You may not think much of it as a business stand point, but you should. Going green is becoming important to many people, as it could even make or break their decision to buy from you. As “Going Green” is becoming an important trend to many. If your business is “green”, they may just buy from you because of it compared to your competition.
Ever since Al Gore’s movie, “An Inconvenient Truth”, the awareness to save and preserve our planet has been a very important issue that has caught the attention of the world, young to old. As many can make many efforts to make some changes in your home and personal lives, many are taking these same practices to their business. If you have, you should show it, capitalize on it. It matters.
Here are some tips to green your business I’ve got from different sources:
- Cut Water Waste (leaking faucets, etc.)
- Use Better Paper, and Less of It
- Turn off lights and unplug electronics
- Buy less toxic cleaners
- Set computers to sleep and hibernate when inactive, and lose the screen savers.
- Stock bathrooms with postconsumer recycled tissue products.
- Reduce commutes
- Open the windows or doors
- Replace high-energy-use light bulbs, fixtures, and equipment.
You can do a lot more by getting creative and find ways to minimize electricity and use environment-friendly products.
As you try to be or you are a green company, make sure you let your consumers know. You can state anywhere on your website that you are a green company or get certified as a green company by getting a seal on your website. One company that does this is the Green Business Alliance.
You can also check out GreenBiz.com for more info on going green and green business practices.
One thing people are quick to base their success with search engine marketing as they first launch a campaign is conversion rates. Sure, conversion rates is probably the most important aspect of your campaign but the way to make sure you get good conversion rates meeting a good ROI is making sure you pay as little as possible for that click.
If you read the post below, #1 Quality Score Factor in Google: Quality Ad, you will see that the campaign I'm working on started decent…actually…pretty good CTR's but my quality score was still not what it could be with those numbers. Within 24 hours of that post, here is what happened (image shows pertaining to one particular ad group):
I was never TOO concerned about my conversion rate cost at first, but rather making sure to have a good CTR so Google would allow me to pay as little as possible for a click with good ranking. I am now seeing the reward and making tweaks to pay as low as I possibly can per conversion. Again, it does all come down to ROI (Return on Investment), but make sure you are willing to go through the motions to get there.
**For further information on Quality Score, you can read a post I did for the Search Engine Journal, Ads in a Quality Score World.
No matter how many things you try to figure out to see how Google is judging your ad to determine your cpc (cost-per-click), YOUR biggest concern should be the quality of your ad.
Maybe you really haven't thought about it, but what you should worry about most is creating the most compelling ad for searchers and THAT will result into clicks and hopefully conversions for you. So, what is that you may be doing wrong? For one, I used to create campaigns and let them be. We're so busy with so much stuff that we forget that tweaking certain things in your ad can make the biggest difference to an eye and turn into a click.
Let me give you an example. I created a campaign that had decent clicks but I thought I should get more…way more. As time is always a factor, my ads were pretty decent but I didn't really see what my edge was vs. the competition. Why would someone click on my ad and not their ad? What makes my ad different then the other guy with the same product at almost the same price? Do I offer free shipping? What do I have that they don't? WHAT MAKES ME STAND OUT? **The image below is in a 4-hour span.
{please note I cannot specify what product I am selling and what my ads are for some obvious reasons to readers, hope you understand =)}
Anyway, I did research into the product itself and how the brand identified itself and how I would be able to do the same. I posted a new ad to compare CTRs (Click-Through-Rates) and of course, the results were great. My click through rates were way better and yet to make more tweaks. What's your edge? Your identity? Ask yourself those questions when creating your ads.
Sure, Google can give you a POOR quality score result for certain keywords but with a QUALITY ad, you can change that in days. Make sure you give yourself a chance but bidding enough to place in the front page.
I have never really post financials about certain things I do but the reason I am doing this is because I want people to know and understand making money online is very possible, just takes time and patience. You win some, you lose some, but you never quit! Not if you can avoid it.
As I still use this campaign, I can't reveal too much but I will tell you some of the things I've done that have worked. This was a campaign for lead generation in the financial sector.
One Month:
One Day:
Notice the conversion rates! YES, different channels will give you different conversion rates but the trick is to have the right landing page. Testing takes lots of time. You hear everyone saying test, test, test. While I agree 100% testing is very important, reality is most people dont have the time to change a landing page a few times and A/B test each landing page. My advice, make the best, simplest, quickest way for the user to perform an action while making your landing page look nice. Try to have all your information above the fold of the monitor and centered.
How did I generate traffic?
- PPC. PPC is the quickest way you'll generate traffic to your site. Bid on as many related keywords as possible and see how many ad groups you can make that will be relevant to your product/service. Google's quality score is killer so make very tight ad groups and try to have dynamic text to follow the QS guidelines.
While these numbers arent GREAT, this is with one campaign and if you keep trying things, eventually, you'll find something that sticks, and like most things, they also end…could be a short period of time…can last for a while.
I'm starting my own affiliate program for a site that is working well for me, if you're interested, shoot me an email at pablo @ etrendmedia.com. I am only accepting certain people to join this program.
There is so MUCH talk about these commercials that as dumb as I think they are (and ridiculous) I guess they make good advertising and marketing for each candidate, or bad actually.
So, these commercials are based around an important phone call coming in at 3am when it's "crunch time" and who would be best qualified to take that call as commander in chief. Hillary Clinton started this campaign and as dumb as I think it is, it's pretty successful because not only did the media talk about it for days, but other candidates jumped on board to replicate the commercial in their own way.
So, I was at Search Engine Strategies in New York at a contextual advertising session when something very funny happened…to me at least.
They were asking volunteers to show their sites on the big screen monitor to critique their sites and how they are using adsene to monetize their content/site. One man volunteered.
This story is what NOT TO DO at a search conference or think before you do, at least read the guidelines.
This guy had a content site reviewing prescription drugs which apparently, I didnt know but it is known, is against the Google Adsense guidelines.
Who was on the panel? GOOGLE. It was kind of an akward moment to be honest and of course the guy from Google (MAYBE), jotted the site down.
Anyway, it's a lesson…Hours of work probably for nothing. I wonder if Google would have found the site and how they go about chasing down sites that don't follow the guidelines.
