk today” might be something like “confirming our appointment for Tuesday.” You might even leave out their name and all niceties (such as “greetings”). Just get to the point. In this age of ubiquitous iPhones, Droids, Blackberries, smartphones, and iPads, your message recipient will appreciate this more as they walk and read.
Commonsense tells us that those who read or listen to our complete messages are much more likely to respond to us!
Action Steps
To improve your sales success, focus on
• A Reason for Contact,
• Keeping it Simple and the Same, and
• Getting the Call.
About the Author
Steven Bookbinder
Steve Bookbinder, CEO and lead trainer for Internet Advertising Institute has over a decade of experience selling online media, search engine marketing, and advertising. He has written and co-written more than 25 books, articles and audio training programs, and is most recently the author, with Jeff Goldberg, of How to Be Your Own Coach.
To read more about the topic in this article or explore the online training courses visit http://www.InternetAdvertisingInstitute.com
Internet Advertising Institute: The World is Changing, Are You?
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bookbinder
Online Display Marketing Sales – Vocabulary of Targeting Sales
July 31, 2010 by admin2 · Leave a Comment
Introduction
Some sites and most networks only serve ads in places where the site content around the ad is “contextually relevant” to the ad. For example, showing a sneaker ad among running and exercise content…
Discover how these effective placements are not just happenstance. Half the battle for mkaing this happen is learning the vocabulary to communicate your vision and needs. This article will advance your skill base to reach those goals.
ROS or RON (Run of Site or Run of Network)
These ads will show anywhere on the site or network. Sometimes the ROS/RON parts of a campaign outperform more targeted ad filtering. ROS/RON inventory costs tend to be the lowest, so arithmetically; it is easier to get a campaign closer to ROI+ when you start off with low cost inventory. In the optimization process, advertisers may be surprised to learn that the audience of people who find their ads most interesting are a bit of a surprise – and are only discovered through this “shotgun” approach. As you use the data you are gathering to minimize unproductive ad impressions, the remaining inventory generally see more clicks and conversions per visitor.
Content Channel
Some sites and most networks only serve ads in places where the site content around the ad is “contextually relevant” to the ad. For example, showing a sneaker ad among running and exercise content.
Single Site/Value Add
When an advertiser chooses to spend a significant portion of the media budget on a single site, that site will usually return the favor by offering that advertiser unique or special ad inventory. This relationship is called “value add.” Value add may be in the form of page sponsorships, wallpaper, inclusion in a newsletter, etc. Advertisers with branding goals may find this option very efficient.
Behavioral Targeting
Behavioral targeting involves serving ads to users whose past click history indicates an interest in a particular subject area. For example, if a user visits 20 travel sites over a week, we may be able to identify this user as someone who is interested in travel to a particular location. That user may start seeing those ads, even when they are on a non-travel site. Ads which show up on “contextually irrelevant” sites may still get a lot of clicks. The power of behavioral targeting is at least two fold: partly because the ads are truly more relevant to that user, and also seeing relevance where it is not expected is surprising and very effective for in attracting consumers.
Retargeting
Retargeting is a form of behavioral targeting, where users who go to a particular page of an advertiser’s site – usually along the conversion path– can be served new ads on a subsequent web surfing session encouraging them to return to that advertiser’s site. The ads are usually tuned to the level of interest displayed in the first visit. For example, consumers on an online flower-buying site who do not complete the check out process may start seeing ads promoting a $5-off sale on flowers. The thought process here is that the additional discount may convince a consumer to complete their purchase. Or, people who stopped at the shirt page of a men’s clothing site may see ads for new shirts from that same vendor. Even people who have bought before may be targeted. Once sites identify a user and cookies them, they may see those retargeted ads for a long time.
Other Targeting Filters
There are many other different types of filters. Day-parting, geo-targeting (down to a zip code, usually done in DMAs – demographic market areas – or states, or national or selected countries.), by browser type, ISP, operating system, or domain. In domain targeting, users visiting a site or network with a specified domain like @EzineArticles.com will see an ad no one else will see. Social Media Marketing companies like Media6Degrees can also serve ads to users who are connected to each other through social media following, in this case, with a kind of 6-degrees of separation kind of strategy.
Learning the meaning and application of key online display marketing terms helps make you a more effective and productive sales person. At the very least, in the next meetings you can nod wisely and even pose some key questions or suggestions!
About the Author
Steve Bookbinder, CEO and lead trainer for Internet Advertising Institute has over a decade of experience selling online media, search engine marketing, and advertising. He has written and co-written more than 25 books, articles and audio training programs, and is most recently the author, with Jeff Goldberg, of How to Be Your Own Coach.To read more about the topic in this article or explore the online training courses visit http://www.InternetAdvertisingInstitute.com
Internet Advertising Institute: The World is Changing, Are You?
e-Zine Article.com source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bookbinder
Pricing Models and Controversy For Online Display Advertising
July 30, 2010 by admin2 · Leave a Comment
Opening Scenario
Consider with me, if you will how some advertisers will pay the original ad serving business with a 2-day conversion of ad serving to purchase, but many will not pay for anything other than a click-based conversion.
What is the web publisher or network’s Account Executive (AE) to do?
Well, the wise and prepared AE will have typically discussed in advance with the advertiser (or their agency) what gets counted. Determining whose count will be used in determining fees is one of the most common and important conversations between publishers and advertisers, and is part of the day to day job of most Account Executives.
Foundation Concepts Reviewed
Online Display Advertising campaigns are paid according to one of three models: CPM, CPC or CPA. The CPM (cost-per-thousand (or “mil”) pricing model means the advertiser agrees to pay for every 1,000 impressions shown. CPC pricing means that the advertiser will only be charged for clicks; CPA means cost-per-action (sometimes cost per acquisition or CPL, cost per lead) which means the advertiser pays when the user clicks on the ad AND goes on to buy (or take whatever action the advertiser wanted that user to take, for example registering or downloading something). When a user takes that desired action, it is called a “Conversion.”
When a user’s click path (from seeing the ad, clicking and converting) all happens in the same session, the conversion is said to be a “click-based” conversion. Typically, easy buying decisions, like the decision to download a ring tone for $1.00, will happen in one session. Sometimes, the user follows the click path toward conversion and steps away, perhaps returning a day or two later to complete the transaction. Many vacation packages are bought this way, for example. Although the actual path for that 2nd visit did not begin again with clicking on the same display ad, the site will recognize the user via cookies “dropped” on their browser during their first visit. It is possible to identify this user as someone who was there two days ago, who originally came to the site after clicking on X ad, which was served by Y. Let’s say that now, on the user’s second visit, the user buys. The resulting conversion will now be called a “view-based” conversion.
Potential Conflict Enters Stage Right
In a world of visibility, ad servers occasionally cause conflict between the agency and publisher – the publisher’s ad server counts “on the call” (that is, counts as soon as page loads) and the agency’s server counts “on the send” (when the ad starts to load on the user’s platform). In that gap, no more than a few seconds long, countless things can happen that may potentially change the count. The user could back-arrow off the page, or the user may have pop up blockers blocking pop up ads – which are frequently called -from actually serving. In one case an ad server might count on each call, and with another ad server it only counts when an ad pops up!
The Hero, Heroine Arrives on the Scene
Resolving these differences and discrepancies is the job of the Account Managers (AMs). Account Executives and AMs need to work as a team to avoid surprises. The better the ad operations of the site or network, the better job they do in making sure that the available ad inventory was most efficiently used, ensuring the publisher and/or network received the highest possible yield.
Happy Ending
With greater clarity of the terms, differences and potential conflicts, hopefully this article has helped better prepare you to put your online digital sales knowledge to work today and tomorrow. Here is to your success!
