Top 5 reasons your businesses should be using Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

November 10th, 2009

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is quickly taking a larger portion of the monthly advertising spend of companies of all sizes. Business owners know that if they want to stay in front of their consumers then they need to be spending some of their monthly budget online.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of people each month (in your area) that are searching online for your product/services. What is your business doing to get in front of these qualified consumers? Are you using Sponsored Links, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Advertising, and/or Social Networking to increase phone calls?

Here are the Top 5 reasons your businesses should be using Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Call Epic Marketing today and receive a FREE consultation with one of our online specialists. Find out what works and what doesn’t. (Example yellowpages.com/ATT and most directories for that matter… do not work!)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Online Marketing, seo | 16 Comments »

Ways to Increase Revenue

November 6th, 2009

Many business owners believe that the answer to their growth problems is that they need to simply get more leads from the advertising that they do. While this is one of the major ways to increase revenue, it is usually the most expensive in the long run.

If you want your business to take full advantage of all potential revenue sources, you should closely examine each of the following:

  • Increase Number of Leads
  • Increasing Conversion Ratios
  • Increase Customer Retention/Referrals
  • Increase Product/Service Costs

If you want your “boat” to pick up speed, you need to plug the holes that are slowing your businesses growth potential down.

Nick White
President, Epic Marketing

Posted in Targeting, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

When Is Your Most Popular Month for Search?

October 30th, 2009

You might be surprised at when users are searching for your services – find out by entering your keywords (‘san diego dentist,’ boston plumber, etc.’) in the Google Adwords Keyword tool.  Google just released a handy new tool that lets you find out when your customers are searching for you the most.

The tool gives us a lot of valuable information that can be used:

  • For keyword research – find keywords that users are using to search for your products and services. Then use those keywords on your website.
  • To gather competitive intelligence – how tough is your competition online? The keyword tool shows you a graph rating how highly your competitors are bidding on keywords for sponsored links – if the competition is high, it is probably for a reason (PPC works!). If it is low, it may be a great opportunity for you to be the first to jump in – and the clicks will be cheap!
  • To research market behavior, such as trends in when and how people are searching for you. Users search for “dermatology baton rouge” in February more than any other month – compare that to “dermatologist baton rouge,” which gets the most searches in July. I’m no dermatology expert, but a good reason for that discrepancy may be that users are going online early in the year (Feb.) to research their options, learning about dermatology in general. In July, they tend to search for ‘dermatologist,’ which is more targeted – now they’re not researching anymore, they’re looking for a physician directly.

The new feature allows users to show/hide the following data:

  • Highest Volume Occurred in
  • Estimated Average Position
  • Estimated Average CPC (Cost Per Click)
  • Advertiser Competition
  • Search Volume Trends (shows a graph with volume trends for all 12 months of the year)
  • Local Search Volume (local means country)
  • Global Monthly Search Volume

This is a big step up from the previous 3 columns that the tool gave us: 1) Advertiser Competition, 2) Local Search Volume, and 3) Global Monthly Search Volume.

Posted in Online Marketing, ppc, seo | 4 Comments »

Writing Effective “Direct Response” Print Ads

October 22nd, 2009

There are many different types of ads that a business may want to put out in front of the public. One of the most common types of ads that we are seeing now is Ads that drive immediate traffic. Not many businesses can sit around for branding alone to generate revenue. They need new leads today.

Here are the things that your Ad must have if you want it to have any chance at all at making your phone ring:

  • Connecting Statement
  • Unique Selling Position
  • Reason to call you over your competitor
  • Quality Design Work/Brand Continuity
  • Compelling Offer
  • Offer Deadline/Limit
  • Company Information

Any good designer can put together a “pretty” ad. Here’s the thing, pretty ads alone don’t sell. Now, I’ll tell you what does sell. Having incredible salesmen who understand sound marketing techniques, who write your ad and a good designer who makes it look good.. and BOOM! That’s how we design print ads that drive traffic.

Posted in Marketing | 5 Comments »

New Client in Richardson, Texas

October 21st, 2009

Another one started with us today. We began working for a new client in Texas and he has all the potential in the world. He has a relatively small practice but with what we have been able to do with others in his field, he is going to be on the fast track to growing this business. I love the enthusiasm of a new client. I can’t wait to see how he acts when we get his phones ringing off the hook.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Advertising Agencies

October 21st, 2009

There are a lot of Advertising Agencies in Utah and across the country. What I have found over the years is that some do a little of this and a little of that but very few of these marketing firms do things the way we do. Half of our clients have worked with other utah advertising agencies, some of them have had several over the years. We hear it all. Some did a good job with creative, others did a good job in the beginning and after a few months stopped showing as much interest and energy, most did a mediocre job from the very beginning and so on.

I will give you the latest example of what I mean. We began working with Utah Spine Institute 4 Months ago. Prior to us they had been with 2 very well known Ad agencies here in Utah, the second of which they were with up until the time they hired us. We approached them with some very compelling data about their industry and then a little “song and dance” took place…  and they hired us on the spot.

