into Online Marketing

Belinda Ryan is a Kiwi businesswoman now working for Google in Sydney, Australia. She works with Google’s clients to help them develop online advertising campaigns that match their messages to potential customers that are looking for information about them. Prior to moving to Australia in 2005 with her husband (a software engineer at Google), Belinda lived in Wellington, where she worked in public relations including corporate communications at the New Zealand Treasury. As you can see, targeted communications has always been her focus. Here, she shares her top tips for Kiwi businesswomen wanting to boost their business online.

I am often asked by friends and acquaintances about my work with Google and search marketing and, inevitably, they ask for advice on how they can develop a presence for their business on the web. People talk about the potential of the web so much. It's as if people know they should be there, but they're not quite sure how to make it happen.

It’s not surprising that there’s so much interest – it’s estimated some 84 percent of Kiwis now have internet access and, according to Nielsen, almost three quarters of these Kiwi internet users shop online. Google research also shows that nearly half of all shoppers will use a search engine when researching a product or service.

In short, this means that businesses that are not online are missing a huge opportunity. While the Internet is not the core business of many small businesses, it can help your business grow. It lets you reach new customers and turbo-charge your operations in a flexible way, while controlling costs. Here’s what I tell people to help them dip their toe in online marketing:

Don’t be put off
If you’ve never done anything in the online space before, the prospect can be daunting. It’s easy to be put off by the jargon – it's a world of 'pay-per-click', 'click-through rates', and 'unique visitors'. However, don’t be fazed – one of the biggest mistakes people make is putting online in the ‘too hard’ basket, and giving up before they even begin! The beauty of the web is that you don’t have to get it 100 percent right first time. It’s very easy to have a go before investing big outlay and simple to test things, tweak them, and try again until you get the results you're after.

If you don’t have a website, get one
These days, there’s no excuse for not being online. There are free applications that will allow you to put together a basic site for no or little cost, via systematic guides and templates.

Remember that websites don’t need to be overcomplicated or flashily designed to be successful. Start with the basics – make it easy to read and ensure it contains all the information your customers might be going online to look for, such as your contact details, opening hours and answers to frequently asked questions.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes
More than one billion documents have been added to Google's search index in the past 12 months alone – an analogy we often use is that your customers are looking for needles in an enormous haystack that keeps on growing. So do yourself a favour and make it easy for them to find you.

To get an idea of how easy your business is to find, imagine you’re a prospective customer. Search for your business name – how quickly can your customers find you? Then try your products or services – can people also find you through the things you sell?

If not, try to learn about some simple techniques to boost your search ranking. For a start, creating a user-friendly, well-structured website will help search engines like Google find and index it easily.

Once you have a website, and it can be found, drive traffic to it
Search advertisements are the text-based ads you may have noticed next to and above your search results when you're researching products online. Advertising your products via search marketing allows you to connect with your customers at the moment they're searching for you. Essentially, you’re advertising to an audience that's already interested in what you have to offer.

Search campaigns can be created quickly and easily – you might be up and running with your first campaign within an hour. Plus, you only pay when people click on your ads, making them very cost-effective, and leading to great return on your marketing investment. Search marketing is also perfect for online novices, because it’s easy to test and learn, tweak and adjust. You can pause, cancel or resume campaigns at the click of a mouse. You can use this to your advantage and continually review what you've set up. There's always room for improvement, so be responsive to what is working and what isn't.

It also allows you the flexibility to manage your marketing whenever you want. These days, the business day doesn’t start at 9am and end at 5pm (especially not if you’re juggling family and career, or working from home). You can adjust your marketing campaigns when you need to, and, because you have a web presence 24 hours a day, seven days a week, customers can always find you.

Get to know your customers
Once you know your customers can find you, it’s time to find your customers and ensure you’re where they are.

Do some research to identify who your audience is, where they are located and what they’re interested in – and tailor your web activity to suit. The Internet is now the first port of call for many people when they set out to research and, ultimately, buy products and services. A smart search marketing campaign allows you to reach your customers when they’re actually looking for these products and services.

Get insightful
The web is a wonderful customer research tool, because by looking at search patterns, you can actually see what people are interested in and thinking about, and tailor your marketing activity to make the most of that. Some big search trends among Kiwis this year were cricket and tennis results, celebrity news, and the new mobile phone entrant into the New Zealand market.

Don’t forget to measure
A great thing about online marketing is that it’s very easy to track and measure – essential in the current climate when every dollar counts. Free tools allow you to track visitor patterns to your website and should definitely be part of your marketing plan. This way, you can better understand and serve your customers, by finding out how they arrived at your website, where they clicked and how they departed. These tools let you assess exactly how well your marketing spend is performing and what you may need to tweak to ensure you get the biggest bang for your buck.

With more than one billion people with internet access across the globe, online offers a massive audience you simply can’t afford to ignore – and it’s affordable and at your fingertips. Forget marketing exclusively to New Zealanders. The world is your oyster. Take the plunge!

Belinda Ryan
Account Strategist, Google Australia and New Zealand
www.google.co.nz