About the Author
Steve Bookbinder, CEO and lead trainer for Internet Advertising Institute has over a decade of experience selling online media, search engine marketing, and advertising. He has written and co-written more than 25 books, articles and audio training programs, and is most recently the author, with Jeff Goldberg, of How to Be Your Own Coach.To read more about the topic in this article or explore the online training courses visit http://www.InternetAdvertisingInstitute.com
Internet Advertising Institute: The World is Changing, Are You?
e-Zine Article.com source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bookbinder
Pricing Models and Controversy for Online Display Advertising
July 29, 2010 by admin2 · Leave a Comment
Introduction 
People outside the field, do not realize it, but the life of the online display account executive is one of negotiation, controversy and problem solving! Long gone are the days of reading prices off a sheet and filling orders by rote. Don’t miss out on the excitement, this article can be a refresher or introduction to some of the key terms and issues which need to be navigated to be successful in this innovative and quick-paced industry.
Opening Scene….
Consider with me, if you will how some advertisers will pay the original ad serving business with a 2-day conversion of ad serving to purchase, but many will not pay for anything other than a click-based conversion.
What is the web publisher or network’s Account Executive (AE) to do?
Well, the wise and prepared AE will have typically discussed in advance with the advertiser (or their agency) what gets counted. Determining whose count will be used in determining fees is one of the most common and important conversations between publishers and advertisers, and is part of the day to day job of most Account Executives.
Foundation Concepts Reviewed
Online Display Advertising campaigns are paid according to one of three models: CPM, CPC or CPA. The CPM (cost-per-thousand (or “mil”) pricing model means the advertiser agrees to pay for every 1,000 impressions shown. CPC pricing means that the advertiser will only be charged for clicks; CPA means cost-per-action (sometimes cost per acquisition or CPL, cost per lead) which means the advertiser pays when the user clicks on the ad AND goes on to buy (or take whatever action the advertiser wanted that user to take, for example registering or downloading something). When a user takes that desired action, it is called a “Conversion.”
When a user’s click path (from seeing the ad, clicking and converting) all happens in the same session, the conversion is said to be a “click-based” conversion. Typically, easy buying decisions, like the decision to download a ringtone for $1.00, will happen in one session. Sometimes, the user follows the click path toward conversion and steps away, perhaps returning a day or two later to complete the transaction. Many vacation packages are bought this way, for example. Although the actual path for that 2nd visit did not begin again with clicking on the same display ad, the site will recognize the user via cookies “dropped” on their browser during their first visit. It is possible to identify this user as someone who was there two days ago, who originally came to the site after clicking on X ad, which was served by Y. Let’s say that now, on the user’s second visit, the user buys. The resulting conversion will now be called a “view-based” conversion.
Potential Conflict Enters Stage Right
In a world of visibility, ad servers occasionally cause conflict between the agency and publisher – the publisher’s ad server counts “on the call” (that is, counts as soon as page loads) and the agency’s server counts “on the send” (when the ad starts to load on the user’s platform). In that gap, no more than a few seconds long, countless things can happen that may potentially change the count. The user could back-arrow off the page, or the user may have pop up blockers blocking pop up ads – which are frequently called -from actually serving. In one case an ad server might count on each call, and with another ad server it only counts when an ad pops up!
The Hero/ Heroine Arrives on the Scene
Resolving these differences and discrepancies is the job of the Account Managers (AMs). Account Executives and AMs need to work as a team to avoid surprises. The better the ad operations of the site or network, the better job they do in making sure that the available ad inventory was most efficiently used, ensuring the publisher and/or network received the highest possible yield.
Happy Ending
With greater clarity of the terms, differences and potential conflicts, hopefully this article has helped better prepare you to put your online digital sales knowledge to work today and tomorrow. Here is to your success!