Our first ad ran and the phone calls  started pouring in just as we had expected and i will never forget the Doctors statement because it was a little different than what we had ever heard before, he said “this is the first time I have ever had any confidence in an advertising agency…”. These are the type of statements that we live for. We truly believe that what we have to offer our Clients is so much different then what they are use to from your typical advertising agencies and it shows.

Visit our client testimonial video for supporting statements from some of our clients.

Nick White
President, Epic Marketing

Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

Tracking Phone Calls

October 20th, 2009

I am amazed at how many businesses there are that don’t use specific phone numbers to track their calls. These businesses spend a lot of money on advertising but they don’t track the effectiveness of each advertising medium? They often leave it up to the receptionist who makes $10/hr and could really care less how many calls come in, let alone how they heard about the company and where they got the phone number to call.

Here are some reasons why your business really needs to get this dialed in:

  1. You need to figure out what your cost per leads are
  2. You need to figure out what your conversion ratios are
  3. You need to know what advertising mediums are delivering acceptable returns
  4. You need to review all of the tracking data that comes from these monthly reports (call duration, recorded calls, what times of the day/week/month deliver more, what cities have the heaviest volume, etc)
  5. You need to examine all of this information and make adjustments to your campaign that will make your marketing campaign more effective

Another thing that you need to make sure you are using is vanity phone numbers (example 1 800 New 4 Pain). You only need to use these numbers on advertising mediums that are only seen or heard for a few seconds (TV, Radio, Billboards, Goodyear blimps, airplane banners, city buses, tee shirs, etc). They will increase the effectiveness of your campaign by at lease 20%.

Posted in Marketing | 2 Comments »

TV Commercial Shoot

October 20th, 2009

Today we shot a TV Commercial for Lexington Heights Dental. They do amazing work with Cosmetic Dentistry and are giving away a complete smile makeover valued at up to $10,000. Dr John Lohner and his staff are always looking for ways to give back to people in need and this is another example of that.

The contest will begin next week so if you or a loved one has some real “jacked up” teeth, make sure they enter to win. They can enter to win at www.lextingtonheightsdental.com.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Online Marketing Done Right!

October 15th, 2009

I was at lunch today the a good friend talking to him about Online marketing and how there is a surge of business owners that are now using or very interested in this type of advertising. We talked about what makes a good Online marketing campaign and I explained the following:

There are 2 elements of online marketing that have to be done corretly for business to have success here:

First, they have to get people to their website
There is no doubt that most consumers are doing their “home work” and researching several businesses before they decide to call anyone. They enter the buying cycle, talk to friends about their needs (possible referral), try and recall (TV, Radio, Print, locations in the area, etc)  what businesses they should look into and then… they open a web browser. They search for a few specific businesses if they can remember them and they start some generic searches like “furnaces California”. That’s right, they are searching online and looking at a hand full of different businesses that have what they are looking for. These consumers are clicking on sponsored links (PPC) and they are clicking on the top 5 or organic sites (SEO). If your business is there, then it will be seen by qualified buyers that are somewhere in the buying cycle. That’s a great place to be.

Second, they have to have a website that is compelling enough to generate a phone call or email:
Businesses have to look at their website as the most important selling tool that their company has to offer (or close to it). Consumers make very quick decisions about a company based on what they see on their site. Let’s say I am thinking about buying a motorcycle and i am not sure what exactly want and I google “motorcycles NY”. Search results are displayed and I go into “auto pilot” clicking on what is right in front of me. If you pay attention to what you are doing, you will see that you are only on a website for maybe 5 seconds unless you are find something compelling to look at. Then if they do get you for more then 5 seconds and then if you start navigating around the site and you find that it isn’t very user friendly, you’re gone.

How Epic Makes It Work

Epic Marketing understands online marketing very well. We have a group of very talented interactive specialists that just get it. They also stay up to date with the latest changes in this industry so our clients are one step ahead of their competition. That combined with the best sales and marketing minds in the Western United States (actual pole still in-process) and you have a team that gets the job done very well.

Here’s the thing, business owners spend a lot of money trying to create “top of mind awareness” for their business. They expect a few speratic phone calls as a result of a weeks worth of advertising and hope that they can become one of the companies that a buyer can “recall” when they enter the buying cycle but the fact is this that it’s expensive.

I know this sounds a little like I am bashing traditional media but I am not. We do it all and it all has its place. What I am saying is that if Online marketing is done right, it will likely be your cheapest way to get new customers/patients. If your business isn’t spending at least 20% of its marketing budget Online… then you are not doing it right.

To finish my story, the friend I was talking to, owns a taco cart in SLC and as a result of this conversation is now spending 10,000/mo in Online marketing…

Nick White
President, Epic Marketing

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Mountain Biking

October 4th, 2009

Last Friday Kyle and I took Gene Anderson (Air Design) up to Sundance resort for some outdoor fun. We hit the mountain at just the right time, the temperate and terrane were perfect for flying down the hill on our mountain bikes. We rocked the mountain without any spills or bike problems… it was awesome.

Robert Redford may be old and worthless to my generation but he sure knows a sweet spot when he sees one, Sundance is sweet!

-Nick White

Posted in Fun | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »