bwagy

Here is a freebie strategy I use all the time.   Seems obvious but quite often gets overlooked.

This is the most simple way you can increase sales online whilst decreasing costs (over the medium to long term).  It’s the Adwords Long Tail Strategy.  Simple, quick and effective.

What to do after running your Adwords campaign for a period of time (say 3 months):

• Do long tail analysis of impressions.  (How? get keywords, total impressions over time period, graph)
• Find the head of the graph
• Target those keywords via seo
• Cover the rest with adwords

Results:

1. Decrease acquisition costs by gaining visitors you already know convert
2. Increase traffic.

I have increased traffic at organisations whilst decreasing their acquisition cost by up to 75% with this simple strategy.

Take a look at this graph.

• The curve x+y represents the theoretical sum of attention / time / work.
• We all shift up/down the curve.
• If you follow from left to right suggest you are more strategic in your approach.
• Follow right to left you have a more emergent strategy.
• The curve shifts up/down due to external pressures (ie stress, day job)

Trouble for entrepreneurs is quite often they spend too much time at the left. (suffering from lack of action)

They need to find their sweet spot.

What is the right mix of thought and action? to get the desired results.

Here’s an idea.  A free one.  Take it and run with it.

Microfunding.  Microspends.  Micropayments. Whatever you want to call it.

Take the concept of the long tail and apply it to spending online.  Imagine the long tail of ‘small purchases’.

You could blow this wide open.  Here’s $0.05 for that interesting pdf on your website.  $0.10 for the youtube video i loved.  $0.25 for that podcast that entertained me for an hour.

Doesn’t sound much does it.  But imagine that 1 in 100 of your fans is a loyal fan whom will contribute $0.10/view.  Now 10,000 regular visitors translates to: $10/day.  Soon adds up.

Current ad rates ~$1cpm.  Equates to: $0.001/visitor.  If you could convince on average every visitor to contribute $0.01.  Increased revenue 10 fold!

Ok.

Now imagine you are the company that facilitates all these micropayments.

How much time do you command?

For example since launching this blog

I have garnered:

59,746 seconds of attention or 991 minutes or 16 and a half hours of focused attention.  Wow!

What would you pay for 16 hours of focused attention from the influencers in your industry.

I’ve paid:
1.5 hrs / week
a morning setting up this blog
a few hours preparation.
Maybe 20 hours all up.
Now imagine over the long run as my audience increases.  My investment remains relatively flat.

Look at that return on investment vs that fax flyer campaign you just paid for.

Oh, something else, Interaction! I have received 13 comments, 20 or so emails.  Compounds things a little.

What is that worth to you?

Him get it. (Band)

417,000 friends on Myspace

214 videos on Youtube, millions of views

Fan Club that fans actually want to join (and pay for)

Extended dvd’s and limited artwork for die hard fans

Limited dvd releases that are actually limited

I can see why Him are so successful. Can’t you?

Marketing is more than advertising.

In fact advertising takes up the smallest component of my marketing strategies…