About the Author
Steve Bookbinder, CEO and lead trainer for Internet Advertising Institute has over a decade of experience selling online media, search engine marketing, and advertising. He has written and co-written more than 25 books, articles and audio training programs, and is most recently the author, with Jeff Goldberg, of How to Be Your Own Coach.To read more about the topic in this article or explore the online training courses visit http://www.InternetAdvertisingInstitute.com
Internet Advertising Institute: The World is Changing, Are You?
e-Zine Article.com source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bookbinder
Account Managers’ Five Essentials for Success
July 29, 2010 by admin2 · Leave a Comment
Article Overview 
The Critical Player
There is a position that is important to every executive in any company that does business online, from the Head of Sales to the Head of Operations, from the Head of Finance to all the Account Executives and the entire Business Development team. This position becomes the face of the company to many customers. Everyone in the company relies on this one person and needs them to be consistent and effective in “saving” each client with which they interact. The focus of company success in this case, and our article, is the Account Manager.
In advertising and marketing, the Account Executive “hands off” the client to the Account Manager (AM) immediately after a sale. The AM leads each company’s formal on-boarding process: welcoming the client, establishing campaign visibility KPI reporting, as well other functions. That said, there are 5 things that the best AMs need to master in order to succeed every time they are working with clients. (Or as per our analogy, whenever they are on the pitching mound for their company.)
1. Thoroughly Understand The Customer and Their Goals.
It is surprisingly difficult to nail down exactly what a client’s goals are. Many clients haven’t reduced their aims down to realistic and meaningful metric goals. To really understand what each client is looking for, especially for a test campaign, start by understanding the client’s business. In essence, you need to understand as much about a client’s company as your own.
2. Reassure Everyone that They Are In Charge and Know What Needs To Be Done.
Once the AM begins to lead the opening conversation by asking “smart” questions, they establish who is really in charge. The subtle dance is the one where the AM is reactive to the customer while leading the service delivery, remembering that most customers want to be able to turn over the responsibility for their campaigns to an expert instead of having to micromanage the details. This is best done by sharing with the customer the kinds of clients you/your team has worked with that had similar goals and/or marketing challenges. Stories about how you have succeeded in similar situations in the past – especially when told with confidence – will go a long way toward getting the customer to put their faith in you.
3. Negotiate How They Will Define Success Each Week/Month of the Campaign
First impressions, whether in social situations or in the first week of a new campaign, are extremely powerful. Therefore, AMs need to grab the opportunity and need to pitch a winning game. But, to do that consistently, the AM must properly set the client’s expectations every week. To do that, the AM must let the client hear the thinking behind their plans. When clients do not see underlying strategy, they begin to question and doubt every move, like a nervous team owner with an uncertain general manager. But when they understand the thinking behind the moves, they are more open to accepting realistic results that each week.
4. Find A Way To Make An Unhappy Client Happy
Eventually, even the best AM will encounter an unhappy client. By the time the unhappiness emerges, it is often too late to backtrack to determine what really went wrong. The best strategy is take full responsibility for all errors. Just as importantly, this is the time to introduce a new strategy or optimization tactic. If you find a balance between these two, great things can happen.
5. Sell The Client On Trying Something Else
When an AM handles a campaign, they can sometimes increase that customer’s media spending. To do so, it is important to establish that you can be trusted with a smaller budget. Suggesting increased spending before earning that trust does not work. The customer becomes suspicious that the AM’s only interest is self interest. Timing in sales, like pitching, is everything.
About the Author
Steve Bookbinder, CEO and lead trainer for Internet Advertising Institute has over a decade of experience selling online media, search engine marketing, and advertising. He has written and co-written more than 25 books, articles and audio training programs, and is most recently the author, with Jeff Goldberg, of How to Be Your Own Coach.To read more about the topic in this article or explore the online training courses visit http://www.InternetAdvertisingInstitute.com
Internet Advertising Institute: The World is Changing, Are You?
e-Zine Article.com source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bookbinder
Effective Preparation for Selling Online Display Advertising
July 21, 2010 by admin2 · Leave a Comment
… “Follow Your Knows”
If you want to be a successful salesperson of online advertising, follow your “Knows.” There are seven things you absolutely, positively must know in order to compete in this industry. This article helps prepare sales people to achieve better results. As you read this article, ask yourself: “How well do I know and practice these?”
