Introduction to Digital Marketing for Small Business by Michael White, CEO of DohertyWhite

1. DohertyWhite
Digital Marketing and PR
Growing sales through more effective marketing
Michael White
July 2010

2. Agenda
 Ho w to driv e in c re a s e s in s a le s , le a d g e n e ra tio n
a n d re v e n u e u s in g O n lin e Ma rk e t in g
 Today when people want to buy something the first place they
look is the web, whether they’re looking for shoes, a car or a
house
 Some websites are more easily found than others
 And some web-sites are better at convincing you to buy
 During this presentation I’ll be describing what you can do to
make your website more easily found and, once found, to
persuade people to buy your products or services

3. Topics
 Introduction – who we are, what we do
 First things first - what is Marketing?
 Why online marketing for small businesses?
 Where do you start?
 The tools available
 Social networks and your business
 Recap of key points

4. Who we are
Michael White • Co-founder and partner at DohertyWhite
Marketing • Enterprise Ireland Marketing mentor to 20 firms
Digital Marketing • Ex Head of Marketing at Singularity – helped
double revenue in 2 years, won ISA sales award
Software product delivery
• Senior Product Manager at Siemens,
Management Consultant with Deloitte, Project
Annmarie Doherty Manager with Misys Corporation
PR & Online PR • Trinity College Computer Science, Post Grad
Social media Diploma in Computing
Advertising
Bhavin Doshi Philip Barrett
Web development Graphic design
Web strategy Website design
Digital marketing Branding
Simon Rogals Paul Kennedy
Marketing strategy Sales strategy
Product management Marketing strategy
Tech startup advisory Project Management

5. What we do
 We help businesses generate more revenue through more effective
sales and marketing
 Online marketing, PR, Sales lead generation
 Recognised expertise – Forrester, Irish Medical Device Association,
Irish Software Association
 We work fast and deliver value early and often

6. What is marketing?
“Make something people want, then sell it to them”
 Make something people want – your product or service and what
makes you different/better
 Sell it to them – understand your potential customers, how they buy
and connect with them
?
Me How do I reach them?
My potential customers

7. General approach
1 Review what you’re selling - so you can articulate
it’s features, its benefits, why you’re better
2 Review who you’re selling to – your
target buyers
3 Use your website to
Generate More Sales

8. Why focus on digital marketing?
Because your prospective customers will find you before you
them.
 The first place people look for products or services is online – primarily Google
 The first place someone looks after contact is your web-site. What’s on your site that would
encourage them to become a customer?
 Will they find you? How do you compare with competing sites?
 If you are promoting yourself the same way you did 10 years ago then you’re doing something
wrong

9. Why online marketing?
1. Makes business sense
 More cost effective – you can see what you get for your money
 Greater impact – you can market to 1000s for same price as 100s
 Small businesses can look like big businesses
 Small businesses can access bigger potential markets
 You can ‘Scale up’ – easy to increase results at low cost
2. Recognises changes in Buyer behaviour
 People’s buying habits are changing
 They start shopping by looking on the web, especially Google
 They do research on the web, not at tradeshows
 Order online more frequently
Basically, you can generate more sales at less cost

10. Where do you start?
A step-by-step approach:
1 What are you trying to promote? (Your product, service?)
Who do you want to target, and where? (Everyone? Particular
2 types of business? Particular types of consumer? Donegal?
Ireland? Europe? the US?
3 Who are your competitors (and why are you better?)
Pick the tools you’ll use to promote your business from the list
4
available
5 Set out a plan with actions, dates and expected outputs
6 Get going – implement the activities on your plan and measure
how effective they are in producing sales. Experiment, adjust,
test again. Start small, then increase efforts where you enjoy
success.

11. The tools available
‘Offline’ Digital Marketing
• Print Ads • Web-site
• Radio Ads • Search Engine Marketing
• Direct Mail • PR Pay-per-click
Google
• Events/Tradeshows • Email marketing
• PR • Online ads
• Telemarketing • Online PR
• In-store merchandising • Social Media
• Flyers • Webinars
• Newsletters / bulletins • eNewsletters
Use a mixture, but emphasise online tools

12. A step-by-step approach
Sales
Digital Demand Generation
1. Revise 2. Generate content 3. Launch 4. Start Email 5. Generate PR
website based on to attract visitor Google pay-per- Marketing and online PR
buyer analysis, add registrations click ads campaigns
landing pages
6. Post to Corporate 7. Launch Search 8. Hardcopy Mail to 9. Telemarketing
Blog and Social Media Engine Optimization selected contacts qualification of warm
activities leads

13. Online marketing tools
1. Your Website
2. Google pay-per-click advertising
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
4. Online PR
5. Email Marketing
6. Social media marketing (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook,
blogs etc.)

