Week 9 - MKTG349 - Performance, Profitability and Growth

Performance of a system is what will determine the success rate of profitability and growth. The platform must be strong fundamentally established to with hold through it all. This can apply to anything you create. can also go into the job aspect. Before accepting any job, it is fair to ask about salary. Never assume that you will be given a fair wage. The employee will try to pay you the lowest it can to save money and if you don’t negotiate you can end up working at a job making $20 per hour where as if you would of negotiated you could have been making $32 per hour. I don’t want this to happen to anyone so we need to put the fear aside and learn how to negotiate the salary wage.

1. From the beginning, the employer knows the highest figure they are willing to pay you but they will try to get you for less to save money. Whereas you are trying to take the most capital you can home.
2. Never be the first one to mention a salary figure. You want the employer to be the first because whoever mentions a salary figure first, usually loses. If asked by the employer what figure you are looking for, the best response would be: “Well, you created this position, so you must have some figure in mind, and I’d be interested in first hearing what that figure is.”
3. It would be ideal to do some research on typical salaries for the field of interest and in the specific company/organization you are applying at. You can gather this typical information in a few days and it can benefit you in the long run. This will give you an advantage in the negotiating process because you now have an idea of what range salary you are working with. The research can be done online or off the internet (books, talking to people, or work agencies).
4. Once you researched what the employer likely has in mind to other you within a range then define an interconnected range for yourself that is relative to the employers range. This way you are more likely to reach the employers highest salary offer. It’s a clever and risky task that will take some work but will be beneficial at the end.
5. In the salary negotiation, fringe benefits must be discussed before closing the negotiating process. A fringe refers to life insurance, health benefits, vacations, retirement programs and so on. So keep in mind in order of importance the fringes you would like to negotiate. Once the negotiating processes is done make sure to get the terms that were agreed upon on paper and have it signed by both parties. This is your letter of agreement. 

Now that you have these tips at your disposal make sure to implement them into your negotiating plan and get the highest salary possible. The more prepared you are with research and a plan getting into salary negotiations; the more comfortable you will be negotiating with the employer and hopefully bring more money into your pocket.

Week 8 - MKTG349 - Getting Traffic Moving

So, now that you know how to start a blog on Blogger and connect it to Google Adwords. We use Google Adwords to view the traffic of a website, or in our case a blog, that is being monitored. When starting off the blog we need to generate traffic in order for us to be capable to look at analytics.

One easy way to generate traffic to start off is by sharing the link on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Make a Pitch: Before posting the link of the blog to social media you need to generate a pitch. The pitch is an explanation of what is being done, and an invitation to take a look at the link.

Post it to Social Media: On social media post the link of the blog or an individual blog post along with a pitch.

Some social media websites to…

·         Facebook

·         LinkedIn

·         Twitter

Promote Your Post: Even though posting on personal profiles in social media is an easy and free way to share your post, not many people will see the post, but websites such as Facebook can help promote the blog for a fee. They will help you generate more traffic.

Make an Ad: A Facebook ad campaign is another way to get more clicks and generate more traffic. With the Facebook ads there is more control on who you want to be exposed to it. You can choose the region, interests, pictures, and age range. A budget will be created by yourself to fit your needs.

There you have it a few ways to get exposure of websites or blog and generate traffic to get a look at analytics.

Week 7 - MKTG349 - Analytics AdWords

In continuation to ecommerce analytics, I will now be talking about AdWords. AdWords is a Google advertising service provided to the public for businesses wanting to post ads on Google and its advertising network. With the program you are allowed to set a budget for the advertising and only pay as people click the ad. With AdWords you get the ease of advertising a site and tracking conversions – namely, this is tracing all things from an ad to a purchase on the site. This program is a valuable tool for online marketers, which will help generate ROI (return on investment). 

To get started and create an account, go to http://www.google.com/adwords. Once the account is active, you will want to connect AdWords with your ecommerce site to be able to track conversions. AdWords will now be able to inform you which specific ad was clicked on and resulted in a purchase, therefore ROI is calculated and we can see the results.