One: Know the Properties
First and foremost, you must understand what you are selling. If you are selling a single site, you must understand (and, to the degree possible, use and/or subscribe to) that site. If you are selling a network, that means you must know the various sites you represent. If you don’t understand the content, you can’t expect to sell it effectively. It’s that simple.
Two: Know the Targeting Possibilities
How can you help advertisers target the users who visit your site(s)? You can provide advertisers with the ability to display ads across the length and breadth of your site. If you sell a network, you also have the capacity to allow advertisers to show their ads across the entire network. You may also be able to give advertisers the option of pointing their messages at users who have context-specific interests that connect to a certain channel within a web site or a group of web sites. You may also be able to offer Behavioral Targeting (targeting based on past click history) or retargeting, which means focusing on people who have visited a certain site or pursued a certain offer in the past, who may have purchased – or abandoned the site during the conversion process. In those cases, it is imperative that you can describe to potential advertiser’s your property (or network’s) methodology for achieving success with these targeting filters.
Three: Know The Ad Units
Which ad units does your property support? Which size? GIF? Flash? Do you run video? Rich Media? If yes, which formats? What are your editorial rules about Rich Media formats? Although your company may only accept certain formats, you may be interested in knowing all the formats available. For the best answer to that question, consult the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), which comprises “more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86% of online advertising in the United States. (iab.net).” Which standard ad sizes does your firm accept?
Four: Know What Account Management Can and Can’t Do
Once you sell an ad to an advertiser, you will “hand off” the account to the Account Management team. When you do, the advertiser will have certain expectations about what is going to happen, how often it is going to happen, and how quickly the campaign as a whole is going to achieve success. It is your job to make sure that those client expectations are realistic especially as the move through the process to the AM team!
Five: Know the Pricing
How does your company charge advertisers? There are three popular pricing formats which you are certain to encounter. But what’s more you need to know which formats your company provides:
- CPM: Cost per Thousand - the advertiser pays a set fee for the serving of 1,000 ad “impressions” regardless of whether anyone clicks on them or not.
- CPC: Cost per Click - The advertiser only pays for when someone clicks on an ad.
- CPA: Cost per Action or Cost per Acquisition (of a new customer/conversion; if the conversion is a lead, then this pricing is sometimes referred to as CPL – Cost per Lead) – The advertiser only pays when the click results in a conversion.
Advertisers may “speak” in CPA and you may only accept CPM. In that case, you will need
to learn to become fluent in Internet Math (if you are not familiar with this you need to learn it!) in order to help guide the customer through the conversion of one into the other.
Six: Know Who You Are Calling Today 
The most important knowledge any salesperson has is who they are going to call today. This includes knowing your target’s name, their direct phone number and email address. It also means knowing how many people you are going to call. For this you need to do a little reverse engineering – starting with determining your personal goals and your company’s sales goals. How much money are you trying to make? How many sales will you need to close each month to make that much? What is your average sale worth?
Seven: Know What You Are Going To Say and Ask
And finally, and most importantly, you are ready to call. You need to know the two most important questions which you will pose to every advertiser you will ever speak to:
1. Who are you trying to reach?
2. What are you trying to accomplish?
As you consider their answers think about the first 5 “Knows” above.
Are they trying to reach a target that is possible given your properties and targeting?
Can you support their advertising goals with the ad units they desire?
Will your Account Management team be able to reach these goals?
Did they/can you boil their goals down to metric goals (that is, the amount of marketing budget they are willing to pay for each ad or conversion; sometimes called a CPA Metric?).
Can you translate their CPA metric into CPM pricing (assuming you prefer to accept advertisers on this basis)?
Once you know those 7 “Knows,” you will be ready for a successful sales career. Until then, review them, learn what you don’t know and put them into practice!
About the Author
Steve Bookbinder, CEO and lead trainer for Internet Advertising Institute has over a decade of experience selling online media, search engine marketing, and advertising. He has written and co-written more than 25 books, articles and audio training programs, and is most recently the author, with Jeff Goldberg, of How to Be Your Own Coach.To read more about the topic in this article or explore the online training courses visit http://www.InternetAdvertisingInstitute.com
Internet Advertising Institute: The World is Changing, Are You?
e-Zine Article.com source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bookbinder
Pipeline Management Made Easy With Deal Flow
July 10, 2010 by admin2 · Leave a Comment
Learning and leveraging the three prospect stages can profoundly increase sales productivity. This article provides timely strategies to make this happen. 
The three stages?
Stage one: People who have had a first meeting with you and who have agreed to talk with you again at a specific date and time.
Stage two: Right budget, right person, right plan – and your contact has agreed to talk with you again at a specific date and time.
Stage three: verbal agreement to do business with you; clear start date.
As a professional seller, you need more than just one sale- but you do not need luck. You need Deal Flow; and Deal Flow comes from Pipeline Management. Pipeline Management is a fancy term that means “effectively compensating for the fact that prospects fall away over time.” Consider this: By the time you have the right number of prospects in Stage One – prospects that come from the best of the new appointments you’ve recently set – you will move perhaps two prospects over to Stage Two, while moving perhaps one prospect over to Stage Three. (That’s the call from the prospect saying, “We want to work with you, I’m sending the contract tomorrow.”) This is basic sales physics. The arrow that moves from left to right is the selling equivalent of gravity. More prospects will fall away than move forward. So a prospect moving from Stage Two to Stage Three would be a great development if you only needed one sale, but you need more. That means the short-term effects of closing that one sale can be a little frightening. After all, your best prospect just converted from prospect to customer – and the majority of the remaining prospects will, thanks to the laws of sales physics, backtrack to inactive status. Prospect backtrack is a natural phenomenon: the simple matter is, the pipeline reflects an instant in an ever shifting, dynamic pattern, and within that pattern, most prospects simply do not close.
Remember: we are tracking prospects, which means “people who have proven their willingness to move the deal forward by scheduling a meeting with us in the immediate future so they can discuss doing business with us.” If your contact doesn’t fit that definition, he or she is not a prospect!
So now the question becomes:
How do you get that many prospects?
Key point: To get Deal Flow, what you really need is enough prospects in that first stage to close the one deal you want to close this month (or whatever your goal is)… and still have enough left over to offset the majority of backward-moving prospects you’ll be looking at the month after that. And the month after that…. And the month after that….
You cannot get there by loading up your pipeline and then focusing on nothing but closing for the rest of your career. You can get there, however, by replacing backward moving prospects – at the same rate you are losing them. This strategy is both a science and an art. The first step is knowing your own numbers and your own ratios. How many new contacts do you need in the “first appointment” category to feed Stage One (and, eventually, Stages Two and Three)? There really is a number you must identify, a number that you can use to calibrate your own personal sales goal. If you know what that number is, you can create and maintain that level of new opportunity at all times. If you do not know the number, then, you cannot hit the target. The next critical step is recognizing a backward-moving prospect so that you know what is about to be lost. All too often, a prospect that appears to be nailed in place is really just hanging there by a thread. That thread has a formal name: time.
Believe it. The longer a prospect sits in place, the less likely it will ever advance.
Think about it: yesterday’s “great prospect” will move backward if not spoken to for, say, three straight months. Even when spoken to, and they say to keep waiting for a decision – the same thing is happening over that three-month time span. Our income potential is diminishing with each passing day. The art of pipeline management lies in learning to recognize the point at which prospects tend to fall away, and how to respond when they do.
This is the subject of a whole different course – one on sales management. For now, ponder this: If an inordinate amount of your fallaways occur after people reach Stage Three, then you are in all likelihood not gathering the right information up front and not talking to the right people. Until you improve your interviewing skills, you will continue to spend too much of your time misclassifying low-level prospects that are doomed to fail.
