Over the past few weeks we’ve laid a good foundation for an effective Internet marketing strategy. We’ve discussed the basic elements for search engine marketing including page optimization, best practices for metadata and how to quickly get traffic to your site through paid search marketing (pay per click, or PPC). Today we’re going to talk about how to go about forming that perfect list of keywords for both your website and your PPC campaigns to make sure you’re getting the type of traffic you need and not wasting advertising dollars on traffic that will never convert to dollars.
After you’ve built your PPC ads it’s time to select the search terms you want your ads to be displayed next to.  Effective keyword research is essential to ensure your PPC campaigns will be a success. There are a few key points to keep in mind when conducting your research and several ways to determine what your best keywords.
Target – Have a clear [...]

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Last issue we discussed how to track and measure online success through the use of analytics. Unless your site has somehow automagically blossomed overnight to the most popular site since Facebook, you’ll likely need to find ways to attract visitors to your online property. Paid search, commonly known as Pay Per Click (PPC) ads are a great way to make this happen.
PPC can be a great lead generation tool for any business and also a good method to to keep your visitors (aka “prospects”) searching online and out of the yellow pages. Most major search engines offer some type of PPC service and it’s up to you to decide which ones you want to try.
The big three in this area currently are Google (AdWords: www.google.com/adwords), Microsoft (Bing: http://adcenter.microsoft.com) and Yahoo! (Yahoo! Search Marketing: http://marketinginfo.yahoo.com - Yahoo! has recently partnered with Microsoft and much of their paid search technologies are powered by the same engines that manage Bing’s PPC).
For this discussion [...]

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In my last article ‘Guide to Getting Found,’ we discussed four steps to create a strong foundation for your business' online presence: building a website; listing your site with only directories and search engines; developing a metatag strategy and the importance of creating content. With these blocks in place we can really start to pump up reach and begin measuring ROI. So today we're going to discuss how the heck to keep up with everything your website is doing for you (which is probably a lot more than you think!) using the basic features available in most analytics packages and later talk about how to begin using you site as an effective sales tool.
Track Everything
One of the beauties of Internet marketing is that every interaction can be tracked clicks. With the right tracking (analytics) devices in place, you can easily tell where your website visitors are coming, learn which pages on your site are the most popular, determine where you [...]

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At the end of every year I put together a list of goals. Not a list of resolutions, but goals I want to accomplish during the upcoming year. (great article on those differences here and why resolutions tend to be forgotten here). One of my goals for 2012 is to improve the ROI of ShuBee's Internet marketing efforts.
My first step towards accomplishing this goal was to establish benchmarks of where we are currently as well as document what helped us achieve that success. From there it was on to numbers crunching so I could establish a budget for 2012, then on to growth projections and finally planning some new strategies.
It was at this point in the process that I remembered an article I had written for theBuzz in 2009 about getting found online. As often as Google keeps changing the game when it comes to businesses getting found online, keeping first page rankings and determining what they feel is most [...]

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It’s estimated that the average American is exposed to more than 3,000 commercial messages a day, and as a whole $620 billion is spent each year by businesses with the aim of making their product more desirable to the public (Union of Concerned Scientists, http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/). So how do we maximize our advertising spending to make sure we’re capturing and keeping as much business as possible? Read on to learn the secrets to successful advertising: Continue Reading »

Over the years, many trends have caught on that most people would not have expected, like the surge of popularity of then-terminally-uncool Hush Puppies shoes in the 1990’s, which were previously only popular among a handful of hipsters in Manhattan. Television shows which many thought would surely flop reached great success, such as Sesame Street. People underestimated the cognitive levels of children, but the show’s new approach to teaching gained widespread popularity and fostered literacy in preschoolers. Books, like The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, have climbed from little known cult series to best-sellers and messages that seemed to hold little importance at the time, such as the dangers of smoking, took hold and are now hot topics all over the world. It seems that there is a pattern to these phenomenons, which many businesses could learn, replicate and benefit from greatly. Continue Reading »

In any company, no matter the size or the industry, it’s important for a business to put together a great team of employees to help propel the business forward. It’s equally, if not more important to keep that team united and working towards the same goals. In a society where everyone is focused on winning at all costs, the idea of teamwork has been pushed to the backburner in many businesses - that’s unfortunate when you really think about it. Without a doubt a business is a team. It’s made up of employees in different departments with different roles, all doing their individual parts to reach the same goals. Individually, when employees are satisfied with their jobs and motivated, they use and strengthen their skills maximizing their benefit to the company. Happy employees work hard on they’re own, but when they work together, the outcomes are multiplied exponentially! Continue Reading »

Are you up to speed on all the buzz? ShuBee wants you to join in and contribute to the hive's online presence. Did you know we're on Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn? FriendFeed? and more? Did you know we've launched our own affiliate sites to help contractors succeed? Continue Reading »

Ever the jet setters, the ShuBee team has been covering the country like a pack of ants at a picnic during the last few months. Be on the lookout for ShuBee buzzing in your neighborhood! Continue Reading »

In times of economic molasses, it’s important for businesses to shift sales gears from customer acquisition to customer retention. Most companies know approximately how much it costs in advertising and marketing to attract each new customer. Currently, the average cost per new plumbing/HVAC customer is around $230. By refocusing your selling strategy on repeat business rather than new business you can quickly cut acquisition costs and increase revenue. Use these tips to get the most from the customers you’ve already paid for, and hopefully lower the costs associated with bringing new customers on board.
You’re too reactive – It’s easy to become swamped with work, frustrations and anxieties while out in the field or in the office. Don’t let this turn your decision-making process into a reactionary one. Instead, focus on ways you can be proactive in your customer communications to avoid any knee-jerk reactions that may cost you a sale from a long-time customer. It may even be beneficial to [...]

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