Next we can start an AdWords campaign, starting an account on AdWords is free but in order to get an ad to run capital will be required. Now don’t be discouraged with AdWords you can set a budget and have control of the ad, to create cliental, so you can know your investment is being used efficiently. AdWords has many feature and tools that help to experiment and find different methods to display and approach the campaign. Play with prices and bidding, use different headlines to grad the reader’s attention, and set different keywords and landing pages.

AdWords along with Shopify and other web analytics programs can help make a business become more successful. These tools make is easy to get a competitive advantage and acquire potential revenue with proper online exposure. I suggest taking a look at it even if you don’t plan on working on this particular field of work. It is can be very informative. For more information on AdWords you can visit their website or you can reach out to me. 

Week 6 - MKTG349 - The Value of Blogging

Once you have a Google Account, you will have automatic access to a blogger account in the tool Blogger. Here you can start a blog with the content of your choice. You can create multiple blogs and each will be entitled to a personal address that you will generate. With this address anyone can access your blog to view your posts.

In the process to attract new visitors to a webpage, there are multiple things that can be done to achievement this goal. One of the most recent methods involves blogging. Even though blogging has been originally for the. Job-hunting is all about human nature and in its essence is most like another human activity that we call dating. In the end it comes down to two questions: “Do you like me?” and “Do I like you?”  The second question needs to be stressed because the possible employee has just as much power as the employer in the hiring process. Here is where the applicant needs to make a decision to ask questions now and see if this job will be a good fit or just don’t ask anything to the employer and find out weeks, months, or years later that it isn’t working and quit. Hence your opinion matters just as much as the employer’s.

You are not as helpless as you think you are. There is always something that can be done no matter how challenging it may sound we will always have some percentage of control. And with that little power you can make a change for the best. Same applies to job-hunting we may feel that employers have all the power and that you can’t be picky because “there are few vacancies available” If these statements were true, we still have some control to alternate the outcome and find a job we desire.

Week 5 - MKTG349 - Facebook Ad Campaign

The use of Facebook ads is in my opinion is an ideal way to get your business or in my current situation my blogs out to the public and get recognition. Facebook is one of the most popular websites on the internet. Everyone has Facebook nowadays.  So picture this, in approximately one month Facebook has over a billion active users meaning plenty of exposure.  With the Facebook ads there is more control on who you want to be exposed to it. You can choose the region, interests, pictures, and age range. A budget will be created by yourself to fit your needs.

So to promote and get some traffic using Facebook Ads, we start by going to http://www.facebook.com/ads/.

You can choose to start creating the ad and go through the process, which is pretty straightforward. If any difficulties occur then you can go to Facebook for assistance or Google it.

Towards the end, you choose how long you want your ad campaign to run and how much you want to spend. Finally, make the payment and place the order. And wait for approval from Facebook to start the advertising.

To see if there is any traffic from the ad, you can check this website: https://www.facebook.com/ads/manage. Or refer back to the Google Analytics account linked to what is being adversited.

Week 4 - MKTG349 - Measuring and optimizing performance

After initiating the campaign and getting some data of the ad performance. You must analyze and optimize the account, campaigns, or the individual ad groups to make improvement. Look into things such as which clicks lead to visits or which devices are performing ads best. The dimension tab can also be very useful to measure results. It can inform you on the time ads performed best, geographic views and what the landing pages a customer viewed. In order to track these performances you can also be using conversion tracking, Google analytics, and campaign experiment. In older blogs I have discussed these tools and how they function. So if you want more information on them go check my older post.

With AdWords everything must be taken into consideration to effectively process a campaign through. Here are some things to measure

• Measure website traffic
• Measure conversions
• Measure return on investment
• Measure return on ad spend
• Measure brand awareness  

The last thing to do and to continue to do during a campaign is to optimize it in order to improve return on investment which is in your best interest. That’s the main goal for any one investing in AdWords should be to make more than what is invested. Find proper keywords, text, and budget that will improve and increase attracting the right cliental for the products and services provided. Overall, AdWords is essentially a tool to create a strong, successful campaign to advertise any products or service one might offer. Every aspect of the campaign is important but measuring and optimizing performance of the campaign, in my opinion, is the most important because here you carefully analyze what you have done and work to build a more efficient campaign. For further assistance on measuring and optimizing performance you can reach out to me or check out this page out: https://support.google.com/partners/answer/6173427?hl=en&ref_topic=6123873

Week 3 - MKTG349 - Setting up an AdWords Campaign

     When setting up an AdWords campaign, you will need to choose a type and sub-type. The campaign type establishes where the ads are shown and the format they will be demonstrated in, while the sub-type determines settings and options available. Some type of campaigns include search engine only, display network only, search network with display select. Depending on what your goals are for the campaign, you can modify features that are significant to the campaign.

     An efficient AdWords account will help create campaigns that will help reach your goals more profoundly. Each campaign should be aimed to a single business goal. In the campaign you can control how much is spent on clicks, geographical locations, and other settings. To organize the campaign you add on one or more ad groups. To help boost your ROI you can organize into sets of ads and keywords relating to each other. Separate ad groups will be needed for each theme or product being advertised. Making sure the ad reaches the right audience will implement what success you have with the campaign. You can use significant keywords, location and language settings, and demographics that will be applicable to your targeted audience.

Other great options AdWords lets you play with are budgets and bids. You choose a daily budget that will be spent per day and depending on the results you can play around with the budget and adjust it as needed. Bidding strategies can’t be figured out until you know who you’re targeting, and your goals, then you can decide which strategy is best. For example,

1. Cost-per-click (CPC) bidding: Use if you want to drive customers to your website.
2. Cost-per-impression (CPM) bidding: Use if you want to make sure that customers see your message.
3. Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) bidding: Use if you want to maximize conversions on your website.

     After getting all this organized, you need to create ad groups for each theme or product under the campaign with its individual keywords, ads, and bids that could later on be optimized to improve ROI.  

     Remember to consistently optimize the campaign. As you get results make accommodations and research what will help you get a higher ROI, maybe you might want to try a different approach. Keyword Planner and Display Planner are tools offered by AdWords that can help build campaigns and achieve goals. So if you’re ever in the market looking to advertise give AdWords a try. Here’s a link for some assistance https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1704395?hl=en or you can reach out to me. I’d be more than glad to assist you. 

Week 2 - MKTG349 - Adwords: Value of online advertising

Online advertising gives you more control with marketing aspect and having both the sellers and buyers satisfied. Ads reach out to people that are likely to be interested in your products and services, and eliminating those that aren’t. AdWords functions as an online advertising tool run by Google, that can help reach new clients and grow sales. With AdWords an ad will be shown at the right time, place, and people in order to meet goals set for business success.

AdWords offers several benefits.

• Target your ads
• Control your costs
• Measure your success
• Manage your campaigns

With AdWords ads will be shown on both Google Search Network and Google Display Network. Depending on the campaign type chosen you can determine which network is used to show ads. With Google Search Network advertisers can show ads next to search results and reach individuals currently searching for specific goods and service. While Google Display Network helps the advertiser use appealing ad formats to reach wide reach of customers with broad interests, build brand recognition, and choose more specifics on where ads appear and to whom.

Quality is always important in all aspect of business, in relations to ads this is extremely important. For success in online marketing, ads and landing pages need to be significant to customers the more likely it is that you'll have a higher Quality Score. Other things that you can do with AdWords is control the cost of advertising and there is no limit to what to put in. But you get what you put in. You can set a daily budget and money will be spent in the way you choose. You can set a bidding plan to focus on getting clicks, sales, or views. AdWords’ features will give you control over what has been mentioned and plenty more. It’s a tool and skill worth learning.