14. 1. The web-site
1. Your web-site
 The most important marketing tool you have
 Your best sales-person 24/7/365 if you are B2C
 A sales lead generation machine if you are B2B
 Drive visitors to your site  Home page is the most
 Get them to take “Most wanted action”

important page
Either ‘Buy Now’ (B2C) or ‘capture contact details’ (B2B)
 Structure, text
 Give visitors plenty of
things to click on
 Make downloads and
‘buy now’ offers
prominent
 Look at competitor sites
for comparison
 Check out
Hypertemplates.com,
other template sites

15. 1. The web-site
 Have plenty of “bait” on your site –documents, presentations or other information that
people will want to download e.g. Case studies
 Ask for their email address and name in return

16. 1. The Website
1. The web-site
Your Objective – Generate Sales (B2C) or Generate Leads (B2B)
Web Design Best Practice
 Reflect your buyer in the web-page design – use “Buyer Personas”
 Make it easy for them to accomplish goals e.g. find information, contact you (put
your number on the home page), get you to contact them (call back button), search
 Think about your “Most Wanted Actions” – what do you want them to do?
 If you want them to do something (go to a section of the site, download content)
then make it obvious and easy
 Provide ‘bait’ on each page – downloadable content
 Great book on this subject: “Don’t make me think” by Steve Krug

17. 1. The web-site
1. The Website
Structure
 Not too many levels in your site structure – aim for 3
 Use URLs that make sense – better for your buyers, better for search engines
 Configure 5 or 6 settings per page for Search Engine Optimization (covered later)
 Segment your site into key sections, optimize each section individually, rather than
having all pages equally ranked per key phrase
 When looking at layout, have a look at Hypertemplates and other sites
 Most corporate sites follow a particular home-page structure (80% of large B2B and
53% of small firms, as of 2007 report)

18. 1. The web-site
1. The Website
Graphics
 Keep graphics down to less than 3rd of home page – see heatmaps
 Use images of real people, avoid clichéd stock images
 Make the entire graphic clickable
 Make sure graphic is ‘tagged’ so you turn up on image searches
 Use Clicktale or similar tool to check how visitors move around your pages

19. 1. TheWebsite
1. The
web-site
 Use the list above as a checklist – have you adequately provided this kind of information
on your website?
 For example, have you clearly described what you do, what sectors you target, do you
have case studies etc. etc.

20. 1. The web-site
1. The Website
Before you start - Audit
 Review web-traffic stats – historic performance, sources of traffic
 Set up Google analytics if not set up already
 Identify all pages that are indexed, all your inbound links
 These are assets and you don’t want to lose them (will use 301 redirects to
maintain them)
 Competitor comparison – use WebSiteGrader.com, WooRank and other tools

21. 2. Google Pay-per-click
 Quick way to get traffic to
your site
 Tell Google which search
terms you want to be
found for
 E.g. show my ad when
someone searches for
‘graphic design donegal’
 Only pay if someone clicks
on my ad
 Create specific ‘landing’
page for the ad
 Avg. 50c per click, can set
maximum daily/weekly
budget
 Can lock down by
geography, time, day

22. 2. Google Pay-per-click
1 Keyword analysis
2 Ad text
3 Landing page
 Campaign set-up – budget, geography
 Keyword analysis – what are people searching for
 Ad text – variants
 Bids and cost-per-click
 Bid management
 Broadmatch, exact match, negative keywords, keyword insertion
 keyword

23. 2. Pay-per-click
 Set yourself up as an advertiser (2 mins,
minimum €15)
 Tell Google the words you want to be found
for – ‘keywords’
 Write the ad that will appear
 Tell Google how much you’re willing to
spend per day/month
 Ad only shown when someone searches for
your word
 Don’t pay unless they click on your ad
 Can control spend – “pay-as-you-go”
Success factors for Google PPC
 Keywords you choose – make sure people are looking for them
 Ad text – does it make people want to click
 Your ‘landing page’ – make sure it’s matched to the ad, and that there’ some kind of
“call to action”

24. 2. Google Pay-per-click
2. Landing page design
CONVERT YOUR VISITORS! – Landing Pages
 Rule #1: Avoid unneccessary distractions – push visitor to your “Most Wanted
Action”
 Spell out the benefits and have clear call to action
 Remove any unnecessary navigation
 Be consistent with the ad or email that brought your visitor here, including
keywords, logos and other images
 Try to keep registration fields to a minimum e.g. Name and email
 Try “A/B” testing of 2 versions of landing page to see what works
 Use Google analytics to monitor conversions

25. 3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Advertising –
(Pay-per-click)
Natural or
‘organic’ search
results

26. 3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
You want to get found
without paying Google all the
time
‘Organic’ or natural search
results
How do you get to the top?
Main element – good
‘content’ – information
A site that people find useful

27. 3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Two main tasks in SEO
 “On Page” – stuff you put on your web-site pages
 “Off Page” – getting other sites to link to you
WWW
WWW
WWW
WWW WWW
On page Off page

28. 3. Search Engine Optimization
 First step – KEYWORD ANALYSIS
 Choose words you think people will look for when searching for your
kind of product or servcie

29. 3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
 Then for each page . …
1. Page Title
2. URL
3. Header tags
4. Text, internal links, bold
5. Page description text

30. 3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Next, seek External Links – ask other sites to link to you
A link: www.dohertywhite.com
Links should be from other good sites
To get links, provide information/content that
people think is valuable and should be shared
Identify a target list of sites you’d like to link to you
 Who links to you now?
 Who links to your competitors?
 What sites are top for the search terms related to you?

31. 4. Online PR
 PR is the most cost-effective form of marketing
 Generate €1000s worth of coverage
 Seen to be more credible than standard ads
 Some basic rules – try to be interesting: e.g.‘Man bites dog’;
‘who, what, when, where and why’, include a photo etc.
 But … now also has an online element
 Should ‘optimize’ each press release so that (a) it highlights
particular keywords and (b) has embedded links that link back to
your web-site
 Should also issue to Twitter, RSS feeds, blog, other sites etc. as
part of your PR release process (more later …)
 Test using graphics, video embedded in releases

32. 5. Email Marketing
 Do not spam
Email  But do regularly email contacts
who have ‘opted in’ to
communications
 91% of internet users use email
 Cost effective, broad reach
Reply  First, build your list
 Next, draft your email
Visit  Keep it short
 “Call to action”
 Test every element
 From & Subject – determine
SPAM Download
Inbound
Marketing
Guide NOW!
whether email is deleted or
opened
 Certain words will attract spam
filters e.g. ‘Free’

33. 6. Social Media
Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Yammer, blogging, video….
Generate interesting stuff people want to see, read, hear
Publish it everywhere, with links back to you
Share intersting stuff you find on the web
Connect with people you’ve worked with or who you find informativve
Interactive rather than one way communication
Now everyone can contribute, write, edit, shoot video, record audio
People/customers can talk back, engage, ask questions
You’ll get more web traffic, visitors, business
Monitor what’s published – Google alerts, Google blog search, Twitter follower,
Monitter

34. 6. Social Media
Blogs
Why? Draws more traffic to your web-site, leads, sales
Like online diaries, now being used for business
Type of web-site where you can easily post comments, information
Allows readers to provide feedback
Tips
Can paste in YouTube videos, SlideShare slides
Decide who you’re targeting
Mix of entries – news,
opinion, video, photos,
informative
Basic, medium and rich
posts, light & heavy
Strong headlines
Pick a posting schedule

35. 6. Social Media

36. 6. Social Media
Video
 Video yourself, a colleague, a
customer
 Home-made is good
 Relate to your business – e.g.
“how I design wedding cards”
 Post it on YouTube
 Link to YouTube from your
website, blog, Twitter ….

37. 6. Social Media
Twitter
What: Listen, Tweet, Respond
Why?: Traffic to your website, inbound
links, leads, sales
How: 140 character “tweets”
E.g. press release headline
Can also insert links to stuff you
like/find interesting
Follow others e.g. customers,
influencers
Make your tweets useful e.g. links to
web-site, video, news item
Tweet about good stuff your business
is doing
Customer service

38. 6. Social Media
Fast Food – Kogi Korean BBQ
Gourmet fast food aimed at night-club audience
How to let customers know when/where vans will be near?
Twitter updates, forwarded by SMS to followers
Queues now form before trucks arrive
Dublin bus – special ticket discounts
Running last minute promotional discounts
Twitter followers receive offers via mobile phone

39. 6. Social Media
LinkedIn
Business or private
Use your network to promote
what you do
Search for contacts at
particular companies
Join new groups with shared
interest
Create a group and encourage
people to join
LinkedIn ads – very targeted
(role, location)
Tip: build out your profile info

40. 6. Social Media
Facebook
Why do you care? -over 450 million
active users
Lots of your customers
3rd most trafficked website
Get found, promote your stuff, connect
with others
Get started: Set up a personal profile
first
Join networks
Set up a business page second
Put links to your facebook pages on
emails, web-site, ….
Facebook ads

41. 6. Social Media
Facebook
 Try Facebook ads
 11 targeting factors
 Includes location, age, birthday, sex,
workplace, education and interests
 So, could run ads to women only in 30 to
40 age bracket in your area to test the
results
http://www.facebook.com/marketing

42. Recap
6 step process – 1. what, 2. who, 3. competitors, 4. tools, 5. plan, 6. execute
Tools – Offline and Online
Should use a mixture, emphasizing online tools
 1. Web-site first – the key element
 2. Google Pay-per-click
 3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
 4. Email
 5. Social media – blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, video, YouTube, Facebook, …
Create and publish stuff (video, voice, written) that will interest your audience
Network with potential influencers, customers, colleagues
Measure the results regularly
Repeat your successes

43. Resources
www.dohertywhite.com
www.hubspot.com
www.marketingprofs.com
www.raintoday.com
www.marketingsherpa.com
www.forrester.com

44. DohertyWhite
Thank You
Email michael.white@dohertywhite.com
Slides slideshare.net/dohertywhite
Twitter @MichaelGWhite
Mobile +353 86 383 8981
www.dohertywhite.com