About the Author
Steve Bookbinder, CEO and lead trainer for Internet Advertising Institute has over a decade of experience selling online media, search engine marketing, and advertising. He has written and co-written more than 25 books, articles and audio training programs, and is most recently the author, with Jeff Goldberg, of How to Be Your Own Coach.To read more about the topic in this article or explore the online training courses visit http://www.InternetAdvertisingInstitute.com
Internet Advertising Institute: The World is Changing, Are You?
e-Zine Article.com source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Bookbinder
Selling Social Media Marketing
July 10, 2010 by admin2 · Leave a Comment
AND Dodging Common Mistakes to Success
Have you been lured into the “seven sins of social media”? The idea is nagging you, isn’t it? No problem, just join me as I reveal these pitfalls and the related vital strategies for maximizing social media marketing and its sales. You just might avoid some costly mistakes.
I interviewed Kathleen P. King, also known to her 1700+ Twitter followers as @facultycoach, about the pitfalls common in social media. Together, we developed this list of seven classic ways newcomers screw up their own social media campaigns. Our suggestion: Avoid them!
Number One: Don’t Identify a Clear Guiding Message
There are often a lot of different messages in a newcomer’s social media campaign, but there’s no clear, consistent “brand” message. Nothing unifies the channels. What shows up on LinkedIn doesn’t support what shows up on Twitter, and what shows up on YouTube doesn’t support what’s on the web site. So the question is then “what is the central idea that ties everything together?” What is your one-sentence “purpose” for sharing the information you share?
Number Two: Don’t Identify Your Target Audience.
You’d be amazed how many people start sending out messages on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn yet cannot answer the question “Who are you hoping to hear back from?” (Hint: It is not “the general public.”) Your goal is to start a conversation — not with just anyone, but with the people most likely to buy your product or service. Find your target demographic first: then start typing.
Number Three: Don’t Think About Return On Investment (ROI).
Many people spend days, weeks, or months of obsessive (and unpaid) effort updating their Facebook pages or tending to their Twitter accounts. As a result, they neglect the core business activities that can actually produce revenue for their organization. Remember: social media is a marketing investment. If you are running a small business, and your time is limited, you are probably better off hiring an experienced, affordable consultant than you are trying to do it all yourself. Think strategically — and measure your investments.
Number Four: Be Busy, But Irrelevant.
If you throw out a whole lot of content, and none of it resonates with the group you are hoping to start a dialogue with, then your activity level does not matter. The critical test is: are you actually “starting conversations” with the people you hope to engage? If not, you had better change course.
Number Five: Mix Up Business And Personal Issues.
Unless your organization sells swimsuits, you should avoid using your organization’s Twitter feed to share your own opinions about the latest low-cut styles. Remember: when you talk on-line through the company “channel,” you represent your organization! Open a private account for personal musings.
Number Six: Use Social Media to Always Send Ads.
Social media is all about content and relationships. When people only see blatant commercial content coming from you, they quickly tune it (and you) out. Your goal with social media is to share value-rich resources, start conversations, and address customer/prospect problems in real time. That means your core content should contain no undifferentiated sales pitches! When the “buy, buy, buy” message goes out, the viewer’s “disconnect” impulse takes over.
Number Seven: Be All Things to All People.
Your aim is to establish yourself and/or your organization as a leader and content expert within a “single, clearly defined” area. That means some of the issues people raise on-line are going to fall outside of your area of expertise. When this happens, say so, and move on to a topic that’s within your “wheelhouse!” Suppose your area of expertise is helping people track down their family history. The fact that someone leaves a complaint about a car-repair issue doesn’t oblige you to create a 500-word post on the best ways to avoid shifty mechanics.
These social media sins are what Kathy and I call the Big Seven — but there are countless other mistakes social media newbies make while they try to promote themselves and their businesses. If you have other examples, please, share them with me. You can send me a direct message on Twitter, and if you do, I’ll answer!
About the Author
Steven Bookbinder
Steven Bookbinder
Steve Bookbinder, CEO and lead trainer for Internet Advertising Institute has over a decade of experience selling online media, search engine marketing, and advertising. He has written and co-written more than 25 books, articles and audio training programs, and is most recently the author, with Jeff Goldberg, of How to Be Your Own Coach.
Connect with me on Twitter: @IAdInstitute
Internet Advertising Institute: The World is Changing, Are You?
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